Opinion

SHOHAM GEVA
EDITOR IN CHIEF

CLAIRE BRYAN 

AND REGAN DETWILER 
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS

LAURA SCHINAGLE
MANAGING EDITOR

420 Maynard St. 

Ann Arbor, MI 48109

 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at 

the University of Michigan since 1890.

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.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Claire Bryan, Regan Detwiler, Caitlin Heenan, 

Jeremy Kaplan, Ben Keller, Minsoo Kim, Payton Luokkala, 

Kit Maher, Madeline Nowicki, Anna Polumbo-Levy, 
Jason Rowland, Lauren Schandevel, Melissa Scholke, 

Kevin Sweitzer, Rebecca Tarnopol, Ashley Tjhung, 

Stephanie Trierweiler, Hunter Zhao

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

FROM THE DAILY

Support Families for Flint Act

FOFA would appropriate money toward 

four focus areas: repairing and replacing water 
service lines, servicing the needs of family 
and communities affected by lead exposure, 
expanding economic development (especially 
for the youth of Flint) and health monitoring 
provided by the new Center for Excellence 
on Lead Exposure. Most importantly, the bill 
requires the replacement of old pipes and the 
inspection of new water pipes to ensure that 
Flint residents can once again obtain clean tap 
water in their homes.

For infrastructure repairs deemed necessary 

by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 
the city of Flint would receive $770 million 
in funds. To help provide services to families 
and children exposed to lead in Flint, the U.S. 
Department of Health and Human Services 
would receive $270 million in funding, the U.S. 
Department of Education would receive $180 
million, the U.S. Department of Housing and 
Urban Development would receive $10 million 
and the U.S. Department of Justice would 
receive $10 million. For economic development, 
the U.S. Department of Labor would receive 
$40 million and the U.S. Department of 
Commerce would receive $25 million. Finally, 
to monitor ongoing health of residents in Flint, 
the U.S. Department of Health and Human 
Services would also recieve $200 million to 
create a Center of Excellence on Lead Exposure 
in Flint.

Another crucial aspect of Kildee’s legislation 

is that it would require the Michigan state 
government to match every federal grant dollar 
Flint receives. In this way, Michigan’s state 
government and the federal government take 
equal financial responsibility for resolving the 
crisis in Flint. The total amount that would be 
appropriated, roughly $765 million (about $1.5 
billion with Michigan’s matched funds), would 
be split roughly equally between infrastructure 
fixes and mitigating the consequences of the 
crisis.

In addition to FOFA, other legislation has 

been introduced that would also help Flint. 
Recently, Michigan Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D) 
and Gary Peters (D) introduced provisions into 
a bipartisan energy bill that designates certain 
funds toward Flint. In addition, Gov. Rick 

Snyder (R) recently signed a $28 million aid bill 
for Flint, one of many allocating state resources 
to Flint.

The Flint water crisis also highlighted 

the need for legislation to better monitor 
water contamination nationwide. On Feb. 
10, the U.S. House passed the Safe Drinking 
Water Act Improved Compliance Awareness 
Act, which is an ammendment that Kildee 
supported to strengthen regulations on the 
U.S. 
Environmental 
Protection 
Agency’s 

notification of communities in instances of 
water contamination. The intent of the bill is 
to inform the public in crises similar to Flint’s, 
so the muddled and tragic mishandling of 
Flint’s situation can be avoided in the future. 
Although these are small steps in the right 
direction, FOFA, as of now, is the most effective 
legislation to deal with this crisis and it must be 
passed immediately.

Kildee said in a press release that he was 

pleased that the aforementioned amendments 
to the Safe Drinking Water Act passed, and that 
continued legislation is on the table. Ultimately, 
though, Kildee said he “hope(s) it is only a first 
step in addressing this crisis.”

The government has an obligation to protect 

the many citizens who have been effectively 
poisoned by neglect and misinformation, and 
Kildee’s bill is a positive step toward fulfilling 
this obligation.

Flint must not be just a talking point for 

politicians and presidential hopefuls. It is 
crucial 
to 
provide 
continued, 
consistent 

attention to the needs of Flint residents. The 
health of thousands of people is at stake, not 
simply political capital for the campaign 
season. Bringing justice and aid to the people 
of Flint, as Kildee proposes in the FOFA bill, 
and as other legislation is working to do, is a 
foundational step in the right direction. FOFA 
provides a substantial amount of financial aid 
to Flint and to its community agencies with 
specific goals and means to ensure the targets 
are being met. Congress should act quickly and 
vote yes on this bill. The federal government, 
as well as Michigan’s state government, is 
accountable to the needs of its citizens — Flint 
should be no exception. 

