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The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Thursday, April 12, 2007 - 5A

LETTERS TO TEEDIOR
Anti-Israel activists
live in afalse reality
TO THE DAILY:
While reading the viewpoint
written by Students Advocating
Freedom and Equality (A blue-
print for conversation, 4/10/2007)
I was struck by the language used
by the writers. I've noticed that
pro-Palestinian groups resort to
Karl Rove's strategy of repeat-
ing factual inaccuracies over and
over until people believe them.
This rhetoric seems to fre-
quently center on Israel's con-
struction of an "apartheid wall."
Fromthis phrase, I can always tell
who is biased and who is actually
committed to having a "blueprint
for conversation." This alternate
reality that many people live in
does not seem to recognize the
fact that this "wall" is less than 5
percent concrete. It happens to be
a fence for more than 95 percent
of its length.
The viewpoint pins the blame
for the violence in the Middle
East on the Israeli settlements
in the West Bank. However, at
Camp David in 2000, the Pal-
estinian Authority rejected an
offer of peace from then-Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
that included over 90 percent of
the West Bank. The viewpoint
also states that Zionists must
recognize "Palestinian identity,
autonomy, ownership of land and
an unalienable right to a digni-
fied human existence." It seems
to me that by offering Palestin-
ians peace and a sovereign nation,
Zionists have already done this.
Overall, I try not to take opin-
ions like this one too seriously.
However, I cannot ignore false
rhetoric when it appears in the
Daily. There will alwaysbe people
who demonize Israel just because
of its existence and simultaneous-
ly ignore the injustices perpetrat-
ed by its neighboring countries.
Like all nations, Israel has flaws
but to label it an apartheid state is
outrageous.
It is naive and historically
misinformed to place blame on
the lack of peace primarily on
the people of Israel. I hope that
Israel's neighbors will eventually
abandon their alternate reality,
drop their weapons and recog-
nize Israel. This is the only way
peace will come about.
Sivan Jacobovitz
LSA freshman
A sincere thank-you
to the UMstars
TO THE DAILY:
I recently attended the first
annual Wish Ball at the Michigan
Union. The ball, organized by the
UM Stars, was a charity event for
the Make-A-Wish foundation.
The UM Stars did a fantastic job
with setting up this event. The
Stars sponsored my son last year,
and did many wonderful things
for a boy recovering from a liver
transplant.
I can't tellyou what it meant for
a family struggling with a child's
life-threatening illness and dif-
ficult recovery to meet with the
UM Stars. They helped get us all
excited for our son's "Wish trip,"
and held a bon voyage party for
our family last year at Cottage
Inn. They even surprised my son
with a visit from the entire Mich-
igan men's hockey team. My son
loves all Wolverine sports, and
he couldn't stop smiling when he
saw the hockey team walk in. The
Stars also sent countless cards

and gifts to my son and to my
 younger daughter as well.

SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU

This group is made up of gen-
erous and caring students who
want to make a difference in a
sick child's life. I am proud to
have known them.
Betty Simonis
Staff
U' must crack down
on stimulant abuse
TO THE DAILY:
The story in last week's State-
ment by Kingson Man (The dop-
ing scandal in your biology class,
04/04/07) was really interesting.
It is pretty shocking that 8 percent
of students have illicitly abused
stimulants for their ADHD, giv-
ing them "supreme powers of con-
centration andlintense activity." I
am shocked that so many students
take pills like Adderall and Ritalin
without a prescription.
Although these drugs are
necessary for people who actu-
ally need them, some students
are obviously taking advantage
of them by getting them without
a prescription. It's almost like
baseball players taking steroids to
improve their performance.
I propose that the University
start taking random Adderall and
Ritalin drug tests to combat this
problem. Maybe it should have
students submit urine samples
along with their organic chem-
istry tests. If people test positive
for one of these drugs, then they
should receive an asterisk on their
diplomas.
Reda Jaber
LSA junior
On the first day, God
said smoke weed
TO THE DAILY:
One reason to stop imprison-
ing responsible adults for using
cannabis that wasn't mentioned
in the Daily's article about Hash
Bash (A less political Hash Bash,
anArquettecameo, 04/09/2007) is
that it's Biblically correct. Christ
God Our Father indicates that
He created all the seed-bearing
plants - saying they are all good
- onliterallythe very first page of
the Bible (Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-
30). The only Biblical restriction
placed on cannabis is that it is to
be accepted with thankfulness
(Timothy 4:1-5).
Stan White
Dillon, Colo.
Dialogue must
become meaningful
TO THE DAILY:
I was pleased to see that the
Daily ran two viewpoints on the
Arab-Israeli conflict in Tuesday's
paper (A blueprinfor conversation
and I am not a racist, 04/10/07). I
was less pleased, however, after I
read each viewpoint.
In Students Advocating Free-

