4A - The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 25, 2002
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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
"CThis is such
a shock."
- Sheila Tezando, Allen Muhammad, sniper
suspect's, sister-in-law, as quoted by
CNN online yesterday in reaction to the
identification ofMuhammad as the
primary suspect in the shootings.
SAM BUTLER THE SIOAPBOX
v 00%rnm Nhe'. ShoLe.
f~ 4R *'
ea~
Corresponding with Dubya
JOHN HONKALA Too EARLY IN THE SUN
In the interest of
clarity, the following
open letter, to George
W. Bush will be ren-
dered in the vernacular
that he is most familiar
with. Because after all,
4xclarity, more than any-
p .~thing, is clearly how
we all want to portray
ourselves.
Dear fellow American and baseball club
owner,
We've got to talk about this War thing
here. In fact, let's talk about reasoning
because I'm still confused about why.we're
going to war. Is it because of Saddam's
nucular weapons of mass destruction? Or is
it because he's despotical? Or because he
killed his very own kin? Your logic has been
as useless as tits on a boar and you've used
facts as facts that are not factual, which
should tell you something about you. So here
are some of my reasons why not to go to
war, and I hope they resignate with you.
I'm concerned about pre-emptiveness.
Look, I'm sure you've whipped the tar outta
some guy before for looking Laura in the
eye or for hogging the cocaine. Probably
whipped him good, too. But, see, the guy
had it coming, right? He dared attack the
freedom of a spoiled, drunken Eli. But you
don't go around kicking the she-bang out of
random enemies, even if they are evil, evil
doers. I mean, you're from Texas, where
it's honorific to fight gentlemanly. So why
the peacockery?
Besides, you probably had your buddies
there to back you up. Someone to step in
with a haymaker when things got turned
around or to bear witness to the fact that you
were made a disparagement unjustifiably.
Somehow I doubt your bar motto was: If you
don't stand with Dubya, then stand out of the
way. So don't forget, George, that the United
Nations is our friend too, just like Tony
Blair. If we should remember anything about
past history, it is that a friend indeed is a
friend of need. And we need our friends.
Plus, think about all these foreigners who
hate our freedom. A great man I used to
know used to tell me: Don't cross a man
who's apt to be crossed. Well here, in this
picture I'm drawin' for you, the man is the
Arab world, see? And the cross - or what's
causing the crossness - is the war. All these
freedom haters are gonna be pretty cross if
we start dancing with Iraq. And we've got
several thousand points of bright, freedom-
loving light spread out across the globe in
various embassaries and missionaries who
would make perfect sitting bull ... duck ...
targets for their hatred. It's kinda like killing
the goose that
Cooked ... wait, no ... the wolf that cried
sheep ... the boy that ... it just ... goes
against everything we grew up with ... you
know, all the logic we stand for.
And that coward Saddam is no dummy
either. He knows we've got our itchy finger
on a hair trigger and we're ready to shoot.
We've got him on the edge of the edge of his
end of his rope, so he won't be going any-
where. But once we've attacked him, Sad-
dam's not gonna sit around like a bump on a
log. If he's got weapons of mass destruction
he'll detonate 'em faster than you can say
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
I'm afraid also that your war isn't minded
toward ... aimed with the Iraqi people in.
mind. When you demand regime change,
doesn't that mean that we're replacing a
despot with a democratic ruler for the benefit
of the long-suffering Iraqi populace? I
haven't seen or heard nor listened to you
explain to the Iraqi people why you will be
declaring war on them. That leads me to
jump to the conclusion that your sincerity is
called into questionable. You see, George,
you can't take the high horse and the low
road and expect to find the middle ground.
Then there's this thing with that North
Korean guy Kim Jong or Jung or Jin. (No
one briefed me.) He's just 'informed us that
his country has been developing nucular
weapons of mass destruction, which poses a
peculiar similarity with Iraq. If it's weapons
we're after then it looks like we should be
heading to Communist Asia sometime next
spring. You must also realize that there will
be deaths and casualties and spilt blood, just
like in the sands of Iwa Jima. Young men
and women, many of them from the great
country called America, will perish from
death. Where is your campassionism? You
once said: "The American people wants a
president that appeals to the angels?" Amen,
sweet George. Be that angel embessary. To
be conclusionatory, George, I'm not for the
war. Because if I'm right - and being right
is my normalcy - then there's two things in
this world: Right and wrong. And this one -
the War - is wrong. Please take this in your
regards.
God bless you and God bless freedom,
Johnny
John Honkala can be reached at
jhonkala@umich.edu.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
01
MSA 'determined to become
irrelevant' with boycott vote,
say former pres ad vp.
To THE DAILY:
The Michigan Student Assembly seems
determined to become irrelevant (again), with its
ludicrous vote to boycott the Michigan Daily.
MSA and the Daily are jointly the voice of
campus - MSA representing and responding to
the opinions of students, and the Daily bringing
those and other opinions back to students. For
MSA to boycott the one organization that can
help it bring its work to campus is antithetical to
everything student representation should be
about.
This boycott is nonsense. As 95 percent of
campus will agree, the Daily is one of the most
extremist liberal newspapers out there. For a
group of student organizations to start a boycott
because they don't like their coverage is ridicu-
lous. Obviously, we're now seeing other groups
join in, in hopes that the Daily will expand to 50
pages per day, and they, too, will get to be cov-
ered. The demands of the boycotters are beyond
coverage issues, as they lay out how the Daily
must change the way it operates.
