inion
4A - Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
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Ann Arbor, MT 48109
tothedaily@umich.edu
ANDREW GROSSMAN
EDITOR IN CHIEF.
GARY GRACA
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
GABE NELSON
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.
FROM THE DAILY
The greener grass
State must lead green revolution to cure economic woes
t wasn't adultery or murder or Michael Moore that compelled
the gods to smite the Great Lakes state with an abysmal econ-
omy - it was hubris. Michigan's deified auto executives were
arrogant enough to believe that their industry was invincible, even
though its success was contingent upon the availability of a few
limited resources. And now that their fatal flaw is out in the open,
the state must ask itself how it can turn from tragedy to triumph.
By investing more resources in the University Research Corridor,
Michigan would be one step closer to that goal.
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
Take that $1 trillion you are using -
trying to kill Muslims, and spend it instead
on rebuilding Detroit."
-Part of a resolution proposed by Ann Arbor resident Blaine Coleman, at last night's Michigan
Student Assembly meeting. The resolution isn't under consideration by the body.
ROSE JAFFE E-MAIL ROSE AT ROSEJAFF@UMICH.EDU
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In the eleventh hour
In August, Michigan's unemployment
rate rose to 8.9 percent as a result of the fal-
tering auto industry. Compare that to the
6.1 percent national average. Manufactur-
ing jobs are being lost left and right. Though
concern is utterly appropriate, the argument
of who is to blame for the state's economic
woes comprises too much of the political
discourse in Michigan. Partisan debate has
overshadowed the greater discussion of how
to solve the problems at hand.
Fortunately, Michigan has an unlikely
guide in Thomas Friedman, The New York
Times columnist who spoke last week in
Ypsilanti about the current energy crisis.
According to Friedman, the United States
can simultaneously solve the global issue
of climate change and recharge its lagging
economy simply by investing more resources
in alternative energy programs. He argues
that the next industrial boom will emerge
from clean energy and clean water, and that
the United States should be at the forefront
of those industries.
And Michigan should be forefront of the
United States' transformation. Michigan
has a surplus of seasoned manufacturing
workers desperately in need of work, and
a state government desperate to help them
find jobs.
Furthermore, the state's geography is
ideal for harnessing the powerful winds
coming off the lakes, most notably Lake
Michigan. Michigan's capacity for solar
energy is also remarkably large. Solar power
provides a model that promotes bilateral job
growth. Take the example of United Solar,
a manufacturer of solar panels near Detroit.
Emphasis on solar power would expand
United Solar, and businesses like it, creating
more manufacturing jobs. Even more jobs
would be created on the implementation
side, where workers would tend to the actual
collection of energy.
Who, then, should conquer the energy
colossus and catalyze an industrial boom?
The state has a set of heros already primed
for the task athand.The University Research
Corridor, which consists of the University of
Michigan, Michigan State University and
Wayne State University, has the brainpower
and research capacity to experiment with
alternative forms of energy.
The URC already has results to back it up,
too. With a total expenditure of $1.38 billion,
the URC has had a total economic impact of
$13.3 billion on the state of Michigan and has
yielded a whopping 126 patents in the past
six years. But the capacity for changing the
economy could be even greater if there were
more funding. Similarly, a greater emphasis
on energy research would start a domino
effect for more creative and entrepreneurial
drive toward alternative energy in the state.
Economic prosperity and energy indepen-
dence are unquestionably on the horizon
for Michigan. But in order to reap either of
these benefits, the state has to wake up and
start sewing the necessary seeds within the
rich soil of research.
Troy Davis was supposed to
die yesterday. He had been
offered - and had refused -
his last meal. He
had his last meet-
ing with 25 of his
friends and family
in the morning. He
had appealed to the
Georgia Supreme
Court, and lost. He
had appealed to
the Georgia Board
of Pardons and GARY
Paroles, and lost. GRACA
Basically, he had
exhausted all of
his options, except
one.
