4 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, June 14, 2004
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h UmbEDITEDAND MANAGED BY
4 , STUDENTS AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SINCE 1890
NIAMH SLEVIN
Editor in Chief
SUHAEL MOMIN
Editorial Page Editor
Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion IT
the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other pieces do not
necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily.
The state of Michigan is experiencing
a disconcerting "brain drain;"
numerous educated young people
are fleeing the state for more cosmopolitan
urban centers such as New York or San
Francisco. Governor Jennifer Granholm's
Cool Cities initiative is meant to prevent
this flight of young professionals by fos-
tering a more youth-friendly environment
in our state's cities. The initiative recently
crossed a major milestone when it issued
its first round of grants: $100,000 to 17
Michigan communities. These grants will
focus on such projects as the renovation of
dilapidated buildings and the creation of
mixed-use loft apartments in order to revi-
talize the state's urban centers and attract
young professionals. The flight of the edu-
cated is a serious concern, and the Cool
Cities grants are an important first step
towards reversing the frightening trend.
One of the biggest advantages of this
initiative is its focus on improving urban
centers instead of expanding suburban
development. Projects like the renovation
Making Michigan cool
ranholin kicks off plan to revee the "brain drain"
of Detroit's Eastern Market and improving
Ypsilanti's Riverside Arts Center will help
to attract people to the cities themselves,
reviving Michigan's ailing downtowns.
Downtowns, which maximize interperson-
al interaction by placing a diverse range of
social activities in close proximity, foster
nightlife and other cultural activities more
than the sprawling residential complexes
of suburbia ever could. Significant
nightlife - markedly absent from suburbs
with their tight noise regulations - is a
sure way to attract fresh college graduates
to an area. One needs only to walk through
the more urbane Ann Arbor in order to
realize how necessary an active downtown
is if young people are to flourish.
Yet the list of the grant recipients has a
noticeable lack of seemingly urban cities
and a surprising number of moderately
rural ones. The 17 cities received their
grants after submitting proposals for spe-
cific projects fashioned by community
leaders and private investors. Although
Lansing is to be commended for their
astonishing commitment to encouraging
cultural magnets, if its wish is to truly
combat the brain drain, then it must work
to reinforce the already existing cultural
hot-spots rather then floundering funds
across the state. Although the projects
being pursued in such cities as Alpena and
Sault St. Marie are worthwhile, they will,
by no means, be on a par to compete with
such cities as Boston or Chicago.
Michigan cities are not competing
amongst themselves for human resources,
but with other cities across the country;
therefore Lansing must concentrate its
efforts on nourishing already culturally
robust cities such as Royal Oak, Ferndale
and Ann Arbor. The state should take
advantage of these already cool cities a
make them truly attractive enough to
detract from other cultural meccas nation-
wide. Michigan must adopt the mindset
that what is good for these few cities is
good for the entire state as a whole.
The growth of these urban centers
benefits the entire state by ameliorating
the dearth of central cities in Michigan
and stemming the decay of the few
already existing ones, most notably
Detroit. If these "cool" cities can
become epicenters for young professio
als and obtain some gravity of thei
own, that will work to impede sprawl
and inherently benefit Detroit. The cre-
ation of these cool cities will ultimately
reverse the brain drain, keep young, col-
lege-educated professionals within the
state and undoubtedly pay great eco-
nomic dividends for the state at large.
Forced service
Pentagon policy does away with volunteer military
Our nation has relied upon a volunteer
military since the end of the Vietnam
War, and the men and women who
are willing to accept the dangers inherent to
the military deserve praise for their com-
mendable service in the recent conflicts in
Iraq and Afghanistan. Indeed, a volunteer
army of highly motivated, highly trained sol-
diers is almost certainly more efficient and
better suited to defend our country than an
army of disheartened conscripts. Yet the Bush
Administration, seeking desperately to main-
tain a force sufficient to meet our foreign pol-
icy commitments without instituting a draft,
has thanked our soldiers for their dedication
to our nation's security by invoking dishonest
policies that result in soldiers performing
involuntary tours of duty overseas.