News flash: The Daily is not getting bigger,
and students are still going to pick it up tomorrow
morning.
Last year at this time MSA was fighting to
get a fall break (yes, freshmen, the one you just
had was the first at the U), get an extra $73,000
for student groups from Fleming, expand the
CCRB hours, and put Entree Plus in the Big
House ... all things we did. On Tuesday, MSA
spent hours debating whether or not to boycott
the paper they will all pick up in the morning to
see if they were quoted in!
Joe student couldn't cafe less, won't boycott
the Daily, and will see MSA as less relevant
because the majority of the "representatives"
voted yes.
MSA: Think of all the things you could be
doing for that student - if you've never met Joe
student, you can find him/her reading the letters
to the editor, and doing the crossword puzzle.
MATT. NOLAN
LSA Senior
JESSICA CASH
LSA Senior
Nolan and Cash are, respectively, the former MSA
president and vice-president (2001-2002).
Advertisements in Daily
attempt I have ever seen by Zionists to present a
skewed portrayal of reality and appeal to emo-
tions in presenting their perspective. No
respectable publication should agree to print such
propaganda, even as a paid advertisement. Aside
from its shameful attempt to oversimplify the
issue with an emotional appeal and thereby com-
pletely obscure the history and reality of the cur-
rent situation, the advertisement contained no
indication of which group or organization was
responsible for it, no contact info, and no refer-
ences for further information. The only such indi-
cation was a web address pointing to a site called
"campustruth.org" that, not surprisingly, doesn't
even work. A similar advertisement on page 2,
though apallingly skewed in its presentation of
relevant facts, at least contained an organization's
name and address.
One wonders whether the Daily would ever
print a paid advertisement proclaiming that the
Holocaust never happened without citing any
supporting facts or figures and containing no
information about the organization placing it. An
anonymous advertisement that attempted to por-
tray the Palestinian side of the story simply by
presenting photos of Palestinian women and chil-
dren being harassed by Israeli Defense Forces
dthugs would probably be censored by your
esteemed editors (one of whom took a free trip to
Israel - minus the West Bank and Gaza - on
the Anti-Defamation League's bill)-. Political
activists are held to the high standard of ground-
ing their arguments on fact and reason and should
not be given a platform for their attempts to sway
people using emotional appeals whilst cowardly
hiding behind anonymity.
Though I have my own issues with the boy-
cott, such flagrant hypocrisy is probably good
cause for anyone to launch a protest against a so-
called objective campus publication. By irrespon-
sibly printing such advertisements, the Daily risks
not only further alienating those who have boy-
cotted it, but also those that do not stand on either
side.
SABIR IBRAHIM
Engineering
TO THE DAILY:
I can't believe the ads I have been seeing in
the Daily as of late. Talk about inciting hatred
and spreading lies! Organizations like "Commit-
tee for a Safe Israel" and "campustruth.org" are
clearly out to blur the truth and to incite hatred
and apathy for the Palestinians and their cause. I
urge the Daily not to publish such hateful ads,
especially like the one on page 2 of Thursday,
Oct. 24's edition. In this ad, the "Committee for a
Safe Israel" has the audacity to claim that true
-,_ T_-_1 - - - V..+ -- -
Energy conservation always
important issue at the 'U
TO THE DAILY:
While I was very glad to read an article
concerning environmental issues and sustain-
able development in the Daily on Wednesday
(Kolb pushes Green Policies in Election), I
was also somewhat dismayed to note that it
takes the opinion of an outsider to our campus
to bring energy conservation into the spotlight.
After all, the University is the single largtst
polluter in all of Washtenaw County and con-
sumes over 4.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas
and over 300 million kilowatt-hours of elec-
tricity every year! Such largesse calls for
large-scale energy conservation, not just turn-
ing off a couple of lights. (But please continue
to do so!) Instead, think about this: The Cen-
tral Power Plant responsible for 53 percent of
the University's energy needs burns natural
gas to generate power. Furthermore, we pur-
chase the other 47 percent from external
sources, mainly Detroit Edison, which uses 88
percent natural gas. That means almost all of
our energy here on campus comes from natur-
al gas, and nearly half of it is purchased from
an outside company.
One of the simplest conservation moves
we, as a community, can make is to switch
where we purchase our energy - the state of
Michigan already boasts a large renewable
power grid; in fact, in Traverse City, at least
30 homes are currently being powered by a
single windmill. Other possible sources of
renewable power include solar and geothermal
energy, as well fuel cell technology. Kolb also
suggested using a net metering system, which
would result in homes paying lower bills if
they returned energy to their electrical compa-
ny. Believe it or not, this is not the first time
sustainable energy concerns have been raised
at University. An ongoing graduate study
researching the carbon emissions for the Uni-
versity over the past seven years was complet-
ed last spring, and several student groups are
running a campaign to get the Kyoto Protocol
ratified here on campus. Kyoto is an interna-
tional agreement signed by 178 other nations
(but sadly not the United States!) to lower
greenhouse gas emissions, the primary cause
of global warming, to seven percent below
1990 levels by the year 2012. That seems
tough, but implementing Kyoto is in fact both
environmentally and fiscally responsible -
for every dollar invested in energy efficiency,
three will be returned. By signing on to this
petition, the University would be making a
pledge to work towards a sustainable campus
A
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