Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Monday, October 7, 2019
Zack Blumberg
Emily Considine
Emma Chang
Joel Danilewitz
Emily Huhman
Krystal Hur
Ethan Kessler
Magdalena Mihaylova
Max Mittleman
Timothy Spurlin
Miles Stephenson
Finn Storer
Nicholas Tomaino
Joel Weiner
Erin White
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EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
T
he nearly three years
of
Donald
Trump’s
presidency
have
been
an absolute whirlwind. From
sexual assault accusations to the
Sharpie scandal, there hasn’t
been a second for us to catch
our breath. Every time a scandal
happens, people call for Trump’s
impeachment. Yet, he seems to
get past each scandal relatively
unharmed.
That
was
until
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
D-Calif., who had previously been
hesitant to bring impeachment
to the table, decided enough
was enough and announced a
formal
impeachment
inquiry
into President Trump (though
he is still relatively unharmed).
This came after a whistleblower
complaint
that
Trump
had
allegedly pressured Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky
into investigating former Vice
President Joe Biden and his son
Hunter Biden. He also allegedly
threatened to withhold aid to
Ukraine should Zelensky not
comply. While the impeachment
inquiry should be exciting news
to many Democrats, they should
also be concerned.
There are two main reasons
Democrats are excited about the
news of a possible impeachment,
with the first being their pure
disdain for Trump. More than
200 House Democrats have a
burning desire to see Trump
kicked out of office. Presidential
candidate
former
Rep.
Beto
O’Rourke, D-Texas, hammered
Trump as being “sick” and
“unfit for this office.” The only
problem is that calling someone
unfit isn’t a good enough reason
for impeachment. Each party
will claim that a president of
the opposing party is unfit —
that is party politics. However,
pressuring a foreign leader to dig
up dirt on a presidential candidate
and his son may be the straw that
breaks the camel’s back, and it
ultimately made Pelosi fold on
pushing off impeachment.
The
other
reason
many
Democrats want to see Trump
impeached
is
because
doing
so would set a precedent. If
Democrats
do
not
pursue
impeachment,
then
Trump’s
illegal
actions
will
become
commonplace. One of the most
dangerous
things
in
politics
is precedent. If Trump can do
something illegal, what stops the
next president from taking the
same course of action?
While many Democrats may
be gung-ho about impeachment,
they should be extremely wary
of pushing ahead. I believe it
is incredibly important for the
Democrats to not allow a precedent
to be set, but there is a much more
present danger of impeachment.
Should the Democrats in the
House succeed in bringing up
charges of impeachment, Sen.
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his
colleagues in the Senate would not
convict Trump and remove him
from office. It would be totally off-
color for McConnell. He blocked
President
Barack
Obama’s
Supreme Court appointee and has
blocked numerous bills that have
recently passed in the U.S. House,
including election security bills
and gun control legislation. In
order for the Senate to convict
Trump and remove him from
office there would need to be a
two-thirds majority in the Senate.
In this political era, it’s rare to
get senators on the same page
for simple things, so it would be
virtually impossible to get enough
of them to agree on something as
polarizing as convicting Trump.
What
would
a
failed
impeachment
mean
for
Democrats? Well, for starters,
the public appearance of the
Democratic
party
would
be
tarnished.
An
impeachment
without
conviction
would
validate Trump’s claim that the
continual calls for impeachment
were a giant witch hunt. The
bigger problem for Democrats
would be the energy boost that
Trump’s base would receive: His
rallies would be bigger, and his
donations would skyrocket. It is
not hard for one to imagine the
rhetoric Trump would come up
with after not being convicted.
There would be endless name
calling
and
hateful
Twitter
rants in all caps. Giving Trump
momentum into an election year
would be a very costly mistake
for the Democrats. It could end
in disaster for the party with
Trump getting elected again
in 2020. All it takes is to go on
Twitter to already see how his
base is reacting. Many of them
are claiming that it’s all a lie
and the Democrats are trying to
steal the election, including the
presidency.
Democrats have consistently
said the main goal of 2020 is
defeating Trump. While many
see impeachment as one of the
possible avenues to do that, I do
not view it as the ideal pathway
to Democratic success. If the
Democrats really want to turn
the country around, they should
beat Trump outright in the
2020 general election and avoid
the chaos of a failed Trump
impeachment, and the inevitable
division that will arise with it.
Impeachment isn’t all fun and games
KIANNA MARQUEZ | COLUMN
The importance of color in our world
JONATHAN VAYSMAN | COLUMN
D
uring a meeting for a
student
organization
I’m involved in, we had
an icebreaker activity
that asked, “Would
you rather be color-
blind or lose your
taste
buds?”
After
pondering the idea for
a couple of seconds, I
walked to the side of
the room representing
the latter, where the
minority
of
people
stood.
