4A - Monday, October 8, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam
4A - Monday, October 8, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
he Mihigan 4atimU
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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.
Highly truant andunaffluent
Michigan shouldn't sacrifice welfare for attendance
n Oct.1, the Michigan Department of Human Services imple-
mented a new law in an attempt to ensure consistent class-
room attendance by students ages six to 15. The law stipulates
that any student who accrues 10 or more unexcused absences in a sin-
gle school year renders their family ineligible for state welfare. This
initiative fails to take multiple extenuating factors into account and
may inadvertently punish families and students for circumstances
beyond their control. Furthermore, it's counterintuitive to make the
welfare of entire households contingent on a single student's atten-
dance, since students depend on the food and rent government assis-
tance affords to maintain a healthy attendance record.
(Im)polite politics
f you're like many politically-
aware students at our uni-
versity, you probably spent
last Wednesday
night snuggled
in front of the
television ready
to watch the
first presidential
debate between
Mitt Romney
and President
Barack Obama. SARAH
Youleftthe UGLi SKALUBA
early, maybe
even skipped
Wine Wednesday, with big hopes of
gaininginsight into the various pol-
icies of the Republican presidential
nominee and the incumbent.
We wanted fierce debate. We
wanted to leave our couches with
an understanding of exactly where
Romney and Obama stand on differ-
ent issues and how they each plan to
drag our bruised nation out of the
economic shambles in which it's
found itself.
But it didn't take long to realize
we set our hopes too high. Much
too high. In fact, it felt like I was
watching a passive-aggressive
squabble between two suburban-
ites, rather than a presidential
debate. Poor Jim Lehrer clearly
didn't have any power to mediate
the discussion, and seemed to act
as more of a comic figure than an
actual moderator.
Beneath the layers of political
rambling, unanswered questions
and blatant lies, however, is an
extremely interesting idea regard-
ing debate etiquette. Or maybe
debate tradition, for lack of better
words.
Let's be honest, we know that
Romney and Obama are far from
close pals. They're fighting a nasty
battle withless than amonthuntilthe
ultimate winner is finally announced
and the loser can walk away with his
tail between his legs. They trash each
other's policies, approve humiliating
commercials and spend whatever
it takes to make the opponent look
absolutely awful.
From this perspective, the sly
smiles and uncomfortable greet-
ings between the candidates prove
noteworthy. They raise the ques-
tion: Is this staged performance
and fagade a product of debate tra-
dition, or the realization of an ever-
growing animosity between two
distinct political parties?
The performance was prefaced
by a dramatic introduction thanks
to Lehrer, the poor fellow who was
talked over, cut off and pretty much
completely ignored throughout
the 90-minute ordeal. He began
the night by saying, "The audience
here in the hall has promised to
remain silent. No cheers, applause,
boos, hisses - among other noisy
distracting things - so we may all
concentrate on what the candidates
have to say." (Although in this case,
it apparently wasn't much.)
After Lehrer announced the
"house rules" the candidates
strolled on stage, smiles gleaming
and arms outstretched to greet the
audience and eventually each other.
It doesn't take a psychology major
to gauge the immense tension that
permeated this handshake and the
uncomfortable feelings the candi-
dates shared.
Maybe, just maybe, this fagade
is used to show a united front that
crosses party lines and connects
all Americans. However, as Nov. 6
nears, the divide between parties
is continuously growing and each
side seems to be moving further
and further in opposite directions.
The two candidates did greet each
other on stage with a stark smile
and handshake, though just how
genuine these gestures were is up
for further debate.
In "girl world," passive aggres-
sion is the sneakiest form of aggres-
sion out there. It's being nasty,
without actually bearing fangs. It's
the ability to be sly, without coming
across as an angry, psychotic bitch.
And in the political realm, from
what I saw Wednesday 'night, this
doesn't change much.
Debates have
a passive
aggressive
undertone.
