4A - Thursday, December 6, 2007 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. i 1 {Y_ r'Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tathedaily@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 editorialboard. Allother signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. The Daily's public editor, Paul H. 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 canbe reached at publiceditor@umich.edu. Justice: Take III High Court must grant long overdue rights to detainees The Bush administration once decided that it could label anyone an enemy in its war against terrorism and indefi- nitely warehouse those people at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba without legal recourse. In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court didn't buy it. In response, the Pentagon, without Congressional approval, set up military kangaroo courts that were supposed to make it all bet- ter. The Supreme Court disagreed again in 2006, and this time the Republican Congress responded by creating its own sham tribunals. With the Court now hearing its third case about detainees, it must send the Bush administration and Congress a clear message about denying prisoners habeas corpus: Three strikes and you're out. The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 0 I had what I called my last supper. I had a rum and Coke and spaghetti and sausage." - Leeland Eisenberg on what he did before taking hostages at Hillary Clinton's campaign office in Rochester, N.H. on Friday, as reported yesterday by the New York Daily News. Our generation's struggle Every generation has its defining struggle. Politicians use that to their advantage. If they can define our struggle, they have our sup- _ port. They get to paste their names on our banners as we go marching off to war. The last cen- tury was marked by struggles of the BRYAN nation-on-nation, guns and explo- KOLK sions sort. A politi- cian mightbe temptedtouse this tried and true approach in creating the next big, definingstruggle. Forexample, the Bush administration has long hoped that this decade would be defined in a similar fashion - a new war with international bad guys. President Bush chose to spend his presidency fighting a new war in an old way, but he will be remembered most for the war he chose not to fight, a battle against ourselves. Last month, the U.N. Intergovern- mental Panel on Climate Change - a group of approximately 2,500 scien- tists that serves as an objective author- ity on global warming - released its latest report on the status of our plan- et. The report speaks unequivocally of the reality of man-made climate changes. More important, it explores the potential of current technology to slow and reverse our harmful effects on the planet. It also projects econom- ic scenarios for potential worlds based in varying degrees of reliance on car- bon-based fuels. Strangely enough, all of the "good" scenarios - the ones where our economies flourish and we survive - involve spending as much money as possible now to eliminate carbon-based energy. The ball is now in the policymakers' court. We have the problem and the technology. All that's missing is an eco- nomic plan to put things into motion. Call it a New Deal; the politicians can still look to past models for guidance. Last week, former Vice President Al Gore and Bush met face-to-face for the first time since immediately after the 2000 presidential election as the White House recognized this year's NobelPeacePrizerecipients. Twovery different potential worlds faced off in the 2000 presidential election. After a 40-minute private conversation with Bush, Gore dodged microphones, say- ing only that they had talked about global warming the whole time. As National Public Radio put it, "If it wasn't for a quirk of fate, their situa- tions could have been reversed, with the president, Al Gore, receiving the Nobel Prize winner, George Bush." Truly, it would have been a dif- ferent world. But it is not too late to redefine our generation's struggle: We just need to be active in a way that we haven't been. How many of us were even aware of the IPCC meet- ing and its announcement? Are there still those among us for whom global warming is a matter of belief? What are we going to do about these things? Perhaps I have been missing all of the activism, but our University has struck me as a tad apathetic as of late. We cannot wait for our leaders in the Michigan Student Assembly or the University administration or the fed- eral government to act, because this is our fight. The moral turpitude of our leaders should anger us, and we have to be vocal about it. It is not up to any administration to define the struggle of our generation: It is up to us. As University students, we 0 The war on warming is ours to win or lose. are some of the most informed citizens in the country. It is our duty to at least be aware of these things - to at least try to understand what is going on and to be vocal