.4 4A - The Michigan Daily - Friday, November 1, 2002 OP/ED oJt loelktbiguu hanitu 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 situation is black here." - Luciano Gliacurto, a resident San Giuliano Di Puglia Italy, where an earthquake yesterday killed at least seven and left many children trapped, as quoted by the Associated Press. I o r e / 1 -f vo w it)'a o-l offo nox.row Yr~dek'nes, a daosh c&ol scia i S4 ideals Sa 1- of 4e.macog~e-fj w". +nafn. 9n a o ,mc.A o 'Ngnd.. L2Q\11 4 SAM BUTLER TvE SOAPBOX I r - - --- -~ - -- *LIVE Video killed the radio star DAVID HORN HORNOGRANPHY n the early days of the sniper panic, my roommate expressed his fear that the sniper would turn out to be a "Grand Theft Auto" fanatic. He thought that if he or she was, then parents and the media and leg- islators would come down hard on the video game industry the same way that Hollywood was given a lot of trouble, post-Columbine. I had never gotten into "Grand Theft Auto," which is a game that allows players the deca- dent pleasures of sex, drugs and, well, grand theft auto. The game, at its most basic, is about stealing (really cool) cars and getting into trouble with the 5-Os. I thought that his fear was legitimate, and may well have become a realization. But John Muhammad and Lee Malvo were apprehended a few days later, and I have not heard any criticism directed toward "Grand Theft Auto." This is particularly surprising because the latest installment of "Grand Theft Auto," "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" was coincidently released this week. But "GTA: VC" has thus far been uninhibited by respon- sibility. The gun control issue has indeed resurfaced in the national discourse; it is in direct response to the snipers. If I were Joe Lieberman, or another law- maker who is intent on overextending the government's ability to censor, I would make "GTA: VC" the scapegoat. Is it deserved? Maybe. The game is fantastic, and since my roommate brought it into my house Tuesday night it has been all consuming. I'll admit that when I got in my own car last night my initial instinct was to peel out, crash into the Subur- ban parked across the street and steal the Sub- urban (all to the tune of "99 Lufballoons," or "Bille Jean," which are two of the numerous featured '80s pop favorites on "GTA: VC"). I didn't, because I'm smart enough to avoid unnecessary collisions, old enough to respect other people's property, poor enough to not be able to afford legal fees or body work and sober enough to realize all that. So is "GTA: VC" a bad influence? Maybe. But Lieberman, et al. can criticize the video game industry and the film industry all they want; the bottom line is that the culture of violence in this country stems from the cul- ture of guns. If they want a scapegoat they've got one; "GTA: VC" and its forefathers have a tough defense to make for themselves against accusations of "perceived realities" and "set- ting bad examples." But their time would be much better spent teaming up with more sen- sible lawmakers who are willing to take a tough stance against the N.R.A. and the gun industry, which is the real source of the prob- lem. Ballistic fingerprinting, which requires gun manufacturers to encode bullets and shells for future identification, is something that a lot of people became aware of during the sniper panic. A lot of people also became aware that the N.R.A. and the rest of anti-gun control lobby are opposed to it (obviously!). Why in the world would law enforcement officials ever need to be able to trace a gun or ammunition back to an owner? What an intru- sion of privacy and a trampling of the Second Amendment!) The so-called "gun show loophole," which allows the sale of firearms at gun shows with- out the cumbersome rigmarole of background checks (as necessitated by the Brady bill), is also something that the anti-gun control lobby is vehemently opposed to. Tens of thousands of Americans die every year from gunshot wounds, and the powers that be are interested neither in methods of firearm identification, or in extending the sen- sible requirements of the Brady bill beyond gun shops to gun shows. "GTA: VC" may or may not make me want to steal cars, shoot coke and fire a Heckler and Koch G36 Com- pact at little old ladies, but if it does let's make it so I can't. I David Horn can be reached at hornd@umich.edu. 4 VIEWPOINT Aggressive democracy and the boiled frog BY ADI NEUMAN Liberals should support the coming war on Iraq. Ever since Vietnam, left-wing groups have been wary of our government's ability to aggressively implement democratic rule in developing countries, but this concern has long since become obsolete. The war in Afghanistan has shown us that, with massive cleanup efforts, democratic revolutionary movements in even the most backward coun- tries can succeed. Our war on terrorism, how- ever, is far from over and we will only win it if our government commits itself to a more aggressively democratic foreign policy. To understand our war on terror, we must first understand what terrorism is and is not. Terrorism is just one form of political extrem- ism, extremists being those people who are willing to make others suffer in order that their message is heard. A terrdrist, then, is an extremist whose publicity is achieved through senseless violence against innocents, often in the form of a suicide attack. Terrorism, however, has its limitations. Terrorism cannot be used to achieve political gains without a subsequent public relations effort that forces governments to face whatev- er grievances are held by the terrorist group in question. In the United States, far-left groups supply cable news shows terror apologists to justify and rationalize attacks by