OP-ED
Thursday, September 21, 2006 - The Michigan Daily - 5A
JACK DOEHRING TiME SIGNATURE
VIEWPOINT
The East University divide
VIEWPOINT
MCRI supports rights of individuals
BY ALEX DZIADosz
The sharp angles and glass paneling of the Executive
Residence at the Ross School of Business present a mod-
ern and muscular contrast to the quaint maroon brick of
East Quad and the Residential College. The buildings
straddle East University Avenue, separated by a no-
man's land of 50 or so feet. On the sidewalks, the two
cultures meet like opposite poles of campus life. Ralph
Lauren and buzz-cuts mingle with Salvation Army and
dreadlocks as uncomfortably as Apple power cords and
Thinkpad sockets. A small number suffer identity cri-
ses - business students with RC friends, or vice versa.
They fill pin-covered messenger bags with trade analy-
ses, mix zip-up sweatshirts with polos.
The reluctant union of the two worlds presents an
opportunity to explore a recurring question in higher edu-
cation: Should students be learning to think or to act?
The University is a schizophrenic crucible for this sort
of debate. Our pre-professional programs - law, medi-
cine, engineering, business and even architecture - are
perennially ranked among the nation's finest. Yet we do
not deny the value of a liberal arts education, even going
so far as incorporating the RC - ostensibly a mini-
Oberlin College - into a campus defined by behemoth
lecture halls and zealous sports consumption.
Fundamentally, both the Ross School and the RC
teach students how to deal with American life, often
touching on the inevitable interactions between cor-
porations and the public. The subject of advertising is
a good example. It is a frequent topic of discussion in
both schools - you can even major in it at Ross. Both.
encourage students to be conscious of the American
role as consumer. Both separate the consumers from
the consumed. The difference is in application: The
RC teaches students to be aware of manipulation. Ross
shows how to manipulate.
This divergence has lead to a subtle rivalry of conde-
scension. The standardRC perception is that business stu-
dents are unthinking, emptysautomatons, contented solely
with therobotic pursuitof wealth.Ionceheard an acoustic
guitarist describe the phenomenon ina bitter recollection
of his days in corporate finance: "Nobody's driven, but
everyone drives" Conversely, Ross students tend to view
RC students as ineffective,the kind of kids so absorbed in
stoned political analysis that they forget to vote. In other
words, everyone's driven, but nobody drives.
There is a hint of truth in both of these perceptions.
But like most stereotypes, in the end they overreach.
The relationship between the two schools - both phys-
ical and intellectual - is ultimately symbiotic. Thought
without action is masturbation; action without thought
is disaster (see: Iraq War, American auto industry, etc.).
The ideas contained in this article would have never
seen an audience had the process of writing, editing and
publishing not occurred. Ross and the RC are opposite
parts of a whole. Think yin and yang.
In the film "Half Nelson;' "The Notebook"-sweet-
heart-turned-crackhead Ryan Gosling offers a helpful
way of thinking about the concept. He bases high school
The Ross School and the
RC are better neighbors
than you might think.
lessons on dialectics - the practice of synthesizing con-
clusions from the conflict of opposite theses. He teaches
that tension is often productive and argues that Western
thought is most dangerous when it rejects the compat-
ibility of opposites.
I aminclined to agree.This type of intolerance towards
contradiction may be helpful in hard sciences, but it can
also be destructive. It obstructs our ability to cooperate
and learn. Americans - from the kid with the life-size
Kenneth Lay cutout in his room to the Kropotkin-spout-
ing anarcho-communist - are at their best when they
tolerate and learn from their opponents, both real and
perceived.
Perhaps more than chance placed the two buildings
so close.
Dziadosz is a Business senior and
Daily managing photo editor.
BY STATE REP. LEON DROLET
This November 7, Michiganders will see the
most important ballot proposal to appear on the
ballot in decades, among the most important in
Michigan's history. Proposal 2, the Michigan
Civil Rights Initiative, will amend the state con-
stitution to "prohibit the use of preferences based
on race, sex, ethnicity, national origin, and skin
color in public education, public employment,
and public contracting."
Proposal 2 is of such great importance because
it fulfills a promise left empty in America - the
promise of equal treatment under the law. The
idea of equal treatment under the law is the foun-
dation of Western civilization, but it has long
been ignored when controlling factions thought
it was convenient to do so.