about what we learn. As far as global warming is con- cerned, we are nearing the point of no return. In the words of Rajendra Pachauri, leader of the IPCC, "What we do in the next two or three years will define our future." Ourgeneration is about to define itself and the course of the world one way or the other. We had better be aware of our struggle. Bryan Kolk can be reached at beakerkgumich.edu. With oral arguments beginning yester- day, the current case before the Supreme Court, Boumediene v. Bush, will likely be the court's definitive answer to the ques- tion of whether Guantanamo detainees have a writ of habeas corpus - the right to challenge their detention in American civilian courts. Although the court ruled in its 2004 decision, Rasul v. Bush, that feder- al courts could hear cases from detainees, the Bush administration, with Congress looking on, circumvented that ruling by substituting its own legal system for our time-tested civilian courts. Of course, there is no substitute for habe- as corpus. The Pentagon set up "combatant status review tribunals" and the Supreme Court ruled those unconstitutional in its 2006 decision, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Simi- larly, the military tribunals detainees go through now - which the then-Republican Congress set up in the Military Commis- sions Act of 2006 after Hamdan - are a far cry from anything resembling justice. Yet the now-Democratic Congress has so far proven incapable of living up to its prom- ises of putting a stop to such shams. These kangaroo courts have few of the principles that we define our courts by and that the Geneva Conventions necessitate. In practice, most detainees are consid- ered guilty until they are proven innocent. When trying to prove their innocence, detainees aren't allowed to have defense attorneys at their hearings and any evi- dence or witnesses they want to present must be "reasonably available" to the gov- ernment, whatever that means. This imposter for a justice system results in decisions handed down according to the Bush administration's whims - which is exactly what happened to the plaintiffs in the current case. As their brief explains, in October 2001 the Bosnian police arrest- ed them for allegedly plotting to bomb an American embassy, but the supreme court of Bosnia dismissed the charges for lack of evidence. Then, the Bosnian police rear- rested them and the U.S. military sent them to Guantanamo. At the hearing, witnesses like one detainee's boss at the Red Crescent (as the Red Cross is called in the Islamic world) and the decision of the Bosnian Supreme Court weren't considered because they weren't "reasonably available." Whether you call them detainees, enemy combatants, prisoners or anything else, denying people a chance to challenge their imprisonmentiswrong. ForAmericato con- tinue to do this is an international embar- rassment. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, 383 United Kingdom and European parliamentarians, The American Bar Association, a group of retired military officers and countless other groups who have filed amicus briefs agree. While Congress shirked its responsibil- ity last year to bring America closer to the forefront of human rights and continues to play into the Bush administration's politics of fear, the Supreme Court has a chance to right the wrong. But for its decision to carry weight, it must be a true, bipartisan consensus that the country can accept - not another of the polarized 5-4 decisions for which this court has become known. If Chief Justice John Roberts wants to live up to the commitment to unity and nonparti- sanship that he spoke of in his Senate con- firmation hearings, this is his opportunity. SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU Students must help MSA help itself TO THE DAILY: As a representative on the Michi- gan Student Assembly, I disagree with the statement in a recent edi- torial that the good MSA represen- tatives are the exceptions and that MSA is inactive and unrepresentative of the student body (MSA and you, 12/04/2007). Iwould argue the oppo- site: The bad representatives are the exceptions. Despite the recent indis- cretions of a few assembly members, most are sincere and are constantly working to hold relevant events and bring attention to important issues, such as textbook prices, health care confidentiality. and streetlights in student neighborhoods. Sometimes progress is slow, but this is often due to the fact that MSA must work through bureaucratic avenues, both in the University and beyond it, to achieve success. MSA's committees and commissions, in which any student can participate, work tirelessly as well. The Women's Issues Commission is tryingto make breastfeeding rooms available to mothers, the Environmental Issues Commission organizes campaigns around energy-saving measures at the University and state levels, and the Peace and Justice Commission is trying to provide free trade T-shirts to student