I
justified
losing my taste buds
because
theoretically
losing
my ability to see color was
unimaginable. For me, there’s a
powerful emotional significance
to the various colors that I see
every day. Colors reflect mood,
purpose and the uniqueness
of living and nonliving beings.
I believe it’s ultimately our
responsibility to recognize that
diminishing color from our lives,
such as in the natural spaces
around us and in the people
among us, means diminishing
our ability to mold a society
whose functional potential can
be powerfully multidimensional
and far-reaching.
The presence of color in our
surrounding
environments
serves as an untold essential
contributor
to
our
mental
health. A 2006 study confirms
that spending time in nature
can counteract the toxic stress
that occurs in our daily lives
because
viewing
stimulating
natural scenes can create a
pleasurable experience for the
brain. Another study discovered
that plant life can have similar
biological influences on the body
as aromatherapy, a phenomenon
essentially
built
on
the
collective leverage of the visual,
olfactory and touching senses
with each other. When placed in
a workspace with a multicolored
personality in its greenery and
abundant sunlight, employees
demonstrated
a
15-percent
increase in reported well-being.
Unknowingly, we are uplifted
by the dynamic structure and
presentation of nature in ways
that are generally unobservable
on a minuscule level, yet we
would likely feel a dramatic
change if these characteristics
of nature ceased to exist.
While ensuring the presence
of green space can be the first
step towards using nature to
improve
our
livelihood,
it’s
worth noting that the green
space must be well kept in
order to have these
positive
influences
on
our
behavior.
In
other
words,
the
pleasurable
and
therapeutic
effects that viewing
nature
can
have
are
best
conveyed
when
the
nature
looks
natural
and
unaffected by man-
made
destruction.
A Time Magazine article about
the psychological effect of green
spaces mentions Dr. Andrew
Lee’s
commentary
on
their
functionality as social spaces:
“If a green space is difficult to
get to, has poor lighting or is not
clean, it may be seen as unsafe
or inaccessible and probably
wouldn’t
boost
a
visitor’s
mood.” With that being said, it’s
important to let the behaviors
of diverse and flourishing plant
life carry on naturally and that
we minimize drastic alterations
to allow them to fulfill their
abstract healing potentials.
Not only can dynamic natural
spaces be attributed to the health
of the people who experience it
every day, but these spaces can
also be indicative of the health
of the environment these people
live in. When the color of an
area is changed from natural,
earthy tones to a modern white,
eccentric slate or abysmal black
alongside human intervention
in the area, this more often than
not suggests the poor quality of
the environment in this area.
For instance, a Rice University
review of marine life in the
Caribbean comments on the
importance of the multicolored
coral reefs for the quality of
their
surrounding
marine
ecosystem. The varying vibrant
colors of the coral reefs are able
to reflect sunlight differently
to protect them from damage.
In
addition,
their
colors
attract
various
species
of
fish for mating and shield
them from predators, which
ultimately contributes to the
livelihood of all surrounding
sea life.
As a result, these coral reefs
are contributing to the quality
of their surrounding marine
environment by allowing the
many organisms within this
environment to carry forth
their every day behaviors that
contribute to their survival
and future evolution. In the
many areas around the world
that are suffering from coral
bleaching, the loss of color in
these natural spaces suggests a
loss of ability for these spaces
to provide for the evolution
of the organisms in them,
and thus the distress that is
placed on the quality of these
environments.
It’s
also
important
to
realize that almost nothing
functions as well as it could
when the parts of the system
don’t think or act diversely
and don’t represent different
functions that ultimately allow
the multidimensional system
to perform. It’s not surprising
that
some
connoisseurs
of
capitalism
and
exploitation
neglect
the
importance
of
diversity in nature, just as
they neglect the importance of
diversity in people. However,
it’s imperative to acknowledge
and act upon the idea that
diversity in function and in
representation is essential to
the progression of mankind.
While we waste time debating
if these marginalized groups
—
naturally
and
socially-
constructed — of our world
are important enough to care
about, we are ignoring a slow
obliteration that is curtailing
the outcome of their future
permanently. The expansion
of diversified characteristics
is
inevitably
beneficial
for
our health, the health of our
environment and the health
of our society. We shouldn’t
choose to ignore our ability to
acknowledge color in its many
visual and metaphysical forms
if we have the choice.
Kianna Marquez can be reached at
kmarquez@umich.edu.
Jonathan Vaysman can be reached
at jvaysman@umich.edu.
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JOEL WEINER | COLUMN
Prison reform in America is far overdue
I
n October 2013, The Vera
Institute of Justice organized
a tour of prisons in Germany
and the Netherlands
with
the
intent
to
educate
American
delegates
about
the
systems of incarceration
in other countries. The
condition
of
prisons
in these countries was
surprising to Americans
because they were so
different from our own.
The guards treated the
prisoners with dignity
and respect by talking with them
out of a genuine interest in what
they had to say. The policies of
those prisons also generated a
culture of independence and
self-reliance:
Prisoners
were
allowed to make their own meals
and wear their own clothes. In
addition, to give prisoners a sense
of purpose and to prepare them
for life outside the prison, every
incarcerated person was required
to have a job.
