4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 16, 2005 OPINION (1h e a 1 th'rgttn Ftr1 JASON Z. PESICK Editor in Chief SUHAEL MOMIN SA SINGER Editorial Page Editors ALISON GO Managing Editor EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com NOTABLE QUOTABLE I can't see why she shouldn't live till 200." - Conservationist Steve Irwin, referring to Harriet the Tortoise, the oldest animal on Earth, who celebrated her 175th birthday Tuesday with a pink hibiscus flower cake, as reported yesterday by Reuters. KIM LEUNG it- t: T,'\K E-t'x; Box qN 4~-0! 3 vw-r ~~=.A Wizard of U.S. JEFF CRAVENS AY AbIWK BLUES ollow me down the Yellow Brick Road, through the forests of Michigan, past the fields of Indiana and Illinois, over the Mississippi River and the hills of Missouri and into my hometown of Lawrence, Kan. In a column last semester (What's the matter with Kansas, 02/04/2005), I suggested that the social and political tides were changing in Kansas. I was wrong. Let's venture 30 miles west of my home to Topeka, the capital of the Sunflower State. Here, Kansas Board of Education members voted last. week to pass standards that question evolution and redefine science. In 1999, the board shocked the world by striking all references to evolution from the standards. Although those standards were quickly overturned, conservative members of the current board are once again chipping away at evolution and science. The "teach the controversy" approach, which has been adopted in Ohio, Minnesota, New Mexico and Pennsyl- vania, is a thinly veiled attempt to teach religion in science classrooms. While we're in Topeka, let's visit the Westboro Baptist Church, where Fred Phelps preaches his hateful gospel. As a child, I went to a Willie Nel- son concert with my mom and was confronted by Phelps's crew in front of the concert hall, bran- dishing signs like "Adam and Eve, Not Adam and Steve" and "God Hates Fags." I don't remember a single song that Willie Nelson played, but I remem- ber vividly the confusing emotions I felt toward the protesters, which included young children. Now, I am downright pissed that Phelps's crew will be spreading its bigotry in Ann Arbor this weekend. I'm more disillusioned by the similarity between Phelps's beliefs and the majority opinions in 19 states that have passed constitutional bans on gay marriage. On the national level, conserva- tives, led by Kansas's Sen. Sam Brownback (R), are pushing for a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Sick of what we found in Topeka? Follow me northwest of Topeka for about an hour on I- 70, and suddenly the big green Flint Hills will rise up around you. There will be no farm- houses, no trees, no wheat fields - only a roll- ing carpet of bright green grass speckled with wildflowers. Looking out over these hills, with the endless blue sky above you, you can almost forget about the rest of the world. But follow me to the edge of these hills and you will find Fort Riley, the place where young men and women have been sent to Iraq and Afghanistan from. In case we forgot, the war is still going on and our fellow men and women are still dying and being funneled through bases like Fort Riley to a war that has not been justified. I wish I could say that Kansas does not reflect the rest of the country. I wish I could turn my back on my home and chuckle, "We're not in Kansas anymore." But in addition to being the geographi- cal heart of America, Kansas may also be the social and political heart. What's going on in Kan- sas with evolution, the anti-gay efforts and the sup- port for the war epitomize what's going on around the country. Why? Recently, the mainstream values in this country have been defined by a cowboy image: the tough, masculine, straight-shooting, God- loving American. This image is popular in red states, especially former frontier states like Kansas and Texas which participated heavily in the cattle trade. President Bush has manipu- lated America's fondness for these frontier val- ues to promote his backward-looking policies. When he talks about smoking out terrorists, he might as well be starring in an old western movie with a straw hanging out of his mouth. His positions on evolution and gay marriage also hark back to an earlier, less civilized era. How does one debunk the cowboy, expose the Wizard of U.S., oppose the Fred Phelpses in the world? I am proud to hear that groups are organizing to peacefully counterprotest the Phelps supporters. The members of the Dover, Penn. school district which recently supported the teaching of Intelligent Design have been thrown out of office. Four of the seven board members who supported the Kansas standards will be up for re-election next year. There is no easy solution to these problems, no magic red slippers, but decent people are joining the strug- gle. And if you need an image from Kansas to counter the cowboy, I propose the Jayhawkers, the courageous-yet-compassionate anti-slavers that founded my town. Jayhawkers often get mixed up with the violent tactics of abolitionists like John Brown, but most of them were brave men and women in trying times who stood up for what was right. 