groups. The Communi- cations Committee is working on a newsletter and regular WOLV-TV spot to publicize MSA's initiatives, and two new webmasters were hired to make the MSA website more accessible. In the midst of all of the fallout from the past several weeks of scan- dals, I would like to assure students that most people on MSA genuinely care about students' needs. MSA does have problems, but they will not be solved without the work of innovative and involved students. I encourage students to get involved in MSA and work on issues that are important to them. I can guar- antee that it will be a valuable and rewarding experience. resulting not in a student govern- denced by the 1 ment but a social club that excludes for his resignati and harasses those who go against students want t the agenda of sitting back and doing cannot let our r nothing. This attitude was evident power and for in the rude e-mails sent to Hull from their constituen several assembly members after he I ask Willis tc spoke out in the Daily about MSA. comments dirt MSA's prevailing attitude against who acted full) speaking to the media is corrupt by questioning and dishonest. Students have every Let me remindI right to know what MSA does. No Yost to MSA.I one should be ostracized or have to him to honor an fear bigoted attacks for speaking the not to mock, de truth. MSA needs serious leaders to the oppressi who see that their jobs are to repre- groups on our c: sent the students on campus. My fellow Defend Affirmative Clare Wrobel Action Party members and I intend LSA junior to lead MSA toward becoming a student union that is more indepen- dent of the administration and fights Lack of ac against all such bigoted attacks. With the passage of Proposal 2 last year, by U is d MSA must take the lead in making sure our campus does not become a TO THE DAILY: hostile climate for people of different I wanted to: races, genders, sexual orientations Barken for her 1 and people with disabilities. the lack of resp arge number of calls on, this is not how we o be represented. We epresentatives abuse get the interests of ts. o reconsider his snide ected toward those y within their rights their elected leaders. Willis that we elected With that, we asked .d support our voices, value and contribute on of disadvantaged ampus. commodation eplorable sincerely thank Ruth etter this week about ect afforded to stu- 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. ADAM GLEICHER The larger problem Liana Mulholland Art and Designjunior This letter writer is a representative on the Michigan Student Assembly. Yost's critics had every right to scrutinize him TO THE DAILY: In response to Aaron Willis's let- ter in Wednesday's Daily (Yost's crit- ics made a big deal out of one foolish mistake, 12/05/2007), the University community has every right to con- front questionable behavior from the people we have elected to act as our representatives. Although I believe the "average college student" should be held accountable for similar con- duct, former Michigan Student Assembly President Zack Yost made more than a mistake and he was more than the average college student. As the president of MSA, he was acting as representative for the entire student body. His actions reflected a general lack of concern for the rights of students with disabilities. As evi- dents with disabilities (Coleman ignores legitimate needs of disabled fans, 12/04/2007). It is insulting and frankly pathetic that our university, so distinguished and lauded for its diversity and tolerance, has brazenly disregarded the needs of its own stu- dents and fans. Butthetruetragedyisnotthe wide- spread ignorance - it is the informed who choose to do nothing. I am not disabled, and I personally know few who are. But for my small part, I have made my voice and opinion heard. If Coleman shamefully continues to lead the University down this path, there will be one less student in the stadium next year. My ticket money will go instead to the Michigan Para- lyzed Veterans of America, who are suing the University in the hopes of forcing it to comply with the Ameri- cans with Disabilities Act of 1990 in its stadium renovations. Perhaps next year, as others expe- rience that tumultuous atmosphere of the stadium, I willbe watchingthe game on TV with Ruth. Francis McCarthy LSAjunior Walking through the campus of Michigan State University to the Michigan-Michigan State football game this year, I heard a fellow group of Wolverines chanting the customary "asshole" chant that we've all heard-numer- ous times at home football games. Other Michigan fans, intending to imply that our Spartan opponents are less intelligent than us, responded with a hearty chant of their own: "Retards." They repeatedly shouted the word as they pointed in the direction of the MSU faithful. Afterward, the chanters exchanged high-fives and congratulated each other on their cleverness and effectiveness. I cringed as I walked by, wondering if they would