dom and Equality's viewpoint,
Andrew Dalack and Julia Eden
Ris claimthatany productive con-
versation about the conflict must
begin with the understanding
that the "Zionist occupation ... of
the West Bank is the real impedi-
ment to the 'peace process'." You
can't expect to have a productive
conversation by forcing someone
to accept your premise first.
The viewpoint did make some
very good points about Zionism
not being inherently anti-Semitic
and that criticizing Palestinians
is not equal to "Islamophobia."
However, many points directly
rejected and undermined open
debate. Eden Ris and Dalack
encourage our campus to be
open-minded, yet they attack
Israelis and Zionists even while
reminding us to be civil.
Next I read the viewpoint by
Ari Parritz. I agree with Parritz
that many uninformed people
choose to enter the Israeli-Pales-
tinian debate, and that Zionism
is not racism. However, near the
end, Parritz writes that "Zion-
ism affirms not only the right for
the state of Israel to exist but the
right of Israel to defend itselfatall
costs." I consider myself among
the many ill-informed people on
this campus with regards to the
Arab-Israeli conflict, but even I
can tell when both sides would
rather take shots at the other sides
stances than present reasonable
arguments.
Let's hope for some productive
dialogue in the future.
Brendan Kretzschmar
LSA junior
Coke is a danger to
University integrity
TO THE DAILY:
In December 2005, the Uni-
versity finally took a step toward
enforcing its Vendor Code of Con-
duct by severing its contract with
The Coca-Cola Company. The
decision was based on numerous
allegations of violations against
Coke, including distributingtoxic
chemicals and depleting water
resources in India and complicity
with the murders ofunion leaders
in Colombia. But in April 2006,
the administration reversed its
decision based on flimsy prom-
ises from Coke.
The temporary reinstatement
of the contract was dependent
on neutral, independent inves-
tigations in India and Colom-
bia. These have not happened.
Administrators are not certain
the International Labor Organi-
zation has even established an
office in Colombia yet. And the
investigator chosen for India is
not neutral. It is funded and spon-
sored by Coca-Cola itself.
The University had months to
explore different possible inves-
tigators, but University Associate
Vice President for Finance Peggy
Norgren recently could not name
a single other organization it con-
sidered. Meanwhile, murders of
activists in Colombia have contin-
ued, and villages in India are still

protesting Coke's presence there.
It is obvious that Coca-Cola is not
serious about reforming its prac-
tices around the world and is con-
tent to treat the matter as a public
relations problem.
Coca-Cola has clearly not met
the terms on which its contract
was reinstated last year. The Uni-
versity should follow its original
decision and not renew its con-
tract with Coca-Cola this spring.
To renew it would be another sig-
nal to all businesses that the code
of conduct is meaningless.
Noah Link
LSA senior
Blame is placed too
heavily on Israel
TO THE DAILY:
In their viewpoint in Tuesday's
Daily, Andrew Dalack and Julia
Eden Ris continue to perpetuate
the gross inaccuracies and distor-
tions that plague the discourse
surrounding the Israeli-Palestin-
ian conflict (A blueprint for con-
versation, 04/10/2007).
They claim that Israel has failed
to acknowledge the Palestinians'
right to exist as an autonomous
entity of their own. Consequently,
they fail to recognize that the Oslo
Accords of 1993 afforded the Pal-
estinian Liberation Organization
the right to govern more than 98
percent of the Palestinian people.
However, the accords further stip-
ulatedthat the PLO must renounce
and do everything in its power to
stop terrorism against Israel.
Clearly the PLO has neglected
the latter stipulation by not only
allowing but also encouraging
hundreds of suicide bombings in
Israel, killing hundreds of inno-
cent people.
Additionally, the authors imply
that Israel's final legal status has
yet to be determined. In reality,
Israel is a sovereign democratic
state, created under the auspices
of the United Nations. As with any
sovereign state, it has the right and
the responsibility to its people to
ensure that it exists within secure
boarders. For an intelligent con-
versation to be had regarding the
conflict, it mustbe first understood
that Israel operates within the rule
of law to defend its people from
violence and suffering.
Both sides must look toward
the future to determine how both
peoples canco-existinthe region.
Israel wants peace, but peace will
not be a possibility until both
sides create the necessary condi-
tions for peace to occur. There-
fore, the Palestinian government
must acknowledge Israel's right
to exist within secure and recog-
nizable borders.
I want an intelligent conversa-
tion on campus about this issue
more than just about anyone. But
before that can occur we must
get all the facts of the situation
straight rather than manipu-
late history and blame Israel for
everything.
Justin Benson
LSA junior

JAMES SOMERSI
Why pay for college?