far-right Islamic extremist groups in the Middle East. This unholy alliance makes it difficult for political moderates to get their voices heard, but it also makes it easy to raise questions about the pro-terror stances of large, political- ly oriented special interest groups. To protect themselves from this vulnera- bility, terror apologists have created a national politically correct barrier. This barrier makes it impossible to publicly question anyone affiliated with a Muslim or Arab group in the United States regarding their support of terror- ism or terrorist groups. No one is immune from this PC barrier; Harvard President Lawrence Summers and Alan Dershowitz both faced intense smear campaigns when they raised their concerns over the emerging pro-terror divestment movement. Other recent victims include Bill Maher and Alan Keyes, who lost their television shows due to overly aggressive PC smear campaigns. The media war on terrorism is nearly as gritty as the mili- tary war on terrorism. The situation we find ourselves in now is akin to the famous "boiled frog" experiment. In this experiment, a live frog is placed into a pan of water on a burner. The heat from the burner is slowly raised, and because a frog can only detect large temperature changes, the frog remains in the pan until boiled. While groups all over the vyorld work around the clock to make terrorism a legitimate tool for achieving political goals, our government wastes its time trying to convince an exhaust- ed public to either worry about or not worry about terrorism, depending on the latest opin- ion polls. If this trend continues, the United States will soon become the boiled frog. To avoid this unfortunate end, the United States must more aggressively promote democracy around the world. Former admin- istrations hoped that simply by implementing free trade deals and opening up markets, democracy and capitalism would follow. Clearly this is not the case. The military and economic war on terrorism must be accompa- nied by a diplomatic war whose aim is to cre- ate more democracies in and around the Middle East. Skeptics will ask, what right does the Unit- ed States have to dictate what kind of govern- ment is implemented in sovereign nations? There are two answers to this question. The first is simply that citizens in backward coun- tries whose understanding of world politics is based on government propaganda do not understand democracy enough to support it. This answer is unfortunately inadequate. It is likely that even with prolonged exposure to free media, freedom of assembly, and even the separation of church and state, there will not be enough support for democracy to induce revolutionary change. The true answer is that the United States, as the world's lone superpower, has the moral obligation to relieve suffering around the world. Slavery in the Sudan, religious intolerance in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and disease and starvation all over the world can and would be alleviated through aggressive diplomatic campaigns over time to spread democracy. Only with this attitude can we, the United States of America, avoid becom- ing the boiled frog. Furthermore, liberals should understand that the war on Iraq, despite that it is being led by a conservative administration, has the potential to become a stepping stone for the real alleviation of suf- fering of all peoples. I I 41 Neuman is an LSA senior. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 4 Wednesday's affirmative action rally demonstrated all that is wrong with BAMN TO THE DAILY: The affirmative action rally on Wednes- day, Oct. 30, showed everything that is wrong with the Coalition to Defend Affir- mative Action By Any Means Necessary. I myself am a staunch supporter of affirma- tive action and find that they have misrep- resented its true spirit. I think quite possibly the most dangerous thing that BAMN has done is that it has created an atmosphere on campus that thinks of affirmative action as a black/white issue that only applies to our admissions process. Not only does this mar- ginalize every other underrepresented Affirmative Action policies. Secondly, there are many other groups outside of an underrepresented race that get "extra- points", if you will, in our admissions poli- cy, but again thanks to the black/white line that BAMN has helped to create, these are almost never mentioned. You get the same amount for having a lower socio-economic class and you get some for living in an underrepresented county in Michigan. The thing that most fail to realize is legacy and provost discre- tion are subtle yet incredible privileges for those who can receive it. Typically the peo- ple who receive these points are not under- represented minorities and are usually white men. They are people who have tradi- tionally had the opportunity to go to col- lege. My biggest problem with the rally held on Wednesday came from when I walked Defeat student political apathy: Vote no on Prop. 4 TO THE DAILY: Now is the time for students to vote! Students make up the most apathetic sector of the voting population. Many experts agree that this is due in large part to a feeling among students that government doesn't affect us. This year (on Nov. 5) government will dras- tically affect students. This year's ballot includes a proposal called Proposal 4. If Proposal 4 passes, the Citizens Research Council reports that universities will need to increase tuition by at least 20 percent. Addition- ally, approval of Proposal 4 will result in the loss of the Michigan Merit Award Program, which in turn means a loss of more than $100 million in student aid Prnpoal 4 will also caee 4 I mkfYJLL4I11~.y~J1 ~LLV J~Jl.J ~J* u .. v;ctwY .icus a.ns w: . #II A