4A - Thursday, September 25, 2008
1111011
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@umich.edu
ANDREW GROSSMAN
EDITOR IN CHIEF
GARY GRACA
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
GABE NELSON
MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position oftthe Daily's editorial board. Ali other signed articles
and illustrations represent solely the views ofttheir authors.
F R OIT HE DAILY
Speaking a new language
Collaboration between 'U' and A2 schools necessary, useful
f you're a student Struggling to complete your foreign language
requirement, you've undoubtedly heard this bit of advice: You
should've learned a language when you were younger. Though
they may be too late to help you, the Ann Arbor Public Schools and
the University have taken that lesson to heart. The two are teaming
up to teach elementary school kids Spanish, while they are still at the
ideal age to learn. This collaboration is a sorely needed recognition
that knowing other languages is a necessary skill in today's world
and that one axiom of learning is tried and true: start young.
NOTABE QUOABLE
It's the longest Hail Mary pass in the
history of either football or Marys."
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), commenting on John McCain's suspension of his
campaign, as reported yesterday by The New York Times.
Standing up to Subway
Y ou don't have to be an over- Gay rights are one of the few current had ever come up.
emotional teenager to admit issues I feel really strong about, to But when I looked into Subway, I
that we live in an unfair world. the point that I foam at the mouth found that it has been in trouble with
Whether it's the and annoy all of my friends. But espe- human rights groups before. one
economy, war or cially considering this case, can you Subway store discriminated against
the continued exis- blame me? a man who wore a turban. Another
tence of Nicolas As long as he stays in Missouri, store was sued by an HIV-awareness
Cage, there's plenty Wild can be fired anytime for the rest group for discrimination against
to be angry about. of his life because of something per- HIV-infected persons. Maybe these
This past week, fetly legal he did to make ends meet. types of discrimination cases are
I've been angry at Because he did gay porn, Kurt wrote typical among large businesses, but
sandwiches. in an e-mail to BGay.com, "I feel a bit these only made me feel worse about
Specifically, EILEEN lynched for the rest of my life." Subway.
I've been upset at STAHL I'm willing to bet that this had My stomach and my conscience
the Subway chain, more to do with Wild's assumed sex- aching, I realized this was a classic
due to an incident ual orientation (surprise! He's mar- example of cognitive dissonance. I
earlier this month ried to a woman and has kids) than was desperately trying to reconcile
that completely boggled my mind. the fact he starred in a pornographic logic with my emotions, in this case
Kurt Wild, 22, was working behind movie. As Wild put it, "if a guy does
a Subway counter in St. Louis when straight porn, he is bragged about ...
a customer recognized him. Though ifa girl did (porn) it would probably h giving
he leads a quiet home life, Wild once be OK."
enjoyed an illustrious career in the Wild has a point. Because the
finest Internet cinema, starring in big media outlets are ignoring this up the sandw ich
such titles as "Young, Dumb and story, I decided I would have to take
Hung" and "Hot House Backroom action somehow. This is a big deal, shop I love.
Exclusive Videos #5." since "taking action" for me usually
I would have assumed thatthis cus- consists of frowning in a concerned
tomer was a fan, since you've got to fashion at a newspaper article and
watch a lot of gay porn to pick out one sometimes making an angry post on extremely tasty salami and pepper-
of those sweaty young bucks in a cute the Internet. I'm really not much of oni sandwiches. Besides, boycotts
black Subway apron. But I digress. a leader, and I wasn't sure how to go aren't supposed to be easy. When
Instead, the customer mysteriously about doing it. you're "boycotting" something you
became upset at Wild, and at Subway So first off, I complained to Sub- never cared about anyway - say, Tom
for hiring him. He informed Wild's way (which I encourage you to do at Cruise movies - it doesn't make an
manager that he would be boycotting Subway's website or by phone at (800) impact at all. Sacrifice frot regular
the store if it didn't fire Wild. Amaz- 888-4848 - mention the St. Louis customers is necessary if you actually
ingly, this single customer complaint location). Next, I told everyone I met. want to hurt businesses.