President Obama introduced
himself and wished his wife a
happy anniversary in front of mil-
lions of viewers, only to be outdone
by a rather feisty Romney. The
Republican nominee proclaimed,
"And congratulations to you, Mr.
President, on your anniversary.
I'm sure this was the most roman-
tic place you could imagine here
- here with me, so I - congratula-
tions." Well, wasn't that chock-full
of uncomfortable undertones.
The presidential debates are a
hybridized performance. One part
competitive game, two parts dra-
matic performance, topped off with
enough unspoken tension to make
even the meanest mean girl seem
like an angel. So yes, the majority of
the claims made by each side were
false, none of our questions were
actually answered and at times we
forgot we were in fact witnessing a
serious political debate.
But this just leaves more room for
us to ponder the social etiquette and
underlying tension of this historic,
American tradition. Although we'll
never know exactly what either can-
didate is thinking as he scribbles
notes down and smiles eerily during
his opponent's turn to talk, I don't
think it takes much imagination on
our part to fill in the blanks.
- SarahSkaluba can be reached
at sskaluba@umich.edu.
According to The Detroit News, reoccur-
ring truancy is a serious problem among lower
income families and can result in a domino
effect of negative behaviors such as dropping
out of school, criminal activity and jobless-
ness. In 2012, Robert Balfanz, a Johns Hop-
kins University researcher, said "poverty is
the main driver of absenteeism," meaning it
can ultimately determine why and how often
a student is truant from school. If they fail to
adhere to this new rule, low-income families
will be deemed ineligible for any state welfare
assistance.
According to The Detroit News, "hunger,
transportation, lack of proper school uniforms
and sexually transmitted diseases" are among
the most cited reasons for truancy. Since the
mitigation of these obstacles to consistent
attendance largely depends upon a lower-
income family's ability to apply for and receive
welfare, it's unfair to respond to unsatisfac-
tory attendance by depriving families of the
resources they need to ensure attendance.
The law is especially troubling when con-
sidering that at many schools, a student's out-
of-school suspension will count against them
as an unexcused absence. This means that a
student who attends school but commits an
offense worthy of suspension could put his
entire family's welfare eligibility in jeopardy.
Other schools require a student's presence in
homeroom for them to be counted present for
the entire day, meaning a student who attends
school regularly but arrives an hour late on any
givendaycouldsimilarlydisqualifytheirfamily
from assistance. Parents can't necessarily hold
their child's hand all the way into the building,
either. A student could potentially step off the
bus and abscond without their parents' knowl-
edge. Such offenses should not be put entirely
on parents who value their child's education
and encourage their consistent attendance. No
law should grant a wayward student such inor-
dinate power to determine the future wellbeing
of their family.
Rather than punishing parents by threaten-
ing their family's welfare status, schools should
focus on improving the quality and marketing
of their educational services to students and
their parents. It's more effective to incentivize
good attendance - by emphasizing the avail-
ability of engaging coursework for students
and opening communication between parents
and teachers - than it is to punish poor atten-
dance. The state could also consider raising a
family's maximum welfare eligibility by a small
percentage if a student maintains satisfactory
attendance for a predetermined amount of
time.
While Michigan's rising levels of truancy
demand a swift and decisive response, link-
ing welfare eligibility to student attendance
may exacerbate the problem by withholding
the basic resources families need to ensure
their children are on the bus each day. The
state should revert to policies that incentiv-
ize proper attendance, rather than punish the
lack of it.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Kaan Avdan, Sharik Bashir, Eli Cahan, Nirbhay Jain, Jesse Klein, Melanie Kruvelis,
Patrick Maillet, Harsha Nahata, Timothy Rabb, Adrienne Roberts,
Vanessa Rychlinski, Sarah Skaluba, Michael Spaeth, Gus Turner
Not anothr voting colun
KAAN AVDAN|
Obama needs to step up
On Wednesday night, Republican presi- Until Medicare came up, Obama was pretty
dential nominee Mitt Romney and President much stuck in a rut he couldn't climb out
Barack Obama were finally on stage together of. Romney denied everything the president
at the University of Denver for a policy-heavy said about him, allowing Romney to paint an
debate. From jobs to taxes and from the defi- idyllic picture of himself as a defender of the
cit to education, both candidates were very middle class and an economic reformer.
