4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 4, 2002 OP/ED ahbe AEtibiWau itt uitig 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 A president against a president and vice president against a vice president, and a duel takes place, if they are serious ..." - Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan in an interview with Abu Dhabi television that was also broadcast by CNN. SAM BUTLER THiE SOAPOX qft. been k oa i'eGe, n tv._.) ova-' -4- na} 5 +t"' i diLv 1ovS. Y7 stir Xp r., 6 a6 __ _ .P'. Fundamentalism demands a change in tactics DAVID HORN HORNOGRAPHY ou know how some people you look at and you just kind of know what they ought to be? That guy is built to be a football player or that guy looks like a molec- ular biologist or that guy should be a used car salesman. When I saw'Preacher Stephen White on the steps of the Graduate Library this week, spitting and stammering with his thin- ning yellow hair and patriotic necktie, I thought, "My God. This is exactly what this dude was put on this Earth (or at least on the steps of God's green, uh, Graduate Library steps) to do." And I thought that not because I believe God puts people on this Earth to do particular things - and not because I thought Mr. White was particularly good at proselytiz- ing. I thought that because every liberal uni- versity that's supposed to be a hotbed of debate and conflict needs a conservative fun- damentalist (a "Jesus freak," as such people are sometimes called), and Mr. White fit the bill perfectly. I climbed up the steps and watched Mr. White's "sermon," and watched hordes of smart, undereducated and sophomoric students pick up their intellectual swords and attempt to duel. I have never been so amused and embar- rassed to be a University of Michigan student as I was watching my classmates try to reason with a man-for whom reason is a nonentity. John Dryden once wrote, "Great wits are sure to madness near allied/And thin partitions do their bounds divide." John old boy, you should have seen what I saw. Having an ongoing discourse with your roommate on the existence/benevolence/role of God over Saturday night kegs and Sunday night joints is a defining part of college for stu- dents who have a certain cerebral muscle that needs to be flexed. And while all the philoso- phy and theology classes in the world are won- derful fodder for those ripe brains, they do nothing when it comes to dealing with the Mr. Whites of the world. Why are you arguing with him, dear class- mates of mine? Do you want him to leave? Is he intruding on your liberal turf with his Byzantine arguments about martyrdom and sin? This is an environment where free speech is sacred and Mr. White will always be wel- comed to shout from the rooftops (or the library steps). Do you~want to change his mind? You won't - he's got God on his side and all you have is John Locke and a philoso- phy lecture you blew off most of the time because it started before noon. Nevermind that when you start trying to convince him of the validity of your own faith you've become as annoying and intrusive as he is. The lesson here is one that extends beyond the chaotic bounds of the Diag. Religious fanaticism - indeed fanaticism of any kind - is a delicate beast and one that, if it is decided that it is to be fought, must be approached with caution and with tactics different from the ones we ordinarily employ. When students started attacking Mr. White with all the logical tools they had, they became fuel to his fire. Mr. White's message (which I never quite got my head around) was only strengthened (in his eyes, at least) when he saw the anger and fer- vor he spurred. Fundamentalism is often completely illogical, albeit self-empowering. As Ameri- cans, or as college students, or maybe as lib- erals, the weapons in our arsenal are often insufficient to combat them. And whether we're dealing with Islamic fundamentalists, Christian fundamentalists, Hindu fundamen- talists or Jewish fundamentalists (haven't heard that one before? They're out there), it is important to realize that not everyone grows up with the benefits of our education, where the glorious perfection of reason sci- ence is constantly reinforced. To prove a point should never take gunpowder, but sometimes it takes more than a logical proof. I hope that for the students frustrated by their inability to convince Mr. White of the charms of atheism or Judaism or homosexuali- ty, they realized why their tactics were flawed. It's not that you're not smart - you are. And it's not that he's stupid - he's just a different kind of smart than you are. He's smart enough to not answer direct questions, to carry and wave around his Bible at all times, to set up shop on the Diag and to hide behind the patrio- tism of the red, white and blue. It's fearful and irresponsible, and I don't condone fundamen- talism, but understand that when they don't play by our rules, the rules - and our tactics - have to change. 