4A - Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam

4A - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom

Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
ASHLEY GRIESSHAMMER
JOSEPH LICHTERMAN and ANDREW WEINER JOSH HEALY
EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS 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.
Imran Syed is the public editor. He can be reached at publiceditor@michigandaily.com.
Short-sighted short sales
Wayne County shouldn't sell back properties
The economic downturn has caused many Detroit residents
to lose their homes. Nearly 12,300 Detroit homes faced fore-
closure in 2011. As usual, county officials held auctions for
almost 6,500 homes, but most of these properties didn't find buyers,
leaving Wayne County with empty homes and no one to pay for ser-
vice to them. The Wayne County Treasury is now offering to allow
individuals to keep their foreclosed properties for payments as low
as $500. Wayne County hopes that the new plan will result in addi-
tional tax revenues for the county as well as fewer abandoned homes
and displaced residents. The-solution, however, is a shortsighted fix.
While it will be beneficial to Detroit and its struggling residents
in the short run, the city needs to implement better framework to
address substantial foreclosure woes.

JEFF ZUSCHLAG

E-MAIL JEFF AT JEFFDZ@UMICH.EDU

Speak loudly, Now...
"Speak softly, and and carry a
carry a big stick." big wallet.
Then...
The climate ofhate

*I

The Wayne County Treasury will soon
begin sending representatives door-to-door to
negotiate with residents of foreclosed homes.
These people must provide proof of their
actual residency, but won't have to meet any
other qualifications. They'll be able to retain
ownership of their homes - some for $500,
the starting auction price. In return, they'll
have to allow county officials to monitor their
affairs for two years to ensure they take care
of homes and pay respective taxes.
It's in Detroit's best interest to avoid evic-
tions while addressing vacant properties and
the city's continuing economic struggles.
Forcing those who can't afford to pay taxes to
leave their homes, however, only perpetuates
the cycle of poverty already gripping the city.
Vacant properties remaina serious nuisance.
Abandoned homes not only become eye-
sores, but also sites of illicit activity. They
can foster drug trade and other crimes while
becoming garbage sites that breed pests and
disease. Vacant properties impact the entire
community, reducing its aesthetic appeal and
further lowering property values of nearby
homes.
Keeping homes occupied would potentially
increase revenues for the city, but the plan
alone isn't enough to sustain Detroit. Selling
the homes that have fallen into county owner-
ship for a small sum is better than nothing, but

certainly not much. Last November, Mayor
Dave Bing predicted a deficit of up to $45 mil-
lion in the upcoming year, and the city is cur-
rently working against the bankruptcy clock.
Selling 6,000 homes for a starting bid of $500
will only be a drop in the enormous bucket of
Detroit's economic woes.
The policy points in the right direction:
getting these properties off the city's hands
and providing places to live to those who are
homeless. Bailing out residents by allowing
them to re-buy their homes, however, is unfair
to those who have responsibly paid taxes.
Wayne County's plan sets a dangerous
precedent for abuse of the system. Residents
will have reduced incentive to retain home
ownership with the knowledge the county
will simply sell foreclosed properties back to
the previous owners. This is toxic to a city that
already has trouble collecting taxes and is in
desperate need of revenue.
Wayne County's attempted price fix to
Detroit's massive foreclosure problem is a
weak patch-up. Detroit should resist resorting
to mass evictions, but selling homes for small
change to owners with poor track records
isn't the answer. It will only frustrate resi-
dents who do pay their taxes and encourage
those who don't to continue. Vacant proper-
ties in Detroit need to be addressed, but this
policy isn't the right solution.

J n Anoka, Minn. - part of Rep.
Michele Bachmann's (R-Minn.)
congressional district until
district lines
were redrawn
after the 2010
census - nine
adolescents
have taken
their own lives
over the past
two years. tu- SETH
dents suffered SEH
homophobic SODERBORG
bullying while
their teach-
ers and school administrators
remained silent. A school district
policy called "No Homo Promo"
meant the faculty could have con-
sequences for reaching out to per-
secuted students. Their stories are a
poignant reminder that to be young
and different in the United States
can mean years of silent suffering.
Terrible things happen when the
politics of intolerance and revenge
intersect with the short-sighted,
cruel teen world.
When tragedy occurs we search
for people to blame. Sometimes,
that search produces clear evidence
of wrongdoing and culpability. At
other times, the search for respon-
sibility leads to a tangle of intercon-
necting causes. In such cases, our
institutions are rarely able to sort
things out appropriately. Such is the
case with the trial of Dharun Ravi,
a former Rutgers University student
whose roommate, Tyler Clementi,
killed himself last fall.
A few days before Clementi died,
Ravi had used a webcam to watch
him embrace another man in the
room they shared. Two days before
Clementi took his own life, Ravi tried
to watch another encounter between
Clementi and the same man. Nothing
was recorded; no one saw anything
pornographic, and Clementi had
been open about his sexual orienta-