For centuries, governments have classified
their people into groups in order to control them.
The Romans separated their subjects into ple-
bian and patrician. Feudal lords separated their
followers into serfs, peasants and nobles. Euro-
pean settlers classified humans by race, subject-
ing Native Americans and Africans to slavery.
Regrettably, these classifications were carried
over into the founding of America and have
haunted this great nation ever since.
This is why Proposal 2 is so important. It will
once and for all establish the rights of the indi-
vidual, the right to be sovereign over his or her
own life without being classified and coerced by
government.
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s made
great strides, coming awfully close to the demo-
cratic equality that is so desperately needed.
However, today we are still classified by the gov-
ernment. Unfortunately, the practice of affirma-
tive action was corrupted and turned into a new
practice of classifying Americans based on race.
Affirmative action was first used in a noble
sense, to ensure the elimination of race as a factor
in a government classification system. The term
was first used by President Kennedy in Executive
Order 10925, issued on March 6, 1961. The order
stated that government agencies and contractors
were to take "affirmative action to ensure that the
applicants are employed, and that the employees
are treated during employment, without regard to
their race, creed, color, or national origin."
Unfortunately this once-noble term has been
corrupted over the past 40 years and is now com-
monly associated with racial preferences. The
rights of the individual have been subverted, and
instead, the government attempts to engineer
what it deems best for the collective. The use of
race and gender preferences is truly unjust, hurt-
ing both those they attempt to help and those
they discriminate against. When government
fails to adhere to equal treatment under the law,
everyone is hurt.
Our government's history with racial categori-
zation is so invidious and divisive that it almost
tore our nation apart. Grouping citizens is how
governments have oppressed them throughout
time. Voters must realize that justice can only be
reached when we recognize the sovereignty of the
smallest minority - the individual.
Michiganders must vote yes on Proposal 2
to fulfill the age-old promise of equality before
the law; the opportunity will not come this way
again.
Drolet (R-Clinton Township) is a
Michigan state representative and co-chair
of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Send all letters to the editor to tothedaily@michigandaily.com.
Wear a helmet or else
To THE DAILY:
After reading Laurel Chartow's viewpoint on bicycle
helmets (A public service announcement, 09/19/2006), I
had to write in with my own experience.
One week before school started, I was in a bike
accident near Mott Children's Hospital, down the hill
from Markley. I still don't know what happened, but
I do remember regaining consciousness in the emer-
gency room, in a neck brace, on a backboard, with a
tube in my arm, awaiting the results of a CAT scan. I
remember seeing my mom - a nurse - at my bed-
side and how worried she was. I remember seeing my
dad, brother and pastor alongside her.
They told me that I had a concussion, and that I had
just snapped out of a temporary amnesia, which had
prevented me from remembering anything that had hap-
pened during the past two weeks. I walked out of the
emergency room that day; it was a miracle that I had only
a concussion yet no internal injuries or broken bones.
I was riding a path that I had followed twice a
week that summer. But I was riding without a helmet.
If I had worn a helmet, I would have emerged with
scrapes and a bruised pride. Without the helmet, I
came out in the aforementioned state, with an added
concussion and scar.
I encourage all bikers to wear helmets, especially
with the increased traffic around campus both on the
sidewalks and in the streets. It might not look cool, but
it will protect the brain that you are investing thousands
of dollars in.
Brian McNally
Engineering junior
VIEWPOINT
Another setback on the road to peace
BY PAUL ABowD
The road to peace in the Middle East was
bombed out again this summer. Hamas and
Hezbollah were popularly portrayed as insti-
gators bent on disturbing the peace. Mean-
while, Israel couched its violence in the
language of reluctant self-defense. This
way of imagining the conflict, however, is
short-sighted for its failure to consider the
preceding decades of Israeli occupation in
Palestine and Lebanon.
Israel's persistent denial of Palestine's
right to exist, either as a sovereign state
or as a people, remains a root cause of
resentment and violence in the region.
Resistance to the Israeli government
comes in response to its foreign poli-
cies, which, like those of its U.S. spon-
sor, have had little regard for human
rights. In much the same way that Native
Americans were justified in fighting
expanding American settlements or as
Algerians were compelled to use vio-
lence to end a dehumanizing French
colonial regime, Palestinian and Leba-
nese people have every right to resist an
Israeli military that encroaches on their
livelihood. Try though the colonizer
might to criminalize the colonized, the
resistance of an occupied population is
justified in self-defense from the aggres-
sion of their occupier.
