Ow AUd#gan INOU Finding true north on the moral compass ongratula- tions class of 2008. You have been accepted into the ranks of an elite institution. The term "leaders and best" is not merely a proud expression that fits the rhyme and meter of a catchy fight song. It is a statement of fact. You, the promising teenagers reading this column across the country will be tomorrow's captains of industry, politi- cal figures, scientists and great intellec- tuals, charting society's course for years to come. As the writer David Brooks writes in "The Organizational Kid," "In short, at the top of the meritocratic ladder we have in America a genera- tion of students who are extraordinar- ily bright, morally earnest, and incredibly industrious." And America needs your skills and your talent. As you grow up, much more populous countries will challenge this nation's pre-eminence on the world stage. Almost half of Chinese college graduates now earn engineering degrees, while that figure is about five percent for U.S. college students. Although that number isn't directly comparable because we have more diverse course offerings, it illustrates that while China is focused on progress and innovation, we're mired in a debate about gay marriage, a costly war in Iraq and a government stocked with leaders who, in the words of Leon Wieseltier, "think that French is funny." In short, hit the books, and hit them hard. Brooks's piece, however, is not mere- ly an ode to our generation. It is a cri- tique of our superficiality, our banality. He writes, "These young people are wonderful to be around. If they are indeed running the country in a few decades, we'll be in fine shape. It will be a good country, though maybe not a great one." The problem as he sees it is that "instead of virtue we talk about accomplishment." He laments the passing of the days when college administrators empha- sized the importance of morality and civic responsibility to an earlier elite. It was important to instill these values in the minds of those who would soon be running the country. But is it Mary Sue Coleman's job to teach us morality and civic responsibil- ity? What does morality mean anyway? M Does it mean going to church, fearing the devil, not cheating on exams, not drinking or merely seeking the truth with an open mind? And even if we could agree on a definition, would any- body listen to her? Wouldn't most stu- dents just ignore such moralizing, as they ignore any futile attempts at absti- nence education? Coleman gave the commencement address at Albion College this past spring. The speech highlighted the importance of maintaining an "ethical compass." She said, "We are facing monumental ethical dilemmas that will require our best collective thinking and reasoned debate." But does this discourse actually accomplish anything? It may have been a good speech - a responsible speech - but I doubt it had any lasting impact. However, to say that the University has no moral compass would be inac- curate. There are few places with a stronger sense of civic responsibility than our university. Mother Jones mag- azine regularly ranks the University as one of the top schools for student activism. The cases the University argued before the U.S. Supreme Court were not only fought to maintain a "critical mass" of minorities on campus, but to ensure that minorities have the opportunity to go to college. Choosing not to go to class when the lecturers went on strike last year was not only a display of sup- port for unions, but showed that students support the principle that University employees be given health care and be able to feed their families. However, there is a larger moral test that will confront this elite generation of students. Last spring, The New York Times ran a story that referenced a sur- vey of University students showing that more students in last year's freshman class come from families that make at least $200,000 a year than have parents who make less than the national medi- an of approximately $53,000. The Uni- versity extols the virtues of diversity, but in reality, it's not that diverse. With tuition rates increasing and the econo- my sour, there isn't a place here for everybody. The moral quandary our elite student O]:MME NTmARY Fall 2004 SECTION B a"'; Y r [p NEW STUDENT EDITION Z OUR JOURNEY FORWARD DAILY EDITORIAL PAGE STANDS FIRM SINCE 1890 yy et's.. 2 . ... The Michigan Daily is founded on a principle - the principle that students, given proper train- ing and guidance, can be trusted to manage a great newspaper with maturity, responsibility and good sense. - The Daily's senior editorial staff in 1963, upon announcing their resignations after the Board in Control of Student Publications attempted to select its own slate of junior editors. These words, penned by an embattled class of editors, ring true today in this paper's 114th year of publication. Whether under siege on the world stage or leading the forces of '60s liberalism that have come to characterize this paper's editorial bent, the editorial page has not and will not shed the lofty burden of achieving progress on those issues affecting the University, its students and all those whose causes we have donated space to endorse. There is a long history of challenges to the Daily's editorial freedom. In 1941, University Pres- ident Alexander Ruthven convinced the University Board for Regents to permit him to "pack" the Board in Control of Student Publications, the enti- ty that oversaw, and now as the Board of Student Publications oversees, the paper's finances. He was able to change the