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LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 5A
15 minutes to shine
Sept. 11 effects on young
voters beginning to show
By Nura Sediqe
For the Daily
After the Sept. 11 attacks, students on campus say they
have taken a greater interest in participating in presidential
elections.
Jenny Nathan, chair of the College Democrats, has seen
group participation more than double. "We have more than
500 students involved this year," Nathan said. "I receive
more interest and response from students on a daily basis.
This is the first presidential election since September 11, so
they're going to want to (get involved) even more and make
a choice about who they want to make decisions for the
country."
LSA freshman Amro Stino said, "My greatest motivation
in voting in the national elections was the U.S. response to
September 11, as well as the drastic changes in civil liberties
and racial profiling and the fact that judicial system is
changing so quickly. I want to vote and make my effort to
change these methods for the benefit of all citizens."
Other students, such as Art and Design senior Tyler
Debeshter, said their desire for a new administration has
convinced them to attend the polls next November. "Last
time I didn't vote, and Bush became president, so I want to
vote and put in my effort to make sure he's not re-elected,"
Debeshter said.
For the majority of undergraduate students, though, this
will be their first time voting for president.
"It's going to be exciting because I'm actually taking ini-
tiative to change the government," said LSA freshman
Aliyah Rab.
"This will be my way of expressing my opinion of the
government. You shouldn't complain about the government
if you didn't even attempt to vote. I'll feel like I did some-
thing to change the government even if my candidate does-
n't win," said LSA freshman Danielle Sapega.
New voters such as LSA freshman Brandon Mancini may
not be politically active on campus, but they said they have
become more aware of the political issues in preparation for
the upcoming elections. "While I don't talk about elections
regularly with my friends, I'm still really concerned,"
Mancini said.
While many students have not chosen a political candi-
date yet, they are paying attention to the issues they find
important to help with the decision. LSA junior Emily Fox
said, "My roommates and I are more active and just
researched the different candidates' stances. We talk about
politics often, but we haven't really gotten involved with any
specific political group on campus."
Echoing the sentiments of voters across the nation, Rab
and Debesther said they are very concerned with the candi-
dates' stances on foreign policy. "My vote would really
come down to the opinions of the different candidates with
our foreign policy," said Rab.
Other students are more concerned with domestic issues.
LSA senior Joanna Beck said, "The issues that concern me
the most in terms of voting are the ones that affect people
around my age. Educational issues and other domestic
issues will really affect my vote."
While Nathan, an LSA junior, and others have noticed an
increase in political participation around campus due to next
fall's elections, some students said they feel otherwise. Steve
MacGuidwin, president of the College Republicans said,
"Student activism is made up by people who have already
made up their minds in terms of candidates, so it's not a fair
indication of general students."
LAURA SHLECTER/Daily
Andy Mascaro holds his guitar while watching the action onstage during open mic night at the
Michigan League Underground last night.
Union racism key to im
By Victoria Edwards
Daily Staff Reporter
Recent media reports on the econo-
my have focused on Michigan's 7.2
percent unemployment rate as the pri-
mary concern of labor in the state. But
a film and dialogue hosted by an
organization dedicated to helping
workers in Detroit claimed that social
discrimination has historically been the
source of many labor problems in the
nation's auto capital.
The efforts of the League Of the Rev-
olutionary Black Workers in Detroit
were featured in last night's screening of
a 1970 film called "Finally Got the
News" in Angell Hall.
Following the movie, members of
the League recounted some of their
experiences living and working in
Detroit.
The film highlighted the struggles
that members of the League faced, both
with the corporations from which they
fought to secure rights, and from white
unions such as the United Auto Work-
ers, which viewed them as a threat.
After the movie, prominent League
leaders Gen. Gordon Baker, Marion
Kramer and Elena Herrada spoke
about their experiences at the start of
the movement.
Kramer talked about getting arrested
in Detroit during the 1967 Detroit
rebellion. "My cell block looked like
an assembly line - I had worked with
all of them. Even after I got back to
work, production couldn't really take
place because too many people were in
jail," Baker said.
The event was sponsored by Stu-
dents Organizing for Labor and Eco-
nomic Equality. The group organized
the event to show that the problems
plaguing the labor movement are those
of racial and sexual discrimination,
SOLE organizer Jenny Lee said.
"We are supporting unions and it is
our major focus, but there is a critical
need in the student labor movement to
not only support (labor) but to be criti-
cal of problems in the labor movement.
These problems are the same problems
that exist in the larger society as a
whole that are replicated in the United
States and the student labor move-
ment," Lee said.
New York University Prof. Robin
Kelly said in a SOLE news release that
the League was "one of the most
important radical movements of our
century - a movement led by black
revolutionists whose vision of emanci-
pation for all is sorely needed today."
Audience members also said they
came to the event for various reasons.
"I came as a requirement for one
class. I had to go to a Martin Luther
King event so I chose this one because
of the timing," said LSA freshman
Kyle Howard. +
VOTING
Continued from Page 1A
at the Michigan Democratic Party and
they're floundering. They insist they're
not, but I look at them and they're floun-
dering,"
The state has already received 67,000
mail-in and Internet ballot requests and
57,000 have been returned, Moon said.
Michigan expects record voter turnouts
and the Democratic Party is assembling
volunteer crews to prepare for Feb. 7.
"I see some symptoms of organiza-
tional problems. ... I don't think these
are Internet-based, it looks more like a
mail problem," Gridner said. "(The) sur-
prising fact is they are at least two weeks
behind. I applied on the 15th and
haven't heard back yet. ... I've lived in
East Lansing for 10 years at the same
address."
A chief concern in this election year
has been accurately recording votes in
light of the last presidential election.
"Some people have received multi-
ple personal identification numbers
to vote online," -said Jason Howser,
regional field director for Sen. John
Kerry of Massachusetts in central
Michigan.
Multiple PINs would enable a person
to vote more than once, and voter fraud
is a common concern for anonymous
elections.
But because ballots are associated
with a voter's registration information
and include his or her name, the person's
first vote is the only one recorded.
"If a person applies and is able to vote
twice, it would come through a month
after the fact, but still before delegates
are assigned," Gridner said. "But
because people's names are associated
with their votes, you can fish duplicate
ballots out, which makes this much
more secure than a typical election."
Another problem associated with vot-
ing online is that on Feb. 7, people can
conceivably vote both online and at a
caucus site without detection, Howser
said. "(Democrat leaders) say that there
is safeguarding, but they can't do it that
day. They have a list that will be more
than a day or two old," he said.
However, volunteers who operate
caucus sites are given lists of people
who have already cast ballots to prevent
multiple votes.
"If you apply and receive a username
and password to vote online and try to
reapply you'll be rejected," Moon said.
"There's absolutely no way you could
vote twice."
Arizona tried Internet voting for the
2000 primary, but chose to abandon it
for the upcoming primary after several
mistakes by the company hired to
administer the voting.
"We didn't have any problems with
voter fraud or anything," said
Kristofer Garcia, deputy campaign
director for the Arizona Democratic
Party.
"The main problem was the state
was given a bad contract. Afterwards
we lost the precinct-by-precinct
rights and all the good state party
information we use to prepare for the
next election," he said.
"I think that in general the Arizona
Democratic Party has gone a little sour
on the subject;' Garcia said. "We don't
do Internet voting anymore. The county
recorder's office is (administering the
primary) and it seems like there are a lot
less problems."
FOSSIL FUELS
Continued from Page 1A
condense on these aerosol particles, so if
you have more particles, you're going to
have more drops in the clouds." The
result is solar radiation reflects off the
increased number of cloud droplets and
returns to outer space instead of reach-
ing and warming the earth's surface.
To quantify the effect of aerosols on
solar penetration, the research team -
comprised of Penner, University gradu-
ate student Yang Chen and Prof. Xiquan
Dong of the University of North Caroli-'
na - compared a polluted site in Okla-
homa, where aerosol levels are high, to a
pristine site in Barrow, Alaska with low
aerosol concentrations. Their measure-
ments showed that at the high-aerosol
site, higher cloud reflectivity resulted in
less solar radiation at the surface.
"We connected the measure of the
aerosols and the measure of radiative
properties," Chen said. "It's the first time
to use this connection to understand the
aerosol's indirect effect." Previous
research had only shown the effect of
aerosol concentrations on cloud droplet
size rather than on cloud reflectivity. Or
the research has relied on data from
models, rather than measured data, to
estimate cooling, he said.
The team's results showed that
aerosols can cause global cooling of
about 2.5 watts per meter squared -
levels as high as some estimates of
global warming.
"What we get from (this study) is
that the models that have done the esti-
mates of global cooling are actually in
the right range," Penner said. "Even
though they're quite high and in the
range of global warming, we think
they must be correct."
Penner cautioned that due to their
short lifetime, aerosols cannot be relied
upon to mediate the effects of global
warming in the long run. Aerosols break
down within five years of entering the
atmosphere, she said, while carbon diox-
ide molecules survive for 100 to 200
years. Carbon dioxide therefore builds
up over time, while aerosols dissipate.'
Moreover, aerosols pose health and
environmental risks, causing respiratory
problems and acid rain. Because of this,
the world is more likely to strive to
remove aerosols from the atmosphere in
coming decades, Bierbaum said.
"It's very important to understand
how much aerosols are masking the
greenhouse effect," she said. "As the
world decreases aerosols for health
reasons, warming will be more pro-
nounced."
The surprisingly large values of
cooling due to aerosols are a reminder
of the uncertainties involved in climate
prediction, Chen said.
"The global warming caused by
greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide
has been studied a lot, but some other
effects like aerosols - there's still a lot
of uncertainties related to this topic,"
he said. "We still need to do more to
study the relationship between
aerosols, clods, and radiation."
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