4A - Monday, September 16, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4C fitighan 4:a1,6,1 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 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. Don't adopt thi~s bill1 State-funded agencies shouldn't be allowed to discriminate Two bills, introduced in late August and discussed by a Michigan House of Representatives committee last week, allow private adoption agencies to refuse to place a child in the care of a family that contradicts the agency's religious beliefs or polices, effectively allowing discrimination. Lawmakers could vote on these bills this week. Although these religiously affiliated agencies are deemed "private" institutions, the majority of them utilize public funding. Any agency receiving funding from the state shouldn't be permitted to place precedence on their own perhaps discriminatory agenda over the best interest of the adoptees. ix o of theo internsl gram, a was offi an inter on Capi for the s I was ec After co cover lei resume and awl phone i views, I goal: I w tol Hill. me, wor is truly1 internsl I resl utes af the int: woman tunity.I telling t sat back embrac filled m3 Then am I goi Every college- onto W ships in White I K Street are unp As if unpaid terms o one couo wage jo among t In fact, sider.coi that ant living th is ranke place to Segregated internships x months ago I received an I knew interning in D.C. was my formal dress code Monday through -mail from a U.S. senator's dream, but now I just needed to fig- Thursday? ffice. It was the director ure out a way to pay for it. Luckily, The problem of having an intern- ffice's the University has a lot of financial ship program made up primarily of hip pro- aid available to students who seek rich, white kids is one that will cause nd she unpaid internships. I was fortunate a viscous cycle that will have detri- ering me to get a couple sizable grants, but mental effects on our political sys- 'nship even still, those would just barely tem. Internships in D.C. are meant to tol Hill cover my rent. Between a part-time be an opportunity for young Ameri- ummer. job and aserious subsidization from cans to experience government and static. my incredibly supportive parents, I policy firsthand and to prepare a untless PATRICK was going to be able to pull it off, future generation of leaders. If the tters, MAILLET but it wasn't going to be easy. only people that can afford this rewrites When I got to D.C., I realized experience are the wealthy few, then kward very quickly that the dynamic on our future leaders will be equally as nter- Capitol Hill is far from reality. unrepresentative. had finally achieved my People often say that the Senate is While many argue that there 'as going to work on Capi- made up of rich, white men. This should be a minimum wage for To a political junkie like stereotype isn't very far from the interns in D.C., Iunderstand just how king in our nation's capital truth, but what people don't real- complicated that would be consider- the Holy Grail of summer ize is that the offices that work for ing how tight our nation's budget is hips. these senators right now. How- ponded to the e-mail min- share a similar ever, if Congress ter receiving it, accepting makeup. wishes to host an ernship and thanking the From the first Federal grants internship pro- for this auspicious oppor- day I started should be offered to gram that truly After calling my family and my internship, I benefits future them the awesome news, I began to notice unpaid interns on generationsthere in my chair in silence and an extreme lack should be federal ed the moment. I had ful- in diversity on the Hill. grants for unpaid y lifelong dream. Capitol Hill - interns for which reality set in: How the hell not just in race underprivileged ng to pay for this? and ethnicity, but also in terms of students can apply. Yes, this pro- year, more than 20,000 socio-economic status. If the United gram would cost the federal govern- age individuals descend States has aserious "haves and have- ment money, but the results would ashington, D.C. for intern- nots" problem, then D.C. can almost be a generation of young leaders who offices varying from the be considered the epicenter of this actually represent the country that House to lobbying firms on rampant societal dysfunction. theywill inherit. t. The vast majority of them You don't have to be an econo- My summer internship in D.C. aid. mist to figure out why this unrep- was one of the best experiences of working 45 hours a week resentative demographic exists in my life. It pains me to think that wasn't costly enough in Washington: The only people who those less fortunate than I are f the forgone income that can afford to take advantage of the unable to share such an unbeliev- Id be making at a minimum- once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that ably constructive opportunity. b, living costs in D.C. are is a Congressional internship are The federal government needs to :he highest of any U.S. city. kids from wealthy families. After change its internship program; according to BusinessIn- all, how many inner-city kids from otherwise our future government m, an online publication single-parent households do you will be even more unrepresentative nually measures the cost of know that can afford a job that than the one we have now. 4 Under these bills, agencies may extend their religious liberties beyond potential clients of a different faith to include screen- ing single people or same-sex couples. Adoptions by same-sex couples are on the rise and by some are viewed as a much- needed resource for children in government care. Bryan Samuels, the commissioner for the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, explained in a memo, "The child- welfare system has come to understand that placing a child in a gay or lesbian fam- ily is no greater risk than placing them in a heterosexual family." The focus of agency efforts