4A - Thursday, September 13, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4A - Thursday, September13, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Msynsrd St. - Ann Arbor, MI48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com TIMOTHY RABB JOSEPH LICHTERMAN and ADRIENNE ROBERTS ANDREW WEINER 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. Healthy integrity Romney's switched position calls for concern As the 2012 presidential election nears, campaigns and candi- dates will go to any lengths to reach victory when America votes. This Sunday, Mitt Romney changed his position on President Obama's Affordable Care Act. Though Romney, like most of the GOP, wishes to repeal the act, he stated publicly that he was actu- ally in favor of more than one aspect of the legislation. This is a drastic change from his previous stance, and is symptomatic of a persistent problem that should motivate voters to demand political integrity. @America While we were gawking at #iPhone5, U.S. sent 2 war ships to Libya #Did TheyUseNewMapsapp? -@michdailyoped We're all shmucked . Governor Romney's own remarks when speaking to the news media were: "I'm not getting rid of all of health care reform. Of course, there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I'm going to put in place." Mr. Romney claims that in his own health care plan, he would include sev- eral items from Obama's plan - including the mandqte that insurance companies cover those with pre-existing conditions and the broadening of the insurance marketplace. This is further evidence of total politici- zation of significant issues, especially those that affect the lives and health of millions of Americans. At the same time, voters need to hold candidates accountable for what they say, so they can make a fair and educated decision at the polls. However, this simply doesn't follow Rom- ney's previous stance. His campaign has previously focused heavily on repealing ACA to the point where the phrase "repeal Obamacare" seemed to be a distinctive chant associated with the GOP candidate. Unsur- prisingly, Romney has changed his rhetoric regarding the Affordable Care Act. Romney has had a reputation for flip-flopping on vari- ous issues throughout his political career. However, this instance is particularly upset- ting because of the magnitude of the issue in question - with a vehicle as large as health care, the American people could be subjected to powerful whiplash should it go astray. It's clear that Romney's strategy is to target vot- ers who are still indecisive by walking the line when it comes to the Affordable Care Act, after "anti-Obamacare" rhetoric has already taken hold. To win swing state sup- port, Romney stopped short of irreversibly offending popular sentiment. In their relentless pursuit to win over voters, politicians should not be caught with unclear beliefs so close to the election. Health care affects every American. Whatev- er the candidate's beliefs, it's imperative that they campaign on their real policies. A vac- illating opinion on a crucial issue so close to Election Day is deceptive. In order to make an informed decision, voters must know exactly where candidates stand. In such a sensitive case, sincerity must prevail over populism. Voters need to make sure to hold their can- didates accountable, Democrats and Republi- cans alike. The candidates should not pander to populism, but rather should clearly articu- late their positions. Voters need to educate and update themselves on pertinent issues facing America today and choose the right candidate based on informed analysis. Candi- dates will only provide what the constituency demands, and therefore, the constituency should demand a resolute candidate. ERRYTOWN, ANN ARBOR - Everyone has lost faith in humanity. They are hor- rified, they are embarrassed and nobody can stop watching. "The cinema- tography is just so terrible." It "I don't understand why they didn't use MELANIE more fisheye." KRUVELIS "Is this even a song?" Why yes, it is a song. It's called "Work Hard, Play Hard" by Wiz Khalifa and maybe if we hadn't dis- covered this "Shmacked" nonsense, we could've listened to it ironically while cashing bowls on our home- work and damn, wouldn't that have been cool. But it's too late - we've seen it. And when did we stop using our houseplant as the ashtray? Alright, so here's the deal. We're in Kerrytown - oh, a note to fresh- men: Kerrytown is north, it's hip and for the love of god please stop wearing those key card lanyards.' Anyway, we're in Kerrytown and everyone looks absolutely miserable. Well, more miserable than usual. Someone found this video, "I'm Shmacked The Movie: University of Michigan - Welcome Week," and the expressions in the room range from nauseated condescension to apathetic-American-Apparel-mod- el-meets-kicked-puppy. The tragi- cally hip haven't been this upset since that anthropology professor used Comic Sans. It's that serious. If you haven't seen the video, don't worry - the concept is simple. A couple of college kids go around campuses and capture students at their finest hour - 9 a.m. on a Foot- ball Saturday. They've recorded St. Patrick's Day at West Virginia Uni- versity, filmed 4/20 at the Universi- ty of Vermont and now they've shot Welcome Week here at Michigan. Which is fantastic, really -we've finally got a chance to stand up and reveal what beats inside every last