4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 OPINION + 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 1J A huun I 41V l~tctltltothedaily@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 pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE I believe that now that the election is over, the time has come for me to step down." - Secretary of State Colin Powell, announcing his resignation from his cabi- net seat in President Bush's second term. a* ,au: . i COLIN DALY Tn MiT.. sc vAN DA a IF yoU VWe &e 1mH, :NLY PR$~Qi'/NOT ALL-. A$0TrYOURSELF ij--~ 1T WoVoL N T8E ~&F(Y M 5 OR. WF4ASE-LVF... I. I Apparently the times are changing JASON Z. PESICK ONE SMALL VOICE mericans are not the '60s. His Southern Strategy and his were willing to put their Social Security especially good campaign for "law and order" exploited in jeopardy so that gay people can't get at embracing Americans' discomfort with change, not married. Payroll tax revenue that should change. Most Americans our discomfort with the injustices of seg- be dedicated to ensuring the long-term are at once not incredibly regation and racial discrimination. viability of the program is being used to tolerant and not incredibly Ronald Reagan began his 1980 presi- decrease the size of the federal budget intolerant. We support the dential campaign in Philadelphia, Miss., deficit - a deficit that is in large part pursuit of justice as long where in the '60s three civil rights work- being created by very large tax cuts for as achieving it does not ers were murdered trying to register very wealthy individuals. threaten us personally or blacks to vote. Reagan talked about the And U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), require that we do much ourselves. importance of "states' rights". This was one of the few moderate Republicans left Americans are uneasy watching soci- the dawn of Morning in America. in Congress, might lose his rightful spot as ety change as the debate over gay rights Bill Clinton was surely personally com- chairman of the Senate Judiciary Commit- has risen past abortion as the pre-eminent fortable with social change, but not always tee because he is a pro-choice Republican. social issue of the day. But we're equally comfortable supporting it. He wanted This weekend, the Senate majority leader, disturbed when Pat Buchanan launches Americans to know he shared their reser- Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), said on "Fox News into a tirade condemning gay Americans vations about the excesses that can come Sunday," "Arlen made some statements the and the progress the country has made with social progress. In the 1992 presi- day after the election. They were disheart- over the past few decades, as he did at dential campaign, Clinton criticized rap- ening to me; they were disheartening to a the 1992 Republican National Conven- per Sister Souljah, calling her statements lot of different people." There may no lon- tion. And while Americans don't support "extremist" and comparing them to some- ger be a litmus test for federal judges and racial discrimination, it took pictures of thing David Duke might say. U.S. Supreme Court nominees, but now firefighters hosing down protesters to But now it seems that the country is on there is a litmus test for Senate committee convince us to support the civil rights a rightward lurch for no apparent reason. chairmen. movement. Gay rights have indeed risen to the fore- And further evidence of this lurch can Our presidents understand this complex front of American politics, but the magni- be found in the fact that even though ABC and the consequent primacy of modera- tude of that issue pales in comparison to has shown "Saving Private Ryan" on tele- tion that can characterize the American that of the changes that took place during vision twice before, on Veterans Day, 66 of people's ideology. Lyndon Johnson fore- the '60s. The conventional wisdom is that the network's 225 affiliates did not air the saw the current two-tone U.S. electoral President Bush won his re-election on movie because of fears the Federal Com- map of the United States 40 years ago moral and social values issues - moral munications Commission would fine them when he signed the important civil rights and social values issues that he incubated due to the film's explicit language. Appar- legislation of the '60s. He knew that he and put on the ballot. ently there's a growing movement in this had handed the South to his opposition. All 11 attempts to ban gay marriage at country that believes people saving the And different presidents have handled the state level passed this year by favor- world from the Nazis shouldn't be swear- this attitude of the American people in able margins ranging from 57 and 59 per- ing while bullets are flying at them. very different ways. Johnson pushed cent in Oregon and Michigan to 86 percent Our best hope is that this trip backward Americans, making civil rights the cen- in Mississippi. And to many Americans, through time doesn't last very long. terpiece of his domestic agenda. Richard that was the most important issue in the Nixon took advantage of the uneasiness election. Pesick