That one last resort turned out to
be a lot more merciful than most peo-
ple expected.
Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court,
Troy Davis will stay alive for at least
six more days. Though the state of
Georgia planned to execute Davis at 7
p.m. yesterday, the high court issued
a rare stay on his execution. Just two
hours before Georgia pumped Davis
full of chemicals, the U.S. Supreme
Court swooped in to take him off of
death's table.
Though Davis isn't in the clear
yet, what a majority of the justices
likely saw yesterday in Davis's case
was a tale of everything wrong with
capital punishment. Ambiguous evi-
dence, police coercion, racial bias -
you name it, and this case has it. And
behind it all was a trigger-happy state
just itching to kill first and ask ques-
tions later.
In 1989, Davis, a black man, sup-
posedly killed white Savannah police
officer Mark MacPhail in a Burger
King parking lot. As witnesses testi-
fied at his 1991 trial, Davis and two of
his friends picked a fight with a home-
less man when MacPhail, who was
off-duty, intervened. When MacPhail
arrived, Davis, who had been hitting
the man over the head with a pistol,
turned on MacPhail and shot him
three times: once in the face, once in
the chest and once in the right thigh.
A manhunt ensued, and four days
later, Davis turned himself in.
The "supposedly" is tacked on
there for a reason. No physical evi-
dence exists linking Davis to the
murder. No DNA. No murder weapon.
No gunpowder residue. The only evi-
dence that led to Davis's conviction
was witness testimonies - primarily
the nine testimonies from the state's
witnesses.
Itturnsoutthose witnessesweren't
all that reliable. Since the trial, seven
of the nine have gone back on their
statements. Many now claim the
police coerced them into ratting out
Davis. In one, Antoine Williams now
claims that police officers told him to
read and sign a statement implicating,
Davis as the killer. The thing is, Wil-
liams can't read.
If a case built on crumbling evi-
dence isn't already bad enough, it
gets worse. Many people don't just
think Davis is innocent; they found
the real culprit to prove it. At least
nine witnesses have said they saw
Davis's friend, Sylvester Coles, mur-
der MacPhail. Coincidentally, Coles
is one of the two remaining witness-
es for the prosecution who haven't
recanted their testimony against
Davis.
What's left is a shaky case that
Georgia wants to end the easy way.
This is why, despite knowing that the
U.S. Supreme Court originally sched-
uled to decide Davis's appeal next
week, Georgia scheduled Davis's exe-
cution for yesterday. That forced the
Supreme Court to hold an emergency
conference yesterday to issue a stay of
execution until Monday.
It shouldn't be too surprising that
Georgia tried to hurry up and kill
Davis before a decision was made,
though. The possibility of innocence
isn't a big priority for states allowing
capital punishment.
Since 1973, eight prisoners wait-
ing on Georgia's death row have been
exonerated. Since 1976, Georgia has
executed 43 prisoners. That means
roughly 15.7 percent of the prison-
ers either executed or scheduled to
be executed were innocent. When a
state is making the irreversible deci-
sion to take someone's life, getting it
wrong more than 15 percent of the
time is incredible. It makes you won-
der about how many mo're of those
43 men were innocent but not lucky
enough to prove it.
Georgia prisoner
avoids execution -
for today.
And then there is the racial dis-
crimination that pervades capi-
tal punishment in this country. In
Davis's case, a black man shota white
cop. Statically, that's just asking-for
a death sentence. In numerous stud-
ies, including a 1990 study by the U.S.
Government Accountability Office
finding that a victim's race influenced
the likelihood that the death sentence ,
would be given, researchers have
found that both the race of the per-
petrator and the victim dispropor-
tionately matter. Black men are more
likely to be given the death penalty,
and criminals who kill white people
are more likely to be given the death
penalty. Saying that Davis is another
example of this would be unfair - but
these things should be considered.
Troy Davis got really lucky yester-
day. But our justice system shouldn't
be based on luck.