Classes on class

On the very first day of my intro-

ductory political science class, the 
professor posed a question to the 
packed 
lecture 

hall, 
“Is 
the 

American Dream 
attainable 
for 

everyone?”

She instructed 

us to discuss our 
answers 
with 

those around us 
before 
sharing 

with the class. 
Immediately, the 
room 
erupted 

with 
excited 

chatter as hands shot sporadically 
into the air.

“I think the American Dream is 

attainable for everyone,” one kid 
replied. “Because if you work hard 
enough, you can achieve success.”

I watched incredulously as the 

other students nodded in agreement, 
my head swimming with counterar-
guments. What if your school district 
is underfunded? What if you live in a 
neighborhood where you constantly 
fear for your safety? What if you 
have to work during high school to 
help your family make ends meet?

As the conversation adhered to 

this theme for the remainder of the 
90-minute lecture, I felt completely 
and utterly alone in my objections. I 
could not comprehend why my class-
mates did not take into account the 
potential roadblocks people could 
face while pursuing an education 
or a career — unless, of course, they 
have never encountered those road-
blocks themselves.

At the University, I have found 

that this is usually the case. Most 
students here come from dispropor-
tionately privileged backgrounds; 
they attended exceptional schools 
and lived in safe, affluent neighbor-
hoods — and there is absolutely noth-
ing wrong with that. However, this 
undeniably 
advantaged 
upbring-

ing has the tendency to serve as a 

partition, sheltering those who live 
behind it from the realities of the 
world around them. Some of these 
kids are so engrossed in their fortu-
nate lifestyles they forget that they 
rank among the numbered few who 
can actually afford to have them.

For students hailing from more 

modest backgrounds, these divi-
sions can be painfully obvious, and 
pervade every aspect of their col-
lege experience. Some consider their 
socioeconomic status to be a pivotal 
component of their identity, though 
the inconspicuous nature of it means 
their peers usually do not detect any 
difference between themselves and 
their less affluent constituents, as 
it is assumed that most college stu-
dents are relatively well-off.

I understand the option of blend-

ing in is a privilege that most margin-
alized people cannot claim to have, 
and I recognize it as such. However, 
when an aspect of one’s identity slips 
so easily under the radar, it can both 
isolate and alienate them from their 
peers.

As far as I can tell, there is no 

open dialogue on campus that 
addresses socioeconomic discrep-
ancies, and because the issue is not 
always observable, most people do 
not consider it compelling enough 

to explore. Popular political science 
or economics courses tend to brush 
over the subject in favor of general-
izing concepts to make them more 
digestible — which would be fine if 
there were a breadth of classes that 
delved deeper into it. Though there 
are a few here and there that analyze 
the implications of class structure, 
unless you are searching the course 
guide with very specific results in 
mind, most of these courses are only 
discovered through word of mouth.

Furthermore, while the Univer-

sity currently has a Race and Eth-
nicity requirement that focuses 
on “comparisons of discrimina-
tion based on race, ethnicity, reli-
gion, social class, or gender” there 
are only a handful of courses that 
emphasize the role of class in their 
curricula. 
While 
these 
cours-

es don’t necessarily need to be 
required with the same stringen-
cy as Race and Ethnicity courses, 
increasing the availability of these 
classes 
and 
highlighting 
their 

importance in a comprehensive, 
interdisciplinary education will 
engage students more often in con-
versations pertaining to socioeco-
nomic status.

For some people, the “Ameri-

can Dream” is a straight shot to 
success. However, there is merit 
in realizing the conditions that 
facilitate this success do not apply 
to everyone. That day in lecture, 
I learned that not everyone is as 
acutely aware of this phenomenon 
as I am, and, frankly, it alarmed me. 
College students, particularly those 
at prestigious universities, wield 
an influence that a select few can 
claim: They will undoubtedly play 
a major role in shaping the future 
of society. Raising awareness about 
the myriad identities and back-
grounds that make up this society 
is something we cannot neglect.

Lauren Schandevel can be 

reached at schandla@umich.edu.

LAUREN 

SCHANDEVEL

When you think of Syrians, think of Anne Frank
I

f you are a Jewish woman, 
like myself, you are required, 
by some unspoken rule, to 

read two books 
around 
the 

time of your bat 
mitzvah: 
“The 

Diary of a Young 
Girl” 
by 
Anne 

Frank and “Are You There God? It’s 
me, Margaret” by Judy Blume.

