4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 23, 2004
OPINION
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ANN ARBOR, MI 48109
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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 pieces do not
necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily.
NOTABLE
QUOTABLE
This is very nice,
but where am I going to
get the money for the
taxes?"
- William Toebe, who was at the taping of
"The Oprah Winfrey Show" in which Oprah
gave everyone in the audience a free car.
The audience members will have to pay
approximately $7,000 in taxes, as reported
yesterday by the Chicago Sun-Times.
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The Cat's in the bag
JOEL HOARD OH YEAH?
*1
ig news in the war
on terrorism! We
got him! No, not
Osama bin Laden. That's
just silly. But we got
someone just as big ... Cat
Stevens! Yep, that's right,
the 1970s folk-rock icon
famous for songs such
as "Wild World," "Peace
Train" and "Morning Has
Broken" was captured attempting to enter the
U.S. of A. on Tuesday afternoon.
You see, it seems that Cat Stevens con-
verted to Islam in 1977 and adopted the name
Yusuf Islam. I don't know about you, but I
think anyone who would willfully give up the
glitz and glamour of the folk music scene and
abandon his Christian name in order to follow
his heart and become a contented, peace-lov-
ing Muslim has got to be a terrorist.
Fortunately for us, the ever-vigilant Depart-
ment of Homeland Security agrees. After they
discovered that Islam was on a flight travel-
ing from London to Washington on Tuesday
afternoon, they diverted the flight to Bangor,
Me., where Islam was taken off the plane and
into custody. He was shipped back to London
yesterday.
Phew ... that was a close call. Who knows
what evil Mr. Islam would have perpetrated if
we had let him go on his merry way.
Just take one look at some of the lyrics he
recorded under the Cat Stevens pseudonym
and you can see how dangerous this man is.
For example, check out this excerpt from his
hit song "Peace Train:" "Now I've been cry-
ing lately, thinking about the world as it is.
Why must we go on hating? Why can't we
live in bliss?" Whoa, slow done there, Chief.
Where exactly are you planning on driving
that peace train? My guess is right into the
side of a skyscraper. And I can only assume
songs like "God is the Light" and "I Love
Them All" are nothing but terrorist commu-
niquds.
As the story on CNN.com points out,
"According to U.S. officials, (Yusuf Islam)
is an active supporter of Muslim charities."
I'm sure Islam has been ducking and dodging
officials and channeling funds to these Mus-
lim charities and that it took Homeland Secu-
rity years of spy work to uncover what he was
up to. Or maybe they just visited Islam's Web
site, www.yusufislam.org.uk, where there is
a list of the charities that Islam donates to,
among them Small Kindness, which provided
aid to 2,500 orphans in Kosovo and residents
of Turkey who were devastated by a recent
string of earthquakes. Sure sounds like a ter-
rorist to me. The nerve of this guy, trying to
provide "regular meals, housing, education
and healthcare" to poor nations and to "make
a real difference and bring about positive
change to many people's lives." Thank good-
ness our government's putting an end to that.
We really should have seen Yusuf Islam as
a major security threat years ago. Right after
Sept. 11, not only did he condemn the terrorist
attacks in New York and Washington on his
Web site, on VH1 and in the major media, but
he also donated some of his royalties for a Cat
Stevens box set to Sept. 11 victims. Sounds
like somebody had a guilty conscience.
Maybe we didn't catch on earlier because
Islam was lying low and hiding out in some
far away place like a cave in the mountains of
Afghanistan or a spider hole in the Iraqi des-
ert. He certainly wouldn't just live in a flat in
central London, from which he could emerge
regularly to speak at events that are open to
the public or make television appearances. 1
The only way for us to respond to threats
like Mr. Stevens/Islam is to be more vigilant
than ever. We cannot rest until every Osamu
bin Laden and Cat Stevens is smoked out of
his hole and punished to the full extent of the
law. Be on the lookout for any Muslims, athe
ists, Buddhists, communists and all of the
other -ists you can think of.
But we can't stop there. Sniff out the peo-
ple with black skin, brown skin, yellow skin
or any other non-white skin and report them
to the authorities.
If the case of Cat Stevens has taught us
anything, it's that you can't even trust white,
people anymore. It used to be, "If he's white,
he's all right." But thanks to Mr. Stevens, now
we can expect further division among thb
white race. We'll have a modern-day witch
hunt complete with plenty of wild accusations
and finger pointing. But that's exactly what
terrorists like Cat Stevens want. They want to
breed fear and mistrust. They want to dividb
us. Don't let them. We honest, God-fearing
Americans need to stick together through this
difficult time. It'll be a difficult war, but it's a
war that we can win.
