The Michigan Daily - Monday, May 23, 2005 - 5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Bev, Tim and the Apocalypse Ratzinger failed to open, honest and responsible attempt JESSE SINGAL T T g at reckoning with that past. dd rc Nt ind _ a res~s vzc Vasn TO THE DAILY: Karl Stampfl's opinion piece (A view from the wrong side of history, 5/3/05) takes as its starting point the recent papal election and its implications for the German origin of members of his own family. It is surely a timely topic, but Stampfl's piece sadly and quickly veers off in misplaced pity, eliciting neither sym- pathy nor understanding. The prob- lem is not his grandmother's guilt or innocence as a teenager or her heri- tage, but much more the candor with which one retrospectively views the Nazi past and one's larger implica- tion in it. It's not the "right" or "wrong" side of history that needs to be addressed, but one's current and accurate view of it. As regards his comment about the new pope and his war-time activity, Joseph Ratzinger certainly was no worse than any able-bodied hetero- sexual German male of conscription age as defined at the time. And as recent media coverage repeatedly conveyed, among the pope's compa- triots in the Hitler Youth were those who became in the post-war period sharp and honest critics regarding Nazi rule, as well as the degrees of their own and more importantly their parents' participation in, and respon- sibility for, Hitler's ascension and reign. The aspect of the pope's past I worry about is not his doings as a 14-year-old, but as a thirty-some- thing-year-old. When he assumed a position of considerable influence as an academic and theologian, Ratz- inger had the opportunity to address the havoc and ruin caused by the pre- vious generation of Germans. Instead he represented some of the most M reactionary sentiments against an Avi Kempinski Rackham Daily focuses on negative, ignores day's spirit i TO THE DAILY: Last Sunday, more than 550 mem- bers of the Jewish community and its supporters gathered to celebrate Israel's Independence Day. Inspired by Israel's contributions to the world and her survival in the face of enmi- ty, they danced, sang and celebrated in spite of inclement weather and the presence of a picket that bordered on harassment. This was the real story of the day. How disappointing that your cov- erage of the event (Celebation encoun- ters protests, 5/16/2005) focused on the actions of 20 misguided protest- ers who spent three hours taunting children as they played in a nearby sandbox. We join a majority of Israelis in the hope that next year Palestinians will have the opportunity to cel- ebrate their own Independence Day. But this will only happen when Isra- el's enemies devote as much energy to building their own country as they do to trying to destroy the Jewish state and harrass the local Jewish community. Arik Cheshin Alum Co-chair ofthe Celebrate Israel!, founder of the Israeli Student Organization Eileen Freed Ellisha Greenhood Jeff Levin Members of the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County i' somewhat of a masochist when it comes to deciding whom I am going to watch wenton a Bill O'Reilly binge soph- omore year - and to whom I am going to listen. For instance, I keep myself awake during the 12-hour drives to and fromBoston by scanning the dial to find Michael Savage, the conserva- tive (although calling him "conservative" is like calling the sun "lukewarm") talk- show host who once infamously referred to a gay caller as a "sodomite" and told him he should "get AIDS and die." Lis- tening to him ramble incoherently in his nasal voice really helps keep me alert dur- ing the duller stretches of 1-90. When it comes to instilling self-righ- teous anger in me, however, not even Sav- age can match the power of Concerned Women for America, a far-right Christian group founded by Beverly LaHaye. First, a bit on her husband: Tim LaHaye coau- thored, with Jerry Jenkins, the hugely popular "Left Behind" series of novels, which depict the escalating, post-Rapture battle between good and evil. Of course, as with any good Rapture yarn, the righteous (namely, the observant, born-again Chris- tians) have already ascended to heavenand it's left up to us Jews, Catholics, Muslims, and, presumably, Black Sabbath listeners, to fight the good fight for seven rough years and earn a place in heaven. In addition to writing uplifting nov- els about the eternal damnation of non- believers, LaHaye also likes to dip his free-of-sin toes into politics. According to Rolling Stone, as Bush was preparing for his first presidential campaign, he met with a group of right-wing Christians that called itself the Committee to Restore American Values. LaHaye headed the group, and the positive impression Bush made on LaHaye ensured that the latter would help throw his weight behind the cause of getting the religious right to sup- port Bush. It's not really anything but old news, but it's probably worth reflecting on once in awhile that our president seeks the approval of people who truly, honestly believe the end of the world is coming, and soon. (Coincidentally, that same Roll- ing Stone article quotes LaHaye referring to Saddam Hussein as a possible "forerun- ner of the Antichrist.") That's enough on Tim for now. The two important things to remember are that he and Bush appear to have a good relation- ship and that LaHaye believes, as Rolling Stone paraphrases it, that "billions of six- inch-long scorpionlike monsters with the heads of men... and the teeth of lions, wear- ing crowns and helmets, will swarm across the globe gnawing on unbelievers." As for Beverly, while her husband works with co-author Jenkins to come up with the most creative ways to por- tray the evisceration of heretics' flesh, she focuses her attention on more ter- restrial