Wolverine heart: "If you don't go to Michigan, you're a peasant." Hear hear, young white male. But back to shotgunning Nat- tys, smoking pot, downing shots in South Quad, doing a weird drunken leprechaun jig on the sidewalk, and all the other too-drunk-to-care. shenanigans you can cram into four minutes of video. From here we get the true meaning of "shmacked," which is not the Yiddish expres- sion for "bagel toppings." It's actu- ally Yiddish for getting drunk and throwing away the futures we don't have, and - most importantly - not caring, because in the end we all look really, really awesome. Hell, we are really, really awesome. "This school is the best school in the entire world," says a girl in a tube top (Side note: technically it's the 14th best school in the entire world, but no reason to let some- thing as trivial as rankings get in the way of assertions, right?). "Fucking Go Blue, and we fuck- ing go hard! Fuck you, 'Bama!" yells another partygoer, referring to the Alabama Crimson Tide, not the President. (Okay, so they actually killed us, but he almost got it right). But perhaps the most touching affirmation of our scholarly excel- lence: "It's the perfect mix of like, party and like, work, you know?" Of course, moms, dads and everyone else wh6 sucks may be alarmed by the video, finding this homage to Stifler's wet dream to be a self-indulgent, stomach-churning display of everything that's wrong with everything. At least half of Kerrytown threatened to drop out after watching the video. "I wish I'd never seen this monstrosity," one disenfranchised Kerrytowner said. To which every other student replied, "What's a Kerrytown?" In the end, we are all really, really awesome. It doesn't matter if you've seen the video or not. Yeah, maybe it's not the most flattering image of our school. But while some cringe at the sight of our fellow students beer- bonging their livers into oblivion, they're forgetting one crucial fact: this isn't groundbreaking. Step out- side on any game day and you'll see the exact same thing. So if you're going to take anything away from this, let it be this - this isn't new. This is how it's always been and how it always will be. God, are we shmucked. - Melanie Kruvelis can be reached at melkruv@umich.edu. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Kaan Avdan, Eli Cahan, Ashley Griesshammer, Nirbhay Jain, Jesse Klein, Patrick Maillet, Harsha Nahata, Timothy Rabb, Adrienne Roberts, Vanessa Rychlinski, Sarah Skaluba, Caroline Syms KELSEY TROTTA| Equal pay aligns with GOP 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. Look to your roots In June, Senate Republicans blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act from passing through the Senate. This bill purposed to ensure equal pay for men and women in the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that a woman makes 77 cents to each man's dol- lar. Despite years of effort, the bill has been filibustered by Republicans at nearly every attempt to pass it - they don't want the gov- ernment dictating how much a private enter- prise pays their employees. While I respect that the GOP doesn't want the government dictating the way businesses are run, I have trouble understanding why they oppose a bill that reflects so many of their values. One of the most important goals of the PFA is to preserve the sanctity of life. Accord- ing to the Guttmacher Institute, 73 percent of women who had abortions in 2004 did so because they couldn't afford a child. By pass- ing the PFA, women in single-income situa- tions would have better financial means to raise a child, which could lead to a decrease in abortions. Such a decrease might also reduce unnecessary government spending of tax dol- lars on the time spent debating the creation of new laws restricting access to abortion. If protecting the sanctity of life and prevent- ing wasteful government spending are both essential GOP values. Why would the party prevent this from passing? In addition to preservingthe sanctity of life, the PFA facilitates self-sufficiency and per- sonal responsibility, also important GOP vir- tues. The PFA would enable women to become more self-sufficient and enable them to better provide for their children. In addition, the PFA would make women less likely to depend on welfare as a means of familial support. The PFA also supports traditional fam- ily values while adjusting for a new American Dream. The Census Bureau reports that 56 per- cent of families are now dual-income, a result of requiring extra money in light of the coun- try's economic woes. If the Republican Party wants to preserve traditional family values, it's in their interest to ensure that both parents can provide for their children equally. Even in the case of a single-income family, passingthe PFA would allow women a signifi- cant amount of flexibility in raising a family. For example, a woman could save money to stay home with her children, and return to work when she wanted. Finally, passing the PFA reflects Christian virtues. The Bible verse Galatians 3:28 states, "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." If Jesus viewed both men and women equally worthy of salva- tion, wouldn't it make sense that the religious voters would value gender equality as well? Many Republicans argue that paying men and women equally will push women out of the workforce because they will no longer be filling