have felt comfortable uttering that hateful slur had they known that I am the chair of Best Bud- dies, a student group that works with people who have disabilities. Last week, the revelation of former Michi- gan Student Assembly President Zack Yost's tasteless Facebook.com group brought to the forefront just how hurtful words can be. While Yost has already been abundantly rep- rimanded for mocking colleague Tim Hull for his disability, it is important to understand that Yost's ignorance and insensitivity are emblematic of a greater societal problem. If Yost had devoted his group to mocking an individual's race, religion or sexual ori- entation, the outrage on this campus would be even more tremendous, and Yost would have resigned immediately. The actions of our former MSA president and of my fellow Michigan fans reflect a culture that is far too permissive of demeaning people who have disabilities. It is time for this to end. If we can take anything positive away from Yost's blunder, it is the opportunity for us to look inward and challenge the way we talk and think about people with disabilities. May this serve as a wakeup call that jokes about people with disabilities are not only tasteless but also hurtful to real people. The student body's outrage atYost's behav- ior is laudable, as it ultimately forced him to resign. Yet, why was suqi a group created in the first place? It has a lot to do with the culture at this university that fails to under- stand the importance of issues regarding disabled students. Many students, includ- ing the other MSA members who joined the group, would probably find the group funny. The structure of the University is such that students are limited in their interactions with people with disabilities, and it is these limitations that breed misunderstanding and hurtful ignorance. People feel much less compunction about using a slur if they cannot relate to the group or person they are attacking. When students on this campus mock individuals with dis- abilities, it is because they are disconnected from those they are ridiculing. Last week, we were able to see that it was a person with the same sensitivities as the rest of us, in this case Tim Hull, and not just some faceless concept, who bore the effects of hateful mockery. The students chanting "retards" probably didn't understand the virulence of the word they were screaming, intending it as a harm- less joke. But to me, every repetition of the word was a personal attack on the dozens of individuals with whom I have friendships through Best Buddies. The football fans were smug in their humor and ignorant of how truly insulting their words were. Before we casti- gate them in particular, however, we should remember that they are not the only students on campus who have made statements at the expense of people with disabilities. As the story shifts from Yost's offensive actions to his resignation, it is important that we not lose sight of the broader issue, which is that the debasement of individuals. with disabilities pervades our culture, and it needs to stop. Let us be inspired by the misdeeds of our own student government to challenge the way we treat our peers with disabilities and to demonstrate the tolerance and respect we would expect for ourselves. Adam Gleicher is an LSA senior and the president of the University chapter of Best Buddes. Lisa Treumuth Pharmacygraduate student The letter writer is a representative on theJOHN UIIST EF Michigan Student Assembly. MSAS culture of exclusion must end TO THE DAILY: As a representative on the Michi- gan Student Assembly, a student with a learning disability and a civil rights activist, I have great respect for MSA Rep. Tim Hull for overcoming his disability to become an outspoken leader on the assembly. Honest and outspoken is what every MSA repre- sentative should be. Though I often disagree with Hull's conservative views, I frequently find myself in alli- ance with him against the assembly's corrupt actions, like in our recent fight to ensure that Public Policy students had the right to vote in this term's MSA election. The recent revelation of a Face- book.com group attacking Hull on the basis of his disability is not an isolated incident but an expression of an overall lack of seriousness and an atmosphere of elitism and exclu- sion. Few assembly members have goals beyond padding their resumes, to hemr Humbly accepts praise Loves that part inthe second by striking Heisman pose "Lets Go Blue"arrangementwhere immediately upon completing the trumpetgoes all wild anything 16-chambered, Bleeds maize and blue thanks M-shaped heart rare, recessive, maize and blue aoglobin-producing genetic trait There's a block-M, somewhere, onthe Moon. You know, the FREAKING MOON. 0 0 I Did you ever see thatone moviewhere forsome reason Patrick Swayze is leading some high schoolers against the Russians in WWIll? You did? WOLVERINESII!!II Can be referred to by the gender-neutral title, "Michigan Man-Person"