tion before the webcam viewings.
Press reports claimed that Ravi post-
ed a compromising video to YouTube
and outed Clementi - those reports
were mistaken.
Activists who believed the inac-
curate reports pressured New Jer-
sey officials into charging Ravi with
invasion of privacy and "bias intimi-
dation," a hate crime. Had Clementi
not taken his own life, Ravi would
almost certainly have been disci-
plined by Rutgers, notthe state.
The claim that Ravi's actions
were motivated by homophobia
rests on shaky ground. The most
important evidence was his use of
anti-gay slurs to insult heterosexual
friends on Twitter and iChat - a far
cry from the systematic abuse that'
"bias intimidation" was created to
punish.
It's almost impossible to under-
stand what specific events moti-
vate someone to take his or her
own life. Most suicides take root
in deep, long-term suffering - they
are the result of abuse, depression
or personal tragedy. In many cases,
mental state matters more than
individual events. Ravi is on trial
because activists, the press and the
state of New Jersey have assumed
that the webcam incident, occur-
ring days before Clementi died, was
the cause of Clementi's death. The
facts that have been made public do
not provide clear support for that
thesis.
We should be wary of any expla-
nation of a suicide that hinges on
assumptions about the victim's
mental state. If Clementi had left a
note saying that he had jumped from
NewYork City's GeorgeWashington
Bridge because Ravi had spied on
him, would it be trustworthy? How
would we know that his transition
to college, the stress of coming out
to his family a few weeks prior or
any of the other things that can hap-
pen to a young man in his first weeks

away from home didn't play into his
unfortunate action? The lack of a
convincing answer suggests that
jailing his former roommate and
possibly deporting his family - the
Ravis are citizens of India - is the
wrong response.
We search for
people to blame
for tragedies.
Implicit in the mistaken assump-
tion that Clementi was ashamed
of having been outed is a sad fact
about life in America today: Mil-
lions of people are ashamed about
who they are. That shame exists
because of people like the preachers
in Anoka who, on Sundays, teach
the bigotry that students bring to
school on Monday..
Unlike Clementi, the Anoka
students who died suffered ter-
rible, systematic abuse. They bore
it for years while the school district
kept its staff from doing anything
to help. The Anoka students who
abused others, the administrators
who abetted them and the preach-
ers who fostered a climate of hate
should bear the blame. It was this
climate of hate - not a single event
- that drove the victims to despair.
In a just world, those responsible
would be punished, while those
whose role is unclear, like Ravi,
would not. In a better world, hatred
wouldn't exist at all, and none of
these young people would have lost
their lives.

- Seth Soderborg can be reached at
sethns@umich.edu. Follow him on
Twitter at @thedailyseth.

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Aida Ali, Laura Argintar, Kaan Avdan, Ashley Griesshammer, Nirbhay Jain, Jesse Klein,
Patrick Maillet, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata, Harsha Panduranga, Timothy Rabb, Adrienne
Roberts; Vanessa Rychlinski, Sarah Skaluba, Seth Soderborg, Caroline Syms, Andrew Weiner

CONTRIBUTE TO THE COVERSATION
Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and viewpoints. Letters should
be fewer than 300 words while viewpoints should be 550-850 words.
Both must include the writer's full name and University affiliation.
Send submissions to tothedaily@michigandaily.com
KEVIN MERSOL-BRAG AND AMY NAVVABI
OurMichigan for our university

01

SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@MICHIGANDAILY.COM

Personal attacks detract
from meaningful debate
TO THE DAILY:
In his letter to The Michigan Daily, Eric
Zech describes enjoying his working rela-
tionship with his adviser. It's his right to
admire her - many GSRAs who are active in
GEO experience the great working relation-
ships that define collaboration in research at
its finest.
We take Zech at his word when it comes
to his assertion of independent action, but
personal attacks that appear to have the tacit
support of a faculty member create a climate
of fear and stifle open debate. The mounting
attacks on Jennifer Dibbern exemplify the
Remain aware of different
types of relationships

