4A - Monday, October 8, 2007,
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 6
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KARL STAMPFL IMRAN SYED ' JEFFREY BLOOMER
EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflectthe official position ofthe Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles
aid illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
The Daily's public editor, Paul Johnson, acts as the readers' representative and takes a critical look at
coverage and content in every section of the paper. Readers are encouraged to contact the public editor
with questions and comments. He can be reached at: publiceditor@umich.edu
FROM THE DAll
Taking care from a baby
Congress must override veto of children's health program
president Bush's veto last Wednesday of an expansion to the
State Children's Health Insurance Program means that
many poor children will continue to go uninsured even
while our nation spends more than $100,000 per minute for the
war in Iraq. Considering that alarming rate of spending, Bush's
opposition to S-CHIP on the grounds that it is too expensive is
nothing more than big-government semantics. The program has
proved to be successful at its current scale, and it comes with a
reasonable price tag. Congress is right to try to expand it, and it
must override Bush's veto and defeat his flawed ideology when it
meets to vote on an override on Oct. 18.
It's a sad day to be a Republican."
- Phil Thompson, an Idaho Republican precinct committeeman, asking Idaho Hall of Fame officials to postpone
the induction of Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), as reported yesterday on CNN.com. Craig was arrested in June for lewd
conduct in a Minnesota airport bathroom after he attempted to solicit an undercover police officer.
ALEXANDER HONKALA
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Military anthropology
Started after the Clinton administra-
tion's 1996 welfare reforms took millions
of children off of Medicaid, S-CHIP was
designed to cover the losses. By allocating
block grants for states, the program pro-
vides health insurance to children who
that don't qualify for Medicaid and can't
afford private insurance.
The proposed changes in the bipartisan
bill would expand S-CHIP by $35 billion
over the next five years, allowing the gov-
ernment to insure between 3.2 million and
4 million additional poor children. This
expansion would close the gap for a sub-
stantial portion of the more than 9 million
uninsured children in America. Better yet,
the expansion doesn't add to the federal
deficit because it would be funded by a 61-
cent increase in the federal tax on pack-
ages of cigarettes.
After it passed the House and Senate with
bipartisan support, the bill was killed by
Bush with a veto citing his supposedly fis-
cally conservative principles. Already estab-
lished as the single biggest spender in the
history of the American presidency, Bush's
opposition on these grounds is laughable.
In reality, he objects to the expansion of the
program because of what it does: insures
more people and dips into the profits of
private insurance companies. Although he
claims that he would agree to a $5 billion
increase to S-CHIP, an increase that small
would defeat the purpose of the bill.
As Bush says, the proposal is an expan-
sion of governmental assistance to the
poor. He's also right that the bill moves
our country more toward universal health
care (socialized medicine, as Bush likes to
call it). But none of that matters; it's simply
a distraction from the bill's primary intent,
which is fulfilling our obligation to insure
every child in this country.
The president is keenly aware that his
arguments are hollow. That's why he
wouldn't allow the press to photograph him
while he was signing his veto, unlike the fan-
fare that he surrounded himself with when
he "promoted family values" by signing the
Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act in 2003. If
family values are so important, what bet-
ter way to promote them than by providing
health insurance for children?
If the president doesn't realize the impor-
tance of this bill, then Congress must force
the change. The bipartisan effort, if it main-
tains its original supporters, already has the
votes in the Senate and will only need a cou-
ple dozen more votes in the House of Rep-
resentatives to override the veto and make
the bill law without the president's approval.
Congress has an obligation to do this and
thoroughly embarrass the president for his
poor decision and asinine ideology.
Children will already have to foot the bill
for the massive national debt we'll pass on
to their generation. The least we can do is
keep them healthy.
Step aside, ROTC. Anthropolo-
gists are the military's new-
est recruits, and we don't even
have to wake up
early for calis-
thenics.
Last month,
Secretary of
Defense Robert
Gates expanded
a military pro-
gram that assigns
social scientists EMMARIE
to combat units HUETTEMAN
in Afghanistan
and Iraq for the
sake of helping them to better under-
stand the population. The $40-mil-
lion boost was a vote of confidence in
the program, which has illuminated
problems and solutions in the Middle
East since its creation in late 2003.
Since the expansion, there are now
six total teams of anthropologists
and social scientists in Baghdad - as
opposed to the one team that was
there before.
It's about time.
From the moment we realized that
the war in Iraq wasn't going our way,
the desire for diplomacy has increas-
ingly permeatedthe Americanpsyche.
Just saying we're there for the sake of
"winning the hearts and minds" of
the people obviously doesn't mean
much to Iraqis or Arabs when we look
more like an armed occupying force.
