I* The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Friday, February 17, 2012 - 5 JOE BIDEN For abuse, 'l is 2 many More than twenty years ago, I read a study of junior high school students in Rhode Island that included one finding I've never been able to get out of my head. Students were asked if a man who spent money on a woman during a date was entitled to force her into sexual activity. An astounding 25 percent of the young boys said yes - and even more astounding, 17 percent of the junior high school " girls agreed. You may think that sounds like a long time ago - and it was. But, sadly, dating violence remains a very real problem in our country - especially on college campuses. Today, while in college, nearly one in five women will be a victim of sexual assault and one in ten teens will be hurt on purpose by someone they are dating. These aren't just statistics, these are people you know: your roommates, your friends, your sisters, your classmates. This is a problem we all have to face. My dad used to say that there's no worse sin than the abuse of power. Whether it was raising a hand to someone weaker, or using any advantage to push people around, he taught me that if you saw abuse, you had an obligation to attempt to stop it. It's a lesson to remember every day, but especially this February, during Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. Awareness is the first step to pushing back against a problem this big. When I held Senate hearings on violence against women more than two decades ago, domestic abuse in American society was rarely spo- ken about in public. I'll never forget the stories of abuse I heard in over a thousand hours of hearings. The brutality of family members, acquaintances, and strangers against the women in their lives was absolutely devastating. It was those hearings that led to the Violence Against Women Act, and since then annual inci- dents of domestic violence have dropped by more than 50%. But for women in college and younger today, the risk is still much too high. That's why I joined with Education Secretary Arne Duncan last April to announce historic new guidelines for colleges and universities about their responsibilities under Title IX to prevent sexual assault. Under the federal civil rights law, schools have an obligation not only to respond appropriately when an assault occurs, but also to create a climate on campus that makes such violence unacceptable. I also started an initiative called lis2many to help reduce dating violence and sexual assault among teens and young adults. We harnessed the power of technology to get our message out, launching a national contest to develop "Apps Against Abuse." The two winning apps - which will be available later this spring - will let you get in touch with your friends quickly and safely so you can call for help if you need it and stop violence in its tracks. We've also made sure the National Dating Abuse Helpline can be reached by text, online or phone 24/7. Last month, the FBI changed the way the fed- eral government defines rape. The narrow, out- dated definition - unchanged since 1929 - said the assault had to be forcible and against a woman's will to be classified as rape. It's just not true, and it's a point that I make on college campuses all across the country. Rape is rape, and no means no. No means no whether drunk or sober. No means no whether in the dorm room or on the street. There is never an excuse. Young women and men alike need to understand this. Under the new definition, rape occurs when there is no consent, and it also includes sexual assault against boys and young men in national law enforcement reporting. These are important changes, but ending dat- ing violence and sexual assault isn't just a matter of laws and legislation. It's about education. It's about attitudes. It's about your participation. I need your help to address this issue in your dorms and on your campuses. Studies show that men's ideas about what other men think is one of the strongest determinants of how they act. So guys, you need to speak out. The ultimate measure of a civilized society is how its laws and culture treat the abuse of women. Attitudes can change. Violence can end. But it can't happen without universal understanding that dating violence and sexual assault will never be tolerated anywhere, at any time, for any reason. Period. That's all of our responsibility. Joe Biden is the Vice President of the United States. The Honorable Rick SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@MICHIGANDAILY.COM DETRIOT - B efore my candidate for President of these Americas, the former- but-always- honorable Pennsylva- nia Sen. Rick " Santorum, went from his honor- able seat to the even honorable-r ANDREW podium at a WEINER Detroit Eco- nomic Club luncheon yesterday, a prayer was recited. Well, two, I suppose. The first and always-foremost favorite prayer:the Pledge of Alle- giance. I mean, I don't need to re- pledge my allegiance to America, as I was born here and born with allegiance in my beating heart. But still, it's nice to hear. A priest recited the second. It was a nice concept, but the con- tent was all wrong. Frankly, it was offensive to real red-white-and- bluers such as Mr. Santorum and myself. The priest had the right idea when he blessed the blessed candidate - but then he made a grave, and possibly communist, error. Along with Rick, he blessed allwho seek office. All? Father, for someone who has such a direct line to the big man upstairs, you should know that God specifically and explicitly does not bless all candidates - that would include a certain Kenyan-secret-Muslim-non- American-who-shall-not-be- named. How do I know God's will? Rick told me, and who would know it