resulted in Wild getting sacked. And And lastly, I decided to stop buying So now my days contain a little less
because Missouri's anti-discrimina- delicious Subway sandwiches. This is sandwichy goodness, and my pock-
tion laws don't cover sexual orienta- where I faltered. I love Subway; it's ets are a little lighter now that I buy
tion, there's not a whole lot he can do cheap, healthy and usually part of my more expensive food. But I urge you
about it. daily routine. I began to reason with all to join me. Don't be like I was.
I was pretty sure there would be myself that one college kid not buying Sandwiches shouldn't tempt you into
outrage somewhere about this kind a sandwich really wouldn'tmake adif- turning a blind eye to a violation of
of thing, but while the story has been ference. Further, Subway's side of the someone's rights. But, oh, I am weak.
widely reported in the gay media, it story hadn't really came out. For all I
has been all but ignored in the main- knew, Wild could have been holding Eileen Stahl can be reached
stream press. Now that pissed me off. raves in the cooler before his sexuality at efstahl@umich.edu.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor. Letters should be less than 300 words and must
include the writer's full name and University affiliation. All submissions become property of the Daily.
We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedily@umichedu.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Harun Buljina, Emmarie Huetteman, Emily Michels, Kate Peabody, Robert Soave, lmran Syed
TIERNAN SEAVER| VIEWPOINT
Myths of the immigration debate
6
6
Beginning next fall, the program will take
fluent Spanish-speaking students in the Uni-
versity's School of Education and pair them
with third grade classes in one ofAnnArbor's
21 elementary schools. For 30 minutes twice
a week, students will learn basic Spanish
phrases and expressions, and as these stu-
dents progress through elementary and mid-
dle school, the program is expected to follow
along. The program will cost Ann Arbor's
school district an estimated $100,000 a year
once it is in full swing because the Univer-
sity will be footing most of the bill.- an esti-
mated $800;000 to $1 million.
The partnership is a win-win situation
for both parties. Ann Arbor's schools get
the low-cost language program that they
have been hoping to develop for the past
two years. Though it will bear a lot of the
cots, the University gets a perfect training
ground for its students. It will now be able
to offer education students a program that
gives them a K-12 foreign language teaching
certification.
But the bigger winner in all of this is the
elementaryschool students. Numerous stud-
ies have shown that a language is more eas-
ily and effectively learned when it's taught
in elementary school. Although the benefits
have been proven, little has changed in the
way public schools approach teaching lan-
guage. This new program will profoundly
change that. And it will give students a
strong base to study language in high school
and college, even if the language they even-
tually study isn't Spanish.
Spanish is a logical place to start. Accord-
ing to the a report from the Pew Research.
Center released in February, the Hispanic
population in the United States will triple by
2050 if current trends continue. That would
meanthatroughly30percent ofthe U.S.pop-
ulation would be Hispanic. Though it would
be great to teach students other languages
like French or Mandarin, Spanish makes
sense for now. It is the language students
will most likely be in contact with - which
will help them retain it - and it's a language
that may prove useful in the future.
Unfortunately, this type of early lan-
guage curriculum hasn't become common-
place in our country's education system.
Until that happens, the best anyone could
hope for is what is happening with the
University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor
Public Schools.
CHRIS KOSLOWSKIOUT TO PASTURE
E-MAIL CHRIS AT CKOSLOW@UMICH.EDU.
I'm going on 4 .an'to gie -You shoud reall s
those intere terrorists a SWEETLORD Protection when looking into
piec ofmy mnd.How arthe bowels of the internet
p.eeo mly mn.dHowdare MYE ES!
they hack Palin and O'Reilly!M E
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5 5 a
SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU
Changing IM scoring rules
G waste of time for LSA-SG
' TO THE DAILY:
The Daily's story Tuesday about a student
government effort to change intramural sports
-scoring is a prime example of why the majority
M of this campus takes our student government to
be an absolute joke (Students:IM scoringpolicy is
sexist, 09/23/2008). Every year I am bombarded
with candidates' flyers promising me reduced
-textbook costs and increased campus safety. But
instead of solving these problems, I read that
* some LSA Student Government representatives
are labeling a "B" level intramural soccer scoring
system as an "urgent" issue concerning our stu-
dent body.