It is not surprising that the Pentagon
has called up Army Reserve and National
Guard units for overseas duty. Certainly,
many of the men and women in these insti-
tutions enlisted expecting to serve one
weekend a month and two weeks in the
summer and have had to set aside career
and family. National Guard troops in par-
ticular, who may have envisioned them-
selves performing flood relief at home,
may be shocked to find themselves
assigned to Iraq. There is, however, prece-
dent for these deployments: Reserve and
National Guard units were deployed in the
first Gulf War.
The Bush Admiinistration, however, has
instituted particularly underhanded policies
to maintain troop strength. The Pentagon has
issued what is known as a "stop-loss" order
under which soldiers whose units are
deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan must serve
the entire 12 months overseas, plus an addi-
tional 90 days, regardless of when their term
of enlistment ends. In some cases, soldiers
have been notified of their new deployments
as little as two days before they were to have
left the military. This is conscription without
a draft; soldiers are performing active duty
they never volunteered to serve.
The Pentagon has also begun calling up
soldiers from the Individual Ready
Reserve. This reserve, originally institut-
ed in case of catastrophic national emer-
gency, is composed primarily of soldiers
who have recently left active duty but are
subject to call-up for a period of four
years. These men and women do not drill,
are not paid and have re-entered civilian
life - only to find themselves forcibly re-
enlisted in the military. Recently, the
Pentagon has enlisted the Internal
Revenue Service to help track down for-
mer soldiers for return to active duty.
These measures have still not been suf-
ficient and the Pentagon continues to
search for new soldiers. Some have been
re-deployed from South Korea. In other
cases, military functions have been turned
over to private contractors who, dangerous-
ly, are not subject to the military chain of
command; some of these contractors were
involved in the recent prison abuse scan-
dal. As these unconscionable policies con-
tinue, potential and future soldiers learn
that the military is liable to abuse their trust
and forcibly assign them to active duty
beyond the four years for which they orig-
inally volunteered. Should these dishonest
policies continue indefinitely, fewer men
and women will volunteer to defend our
country, and our nation will be confronted
with a difficult choice we should not have
to face: Either reduce our military to a size
incompatible with the extent of our securi-
ty needs or abandon the principles of an
all-volunteer army.
Ready tf
Immediate challenges to a
This past week saw many surprising and
troubling developments in the battle over
race-conscious admissions. On June 12, the
state Court of Appeals reinstated the
Michigan Civil Rights Initiative petition,
breathing new life into the abandoned ballot
initiative. A few days earlier, on June 9, rep-
resentatives in the state House amended an
education appropriations bill to include a
clause denying state funding to any public
institution that uses racial, religious, creed
or national origin as a admission factor.
Of course, the amended spending bill is
not automatically put into effect - it must
not only pass the state Senate, but also get
signed by Governor Jennifer Granholm.
Thus, the amendment should not be seen as
a threat to affirmative action policies: Even
if it were to pass the Senate, it is assured that
ie troops
ffirmative action lay ahead
Gov. Granholm would veto it.
The reinstatement of the MCRI petition,
however, is deeply troubling. Before the rul-
ing, MCRI officials had declared the 2004
movement dead; the focus was shifted onto
the 2006 election. Now, armed with this deci-
sion, MCRI leaders could very well bri
back the ballot proposal for this year. If suc-
cessfully placed onto the 2004 ballot, the
MCRI amendment will pose the largest sin-
gle threat to affirmative action policies since
the Supreme Court decision one year ago.
While MCRI leaders have not announced
their intent, those in favor of race-conscious
admissions should not wait for a cue to act.
Advocates of affirmative action should begin
immediate political mobilization - the t'
year reprieve that many had been cherishing
is gone, the battle has begun anew.