4 4 - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 74L e lWc4t'gan wily IL Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu AVE COURTNEY RATKOWIAK EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR GARY GRACA ROBERT SO EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE Unsigned editorials reflect the official position ofthe Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. Drawing the line City's new anti-graffiti ordinance unfairly targets victims ndicating that it is going to take a hard line against local vandalism, the Ann Arbor City Council passed an anti-graf- fiti ordinance last week. But the surprising thing about this ordinance is that it doesn't target those who spray paint buildings with graffiti - instead, it punishes the owners of those buildings. This new ordinance is an ill-conceived method of dealing with city crime - punishing property owners is an unfair tactic that does nothing to confront the real culprits, graffiti artists. Graf- fiti isn't even a major problem for the city, and this policy is an unnecessary approach to dealing with it. At its meeting on Jan. 19, the City Coun- cil passed an anti-graffiti ordinance that requires property owners to clean up the graffiti on their property or risk being charged a fee. The ordinance, which will take effect in 90 days, gives property own- ers a time limit for removing the graffiti - seven days if the removal notice is given to them directly and nine days if the notice is mailed. The city of Ann Arbor will then remove the graffiti if the property owner does not comply and the owner' will be charged the bill for the removal service. This ordinance is a revision to an earlier draft, which included a stricter timeframe and a heftier fine. In the original proposal, property owners would have been given two to four days to clean the graffiti or risk paying a fine of up to $500. Proponents of the policy argue that property owners should be forced to clean up graffiti because it detracts from the city's image and encourages more painting on surrounding buildings. By mandating quick cleanups for graffiti, the ordinance aims to beautify the city while eradicating vandalism. These may be admirable goals, but it just isn't clear that this law is necessary, given that graffiti just doesn't really seem to be a major problem facing the city. After all, graffiti simply isn't widespread in Ann Arbor. But even if local occurrences ofgraf- fiti truly did constitute an epidemic, this plan for dealing with it is deeply flawed. Under the new policy, property own- ers are expected to spend their money, time and effort cleaning up an act of van- dalism that was not their fault in the first place. Punishing property owners isn't the right way to fight graffiti. And it's unfair. Property owners are the victims, and they shouldn't be held responsible for these crimes. There maybe good reasons for why property owners wouldn't decide to clean up the graffiti on their own - they could be on vacation, unable to afford it or simply unwilling to clean it up. The city hasn't jus- tified requiring the owners to pay for the damage done to their buildings. If the council is so concerned about graffiti in Ann Arbor, it should construct a policy that actually addresses the prob- lem. Punishing the victims of graffiti does not deter future crime. City Council should find a way to go after the perpetrators, not the victims, if it wants to decrease graffiti. Ultimately, the city's anti-graffiti ordi- nance is both misguided and unnecessary. Even if graffiti was a widespread problem, the people who commit acts of vandalism are the ones who should be held responsi- ble for it. By punishing victims, the city is only adding insult to injury and assigning blame to the wrong party. This ordinance should be replaced with a more reason- able policy that respects the rights and interests of the city's property owners and actually takes a meaningful stand against graffiti. Had I known somebody was listening, I wouldn't have used language like that." - Rod Blagojevich, responding to a question on the television show "The View" about his use of foul language in recorded phone calls, as reported yesterday by CNN. ELAINE MORTON ( T E C E-MAIL ELAINE AT EMORT@UMICH.EDU Wkt do uWAeith 0 } r be hen rI Bloodmuscle. Breeding entitlement was perusing MSNBC last Fri- The final version that was eventually lights incertain campus areas. Every day when I stumbled across an passed by the assembly expressed election cycle, students are promised Associated Press article (Wall regret for the loss of life in Gaza and that MSA will be listening to their Street's entitle- called for the American Movement concerns and addressing them. MSA ment culture hard for Israel and Students Allied for is supposed to be our voice to the Uni- to shake, 01/23/09). Freedom and Equality to show a doc- versity on tuition, health care, hous- The basic point umentary about six Jewish women ing and a host of other issues. of the article and six Arabic women who come MSA members may protest being was that CEOs of together peacefully. considered part of a culture of enti- banks and other There are those who believe that tlement, but the evidence is against executives on Wall MSA's resolution did not go far them. For the ultimate example, look Street have been enough, and that the assembly should making too much ROBERT takestrongerstances onthisissue and money for too long other such international crises. But a time. Even as the SOAVE these people need to understand that A closer look at nation's economy