News & Letters to
the Editor
12-05-01
| Activists ask U of M to end support of Arizona telescope | by Elaine Klaassen |
| Letters to the Editor | by People |
| Ventura puts the squeeze on state programs |
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| The University of Minnesota is facing a tough
decision. They stand poised to sign a contract that may hinder the natural and cultural
world, and this week, dissenters have traveled all the way from Arizona to dissuade them. The contract in question would allocate $5 million (all from a donation from Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc.) to a telescope project that threatens both the natural and cultural history of Mt. Graham in southeastern Arizona, home to a fragile ecosystem, endangered species and land considered sacred to the San Carlos Apache tribe in Arizona, says the Mt. Graham Coalition. Currently, there are two telescopes on Mt. Graham and a third in the works, called the Large Binocular Telescope. This telescope is equipped with two giant mirrors, each 8.4 meters in diameter, and is expected to have ten times greater resolution than the Hubble Space Telescope. The LBT is expected to be complete in 2004. “If you want to have a world-class astronomy department at the University of Minnesota, then you need to have the best equipment available,” said one representative of Hubbard Broadcasting. “This means state-of the-art telescopes.” But not at the expense of endangered environments and cultures, say members of the Mt. Graham Coalition. Since the mid-eighties, the Mt. Graham Coalition, the Apaches for Cultural Preservation and the Apache Survival Coalition have engaged in legal battles with the University of Arizona to stop the project. The groups claim that there are 18 species of plants and animals on Mt. Graham (called Dzil nchaa si an by the Apache tribe) that do not exist anywhere else in the world. One, the Mt. Graham Red Squirrel, is on the endangered species list. The 28-acres of land used to house the telescope cuts directly into the heart of the red squirrel’s natural habitat, and, considering the “edge effect,” they stand to lose a fourth of their habitat. “That would be a real serious disruption,” said Dwight Metzger, who, along with Guy Lopez, traveled from Arizona to raise the Twin Cities’ awareness of the possible dangers of this project. The word Metzger used to describe the history of the telescope project was “plagued.” He maintains that, over the years, the project has dodged environmental and cultural laws, fudging data to allow for development. Biologists doubtful of the ability of environmental survival were encouraged by the U.S. Forest Service to show that the telescopes and the endangered species could co-exist, he said. In 1988, on a midnight rider tacked on to an otherwise-innocuous bill, Congress passed the resolution to allow for the development of Mount Graham—bypassing several important environmental restrictions along the way. Since 1989, many Apache have protested, citing Mt. Graham as sacred ground to their tribe. They claim that no cultural studies were ever done when choosing a spot for the telescope and the Apache have been systematically excluded from the decision-making process. Anthropologists, including Dr. Keith Basso from the University of New Mexico, have verified the importance of this land to the tribe. Basso—who is not otherwise necessarily politically motivated—made a declaration on behalf of the Apache people in 1996 verifying the significance of the mountain and everything surrounding it to their religion. “All forms of life with homes on or near a mountain are considered to belong to that mountain, and their separate sacred powers are therefore considered part of the mountain’s own sacred power,” he wrote. “Although the mountain’s own sacred power may be great in and of itself (as is the case with Mount Graham), it is the combined array of all the mountain’s associated powers that defines its sacred significance.” Metzger calls this a “classic case of environmental racism,” with the University of Arizona fighting an incredibly impoverished tribe that has little economic opportunity. Metzger admits that the University of Minnesota has not been aware of the full story since the University of Arizona and others involved with the project claim that the Apache have been neutral to the telescope project. He and Lopez presented the Astronomy Department at the U of M with their documents that show the Apaches are almost unanimous in their disapproval of the telescope project. “They have a chance to do the right thing,” he said. Metzger says the U of M would not be alone if it decided to renege. “Over 25 North American institutions have pulled out,” he said. The contract is currently tied up in legal tape, but Metzger worries that the U may decide to push it through before they are able to get their message out. “The situation is at a critical place right now,” he said. “We fear it’s a done deal…but they haven’t signed the contract yet.” |