Gary Graca is the editorial
page editor. He can be reached
at gmgraca@umich.edu.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Harun Buljina, Emmarie Huetteman, Emily Michels, Kate Peabody, Robert Soave, Imran Syed
Sr SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU
Homophobia in the Greek
system won't end overnight
TO THE DAILY:
In response to the Daily's article Monday
about fostering better LGBT understanding in
the Greek system (Encouraging Greek tolerance,
09/22/2008), forgive me if I say I'll believe it when
I see it. Two years ago, when I was a sophomore
living in East Quad, I turned onto East Univer-
sity Avenue, followed by two (clearly intoxicated)
fraternity brothers. How did I know they were
Greek? By the Greek letters on their clothes.
As the two got closer to me, and noticed the
pride ribbon on my backpack,they began to speed
up, hurling homophobic epithets and threats of
physical violence at me. Had I not been so near
to East Quad, I shudder to think what might have
happened to me that night.
This is notto saythatall members of the Greek
system are gay-bashers. It is simply meant to
illustrate the (perceived) climate of homophobia
in the Greek system, and the fact that one incident
like that changed my entire perception of what it
is to be Greek. According to the study cited in the
article, even the majority of Greeks perceive that
their housemates wouldn't react well to living
with an openly gay person, so it can't just be me
imagining this.
Which brings me to my final point. I wonder
how differently the campus community would
react ifa majority of Greeks were uncomfortable
living with an African American, an Asian or a
Jew. It's hard not to feel that the uproar would
have been greater and much more immediate not
only from the student body but from the admin-
istration.
I applaud the Lambda Alliance for what it
is attempting to do, and I sincerely hope that it
works. But I think it's going to take a lot more
than ally training. After all, every student at the
University sat through the exact same seminars
about tolerance during Orientation. It's going to
take years of education and real consequences
for homophobic language and behavior. It will
also, unfortunately, mean the sacrificed dignity
of more than a few LGBT students as they break
down barriers for the rest of us.
Baird Campbell
RC senior
GM deserves more creditfor
development of Chevy Volt
TO THE DAILY:
Usually when I read inane viewpoints on the
editorial page, I laugh and do the Sudoku. This
time I could not stay silent. In his column about
General Motors' effortstogogreeen (Goinggreen
against the family, 09/22/2008), Imran Syed
claimed that the Chevy Volt is "technically" a
hybrid, as if he had done some research into the
subject.
If Syed had, he would have discovered thatthe
Volt is an electric car because the battery always
powers the motor, which runs the drivetrain, the
definingfeature ofelectricvehicles.Onlywhenthe
internal combustion engine and the battery-pow-
ered motor run the drivetrain - either together
or intermittently - is the vehicle ahybrid vehicle,
like the Prius. On the Volt, the internal combus-
tion engine runs a generator that recharges the
battery and doesn'trunthe drivetrain.
Also, I think that GM has clearly made up its
mind to go green since itchas staked its entire rep-
utation on the Volt, whether its vice president of
vehicle development accepts the underlying envi-
ronmental argument or not.
Brandon Gipper
Business School graduate student
Diag libel has no place in
either side of campaign
TO THE DAILY:
On Monday, students awoke to see that the
Diag had been chalked over with slogans support-
ing John McCain. Some of the slogans lashed out
against Barack Obama in offensive, crude ways.
The slander left behind on the Diag amounts to
little more than dirty campaigning and fear tac-
tics, which are not representative of the caliber of
dialogue we expect at the University.
We demand that this sort of dirty campaign-
ing cease on campus. The College Democrats and
the College Republicans have collaborated by
presenting dueling viewpoints in the Daily and
in co-sponsoring debates. We have worked hard
to keep this election focused on the issues impor-
tant to students. Muddying the waters with false-
hoods quickly scrawled on the pavement only
cheapens your voice.