However, there are different types of
resistance, which should be evaluated
separately. Despite Hezbollah's legitimate
grievances, its use of rockets on civilians
was indefensible. Along the Gaza border,
however, the Hamas attacks were on military
outposts - a justified method of resistance
to Israel's stranglehold over Palestinian com-
munities.
In any case, the scope of Israel's response
to each attack was disproportionate. In the
wake of the Hamas attacks, Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert refused to negotiate
with the democratically elected Palestin-
ian government and instead authorized the
kidnapping of dozens of Hamas elected offi-
cials. The invasion of Gaza targeted civilian
centers and destroyed Gaza's only power
plant.
In Lebanon, diplomacy could have
addressed Hezbollah's list of demands.
Though Israel was forced to leave southern
Lebanon in 2000, it retains control of the
Shebaa Farms, continually violates Leba-
nese airspace and holds thousands of Leba-
nese citizens in Israeli prisons without due
process. Israel responded to these grievances
by launching another incursion in a long his-
tory of bloody invasions, conjuring memo-
ries of Ariel Sharon's 1982 "butchering" of
Beirut, which devastated the city and took
tens of thousands of lives. This summer,
the Israelis were armed with fresh ship-
ments of American weapons and empow-
We are more intimately
connected to these
injustices than our
consciences can permit.
ered by an American administration that
bought them the time necessary to launch
an attack.
Even so, Israel's invasion was a failure.
The offensive was not only immoral but
also ineffective and has exacerbated a con-
flict that should have been addressed with
humane negotiations. Further, Israel's pro-
digious military force has been exposed
for its ineptitude in asymmetrical conflicts.
Though Israel attempted to divide Leba-
nese factions by blaming its destruction
of Lebanon on Hezbollah's rocket attacks,
Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasral-
lah, instead garnered unprecedented soli-
darity against Israel's abominable war.
Employing collective punishment on
the Lebanese people, Israel forced nearly
1 million civilians (of a population of
roughly 4 million) to flee their homes for
safety. More than a thousand civilians,
many of them children, did not escape the
bombs. The Israeli war machine killed
several U.N. peacekeepers in an attack on
their outpost and prevented humanitarian
aid from reaching war-torn villages. Israel
drained the lifeblood of ordinary Lebanese
civilians, destroying power plants, refiner-
ies, bridges, airports, hospitals and factories.
In a diabolical act of terrorism, the Israeli
Defense Force dropped leaflets on civilian
areas warning them to evacuate - but then
proceeded to destroy the major roadways
used by potential exiles for evacuation. In
weeks,Israel decimated a nation while evok-
ing condemnations from every corner of
the global community, including an August
report from Amnesty International that
declared the attacks a war crime.
Thousands of Israeli citizens gathered in
Tel Aviv this summer to protest, and hun-
dreds of IDF reservists signed petitions
demanding the resignation of Prime Minis-
ter Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir
Peretz.. There is much we can do to show our
solidarity with these principled voices.
As members of the global community,
we should demand that Israeli officials
be held accountable at the Internation-
al Court of Justice. More narrowly, as
American taxpayers, we are responsible
for ending U.S. military aid to Israel,
which has facilitated the occupation for
far too long. We must make it clear to
Congress that their unflinching support
for Israel can no longer be offered in our
name. Israel receives far and away more
military aid from our government than
any other country in the world - and has
used it with grave consequence.
As students,we are also tiedtothe conflict
by the University's investment of our tuition
dollars. As of June 2005, the University held
investments in major arms producers who
sell Israel and other nations their high-tech
arsenals. We are more intimately connected
to these injustices than our consciences can
permit. If we as a nation are serious about
fighting terrorism, let's begin by holding our
government accountable for the state terror-
ism that it perpetrates and funds.
Abowd is a LSA senior.
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Attention Students!
Meet the Regents.
You are invited to meet informally with members
of the Board of Regents at a
RECEPTION
Thursday, September 21, 2006
10:30-11:30 a.m.
Wolverine Rooms
Michigan Union
Light refreshments will be served