ratio of faculty and alumni to students in his favor. In 1952, a Soviet delegate at the United Nations blasted the Daily for "warmongering." Earlier in that year, the Russian magazine "Literary Gazette" accused the Daily of "a slanderous attack" on the USSR and said the University "exists on gifts from Wall Street and U.S. government subsidies." In the '70s, the University attempted to weaken the Daily by publishing The University Record on Mondays, the day the Daily did not publish. In 1996, copies of the Daily were stolen to prevent their circulation, and students who boycotted the Daily in the last academic year attempted to do the same. The Michigan Student Assembly fanned the flames of the boycott with a resolution supporting the boycotters. And only last year, stu- dents called upon the University to remove the Daily's office space. Despite these spats, there remains no more dedi- cated advocate of those issues that concern~stu- dents than the Daily's editorial page. The paper is financially and editorially independent of the Uni- versity. We receive no funds and we will accept no funds from MSA or the administration, and they will not dictate what appears on our pages. We rely on the University only to provide us with discern- ing readers. Borrowing from a line coined by the journalist Edward Murrow, President John Kennedy said of Winston Churchill, "He mobilized the English lan- guage and sent it into battle." As I now assume the helm of this page, I prom- ise you, our readers, that during my tenure we will - use the power of the pen to further our idealistic principles: namely, social equality, economic opportunity and our celestial goals of academic and editorial freedom. Jason Z. Pesick Editorial Page Editor February 2, 2004 AP PHOTO Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, (D-Mass.), left, and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), wave to the crowd during a campaign speech In St. Petersburg, Fla., July 7, 2004. Legislat ing hate State ban on gay marriage rooted in prejudice November 21, 2003 - ast Tuesday, by a vote of 6 to 0, the state House Family and Children's Services Committee approved a proposed amend- ment to the Michigan Constitution. The amend- ment would constitutionally limit the definition of marriage to that between a man and i woman. Proponents argue that the amendment is necessary in order to, in the words of state Rep. Lauren Hager (R-Port Huron Twp.) pre- serve "marriage as it has been known through- out the millennia." In the past, constitutional amendments typicall ly served the purpose of protecting and uphold- ing the rights of citizens, not curtailing them. With this in mind, the proposed amendment is unusual and unfortunate. The proposal is nothing but another effort by lawmakers to send a moral message to constituents, and is a morally corrupt and an unfair assault on the gay community. In addition to banning gay marriage, the amendment would extend to civil unions, jeop- ardizing gay couples' ability to receive the ben- efits of marriage, such as tax and healthcare breaks. By eliminating the possibility of civil unions, as well as marriage itself, the state is sending a clear message of intolerance. In the wake of well publicized court cases in California and Massachusetts, gay marriage is cur- rently on the frontburner of both the state and national political debates. It is clear from the nature of the dialogue that many Americans remain uncomfortable with the idea of the homo- sexual community receiving equal treatment, espe- cially with respect to the issue of marriage. While this is perhaps to be expected, it is truly unfortunate, however, that this lack of sen- sitivity and understanding should extend to the upper echelons of state government. Recently however, politicians also find themselves mak- ing comments in reference to gays that are degrading and offensive. In support of the amendment, state Sen. Alan Cropsey (R- DeWitt) commented that "a monogamous homosexual relationship is almost unheard of in the gay lifestyle." This statement is morally and factually unjustifiable. Statements such as this, from prominent members of the state Legislature, make intelligent debate on these controver- sial issues impossible. Without such dia- logue, decisions pertaining to gay rights will continue to be biased and misinformed. This proposed amendment is not merely a piece of legislation for conservative legislators to prove their moralistic credentials to their con- stituents. Instituting a constitutional amendment effectually condemning the legitimacy of homo- Why are they even rying? ZAC PESKOWITZ Tim.LE R FRIQ12ENC IIS MARCH 29, 2004 possibly apocryphal story about the presi- dential campaign of William Henry Harrison holds that his Whig support- ers drummed up support for Harrison by rolling an enor- mous ball of tin and paper through the country. It is a testament to the monotony of American life in the 1840s that a massive sphere rolling through the streets would generate a thrill among voters. This makeshift sphere emblazoned with pro-Whig slogans proved to be a successful ploy for the Harrison campaign and even made its mark on the American vocabulary. Hence the expression "keep the ball rolling." It's impossible to attribute Harrison's electoral victory to this piece of proto-political innovation - Harrison's campaign also recognized the possibilities of giv- ing out free samples of whiskey to potential sup- porters, an astute decision that reveals a highly sophisticated understanding of the American electorate - but the ball stunt would be