Monday, July 1, 2002 - The Michigan Daily - 5
VIEWPOINT
Bush's constructive engagement
It's gettin' hot in here and the kids are dead
LUKE SMITH UNRESERVED EMBRACE,
In July
nation crit
African N
President
"The Soutl
under no
future of th
zation that
ing a cor
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vu? The od
tive to last
gling out o
by Presiden
of United S
of injustice
Counte
rcommunity
onslaught
growing n
including I
ment Mini
gizing Israe
A quick to
Bank, wit
embodying
an uncann
by a grow
and schol
apartheid
tonization
peace proc
Accords in
with a rec
mentation I
cessions (in
Israeli stat
Palestine)
Israeli offe
these, the I
a slap on
States, eith
ed on renet
ly everyth
due was th
vault reser
In an articl
Holy Land,
Archbishot
the resultin
ian people:
in my vis
reminded
pened to u
have seen t
tinians at c
suffering i
police off
moving abo
While ti
the territo
pass roads
resurrecting
rhetoric tha
and in turn
oity eventu
Just as the
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"homeland
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the Palestin
summer o
governmen
of the blac
terrorism,
their repre
One victit
who like N
under the
BY FADin im w-i described what he saw on his visit to
Palestine as, "resembling Bantustans
1986, in an address to the - for only too often are they reminis-
icizing Nelson Mandela's cent of the ghettoes and the controlled
ational Congress, former camps of misery one knew in South.
Ronald Reagan affirmed, Africa." Just as Sharon, whose Likud
h African government is Party's official platform opposes a
obligation to negotiate the Palestinian state on the baseless
he country with any organi- grounds that it will lead to the destruc-
proclaims a goal of creat- lon of Ismel, wants peace on his own
nmunist state and uses intransigent terms; former South
ctics to achieve this." Dejh African President P fBotha, Sho
dd familiarity of this invec-
oweek's short-sighted sin- repeatedly asserted that he was com-
f the Palestinian leadership mitted to change at his own pace, stat-
nt Bush marks a resurgence ed in his infamous 1985 Rubicon
tates complicity in the face Speech, "I am not prepared to lead
white South Africa and other minority
ring this, the international groups on a road to abdication and
has been stirring due to an suicide." With the predominance of
of public statements from a peaceful coexistence today, the
umber of South Africans, antithesis has been confirmed.
Mandela and Jewish Parlia- On the home front, the similarities
ster Ronnie Kasrils, analo- continue. In the 1980s, the Reagan
el's occupation to apartheid. administration tacitly supported
ook at a map of the West South Africas apartheid, svhich as
h its 13 isolated cantons miltari anspa re, wihwa
287 enclosed areas, shows micitaity supplied by Israel, wilt a
y resemblance, as echoed policy they called, 'constructive
ing number of academics engagement." This approach, based
ars, to the Bantustans of on common strategic objectives,
South Africa. This can- offered closer diplomatic ties and
, catalyzed by an 8-year expressions of solidarity with the
ess beginning with the Oslo minority government. To marginalize
n 1993, was characterized Mandela's resistance movement, Rea-
urring theme of full imple- gan referred to the ANC, which like
by Israel of Palestinian con- the Palestinian counterpart employed
icluding a recognition of an violent tactics, as a terrorist enemy in
e on 78 percent of historic their, during the times of the Cold
in exchange for vague War, battle against communism.
rs. To avoid implementing Replacing the war on "communism"
sraelis, with a blind eye or with, ironically, its offshoot, the sub-
the wrist by the United jectively-based war on terrorism,
er cited ambiguity or insist- Bush's platform against Palestine is
gotiating, until finally near- idestica . While there are merits for
ing the Palestin ans were i cal . Whi le stia e ders hip
hrown into the imaginary cull for nes Palestinian leadership
ved for "final-status talks." and reform, the fact remains that this,
e entitled, "Apartheid in the as The New York Times argued last
"Nobel Peace Prize winner week, is impossible under the Israeli
p Desmond Tutu described occupation, the root cause of today's
g suffering of the Palestin- conflict.
