4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 30, 2002 OP/ED (Tbe A9ibgnia~ 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 The economy has to be the prime suspect." - American University professor James Lynch on what to blame for the rise in violent crime in 2001, as quoted by the Associated Press. SAM BUTLER THE SOAPBOX k; o.sA-V,,yoUs a8S rteea 4,o \oe *,V m3 o i s L. c' ( Is4> p .. ,. , .2 WW Governor jrea, r en Casa-Ome ! Col h e e,-kA? \ t Where the true internationalists stand ZAC PESKOWITZ THE LOWPRFREQUENCIs S aturday morning, One of the last speakers in the Diag cited as an historical anomaly, just a blip on the the graying leftists Immanuel Kant and Woodrow Wilson in his long expanse of history or are they more fun- and their children arguments against war in Iraq. These men damental? When it comes down to it, can walked the misty streets should be the liberal icons of our era, but legitimate understanding exist between indi- of Ann Arbor. Through they are rarely invoked. viduals of different cultural and geographical the sleeping streets of Earlier in the rally, James Justin Wilson, origins or are we destined to engage in downtown, the beating editor in chief of the Michigan Review, got provincial tribalism? of drums and sound of himself into a brusque tete-a-tte with one of I'm not going to accept the premises of chants trickled into the the protestors. As a speaker on the steps of this argument against universalism, the con- air. In lockstep, the anti- the Grad Library expounded on the tripartite clusions that are the inevitable result of these war movement descended upon Ann Arbor - plagues of "racism, extreme materialism and assumptions are too stark. As the Left has and once again the spirit of '68 was alive in militarism," Wilson snickered that racism moved away from internationalism and our Midwestern hamlet. had nothing to do with Iraq. His comments toward relativism, the imperative to create a I sat in the back of the Diag, watching were immediately met with the complaint global society has been rejected for the neo- the surreal morning pass by. Crowds of that Wilson could never comprehend the medievalism of identities warring ceaselessly freshman in maize and blue walked from experiences of a minority in the United against one another. the Hill through the Diag and toward Michi- States. This argument, which has become a The formation of a viable global polity gan Stadium as the collective force of common refrain among liberals, poses a seri- should be the liberals' main concern and Southeast Michigan's liberal community ous problem for those liberals who seek these racialized barriers to understanding milled about aimlessly. Wilsonian solutions to conflict. prevent that polity from coming into exis- It was genuinely sad to see the beginning Let's briefly assume that I will never be tence. Liberal internationalism is not without of our parents' generation last gasp on the able to understand what it is like to be a its faults, but it is based on the possibility political stage. Sadder still, was the realiza- minority in this nation. What are the reper- and hope of a universal culture. This should tion, becoming clearer every day, that the cussions of this assumption? Is it impossible be the progressives' goal and monomaniacal- Left as it is presently constituted is going to to experience genuine compassion and empa- ly attacking the supporters of universal civi- expire shortly. The activist Left is trapped thy between groups? lization shows that influential Leftists have and stammering, like a confused animal These questions have profound implica- decided to reject globalism. uncertain of its future and clinging to its tion for not only the domestic political If these beliefs are no longer a central mythical past. The few students who shook environment, but the entire international tenet of the post-Orientalism Left than let off their hangovers and actually made it to system. If the Left has committed itself to it die. Let those arguments drown in the the rally are stuck in another age. imagining the world community as a strug- sea of relativism that they have created for Under the banners of inclusivity and gle between the imperialist West and the themselves. The real quagmire will not be consensus, the Left has paralyzed itself and victimized East or, as it has chosen more in the streets of Baghdad, but is right now prevented itself from criticizing the weak recently, the North versus the South, then under our noses as we attempt to wade ideas that have attached themselves to the there is no reason to even attempt to bridge through the hypocrisy. contemporary Left. There are two events these divides. We will inevitably be drawn Free Kurdistan. that I witnessed on Saturday morning that to conflict and there is nothing that can be can help explain how the Left is working done to arrest its development. Zac Peskowitz can be reached to destroy itself. Does the Left perceive these differences atzpeskowi@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Daily's choice not to Affairs (faculty government) meeting. I've Quantity of 'asinine' been to more Regents' meetings (three) endorse Petering for 'U' than any of my competitors, except incum- resolutions passed makes Regent outright 'hilarious' bent Andrea Fisher Newman. I'm the only MSA irrelevant candidate who tells it like it is and has the guts to take a stand for students. At