can be reached Americans had with the progress of People who live paycheck to paycheck atjzpesick@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Daily's MSA coverage neglects independents TO THE DAILY: I am writing in response to the Daily's negligent coverage of the upcoming Mich- igan Student Assembly election. There have been multiple articles about the two major parties running, but no mention of the many qualified independents who are also running, and deserve consideration. There are 17 Independents running for MSA alone, and many are worthy candi- dates that the students should learn about. Reading the Daily lately has made me feel like Ralph Nader, in that I feel I have much to offer the students, both in my platform and in my extensive experience with MSA, but because I chose not to run with one of the two parties, the Daily has not covered my campaign at all. I suggest every voter visit vote.www.umich.edu to view the platforms of the candidates that the Daily has ignored, and make a more educated decision, rather than voting straight-party. Mike Forster LSA junior The letter writer is an independent candidate for MSA. Terrorism, not Israel, is the roadblock to Mideast peace TO THE DAILY: I responding to yesterday's letter from Tarek Dika (Unified Palestinian leadership critical to Mideast peace, 11/15/04), advo- cating for a strong and unified leadership for the Palestinians in the post-Arafat era. While I agree with the point that the face of the new leadership will be critical in determining how events will unfold in the Middle East, I would like to point out a more insidious subtext that was pres- explicit threat: "If you want to end terror- ism, you must end the occupation." When did statements like these become okay? Who else in Western Society would dare have the audacity to claim that terrorism (threatened or carried out) is a legitimate means to achieve any end? How can we expect to have a dialogue with people who openly and brazenly admit to resort- ing to acts of terror and yet claim it is not the real problem? I call on all reasonable members of the University, and especial- ly those of the Muslim, Palestinian and Arab communities, to quickly, loudly and sincerely denounce Dika's hateful ideas. Doing so would go a long way toward restoring my faith in the possibility of a negotiated peace. Chaim A Schramm LSA junior Letter writer obscures the homosexual plight TO THE DAILY: Jordan Genso's letter ('Marriage' is a heterosexual tradition that should be preserved for heterosexual, 11/12/04), responded to a letter written Nov. 11 per- taining to the Nov. 2 passage of Proposal 2 in Michigan and 10 other states. His consolation for homosexuals on the issue came in the form of a justification based on a poorly assembled, incoherent and hardly analogous ... simile. To remind readers, Genso suggested comparing homosexuals' rights to marry to Cauca- sians' rights to use the "N" word in regard to blacks. Please. Let not Genso nor any voter that desires the passing of prop. 2 oversimplify the issue and right of mar- riage to homosexuals. Let us not reduce this profound issue to a trivial semantic battle of I saw it first, so it's mine. The term "marriage," like any other term in the English language, belongs to no one person or set of people. To claim that the application of such a term should be reserved for a majority is ludicrous, riage," is staggering. This is a simple representation of our population's sim- plicity....a population that would hoard a word out of greed and spite, not real- izing the greater implications of such an act. So now, I respond to a Yes voter on Prop. 2 with anger, resentment - with a sense that there is no hope for a portion of the heterosexual community. When will they see that homosexuals are like any other emerging social minority: one that should and will be integrated fully into society as equals soon, but one that needs social awareness and support of the majority now? Sadly, this same majority has anonymously proclaimed its igno- rance and selfishness by voting on 2. Perhaps that is how I would like Genso and everyone to compare homosexu- als' plight with that of blacks - not in a semantic context, but as two minor- ity groups who deserve equality but that didn't, don't, and won't receive it fully for years, if ever. And what can help ame- liorate minorities' plights? Surely not keeping social and semantic spheres dis- tinct ... but instead a meshing of socially distinct groups to promote social aware- ness and values based upon substantive, not superficial, ideals. Values based upon a legitimate justifi- cation instead of a semantic compulsion. Steve Du Bois LSA senior LETTERS POLICY The Michigan Daily welcomes letters from all of its readers. Letters from University students, faculty, staff and administrators will be given priority over others. Letters should include the writer's name, college and school year or other University affiliation. The Daily will not print any letter containing statements that cannot be verified. Letters should be kept to approxi- mately 300 words. The Michigan Daily reserves the rieht to edit for length, clar- 0 S * E-------CIA::, 1 m