"I've been very distressed As the struggle against apartheid
it to the Holy Land; it taught us, a peace based on justice
me so much of what hap- will inevitably.prevail. Unfortunately,
s blacks in South Africa. I with the Israeli right, full of its zealots
he humiliation of the Pales- and war criminals, in power, little
leckpoints and roadblocks, room is left for hope for the time
ike us when young white being. While we wait for an Israeli
seers prevented us from EW. De Klerk, who is willing to take
the Is"etis continue to slice the necessary steps towards peace, we
ries with Jewish-only by must pressure our administration to
and settlements, they are takea moral stand against Israel's vio-
g the same unsubstantiated lations of international law and
it the Afrikaners employed, human rights. In the words of Arch-
i the international commu- bishop Tutu, who is a patron of a
ally rejected, in the 1980s. Holocaust center in South Africa: "If
South African government apartheid ended, so can the occupa-
blacks non-contiguous tion, but the moral force and interna-
smination within their tional pressure will have to be just as
s," so too did the Israelis determined. The current divestment
not-so-"generous offer" to effort is the first, though certainly not
ians at Camp David in the the only, necessary move in that
f 2000. Just as the white direction'
So muchbig news
this week, yada,
yada 'under
g(G)od' blab, blah
'drug testing' etc and
squish, squish went an
anal probing for our
Commander in Chief.
But most importantly,
someone has made a
case for the sterilization of idiots in an after-
noon-long debacle. In Southfield (where the
best thing is the Star Theater playing the digi-
tal "Episode II: Attack of the Clones") last
Friday some woman (whose name has yet to
be released) left her kids in a car while she
had her hair done for three hours, came back
and found the three-year-old boy and ten-
month-old girl dead.
I hope her extensions are nice;
It gets better. Much better.
After making her discovery, she told the
police that she had been abducted and raped
and upon returning to her car (with a master-
fully crafted alibi (idiot) and nice new coif)
found her children cooked. This is actually a
pretty new trend, a Gallup poll of rapists
showed that five of seven rapists were very
concerned with making a woman's hair look
salon-sexy alter they were done with the am-
malistic pillaging of her body. 'It's not what
you do,"said closetrapist J. Rascal. "Buthow
you do it, we want the hair to look nice when
we're done. We're not savages, we're artists."
It still gets better.
The child-cooker later reneged on her
rape-scheme, admitting that she drove around
for three hours before going to the hospital,
trying to come up with an alibi. Trying to
come up with an alibi for three hours and all
she can do is pull the "while I was being
raped my kids died or fell asleep" story.
Quick math check: Based on the kiddie-
killer's story the two youth's barbecued for in
the back of a Chevy Impala, considering the
'x-factor' of the car potentially having leather
seats, the heat would be magnified and add a
little more broil and a little less char to the
kid-steaks. Hey boss, could you pass me the
Open Pit?
The kids are dead The mother has a fab-
ulous new haircut and is feeling younger than
her 25 years inevitably show. The tragedy is
of course in the death of the children, but it
does not lie solely in that reality. Even worse
perhaps than the thought of kids suffocating,
or cooking and choking on their last breath of
life while they claw desperately at the win-
dows, which are fogging under their heavy
wheezing. They are fidgeting frantically with
the doors, trying to get out, but can't because
of those god-forsaken child locks which kept
me in the car and out of Toys 'R' Us all those
years ago. Even worse is the idea that the
mother is a human being who actually A)had
sex B) gave birth C) was supposed to be a
guardian for these kids and D) clearly is in
the upper tier of national intelligence ratings.
For insects.
Itsis equally horrifying to think that
someone actually procreated with this
woman and allowed herto bring children into
this world. Itis right there in the Constitution,
life, liberty, pursuit of happiness and giving
birth, right? Well give birth she did, and cook
her children she did. I wonder how much
more her children would have been neglect-
ed, or bow much they had been neglected on
a daily basis. Should people be allowed to
breed if they are incapable of taking care of
themselves, let alone other people?You don't
let a retarded rat have children in a lab envi-
ronment, unless you're sick or a scientist, you
can't be both, one or the other. But should we
really allow people to have children when
they can't take care of themselves?
If you say "yes, having a child is your
right," just fold up the paper, stop reading
and have your tubes tied. I don't need you
cooking your own children too. Of course
people who are unfit to be parents shouldn't
have children. "Oh, but Luke, accidents
happen."
Yes they do.
But not if there was a test. To the overly
self-aware politically correct masses the test
would be pegged the "Breeding and Parent-
ing Competency Test," in reality it would
simply be an idiot test. The BPCT features
myriad questions about simple elements of
child-rearing and personal hygiene, as well as
a cooking portion. The most important part
would be the new essay portion, which would
help ease the test's potential racial bias. Basi-
cally, if you don't pass the test, you aren't fit
to havea child and subsequently your right to
breed is revoked in the form of a government
afforded sterilization.
Help control the moron population. Have
your moron spayed or neutered.
It's the responsible way.