fearful tactics of union-busters who oppose
not just unionization, but the right of GSRAs
to choose for ourselves.
The replacement of democratic debate
with diversionary character attacks doesn't
befit the University of Michigan - it's sadly
one of the oldest tricks in the history of cor-
porate union-busting.
We want to proceed with an expedit-
ed, free and fair union election conducted
under the auspices of the Michigan Employ-
ment Relations Commission. We urge those
opposed to our organizing to trade in their
character attacks for the democratic debate
better suited to a superior university.
Alix Gould-Werth, Nina White and
Samantha Montgomery
On behalf of GEO
from the fact that these images were rep-
resenting Valentine's Day - the day love is
celebrated by the public. According to this
image, apparently, love only exists between
girls, who wear dresses and like pink, and
boys, who do not wear dressesand like blue.
In what kind of time is the Daily existing
if they think that these stereotypes actually
hold true? In an attempt to avoid a passive-
aggressive conclusion, I suggest simply this:
please be more conscientious of things like
this - for the sake of equality, justice and
respect for your audience.


Our student government ought to be a vibrant inter-
section of student voices and an advocate for change
on campus. The Central Student Government should,
use its access and influence to improve the lives of stu-
dents. By uniting student leaders from across campus
and pushing to make our university moreaccessible,
CSG can ensure that the leaders and best from all over
the world have an equal opportunity to attend, not just
those who can most easily afford it. Unfortunately,
too many currently in student government substitute
speech for action and resolutions for change.
Our campus deserves better, which is why we're run-
ning for president and vice president of Central Student
Government.
It's also why we decided to start the OurMichigan
coalition, a diverse group of student leaders who are
committed to refocusing the role of student govern-
ment. We know that CSG can do better because we'ye
seen what students can do when they work together
to fight for change. Public Policy junior Kevin Mersol-
Barg co-founded the Coalition for Tuition Equality,
which advocates for greater college accessibility for all
Michigan high school graduates. He brought together
hundreds of students, faculty and administrators to
demonstrate broad support for this new policy. LSA
junior Amy Navvab is leading the Open Housing Initia-
tive. Under her direction, the initiative worked success-
fully wit'h the University to expand housing options
for transgender and gender non-conforming students,
ensuring more students a safe and welcoming living
experience on campus.
These experiences have motivated us to run for
president and vice president of CSG. Having worked in
grassroots campaigns during our time at the University,
we see the potential of CSG and, more importantly, we
see the ways in which CSG falls short. One area where
CSG has failed to act is in promoting a more afford-
able college experience. As student body president and
vice-president, we will work with students and fight to
ensure that the University is more accessible.

First, we will stand strongly against further tuition
hikes. Unlike the past several CSG administrations, *
however, we will go beyond rhetoric by building a coali-
tion of concerned students and student organizations
to amplify our message. We know how to unite student
leaders across campus to create change, and we know
how to make administrators listen.
But combating rising tuition, while important, is not
enough; we must work to ensure that college life is more
affordable as well. Students struggle to afford the neces-
sities of attending college. Textbook costs are climbing,
food prices are eating away at disposable income and
housing options remain out of reach for many. Students
ought to have a role in making our city an affordable place
to live, and we need a student government that will bring
students together to amplify our voices.
In order to achieve these goals, CSG needs to change
how it operates, a change we know is worth making.
But we can't do that alone. Our work outside of student
government tells us that students are only successful
when we bring together a wide and diverse array of
voices. The perspectives, ideas and talents of students
and student organizations enable us to identify creative
solutionsto immense challenges.
That's where you come in. We're looking for passion-
ate leaders who will work hard to make CSG a stron-
ger voice for students. If you're interested in getting
involved or running with us, please e-mail.OurMichi-
gan@umich.edu.
We know this work will be difficult. CSG has paid lip
service toward meaningful change in the lives of stu-
dents for too long. Our experience outside of CSG tells
us this doesn't have to be the case. Students and student
government have tremendous potential if we can bring
people from all over campus together to advocate for
one another. While difficult, we know this is a change
worth making.

TO THE DAILY:
This morning, I noticed, with a sort ofrevolt-
ed surprise, two figures standing atop the front
page of The Michigan Daily. In one corner, a
standard outline of what generally represents a
person, and inthe other corner, a similar figure
that appears to be wearing a dress.
These are your typical, governmentally-
regulated symbols for male and female, most
commonly denoting which bathroom is for
which gender. My disgust, however, came

Sarah Alexander
LSA Sophomore


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.

I

Kevin Mersol-Brag is a Public Policy junior
and Amy Navvab is an LSAjunior.


A .

A