and emphasis should not be placed on the sexual orientation or religious affili- ation of prospective parents, but rather if they can and will provide a positive, nurtur- ing environment for the adoptees. The bills, both introduced and sponsored by Republican state representatives, are just another example of Republicans allowing their moral arguments to get in the way of effective policy. State representatives only continue to delay any forward movement or final decision on Common Care funding - despite the fact that 45 other states have already adopted the standards. Similarly, and under the belief that their children and grandchildren will eventually lie respon- sible for what state Senator John Moolenaar deemed the "crushing federal debt" of the program, Republican representatives vehe- mently fought Medicaid expansion - until, of course, it was passed this August with the potential to aid 320,000 people in the first year and 470,000 by 2020. The underlying ethics the bills represent should neither be ignored nor dismissed. House Bill no. 4928 would permit an adop- tion agency the ability to refuse to place a child with potential parents because the couple violates the child placing agency's written religious or moral policies; subse- quently, House Bill no. 2937 disallows the government's ability to deny those agen- cies state funding. Both policies essentially enable religious discrimination and possi- ble neglect of the primary purpose of adop- tion agencies: finding orphaned children supportive, loving and nurturing families. The proposed doctrines are fundamentally unsound, receiving state funding and dis- crimination should be mutually exclusive- and adoption agencies that enjoy financial support of the government should therefore not also ask to undermine its existing foun- dational principles. hroughout the country, D.C. d the eighth most expensive live in the United States. requires one to pay rent that usu- ally exceeds $800 a month, $15 or more for meals, and has a business- -Patrick Maillet can.be reached at maillet@umich.edu. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Kaan Avdan, Sharik Bashir, Barry Belmont, Eli Cahan, Eric Ferguson, Jesse Klein, Melanie Kruvelis, Maura Levine, Patrick Maillet, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Harsha Nahata, Adrienne Roberts, Paul Sherman, Sarah Skaluba, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe RYAN DAU i What makes a liberal? Art adds value W ith more than 35,000 pieces in its Of course, the trade-off is that instead of collection, the Louvre is an art spending on splendor for the rich, we are now buff's dream and more. Wander- able to provide a higher standard of living ing through it this summer, for a larger percentage of people overall. We I had a sort of epiphany, if have made technological advancements and you will. Forgive me for constructed standards for safety and hygiene. stating the obvious, but We have a longer life expectancy and more back in day, people invested medical technology at our disposal to pro- in art. A lot. long life even further. Moreover, we have It's nothing new, but more choices for what we will consume, and stick with me for a second. access to more people and information than In the Louvre, it hit me HARSHA ever before in history. The industrial revolu- that there was a time, not NAHATA tion allowed us to provide more products for too long ago - OK, a few a greater number of people and at a higher hundred years ago - when efficiency. But the downside has been losing artistic expression was valued in a way that the unique beauty that comes with fostering can't even be considered today. People were creativity and artistry. paid (quite handsomely, too) for being able to our world has also become dominated by paint, write or sculpt. We didn't scoff at the one-size-fits-all standards and a need for "creative" types, but instead admired their functionality above all else. It took 120 years talent and work. to build St. Peter's Basilica. It took Michel- Take the Renaissance, for example: It's angelo three years to build his most famous overwhelming to see the amount of sheer sculpture, the sculpture of David. And da beauty and artistry that came out of a single Vinci spent about four years on the Mona Lisa. time period. It gave us the likes of Leon- Today, we can take a photograph in a split sec- ardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli and ond. We live in a world that moves faster, but Shakespeare. It spawned it is also a world in which a period of immense people don't make time to growth and exploration 1 stop and appreciate the that both created the Our worad is smaller details. Roman empire and the dominated by Wandering through 67,000 square meters of countless museums and pure splendor that is the one-size-fits-all basilicas in Paris, one real- Versailles palace. But izes that out of everything most importantly, we can standards. these historical kingdoms thank the artists from and civilizations built up, the golden years of the it's the art that we remem- Renaissance for the ways they have inspired ber. It's the sheer creative genius and admi- so many artists after them. rable human talent that thousands of people Perhaps what's most striking about this flocked to these museums to see every day. period to me is that so much of the art and The Renaissance began more than 600 years architecture was commissioned by the state. ago. And yet, people still seek out these sculp- From France and Italy to Spain and England, tures and paintings. By promoting an interest states have invested in cultivating intellec- in the arts, these Renaissance societies cre- tual and cultural progress. The best artists ated collections with timeless value that con- and minds of the region were sought after and tinues to add to people's lives. To paraphrase commissioned to create masterpieces. Breath- a quotation by C.S. Lewis, art isn't necessar- takingly beautiful