4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 23, 2004 OPINION UANN ARBOR, MI 48109 firmm atcuopion.420 MAYNARD STREET m i chigandail.com tothedaily@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 JORDAN SCHRADER Editor in Chief JASON Z. PESICK 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 Frankly, something of this size doesn't usually get felt." - Geophysicist John Bellini, commenting on a 2.0 earthquake yesterday morning, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer. COLIN DALY iHE MICHIGAN DALY *oi1WS%-MNPE WE: GOT OUR 1?,o?,r 1D~o0G0S' tAtiD AczENDAOF ALL, INCLUDINQ OUR EEKPS OFFIC(RLS ANP OUR AAIUFAY -T PRO'TECT US FROM TH MOROF YOUMORE AFgAlp OF, OVt2 :NFESf,. iies MA16H~T. > WE t'EPER lb TthE FABS~OL.M " ~CIVIL-. LIBERTIES" FOR 'OR D0 WE TRUST GOVERNMENI o USE ThEI?- POW~ERS WISED( At R T:RORLT'S CAN UNLEASH?" 1 AV$1iNG1N L"L FPOtjNATiON4 *I AAvND vE W o*b& civtILidp 3 . sy 4 L- From LBJ's Great Society to David E.'s Range Rover JESS PISKOR JOIN TIE PISKOR Speaking in front of 80,000 people in Michigan Stadium, President Lyndon John- son addressed the gradu- ating class of 1964. Calling on all citizens to work for a better future, Johnson used the Univer- sity's commencement ceremonies not just to glorify grads, but to first reveal his greatest political aspiration. Addressing graduates directly, Johnson said, "Your imagination, your initiative and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs, or a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. For in your time we have the oppor- tunity to move not only toward the rich soci- ety and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society." Johnson is but one of the many illustrious graduation speakers the University has attracted. In 1986, United Nations Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar spoke on the threats facing the world, including poverty and the Cold War. Another U.N. Secretary General - Kofi Annan - spoke in 1999, when he urged students to embrace universal human values and also defended the ongoing peacekeeping mission in Yugoslavia. Often it is not the speakers themselves, but the honorary degree recipients that attract the most attention. Largely due to student demand, Nelson Mandela received an hon- orary degree in 1987 - a degree he could not receive in person because he was in jail in South Africa. Governors also make the rounds through campus - both Gov. James Blan- chard in 1985 and Gov. Jennifer Granholm last year were featured speakers. Granholm attracted ire when she honestly suggested that some University graduates were des- tined to become "losers" and that they had wasted their degrees. Of course not all graduation speakers preach words of importance with lasting sig- nificance. Even the worthiest of speakers can slip up: In 1993, First Lady Hillary Clinton said, "And I really believe, standing here in this great university, that the Fabulous Five are excellent and Chris Webber deserves the kind of thanks that we can give him for going on and going forward." With this history of notable speakers in mind, I have waited in eager anticipation for the announcement of the graduation speaker for my commencement this spring. Maybe we would get a crazy lefty who would blast President Bush and incite us to greater activism. Maybe we would draw a political leader the likes of Dick Cheney toward whom I could hurl invectives. Maybe we would attract a noted philoso- pher or person of letters - like 2001's speaker, poet laureate Robert Pinsky - who would provide perspective on life and teach us to value the arts. Would it be too much to hope for Jon Stewart? Instead, we have to settle for the founder of Automobile Magazine, David E. Davis Jr. While he may lay claim to the title of foremost automobile critic, his magazine is so influential that the Univer- sity Library - one of the largest in acade- mia - does not have even have one issue anywhere. His book, modestly titled, "Thus spake David E.: the collected wit and wisdom of the most influential auto- mobile journalist of our time" is also absent from our library. Influential indeed. I'm sure this David E. (as he is known) is a bright guy. He did after all found a maga- zine - with some startup capital from Rupert Murdoch. And while he says that "I will never have given a speech to as many people or as big of a place in my whole life, and I feel an awful burden of responsibility in the nature of this assignment," I'll trust that his speaking ability is up to the task. While I'd like to think the University can attract better, more famous speakers, the fact that David E. is an unknown should not dis- qualify him. What upsets me is that I do not think that someone who has devoted his life to the material lust for an inanimate object is particularly qualified to address me on important matters. When he says in his columns that his "love for cars is uncondi- tional" I am not reassured that he can put per- spective on our graduation. Contrast David E. who "fell in love with (his) new 2003 Range Rover" which is "Epsom green with sand leather and burled walnut trim" with another rather unknown speaker. Addressing the class of 1965, New York Times Associate Editor James Reston said, "The happiest men and women I know are not those who are providing the material things that clutter up our lives and dull our minds, or even those who escape from the struggle, but those who are engaged in the tasks that nourish and elevate the human mind." Piskor can be reached at jpiskor@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Israel's Sharon is no better than Hamas TO THE DAILY: Jonathan Goldberg's praise for President Bush's Middle East policy (Jewish voters are not ignorant, will vote to support Israel in 2004, 03/19/04) is unwarranted and disrespect- ful to those on