the Sept. 19 meeting, I told President Coleman TO THE DAILY: and the top executives of the University TO THE DAILY: It is outright hilarious that the Daily has that, "Funds must be shifted away from Sarah Boot and Dana Glassel were chosen not to endorse me for University administration and back to teaching." partially right when they said the resolu- Regent! I am Matt Petering, the student No other candidate has been that bold- tion to support the Daily boycott does not candidate for Regent who was endorsed by ly honest. I love the University of Michi- make the Michigan Student Assembly The Detroit News on Oct. 17. I might be gan and I want it to be the best it can be. "irrelevant" (MSA executives clarify Daily the first student candidate ever to receive a I worked previously as a cryptologic boycott resolution, 10/29/02). major news endorsement for Board of mathematician at the National Security What really showed how "irrelevant" Regents. And I can't even get an endorse- Agency. Clearly, I'm ready and qualified MSA is was the fact that they passed not ment from my own paper, the Daily? to be Regent. one, but five asinine resolutions in one This is ridiculous! It's ridiculous Is the Daily ready to have me as the meeting! because I've been reaching out to the next Regent of the University of Michi- If Glassel and Boot are looking for community more than any other candi- gan? Maybe not, but the rest of the student more useless things to vote on perhaps date in my race. I'm the only candidate body is. they could vote to support the continued who's been to a Michigan Student MATT PETERING use of the block M as the University's Assembly meeting. School of Education logo. I'm the only candidate who's been to a The letter writer is a Green Party candidate JOEL WOLLBORG Senate Advisory Committee on University for the University Board of Regents Engineering senior VIEWPOINT Moscow hostage crisis: a shock that isn't shocking S . By YULIA DERNOVSKY Last week 50 Chechen terrorists held hostage nearly 800 innocent civilians in the Moscow theater. After 58 hours of stand- off, Russian troops stormed the theater and the crisis ended. As of now, the death toll is at 118 and it's likely to grow. The tragedy came as a shock to the Americans ... or at least to those who heard about it. The deaths of Senator Wellstone and seven others aboard his private jet as well the model of the arrested "snipers"' gun domi- nated the news most of the weekend. What came as a surprise to the Ameri- can public shouldn't have been so shock- ing. Despite the relative calm in Russia and Chechnya, the Chechen rebels are still wag- ing a terrorism war against Russia. The hostage crisis is far from being the first ter- rorist attack perpetrated by the Chechnyans. Moscow subways, trains and apartment building have been targeted in the past. In 1999, a wave of apartment bombings in three Russian cities, including Moscow, took the lives of nearly 300 people. The hostage crisis in Moscow forms a sad parallel to the current crisis in the Mid- time or another, but how little coverage this tragedy received and how unconcerned the American government. While President Bush expressed concern and blamed the terrorists for the deaths of the hostages, neither the administration nor the media took the time to start thinking how to address terrorism stemming from Chech- nya. Aren't we fighting the war against ter- rorism right now? Or is it the war for the United States? As an American, as a Russian and as a Jew, I have vested interests in the United States' fight against terrorism. Reading the critics of the war against Iraq, I now see those same critics loudly criticizing Presi- dent Putin for the way the hostage crisis was handled and for his unwillingness to talk to the Chechen rebels. Does that mean that the American media is now advancing the idea that it is OK to negotiate with terrorists? Those same critics continuously criticize Israel for trying to establish safe and secure borders for its citizens and criticize America for trying to dethrone Saddam Hussein's ter- rorist regime. Apparently the best solution right now is to give in to the terrorists' threats and let them have what they want. bin Landen continue to terrorize the world. When Israel agrees to pull out of the West Bank under U.S. pressure, a suicide bomber kills 20 people on a bus. When the Indonesian government and U.S. govern- ment continuously ignore Islamic funda- mentalists; a 182 die in a bombing in Bali. The truth is it is time to stop giving into terrorist threats. This sounds awfully famil- iar from the headlines that were on the front pages of the newspapers a little more than a year ago, but this is the reality that we live in. It's time face it. What happened in Moscow should not have happened. It is sad and tragic that so many innocent lives were taken. It is possible that the Russian government made a tragic mistake during the siege, but asking the Russian president to negotiate with the terrorists is beyond ridiculous and strategically idiotic. Terrorism works because we give in to the terrorist demands or we never attack the terrorists. The terrorists only partially suc- ceeded in the Moscow hostage crisis. Negoti- ating with them will give them complete success. Terrorists are out there for one rea- son and one reason only: to kill. Russians saved 700 hostages in half an hour before A Tt.. 1 7 r-. n Tr. -..v: r - r, e, -: Ahl