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| Pro-Israel letter factually unsound Tim Lieder's letter in last week’s issue of Pulse [“Anti-Israel=Anti-Jew,” November 28, 2001] was an unusually crude rehash of the tired claim that opposition to an illegal and unjust occupation is “anti-Israel” and even “anti-Jew.” Those calling for compliance with international law, he suggested, are “bolsheviks” inspired by “anti-Semitism.” The latter statement is preposterous and clearly does not merit a response. The first has been challenged and rejected so many times, including by countless Israeli and non-Israeli Jews, that I see no reason to waste any ink again addressing it. I would, however, like to comment on the factual soundness of several of Mr. Lieder’s allegations. He wrote that “once Barak gave the Palestinians 90 percent of the so-called Occupied Territories, they wanted the rest of the country.” Putting aside for the moment that the Occupied Territories are not Israel’s to give, I am aware of no demand by Palestinian negotiators for “the rest of the country.” If Tim Lieder has evidence of this, I and many others —including, I imagine, just about every analyst and scholar studying the Middle East today—would be very grateful if he could provide it. He stated that “[c]haracterizing Palestinians as those that cheer American deaths might be collective, but show me an exception and I might stop believing it.” Judging from this statement, I suspect Tim Lieder has never met any Palestinians, is impervious to reality, or is wont to spout accusations without having undertaken even the most elementary research. Based on the lack of acuity displayed in the rest of his letter, I would conjecture that all three are true. There were, of course, countless Palestinian individuals who not only didn’t “cheer American deaths,” but who publicly expressed deep remorse over the atrocities of Sept. 11. Yet it must be pointed out that Palestinians, or Arabs and Muslims for that matter, were and are under no obligation to do so. Only under the racist assumption that all members of a group should be deemed collectively guilty for the repugnant actions of a minority could such an argument be made. Nevertheless, the expressions of Palestinian empathy were abundant. They include the many who gathered in a candlelight vigil in front of the U.S. Consulate in East Jerusalem shortly after the attacks. Many more wrote to American friends, relatives, and colleagues. Hundreds of Palestinian and Israeli academics, physicians, lawyers, writers, artists, and activists jointly endorsed a well-circulated petition unequivocally denouncing the atrocities. Among the Palestinian signatories were Haider Abdel Shafi, Hanan Ashrawi, Edward W. Said, Rashid I. Khalidi, Elia Zureik, Camille Mansour, and Zakaria Mohammad. And some of the many Palestinian organizations that issued statements deploring the attacks and mourning the tragic loss of life include the Palestine Affairs Council; the Palestinian American Congress; Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; United Palestinian Appeal; the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Gaza; LAW, the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment; the Al-Mizan Human Rights Center, Gaza; the Palestinian NGO Network, which consists of 68 NGOs; and the Palestinian Association for Human Rights in Lebanon. There were others. Given this outpouring of solidarity with the victims, Tim Lieder’s stated belief that all Palestinians “cheer[ed] American deaths” obviously tells us nothing about Palestinians but says much about Mr. Lieder. Finally, he maintained that no “thinking human being” should “listen” to the Geneva Conventions—that is, adhere to international humanitarian law—as they “said nothing when Jews were being murdered by the millions.” If I am correct in assuming his reference is to the Holocaust, his claim is true. But this is because the documents didn’t exist until August 1949, years after the Nazi genocide ended. Mr. Lieder will thus have to explain the relevance of his statement, which is not only physically untenable—laws can’t speak—but also temporally impossible. Scott Laderman No “fairy tale” war The first line of your cover story last week said it all. “It’s a fairy tale war. No American casualties.” Mr. Felien, did you forget what happened on Sept. 11? There were thousands of Americans lives were lost. The United States lost the first battle in this war. I was in New York City last week and it is nothing close to a fairy tale. It’s a nightmare. You also write about the U.S. sanctions on Iraq trying to justify the actions of bin Laden. I thought these were United Nations sanctions as well. Isn’t it your type saying we should follow the UN’s lead all the time. Damn it, you people really confuse me. You try to portray bin Laden as some sort of justified vigilante. That is like saying Timothy McVeigh had some justification in the Oklahoma City Bombing. The photography in your article was misleading and in bad taste. Maybe you haven’t watched