4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 5, 2006 OPINION cbe 3,biw itui~g JASON Z. PESICK Editor in Chief SUHAEL MOMIN SAM SINGER Editorial Page Editors ALISON Go Managing Editor EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 NOTABLE NUMBER 14 Number of minutes of sunshine in Southeast Michigan since Dec. 19, as reported yesterday by the Detroit Free Press. ALEXANDER HONKALA FErnr' CHUMBUCKET 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their author. Contemplating Coke CHRISTOPHER ZBROZEK BORN IN THE U.S.A. tudent activists seeking to cut the Universi- ty's ties to the Coca- Cola Company got an unlikely gift over the holidays. The Univer- } sity chose to suspend its contracts with Coke after the corpo- ration said it would be unable to meet a Dec. 31 deadline for choosing an independent auditor to evaluate charges against it of labor and environmen- tal violations. The Dispute Review Board, a panel of faculty, staff and students charged with upholding the University's ethical stan- dards for doing business, found last summer after holding public hearings that there was "credible evidence" to support claims of environmental contamination in India and labor abuses in Colombia. To the dismay of many activists, the DRB then advised that the University continue doing business with Coke pending an investigation. Even after Coke missed the first deadline the DRB set - for agreeing to a third-party audit - at the end of September, the Uni- versity held that Coke was at least making a "good-faith" effort. It appeared the Univer- sity was dead-set on continuing its business with Coca-Cola, delighting many a Coke addict too lazy to walk all the way from the Angell Hall vending machines to the Diag Party Store for a fix. Coke missed the most recent deadline mainly due to some legal complications: It's already facing a lawsuit over its bottlers' practices, you see, and it would really hate for any new information an investigation uncovers to be admissible in that case. Good faith, indeed. To be fair, it's not as if Coke keeps a secret strike force on alert at its Atlanta headquar- ters, ready to fly anywhere in the world at a moment's notice to kill workers who so much as think about forming a union. But if Coke's spokespeople are really telling the truth when they say the claims of human rights violations are baseless, it's difficult to see what the company has to fear from an investigation. While the Coalition to Cut the Contract with Coca-Cola has been responsible for some of the most vocal activism on campus recently, it has failed to connect with many students. Isn't every other multinational cor- poration just as bad? Why should the Uni- versity do ethical check-ups on companies anyway? And what sort of person with the money to pay tuition here drinks Faygo? Some critiques of the Coke campaign are merely based in ideology. Others point out the idealistic - perhaps unrealistic - hopes of activists. All of the criticism, however, gives short shrift to the role that activism of this sort plays as one of the few viable checks left on corporate behavior. Globalization has allowed corporations to invest in countries that previously had little access to the opportunities that international trade can provide. It also enables companies to sever their ties to a particular country and its workers as soon as unions there raise wages or the government passes a law more favorable to actual citizens than corporate citizens, effec- tively shutting down the two traditional forces able to put brakes on unethical corporate prac- tices. The headquarters of these firms can now disperse responsibility for a company's actions far down its global supply chains, making it more difficult to hold anyone accountable for any abuses, anywhere. By exposing unethical practices of corpora- tions like Coca-Cola, even in far-flung lands, activists create what the free market cannot on its own - an incentive for these companies to reform. The students fighting the Coke cam- paign are in some sense the intellectual heirs of the muckracking journalists of a bygone era. More than the lost business, the negative expo- sure Coke is receiving from actions by this and other universities is forcing it to take seriously issues that it might otherwise simply ignore. To a lesser degree, other corporations have to modify their own behavior, if only to avoid becoming the next example. It's not a perfect solution. But it makes unique use of the environment at the Univer- sity to push for change in situations where individual students who conscientiously choose not to drink Coke would otherwise have no real voice. As an institution, the University acts in support of the values it holds. Its admis- sions policy reflects its belief that the stu- dent body should represent the diversity of the state and the nation. It stands for making an education at the University available to all in-state students who are admitted, and tailors its financial aid policies accordingly. And the University has made a commitment to ethical purchases, as shown by its Vendor Code of Conduct. There can - and should - be continual debate over the values that guide the Uni- versity's actions. And