I 4 -The Michiganf Daily - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 OP/ED S£dpv 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 LOUIE MEIZLISH Editor in Chief AUBREY HENRETTY ZAC PESKOWITZ Editorial Page Editors 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 C(I know we take football seriously in the South, but that's crossing the line." - Sheriff's Deputy Randy Christian, on a Pinion, Ala. man being charged with attempted murder after allegedly firing a gun at his son's head following Alabama's loss to Arkansas on Saturday. SAM BUTLER CLASSIC SOAPBOX .- < 2 fi rcO te.cs a~vA'..eaw What liberal academia? ARI PAUL I Four- iHE LAW 4 few weeks ago, my No. 1 fan, David Horowitz, was on MSNBC's "Hard- ball with Chris Matthews" ranting on how universities are designed to indoctri- nate students with the lib- eral agenda. When Matthews asked for evi- dence about this conspiracy theory, Horowitz backtracked, stammered, and finally conceded that he didn't have a "blacklist." While Horowitz represents an extreme in American conservatism, this notion is endemic. in the mainstream. It is for one, not true, and two, an attempt by the right to subvert an insti- tution that harbors dynamic thought, which is dangerous to the status quo. The conservatives are right about one thing. Many university professors are left wing, which is due to the fact that well informed peo- ple in general tend to vote liberal. However, it is also true that people in the professions of avarice like business tend to be conservative, so should I demand that corporate boards have quotas for Democrats? The truth is that conservatives aren't mar- ginalized on college campuses. Conservative activists have the same rights as Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality and Anti-War Actionl. In fact, the Collegiate Network, a conservative organization, doles out $200,000 a year to campus publications every year, something the aforementioned left- ist groups certainly do not enjoy. And acclaimed conservative academics hold high positions at their respective institutions. But whenever an academic tries to critically ana- lyze economics or public policy, even the most mild-mannered Republican can seem to be possessed by the soul of Joe McCarthy. Here's just one example. Popular Univer- sity history Prof. Matthew Lassiter recently received an angry email from a University alum and self-proclaimed freelance journal- ist (psst: that's a euphemism for unem- ployed) blasting his upcoming Michigan Colloquium on Race and Twentieth-Century American Political Development for a lack of political balance. The colloquium, featur- ing bad-boy urban scholar Tom Sugrue, offers lectures on "The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Suburban North" and "The New African American Inequality." At first, I was baffled by such a claim. Why would this right-wing agitator want a colloqui- um that is scholarly in nature to become a left- versus-right political debate? Does one's ability to educate depend on how one goes to the voting booth? Did said right-wing agitator want the colloquium to feature speakers opposed to integration in the suburban north? Or was said right-wing agitator merely alarmed at the surnames Katz and Cohen on the roster, fearing the ugly Jewish-communist conspiracy theory that is still popular in right- wing circles? In short, there was no reason for this incredible lecture series to warrant such an accusation. And if analyzing strategies to com- bat racism and inequality is part of the liberal agenda, keep the accusations coming, as it only proves hioW modern American CiierVatismi is inherently racist. There are two motivations for this conser- vative backlash, one more frightening than the other. The conservatives just hate it when people are allowed to see when America has made mistakes or how policy could be han- dled better. This motivation is more or less understandable. But there's another part of the backlash that is much more discomforting that plays out in a piece of academic lore where the waspy founders of the University of California at San Diego almost abandoned their project to build a branch of the state system in La Jolla when one of their cohorts notoriously warned, "Jews, gentlemen." Sadly, the tendency for conservatives to attack things like Hollywood, the media, urban centers like Manhattan and now academia for having a liberal bias is rooted, historically, in an ancient distrust for professions and areas heavily populated by Jews. There's a lynch mob out there hell bent on silencing dissent in this country driven by its uneasiness towards the presence of intellectual discourse, bound volumes of prose and the Yiddish language. But if this lynch mob is correct, are we to assume that debate, scholarship, diversity of opinion and activism are inherently liberal? Maybe so, as intransigence, single-minded- ness, apathy and ignorance define the ends these thugs wish to attain. Class dismissed. Paul can be reached at aspaul@umich.edu. Waving the bloody shirt JASON PESICK ONE SMALL VOICE ictims are very powerful people. Two of Ameri- ca's greatest victims are Bill and Hillary Clinton. Bill Clinton was the vic- tim of a right-wing con- spiracy; he didn't bring any of his problems on himself. Hillary was the victim