If the LSA-SG represntatives behind this, Ste-
ven Benson and Kim Buddin, have such an issue
with the scoring, they should play in the "A"
league. Is this what our student government real-
ly debates behind closed doors? With the recent
rash of burglaries across campus and continually
increasing tuition costs, shouldn't they be focus-
ing their efforts elsewhere?
Perhaps I should run during the next election.
My platform would consist of free unicorn rides
to North Campus and orange soda in every drink-
ing fountain on campus. In the end, I would fulfill
justas many promises as the current studentgov-
ernment does.
Alex Whang
LSA senior
Students should double-
check voter registration
TO THE DAILY:
During the primary election, I served as an
election inspector at Mary Markley Hall, check-
ing in voters at the polls. Many students voted, but
some were turned away - more than you would
think. This is an issue that disproportionately
affects students, because this is a population that
moves every year. To avoid getting turned away
this election, each student should check their vot-
ing location. Otherwise, despite being involved,
excited and registered, students' voices won't be
heard this election.
Here is the issue that came up regularly last.
election - enough that it troubled me. Many stu-
dents came to vote, absolutely positive that they
were registered at their residence hall address.
Maybe it was after dinner when they strolled in,
ready to vote. Maybe they had voted at the resi-
dence hall before. Many times, when we checked
the rolls, though, students were registered at
their parent's address. So without time to drive
all the way to their hometown in say, Traverse
City, these students couldn'tvote.
We started to figure out that students' voter
registrations are automatically changed to their
permanent address when they renew their driv-
er's licenses. The students who had previously
voted at their residence halls were really upset
to find that the location of their registration had
changed without their knowledge.
This seems like a logical process, but it can
disenfranchise a voter. All students should go to
www.publius.orgto check their voter registration
status and location. It is easy and confidential.
And, of course, you can always register to vote at
Ann Arbor City Hall, located at Fifth Avenue and
Huron Street, just a few blocks from campus.
I hope this helps a few more students vote this
election. If we all vote, then our representatives
and president will reflect our opinions and val-
ues, not a small minority's opinions and values.
Susan Bryan
School of Natural Resources and the Environment
lecturer
Russia's recent behavior is
none ofour business
TO THE DAILY:
In response to Alex Prasad's column Tuesday
about how to handle Russia's recent aggression,
I don't understand why Prasad believes that the
United States needs to be the world's policeman
(More than d cold shoulder, 09/23/2008). I chal-
lenge him to look at parallel actions from the
United States before accusing Russia of 'throw-
ing its weight around in Asia and Europe" with
"newfound bravado."
Who are we to judge what another sovereign
country should do, with whom it should mingle
and what type of government it should have?
Perhaps our interference with other countries'
sovereignty is a major reason for anti-American
sentiments around the world. Just a thought.
Although Russia has resumed bomber flights
and naval fleet movements (surely, the United
States has not done either of these since the Ber-
lin Wall came down), I think that sentiments like
Prasad's are more defining of a Cold War era than
military exercises alone.
Eric Sauck
Engineering senior
I write this viewpoint in an attempt
to clarify some of the misconceptions
surrounding immigration in the Unit-
ed States. As U.S. citizens, we feel a
sense of entitlement to anything and
everything between the borders that
by chance we were born within. When
an outsider enters these borders, we
become protective of "our" land, not
wantingthose who don't belong to take
from us. This defensive ideology, at
times necessary for our country's suc-
cess, has morphed into a popular, yet
irrational, stance on immigration.
