I 4A - Monday, November 26, 2007 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com C I '* diitcga n 43atl Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. " 420 Msynsrd Sn. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu KARL STAMPFL IMRAN SYED JEFFREY BLOOMER EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR 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. The Daily's publiceditor, Paul H. Johnson,acts assthe readers' representative andtakes acriticallookat coverage and content in every section of the paper. Readers are encouraged to contact the public editor with questions and comments. He canbe reached at publiceditor@umich.edu. FR M HE Df Justice for all Why does the 'U' need a law to force it to be inclusive? J tisn't fun to root for the federal government against the University of Michigan. There has to be something patent- ly wrong and unfair with the world for a situation to arise where such a thing would even be conceivable - and there is. The University continues to discriminate against handicapped fans at Michigan Stadium and expects its many critics to simply shut up about it. The U.S. Justice Department must do all it can to force the University's hand and ensure proper accommodation The whole world is coming to tell Palestinians and Israelis, 'We are standing shoulder to shoulder with you.' This is significant." - Saeb Erakat, chief Palestinian negotiator, on the peace conference this week at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, which will include Palestinians, Israelis, Americans and negotiators from several Arab states, as reported yesterday at CNN.com. Guns are for liberals, too 0 I fbthere is one issue that alien- ates me from my liberal coun- terparts, it's gun rights. So when the Supreme Court - decidedlastweekto hear its first Second Amendment case v since the 1930s, and as the College Libertarians raffled off a gun voucher, I A felt a bit alienated from other liberals. MIKE This experience EBER has forced me to re-evaluate what it truly means to be a liberal. I attribute my liberal leanings to my upbringing in a politically liberal home. Because of the ideology of my parents and older sister, I get plenty of heat for my beliefs about gun own- ership. When I turned 21, my mother asked me if t was excited to finally drink legally on campus. I respond- ed that I could really care less about joining my peers in the teeming, sweaty mess people call Rick's. For me, turning 21 was really exciting because I gained the right to carry a concealed weapon in the state of Michigan. I was met with the usual emotional response - comments that I was "sick" and would never be wel- come in my mother's house if I chose to buya gun. As I wonder what led me to be the black sheep of my liberal family, I remember my middle-school social studies teacher, Mr. Jankowski. Mr. J, as we called him, sported a glass eye and a passion for civil liberties. I now realize Mr. J educated our class indi- rectly in the political philosophy of John Locke. While teaching lessons on the Bill of Rights, he would explain that this perceived necessity to bear arms is not only for self-defense butis also essential to preserve a democratic society. If a government does not fear an armed populace, then that govern- ment is not truly democratic, because it does not need to respect the elector- ate's authority. Through our lessons, we learned that a democratic and civilian-con- trolled military is never to be taken for granted, which necessitates civil- ian armament. Gun ownership rights are, in fact, the first rights restricted when a democratic society turns for the worst. Weimar Germany was a free society that treated Jews better than most other places in Europe. Then Adolph Hitler came to power. As The New York Times reported in 1938, after Kristallnacht, Hitler declared an edict "forbidding Jews to possess any weapons whatever and imposing a penalty of twenty years confinement in a concentration camp upon every Jew found in possession of a weapon." Consider our presidential election in 2000. Blatantly ignoring the will of Florida voters, the U.S. Supreme Court handed victory to Bush on a tech- nicality. Liberals agreed that there was nothing more to do in appeal, but according to Locke, if a govern- ment is guilty of systematic abuse of its power, then citizens have a right install legitimate rule. Instead, liber- als stood by willingly after the ruling, acting as if they had just lost a close football game. We may not need a compelling rea- son to own a firearm other than the fact that an armed populace is neces- sary for the security of a free state. Anti-Patriot Act liberals should real- ize that if they cannot trust the gov- ernment to respect the privacy of their phone calls or to grant proper due pro- cess, then they should probably not also assume the government can be trusted not to disarm its citizens in the name of public safety. My liberal friends love to cite instances like the Virginia Tech shooting and violent crime statistics as emotional appeals to restrict gun rights. I have heard that guns are more lethal than knives and make society more dangerous rather than promoting general safety. I definitely concede this fact: In the best of all worlds, nobody would need to ensure for his or her own defense. Similarly, in this utopia, we would not need to Guns aren't ideal, but reality is never ideal. bother with the constraints of due processes because the government would always be righteous. Like Ben Franklin and all other liberals, I would not give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety. Weighing public safety against the liberty. of gun ownership and establishing militia follow in the same vein. Many Americans scoff at the necessity of modern day minutemen, and I hope they will not be needed in our lifetime. However, preserving the Second Amendment is like having a good insurance policy: You may hate makingthe monthly payments,but you sure are glad you did when an inferno consumes your house. Mike Eber can be reached at mieber@umich.edu. 0I at the Big House for all people. The controversy surrounding the Univer- sity's renovations of Michigan Stadium is by now well known. The University Board of Regents approved earlier this year a ren- ovation plan that would add luxury boxes to the stadium. Fans have expressed out- rage at the proposal, but while the luxury