of her husband and his infidelities. She would talk about women's empowerment to feminist groups, but when then-U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio (R- N.Y.) walked over to her side of the stage during their senatorial debate, she became the poor victim of an angry man. In the Middle East, there are no aggres- sors, only victims. I was watching TV at the beginning of the Intifada, which turned three years old this week, and I saw a per- fect example of this. A group of Palestini- ans was carrying one of their fallen brethren wrapped in the Palestinian flag in front of Western television crews. He was the victim of the Israeli military and its harsh tactics. By accident, however, they dropped him, and their P.R. move was exposed. The man turned out not to be dead at all; his comrades helped him back up, and they carried on playing the role of victims. The Israelis are also victims because they have to endure terrorism. They ignore a few important facts, such as the incredi- ble strength of the Israeli army and that Israel's per-capita gross domestic product is about four to five times higher than that of its Arab neighbors. Using their line of thinking, neither side is to blame for the violence in the Middle East. The United States is a victim too. We were the victims of a terrorist attack on Sept. 11, and this justified attacking Afghanistan. In that case, we actually were the victims; poor foreign policy decisions are no reason to kill 3,000 people. But we should be careful about how far we extend our victim mentality from Sept. 11. It is not -easy for the most powerful country in the history of the world to pass as a victim. But the Bush administration played the victim card when it was making its case to invade Iraq. It tried to connect al-Qaida with Saddam Hussein by saying that a Qaida official had been in Baghdad before the attacks. But we were not victims of Saddam Hussein even though on balance, I think it was still worth overthrowing him. We controlled the northern and southern portions of his country and whenever he got out of line, we bombed him with advanced fighter planes. The administration ignored these facts and said we were Saddam's vic- tims because he was building very scary weapons that could kill Americans. The Bush administration understands how powerful the United States is as much as any other administration in recent mem- ory. Administration officials ooze mas- culinity; no one in this White House watches Bravo. Everyone exercises regu- larly, and then they play cowboy at the Texas ranch, wearing flannels and blue jeans. Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol, who has close ties to the administration, is an advocate of a more "muscular" foreign policy; working together with allies and building coalitions are not for these peo- ple, so you have to laugh when they whine about being victims. U.S. foreign policy is too often based on this type of fear and desperation, instead of the country's strengths: its ideas and prosperity. But the administration doesn't have the energy to craft and then try to implement a comprehensive and thoughtful foreign policy. Like all the other "victims" around the world, it would rather galvanize support for a narrow agenda by hyping our vulnerabilities. The far right in Israeli society will do this to gain backing for its radical plans to expand the size of its country. Palestinian radicals will do the same so that they never have to take responsibility for their own strife and Hillary Clinton will garner sympathy in order to ease her path to the White House. Pretending to play the vic- tim is the best way to get moderates on board an agenda that cannot be sold at face value. When you have the moral high ground and people feel bad for you, you can get away with taking actions that perceived aggressors cannot because nothing is ever the victim's fault. Playing the victim is so easy. Pesick can be reached at jzpesick@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Greek community irresponsible, possesses 'poor self-policing skills' TO THE DAILY: As a new slogan for Michigan's Greek community, how about "Letters today, kid- ney transplants tomorrow." When I was in college in the early 1990s, I pledged a sorority whose philan- thropy project was fundraising for the National Kidney Foundation. They were at their genitalia in the interests of "broth- erhood." As an instructor, I've heard the constant refrain that I should tolerate my pledging students listlessness in class, their occasional attendance while under the influence of alcohol and their near- incessant storytelling about who threw up what over the weekend, because "Greek organizations do so much good for the community." I bought this kind of nonsense when I was in college, but now that I'm older and have had friends die while waiting for organ transplants, I think there's no amount of community service Greek orga- ues - and about what its physicians will tell the next hospital patient who can't get a kidney to save his life. ALYSSA PICARD Rackham LETTERS POLICY 4 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 ^M-. r1. - ' T "%-:t-- -A11 _, ...._ -« - - E ! . .y ...r..' ._ _. y .$ .-- - - ..:-I. ... I , .., * 1' ...:-',--aa .'--...--- -...il , ..,:'. e: ,, . ..ww n ., : . I