In a recent letter to the editor about
this issue (A2 needs more, not less,
immigration enforcement, 09/11/2008),
the letter writer arguedthat, instead of
becoming a sanctuary city, Ann Arbor
should increase its arrests of undocu-
mented immigrants because they are
using up resources and are a danger
to society. This letter epitomized the
unsubstantiated and illogical view
ni w do 05 t
Stt
E
) a
many people have about immigrants'
effect on society. I would like to explain
how the immigrant population in Ann
Arbor and the country is neither soak-
ing up our resources nor endangering
our neighborhoods.
The major claim against undocu-
mented immigrants in the letter was
that undocumented immigrants are
"reaping the benefits of American
citizenship without assuming any of
the responsibilities." Undocumented
immigrants, however, receive far fewer
benefits from our society than most
think, while assuming almost equal
responsibility. Undocumented immi-
grants pay sales taxes, property taxes
and payroll taxes without receiving
the majority of social services. They do
not have access to food stamps, hous-
ing assistance, Medicaid- or Medicare-
funded hospitalization. They do not get
the benefit of fair working conditions
and a minimum wage.
Undocumented immigrants even
contribute to Social Security without
claiming benefits. In 2006 alone, the
Social Security Administration collect-
ed an estimated $6-7 billion from con-
tributions connected to invalid names.
These invalid names are usually from
undocumented
immigrants,
who get
employed with
false identifi-
cation and get
taxes taken out
of their pay-
checks under
those false
{tf names.
Though the
letter writer
claimed that
"unchecked
illegal immigra-
tiontaxes all of us unfairly," I ask
you, exactly what is unfair about
this situation?
The other accusation against
undocumented immigrants is
that their presence "dramati-
cally increases crime rates." This
claim is unsupported by facts or
rationality. Since undocumented
immigrants are "illegal," they are
at constant risk of deportation. To
avoid deportation, these people
generally try to avoid police. Since
committing a crime puts you at
greater chance of encountering the
police, undocumented immigrants
tend not to commit crimes. If you
look at data from the National
Crime Victimization Survey from the
U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics you
can see that during the period from
1994 to 2005, when some estimate the
undocumented immigrant population
to have doubled, the violent crime rate
declined by 41.2 percent.
The undocumented immigrantpop-
ulation is not harmful to our society,
yet we continue to harm them. In the
past seven months, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement in Washtenaw
County has dramatically increased
raids into immigrants' homes, deport-
ing hard-working men and women,
breaking apart families and using
questionably violent means to do so.
In his letter to the editor, the writer
argued that the Daily, in its recent edi-
torial (Sanctuary for all, 09/08/2008)
did not have enough facts to claim that
ICE was being inhumane. I offer you
some now.
According to a report from the
Spanish-language network Univision,
ICE officials entered a house in Ypsi-
lanti in mid-March, breaking through
a bedroom door where a mother was
dressing her daughter after a bath.
The family claimed that the officials
took the family into the living room
and began to yell and beat the father
and grandfather in front of the wife
and two young children, the daughter
still naked under her towel. When the
officials finally left with the two men,
blood stained the floor of the house -
blood the camera panned over in the
news report.
I think those bloodstains stand as
evidence the brutality had gone too far,
but if you are unconvinced, you should
ask the daughter what happened to her
father that night. She might respond to
you as she did to me, "He is dead. They
took him and killed him."
Ithinkthis captureshow psycholog-
ically damaging these raids have been.
Her father did not die, but because of
what she saw, the daughter could not
be convinced otherwise.
These inhumane practices by ICE
will continue and our society will
allow them to unless, as conscious citi-
zens, we can recognize the irrational-
ity of our stance on immigration. Or, at
least, we must recognize that no one,
citizen or not, deserves to be beaten
and humiliatedby law enforcement for
wanting to live within borders that by
chance that person wasn't born into.
Tiernan Seaver is an LSA junior and
a member of the Washtenaw Interfaith
Coalition for Immigrant Rights.
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