fanciful resolutions calling for the spiraled downward end to wars that MSA has no influence w hat s wrong and their companies began tanking, over are a waste of time. Eight dollars many of these executives refused to of every student's tuition goes to MSA w ith MSA. take salary cuts or scale back their so that its members can administer luxurious lifestyles. The problem, the to student's immediate needs, not so article insists, is: "a deeply ingrained that they can pretend to be ambassa- culture of entitlement at financial dors to the United Nations. no further than MSA's website. The companies." MSA's continuing disregard for last project that the website lists as This had me thinking about how students' wishes is evidence that the being completed is Michael Moore's a culture of entitlement develops. assembly subscribes to a culture of visit in September of 2004. The Feeling entitled means you think you entitlement. website lists the minutes of meet- deserve something simply by virtue Though they may not be award- ings up until fall of 2008, when even of being you, and a culture of entitle- ing themselves lucrative salaries like this information runs out. So even if ment is one where everyone who is Wall Street CEOs, they have awarded MSA was accomplishing things that part of the gang automatically feels themselves the right to ignore their students care about, they wouldn't like they deserve something, too. But actual jobs. They don't feel the need have a way to check and see what the when did these powerful people start to work on student issues, they don't assembly was doing. The fact that feeling entitled as a group? care to explain themselves, and they MSA presidential candidates have As I was pondering this, I started don't feel a responsibility to uphold been promising to fix this website thinking that maybe the culture of any of the promises they make to for years is proof that they think they entitlement starts earlier for these their constituents. never have to. people. And then, as I reflected on We elected these representatives How long does this go on before we the actions of the Michigan Student to accomplish a job. Only nine per- have to stop questioning the actions Assembly, I realized that there is a cent of the student body voted, and of MSA representatives and start similar culture of entitlement sur- we didn't realistically have a diverse questioning MSA as an institution? If rounding the University's own stu- selection of candidates because of the the assembly is not serving the needs dent government. Michigan Action Party's dominance of students and is instead acting as Most students on campus should in MSA, but MSA's current represen- a breeding ground for a lifetime of by now be familiar with MSA's his- tatives were still hired by us. In the entitlement, when do we say enough? tory of not accomplishing anything same sense, they should work for us The federal government is now that its representatives promise to do and feel accountable to us. punishing Wall Street CEOs for their when they are running for election. If they did feel accountable, they reckless careers. When and how will Most students should also be aware would have to spend time handling we do the same to MSA? of what MSA has been up to lately: our issues - and there are plenty for many hours of their January 13 and them to address. Every election cycle, Robert Soave is the Daily's 21 meetings were dedicated to debat- students are promised thatsomething editorial page editor. He can be ing a resolution on the crisis in Gaza. will be done about the lack of street- reached at soave@umich.edu. 4 4 4 4 4 4 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. Letters are edited for style, length, clarity and accuracy. All submissions become property of the Daily. We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedaily@umich.edu. EMILY BARTON | V I Homegrown innovation Picture your basement or garage. Picture your high school science lab. Now merge the two scenarios, but without the image.of your teacher leaning over and explaining how to use a Bunsen burner. According to an article pub- lished last month by the Associated Press, peo- ple around the country are conducting their own amateur genetic research in an effort to better understand the field and come up with ways to bring the science community closer to finding cures. In Massachusetts, a group of amateur researchers is collaborating in a com- munity lab, complete with a freezer bought from Craigslist, that will keep bacteria alive. Other individuals are purchasing lab equip- ment to set up in their kitchens or garages. Tinkering in the science and engineering fields is not unknown - as the article pointed out, Apple and Google both began in a garage. Even though many of these amateurs have undergraduate biology degrees, most don't have the qualifications required to work in actual research labs. The thought that anyone with enough curi- osity could potentially cure Parkinson's or find a vaccination for juvenile diabetes is an encour- aging one. Such widespread research will allow more people to find science accessible and allow people without monetary constraints to do research for the sake of research. But critics are afraid that the implications of an experiment gone wrong could result in the spread of disease or other biohazards. Before the stem cell ballot initiative allowing Michi- gan scientists to derive their own embryonic stem cell lines passed in November, critics of the proposal claimed the ballot language was too ambiguous and did not provide