campus who support peace in the Middle East. Bush's hard-line and immoral backing of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is not beneficial to the peace process. For a just Middle East peace, the United States needs to have a fair and evenhanded policy and end its unquestionable support of Ariel Sharon - Sharon being the same man who in the 1980s lost his position as Israeli Defense Minister after an Israeli government commission found him indirectly responsible for the horrifying massacres of the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Beirut. Not only is Sharon not a "man of peace," as Bush curiously pegged him, but another four years of the combination of Bush and Sharon will usher in another four years of violence and insecurity in the Middle East. As far as I am concerned, Sharon and his Likud Party are in the same boat as Palestinian groups such as Hamas. They are both extreme right-wing groups, bent upon destroying any attempt for a just peace, and both parties should be marginalized by Palestinians and Israelis who truly care for peace. Morally speaking, one can- not criticize Hamas's disgusting attacks on Israeli civilians and condone Israel's equally dis- gusting attacks on Palestinian civilians. Any attempt to criticize one and simultaneously con- done the other, regardless of which side one supports, is morally bankrupt and possibly racist. The Israel Defense Force's use of modern military technology does not give it an exemp- tion from criticism for killing civilians. Whether Israel kills a civilian on purpose or whether the civilian is collateral damage is not of impor- tance. Blame will be warranted toward Israel's military for its very presence in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories. Regardless of the reason an IDF soldier shoots a Palestinian civilian, if the soldier had not been on Palestin- ian territory to begin with, the civilian would not have been killed. I am delighted to see Goldberg rejoices in that Israel's creation ensures that there will never be another Jewish refugee because it seems that invade in this war. Regardless, these issues can be resolved by campus activists through dia- logue, which can hopefully defeat the use of unsophisticated rhetoric in campus discourse. MOHAMMED ELGHOUL LSA junior Vice Chair; Students Allied for Freedom and Equality LSA-SG initiative fails to gain student support TO THE DAILY: The student body of the College of Litera- ture, Science and Arts should be commended for its decisive show of opposition to the recent election-reform proposal aimed at internally selecting the LSA-SG president and vice presi- dent ('S ' clinches MSA race in landslide, 03/22/04). The overwhelming vote against this amendment shows not only does the student body wish to maintain direct control over its stu- dent government leadership, but also that stu- dents are not nearly as apathetic as many members of government may have believed. The results of the vote also demonstrate the problems with the proposal. When a proposal can pass almost unanimously (17 to 3) in stu- dent government and not even garner 33 percent of the student body's support in a general refer- endum vote, it becomes plainly obvious that LSA-SG cannot claim to have the ability to internally select leadership that is representative of the interests of 13,000 students. We must rec- ognize that the intent behind the referendum was a noble and proper one, aimed at improving the functioning and effectiveness of LSA-SG. It is my hope that the members of government will now be able to move ahead and act on this intent in a manner that does not disenfranchise those we seek to serve. ANDREW YAHKIND LSA freshman LSA-SG representative. Our Voices Count clarifies position TO THE DAILY: I am writing to thank you for your coverage of the student protest at last Thursday's Univer- grams, but we do not want to take credit as the group representing the coalition of stu- dent groups. Secondly, I wanted to make sure that readers were clear that the groups joining together in solidarity are not only making complaints about budget cuts. While some of the destruction of safe spaces on campus is due to poor budgetary choices by the University, other problems on campus are not at all due to lack of funds. For instance, the University's dismantling of sexual assault survivor services at SAPAC is not due to budget cuts at all, but instead due to a misguid- ed "reorganization" plan. The final idea I want to clarify is why all of these different groups and communities on campus are uniting together. The University worked to assure that affirmative action would remain and has said it is committed to diversity on campus. Yet it seems that the groups on campus that face program and budget cuts are always the same: women, stu- dents of color, and the LGBT community. If the University is truly committed to diver- sity, then programs and safe spaces that serve these students must be preserved. JENNIFER ANDERSON Graduate student, School of Social Work Member Our Voices Count New housing director should 'actively pursue' projects at 'U' TO THE DAILY: I am pleased to hear that the University's new housing director, Carole Henry, is interest- ed in constructing more units of housing (New Housing director appointed, 03/18/04). As reported in a previous Daily article ('U'housing candidate may consider adding suites, bed, 01/27/04), she also pledged to build more fami- ly and suite-styled housing that will attract stu- dents who do not want to live in dormitory-styled rooms. I urge Henry to aggressively pursue this plan of increased capacity and hous- ing options. Demand for student housing close to campus is high, making students susceptible to Ann Arbor landlords who can get away with charging unaffordable 0 .. . ....... . ...... j 7 h, I