4 - Friday, March 1, 2013
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
4 - Friday, March 1, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
74C fitichiclan l 4:lat*lu
MAGGIE MILLER
E-MAIL MAGATHORgUMICH.EDU
I
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
MELANIE KRUVELIS
and ADRIENNE ROBERTS MATT SLOVIN
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR
WHAT YOU IMAGINE
SPRING BRE AK IS LIKE:
y*
WHAT SPRING BREAK IS
ACTUALLY LIKE:
v00
v'rrs
ANDREW WEINER
EDITOR IN CHIEF
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.
Scientific accessibility
Obama opens up federally funded research to the public
Responding to an online petition posted to the White House's
We the People platform, the Obama administration issued a
memorandum through its office of Science and Technology
Policy to mandate that federally funded scientific research be made
available free of charge to the public within the year. The proposed
policy would centralize and publicize the data sets, methodologies,
results and conclusions from research funded via federal agencies at
institutions with budgets greater than $100 million. Such measures
are in line with the global call for further open access in science, dem-
onstrating the Obama administration's commitment to pushing the
nation's scientific efforts forward. This policy is beneficial to the pub-
lic, scientists and science as a whole and finally lets taxpayers have
access to the information they pay for.
The grie o moving on
0
Knowledge that springs from publicly fund-
ed research belongs to the taxpayers who pay
for it, in the same sense that roads and parks
do. However, the results published in scientific
journals are currently inaccessible to the pub-
lic. Hidden behind exorbitant pay walls, inde-
cipherable language and scattered through
hundreds of repositories, information is guard-
ed instead of dispersed.
However, this policy could go further. The
proposed action places a heavy emphasis
on research in the sciences but fails to con-
sider research in the humanities. Though the
National Endowment for the Humanities, the
nation's largest federal agency that supports
humanities research, favors and intends to
follow the spirit of the proposed expansion
of open access research, the policy would be
stronger if it applied to all research.
In fact, open access to scientific research is
a logical foundation and natural extension of
the current trends toward making education
and knowledge more open and available. Mas-
sive open online courses - where millions of
interested people can receive world-class edu-
cations - would benefit from freely obtainable,
high-quality content. Having direct access to
research allows content creators to craft bet-
ter teaching materials and gives others a way
to use it to create new knowledge.
For the first time in the history of this
country, the direct contents of federally
funded research could be made available to
anyone who wishes to see them. Removing
the barriers to entry will only prove benefi-
cial with time by fostering an open dialogue
between researchers and the general public.
While this proposal should be expanded to
all research, including the humanities, it is
an encouraging sign for a country struggling
over questions of who owns information
and knowledge.
n September, I ducked out of
my feminist theory class to
take a call from my dad, who
had been phon-
ing me every few
minutes.
"Mormor has
lung cancer," he
said as I leaned
against the win- t
dowpanes of j
the wide Uni- EMILY
versity hallway. PITTINOS
"It's bad."
It wasn't a
secret that my grandmother had
mistreated her lungs. She started
smoking at 11 years old in Denmark
and spent the 1970s working as a
carpenter at poorly ventilated con-
struction sites.
"That's just how it is now," my
dad told me. "People are living so
long that everyone's going to get
cancer and die from that."
I stood in Angell Hall surrounded
by students who were reading, tex-
ting and chewing pencils - bored
out of their minds as they waited
for classes to turn over. As I thought
of my grandmother watching the
winter birds feed through her bay
window, I tried not to become "that
girl" - weeping in the midst of a
crowded hallway.
I told him I'd make it up north
soon and hung up.
After immigrating to the United
States, Mormor raised three kids
alone and started several business-
es. She could drink more schnapps
than anyone else I've met. She was
the strongest woman I knew, and
now she was dying.
On the crowded bus ride to my
art class, I realized my grand-
mother wasn't going to make my
wedding dress and repeated the
phrase to myself until a stranger in
a fur hat looked as if she could cry
by osmosis.
This is when I started treating
myself like a victim of her illness.
I'd sulk in my bedroom hours from
home, mourning her last bit of life
over a Styrofoam box of Bibim-
bap and a bowl while my parents
dwelled in the true shadow of her
sickness. They sprinted between
pharmacy, radiology and oncology
and lived in a limbo between diag-
nosis, prognosis, treatment, toilet
and bed. Five times a week, my dad
drove her to radiation - an hour
each way through the snow.
"Doctors treat her like she's
already dead," he said through the
phone in a whisper.
As the months went on, Mor-
mor's list of illnesses lengthened
- strokes, seizures, thrush, pneu-
monia - and my courage in the face
of her deterioration grew. Every
other weekend, I drove four hours
through Flint and frozen farm
country to be with her.
Because much of that time was
spent in the hospital, my dad, sis-
ter, mom and I lived in a circuit
between the cafeteria, a visitor's
room with free coffee that tasted
like shoe polish and Mormor's bed-
side, where we'd catch up with her
many specialists and watch the
Food Network on a small television
mounted on the ceiling above her
bed. The hospital elevator became
a place where I'd manage a moment
to myself, and if a stranger accom-
panied me on the ride we'd stand in
silence as we speculated about the
other's source of sadness.
