0 4A -Wednesday, November 2, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com V_ .! ... ...v .. ... . ... y ipian atly Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandailycom MICHELLE DEWITT STEPHANIE STEINBERG and EMILY ORLEY NICK SPAR EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position oftthe Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views ofttheir authors. Imran Syed is the public editor. He can be reached at publiceditor@michigandaily.com. F ROM T HE DA ILY Decreasing degree debt Loan forgiveness benefits students and economy The familiar image of recent college graduates struggling under a pile of debt is being recast. A new student loan policy recently announced by President Barack Obama will lower the percentage of annual income debtors have to pay on their loans and shorten the loan repayment period by five years. College is becoming increasingly expensive, but a college degree is a neces- sity in today's job market. Obama's new plan is a great relief for stu- dents with loans and shows his dedication to students and higher education. The most racist day of the year et me preface this column by saying that I don't care about Hallow- een. I can appre- ciate the fact that this faux holiday gives people a " reason to have parties, and -I certainly enjoy free keg beer as much as the next JOE guy. But after SUGIYAMA my elementary school years that were filled with Power Ranger cos- tumes and sugar-highs, I came to the realization that the whole concept of playing dress up is stupid. Iam rarely seen dressed in anything other than Michigan T-shirts and basketball shorts, so a weekend that revolves entirely around what one is wearing isbasicallymyworst nightmare. I've spent every Halloween of my adult life trying to resist the societal notion that I have to put an incred- ible amount of thought and time into a costume. But despite my ever- growing disdain for Halloween, I have to admit that the holiday does create a good forum to discuss larger societal issues that may otherwise be neglected. I don't think I'm alone in describ- ing some of the female costume choices around campus as some- what, ahem, risque. I've never really given the tradition of bearing it all on Halloween a second thought. It's as American as apple pie. But some don't see it that way. In an Oct. 26 article in Consider magazine, Katie Sauter pointed out a few reasons why racy costumes for women are a result of a male dominated society. Sauter places the blame mainly on the male CEOs of various cos- tume hot spots for their patriarchal tendencies that serve to "police the acts of women." Though Sauter does have a point that many cos- tume stores offer an overwhelming variety of sexy nurse/nun/teacher/ angel/devil outfits, young women who purchase these costumes ulti- mately, for one reason or another, make their own decision to do so. The question is, why? I don't have the answer, but the danger in this discussion is to over- simplify these decisions by making them solely about a patriarchal soci- ety or to oversimplify issues of femi- nism by making them exclusively about how women dress. There are issues facing women all around the world, such as wage disparities and sexual violence, that don't get half the attention that sexy kitten cos- tumes get on Halloween. And feminism is not the only social issue that gets its moment in the sun on Halloween. Racist cos- tumes are also a hot button issue. Most would agree that costumes like dressing in blackface is racist and nothing else, butstudents at The Ohio University have brought other cultural insensitivities to light. In a recent movement by an orga- nization called Students Teaching About Racism in Society, advertise- ments have been created that show minority students holding pictures of racist costumes with captions reading, "We're a culture, not a cos- tume." One of the flyers displays a disheartened Asian student holding a picture of a caricature-like Geisha. Another shows a Middle Eastern student holding a picture of a sui- cide bomber with a detonator in one hand and a beer in the other. These are just two examples of a seemingly unlimited supply of racist outfits. Halloween is supposed to be a fun and harmless holiday, but many who don offensive costumes will use this mentality as an excuse to defend their bigoted choices. As a Japanese American, I find it difficult to write off these racial insensitivities as harmless cos- tumes. Racist Halloween costumes cause a once a year regression into our segregated past. They magnify our country's inability to move for- ward, while putting our cultural ignorance on full display. Halloween is a forum for societal issues. The STARS flyers aren't the first brush with racism that I've experi- enced, nor do Iexpect themto be the last. But such strong images high- light that racism is a problem that still exists in the country. While the flyers were successful in generat- ing conversation, it shouldn't take costumes to make people acknowl- edge true racial issues. Issues such as minority underrepresentation in government, deep-seeded racial divides in the South and economic inequality should be a part of a daily dialogue. I don't think that everyone who dresses up for Halloween is a racist, anti-feminist idiot -- the idiots of the world certainly don't need costumes to show their ignorance. However, I do take issue with how the old Celtic celebration of summer's end - which everyone knows is where the celebration of Halloween originates from - seems to be one of the only times that certain issues are brought to the forefront of conversation. Racism and feminism are issues that arise in our daily lives, not just our costume selection, and young people need to think about them in a larger context, not just once a year. -Joe Sugiyama can be reached at jmsugi@umich.edu. 0 0 The reforms tothe income-based repayment program, which the president announced last week as the "Pay-As-You-Earn" plan, will take effect next year. They reduce the percentage of annual discretionary income that debtors have to pay from 15 percent to 10 percent. Student loans will be forgiven after 20 years under the new policy - five years earlier than the old system. The new policy will also ease the debt burden for the 450,000 borrowers currently enrolled in the loan program nationwide. Tuition rises every year, and with the dif- ficulty in finding jobs, it is becoming increas- ingly challenging for students to pay off their loansontime.Accordingto the College Board, college tuition and fees have risen by an aver- age of5.6 percent each year in the past decade. Protests have taken place at many universi- ties,:yet tuition continues to climb. At the Uni- versity, in-state tuition increased 6.7 percent this year. Rising tuition'costs have forced many stu- dents to borrow money with the hope that their decision will pay off in the future with a good job. Under the former policy of 25 years of loan repayment before forgiveness, student borrowers could still be paying off their debt when sending their kids to college. With a nationwide unemployment rate of 9.1 percent, students with large loans face even greater .challenges after graduation. Many recent graduates take low-paying jobs, attend graduate school or simply face unemployment, which makes it hard for them to make timely payments on student loans. These recent grad- uates need assistance, or many will be forced into dire financial straits. Some criticize Obama's relief policy because there is a concern that unpaid loans could greatly increase other taxpayers' bur- den. While these are valid concerns, the real- ity is that if a massive number of graduates default on their loans, the results could be economically disastrous. However, the reform will monitor payments to ensure this doesn't happen. Student loan repayment reform will greatly relieve struggling recent graduates and will ultimately help the ecorAomy because these individuals will be able to contribute positively to the economy after they pay back their debts. As students, we appreciate the president's new policy. It lessens the burden on borrowers who are struggling with increased tuition and a poor job market. The policy also encourages more students to attend college who otherwise may not have because of the large financial burden. Obama's policy shows a commitment to the future of young people in America and will likely prove tobe economically beneficial. 0 EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Aida Ali, Michelle DeWitt, Ashley Griesshammer, Nirbhay Jain, Patrick Maillet, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata, Emily Orley, Teddy Papes, Timothy Rabb, Vanessa Rychlinski, Caroline Sims, Seth Soderborg, Andrew Weiner ALLIE GOLDSTEIN I a The next billion women ALEXANDER HEPPERLE |VEWPONT Stay classy, Ann Arbor 6 The University was fortunate enough to host House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Monday for a lecture on his view of the problems the nation faces, especially our economic hard- ships, and how best to address them in today's day and age. I was excited to see a speaker of this magnitude in person. Not being a very political man myself, I went in pretty much unbiased. I don't define myself as a Democrat nor a Republican, but rather a middleman who sways with the wind of respective issues based on my own personal issues. As soon as I approached the Michigan League, I saw what was unmistakably a mob of protesters picketing and yelling things like "R.I.P. Middle Class!" Generally being a pretty level-headed, non-aggressive person, I felt a bit uncomfortable. I prefer to avoid a fight if I can, so I began wondering just what kind of political tension I was getting myself into. I absolutely support free speech, however, even in its most extreme forms, and it's noth- ing new to see people voicing their opinion in every kind of venue you can imagine on and around the campus. Though on this day, I can't say I was too supportive of what I saw take place. Let's start with a short biopic: At first sight, Cantor looks like your average political guy. He's white, middle aged, Ivy League educated, Southern and conservative. But one can't Sparknote this man and get the full story. He's not your aver- age white, Southern lawyer. To begin with, Cantor is Jewish. He repre- sents a vastly under-represented religion in terms of the political spectrum in this country. In fact, Cantor is the only Jewish Republican member in all of Congress. Does he come from old Southern money? No, that'd be assum- ing too much. Cantor's grandparents escaped religious persecution in Hungary at the turn of the 20th century and came to the U.S. with few possessions but high hopes - like so many other families in search of the American Dream. Oh yeah, and his daughter is a student here. Just like us. Now let me say I consider this University to be a classy school. A school of gentlemen and ladies, alike. This event was sponsored by the Ford School of Public Policy, which is named after a certain alum who we refer to today as the late, great President Gerald Ford. While attending this school, not only did Ford make it work coming from a local, broken family - he rose through the ranks of the social strata, became captain of the football team, state politician and, of course, later the President of the United States. A man of class. A true Michigan victor. The behavior I witnessed at this event was generallynot classy or respectful, and certainly not behavior Ford would condone. We already know why, don't we? It's pretty much undeni- able that Ann Arbor, on occasion, is simply too liberal for its own good. Too much of anything turns into a bad thing. Students cheered on every cutting, far-left-leaning question like "How is the American dream alive in Scandi- navia?" and "Do charter schools mean the end of public education?" with whistles and yells before the congressman was even given the chance to respond. People, can you imagine how this man must have felt? He is a Republican politician from Richmond, Va. who took the time out of his insane schedule to talk to us. Before you make some snide comment at a public speaking event, think about what you're really saying. Yes, I know how smart you are with your sophisticat- ed Philosophy 400 level class. But do you hold a J.D. from William