better than the former representative of Pennsylvania? After all, what's Scranton if not a modern day Garden of Eden? Speaking of paradise, Rick said he was hot and bothered to be in Detroit, a city that was "known for prosperity." Detroit: model to the country - nay, the world! And Detroit was honored he was here, too. No eyes could have been more honored to look upon the future President of the United States of America than the student groups that were there. A couple stu- dents fainted from the sheer sight of him - wait, that was me. Each group's plate was paid for by a sponsor, which sounds an awful lot like a handout, if you ask me. But since they were from a busi- ness, I'll have to ask Rick if that's honorable. Rick talked a lot about taxes. Luckily for real American job creators like myself - I recently hired two dogs to paint a por- trait of another dog - he talked about my favorite kind of taxes: no taxes. I don't always pay taxes, but when I do, my rate is in single digits. So while only two rates for income taxes are nice - 10 per- cent and 28 percent that Ricky proposed in his speech - I would have thought God would have told his BFF Rick to keep them a little honorably closer to my favorite number: no taxes. While we're on numbers, Rick spoke to the Occupiers, or as my painting dogs and I like to call them, "the poor." Rick, honor- able as ever, knows that Presi- dent Oh-what's-his-name has been engaging in class warfare since the day he was born in the hot Kenyan sun. Rick knows this isn't about 99 percent, or Mitt the Mud- slinger's 95 percent. We need a candidate like Rickles, who said at that podium he supports 100 percent of the 1 percent. I think. Don't quote me on those num- bers. Fractions aren't really my thing. If they were, I'd be a lib- eral elitist. Speaking of liberal elit- ists: Obama. As if I needed any reminder other than the gap- ing hole in my heart since he took office, I learned some new reasons Obama has ruined our country beyond repair - unless Rick wins. Did you know that by raising federal fuel economy standards, the Socialist in Chief forced automakers to produce more unsafe cars? Rick said it, so it must be true. Or how about the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline? Rick told us today that Obama has social-communist idea to keep natural resources in the ground. Rick and I want them in the economy where they belong. He brought a rock along that sup- posedly oil comes from. I usu- ally don't believe in that science mumbo-jumbo, but I'll take his word for it. Most importantly, Rick warned me of Obama's biggest war against society: the war on families. I don't understand the economic formula behind it, but families are absolutely vital to our economy. And not just any kind, the honorable kind. If you don't know what kind that .is, you're probably in the wrong kind. Family, oil rocks and ending with a Reagan quote. We need families with amoth- er and a father. Marriage is on the decline, and that just doesn't groove with Rick, myself or my dogs and their paintbrushes. To encourage the honorable types to have honorable-type children, Rick will triple child deductions and end marriage tax penalties. After all, Rick said an over- whelming majority of prison inmates grew up without a father. We've got to save the family before all our kids are in prison! Maybe all children should be required to have two fathers. They could even share a bed tobe economical! Because here in America, the Shining City on a Hill, isn't fam- ily, oil rocks and ending with a Reagan quotation what we're all about? It is in Rick's America, and isn't his the honorable kind? - Andrew Weiner can be reached at anweiner@umich.edu or on Twitter at @AndrewWeiner. Celebrating 40 years of Title IX TO THE DAILY: In honor of the 40th anniversary of Title IX, the Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, my public radio station aired a story on the sub- stantial improvement in girls' and women's sports since Title IX was enacted in 1972. As I listened, I distinctly recalled my own experience at the Uni- versity of Michigan, where I started the women's lacrosse team. It was the mid-1980s, 13 years after the passage of Title IX, and I was a freshman at the University. An East Coast transplant living in the Midwest for the first time, I had spent my spring seasons playing high school girls' lacrosse. So it was with some dis- may when I fielded questions repeatedly about the wooden stick laced with leather straps that I carried around campus with me looking for a playmate. After finding a critical mass of women who knew 9 what my foreign object was and how to use it, my effort to start a team began. At the time there was a men's club lacrosse team, so precedent for such an endeavor existed. The Athletic Department approved our application and gave us a modest sum of money and permission to use the turf late in the evening on a weeknight to practice. Each player paid dues, and we used the money to buy equipment and uniforms and rent vans to travel to our games. I remember the long walk to the field downby the Intramural Sports Building on those chilly March nights. Being mindful of our safety on those dark, deserted streets, we would walk there and back as one large posse, carrying dangerous instruments we called lax sticks. On the field under the lights, after the men had their practice, we would run drills, condition and strategize for our upcoming games. We were a motley crew of University women, from freshmen to graduate students, all coming together under tough conditions for the love of lacrosse and the camaraderie of team sports. On the weekends we rented vans and drove ourselves three hours south to play other women's college teams. Because there