I 4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, November 14, 2003 OP/ED I U~t~e Adn&zi4& 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 It looks like the people of San Francisco are an endangered species, which may not be a bad thing. That's probably good news for the country." - Florida Gov. Jeb Bush joking at a cabinet meeting Wednesday as reported by The Atlanta Journal Constitution. matching Yeah I don't understand the velour iUMD-SUiLS - -) eather. )f N I I SAM BUTLER THE SOAPBOX 'Exotic' languages for all SRAVYA CHIRUMAMILLA WEAVING 1TH HANDBASIKET hat does from attempting to write a letter to my grand- still fail to include it in the course guide). your tat- mother who lives in India. Unfortunately, I As a member of this community, I take t o o misspelled my name in the signature, calling it upon myself to highlight the many rea- say?" "Your name myself Srivya. What was a simple, misplaced son the language is so impressive. Current written in Telugu?" vowel created an uproar within the family: I ly, knowing a foreign language comes in "Uh ... that's exotic." was losing my cultural identity and was let- handy the same way Pig Latin provided After a relatively short ting go of my roots. means of communications with my sib interlude, the person Since Telugu is the language that con- lings when we were trying to coordinate: with whom I am nects the people from the state, the connota- something under our parents' watchful speaking forgets the tions go beyond just the syllabary. Telugu eyes and radar. This secret language is word "Telugu," never people are identifiable by their polysyllabic beneficial when the situation is most awk- to understand how much this language last names. We are known for the dances that ward (think: someone you really don't connects the world. originate from our culture, be they kuchipudi want to dance with thinks he is the' Telugu is more than a language that 66 or koolaatam, classical style or folk dance Michael Flatley of the Sprinkler), as it is million people speak - it connotes a geo- with sticks, respectively. easy to signal a friend to save you -- graphical location, a people and a culture. Telugu people in the diaspora are espe- undetected. A note of caution though: If Telugu speakers originate from the South cially proud of this heritage. There are you have any suspicions he might be South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. While the associations in most metropolitan areas, a Indian, refrain from using Telugu; it is, as more popular South Asian languages, Urdu national organization and an international has already been noted, a very popular lan- and Hindi, are spoken in the larger cities association. These groups meet for cultural guage. While understanding an "exotic" of the state, Telugu is the predominant lan- shows, Telugu film screenings (a very language is fun, it is a superficial reason to guage in the populous state, earning a con- large movie industry is based in the learn this particular language. sistent spot in the top 20 most spoken Andhra Pradesh capital, Hyderabad) and to Understanding this language opens a languages in the world. People who speak network within the community. door to ancient wisdom and to high-tech; the language live in all parts of the world One of the most recent endeavors in the centers such as Hyderabad, where one of but are concentrated in Andhra Pradesh local Telugu community is the establishment IBM's main hubs is located. The connec- and Singapore. This diaspora creates a of Telugu courses at the University. With the tions languages offer transcend Telugu, tapestry of culture based on the language support of the community, five other South English and whatever other dialects about that Western languages lack. Asian languages are already being taught at which you are knowledgeable. Perhaps I I choose to write about this language, not the University; establishing the sixth requires only enrolled in the University course to because I am a linguist or a language snob similar community backing. Not only is the learn to write a letter to my grandmother, who thinks my language is better than others. community responsible for half of the funds but this experience allows me to connect, I hold onto the language because of a some- necessary for the course, but members are with a culture that seems all too distant. what traumatic event in my youth. After a also expected to inform students of the cours- few years in America, I had fleeting memo- es' availability (the University has thus far Chirumamilla can be reached ries of written Telugu. This did not stop me done nothing to introduce the class - they at schiruma@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR University has met GEO responded by filing grievances about Ari Paul's column Hey, little rich boy (11/12/03) the changes, and those grievances are follow- deserves no place in any paper that wants obligations, withholding ing along the normal process specified by the respect. Not only is Paul's insight into the Uni. contract. The grievance over 2003 prescrip- versity Party uneducated, but he also presents n