enough reg- ulations. They were right to raise the issue: part of the initiative says no state laws can restrict stem cell research and the resulting therapies. Even though critics have a valid concern, it's not legitimate enough to shut down these amateur geneticist labs. Genetic engineering requires a lot of background knowledge just to know where to begin, and I think it's safe to assume that anyone interested in setting up a garage laboratory would be interested enough to take the time to understand what they are doing. There's also the matter of purchasing equipment and understanding how to use it. While theoretically anyone could give it a try, the thicker the amateur's wallet, the easier it is. Will amateur experimentation result in a cure for cancer? Who knows? But the more people there are thinking about the problem and looking at what is required to come up with a solution, the better. And maybe it will get more people interested in science and tech- nology - people who might otherwise assume they wouldn't have the time. Maybe someone will see something that piques the interest of someone else, who can then consult someone else and voil: a new community fostering sci- entific discovery. - ------------ Emily Barton is an associate editorial page editor. SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU Gaza conflict has a reason to be MSA should stop wasting time on included in MSA agenda irrelevant resolutions TO THE DAILY: It should be noted that the "blame" for the resolutions concerning Gaza does not fall squarely with MSA but with the students and community members who asked that these resolutions be considered and passed. While purely local concerns such as muggings and street lighting obviously need to be (and are) discussed at MSA meetings, the idea that MSA should not look beyond the boundaries of Ann Arbor to international concerns is nonsensical. On our diverse campus, many students have been affect- ed by the Gaza conflict, and their concerns should certainly not be ignored. Richard Kallus and Jeremy Borovitz wrote in last Wednesday's Letter to the Editor (MSA should spend time on more relevant issues, 01/22/2009). "We realize the situation in Gaza and Israel affects students on this campus emotionally and that many have family and friends in the region, but MSA representatives were elected to deal with campus issues, not international ones." But it is contradic- tory to admit that the issue affects many members of our campus and then to say that it must not be a campus issue. My mind is boggled by the idea that after students stood before the assembly and stated the impact that the Gaza conflict has had on them and asked for MSA to take some action, several MSA representatives were still somehow able to assert that the issue was not a student concern and-that they should be discussing things like lighting and Dance Marathon instead. What, then, is the definition of a "student concern"? Should MSA only be permitted to address issues that don't extend beyond the borders of Ann Arbor, no matter how students might be affected by it? We should realize that the word "international" implies "broad in scope" as opposed to "out of our scope" and that the more our students are affect- ed by an issue, the more - not less - MSA should do to sup- port them and address that issue. Malvika Deshmukh LSA junior TO THE DAILY: Hamdan Yousuf's impassioned defense of the MSA resolution on the Gaza conflict (Standing up to injustice in Gaza, 01/26/2009) demonstrated a fundamental misun- derstanding between Yousuf and detractors of such reso- lutions. Yousuf repeatedly claims that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a relevant issue to University students. I don't think anyone would disagree with that claim. Then, after several lines of unnecessary rhetoric, he states that the University's history of social activism and protest demands that we not be "deaf to the pleas of suffering Gazans." Again, this was not the point being contested by detractors of MSA's decision. The issue in contention is not the relevance of the Gaza conflict to the student body: it is the relevance of MSA, as an organization, to the con- flict in the Middle East. I have not read MSA's resolution. No one I know has read MSA's resolution. It will not cross the desks of Ban Ki Moon or Barack Obama. I doubt even Mary Sue Cole- man will look at it. MSA is not an authority on Middle East conflicts, nor is it a moral or intellectual authority on campus or elsewhere. It is puzzling why MSA believes its mandate includes drafting resolutions on complex global conflicts. Certainly, when MSA election time rolls around, no one is campaigning on issues of social justice or global poverty. The only things that are ever promised during elections are cheaper book prices and better light- ing around campus. As far as I can tell, there hasn't been dramatic progress on either front. So, instead of wastingtime and energy with resolutions that have no real or even symbolic impact, please consid- er justifying the destruction of countless forests for your endless neon campaign flyers by focusing on problems which are within the scope and jurisdiction of a univer- sity student government. Matthew Brunner LSA senior 4 4 EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Nina Amilineni, Emad Ansari, Emily Barton, Elise Baun, Harun Buljina, Ben Caleca, Satyajeet Deshmukh, Brian Flaherty, Emmarie Huetteman, Emma Jeszke, Shannon Kellman, Edward McPhee, Matthew Shutler, Neil Tambe, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder