0 4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 18, 2002 OP/ED a~b 1ACiigtux iug 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 "I don't know if I did it or not ..." - Illinois gubernatorial candidate Rod Blagojevich, when asked if he had ever used (i.e. inhaled) marijuana, as quoted by Reuters. I SAM BUTLER tE S&APOX ns s J .,_ .t'+ Of~ n t m-ctcl 400 - Al 4- vlow . v irhe. LJOS Vxe iumvinScen+ iao i redQ, +o Caere. The undoing of the Enlightenment ZAC PESKOWITZ Ti LOWER FREQUENCIES it's everyone's Catherine MacKinnon still battling for their the italicized explanatory clause, the rest of favorite time of year Marcusiai dystopia and speech codes such the sentence is meaningless. again - Constitu- as the one adopted by the University in 1988 For a contrasting Enlightenment view you tion Week. Along with before it was ruled unconstitutional, make up need not go farther than the press release that yesterday's Citizenship one of the more repugnant aspects of the accompanied the declaration of this year's Day, two of the more modern academy. Constitution Week. "The Founders secured the obscure federally pro- A branch of American conservatism has principles expressed in the Declaration of mulgated days of recog- recently attempted to suck more marrow from Independence by establishing a government nition make September Enlightenment's conception of freedom, that derives its power from the consent of the a time to "to conduct morality and statecraft. The crusades of anti- American people." This view is open to'a dif- ceremonies and programs that celebrate our modernist Leo Strauss against natural-right ferent set of challenges, but it is eminently Constitution and reaffirm our commitment as political philosophies have emerged as a per- defendable and it applies equally to. all mem- citizens." sistent strand of thought in modern conserva- bers of the human race regardless of personal At our propitious moment in history, tive circles. The late Allan Bloom and Nobel belief. The ramifications of this comparison where the future contours of human civiliza- laureate Saul Bellow were two of the students are legion. As the United States once again tion are about to be shaped for generations, the who huddled around Leo Strauss at the Uni- attempts to make the world safe for democra- liberal-democratic framework, best symbol- versity of Chicago and evangelized his philos- cy, Bush's reliance on the prototypical ized by the Constitution, is the hope for a ophy on to the next generation of intellectuals. Straussian language of virtue constricts the world free of major conflict. The possibility of Two Bush appointees, Deputy Secretary of scope of liberal democracy to those who share creating this world is directly linked to the Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Leon Kass, chair specific values. endurance of Enlightenment values, the possi- of the President's Council on Bioethics are As the drums of war are struck with bility of which is rapidly vanishing. My skep- direct disciples of Strauss. More importantly, increasing cadence and ferocity, we are left ticism about the laudable goal of securing an major Republican initiatives like Newt Gin- with the unsettling question of who is left to unyielding commitment to democracy is the grich's Contract with America have origins defend the gates of Enlightenment from its result of the success of the Enlightenment's that extend back to Strauss. opponents? The United States is embarking on opponents. To witness the implications of Strauss' an enterprise that will have profound effects The most virulent assaults on the Enlight- philosophy on the future of democracy, a sim- throughout the world. Whether it degenerates enment have historically been the domain of ple comparison is in order. In his Sept. II into a morass that fails to secure democracy or the radical Left. In his effort to build a more address to the nation President Bush advanced reaches a watershed moment in world history humane society, in his "Critique of Pure Tol- an anti-Enlightenment understanding of uniting the globe under a humane liberal erance" Herbert Marcuse argued that free morality. 'Our deepest national conviction is framework will largely depend on this state's speech was a tool of the empowered to sup- that every life is precious, because every life is internal disposition. The supporters of Enlight- press the exploited. To correct for this prob- the gift of a Creator who intended us to live in enment from its attackers on the Left and lem, Marcuse proposed a redistribution of liberty and equality" (emphasis added). Right need to recommit themselves to its political influence through banning the Unlike the Enlightenment's universally defense in earnest. speech of certain groups and individuals. applicable principles of individual rights, this The intellectual descendants of Marcuse, derivation of morality is dependent on a spe- Zac Peskowitz can be reached prominent names like University Law Prof. cific religious belief. If you don't ascribe to . atzpeskowi@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Henretty's column missed mark; successful minorities should not be penalized TO THE DAILY: Aubrey Henretty's anti-affirmative action column (Affirmative actions speak louder than words, 9/17/02) missed several points. First, "affirmative action" in general -,a term dating from