However, with the assignment of
these anthropological teams to Iraq,
America almost looks like it has final-
ly figured out how to handle foreign
affairs intelligently.
According to a report in The New
York Times on Oct: 5, military com-
manders hail the program as a "bril-
liant" success. Col. Martin Schweitzer,
commander of the 82nd Airborne
Division posted in Afghanistan, said
that the anthropologists had helped
reduce combat operations in his unit
by 60 percent, allowing them to focus
on productive improvements to social
wellbeing. The teams have helped sol-
diers to better understand the customs
and disputes of the people, demystify-
ing seemingly random acts of frustra-
tion and intimidation.
This better understanding has
also facilitated better solutions. The
Times article offered the example of
one village in Afghanistan identified
as having a high number of widows.
From a social scientist's perspective,
being a widow in this area means
having trouble providing for the fam-
ily, which pressures sons to step up as
breadwinners. Often the best option
for these young men is to become an
insurgent, which is a well-paid gig.
With this knowledge, however, the
troops were able to address the issue
by developing a job-training program
for widows.
When I took my first anthropol-
ogy course in the fall of 2005, I was
more curious than interested. With
my minimal knowledge of the field,
anthropology seemed pretty irrel-
evant outside of making boring doc-
umentaries about ritual sacrifice in
New Guinea. The professor acknowl-
edged this misconception immediate-
ly. He mentioned that we would have
to come up with a good explanation
when our parents asked us at Thanks-
giving dinnet why we were studying
anthropology and, more specifically,
what on earth someone can do with
a degree in it. Noting that we were
asking ourselves the same questions,
he described the role of anthropolo-
gists in advising communities on how
to cater to differing cultural needs,
such as the Arab-American com-
munity in Dearborn. My first naive
anthropological thought was, "Wow,
this would be really helpful in the
Middle East."
I'm hardly advocating marching
anthropologists into battle - and nei-
ther do I want the government mili-
tarizing the field of anthropology for
the sake of a new scapegoat - but the
idea of using social scienceto facilitate
diplomacy just seems sensible. Cultur-
al anthropology in particular is cru-
cial to the understanding of a region
that is, in many ways, completely alien
to Americans.
Where was this great idea when
we marched into Iraq in early 2003?
The program arose out of complaints
from military officers in Iraqthat they
knew nothing about the local popula-
tion, which loosely equates to sending
our troops into battle with low-qual-
ity body armor and the misconcep-
tion that Iraq was behind Sept. l. It's
just another example of how poorly
planned this war was.
Anthropologists
fill a pressing need
in today's wars.
As excited as anthropology stu-
dents should be about the renewed
relevance of our field, the belated
expansion of this program does
risk a lot of academic credibility for
anthropologists. Productive fieldwork
is contingent upon the relationship
between a social scientist and infor-
mants within a community. If Iraqis
encounter an anthropologist working
with the American military after four
and a half years of "occupation," how
willing will theybe to offer a look into
their culture? Worse still, how open
will they be to the next American
anthropologist they encounter?
Iguess allwe can do nowis praythat
anthropology doesn't become another
causality of the war in Iraq.
Enimarie Huetteman is an associate
editorial page editor. She can be
reached at huetteme@umich.edu.
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Editorial Board Members: Kevin Bunkley, Ben Caleca, Milly Dick, Mike Eber, Brian
Flaherty, Gary Graca, Emmarie Huetteman, Theresa Kennelly, Gavin Stern, Jennifer
Sussex, Neil Tambe, Matt Trecha, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Wagner
MATTHEW T. MARSH I V1Wt' N
Veterans' troubles
I am writing in response to the comments
made by Lester Monts, the University's senior
vice provost for academic affairs, in the Daily
last month regarding the University's han-
dling of student veterans (Group wants to ease
transition for vets, 09/18/2007). Iam a veteran
of the U.S. Marine Corps and recently ended
my active duty service. I am currently attend-
ing Washtenaw Community College because
of the difficulties that I had with the academic
affairs office at The University of Michigan.
Monts states: "All of our academic offices
are first class and I think they are capable
of providing the kind of services that these
students need." I have to disagree with that
stateosent; in no way did academic offices at
the University provide me with the services
I needed. For a long time, I had planned on
attending the University, but when it came
time to apply, I found it very frustrating that
nobody in any of the academic affairs offices
seemed to know anything about veterans.