After a particularly difficult day
at the hospital - she didn't speak or
look into our eyes - my father swal-
lowed tequila; my mother gulped
gin. I sipped red wine and shucked
the shells of frozen crab legs with
my bare hands. There was nothing
else for us to do.
As ice chips flaked onto the cobalt
countertop, I watched them melt
and realized I was already griev-
ing. We all were. Grief's undertow
had taken us while we were caught
in the frenzy of diagnosis and treat-
ment, and now that recovery wasn't
an option we were surprised to find
ourselves already out to sea.
We each treaded water in our
own ways. My mom coped with her
mother's sickness by making diora-
mas with Risk pieces and Inter-
net printouts of medieval villages.
My dad dove into his work, which
was selling instruments out of our
house. I digested feminist theorists
and used candle wax as a metaphor
for cancer in my art projects. My
sister was 10, so I don't know how
she dealt with the imminent loss.
I don't know what she could have
done; Mormor was her third parent
and best friend.
"Grandma has
lung cancer" he
said. "It's bad."
In January, my mom called, and
the next day some family friends
drove me through a blizzard to my
grandmother's house. All evening
we sat weeping by her bedside, and i
she asked me to hold her for a while.
And I did, telling her it was okay
to go. That night, as I knit a hat in
the living room, the dog barked and
she died.
I visited my parents last week-
end, and somehow- maybe because
they didn't have to make hospital
trips or wonder what would hap-
pen next - I expected them to be
relieved within their grief. My dad
told me otherwise.
"It's all still there," he said. "She's
gone, but it's still there. We cry all
the time."
And of course they did, and still
do, but why don't I?
I think my grief is the quiet kind.
I go to class, make art, write col-
umns, go to workand keep myupper
lip stiff, because that's what she'd
have done. My grandmother was a
hard-working warrior of a woman
and, though I miss her stern grace,
I feel at peace knowing I wrung ,
myself out to her before she died.
She didn't leave without knowing
that she taught me how to be strong,
so l can never be without her.
- Emily Pittinos can be reached
at pittinos@umich.edu.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Kaan Avdan, Sharik Bashir, Barry Belmont, James Brennan, Eli Cahan, Jesse Klein,
Melanie Kruvelis, Maura Levine, Patrick Maillet, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald,
Jasmine McNenny, Harsha Nahata, Adrienne Roberts, Paul Sherman,
Sarah Skaluba, Michael Spaeth, Luchen Wang, Derek Wolfe
BARRY BELMONT I
The lives of mice and men
Twenty-one years ago, a man named Rod-
ney Coronado firebombed the offices of a
pair of animal research scientists at Michi-
gan State University. In addition to more
than three decades worth of lost research,
the MSU facilities suffered more than $1.2
million in direct damage. Coronado, acting
as part of the Animal Liberation Front, tar-
geted Richard Aulerich, a researcher who fed
minks potentially contaminated food - fish
caught in Saginaw Bay in Michigan - to mea-
sure the effects of polychlorinated biphenyl
pollution in the Great Lakes. Minks were
known to be highly susceptible to food toxins
and thus would show signs of poisoning well
before other animals in the food chain.
Coronado avidly disagreed with using
animals for scientific research and made his
point on the night of Feb. 28, 1992, as he had
many times before - by planting homemade
incendiary devices in the offices of those he
perceived to be wrong.
If the sheer volume of books, articles,
treatises and Internet comment sections are
anything to go by, ethics is a contentious sub-
ject. Because the actions we take matter, and
because our actions are propelled and limited
by what we consider we ought and ought not
to do, our moral opinions have very real con-
sequences. If we think that there isn't such
a thing as private property, theft becomes
hard to dissuade. If we contend that charity
doesn't help people, we might be disinclined
to give to charity. In fact, it's only because our
actions have consequences that the morality
inspiring them matters.
Moreover, the consequences only matter if
they affect the overall well-being of someone
either positively or negatively. The use of the
term "well-being" here is meant to encapsulate
all the thingsothat go into making someone (bio-
logically, psychologically, existentially) happy,
content, fulfilled, etc. It's meant as a catchall
term, like "health," to describe the physiologi-
cal state of biological beings, given the limited
space of our discussion. Thus, the reader will
know what I intend when saying that stealing
in most cases likely diminishes someone's well-
being, whereas being charitable most likely
increases another's well-being. If there were
no effects on well-being, the morality of our
actions would be moot.
It's this consequentialist framework that
surrounds the debates on animal testing for
scientific research. The debate focuses on
whether the methods and results of animal
testing justify the use of animals. The facts of
the matter are that millions of animals each
year are subjected to millions of scientific
experiments, many of which can cause pain
and suffering. Great scientific progress has
been made as a result of these experiments,
alleviating the pain and suffering of millions
of people and animals around the world. How
one sees the balance between the first and
second points is what leads some to feed fish
to minks and others to throw bombs.