01 Cravens can be reached at jcrave@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Apartheid reference a false analogy to A2 ward map To THE DAILY: I was flipping through the Daily and I came across a viewpoint that caught my eye: End Ann Arbor apartheid (11/15/2005). I don't think Jared Goldberg realized what he was doing when he created that headline. Saying that students should have a say in City Council is not absurd, though I disagree. That's a point that can be argued. However, I fail to see how the structure of the Ann Arbor city govern- ment and student apathy can be compared in any way to South African apartheid. How can you say that the student situation is "much like the Bantustans of apartheid South Africa?" How can you even begin to compare the two? Are the Ann Arbor City Council soldiers coming in, guns blazing, trying to weaken our hold on what little land we have left? I am not saying that Goldberg is wrong, but by trying to make a comparison between apartheid and the structure of Ann Arbor's wards, he is not only blowing the situation here out of proportion, but also cheapening the legacy of those who lived through and fought against the injustice that was apartheid in South Africa. Steve Assarian LSA junior Are 'U' students really of only one political mind? To THE DAILY: I was shocked by Jared Goldberg's claim that the way the Ann Arbor city government chooses to divide up the city constitutes a kind of apart- heid (End Ann Arbor apartheid, 11/15/2005). Even if students of the University are divided up and therefore lack power as a voting bloc, their situation is in no way comparable to the extreme oppression endured by the black people of South Africa over the course of many years. To even hint at a parallel is an insult to those who suffered. But Goldberg doesn't need the high drama of apartheid to make his case about student vot- ing power. His description of how the wards are delineated calls attention to the situation - a sit- uation that he obviously sees as gerrymandering. Is the city deliberately creating a fragmented stu- dent vote? Possibly. Is the city afraid of a strong, seem unlikely that they would all agree on any issue, even one that disproportionately affects students. But I'm curious. I'd like to see some statistics on how University students as a group would vote on certain issues. Maybe Goldberg could do a survey of students who live on or near cam- pus, and poll them for their views. Then he could come back and make his point again, this time with evidence instead of mere supposition and false analogies. I look forward to reading it. Cheryl Shell Ann Arbor resident Don't hate; blue shirts are just as good as maize ones To THE DAILY: Ian Herbert is wrong when he states that Michigan fans dressed in blue are second class to maize wearers (For sake of unity, Blue Out wins, 11/15/2005). How can he claim that the fire in the fans' hearts is affectedby the color of their shirt? If there is one thing I have learned in my time here, beyond the fact that Michigan fans are loyal to the death, it is that they are a lot deeper than Herbert gives them credit for. The Blue Out is a show of unity for the foot- ball team, students and alumni in attendance - not some device to inspire greater TV ratings. I understand that his column was an opinion piece, but if there were ever a time to use a column to get people fired up about the game and to be enthusiastic about a Blue Out, that chance was it. I would have hoped that Daily Sports would do better than a "begrudg- ing endorsement" before the biggest game of the year with the biggest rival the school has. I, for one, will be wearing my blue proudly on Saturday and will stand behind our team with thousands of other Michigan men and women, cheering them on to victory! Greg Wagner LSA senior When wil Christian jihad break out on the Diag? To THE DAILY: After reading Suhael Momin's (The great American ... theocracy?, 11/14/2005), I'm inclined to think that a state-sponsored Christian jihad is going break out on the Diag any day now. After organizations the most powerful nongovernmen- tal organizations in Washington?" It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that nearly 85 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christian. I know it's pretty bad living in this oppressive, theocratic American state where we "quite liter- ally, force religion upon the rest of the country," but one can always move to more religiously pro- gressive states like Saudi Arabia or Iran. I hear there aren't as many Christians there to oppress the minority. I wonder why? Matthew Gage LSA senior The letter writer is the events chair of the College Republicans. MSA successfully pushes a divestment resolution To THE DAILY: While the Daily is a busy paper, one wishes it had sent a reporter to the Michigan Student Assembly meeting last week to cover all the action. On Nov. 8, MSA passed four resolu- tions, including one to "stop the government aid on student aid," and one for the University not to invest in Sudan until the genocide stops. Though all the resolutions are important, the latter resolution (which I encouraged MSA to pass, I'll mention) is especially notable, as it is a "divestment resolution" of sorts. It is hard to imagine MSA passing any divestment resolution after the huge impetus on campus against divestment from Israel. But Sudan is a separate country, and genocide has occurred (and is still occurring, many say) there. There- fore, even if the University happened to be "clean" of any investments in Sudan at pres- ent (And this author has not heard from the University directly that there are no University investments of any kind in Sudan.), it would still be a heartening gesture if the University Board of Regents resolved not to invest fur- ther in Sudan until the extermination in Darfur and elsewhere ends - just as many colleges resolved to divest from South Africa until apartheid ended. Recent campus visitor Paul Rusesabagina of "Hotel Rwanda" would likely appreciate the regents' gesture and the public message of solidarity it would send. (There are Sudan divestment campaigns at many Ameri- can colleges presently, by the way.) I always appreciate it when your paper timely 0 0 Editorial Board Members: Amy Anspach, Reggie Brown, Gabrielle D'Angelo, John Davis, Whitney Dibo, Milly Dick, Sara Eber, Jesse Forester, Mara Gay, Jared Goldberg, Ashwin Jagannathan, Theresa Kennelly, Mark Kuehn, Will Kerridge, Kirsty McNamara, Rajiv Prab- hakar, Matt Rose, David Russell, Katherine Seid, Brian Slade, John Stiglich, Imran Syed, Ben ~T'ninr IflCCira T'oncy