4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 5, 2006 OPINION aije ffiirbiu aU DoNN M. FRESARD Editor in Chief EMILY BEAM CHRISTOPHER ZBROZEK Editorial Page Editors ASHLEY DINGES 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 ' ' The Democrats and the liberal media are target- ing Tom DeLay for the same reason that Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson always ordered his troops to shoot the brave ones first - because it will scare the others." -Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), defend- ing Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) after DeLay announced that he would not seek re-election, as reported yesterday by the San Antonio Express-News. JEFF CRAVENS T I-is CRA1VE l ! I S t , t ( t ' ' \ N 9 VA. 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. Sign up to save the world EMILY BEAM LOOKING FOR .AMERICA 0 0 When I was 12, Iwanted to save the world. It seemed the natural career path, hav- ing already lost interest in growing up to be a marine biologist, mime or astronaut. Though I knew it was idealistic, it didn't seem such an unreasonable aim at the time. I was a bright kid in one of those fancy, upper-middle class public schools with dedicated teachers who told me I could do anything if I put my mind to it. Pho- tos of starving people halfway across the world upset me; I figured that I could volunteer my time and donate my money, without too much inconvenience to myself, and really get started on saving the world. These days, I fight the urge to roll my eyes at the inordinate praise heaped on well-inten- tioned service groups like The Detroit Project and Dance Marathon. I cringe when I read articles headlines like Detroit Project sweeps away urban blight (04/03/2006). If the complex problems Detroit faces could be summed up as "urban blight" and could be "swept away" by 1,000 college students willing to pick up trash on one Saturday, don't you think we would have taken care of that already? I'm still sorting out why I feel such unease with Dance Marathon. It is annoying, of course, to receive constant e-mails imploring me to do my Saturday-night drinking at this bar night or that as a way to get plastered for a good cause. But I suspect it's more the fanfare and constant back-patting to keep up morale that gets to me. There's the hierarchy of arbitrary positions and posts to keep people motivated and distract them from the fact that at the end of the day, they spend an entire year putting on a show to convince indi- viduals and businesses to donate money. At the end of the day, $300,000 will help, but was gath- ering it in such a roundabout manner really the best use of everyone's time? My own desire to somehow save all the poor, sick and dying people around the world, to rescue them from the hell in which they certainly must live, didn't fade away on its own. First realizing that my life was pretty privileged brought with it a lot of guilt, and it still does sometimes. But my initial reaction - to make up for things by helping out at soup kitchens when I had time, by "giving up" a whole week of my life each year to go fix up houses in the mountains - missed the point. It took a few of those weeklong service trips to beat that notion out of my head. The biggest blow came when the culmination of one week spent trying to help build a wheelchair ramp was no more than a dozen three-foot-deep holes and a broken sewer line. I was not a con- struction worker; the time it took to show me how to properly wield a hammer could have been more effectively spent actually building things. Working my part-time job for a week and donating the money would have probably done more in the sense of tangible benefit, though I wouldn't have gotten a nifty T-shirt. But that warm, fuzzy feeling we get from vol- unteering is intoxicating. It does feel good to do something - and to know that digging ditches in Kentucky was more helpful than getting diunk in Cancun. Combine it with this sense of one's own privilege, that the time and money needed to volunteer is a luxury not all have, and you've got the perfect conditions for a whole lot of self- congratulation. Does that mean we shouldn't do what we can, that we should just worry about ourselves? Of course not. But just as it's dangerous to let our- selves shirk away from the pain we feel when we recognize how fortunate we are, it's important to be careful of that feeling bordering on conde- scension that regards those less wealthy than us as helpless and in dire need of a day or a week of our precious time. I'm not saying Dance Marathon and DP Day are not worthy pursuits - at the very least, the scale of these projects draw in people and groups who might not otherwise get involved. But I was relieved to read the letter in the Daily yesterday (Daily coverage of DP Day misleading on many lev- els) revealing that DP leadership does try to con- textualize DP Day as a time to bring together members of different communities, not for University students to "fix" Detroit. The changes necessary to remedy society's inequalities and injustices go beyond a lack of volunteers. It will take alliances between orga- nizations and communities, not a bunch of well-meaning college students, to bring about a significant change. I can raise money, try to edu- cate others, head off on service trips and learn about issues I might not encounter otherwise. But it takes a fair assessment of the impact, both positive and negative, that volunteers have on the communities and individuals to fully understand what service means and what it can do. Whether a relief or a burden, it's not our place to save the world. Beam can be reached at ebeam@umich.edu. LETTERS TOTHE EDITOR Sendall letters to the editor to tothedaily~michigandaily. corn. Close buildings instead of holding Friday classes To THE DAILY: I am writing in response to Thursday the new Friday? Not anymore (04/04/2006). I find it somewhat ridiculous that because of budget issues the University plans to have more Fri- day classes