the Kennedy era - has benefited not only minorities but women as well (Louis Farrakhan has reportedly criticized affirmative action as being "welfare for white women"); must-we now call it "gender-based preferential treat- ment" instead of the shorter "affirmative action," which reminds us of the United States' affirmative moral duty to try to assure real equality to both minorities and women? It was way back on Oct. 13, 1967, that Lyndon Johnson's Executive Order 11246, requiring affirmative action by government contractors, was amended to cover gender discrimination - not just race, color, reli- gion and national origin. Second, America has had either de jure or de facto preferences for whites (especially males) for centuries now, including for (pre- dominantly white) alumni kids applying here; doesn't that deserve some comment and some counteracting influence like affir- mative action? Third and finally, while more could be done for poor minorities: Even if affluent minorities benefit more from affirmative action, why penalize minorities for being successful? And when was the last time Henretty was traffic-stopped under a racial profiling policy, just as many financially successful minority members, even Ivy League graduates, are detained by police simply because of their skin color and their driving a nice car? Life experiences of even "successful" minorities can still be marked and marred by prejudice and painful discrimination. And they will persist in being so, as long as incomplete analyses of affirmative action continue to abound. DAVID BOYLE Law School Affirmative action mot perfect, but necessary to rnnrvth 1f.-i4 - AY1inIl r- 1 in it^ action relating to admissions) are minorities from affluent areas." If one looks into this issue, it is actually found that minorities in affluent areas still perform worse on stan- dardized tests (which our admissions system does take heavily into account) than their Caucasian counterparts. In theory, these affluent minorities have the same "exciting arrays of extracurricular activities" and AP classes as their affluent friends, but how much access do they actually have? A big reason that affirmative action still exists is due to the often intangible, hard to define effects that structural racism brings to minority populations in the United States Until minorities in America have equal access to resources (even in affluent areas) and unbiased, fair standardized testing (which may really be an oxymoron) affirma- tive action must stand to help minimize this' type of racism. Affirmative.action may not seem like the perfect solution, but do you have any better ideas to correct these race inequalities in our country? STEVEN WARNICK LSA senior Race of robbery suspect irrelevant; lead story had 'unfair characterizations' TO THE DAILY: I way disappointed by the Daily's deci- sion to run racially insensitive material as the lead story for Monday (Incident 'echoes July robbery, 9/16/02). I found the description of the suspect as a "black male" outside of the context of a complete physical description irrelevant. Use of race in this way only serves to propa- gate unfair characterizations and worsen racial tensions on campus. CLAIR MORRISSEY LSA junior Robbery story 'reckless,' 'insidious;' Daily should include race of all suspects TO THE DAILY: Once again the Daily has exemplified poor journalism. I was truly disheartened when I picked up a copy of the Daily and the first thing I read was "A black male Now normally I would let this type of indiscretion go by, but this is not the first time the Daily has perpetrated this injustice against us law-abiding black males on this campus. Included Monday's article was a description of two suspects from a robbery in July. The descriptions given are very ambiguous (e.g., black male, 19-20 years old, 5-feet-10, 6-foot-4, etc.) and basically describes every black male here on campus. This vagueness has become a recurring theme in the Daily's articles. I was always under the assumption that suspect descriptions were meant to warn who to be on the lookout for and narrow the suspects list down. Well, in this case and in the majority of the other previous crime notes, Daily read- ers are being warned to be on the look out for all of their black male classmates and students (in the case of professors). The Daily needs to recognize that their lack of journalistic taste is casting a shadow of sus- picion on practically every black male that walks on this campus. Also, if the Daily is going to include race as a description of suspects, then it should do so in all cases. I find it quite peculiar that I turn two pages back from the above mentioned arti- cle and read in Crime Notes of a man who attacked another man with a bullhorn. Again,.if we are going with the whole sus- pect description as a way to warn people of potential danger, then I think it is important to give a more accurate description of this suspect. I'm sure no student wants to be attacked by a random guy with a bullhorn, just the same as he/she doesn't want to be robbed at gunpoint, or in any other fashion for that matter. I feel that the Daily should really exam- ine its journalistic style. It needs to realize how insidious many of its articles are and how many people it offends on a Daily basis. ANDRE BROWN Kinesiology sophomore 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. 0 01