I called the University's Office of Admis-
sions in September 2006, hoping to talk to the
school's veterans' affairs official. I was trans-
ferred seven times to different departments
and had to ask the same questions repeat-
edly. The last response that I can recall get-
ting from them was that I had to be accepted
to the University before I needed to talk to
them. The overall impression that I got from
those phone conversations was that either
the University doesn't know what to do with
veterans or that it simply does not care.
Monts also said: "We don't feel the need to
designate individuals to become experts of
veterans' issues because of the small number
of veterans we have here at the University."
The thought that immediately crossed my
mind was that maybe the University has a
small number of student veterans because it is
so hard for veterans to actually talk to some-
one at the University and get their important
questions answered.
In particular, these questions can be related
to tuition and GI Bill matters, living arrange-
ments, transfer credits and especially filling
out the application for acceptance. The appli-
cation is highly geared toward high school
students and has no special instructions for
veterans or other people that would not be
able to fill out certain "required" fields such
as test scores, current classes or teacher rec-
ommendations. Questions about all of these
issues were left unanswered by the Univer-
sity, despite my numerous phone calls.
I found it ironic that the essay on the
application I was trying to fill out was about
diversity, and even though as a veteran I
would be contributing to the diversity of this
school, I could not find anyone able to help
me get information.
I am not trying to discredit the University;
I am merely trying to express that having a
Office for Student Veterans' Affairs at the
University would have helped me immensely.
Transitioning out of the military has been the
hardestthing that I have ever done, even hard-
er than the seven months I served in Iraq.
Matthew T. Marsh is a student at
Washtenaw Community College.
Coca-Cola's injustices still exist;
contracts should be cut again
SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU
The administration must face its mistake, revoke its
contracts with Coca-Colaonce again and enforce its own
moral policies.
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Clara Hardie
TO THE DAILY: Alum
Yet another act of violent union oppression has The letter writer is a)
occurred at the behest of The Coca-Cola Company. The tracts with Coca-Cola.
University continues to do business with a company that
consistently violates its own ethical Vendor Code of Con-
duct. The University followed New York University and Ecucationi
others in kicking Coke productsoffcampus in2006 after
a three-year long student campaign, but it reinstated the offe oi
contract four months later. More than 75 schools world-
wide have cut contracts with Coke for its environmental TO THE DAILY:
and human rights abuses, according to Corporate Cam- Andrew Gaber's
paign of New York. editor equatinglib
A human rights injustice happened on Sept. 27 when icanism is old, tires
the college-aged son of a Coke worker and union activ- and arrogant bias
ist in Colombia was thrown into a van and beaten by menting on (Unive
paramilitaries. The kidnappers were likely directed itary what to do, 11
by anti-union Coke bottling plant managers. They told watching too man
him to give his father the message, "We won't rest presidential speec
until we see you cut into pieces." This was reported by the notion that fret
Colombian food industry trade union president, Javi- attacks that haven
er Correa, who wrote to activists all over the world. Are we free simi
Correa spoke at a Michigan Student Assembly meet- being attacked by a
ing in 2004. He recalled the nine murders, frequent criminated against
death threats, kidnappings and beatings of trade union to represent and u
members by Coke's death squads. Subsequently, MSA noting that there a
passed a resolution to support the actions of the Coah- that aren't necessa
tion to Cut Contracts with Coca-Cola, a group com- Education is an
prised of more than 5,000 students from more than 22 freedom than any
student groups. made. I suggest th
University administrators Peggy Norgren, Dan Sharp- that a strong milita
horn and Timothy Slottow renewed the Coke contract book. "Radical" lib
behind students' backs in the spring of 2006. They had done more for the
cut contracts four months earlier when the company body ever has. I es
failed to agree to investigations by independent moni- women's rights anc
toring groups in Colombia and India. No results of any
investigations have been reported, despite the Universi- Jeffrey Harding
ty's renewal of the contract. LSA senior
former member of the Coalition to Cut Con-
.
is a better indication
than a military
argument in his recent letter to the
erals with radicalism and anti-Amer-
some and fraught with such simplistic
es that it's almost not worth com-
rsities have no business telling the mil-
0/05/2007). Gaber has probably been
y White House press conferences and
hes. He's probably been convinced by
edom is nothingmore than the sum of
't been waged on the nation.
ply because we have a lower chance of
n enemy, even if gays are blatantly dis-
t in the same nation that is supposed
phold everyone's freedom? It is worth
re plenty of secure, sovereign nations
rily free.
d always has been a greater symbol of
nuclear weapon or B-2 bomber ever
at Gaber - and anyone who believes
ry brews freedom - open upa history
'erals and their peaceful protests have
cause of freedom than any military
specially recommend the chapters on
d black civil rights.
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