to justify powering facilities. The sensible thing would be to close a few build- ings on Fridays rather than try to justify the current power costs. This would actually save money while keeping both teachers and stu- dents happy. A positive learning environment occurs when teacher and student alike have a desire to be in the classroom. If this does not occur on Fridays, why force it? Some students prefer not to have Friday classes for a variety of reasons. I have had three semesters without Friday classes, and I try to use the long weekend to work on papers and projects. I also enjoy having more time at home when I choose to leave campus for a weekend. I am sure there are many students who use the extra day for homework, a part-time job or to relax for their mental health. I sincerely hope the University does not take away the flexibility and ease students currently have in planning a Monday-through-Thursday class schedule. Alaina Zombeck LSA sophomore Racism is far more than a series of isolated incidents To THE DAILY: In the article Panelists discuss free speech vs. hate speech (04/04/2006), I was quoted as saying that "Racism in America is difficult to pinpoint" and that I could not "identify spe- cifically how (I) was targeted." I would like to clarify these statements, because they signifi- cantly misrepresent the point I was making and diminish much of what we had discussed on the panel. I would first like to go on record saying it is very clear to see how racism operates in this country for blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, Arab Americans, immi- grants and members of my own group - Sonth-A sian A mericans .nSoth Asians have detrimental byproducts that contribute to the racial discourse in this country, which in turn helps foster the oppressive social cli- mate in which these bills are imagined and these crimes are perpetuated. Ideologies are strong and pervasive. Ideologies oppress under the guise of benevolence and this is how racism lives, persists and continues to permeate the fabric of our nation. Simply and clearly put: Racism is, in fact, easy to pinpoint. Similarly, students have every right to voice their concern when a col- lege newspaper helps contribute to this dan- gerous climate. I began my talk with a story about a con- versation I had with a colleague. My point in mentioning this story of the friend who asked if I was a victim of racism was that it is symptomatic of the way we discuss rac- ism. If the discourse of racism is localized to the individual level, then we can just as easily dismiss racial epithets or hate crimes as anomalous, or aberrations to the norm - "just an isolated incident." In fact, these incidents are increasing - as we have wit- nessed on this campus - and are part of the broader way in which racism contin- ues to operate in this country, both subtly and overtly. Similarly, these "interpersonal instances" create a cultural, structural and institutional environment that feeds mod- ern racism. Racism is too pervasive, too real and its implications too far-reaching for my thoughts about it to be misconstrued by the Daily. Manan Desai Rackham The letter writer is a member of the South Asian Progressive Alliance. why membership is declining, especially after several years of steady increases. Under Graf- ton's direction, the association has seen mem- bership go from 86,000 in 1996 to 108,000 last year. A dip of 3,000 in light of a 10-year gain of more than 20,000 members seems like a blip on the radar screen. I can say, however, that Steve's not being an alum of the University has no bearing on the decline. I've never met a non-alum with more allegiance than Grafton. He is a professional who brings expertise in alumni management and a voracious love of the University. His young boys were singing the fight song way before I ever did - and I came from a Michi- gan family. The story also mentioned a concern about focusing on younger alumni. When I joined the Alumni Association board in 1996, I was the youngest member, having gradu- ated in 1995. I'm proud to say that the num- ber of younger alums increased during the seven years I served on the board and that our programming became more inclusive. The association needs to focus on provid- ing services that are attractive to many age groups, and if you only focus on those who have been out for more than 30 years, you don't attract the members who will be the association's future. Finally, the article asserts that membership is dropping because of overall dissatisfaction with the University, but it provides no basis for that. I'm disappointed by the sloppiness of the article and the negative tone it carried through- out. I would hope the Daily would continue to strive for in-depth, well-researched reporting as its proud tradition requires. 0 0 Jessie Halladay Membership drop is a 'blip' after years of steady growth Hash Bash not invading, Alum TO THE DAILY: As a former board member of the Universi- ty's Alumni Association, I was concerned by the story the Daily published last week (Alum- ni association loses members, 03/30/2006) about declining membership. Of course, part of my concern is based on the decline itself, as we would all like to see membership increasing rather than decreasing. However, most of my concern was based on the shallow renorting that was done by tut eaucaung can4Jus To THE DAILY: I read the about Hash Bash invading the Diag at the University (Hash Bash invades Diag, 04/03/2006). Hash Bash has been there 35 years now. What invading has been done? Maybe Drew Philp, like most people in the United States, doesn't know what the Hash Bash is all about. We need to let people know what they are missing out on - more Editorial Board Members: Amy Anspach, Andrew Bielak, Kevin Bunkley, Gabrielle D'Angelo, Whitney Dibo, Milly Dick, Sara Eber, Jesse Forester, Mara Gay, Jared Goldberg, Mark Kuehn, Frank Manley, Kirsty McNamara, Suhael Momin, Rajiv Prabhakar, Katherine Seid, Gavin Stern, Ben Taylor, Jessica Teng, Rachel Wagner, Jason Yost. I