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 terrorist tac 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 offered th sel f-deter "homeland with their 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.