Luke Smith can be reached at
lukers(ciuiimich.edit.
Thirly years after Furman v. Georgia
ZAC PESKOWITZ T 1,IOWE IFREQUENCIES
^ - m T he summer
1 E months of 1972
were bookended
with a "second rate
burglary" at the Demo-
cratic National Com-
mittee's headquarters
and the murder of lII
Israeli athletes in at the
Munich Olympics. In
the middle of these events, the Supreme
Court issued a decision that was deemed an
incredible-advance in civil rights, Furman v.
Georgia. The June 29, 1972 ruling supported
a death penalty moratorium and appeared to
signal a shift in the United States' attitude
toward the practice. It seemed as though the
nation would join with the vast majority of
industrialized countries and permanently
abandon capital punishment. Within four and
a half years, Gary Gilmore would be execut-
ed at the hands of a five-man firing squad in
a remote Utah prison.
Thirty years after the Furman ruling,
the United States is once again engaged in
a crisis of conscience with the death
penalty. On Wednesday, the New York
City Council became the 73rd elected
body in the nation to call for a death
penalty moratorium. Studies, such as the
Liebman Study conducted at Columbia
University and the Illinois Governor's
Commission on- Capital Punishment
Report and Appendices, have shown the
complete failure of the death penalty to be
applied judiciously. Instead, the poor and
minorities continually receive inadequate
legal counsel and are disproportionately
sent to death row. These procedural fail-,
ures have generated popular doubt as to
whether the death penalty is being applied
reasonably in this country.
The current death penalty debate
springs from Furman and the decision four
years later which permitted states to imple-
ment capital punishment again, Gregg v.
Georgia. After the Furman ruling, Texas,
Georgia and Florida instituted reforms to
capital trials which the Supreme Court
deemed adequate. The decision required
capital trials to be separated into a guilt
phase and a sentencing phase, automatic
review at the appellate level, proportionality
review and the implementation of sentenc-
ing guidelines. Despite the latent possibility
of an end to the practice, capital punish-
ment was quickly reinstated and enshrined
into the justice system.
The period between the Furman ruling
and Gilmore's execution is eerily similar to
recent times. In the past two weeks, the
Supreme Court has issued two decisions in
Ring v. Arizona and Atkins v. Virginia which
will restrict the death penalty in the United
States. Ring, which calls into question hun-
dreds of death sentences that were not deter-
mined by juries and Atkins, which bars the
execution of the mentally retarded, have been
lauded as significant civil rights advances.
Again, death penalty opponents support
the rulings as important steps to turn back
the advance of barbarism. But while these
rulings will save individuals from the
scourges of lethal injection and the electric
chair, the practice will persist. Furman's
complete inability to prevent capriciousness
should prevent anyone from believing that
either Ring or Atkims will ensure an equi-
table or just application of the death penalty
in the future.
While practical objections to capital
punishment have become de rigueur, objec-
tions to its morality are peripheral. Moral
challenges have done little, if anything, to
shape policy. It is ultimately a retributive
punishment and as such has no place in the
realm of government action. It advances the
worst aspects of the human spirit, corrupt-
ing both the governments that initiate it and
the individuals who seek it. These views
need to be more prevalent in public dis-
course if the death penalty is to be abol-
ished in this nation.
The need for widespread moral opposi-
tion to the death penalty is especially acute
at this moment in history. With the Justice
Department likely to seek the death penalty
against individuals associated with terrorism
and the growth of the federal application of
death penalty, there now exists the possibili-
ty of a resurgence of capital punishment in
this nation.
It is time to face the demon, itself. Skirt-
ing the issue on the marginalia of statistical
evidence will not accomplish an acceptable
end. But allow the barbarism to continue
unchallenged and victorious. Former Chief
Justice Earl Warren wrote in Trop v. Dutes
that the Eighth Amendment "must draw its
meaning from the evolving standards of
decency thatniark the progress of a maturing
society." It is our duty to create a society that
no longer accepts the death penalty within its
standards of decency.
Zac Peskowitz can be reachedat
zpes owiqumnich.edu.
t justified their subjugation
k population as a war on
so too are the Israelis with
ssion of the Palestinians.
n, Breyten Breytenbach,
Mandela, was incarcerated
Terrorism Act of 1967,
Kiblawi is an LSA senion president of
the Universitys chapter oftheArab-
AsserirnsAnti-Dsc- isisiono Coo-
smitee, co-chauirof the Mimnsrisy.fsir~s
Commission and a co-Jaunder ofStu-
dentsAlliedforFreedom andEquality.