ga esdistrbingtion drug plan and changes in co-pays is cur- evidence to support his claim. He argues that the rently under arbitration and the issue is also U Party has a political ideology, but doesn'1 To THE DAILY: being considered by the Michigan Employ- explain why, except that the party opposed sup ment Relations Commission. The grievance porting the Borders strike because it didn't relate in wou Dald arleoGcOrtrets enassrionsover 2004 co-premium changes is proceed- to students. While his argument might be legiti 1th/2/0Daily article GEO threatens strike ing, with a grievance conference scheduled mate, Paul needs to actually have a rational basi| (11/12/03).a for next week. The University is fully and for his opinions. Personal distate and resentment The University's changes in health care willingly participating in the process for han- have no place in a newspaper. And neither does benefits for employees for 2003 and 2004, dling grievances that GEO agreed to in the the sarcastic personal attacks on members o and the proposed changes for 2005, do not ract. MSA. Even the semantics of the article, and this violate the Graduate Employees Organization I am disturbed that any member of our is coming from a strongly liberal, non-U Party, contract. The University would not take these instructional staff would talk about with- non-MSA student, disgusted me. "Peasants" actions if we believed them to be in violation holding grades from students. In fact, the That's just poor journalism. It's people like Pau of our labor contracts. withholding of grades or other services by that give liberals a bad name. The current GEO contract states that members of GEO would be a clear violation NicK KowAczY "University contributions toward the Group of their contract. I hope GEO will continue LSAjunior Health and Group Dental premiums shall be to follow the process for handling its con- in the same amount as that provided to the cerns that is laid out by the current contract. University instructional staff for the cover- JAMES HILTON age selected." It further notes that "In the Associate provost BEING COOL? event of any changes in the coverage from any of the programs or plans, the GEO Steering Committee will be notified 60 day Paul's clm has nolaceMIHIAN prior to the effective datebof the change." column no The University has lived up to its obliga- in respectable newspaper tions under the contract by continuing to offer GEO the same health care plans and * rates as the instructional staff, and by notify- To THE DAILY: KEEPIN' fl REAL ing the union well in advance of any changes. While opinion articles are just that, opinions, VIEWPOINT An open letter to Borders President Tami Heim LOUIE MEIZLISH / IN PRINT A lack of leadership The other day I had a pretty fascinating conversation. One of my best friends who now lives in New York, a lifelong (he's 21) Democrat, is considering voting for President Bush next November. I was pretty surprised. But, I thought about it and remembered some earlier conversations I had with him, including his all-out support for the second gulf war, which was also at pretty surprising at the time. The more we talked the more I reached this conclusion: My friend, like a lot of Amer- icans, is scared. For many, it's not a question of whether there will be another Sept. 11, but when and where it will come. So they trust the president not because he's George W. Bush, but because he's The President. He's The Leader. The sad truth, however, is that Bush has been a terrible president and a terrible leader, but not for the reasons cited by the rank-and- file leftists. It's not that he's gotten us into wars, it's that he's made a mess of everything. First, let's take the war in Afghanistan. Some pacifists said the war was avoidable, that it was the United States' fault for the ter- rorist attacks. But the Taliban government there had harbored and supported the terrorist group responsible for the killing of 3,000 innocent Americans. There's no reason to believe al-Qaida wasn't planning more attacks. In fact it's hard to argue that even if we were partially at fault for the rise of the Taliban we shouldn't be defending ourselves from a source of terror. Although Bush followed through and removed the Taliban, the post-war scene in Afghanistan has gone largely unnoticed by the media. Hamid Karzai's title may be president of Afghanistan, but from what I gather he's really just the mayor of Kabul. Warlords con- trol most of the country. And we've spent nearly nothing to rebuild this country after we bombed the hell out of it, and chances are it'll be a training ground for terrorists again if it isn't already. Then there's the war in Iraq. I supported it, not because I felt so strongly about the weapons allegations, but because I thought it was time Saddam Hussein's tyranny ended. I also thought that if one democracy was estab- lished in the Middle East, maybe liberty would spread. But I didn't like that, without a word of criticism from the White House, conservatives went out of their way to discredit anyone whoA disagreed with the Bushies, by this I mean Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki, the