4A - Tuesday, January 16, 2007
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
413 E. Huron St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
tothedaily@umich.edu
We were disappointed there was not
greater dignity given to the accused ... that
shouldn't have happened."
- Secretary of State CONDOLEEZZA RICE, referring to the execution of two aides to former Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi government, as reported yesterday by The New York Times.
KATIE GARLINGHOUSE
DONN M. FRESARD
EDITOR IN CHIEF
EMILY BEAM
CHRISTOPHER ZBROZEK
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS
JEFFREY BLOOMER
MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles
and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
Well-read but broke
High textbook prices cause students the usual headache
C hances are that even this deep into winter term, students
aren't numb from the cold as much as from exorbitantly
high textbook prices. After all, when was the last time
you walked out of Ulrich's or Shaman Drum pumped up about the
great bargain you just scored on your gigantic psychology text-
book that you know will probably only collect dust over the next
*
oK
You cant lear iti -Sho
four months? Probably never.
There's not a whole lot us students can
do about book prices at campus bookstores
They're just expensive. The popularity of
this issue, however, made it the focus of a
forum presented by the Michigan Student
Assembly, an organization that actually can
and should do something to deal with the
problem. Directed at finding alternatives to
help alleviate the burden of book expendi-
tures, last week's forum brought together
students, administrators and bookstore
owners in a discussion that was a formidable
starting point. By the end of the forum, an
astonishing conclusion was reached: Books
are expensive. Possibly too expensive.
It's good that all parties have come to
agree on this point, but obviously more
needs to be done. We hope MSA plans to
follow up on the forum and perhaps insti-
tute reform toward alleviating the burden
of overpriced books.
Many times students trade books
amongst each other or find bargains for
their books online, but this only works
when students know what books they
need ahead of time. It isn't too much to
ask teachers to make their book lists avail-
able to students ahead of time. Whether
placed on C-tools, Wolverine Access or
some other central website, having infor-
mation about books ahead of time makes
it possible for students to purchase books
online and have them delivered in time for
the new term.
The University has balked at requir-
ing professors to provide book lists well
in advance, arguing that most instruc-
tors have not finalized their book lists
until just shortly before the term begins.
However, teachers have always released
their book lists to select stores weeks
before the beginningof the term. After all,
bookstores too need time to order books
and have them in stock. Teachers may be
driven by the wonderful intention of help-
ing local businesses - or less noble aims
- but in any case, they're contributing to
the creation of an effective monopoly that
squeezes students. Professors should not
support such exclusive agreements at the
expense of broke college students.
Many students have independently wiz-
ened up and are already emailing profes-
sors before classes begin to get names of
the required texts with enough time to
order them online. While such spectacu-
lar individual initiative brings us to tears,
when it comes down to it, the University
shouldn't make students jump through
all these hoops to get a bargain on their
books. MSA, as a body that claims to fight
for student issues, must make sure that it
doesn't overlook this one while moving
onto future forums about other issues.
Despite MSA's history of empty pledges,
we're willing to give it a fair shot at prov-
ing itself able to deal with this situation. In
the meantime, students themselves need
to be proactive. Why continue to stand in
lines reminiscent of the one for Top Thrill
Dragster at Cedar Point only to pay twice
as much for a book you could more conve-
niently and cheaply purchase on Amazon.
com? Don't do it. Trade books with friends,
pester professors about book lists and buy
your textbooks online. At the very least,
professors might begin to voluntarily post
book information ahead of time.
f you had the option to save the
life of one person you know or 12
people you have never met, which
would you choose? What if you could
either end all cancer in America or cure
AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria global-
ly, which diseases
would you choose
to stop?
If you chose K
the first option in;
both questions,
you're certainly
not alonesamong k
Americans. Pre-
ferring the option #
that directly
impacts your own THERESA
lifeisunderstand-K
able and choosing KENNELLY
to cure cancer in
America over diseases that will likely
never afflict people you know is just
human instinct. On a practical level,
however, curing AIDS, tuberculosis and
malaria - which in 2006 killed 12 times
more people in the world than cancer
did in America - would make more
sense. Yet, since the number of Ameri-
cans who have died from AIDS since
the first case was reported in America
in 1981 is just barely approaching the
number who died from cancer last year
(about 550,000), cancer is much more
salient in the minds of Americans.
This dilemma between solving
remote, faraway problems versus per-
sonal, local issues is something that is
becoming increasingly relevant in the
United States as the government's bud-
get allocations for 2007 and 2008 are
debated. Congress faces similar would
-you-rather questions as it decides
on allocations for 2007 discretionary
spending, yet itis pressured to give more
money to the warin Iraqafter President
Bush outlined his plan to add 21,500
troops last week. Should Congress use
its money to further finance the war or
should it maintain funding for humani-
tarian efforts that fight AIDS, tubercu-
losis and malaria abroad?