boxes are controversial, providing proper accommodation at the Big House for fans in wheelchairs is not up for debate: It abso- lutely must be done. Yes, there are laws mandating that disabled people be properly accommodated, but the University should not need such laws to do what is right. Confoundingly, the University has repeat- edly refused to do all it can to accommodate fans in wheelchairs. It refused to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 - which requires one percent of seats to be handicap-accessible - through a delusional game of semantics that pegs significant changes to the bowl of the sta- dium as "repairs" rather than "renovations." The ADA calls for more than 1,000 wheel-- chair-accessible seats at the stadium: There are currently only about 90, and even after the University's latest round of concessions under pressure from the Michigan para- lyzed Veterans of America and the federal government, the luxury box plan would only add about 500 more accessible seats. Beyond that, the U.S. Department of Edu- cation released last month a list of largely unaddressed grievances filed by fans at the Big House. The Department of Edu- cation has repeatedly asked for thorough information on the changes to the stadium that the University routinely makes in the off-season, yet the University has been largely unresponsive. Only under threat of a revocation of federal research grants last month did the University finally take the Education Department seriously. Even then, it responded with only a half-hearted, abstract letter that may as well have been an automated response. Despite this brash noncompliance and outright discrimination, University Presi- dent Mary Sue Coleman and her spokes- people are still trying to minimize and brush aside this situation as a misunder- standing. We repeatedly hear them say that the stadium is fully accessible for fans in wheelchairs: Is that to say that the fans whose complaints are cited by the Educa- tion Department are liars? What about those fans who constantly write to this and other publications expressing concern over the lack of accessibility at the stadium? Are they all just part of a crazy conspiracy? Or could it be that there are real problems that the University is ignoring? Now, the Justice Department has joined the MPVA in its lawsuit against the Univer- sity. With some firepower and some real consequences on the table, perhaps the University can finally be forced to do what is right. Regardless, the damage to the Uni- versity's reputation as an institution that values diversity, fairness and equality has already been done. That may be President Coleman's most lasting legacy. * SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU Stadium must venues throughout the country. nificance for Michigan athletics, is especially disappointing to me. I accommodate al fans Doug Cooper think and hope that as a university SAlumcommunity we can do better. STUDENTS ALLIED FOR FREEDOM AND EQUALITY The fight for academic freedom Students Allied for Freedom and Equality applauds the University of Michigan Press for deciding to maintain its contractual arrangement with Pluto Press. Unfortunate- ly, open academic debate is not valued by all. The external push against the press by some pro-Israel organizations began with Pluto's publication and the University Press's distribution of Bard College Prof. Joel Kov- el's book, "Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine." Though the book proposes a vision for peace, some have unfairly attacked it for the sug- gestion that Israelis and Palestinians should be treated as equal citizens in a state for both peoples. Kovel will be speaking about his experience in this struggle for open academ- ic debate tonight at 8 p.m. in the 4th floor amphitheater of Rackham Auditorium. Critical academic debate, which is needed now more than ever, is threatened because institutional supporters of Israel cannot tol- erate views critical of Israel's policies and practices. This is antithetical to the mission of the University and its press, which seeks to offer "books that contribute to public under- standing and dialogue about contemporary political, social, and cultural issues." The principles of academic freedom have become increasingly difficult to uphold of late. Nobel Peace Prize-winning former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, leading politi- cal science scholars John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt as well as Desmond Tutu, the anti-Apartheid legend who also won the Nobel Peace Prize, among others, face base- less accusations of anti-Semitism and bitter criticism and censure for taking positions critical of Israel. For too long, pro-Israel activists have accused those who recognize Palestinian suffering and question Israel's system of dis- crimination of "hate speech" or anti-Semi- tism. The goal is clear: to make criticism of Israel's policies taboo. Nothing could be worse in the academic arena than taboos, especially with regard to important politi- cal conflicts and issues central to American foreign policy. In light of the controversy surrounding Kovel's book, three members of the Uni- versity Board of Regents - Andrea Fischer Newman (R-Ann Arbor), Laurence Deitch (D-Bingham Farms) and Andrew Richner (R-Grosse Pointe Park) - wrote a letter to the University Press calling on it to drop all distribution deals with non-University affili- ated publishers. Such an irresponsible action is appalling. The letter indicates that dam- age to the University's reputation should be the primary criterion for a decision. Howev- er, the regents must be careful not to ignore the true mission of the University in favor of business and public relations. The decision by the University Press to maintain its contract with Pluto Press is an important one given all the pressure it has faced. It bolsters the principle of open debate against those who oppose it and seek to pres- ent Israel as a state beyond critique. The lat- est offensive by those unwilling to stand by the University Press's decision should be discarded as counterproductive to the Uni- versity's mission and the responsibilities of the press. Several pro-Israel organizations - The Anti-Defamation League, Zionist Organiza- tion of America and B'nai B'rith Internation- al - spoke at a recent regents meeting and urged the board to take