0 6 6 David Horn can be reached at hornd@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Peskowitz makes good points, but The Nation magazine still worth reading To THE DAILY: While I take issue with Zac Peskowitz' assertion that Christopher Hitchens' depar- ture from The Nation makes that venerable publication "no longer worth reading," the basic point of his column is absolutely cor- rect (Liberals just don't want to have fun, 10/2/02). As a general rule, humorous com- mentary on the left has indeed become crushed under the weight of the knee-jerk, relativistic pieties generated by postmodern liberalism's "ethics of otherness." This becomes even sadder when one considers how easy it ought to be to make fun of the never-ending stream of idiocy offered up by the free market flag wavers at Fox News. Still, I think Peskowitz' analysis was a little too shallow and grim. For one thing, Peskowitz understates the fact that the pre- vailing "solemnity" and "gallows humor" on the left is clearly a reaction to the machina- tions of American political elites in both par- ties. Sorry Zac, but perpetual imperialist war, environmental degradation, increasing eco- nomic inequality and the gradual abolition of civil liberties just don't tickle my funny bone. Secondly, Peskowitz fails to notice that, while genuinely exciting leftist writers are presently few are far between, there are liber- als and radicals working in other mediums which have not lost their edge: Tom Tomor- row's comic strip "This Modem World," the satire of "The Onion," Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," and Aaron McGruder's "The Boondocks" have all consistently demonstrated that a progressive critique of the emerging quasi-fascist agenda can be both trenchant and amusing. Recall, for example, the recent return of "Flagee and Ribbon" to "The Boondocks" or The Onion's lead story this week: "Bush Seeks U.N. Sup- port For 'U.S. Does Whatever It Wants' Plan." NICK WOOMER Alumnus The letter writer is a former Daily Editorial Page Editor Michigan needs to keep MEAP scholarship money is often the only money available for many students. Take my case, for example. A National Merit Finalist, I ranked in the top one per- cent of my class at a competitive public high school. I have kept my grades above a 3.9 throughout my University career. Yet I received only a very small scholarship from the University and my parents' income dis- qualifies me even from student loans. Just because a student's family earns money does not mean that that money is readily available to the student; studies show that rich people are just as prone to credit card debt as poor people. At the best of times, my family has paid about half of my costs. I have at times worked three jobs simultane- ously to keep up. Students like me, whose only mistake was being born white and "rich," still have a choice whether to work hard or not. The strength of the American system has tradi- tionally been that those who work hard to get ahead are rewarded. The state of Michi- gan needs to keep the MEAP scholarship as an incentive for our best students to stay in Michigan schools. And besides, it's nice to get a pat on the back. That's why my vote this November will go to Dick Posthumous. MARIANNE J. SMITH LSA senior Impossible for a single Jew to offer 'Jewish perspective' TO THE DAILY: I am writing in response to Jeremy Berkowitz' article in yesterday's paper (SAFE event offers Jewish perspectives). I found both the event itself and the headline in the Daily particularly offensive for several reasons. Firstly, just because you are Jewish does not mean you represent the Jewish people. This is an inflammatory remark. You cannot pull a random Goldberg, Schwartz or Herskovitz off the street and classify him or her as an example of a Jew. Trotsky was a Jew and he killed his own father for being a rabbi. Was he indicative of the Jewish majority? This is like pulling a random African American off the street, and asking his opinion on a subject. Is it legitimate to then say this- individual repre- sents a black opinion on subject matter? Hogwash. To say that Students Allied for Freedom and Eaulitv offered any sort of stunts to attract apathetic students. The SAFE boycott of The Michigan Daily is another such event to divert attention from the recent anti-Semitic scandal that has been attributed to some of its leadership. In their upcoming divestment conference, SAFE will attempt to bring in a few Jewish speakers to prove they are "balanced" as an organization. This too, is flawed. Two of their speakers, Shamai Leibowitz (the current lawyer for Marwan Barghouti, a convicted terrorist) and Adam Shapiro (a self-hating Jew) cannot provide reasonable Jewish perspectives on anything. I urge SAFE to think more logically in its programming agenda. BRAD SUGAR LSA sophomore The author is the chair of Hillel's Orthodox Minyan Columnist confused about days of week yet attractive TO THE DAILY: In response to Greifinger's article in yes- terday's Weekend Magazine Addicted to Crosswords: Greifinger's desperate search for a cross- word puzzle took place on what she claims was a Wednesday. But scattered all over the auditorium were "sports sections." Either she does not know the days of the week, or she does not know the Daily, because any Daily reader knows there is no Sports section on Wednesday. The only day there is a Sports section is on Monday. There may be a sports page in the Daily every day, but I doubt everyone opened their papers to the sports pages, folded the paper and left it in the audi- torium sports-page-up. Besides that one flaw, it was a nice article to which many LSA slackers can relate. ScoTT BRUNNER LSA senior 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 0 6 0 I a E _ a