The budget situation in Congress
became a prominent issue last week as
AIDS activists and government organi-
zations, such as the President's Emer-
gency Plan for AIDS Relief, rallied to
gain support for the $1 billion that may
soon be designated for the diseases.
The director of PEPFAR announced
last week that if Congress doesn't opt
to use the billion dollars toward AIDS
relief, come March, the antiviral drug
treatment given to HIV patients abroad
-with 50,000 newpatients each month
- would no longer have enough fund-
ing to continue.
The government's attempts to fight
AIDS on a global level thus far are laud-
able. President Bush is largely to thank
for successful organizations that fund
HIV/AIDS research, prevention tech-
niques and drug treatments abroad.
PEPFAR - which, as its website states,
is "the largest commitment ever by any
nation for an international health ini-
tiative dedicated to a single disease"
- is one example. But the dilemma the
government currently faces with dis-
cretionary spending shows that Amer-
ica's approach to attacking the disease
might be misguided and in need of
adjustment.
The government has a tendency to
treat AIDS like a business and mon-
etary concern, rather than a global
emergency. This marketization of
AIDS is perhaps what led a business
school senior in my biology class to say
last week, "There's a lot of money to be
made inAIDS," referring specifically to
the prevalence of the disease in Africa.
Apparently, the love of money and busi-
ness causes some to see a disease that
kills millions of people every year and
infects almost 12,000 more people
everyday as a business and a problem
that can be resolved with the right
amount of money and sweet talk.
In reality, . curing AIDS is much
deeper than just writing a big check to
health organizations in Africa or finan-
cially backing scientists researching a
be-all, end-all cure. Rather,AIDS needs
to be treated with a more humanitar-
ian mindset, and the government must
drive energy and concern about this
issue - something non-governmen-
tal organizations, such as Bono's Red
line, are currently doing successfully
As Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) told
the San Francisco Chronicle, "If you
don't raise an issue and don't organize
around what is important, things do
fall by the wayside."
Even if the government decides to
We need more than
just money to curb
the AIDS pandemic.
giveAIDSresearchtheadditional$1bil-
lion it is requesting it's still insufficient
if it doesn't increase the attention and
publicity directed toward the disease.
And until the government treats AIDS
like the pervasive pandemic that it is
- not just a monetary issue tbit can be
overlooked when more prevalent issues
arise in the country - it will remain an
unimportant issue in the minds of most
Americans.
In the long run, it's not about teach-
ing Americans to be humanitarian and
encouraging them to save the life of
12 people they've never met. Instead,
it's about teaching by example ethi-
cal judgment and that the world is
not always about money and financial
success. There are other things in the
world - like the more than 39.5 million
people living with AIDS today - that
people like my biology classmate might
be surprised to learn about.
Theresa Kennelly is an associate
editorial page editor. She can be
reached at thenelly@umich.edu.
0
J
SEAN MOBERG
The real stem cell question
In an editorial published last week in The
Michigan Daily (From the Daily: New life
for stem cells, 01/10/07), the editorial board
asserted that "while amniotic stem cells are
a very promising discovery that should be
further explored, there's no reason for sci-
entists to abandon the sure thing," meaning
embryonic stem cell research.
The editorial board demonstrates its fail-
ure to understand the nature of the stem-cell
debate by focusing the bulk of its arguments
on the relative effectiveness of embryonic
stem-cell research versus the newer method.
I am no scientist, so I won't enter into that
debate, especially considering that it is quite
irrelevant.
There is only one question in this debate
that matters. That question is, are embryos
human lives? If we answer in the negative,
we are faced with two distinct difficulties.
The first is explaining what precisely these
embryos actually are. They are new entities,
ontologically different from the sperm and
egg that came together to form them. They
are genetically human and distinct from
their parents. The most natural conclusion is
to say that they are human.
The second difficulty is that there exists
no other clear moment at which one can
define the beginning of human life. All other
potential points that one could use are sliding
scales, imprecisely defined. The logical con-
clusion of failing to clearly define the begin-
ning of human life at conception can already
be seen in the Netherlands, where the chill-
ing Groningen Protocol allows the murder of
infants by their parents and doctors.
The Daily does address the one pertinent
question and atone point argues that because
90 percent of embryos are killed without
regard to embryonic stem-cell research,
"what exactly is so anti-life about using such
embryos to potentially save countless lives?"