We call on supporters of both John McCain
and Barack Obama to keep this campaign positive
and in good humor. Offensive slogans, like those
on the Diag on Monday, will not be tolerated by
either campaign. If you would like to engage in
a campus dialogue we invite you to attend our
first College Democrats and College Republicans
debate on Oct. 9, or attend either organization's
weekly meeting.
This election is far too crucial to be deni-
grated by dishonesty and hysterics. Let us work
together to strengthen the United States through
a respectful, issue-oriented campaign.
Nathaniel Eli Coats Styer and Brady Smith
The letter writers are respective chairs of the
University's chapters of the CollegeDemocrats and
Republicans.
JENNIFER COWHY |VIEWPOINT
Live, work and learn in Detroit
When I was sitting at the Semester in Detroit table dur-
ing Festifall, someone came to the table and asked "Dude,
does that come with a gun?" That question made me seri-
ously mull over why it was that I decided to spend next
semester in the city of Detroit. What I found was that the
reasons are numerous and personal.
I have served on the Semester in Detroit student team
for the past eight months, and in that time I have become
convinced of the program's uniqueness. The program's
concept grew from small group of students in one of Prof.
Stephen Ward's Urban Studies classes. The concept came
into fruition, though, through a grassroots student initia-
tive in conjunction with a deep dedication and passion
from professors and administrators.
, These students and faculty realized there are many
service-learning opportunities on campus that give stu-
dents the opportunity to learn from a community through
service. But these folks also recognized that none of these
existing opportunities allow students to truly become
engaged in the community they are serving.
Semester in Detroit's motto on the other hand is to live,
learn, work and engage in the city. .
Living:By living inthe city I amhelping, I'm convinced
that my work will make a bigger impact, because I will
be serving my own community. Moreover, this allows me
to better appreciate the issues currently facing the city,
since those issues will become increasingly relevant to my
daily life.
Working and engaging: At the heart of the Semester
in Detroit program is a 15-20 hour per week internship in
an area that a student is passionate about. The fact t4at
this semester allows students to explore their own pas-
sions speaks to how individualized this program can be
for motivated students. Students will be able to engage
in classes, internships and activities that appeal to them,
thereby making this an incredible opportunity to create
an individualized semester.
Learning: I don't know that there is a better place to
learn from right now than the city of Detroit. Detroit is
the perfect example of a city eroded by Northern rac-
ism, political scandal and a reliance on a single industry.
Detroit is also a city rich in history, culture and commu-
nity. It is a city full of people and organizations full of ,
hope and committed to turning things around. I have a
great deal to learn from such people. This type of learning
opportunity in conjunction with three classes promises
that I will take away more from this experience than I can
possibly predict.
On a personal note, when I was in high school, I par-
ticipated in a summer program that sought to educate
high school students about the cycle of poverty and social
responsibilities while also (hopefully) spurring a pas-
sion for social justice. This program completely altered
everything I knew. By rebuilding homes on the east side
of Saginaw, working at local agencies, spending time in
the courthouse listening to arraignments and talking to
county prosecutors, listening to and reflecting on social
teachings, participating in activities that made me ques-
tion the beliefs and values I held and having small group
discussions, I began to both figuratively and literally tear
down walls. As I tore down fences and porches, ripped up
decaying floors and put up new drywall and paint, Iput a
human face on the abstract concept of poverty - and in
doing so my whole world changed.
This experience helped me understand my own priv-
ilege. I realized the prejudices I held and stereotypes I
believed. I discovered my love and compassion for people.
I found my passion for the issues associated with urban
poverty. I recognized that I learn the most by interact-
ing with people. And I met people I continue to cherish
and admire. It is my'sincere hope and belief that Semester
in Detroit can offer this same experience: an opportuni-
ty to grow, learn, work with others committed to social
change, engage in the community and feel passionate
about the work I do.
Semester in Detroit is holding an informational meet-
ing tonight at 6 p.m. in Angell Hall, Aud. D. For more
information please visit www.semesterindetroit.com.
Jennifer Cowhy is an LSA sophomore.
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