concerns, and she accomplishes this through CWA, which she founded in 1979. She also runs the Beverly LaHaye Institute, the name of which, I am told, took her months to come up with. The best way to keep tabs on these two groups is to regularly check CWA's website at cwfa.org. If you peruse their archives, you can find some interesting stuff. As a "gift" to you, the reader, I leave you with some highlights: "Mina's Story: One Woman's Dar- ing Escape from Islam" - The heart- warming story of Mina, a Muslim woman fortunate enough to learn about Christianity and subsequently convert. I would assume this grants her mercy from those scorpion creatures. "Tom and Huck on Civil Unions" - A new addition to the sagas of Tom Saw- yer and Huck Finn that compares gay civil unions to the theft of a watermelon. You think I'm making this up, but I'm not. "Address by Sandy Rios on the Ten Commandments" - A transcript of a speech by Rios, president of CWA, in which she implied that certain shooting sprees, Columbine included, might not have occurred had those involved been familiar with the commandment "Thou shalt not kill." Wow. Good point, Sandy. Thank God we have a book that clari- fies such thorny, complicated, otherwise- insoluble moral dilemmas. Singal can be reached at jsingal@umich.edu. For whose sins? MARA GAY CMMN>\iENSE JGEL "WIGTON PMEss BE ATS Rit-K "Rfevee o T +6, Sri4' leaks onto Peer - fao-Pr F es wo Ney dus,ct you Janvl r see 14me neaw Stior Warys? ~ al +Lss dow~nlvawsl 'k" speed 1s s e s to lip M;nts T'" For conser- vatives it is an open wound on the state of Michigan, fester- 0 ing with crime and / joblessness, a sinful entity beyond atone- ment. For liberals it is an illegitimate child run amok, needy and defiant, per- petually in need of "saving." But for the almost 900,000 people who live there, Detroit is simply home. I am told that the city was great once, a glimmering product of the nation's love affair with the automobile. Detroit's grand avenues were filled with expen- sive shops and wealthy shoppers, and its downtown boomed with culture. There was a time when people of all faiths and ethnic origins came to the city, searching for a job in one of the great car compa- nies. For over half a century, Detroit was the epitome of the cutting edge. But that Detroit is gone, long ago replaced with sprawling ghettos and tremendous poverty. Today it is the most dangerous city in the country and the second most racially segregated. Its public school system alone boasts a $198 million dollar deficit, and its mayor is ranked as one of the worst in the nation by Time Magazine. In the past two decades, politicians from Eight Mile to Lansing have cre- ated careers out of declaring Detroit to be in a state of renaissance, and the city has become a graveyard of bad ideas and shortsighted schemes. We were told, for example, that the Renaissance Center would bring jobs and prestige to the city. Instead it became an oasis for businessmen and women, who can now enter and leave Detroit without ever having to set foot in the actual city at all. All the ideas were ineffective and ill-conceived; some were just plain insult- ing. The People Mover, for instance, was supposed to improve public transporta- tion. It has instead been called "the road to nowhere." It was grossly under-funded and badly executed. Politicians are not the only ones who have jumped on the "save Detroit" band- wagon. A community service group for University students, the Detroit Proj- ect runs an array of initiatives, from tutoring to home-building. Though the Detroit Project seems good-natured, you have to wonder who really benefits from its generosity. Because while its abject poverty and close proximity to Ann Arbor may suggest otherwise, Detroit is not a very large community service project for the University. Detroit Day is nothing more than an opportunity for students to spend a few hours with a hammer; when they return to the ivory tower they can sleep soundly wearing their badges of righteousness the other 364 days of the year. We are all guilty of seeing Detroit as a poblem instead of a city and it is prov- ing far easier to address the ugliness we see in Detroit than the ugliness in our own hearts and minds. Liberals see a cautionary tale in Detroit - a shameful example of the catastrophe that results when white businesses and taxpayers wrongfully flee a city, leaving darker residents to fend for themselves. Conservatives see Detroit as the bane of Michigan's existence, a city seething with indecency, surging with drug use and overflowing with an illiterate black popu- lation who are toblame for their continued misery. Both of these sentiments are use- less: Detroit is neither a lost cause to sweep under the rug nor a dumping ground for the guilt of the more fortunate. Detroit is a city and its needs are far from ideological or abstract - its resi- dents have real problems that require tangible solutions. It is not a renaissance Detroit needs but an education system, one accountable to its citizens that can help create a high- tech job market independent of the dying manufacturing economy. The city needs a real public transportation system to bring small businesses into the city that will build strong communities; transportation is key in combating the intense racial seg- regation that plagues the city. None of these things are easy to accomplish but all are possible. If we are serious about creating real change, we must confront an uncomfortable reality: It is we who are most in need of saving, not Detroit. Grand schemes like the Renaissance Center and the Detroit Project fail because they are not designed to improve the city of Detroit at all. It is, in fact, our consciences they are attempting to redeem. Gay isa member of the Daily's edito- rial board. She can be reached at maracl@umich.edu.