The moral blindness of this argument is
stunning.
Essentially, the Daily presents us with the
fait accompli of scores of murdered embryos,
and then suggests that since we are going to
kill them anyway, we may as well do some
experiments. It does not occur to the editori-
al board to question whether these embryos
should be killed in the first place, only what
methods ought to be used for doing so. I look
forward to an upcoming editorial on how we
should experiment on death row inmates
with deadly diseases. After all, they are
going to die anyway. The logic is precisely
the same.
The new research into amniotic stem-cells
is promising, and may even have potential
equal to that of embryonic stem-cells. That
question, however, is simply not relevant to
the debate. Embryonic stem-cell research
entails the murder of human beings. It
should not matter to us how much knowl-
edge we gain when we lose our souls.
Sean Moberg is an LSA junior.
A sincere thank-you to the
campus community
TO THE DAILY:
I just wanted to say that it's great to be a part of the
University community. Iam a single mother of four work-
ing hard to keep things afloat. The other day I was hur-
rying from Central Campus back to North Campus to get
home, to start my second shift. Shortly after I got home I
received a call from my own cell phone, which I thought
was very odd. When I answered, a young gentleman told
me he had found my phone on the commuter bus. I hadn't
even realized it was gone. To have someone call to say
they found it was such a wonderful relief
I just wanted to say thank-you to the young man who
found it. I also appreciate that he came out of his way to
meet me and return it. It gives me faith that there are
still good people around.
Anna Middleton
University employee
Arts writer insults the feminist
movement and Barbie herself
TO THE DAILY:
As I sat eating sushi with a friend last week reading
the Daily, I began to lose my appetite while reading a few
lines of Caroline Hartmann's column (What happened to
my Barbie? (01/09/2007). Beside the many factual errors,
I couldn't believe her gross misrepresentation and insult-
ing language about feminism was allowed into print.
First off, the Barbie Liberation Organization did not
replace thevoiceboxes in Teen Talk Barbie dolls withtheir
"feminist agenda." They replaced the voice boxes in Talk-
ing GI Joe dolls - you know, the ones that said things like
"Dead men tell no lies" and "Vengeance is mine." These
dolls' language was extreme and should have been taken
up with Hasbro, GI Joe's creator. The wrong response is
to bash creative feminists for trying to make a point about
the gender segregation of children's toys.
Secondly, Hartmann claims "Barbie serves as a mea-
sure of comparison, and whether it's a realistic one or not
is irrelevant in the minds of children." Judging from her
SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU
headshot, Hartmann is much closer to the white, blonde-
haired Barbie doll than many girls who played with her.
The friend I was having lunch with is both Jewish and
black. She commented that when she was a girl she con-
stantly compared herself to Barbie and was devastated
she would never be as beautiful. For her, the way Barbie
looked was extremely relevant.
Lastly, I find Hartmann's language offensive, both to
me personally and to the feminist movement as a whole.
She writes that Barbie has been subject to "feminist
harassment" and is the target of the "progressively mind-
ed" who have a "desperate need to pinpoint an object of
blame." Hartmann's tone demonstrates a lack of tact and
respect for the research and theories of feminists and the
real social message that Barbie sends to girls about femi-
ninity and womanhood. Hartmann is correct about one
thing - it isn't Mattel's responsibility to depict the ideal
woman. And it is also not Hartmann's right to defend it.
Ann Luke
LSA junior
ALEXANDER HONKALA
N ,2
6
6
Editorial Board Members: Reggie Brown, Kevin Bunkley, Amanda Burns, Sam
Butler; Ben Caleca, Devika Daga, Milly Dick, James Dickson, Jesse Forester, Gary
Graca, Jared Goldberg, Jessi Holler, Rafi Martina, Toby Mitchell, Rajiv Prabhakar,
David Russell, Katherine Seid, Elizabeth Stanley, Jennifer Sussex,
John Stiglich, Neil Tambe, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Wagner.
ERIN RUSSELL
I ,lOVE MILK OAy! THAT
01' BOY, MART IN, WOOL'o
HAVE H ATECo AF''IRMAI'E
ACtION LIKE 100!
A2. KINS SuPPORTE0 OlE RSITY,
ANO IT'S CROPPIN IN
uNNERSt IES TH ANKS TO THE
ANTI-AFFMATNE ACTION
MOVEME
,
AN! gUT HE AL-SO
SUPpo5T EO EQUAuiTY, ANA'
"SE PARATE BUT EQUAL*' HAS
T HE WORO, *EQUAL,* IN IT!
CJ
6
6
It_
_!_1_
A.