lower-paying jobs. While this concern is valid, there are ways around it. For example, while women may be filling higher-paying jobs, the lower-paying jobs could be filled by teenagers and college students, who are at his- toric unemployment rates, givingthem invalu- able career experience and opportunities. I invite objectors of this bill to consider whom their decision could be affecting. If they could watch their loved ones suffer the consequences of their actions with a clear conscience, then they have that right. But before anybody chooses to block this bill, I hope they will keep in mind that they may be undermining their own party's values. Kelsey Trotta is an LSAajunior. Though I was thrilled to travel to Eastern Europe with my family this summer, I didn't understand my father's unmiti- gated insistence that we go. Of course, I knew why he wanted to take my sisters and me to Prague and Bardejov SARAH - the cities my ROHAN family hails from - but I couldn't comprehend the reason for his urgency. Just two years ago in high school, I journeyed to Eastern Europe with my senior class. I visited the War- saw ghetto, Majdanek, Treblinka and Auschwitz - the concentra- tion camp that both of my paternal grandparents survived. While I looked forward to visiting Europe this summer, I wasn't sure why my father found it imperative to bring my family again to the "old coun- try." My father's persistence won out, and off we went. From the moment we landed in Prague, we were seeing the sights. Our successfully-completed itiner- ary included the Jewish quarter, Saint Vitus' Cathedral, the Prague castle, the Old New Synagogue, the Charles Bridge and the old Jewish cemetery, where my great-grand- parents and Franz Kafka lay to rest. Though I was deeply impressed by Prague's beauty and history, I didn't feel a connection to the city. Like most other camera-hoisting English speakers, I was simply a detached tourist. However, that feeling quick- ly changed once we arrived in the remote town of Bardejov, located in the northeastern Slovakian hillside. Both of my father's parents were born and raised in the shtetl of Bardejov which, at its peak, was home to some 3,500 Jews and the same number of Slovaks. My grand- parents spoke often of the small medieval town and our visit struck a deep chord with me. By the time we arrived in the late afternoon, most of Bardejov's historic sites were closed, except for one building-the Chevra Bikur Cholim Synagogue, my grandfather's synagogue. The remarkably intact build- ing was once the epicenter of Jew- ish life and religious discourse in Bardejov. Its primary caretaker was an old Slovakian man who had gone to great lengths to preserve the memory of the half of his town that disappeared after 1944. The fruits of his labor were on display in the back of the sanctuary. In the cheder, or study room, the caretaker had set up a vast collection of pho- tos of Bardejov's Jewish residents, all of which he had collected from remaining townspeople. As I carefully surveyed the photos with my dad, we discovered pictures of my grandfather's sister, Erica, his brother, David, and finally a pho- tograph of his youngest brother, Aaron, who perished in Auschwitz at the age of six. Holding the photographs of my ancestors in the very place of their origination was a moment both sur- real and poignant. In that moment, I had ceased tobe a lone individual. I was a sum. I had in my hand images of my ancestors. I realized I have my grandparents, my parents, and the town of Bardejov itself to thank for my very existence. I approached the restof my visitwith a refined perspective of myself, the places I encountered, the communi- ties which once existed in those plac- es and the different modes of living within those communities. One such mode is the old-fash- ioned Jewish schooling system which my grandfather experienced. I couldn't help but consider that some of its practices could enhance our own educational system. For example, chavruta, the method of working with a designated study partner. English Prof. Ralph Wil- liams actually employs this strategy of chavruta here at the University. Appreciate times radically different than our own. Furthermore, I marveled at the dynamics of community interac- tion in Bardejov. Jew and Gentile cooperated to maintain a prosper- ous town and an educated youth. Although the circumstances of Hit- ler's war disrupted and ultimately eradicated Bardejov's pre-WWII culture, one can't dismiss the val- ues it set forth. Today we might even stand to learn a thing or two from the bipartisanship once dis- played in this little Slovakian town. Simply put, there's something extremely valuable in seeking each of our own histories and gaining an appreciation for a time radically 1 different than ours. My grandpar- ents' unique past made my own experience connecting with my roots an especially moving one. Those whose family history is root- ed in very different soil than mine can stand to benefit from acquaint- ing themselves with their past. It's possible for heritage to create a bet- ter present and lend a meaningful perspective to the future. - Sarah Rohan can be reached at shrohan@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor. Letters should be fewer than 300 words and must include the writer's full name and University affiliation. We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedaily@michigandaily.com.