Hoard can be reached at
j.ho@umich.ed.
0i
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Higher education bill not
censorship, but good policy
TO THE DAILY:
A recent Michigan Daily editorial (Big
Brother in class, 09/14/04) presents an inac-
curate depiction of the International Studies
in Higher Education Act and contains sev-
eral blatant errors.
The information presented more closely
resembles what CBS News and Dan Rather
would report, not what I would expect from
The Michigan Daily. Moreover, my office
was never contacted to discuss the facts of
the bill discussed in the editorial, nor for a
previous article that ran in the Daily con-
cerning the bill.
The fact is that for several decades Con-
gress has annually invested millions of dol-
lars in university-level international studies
programs - nearly $90 million in 2004.
Congress is now seeking to determine wheth-
er those dollars are well spent and whether
those programs are presenting diverse per-
spectives to students. However, the editorial
from the Daily paints an Orwellian portrait
of heavy-handed censorship imposed by a
board that will "study and regulate what is
taught at American universities."
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The International Studies in Higher Edu-
cation Act (H.R. 3077) re-authorizes inter-
national studies programs funded under Title
VI of the Higher Education Act. To ensure
that international studies programs coordi-
nate with other federal programs in creating
an informed citizenry, the bill creates an
International Education Advisory Board for
all programs funded under the title.
The Daily claims that "(a)t its fundamen-
tal core, this bill destroys the concept of aca-
demic freedom and intellectual debate." The
fear is neither consistent with the intent of
Congress, nor anywhere close to the actual
text of the legislation.
On the contrary, H.R. 3077 requires inter-
national studies programs to teach diverse
perspectives, and it specifically forbids the
board from directing programs and instruc-
tional methods or dictating curriculum. The
tise in foreign language and international
business arenas.
This priority brings with it the responsi-
bility to ensure a diversity of perspectives
within international studies programs that
receive federal funding - including per-
spectives from outside the realm of academia
and the Department of Education.
Members of the proposed board would be
appointed by the leaders of both parties in
both chambers of Congress. Including repre-
sentatives from federal agencies, such as the
Department of State and the National Secu-
rity Agency, it would ensure that important
stakeholders from varying vantage points
are provided with a voice.
The advisory board is not a new idea. A
similar board existed for years before it was
cut due to budget concerns in the late 1980s.
Censorship was never a concern raised by
academics during its existence.
The International Studies in Higher Educa-
tion Act received strong bipartisan support in
the House Committee on Education and the
Workforce in September 2003, and it passed
the House unanimously in October. Not a sin-
gle member of Congress voted against the bill
at any stage of its development.
While I would like to see the bill go
before the Senate before the 108th Congress
adjourns, there is no specific timetable.
However, it remains my hope that senators
will follow our work in strengthening inter-
national education programs and training
informed scholars.
PETER HOEKSTRA
Alum
The letter writer is a member of the US. House
of Representatives; he represents Michigan's 2nd
congressional district.
The University has no
position on legislation
TO THE DAILY:
I was happy to talk to your reporter about
the proposal in HR3077, the International
Studies in Higher Education Act of 2003,
to establish an "advisory board" for the
groups, I believe, is to discourage the expres
sion of views with which they disagree. ,,
At the same time, HR 3077 has the sup-
port of many in Congress and elsewhere
who understand and value the important
work of our NRCs. The University will
continue to work with our congressional
representatives and others whose goal is tb
enable these centers to continue and expand
their critical contribution to international
education. My colleagues and I are ver
grateful for this interest and support.
MARK TESSLEk
The letter writer is a professor ofpolitical sci-
ence and vice provost for international affairs
at the University.
Voting instructions have
been confusing at best
TO THE DAILY:
I am concerned that Michigan Secretary of
State Terri Land has inappropriately purged
the voter rolls and provided inconsistent
instruction to employees of the state with
regard to registering voters. With regard to
the first claim, I recently learned that Land
has purged my name from the voter rolls
without justification or notification. I had
registered to vote in October 2003, received
my voter identification card and assumed I
would be ready to vote in November. For-
tunately, I double-checked with my city
clerk and learned that the secretary of state
had eliminated my name from the roles for
reasons I have not been able to determine.
The city clerk quickly fixed the problem, but
one wonders why Land's office eliminated
names from the voter rolls. Have other vot-
ers been affected? I would encourage voters
to contact their city clerks to ensure they ark
properly registered.
I also have two student friends who, in
attempting to register to vote at the secretary
of state's office in Ann Arbor, were give
contradictory information about registering
to vote in the state of Michigan. Land's staff
stated that voters need to have Michigast
licenses to vote in the election. Fortunate
ly, our city clerk clarified our rights in this
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