action against the University's partnership with Pluto Press, They did not cite directly from Kovel's book, and there is no proof they had even read it. Instead, the groups critical of the Uni- versity Press focused on the specter of anti- Semitism. For example, the ADL's regional director cited her organization's study on anti-Semitic attitudes in America. Yet she did not even try to show how Kovel's book is anti-Semitic. To be sure, anti-Semitism is a problem - as all prejudice is. However, it is being used to broadly attack a book and a publisher who clearly stand for equality. Kovel's book proposes a vision of peace in Israel/Pal- estine in which Jews and Palestinians are equal. Deeming those sentiments hateful is as disingenuous as calling Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King, Jr. anti-White bigots for daring to demand equality in oppressive societies. Because the statements and letters in the pressure campaign do not substantiate the claim of anti-Semitism with actual analy- sis, it is safe to conclude that this is a politi- cally motivated campaign aimed at shielding Israel from criticism. The Board of Regents should protect the academic organs of this institution from baseless, political attacks. Otherwise, academic freedom loses. Kamal Abuarquob is an LSA senior. Ryah Aqel is an LSA sophomore. They are members of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality. TO TH E DAILY.: Reflecting upon his tenure as Homophol head football coach at the Univer- sity of Michigan, Lloyd Carr con- abound an cluded his recent farewell press conference with the observations TO THE DAILY: that you "win with integrity" and "the character of this institution I am writingI will be defined by the way this pro- gust and dismay gram is run." some fans at t Sadly, the University is losing the State game las present contest over the number of the game repres handicap seats available in Michi- ing event and th gan Stadium - losing in terms of school spirit, iti negative public relations and los- most prejudice ing in terms of character and integ- event I have exp. rity. As an alumnus, I have been years at the Univ privileged to attend many home When the gao games in the past four years with inflatable penise two family members who require around the stu handicap-accessible seating: my penis read, "Tre mother, Helen Douglass Cooper, Onthe popular M who graduated from the University MGoBlog.com,c in 1938 and was an editor at The ments indicated Michigan Daily, and James Kent be willing to pe Cooper, who graduated from the acts with Michig University in 1968 and is the father cation is that bei of two recent University graduates. worstinsult Mic Through their eyes, I have seen the use to disparageI joy and excitement of feelingvalued Referring to p and included as "part of the largest as homosexual crowd watching football anywhere insult deployed in America." feminine or a f However, with only 90 of107,000- as something to plus seats available to those with behind me at th wheelchairs, the Big House is woe- shouted "OSUi fully lacking in accommodations course, therea for fans in wheelchairs. The moral "Buck the Fucks imperative is to at least meet the forcing the noti minimum one percent requirement ination is the ap of the Americans with Disabilities to achievement c Act of 1990. One percent translates This homoph to a few more than 1,000 seats, and is sadly not unit the University is currently offering lar sporting eve a few hundred less than that. It is who are seen: my sincere hope that the University to their full pc will expand its accessible seating so "sissies." Oppos that many more families with dis- are routinely m abled members will feel welcome at "fags" and "gay: Michigan Stadium and other public lar instance, gi WYMAN KHUU Katherine Gallagher bid, sexism Rackham nong fans to express my dis- y at the behavior of he Michigan-Ohio t Saturday. While ents a great sport- ie annual zenith of is also perhaps the d and hate-filled erienced in my four versity. ie began, two large es began bouncing dent section. One ssel loves penises." tichigan sportsblog, one student's com- that Tressel would erform homosexual gan fans. The impli- ing called gay is the higan students could the OSU coach. layers and coaches was not the only by students. Being emale is also seen avoid. The woman he game repeatedly is a cunt!" And, of are the ubiquitous eyes" T-shirts, rein- on that sexual dom- :propriate corollary on the field. obia and misogyny que to this particu- ent. Often, athletes as not performing tential are labeled ing teams and fans aligned as "cunts," s." But this particu- ven its special sig- Daily fails to do its partfor awareness TO THE DAILY: Transgender Day of Remem- brance was Nov. 20. A huge portion of the student body had no idea. I was hoping that this year's Day of Remembrance could be more visible on campus, with all the Awareness Week events that were planned lead- ing up to it, sponsored by organiza- tions like the University's Office of LGBT Affairs and Theta Nu Xi. The lack of coverage sends a clear message: The group's struggles are just not important enough. This all might seem a little harsh, but on a campus supposedly dedicated to diversity, I expected that the Daily would at least run a short article about the Awareness Week events or the significance of the day. As a member of a group on campus that is nearly entirely silenced, I find the lack of coverage and awareness pretty disheartening. Everyone sees bias against the transgender com- munity in the media. But this isn't a case of bias: This is a case of choos- ing to ignore the problem. Many members of our campus community, even some of those very dedicated to social justice, don't know much about the transgender identity. Transgender Day of Remem- brance has come and passed for another year. We have mourned our dead, and now it is time to start looking forward. For me, the first step is to ask as many people as pos- sible why they weren't aware. Cayden Mak LSAjunior EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Emad Ansari, Anindya Bhadra, Kevin Bunkley, Ben Caleca, Jon Cohen, Milly Dick, Mike Eber, Gary Graca, Emmarie Huetteman, Theresa Kennelly, Emily Michels, Kate Peabody, Robert Soave, Jennifer Sussex, Neil Tambe, Matt Trecha, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Rachel Wagner, Patrick Zabawa r Q 14 ' #.