copied innumerable times in coming elections. Both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee have made great hay out of their efforts to appeal to voters with a series of gimmicks that are the direct descendent of Harrison's effort. The Republicans have employed Reggie the Registration Rig for the 2004 presidential election. Reggie, as he is fondly called by the RNC, ostensibly exists for the purpose of registering 3 million voters before Nov. 2. This is a lie. Reggie's existence is justi- fied by its plasma televisions, XBox gaming con- soles and DVD players. To date, Reggie has made appearances at a NASCAR race in Atlanta and MTV's TRL - a two-fer that puts even the most impressive of pop stars to shame. The chairman of the RNC, lobbyist extraordinaire Ed Gillespie, has now joined the likes of all sorts of rappers he has never heard of to appear on the popular program. The Democrats have shied away from this type of gargantuan effort this year, but they refuse to be outdone in their courtship of the hipster vote. Following the Democrats' National Unity Dinner on Thursday evening in Washing- ton, the party shifted to Dream nightclub where the glitterati could converse with the politerati on the future of the alternative minimum tax, the military basing policy in Central Asia and male hair care products. In an appearance at Dream last year, Bill Clinton made his grand entrance to the lyrics of 50 Cent's "In Da Club," an uncomfortable juxtaposition for the former com- mander in chief. But he proudly suffered the slings and arrows of irony in return for the opportunity to drum up donations for the good of his party. While the ebullient Clinton makes for a natural fit, to force the octogenarian Jimmy Carter to run with the clubbing crowd seems marginally sadistic. The last time Carter had anything to do with a nightclub, his chief of staff, Hamilton Jordan, was fending off false allegations that he had sniffed cocaine at Studio 54. Why relive these dark days? The Dream event netted a mere $250,000 in donations for the Dems, a figure which President Bush can reap in an afternoon in Topeka. Why all this hubbub for a relatively insignificant fundraiser? Bringing us to the strange case of Sen. John Kerry. The junior senator from Massachusetts recently took some time off from the pressures of the campaign to recharge in the alpine splendor of Sun Valley, Idaho, where the senator and his wife maintain a quaint 19.5 room home. Kerry valiant- ly chose to do double duty, turning his vacation into a photo op. Photographs of Kerry posed awk- wardly over a Burton snowboard graced the papers the next day. It's surprising that Kerry's media team would suggest that this aspiring pop- ulist should play up his ties to the piles of gold doubloons and precious stones that he and his wife maintain jointly. The allure of showing Kerry's eXtreme side must have been too promising to pass up. The youth of America would finally see the differences between George W Bush and John Kerry boiled down to their essentials: a drab-brush clearin' dolt versus a Technicolor snowboarder who can hit the half pipe with the best of them. Unfortunately for Kerry, the smiling pictures of him swooshing down the slopes were accom- panied with less flattering newspaper copy. Kerry spent much of his trip down the slopes falling on his back and was the victim of a na between himself and a Secret Servic ugly incident to which the cock responded, "I don't fall down. That sc ran into me." Another reminder of1 the preening politics of cool can be. Peskowitz can be reached at zpeskowi( sty collision And the award goes to ... Daily distributes traditional Edgar awards to U' e agent. An sexual relation- sure Kerry ships poses an on of a bitch extreme threat to how uncool civil rights and an alarming tenden- cy to alter a con- ' stitution on a @umich.edu. political whim. Student Voices in Action. It was ' well-intentioned but obnoxious. The Department of Homeland Security Edgar, for the Law Enforcement Agency with the Most Misplaced Priorities, to the Department of Public Safety. Keep handing out those MIPs! * Terrance and Phillip Acceptable Canadian Edgar, to Michigan Gov. Jen- nifer Granholm. Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again April 20, 2004- Returning to Daily tradition, the edito- rial board presents the winners of its 2003-04 Edgar winners. The Edgars are awarded to public figures and personali- ties best resembling the qualities of for- mer FBI DirectorJ Edgar Hoover Condoleeza Rice Edgar for Public Disclosure, to University President Mary Sue Coleman for her unwillingness to dis- close the administration's plans to handle work to do." Ralph Nader Spoiler Vote Edgar, to OPP for its decisive role in the Michigan Student Assembly presidential election. Saddam Hussein Free Election Edgar, to Students First for its commit- ment to MSA's pluralistic party system. William Shakespeare Proficiency in the English Language Edgar, to Pres- ident Bush. U Three Men in a Tub Edgar, to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, U.S. 'C,,rermprCourt iJustice A ntonin Scalia ship Edgar, to Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for their unlikely partnership. Everyone said it would never last, but boy did they show us. Jimmy Hoffa Edgar, to Osama bin Laden. Is he in the caves of the Afghan desert or on the corner of Maple and Telegraph Roads? Bob Dole Edgar for Most Disap- pointing Performance to the Michigan football team's Rose Bowl performance. Jason Z. Pesick Unnecessary Ini- tial Edga~r to Vice President for Stuident 1 1