particular about their own plans and made ' Jargon, body language and charisma aside,
specific attacks on their opponent's. As a Obama was actually more consistent and con-
result, they ended up agreeing on quite a few cise. On Wednesday night, Romney achieved
policies, but ironically, both accepted few inflated success because he kept uttering the
facts presented by the other side. word "jobs." He tried to make everything
It's widely acknowledged that Romney per- about the economy. On crucial issues like
formed significantly better than the president. taxation, Medicare and education, Obama
Given prior circumstances, it was surprising restated the points from his campaign and
to watch the president cornered by the for- explained how his policies have brought prog-
mer Mass. governor. Romney's success wasn't ress and recovery. On the other hand, Romney
because of his brilliantly crafted policy propos- almost always started off by first rejecting a
als - he was simply a more dominant debater. claim about his policy suggestions and then
After all, it had only been a week since the 47 going on to explain his "actual" plans.
percent video came out, but by Wednesday, As previously mentioned, the debate was
Romney had managed to turn himself into the laden with specific policy discussions. When
big guy who cares about the little guy. This is the debaters started talking about Obam-
shocking news to the Obama camp, since they acare, it got even more nit-picky, to the point
run the campaign on the president's status as a that it became mundane for the average view-
champion of the middle-class. er. I wasn't surprised when my engineer and
At the beginning of the debate, Romney was business major friends were bored of watch-
clearly uptight and Obama was his usual cool. ing candidates simply go over points that
The debate started with the discussion of jobs. they'd been preparing for weeks. We were
For Romney, it was always about employment, all ears when they said college tuition, but at
but Obama constantly tried to make the point the end of the day, a Michigan education still
that he's done a good job of putting people back costs the same. Consequently, what every-
to work. Romney took the lead in the debate; one remembered was a portion that Romney
he started attacking the president's policies on dominated, and a second portion that was
job creation and the stagnant unemployment pretty balanced.
rate, and he managed to remain on the offen- The debate proved that the presidential
sive. Merely 27 minutes into the debate, while race isn't over for Romney. Unless there's a
discussing the budget deficit, a confident Rom- sequel to the "47 percent" video he might have
ney had loosened up and Obama was constantly a real chance. Even though some of his stanc-
taking down notes to respond in turn. es were doubtful, he's most certainly going to
on the body language front, Obama sent gain momentum between now and the next
mixed signals while Romney decisively debate. As a firm Democrat, it's now evident
addressed the president most of the time. that Obama needs to pull out all the stops
Obama generally looked at Jim Lehrer, unless he wants to occupy Wall Street instead
the moderator, and the camera. He rarely of the White House for the next four years.
Tuesday is the voter registra-
tion deadline in the state of
Michigan. But never mind
that. This col-
umn isn't about
the election.
You're smart,
you're busy.
You're the
I-have-no-time-
to vote student. I
don't need to lec-
ture you on the DANIEL
importance of CHARDELL
voting in general
or in this election
in particular. I don't need to remind
you that your vote will determine our
next president, the balance of power
in Congress and the guiding philoso-
phy at the helm of our politics for the
next four years. I don't need to tell
you that we have four Supreme Court
justices in their mid to late seventies,
or that their imminent retirements
may put our next president in a posi-
tion to drastically alter the political
leanings of the bench. Who cares
that the Supreme Court will soon be
ruling on the most contested social
issues of our time? It's also not worth
mentioning that Supreme Court jus-
tices will outlast the president who
appoints them - just one of the many
ways we live with the legacies of
presidents after they leave office.