Those are practices prisons
in the United States should seek
to emulate. The treatment of
inmates in our detention centers
is abhorrent. Last year, the
American Civil Liberties Union
called three prisoners to testify
in a federal case against the state
of Mississippi. The inmates, who
were held at East Mississippi
Correctional Facility, described
horrifying
sanitary
conditions
and decrepit facilities, such as
plumbing problems so severe that
fecal matter would come out of
showerheads in bathrooms and
drains in cells, and the kitchen
would be infested with roaches.
Prisons in the U.S. are also
severely
understaffed.
Every
position from guards to mental
health specialists are in short
supply. In St. Clair Correctional
Facility, an infamously violent
prison in Alabama, a mentally ill
inmate said his monthly check-ups
were usually only about five to 10
minutes long. Guards are few and
far in between, allowing ample
time for violence and injustice
to proliferate. Sometimes, to get
guards’ attention, inmates will
create emergency situations like
lighting fires or cutting their
wrists.
The lengths to which prisoners
will go to access a corrections
officer demonstrate that America
does not have enough guards
keeping prisons functional. Since
prison staff are the sole authority
over prisoners’ wellbeing, they
ought to be reasonably accessible,
but because there are so few of
them — the South Mississippi
Correctional Institution has an
inmate-to-guard
ratio of 23 to one —
and
because
they
only respond to the
most desperate calls
for
help,
inmates
are largely left to
deal with problems
themselves.
There
are a few reasons
why there are so few
guards. The first is
that
most
people
simply do not want to work in
prisons because guards are paid
low wages for brutal work, like
breaking up fights. The average
salary is $44,000 per year, and
correctional
officers
are
the
second most likely profession to
be non-fatally assaulted on the job.
In addition, many prisons house
inmates far above their capacity —
in 2013, more than 17 states were
holding inmates above capacity. In
Illinois, for instance, prisons were
at 151 percent capacity.
Another reason for the harsh
conditions in prisons stems from
their design. The belief that all
criminals must be isolated from
society has lead to prisons being
some of the most secluded parts of
civilization, from their geography
to their architecture. Prisons are
often built in remote locations,
where few people ever travel.
This is mainly for public safety,
but it also leads to a startling lack
of oversight. The most interaction
many Americans have with prisons
is passing them on the highway,
so few people ever see what lies
beyond the barbed wire fences.
Even when government agencies
inspect prisons, they sometimes
warn prisons in advance of their
arrival, giving the staff time to
prepare. This startling lack of
oversight has to be addressed. By
instituting policies that would open
the system up to more scrutiny, we
can ensure that prison guards do
not mistreat inmates.
This obviously does not mean
dangerous,
violent
offenders
should be in close contact with
the general public. But any
effective reform would, however,
entail fundamentally changing
the structure of detention centers
to offer inmates more agency
and
autonomy,
thus
helping
the incarcerated acclimate to
conditions similar to those they
will be released into. That will
make the transition to life outside
of prison easier, helping them stay
out of trouble.
At the center of prison reform
is ending mass incarceration.
The morality of unnecessarily
incarcerating
people
aside,
having fewer people in prisons
would make the job of prison
guards easier because they would
have fewer inmates to watch, and
it would prevent more violence
from breaking out.
These changes would not just
improve the living conditions
of prisoners, they would make
the entire corrections system
far
more
effective
because
emphasizing
rehabilitation
over punishment would bring
down our recidivism rate, which
is
when
released
prisoners
reoffend. Studies demonstrate
that vocational programs and
educational
opportunities
in
prisons decrease the likelihood of
rearrest after release by over 50
percent. Since the criminal justice
system
should
help
inmates
become productive members of
society, the recidivism rate ought
to be one of the most telling
statistics of its success. As such,
rehabilitation programs should
be at the forefront of prison
reform.
The issues in U.S. prisons are
not just a problem for prisoners,
they are a reflection of our
country’s morals. We as a society
are collectively responsible for
their treatment, meaning the
despicable state of corrections
facilities is a failure on our part.
As a nation that cherishes liberty,
we ought to treat the removal of
our esteemed freedoms with the
utmost seriousness. We should be
deeply disturbed at the current
conditions of those we incarcerate
and take actions for change. By
decreasing the incarceration rate,
increasing the number of guards in
prisons and investing in education
and vocational programs, our
corrections centers can become
better for inmates, prison staff
and the country.
Joel Weiner can be reached at
jgweiner@umich.edu.
Color in our
surrounding
environments serves
as an untold essential
conributor to our
mental health
While the impeachment
inquiry should be
exciting news to many
Democrats, they should
also be concerned
JOEL
WEINER
At the center of
prison reform
is ending mass
incarceration
KIANNA
MARQUEZ