cathedrals and basilicas ily something that has intrinsic value for sur- were built and royalty regularly sought out the vival, but is rather something that adds value most talented artists to design the interiors of to life. palaces and state buildings. Having the most It only makes me wonder: When history creative geniuses at hand was not just amatter looks back on our generation, what creative of encouraging cultural growth, but was seen value will people say we added? as a symbol of status. Today, the United States can't even agree to keep funding the National - Harsha Nahara can be reached Endowment for the Arts. at hnahata@umich.edu. Why do Republicans hate Presi- dent Barack Obama? Conservative readers will likely find the find the question vacuous: Why shouldn't they hate Obama? He's at the masthead of the "sec- ular-socialist machine," accord- ing to Newt Gingrich; the "most radical president" in our country's history, according to Dick Cheney; and a "neo-Leninist communist," according to the columnist Mychal Massie. To them, a bottomless con- tempt for the president is intui- tive, like an unhealthy interest in the Old Testament or a fetish for Milton Friedman. After all, we're talking about the man who social- ized medicine, bowed to foreign powers and played party politics at the expense of bipartisanship. For them, the totality of this anti- American - and connivingly Euro- pean -agenda can be summed up in a simple phrase: He's a liberal. This is really a case of the right side of the aisle complaining that they only got half a loaf instead of the whole; Obama has been nothing if not amenable to conservatism, an oddly servile lapdog of what was the Republican mainstream bare- ly 15 years ago. So, perhaps some introspection is required on the part of the left: Why don't Demo- crats hate Obama? Picking on health-care reform is almost too easy. Older readers might find the Affordable Care Act suspiciously familiar, if only because it's almost a line-by-line paraphrase of the legislative pro- posal that Bob Dole ran on when he was the Republican presidential candidate in the 1994 election. How did Dole get away with his apostasy to Marxism? Well, it might have something to do with the Heritage Foundation's endorsement of an individual mandate in their 1989 article "A National Health System for America." Or perhaps he was just taking a page from Gingrich, the Republican Party's brainiac, who championed the same policy when he was speaker of the House during the Clinton administration. Single-payer health care has never been on Obama's lips, let alone his legislation. Even the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Disneyland of the political left, refuses to call for what has commendably served the sick and dying in the Great White North (and Western Europe, Australia, Japan...) for decades. After Obama's most current speech, most of you can write this paragraph in your head faster than I can put it on the page. Any mis- guided notion that Obama was a limp-wristed peacenik who spent his off hours genuflectingto Imams and fellating Latin American dig- nitaries should've been dispelled when he carpet bombed Syria six months ago; anyone who still clings to this self-serving delusion can loosen their grip on it now that pacifism's crown prince has called for turning Syria's few remaining buildings into rubble but a day ago. This is no doubt the thin edge of the wedge. If Obama is genuinein his desire to upend Assad's regime, then a lengthy occupation of the country will be required, but it's much easier to sell the conflict as a cheap, nonin- vasive military exercise that can be measured in hours instead of years. Maybe some troops will have to put their feet on the ground eventually, but, hey, variables are in flux dur- ing war. President George W. Bush said we could tame Iraq in months, and Democrats laughed. Obama says that we can leash Syria in days, and Democrats cheer. Obama is nothing if not ami- cable. He compromised with Blue Dog Democrats and axed the pub- lic option. He compromised with Speaker of the House John Boehner and agreed to mandatory sequestra- tion. He compromised with House Republicans and kept almost the entirety of the Bush tax cuts. Most recently, he's been pushing for a (no laughing, please) "Grand Bargain" on the budget deficit, where slight increases intax rates arepaired with savage cuts to welfare and entitle- ment spending. Republicans, always the perennial free marketers, don't seem to be taking the bait, but, much like gift-giving, it's the thought that counts. Obama, for whatever rea- son, is a slave to consensus-building, to reaching a middle ground even if that middle is tilted decidedly to the right. Republicans wring their hands and gnash theirteeth because the president hasn't signed on to every dot and tittle of supply-side economics, but if laissez-faire is a house, then he's at least made his way through the front door and is snacking in the foyer. In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm a liberal, or at least I think I am. I think "socialized medicine" is alright, I wish we could stop all this international fighting and just get along, and I wish that Democrats would find their misplaced back- bones and start throwing punches for the left-wing again. But really, in modern political discourse the bar for what constitutes "liberalism" has been set so low that it's appli- cable to almost every politician and intellectual anywhere at any time. Nixon? Supported Canadian-style health care and created the EPA. Eisenhower? Got big government involved in public infrastructure. Buckeley? Advocated pot legaliza- tion. Goldwater? Wanted federal same-sex marriage. If these are liberals, I tremble for who's consid- ered conservative. Ryan Dau isan LSA freshman. CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION 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. 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