4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 10, 2002 OP/ED £ 41 atle 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 JON SCHWARTZ Editor in Chief JOHANNA HANINK Editorial Page Editor Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE He was tender, he was warm, he was nice." - Parisoula Lampsos, the former mistress of Saddam Hussein, discussing her relationship with the Iraqi president in an interview with ABC's Claire Shipman. Lampsos also revealed that Hussein uses Viagra, enjoys whiskey on the rocks and hisfJvoritefood is fresh gazelle. SAMvfBUTLER " '! ,,OIE,) -y y& '~ 0 Adding up numbers doesn't complete equation JON SCHWARTZ TW oSIE iTOIVERY ScIHWAR x <: 9£ ::: ., r,, i' Y ears ago, I learned of an apt way to better comprehend what the Nazis did in the Holo- caust. Instead of focusing on the millions of people killed, it can be more telling to understand that the Nazis killed one per- son, then they killed another, then they killed another .... Kind of puts it in better perspective, no? Unfortunately, that mentality is not called into play nearly enough. Too often, we are con- cerned more with the number of dead than with the victims themselves. We throw around num- bers as a superficial means of identifying the scope of horror. It goes without saying, in the case of our societal standards, that it's much more of a tragedy when 100 people die than the loss of 10. And in my mind, nowhere is this more true than in the case of Sept. 11. A year ago tomorrow, 3,038 people were killed in the worst act of terrorism to ever hit this country. It was a sickening, despicable act that should be forever memorialized; when Pres- ident Bush said that "our nation saw evil" he was absolutely right. But didn't our nation also see evil on April 19, 1995, when Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Okla.? The fact that most people don't know the significance of that date just proves my point (I had to look it up). That day, 168 people died - not as many as on Sept. 11, but no less a tragedy. When we remember the victims of last year's attack or the Oklahoma City bombing, we should be looking at more than the number 3,038 or 168. We should be realizing that each of those 3,206 names has a face, and with a face comes a family left to grieve. So what is it? What makes us so fascinated by numbers? Why do we need to convince our- selves that this most recent attack is inherently worse than any that came before it, simply because the numbers are higher? Furthermore, why is it that in McVeigh's final days, the country's eye was acutely focused on the fami- lies of the dead, but this time, America sees itself as one great victim? Most people right now would say that it's because Sept. 11 was a case of international terrorism as opposed to an angry, militant American taking personal action. Sitting here in Ann Arbor, it's easy to say that while Osama bin Laden attacked us, Timothy McVeigh hit them. McVeigh may have hit Americans, citizens of a country 288 million strong, but bin Laden hit America. This baffles me. Though I understand the intrinsic difference between the two dates in American history, I can't fathom how we can expect that the pain of losing someone on Sept. 11 must have been greater than it was to have lost someone in 1995. I imagine that most would agree that it's easy to understand why someone who lost a husband in the Murrah Building would feel that while bin Laden attacked them, McVeigh hit her. I don't know any victims of either attack. But I can guarantee you that relatives, friends and associates of the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing consider April 19 an awful, if not worse of a day than Sept. 11. Which is to take nothing away from the horror that hit America a year ago; I just don't understand why it has to be more of a tragedy than anything else. For many who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, tomorrow might not be a day spent memorializing terrorism. Rather, I expect that they will use the time to remember the person they lost. I imagine that they will see the day much like a family member commemorates the anniversary of a murder. The United States was no doubt affected by Sept. 11, but Americans need to realize that the change witnessed by society is wholly different than the way a family without a father has coped. Some victims might still see the attack in general as a watershed event, but others probably do not. Blasphemous though it may seem right now, a tragedy is a tragedy. There's no need to com- pare the atrocities of Sept. 11 with any other date, because to those affected, they're all equally ter- rible. Though it's commonplace and easy to shout about the United States' unhealable wounds suffered last year, the pain I feel as an American, even a patriotic American, can't com- pare to anyone who lost a loved one in the attack. For me, Sept. 11 will always be a day when our nation was attacked in one of the most vicious ways imaginable. It was a day that changed my life and one which I will never for- get. As I've said, I don't want to take attention away from what happened, I just want to shift the focus from the number to the names. Because I won't remember what happened simply for the reason that 3,038 innocent people died. I'll remember it because Osama bin Laden killed one person, and then he killed another, and then he killed another .... Jon Schwartz can be reached atjlsz@umich.edu. The unbearable lightness of being evil AUBREY HENRETTY NEU ROTICA t's September again "evils" - excepting rap and communism (the local Grand Dragon. You'll say something and presidents and word is still out on Ouija boards) - are excus- like, "Grandpa's a good person. He was just pundits the world able. It is not OK to commit acts of mass raised that