But we're not going to talk about
all that, because this column isn't
about the election. Besides, I know
life isn't easy for you, the I-have-
no-time-to-vote student. It's an
election year, and you're a U.S. citi-
zen above the age of 18. People irra-
tionally expect you to vote. As the
election approaches, you're inevi-
tably bombarded with an unend-
ing supply of e-mails, commercials,
editorials, celebrity-sponsored
PSAs and student campaign vol-
unteers hounding you on all four
corners of the Diag, all demanding
that you register to vote. With all
the noise people make about vot-
ing, you'd almost get the impression
that it's meaningful or something.
But don't worry. Those daily
reminders to participate in your
democracy will disappear soon
enough (I predict no later than Nov.
6), and then you'll be free to think
about topics outside the election
as much as you want. In the mean-
time, I won't subject you to more
election talk.
And does it really matter which
candidate you vote for, anyway?
After all, President Barack Obama
and Republican presidential nomi-
nee Mitt Romney have so much in
common. Obama believes in a pro-
gressive tax code. Romney believes
in taxing progress. Obama wants to
balance the budget through a com-
bination of discretionary spending
cuts and modest revenue increases.
Romney will fix the global econo-
my by defunding PBS and Planned
Parenthood. Obama is an advocate
of the DREAM Act and humane
immigration reform. Romney's
polygamous great-grandfather
lived in Mexico. Obama has two
young daughters. Romney is con-
stantly toying around with an Etch
A Sketch. Obama supports same-
sex marriage, repealed "Don't
Ask Don't Tell" and opposes the
Defense of Marriage Act. Romney
has this one gay friend, Richard
Grenell, who served as Romney's
national security spokesman. Well,
until Grenell resigned just one
week after his appointment under
pressure from leaders on the far
right who took issue with his sexu-
ality. Regardless, Obama and Rom-
ney are basically the same person.
So let's not talk about the elec-
tion anymore. Never mind your
moral obligation to vote. It's not
like young people across the Mid-
dle East are dying in their efforts to
depose tyrannical regimes. It's not
like American 18-year-olds spend
their youth in uniform defending
the freedoms you're hardly aware
you have. It's not like untold num-
bers of nameless, faceless individu-
als have sacrificed themselves for
your chance to cast a ballot. Right?
Why should you bother?
I hope you're enjoying this not-
about-the-election chat as much
as I am. If anything, people need
to understand that the average
I-have-no-time-to-vote student is
the real victim. How can we possi-
bly set aside 10 minutes to vote for
a president once every four years
when we're already so busy check-
ing Facebook, watching football
and doing other important non-
election things? It's unreasonable
to expect so much of us. I under-
stand that you, a student with no
time to vote, faces discrimination
every day. Those volunteers on the
Diag aren't asking you if you're reg-
istered to vote because they want
you to fully exercise your rights.
No, they do it because they're jeal-
ous you're above all this voting
stuff. They don't understand you.
But I do, and I commend your arro-
gance. That's why this column is
absolutely not about the election.
There's no time
to vote when we
have to check
Facebook.
And besides, even if you wanted
to vote, registering is too compli-
cated to understand. There's defi-
nitely at least one form involved in
the registration process. Well, I say
that's one form too many. We're just
college students! Sure, we'll ace that
exam in organic chemistry. But ask
us to complete a simple survey of our
basic information? That's beyond us.
We'd probably just go cross-eyed
at the sight of it. No, better leave
all that to the seasoned voters, the
elderly. Their interests can't be too
different from yours, right?
As an I-have-no-time-to-vote
student, you're exhausted con-
stantly telling people why you're
too busy to register and vote. But
this is the home stretch; the dead-
line for Michigan voter registration
is Tuesday. So stay strong! Hold
your head high! You only have to
complain about not having time to
vote for one more day.
- Daniel Chardell can be
reached at chardell@umich.edu.
addressed Romney directly. This made him
seem like he was avoiding his opponent.
Kaan Avdan is an LSA sophomore.
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