Unlike stories of survival such 

as Elie Wiesel’s “Night” or fictions 
such as Markus Zusak’s “The Book 
Thief,” Anne Frank’s diary is not 
a Holocaust story. Frank’s story 
is actually much more similar to 
Blume’s “Margaret” than it is to 
“The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.” 
Like Margaret, Anne Frank writes 
about her future and boys and frets 
over puberty. Anne Frank’s diary is 
almost more tragic than stories of 
death camps and torturous Nazis 
because it is relatable. Anne Frank 
was a girl trying to grow and learn 
the way all young women should, 
but her story was cut short. When I 
first read her diary, I was struck by 
how much I related to Frank and her 
desire to experience a first kiss on the 
lips. For me, it would not come for two 
more years, and for her, it would not 
come at all.

You may not know that Anne 

Frank’s father, Otto, had tried to get 
an American visa for his whole family 
to immigrate to the United States. As 
The Washington Post so chillingly put 
it, “Anne Frank could be a 77-year-old 
woman living in Boston today.” I read 
this line as tears well up in my eyes. 
I feel an intense sadness. I am sad 
because I, as a 13-year-old girl, like so 
many other 13-year-olds, Jewish or 
not, feel a strong connection to Anne 
Frank.

This is not the only reason I am 

sad. I am sad that Anne Frank never 
made it to the United States, because 
there are hundreds of thousands 
of young girls out there now, both 
Syrian and otherwise, who may 
never make it to the United States. 
The United States government could 
not have known that Anne Frank was 
being taken to an early death in the 
Bergen-Belson concentration camp 
in Germany. But today is different. 

Today, with 20-20 hindsight, the 
United States can save young girls, 
like Frank, from death by a brutal, 
racist government.

You may, like many others, fear 

that taking in Syrian refugees is 
taking in potential terrorists. In 
the 1940s, Jews were also seen as 
a threat to the United States. They 
were viewed as dirty communists 
trying to corrupt a struggling 
capitalist economy. The United 

States currently plans to let 10,000 
Syrian refugees in over the next 
year. It is not clear how many Jewish 
refugees the United States took 
in during the World War II era. 
However, one thing is clear: Jewish 
people were not often welcomed. 
Many were turned away because 
the United States government feared 
they were spies for the Germans 
or radical anarchists. There are 
large collections online of photos 
of Jewish refugees on boats being 
turned away from the United States 
and Cuba. The Jewish refugees who 
did not make it to the U.S., Canada 
or Palestine faced an almost certain 
death at the hands of the Nazis.

While the situation in Syria 

does not involve gas chambers and 
giant crematoriums, it involves 
other horrors. Syrian refugees face 
displacement 
and 
threats 
from 

their own government, much like 
the Jews did in Europe. The truth 
is, Anne Frank did not die from 
a gunshot or a gas chamber, she 
died from typhus alongside her 
younger sister. Her mother died of 
starvation. Today Syrian refugees in 
camps around the world face similar 
problems: food shortages, diseases 
and extremely low quality of life. 
If stories of Jews in the Holocaust 
break your heart, then so will stories 
of Syrian refugees.

When you think of Syrians, rather 

than picture a threatening man 
with a gun, picture a young woman. 
Picture an Anne Frank. We need 
to give Syrian refugees the kind of 
chance we never gave Jews.

Alison Schalop can be reached 

at aschalop@umich.edu.

ALISON 

SCHALOP

E-mail michEllE at shEngmi@umich.Edu
MICHELLE SHENG

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“Some of these kids are 

so engrossed in their 

fortunate lifestyles they 

forget that they rank 

among the numbered 

few who can actually 

afford to have them.”

 

—Sen. Marco Rubio (R) during a presidential campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Mich .
“

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

Because if you want to be president of the U.S.A. you 
have to love the American people, even the ones who 

don’t love you back

“While the situation in 

Syria does not involve 

gas chambers and 

giant crematoriums, it 

involves other horrors. 

Syrian refugees face 

displacement and 

threats from their own 

government, much like 

the Jews did in Europe.”

Over the last few months, the events that led to the Flint 

water crisis have come to light. The need for legislation to 
deal with its aftermath and to prevent similar disasters from 
becoming commonplace nationwide is urgent. On Feb. 4, 2016, 
Congressman Dan Kildee (D–Flint) introduced an essential bill 
called the Families of Flint Act. This bill is an important step in 
the process of helping Flint get back on its feet and supporting 
those most affected by the crisis.