and Mary Law? How closely doyou work with President Barack Obama? This isn't a question of right and wrong, demented opinions or even corrupt politicians who could be interested in hurting national interest. This is a question of tolerance. Please do voice your opinion, but do it appropriately. It is simply not OK to invite a middle-aged father of three, who is far more educated and more experienced than most of us will probably ever be, to speak at your school and then attack him for expressinghis ideas on how bestto help this country. That is not only rude and disturbing, it's downright embarrassing conduct for any Michigan Wolverine. Expect Respect. Give it. Get it. That state- ment is the University's new motto, so follow suit. Voice your opinion, but in the words of Eric Cantor himself, "It is a fact that at some pointswe must agree to disagree to get through this life together." Watch your words guys, and please continue to stay classy Ann Arbor. Alexander Hepperle is an LSA sophomore. The human population was set to hit the 7 billion mark on Halloween this week, and for many, the timing is appropriately spooky. Demographers are projecting the world population will level off by the 21st century, but in the meantime, 2 billion people will join us on the planet. The media has long been equating population growth with apocalypse - employing the logic that more people means resource scarcity which means con- flict. And, until recently, I had more or less been drink- ing that Kool-Aid. The "slice of the pie" metaphor is a captivating pne: In a world of finite resources, it makes sense that more resource users would deplete the metaphorical pie, which would lead to fighting over the scraps. What's the solution? Women, of course! If women have fewer babies, there will be fewer pie gobblers and more scraps to go peacefully around. Right? Well, not quite. The metaphor is superficially logical but, as I will explain, fundamentally flawed. Though women are indeed keyto preventing population chaos, it's for an entirely different reason than you might assume. Let's tear down the equation piece by piece. First, stating more people leads to resource scarcity ignores the reality of per capita consumption. According to the New York Times, Americans consume 32 times more than those living in the developing world. Also, as geog- rapher William Moseley points out, the conception of people as a drain on resources ignores much of the truth on the ground. In Machakos, Kenya, agriculture has flourished rather than perished as population density increases, since more people are working the land. The same is true in many other parts of the world. As for the second part of the equation - resource scarcity leads to conflict - real world examples indicate that resource abundance leads to conflict just as often as resource scarcity does. Oil conflict in Nigeria didn't exist until the oil started flowing. In many cases, it is the production of resources that channels violence. The can- cer that runs rampant in 48217, the zip code in Michigan home of a Marathon oil refinery, among other polluting industries, is an example of resource production leading to slow but brutal suffering. As is the recent earthquake in Japan, which released radiation in the landscape. So, despite its glaring flaws, why is the assumed equa- tion still so hypnotizing? Perhaps it's because the other option - more rich people leads to resource overpro- duction/overconsumption leads to conflict - hits too close to home. When it comes to driving conflict, how people pro- duce and consume resources is a lot more important than how many people there are, which iswhere women come back in. Conflict - whether driven by resource scarcity, abundance or production - is often perpetu- ated by men and endured by women. As the United Nations' 2010 State of the World's Population reports, "Women rarely wage war, but they too often suffer the worst of its consequences," from rape to economic hard- ship to the inability to go to school. A recent study by political scientists Mary Caprioli and Mark Boyer found that nations with greater domestic gender equality were less likely to resort to violence in an international crisis. And women's organizations - though often excluded from formal negotiations - have been critical in peace-building processes both post and during conflict, according to the Peace Research Institute. When I think of female peacekeepers, I think of Sil- via Ventancourt, the woman I lived with this summer in Intag, Ecuador. Silvia is one of 10 children; her partner Jos4 is one of nine. They have a single child, Mattias, and plans for exactly two more. Following the trajectory of many developing countries, Ecuador's fertility rate has declined significantly in recent decades, and many par- ents are finding themselves in nuclear families a fraction of the size of the ones they grew up in. But Silvia's peacekeeping power is not derived from her skillful family planning. It comes from her promi- nent role in her community. She is a leader in Mujer y Medioambiente, a women's group that makes handbags out of a local Andean plant and sells them to interna- tional markets. There are several women's groups in Intag, all of which work on creating alternative economies to min- ing - an industry that has caused contamination and conflict in their subtropical forest home. As one man admitted to me, while the men are busy plundering nonrenewable resources, the women of Intag "are more interested in having water for their children." Put- ting women like Silvia at the helm will lead to savvier resource use and mitigated violence on an increasingly populated planet. Women are still a pivotal variable in the conflict equa- tion, but because of their value as people, rather than vessels for population growth. We should all keep this in mind when deciding to lament - or celebrate-the 7 billion milestone. Allie Goldstein is a first-year Rackham student. 6 6 FOLLOW DAILY OPINION ON TWITTER Keep up with columnists, read Daily editorials, view cartoons and join in the debate. Check out @michdailyoped to get updates on Daily opinion content throughout the day. 0