there's a very good chance the University's ban on Coke will only last until administrators work out an agreement with Coke regarding an inves- tigation, despite what many activists wish. For now, however, the concerted efforts of a group of students have not only affected University policy in a very visible way, but have started a real dialogue about corporate responsibility. That might not show up in a grade-point average, but it's part of what higher education is about. Zbrozek can be reached at zbro@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Final play made up for Alamo Bowl's failings TO THE DAILY: I am a University alum living in Kin- shasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, where I work for the U.S. Embassy, and I just watched the Alamo Bowl live over the Armed Forces Network. Of course, the end score was disappointing, but I have actu- ally never been prouder of the Maize and Blue. Wow! The season was not what we fans may have wanted, but that team is extremely talented, as was demonstrated by one of the most exciting examples of foot- ball playing I have ever witnessed - the last play of the game. It left me breathless! Of course, there should have been offset- ting penalties, and the game can't end on a penalty, so Michigan should have had another play, but oh well. And then there was the missed call for pass interference, which would have kept the second-to-last Michigan drive alive with a first down, but oh well again. None of that matters, nor does the loss, because Michigan demon- strated in that final play what it means to be a team, and that is really what it is all about. Despite the losses this season, I say "hats off" to a magnificent coaching team led by Lloyd Carr that can produce that type of teamwork, athleticism and sports- manship. Well done, Wolverines. Katya Thomas Alum Carr's poor coaching lets down team year after year TO THE DAILY: Dear Lloyd Carr: How many more times are you going to put these kids through this? You take a supremely talented team on ai road itrip to a hior oLame:thev're hrimrninor to Notre Dame next September (your sev- enth straight road-opener loss) will bring your immediate resignation? Mark Pekalai Alum Tookie's efforts for peace outweighed his past crimes TO THE DAILY: It is with a heavy heart that I write to you expressing my disbelief over the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams. Tookie, who was convicted of killing four people in 1979, used his 26 years in jail to better society in ways that few have been able to do. A founder of the notorious Crips gang in the '70s, Tookie reformed his ways, writing numerous books advocating against gangs. He served as a peace broker, most recently in 2004, bring- ing the warring Crips and Bloods together under the now-famous "Tookie Protocol for Peace." It astonishes me that in today's soci- ety we are so ignorant to change and refuse to see the error of our ways. Proponents of the death penalty constantly cite its use as a deterrent to future crime as a reason to employ it, despite the fact that we are virtually the only industrialized nation to still kill its own citizens. Although capi- tal punishment's use as a deterrent has been proven wrong study after study, the same people who advocate for its use refuse to see how Williams's actions served to deter gang violence in ways that his execution can never accomplish. Left alone, Tookie would have surely continued to spread his message of peace, further making our society a bet- ter place to live. His peace efforts have won him international praise. From President George Bush's letter of commendation to his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, people around the world recognized that his positive work needed to be rewarded by commutation of his sentence to life in prison. Even the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a rare move, recommended to then California Gov. Gray Davis in 2002 that he commute Williams's sentence to life in prison. Sadly, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to heed the court's advice, and one of the great peace activists of our time has been killed by the state. For this, I call on University President Mary Sue Coleman to fly the University's flags at half staff in his honor. Peter Borock LSA sophomore LETTERS POLICY The Michigan Daily welcomes letters from all of its readers. Letters from Uni- versity 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 approximately 300 words. The Michigan Daily reserves the right to edit for length, clarity and accuracy. Longer "viewpoints" may be arranged with an editor. Letters will be run according to order received and the amount of space available. Letters should be sent over e-mail to tothedaily@michigandaily.com or mailed to the Daily at 420 Maynard St. Editors can be reached via e-mail at editpage.editors @umich.edu. Let- ters e-mailed to the Daily will be given priority over those dropped off in person or sent via the U.S. Postal Service. Editorial Board Members: Amy Anspach, Andrew Bielak, 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, Frank Man- ley, Kirsty McNamara, Rajiv Prabhakar, Matt Rose, David Russell, Katherine Seid, Brian I