wasn'tone other lacrosse team in Michigan, when we wanted to compete closer to home, we played against the few suburban Detroit high schools that had girls' lacrosse teams. Four years later, when I left Michi- gan, the team was growing in size and strength. Those were the 1980s. Much has improved since that time - both at my beloved University and for female athletes around the country. Women athletes my age have stories much the same. As I look to my daughter's generation of competitors, I am mindful of the past and encouraged by the .course that has been set for the future. Hillary B. Farber 1988 University alumni PATRICK MAILLETI Politicians have a funny way of rewriting history FARMINGTON HILLS - Politicians have a funny way of rewriting history. Few people exemplify this unfortu- nate truth better than former Massa- chusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a Romney campaign luncheon in Farmington Hills where Republican Gov. Rick Snyder publicly endorsed Romney's presiden- tial candidacy. Prior to yesterday's luncheon, Rom- ney had been campaigning throughout Michigan and focusing much of the discussion on Detroit's auto industry, particularly General Motors. GM, the largest member of the Detroit Three automakers, was the focus of an op-ed written by Romney in the Detroit News on Tuesday. In the op-ed, Romney declared that President Barack Obama had used "crony capitalism" to bailout GM and Chrysler, and that he should have instead allowed the free market to function and force the two automak- ers into managed bankruptcy. Romney went on to claim that because Obama did not allow the free market to fluctu- ate naturally, Detroit has been unable to recover as well as it could have. Coincidentally, yesterday was also the day GM released its 2011 financial report from 2011. After a year of rebuild- ing the company and repaying much of its bailout money, GM reported $7.6 bil- lion in earnings for 2011, the highest in the company's history. Because of the massive profit, 47,500 hourly workers will be eligible to receive revenue-shar- ing checks of up to $7,000. Best of all, due to its eighth consecutive profitable quarter, GM is once again the largest carmaker in the world, reclaiming their position from Toyota. At 10:30 a.m. yesterday, one hour prior to Romney's speech, I was finally able to secure my seat in the designat- ed press area and wait for the event to start. Shares of GM were already up an astonishing 4.13 percent. I discussed with a fellow Daily staffer how unlucky it was that Romney was about to speak just hours after GM proved him wrong. How embarrassing it was going to be to look at this room filled with Michi- gan voters and accept responsibility for being wrong about the government's role in saving the auto industry. By 11:45 a.m., 15 minutes after Rom- ney was supposed to speak, GM shares were continuing to climb - they had already risen by 5.86 percent. As is expected of presidential candidates, Romney was running late. I began scan- ning through my phone. Of the many articles concerning GM's positive announcement, one delivered yet another political blow for Romney. The Economist renounced its ear- lier support of Romney's stance on GM's bailout. At the height of the cri- sis, the magazine agreed with Romney: The government shouldn't bailout the auto industry, it instead favored man- aged bankruptcy. Taking into account GM's reported success, The Economist decided it was wrong to support Rom- ney's stance. If the government had not stepped in, the managed bankruptcy that the company eventually entered in 2009 could have likely ended in the col- lapse of the entire automotive industry. Finally, Romney entered the building with Snyder, and after a few brief intro- ductions, the pair stepped on stage. Like Romney, Snyder was a venture capital- ist prior to entering politics. Snyder claimed that because of Romney's abili- ty to run a successful company, Romney was the best choice for president. "Washington is holding Michigan back," Snyder claimed, and voting for a Michigander who "understands the problems this state faces" would correct this. Romney was quick to accept the blessing, explaining to the crowd why he is a true Detroiter. Here we go. Finally, Romney was going to bring up the auto industry and either explain he was wrong or continue bashing the bailout. Instead, Romney explained why he loved Michigan, loved our lakes, loved our cars and used the word love at least an additional ten times. "I drive a Mustang," Romney said, as if that qualified him as patriot and presi- dent. It was near the very end of his speech that Romney spoke of the auto industry. He referred to Obama's policies as "job- killing" and informed the crowd of his new catchphrase, "crony capitalism," and its auto industry application. Then, at last, Romney congratulated GM for regaining its footing and claimed that he had been "right all along." Stunned. This man, a man who claims that "corporations are people, too," and that we "should allow Detroit to go bankrupt," was standing in front of peo- ple and news outlets claiming his theo- ries were correct. In a desperate plea to Michigan voters, Romney was simply liquidated and that many of its more rewriting history in order to take credit than 202,000 employees would have for Michigan's economic recovery. lost their jobs. Imagine where Michigan By the time I returned to Ann Arbor, would be if the auto industry had col- the stock market was about to close. lapsed. Luckily, there is some history GM shares had finished the day up 8.99 that can't be rewritten. percent. Had Romney been president during the financial crisis, there is a Patrick Maillet is an assitant good chance that GM would have been opinion page editor.