Will Hunting once told some
pretentious asshole in a bar that
one day he'd wake up to realize
that "he spent 150 grand on an
education he coulda gotten for a
buck fifty in late fees at the pub-
lic library." As much as I try to
convince myself otherwise, I'm
afraid I'm becoming more and
more like that asshole.
Every time I miss a lecture
and don't fall behind, I start to
wonder. When I find a textbook
that's better than the one on the
syllabus or discover that I work
best alone on tough assignments,
I waver. The worst are the days
when I disappear in the stacks
at the Grad library just follow-
ing footnotes, reading nothing
in particular, just learning. The
question is, what the hell am I
paying for?
After a year getting used to
this place, I've found that most
of my valuable experiences are
only tangentially related to the
institution itself. Late-night
conversations with cynics and
ideologues do more for me than
discussions in English class.
Word for word, I get more satis-
faction writing blog posts than
papers. I'm invigorated by pick-
up football at Elbel Field, not
free weights at the Intramural
Sports Building. The most excit-
ing thing that I've done at school
happened not in class with a
professor but between midnight
and 5 a.m. with a girl.
But you know this. Your favor-
ite moments aren't provided by
the University, they just hap-
pen here. A lunch with friends,
an argument that changes your
mind, a night out at the bar -
that's what you've come to love
about this place. That's the stuff
you'll be able to remember 50
years from now. But it's not what
you pay for; it's not the reason
for your debt and difficulty. So
what is?
It's the signal that tells future
employers you can work hard
at a good school. It's a line on
your resum6 that certifies you
can read, write and operate in a
world of ideas that only a hand-
ful of this world's billions are
privy to.
It seems trifling, even silly to
put so much weight on the mere
fact you did OK in college, but
there is literally no more direct
indicator of your eventual suc-
cess. A 3.2 from the University is
the best guarantee against being a
fuck-up that money can buy.
So we bear these costs not for
the luxury of unabated intel-
lectual meandering, or for our
creativity and intuition to blos-
som. We're not paying to finally

understand math or discover
Montesquieu. We could do that
on our own. We pay for the sim-
ple signal that we have been told
we need, the one whose absence
spells poverty, or worse, medi-
ocrity. Tuition is our insurance
policy against failure.
That is, of course, if you're
trying to get a job.
Just as a kiss only counts if
both parties want it to, your
r4sume only matters if some-
one reads it. In other words, if
there's no internship or entry-
level position at the end of the
maze, then you have no reason
gettinglost in it in the first place.
So what happens then?
A palpable measure of free-
dom emerges when you stop let-
ting interviews and applications
surreptitiously informyour deci-
sions. It's the same kind of free-
dom you get by ignoring grades,
reading a book just for the hell of
it or by meeting people instead
of "networking" with them.
When you drop the agenda, the
incessant effort to signal, you
can finally focus on the real crux
of things. And in each case you
give yourself a chance to actu-
ally enjoy what you're doing.
The difficulty, of course, is that
once you step outside the effort-
evaluation-application loop, you
lose a pretty comfortable safety
net. In the most dramatic sce-
nario - say, dropping out of col-
lege to run a startup - you gain
an immense amount of auton-
omy and a sense of unbounded
opportunity, but the complete
fuck-up scenario becomes a lot
more conspicuous too.
It's a question of confidence.
To put it bluntly: If we were
really as talented as we keep
telling everyone in job inter-
views, we wouldn't even be here.
We would have no time for the
waste inherent in a collegiate
curriculum, the hours we spend
satisfying other people's expec-
tations. We would build our
signal instead of paying for it.
People smart enough to do well
here know this - that they can
do just as much or more without
an M-Card or diploma. But they
also know that the beaten path,
though unromantic and unex-
ceptional, pays the bills.
It's the guy who's smart
enough to be just as disgusted
as Will Hunting by the game we
call education,but stupid enough
to not play it that we should be
worried about. He's the guy who
might make us all look like ass-
holes someday.
James Somers is an
LSA sophomore.

ERIN RUSSELL | OY
YOUENOTrWORRI0D IVE GOT A SECRET THE NEXT DAY... TO VOTE THAT THIS DORK
ABOUT THE MATH WrAPON THAT WONT rE NEVER GOTTEN A "Z DESERVES His HORRIBLE
TEST TOMORROW? FAIL. AND I BET LL GET BEFOREI I THOUGHT THIS GRADEOIAL THE
THE HIGHEST GRAOE IN AMERICAN IDOL SANJAYA NUMBER AT THE BOTTOM
cLASS JUST WA F! WIG WOULD WORK!C OF YOUR SCREN.
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