way," as though there were not over are still clamoring to destruction against civilians or to rape, murder writers, orators, activists and thinkers of his convince us who is or abuse. Not ever. generation who advocated racial tolerance and evilest. Myself, I belong The trouble is, there's no cadre of bad guys equality. As though his gentle laugh, endless to the Oscar Wilde to blame, no National Association of Rapists, patience and affinity for checkers somehow school of human nature: Racists, Religious Fundamentalists and make it OK for him to disown you if he ever "It's absurd," Wilde once Pedophiles on which to declare war. Human finds out you've been dating that said, "to divide people beings are complex and paradoxical, often sur- black/white/brown/yellow/red person. into good and bad. People are either charming prising each other in terrifying ways. Our sons Evil is less a state of being than a rhetorical or tedious." are convicted rapists, our grandparents don't device, an explosive four-letter word guaran- Maybe Wilde wasn't willing to take "bad" like black/white/brown/yellow/red people, our teed to perk up even the most apathetic set of as far as "evil," but I am. And I will use his cousins just found The Religion Before Which ears. We say people are "good" if we're look- statement as a jumping-off point regardless, All Other Religions Will Bow Reverently Or ing to write off something bad they've done because that's what literary witticisms are all Pay The Price (In Blood) and our uncles run and we say they're "bad" or "evil" if we're about. Author intent gets an emphatic raspber- kiddie-porn websites out of their homes. Our looking to avenge it. We delude ourselves into ry, I get a clever introduction and less than .03 best friends literally and metaphorically stab thinking these labels are part of the grand percent of the population notices the differ- others in the back on a regular basis. moral scheme of things rather than see them ence. QED. Our creative and destructive capacities are for what they are: Rationalizations of our own Most people cannot, when asked, provide enormous: Libraries, Q-tips and M-16s. feelings. Projections. It's okay to hate evil, an operational definition of "evil." ("It's ... Marshmallows and tanks. We build things - remember? umm ... well ... it's the opposite of good"). big, useless things (e.g. the St. Louis Arch) - In this manner, Jerry Falwell, who vehe- But they can make lists: Killing people for no just for the hell of it. We have higher aspira- mently disapproves of feminists, gay people, reason (or for purely selfish reasons) is evil, tions. We've been to the moon. We cheat on the American Civil Liberties Union and all rape is evil, abusing children is evil, hate is our taxes, our diets, our chemistry exams and religions other than Christianity, can be a evil (except when hating evil itself; that's our spouses. We like to eat sour gummy phenomenal idiot and a bad person while allowed), communism is evil (what? Comnu- worms and blow things up. We drive drunk your grandfather, who does precisely the nism?). Rap niusic and Ouija boards (now and wear golf pants. same thing and is also a racist, can simply be you're just being silly) are evil. Flying planes This is not a testament to the diversity of misguided. Charming. into civilian-inhabited buildings (that's bet- the human race; the same people are responsi- It is with this in mind that I watch those in ter) is evil. ble for all of this, for better and for worse. It's power and those who seek it. Whatever else The sound of self-righteous eye-rolling just that you're much more apt to forgive your happens in, this high-budget action drama, I tells me it's time to make one thing perfectly grandfather for being a racist if he also taught hope the good guys come out on top. clear: What follows is not a bleeding-heart you how to read and fish and throw a baseball apologia for the violent and/or malicious and took you to the movies every Saturday, all Aurbrev Henretty can be reached things people do. None of the aforementioned of which is more than you can say for your at ahenrett@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 0 0 0 University needs to properly honor Sept. 11 victims with a break from the routine TO THE DAILY: As the World Trade Center towers fell and the Pentagon burned on Sept. 11, 2001, the University community lost fami- ly members, friends and former class- mates. The events of this day were, for many students, the most violent, immedi- ate, and jarring that they had witnessed in their lifetimes. Yet, on the one-year face to those at the University missing a relative or a loved one as a result of the ter- rorist attacks. Of course, I realize that campus must keep running on this day and that requires certain offices and departments to remain open, but why can't we keep it to a bare minimum? The University ought to treat Sept. I1 like the national holiday that it is. Cancel classes and give students and faculty the flexibility to decide which campus memor- ial events to attend; do not force us to base our schedules for remembrance around "time and workload," as Courant suggests. Cancel classes and support those of us who LETTERS POLICY The Michigan Daily welcomes letters from all of its readers. Letters from University students, faculty, staff and administrators will be given priority over others. Letters should include the writer's name, college and school year or other University affiliation. The Daily will not print any letter containing statements that cannot be verified. Letters should be kept to approximately 300 words. The Michigan Daily reserves the right to edit for length, clarity and accuracy. Longer "viewpoints" may be arranged with an editor. Let- ters will be run according to order received and 0