Dixie Chicks, or as we've recently learned, CIA operative Valerie Palme, wife of Joseph Wil- son, the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq who didn't buy the administration's WMD talk. Interestingly, it turns out that there's prob- ably no WMD and that we'll need more troops than expected to pacify Iraq. To say the White House was unprepared for the war is an incredible understatement, We know that much of the Arab world sees the U.S. occupation as colonialist, which helps build the ranks of the insurrections in Iraq now. With the United Nations and Red Cross pulling their people out, it sure would be nice if Germany or France would send some aid and/or troops. But that probably won't happen because we already told them to go to hell, remember? And now Iraq is a hotbed of terrorist activ- ity. And Afghanistan is just as poor and unsta- ble as it was before. I'm just as scared as my friend in New York, but the president is par- tially at fault. f there was one bright spot in this week's news it was yesterday's removal of Roy Moore as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. It would be one thing if "Roy's Rock," with the Ten Commandments inscribed, was just part of an exhibit on the making of laws and from where the first laws may have come - if God as the source of laws was presented as just one of several theories. But Moore said God was the source of the laws and as such he had a right to a) place the monument in the building, and b) violate a federal court's order that he remove it. Under Moore's rea- soning, anyone can break a law whenever he thinks God is on his side. So kudos to the the panel that removed Moore, for realizing that since everyone can interpret what God wants in different ways, it's better that people follow them, especially the state's top judge. Meizlish can be reached at meizlish@umich. edu. BY IRFAN NOORUDDIN Dear Ms Heim, I understand that Borders Inc. will be pub- lishing an open letter to the public in the Daily. And since I'm having a difficult time getting you to respond to e-mails I've sent in the past few days, I thought I'd follow your lead in pro- moting the exchange of ideas you claim Bor- ders values. In particular, I thought I'd offer some ruminations on your claim that Borders pays its workers adequately and that this is evi- denced by corporate retail data showing Bor- ders wages to be in line with the industry. Further you've claimed that to pay the East Liberty Street workers more would be unfair to workers at other Borders stores (by the way, have you guys heard of cost-of-living differ- ences nationally?). As a professional academic trained in political economy I recognize your claims about competitive pressures. But, as an intelligent person, I also recognize that your equation of "competitive wages" with "fair wages" is specious and outrageous. to provide communities nationwide with book- stores staffed by fairly compensated, intelligent, skilled, booksellers who desire to pursue this honorable profession. (You should read Christo- pher Morley's "Parnassus on Wheels;" it might inspire you.) Simply put, one shouldn't have to take a vow of poverty to be a bookseller. For you to use the low wages you pay to your other workers as a "moral" justification for paying these workers poorly is beyond the pale. If you cared at all about equality, I'd make some sug- gestions about executive compensation but I won't bother. Besides, if in fact Borders is so committed to equal compensation for all its employees why did management's last proposal to the workers eliminate current employee discounts and Electronic Gift Cards when those benefits are enjoyed by all of your other employees. Was it an oversight? If so, please call the Bor- ders Workers Union office at 734-995-9974; they'll be glad to hear the news. If not, then my only conclusion is that you eliminated those benefits as retribution for the workers exercis- ing their legal right to unionize, which would Officer Greg Josefowicz that "books are not Pop-Tarts." But that's another story. For now, let's just talk about customer service. I recall when one could go to any of five information desks (one on the main floor, one at the hold desk, one on the second floor, and two in the music store); one now has only one option. I have called the info desk at points and had to wait 10 to 15 rings before the phone was answered. And don't dare tell me that it's the workers' fault; I understand your draconian pay matrix fully well. You have systematically understaffed the East Liberty Street Store to harass the workers there at the expense of your customers and for that you should be ashamed on both fronts. I realize that little I say here is likely to have any effect on you. The fact is that you care so lit- tle about your customers that you sent us a form letter as a reply to our letters and phone calls. But I am a teacher and, as such, an optimist. So, I write again to express more fully my disgust and disappointment at you and your corporation. I hope you repair the damage you've caused by resuming negotiations in good faith immediate-