Make no mistake - many of us are alive
today because of the efforts of scientists
working with animals. Vaccines for chicken
pox, cholera, diphtheria, influenza, hepati-
tis, measles, mumps, polio, rabies, smallpox
and tetanus, every single medication on the
market, many medical procedures (from
angioplasty to organ transplants) and most
life-saving medical devices (replacement and
artificial organs) all come as a result of tests
first done on animals.
However, many would contend that these
ends - good as they are - don't justify the
means by which they are achieved. What's
taken from animal research, be it from mice,
rats, dogs, cats, monkeys or people, isn't suf-
ficiently balanced by what's gotten out of it.
That is, the suffering (minimal as it may be)
and deaths of animals are too high a price to
pay for the value achieved, just as stealing
doesn't make all parties involved richer (and
in fact makes us all poorer).
Our relationship with our fellow animals
(are we not merely mammals?) must be estab-
lished if we are to properly gauge the benefits
and detriments of our actions to them and for
ourselves. Should we consider them property,
meaning that we can do with them whatever
we'd like? Should they be given rights, forc-
ing responsibilities unto beings incapable
of understanding them? These are difficult
questions that need answers if we're to ever
to increase the overall well-being of all rel-
evant subjects.
The borders of our morality need illumi-
nation, and it's with the light of reason - not
from the flames of terrorists - that we'll con-
tinue to find them.
Barry Belmont is an Engineering
graduate student.
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.
MAX HELLER I
Thawing the diplomatic ice
Next week, John Kerrythe recent-
ly confirmed U.S. Secretary of State,
will embark on his maiden overseas
trip. During the trip, he will visit
nine countries in 10 days throughout
Europe and the Middle East. Among
the countries he will visit are two
that are critical to long-term stabil-
ity in the Middle East: Turkey and
Egypt. The two countries are major
power players and currently sit at a
crossroads in their diplomatic rela-
tions with Israel - the United States'
central ally in the region. During
his trip, Kerry should work hard to
set the stage for improved relations
between these two countries and
Israel in order to serve the best inter-
ests of those who desire long-term
stability in the region.
Kerry will be visiting Turkey,
which has experienced frosty dip-
lomatic relations with Israel ever
since the Turkish-supported Gaza
Flotilla incident in May 2010, in
which radical anti-Israel extrem-
ists and terrorist members attacked
Israeli soldiers. While Israel has
since made efforts to normal-
ize relations with Turkey, those
efforts have been largely rebuffed
by the nation and Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In advance
of Kerry's visit, Israel has recently
sent Turkey several signals that
it hopes to push their diplomatic
relationship in a more positive and
productive direction.
Israeli defense firm Elta recently
decided to deliver $100 million of
equipment for Turkish Airborne
Warning and Control Systems.
This equipment will enable Tur-
key to better defend itself against
airborne threats through the radar
system that it provides. By sending
over this equipment, Israel signals
that it supports Turkey's efforts
to protect itself from threats to its
national security. Additionally,
Israel has recently offered to lay a
natural gas pipeline through Tur-
key to Europe. This pipeline would
surely provide longterm economic
benefits to Turkey and could very
well be lucrative for both countries.
However, the Turks have yet to
respond to this offer. If Kerry can
convince Turkey to accept Israel's
pipeline offer as a signal that they
hope to work towards positive and
mutually beneficial relations, it
would be a huge step in the right
direction for the region.
In Egypt, Kerry approaches a
slightly more complicated situation.
Still dealing with the after-effects
of a revolution during the Arab
Spring, Egypt's internal politics and
power structure are hardly stable.
As a result, it may be difficult to con-
vince Egyptian leadership to make
any long-term decisions regarding
foreign affairs. Kerry can work to
establish a sounder Egypt by pro-
moting rule of law and respect for
human rights with government
officials. Such efforts will further
legitimize Egypt's current regime
and enable them more flexibility to
take on ambitious efforts in foreign
affairs. A stronger Egypt will hope-
fully be empowered to promote the
rule of law along the Gaza border,
which could vastly improve Israel's
long-term outlook for peace. While
Egypt and Israel have seen their
relationship become more com-
plicated since an Islamist govern-
ment was elected in Egypt, whose
leader has been recorded delivering
anti-Semitic rants, they still share
a mutual interest in promoting the
rule of law. In Egypt, these efforts
will better the Morsi regime's grip
on power internally, and in Israel,
they will go a long way toward pro-
viding stronger national security.
Kerry has a long list of priori-
ties during his first trip overseas.
He will also be meeting with criti-
cal U.S. allies such as Germany and
Saudi Arabia during his trip, and
must build his relationship with
diplomats in those nations as well.
However, his visits to Turkey and
Egypt can and should set the stage
for a joint pursuit of long-term sta-
bility in the Middle East.
Max Heller is a Business senior.