the news lately but Kabul and most of Afghanistan is liberated. I know your response to this. You will say the Northern Alliance is no better. Well the U.N. is working on that right now and we will see what happens. I was right there with you Mr. Felien, bitching about the bombings and thinking the only good it will do will kill children. But look! It’s working. I’m getting really sick of leftist rhetoric. Try again. Christopher Mishek St. Paul Goldstein responds Tzaporah Ryter’s letter to the editor was as credible as her cover story. She says, “For months, the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) has been pressuring the Pulse to air their side of the story.” The truth is that Pulse called the JCRC to see if they wanted to respond to Jennifer Gulbratson’s cover story on Palestine from last summer. Ryter says, “The JCRC further claims to be ‘representing Jews, individually and collectively, here and abroad.’ However I protest this ‘collective’ representation, since I never gave them my permission.” Tzaporah, I think you can rest easy as I don’t think they were referring to you and if indeed they were, I’m sure no one would be upset if you didn’t want to be included. Then, she goes on to ramble for over half a page about the good Palestinians and the evil Israelis. Since she wrote that letter, the poor oppressed, misunderstood, peaceful Palestinians have unleashed four suicide bombers in Jerusalem and Haifa in areas frequented by Israeli children and teens, killing 28 and maiming over 200. Shortly after the killings, Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon rejoiced by firing guns in the air to celebrate the dead and injured Israelis. I, for one, am sick and tired of the pro-Palestinians portraying the Israelis as the ones deterring the peace process when it is quite the opposite and has been for ages. David Goldstein, Sales Director, Pulse of the Twin Cities Another side to Cree/ Xcel Energy story? If you consider doing another piece such as the “Xcel Shareholder Vote Keeps Resolution Alive” piece done by Elaine Klaassen on May 2, 2001, you may want to consider that there is another Manitoba Cree side to the story that says such a resolution will HURT the Cree. I invite you to review www.supportsplitlakecree.com. The best of journalism would suggest this should be investigated. Douglas Mackenzie K-12 : A Matter of Class The people who run the public school system in Minneapolis are doing a pretty good job, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune editorial board. How does the MPS administration account for a secondary school dropout / pushout rate of nearly 50 percent? Why do most students fail the Minnesota Basic Standards test on their first attempt? The answers given by the school administration are: lack of parental involvement, ineffective parental involvement, poverty, neglect or abuse by parents, and so on. It’s not the schools that are inferior, it’s the kids! That’s also the Democratic Farmer Labor Party line. No confidence should be placed in the board to improve the quality of instruction and to “close the gap” in academic achievement. In order to make our school system excellent and equitable, we need to organize. We need to make demands on the board. And we need to run our own slate of candidates for the school board next year. The current school board says that parent involvement is the ticket. Some parents are told to spend as much as two hours per day per child on homework. If a student needs that much involvement from the parent to complete her / his homework, why bother to send them to school at all? There’s obviously a huge problem with the curriculum and learning strategies that are used at school. Many home schooling parents spend an average of 3 hours or less per day on direct instruction and get better results. The problem is a school board that makes decisions which benefit a minority of the students at the expense of the majority. For example, the 10-year-old class size reduction program initially increased the concentration of inexperienced teachers in predominantly black schools. Then the district implemented a student assignment plan, the Community Schools plan, that further segregated the schools by class and race. Class sizes were increased at Community Schools that serve poor, predominantly black neighborhoods in North Minneapolis. Class sizes were reduced at Community Schools that serve low-poverty, predominantly white neighborhoods in Southwest Minneapolis. Of course, the district’s more experienced teachers are going to fill the positions that open up in Southwest Minneapolis, and the least experienced teachers will fill the positions that open up in North Minneapolis (where teacher turnover is also high). It’s the same thing with decisions about the use of ability-grouping, the choice of curriculum products, and special education practices. The board’s philosophy is to help the best and damn the rest. It’s all about feathering nests and pleasing the people who are used to having privileges (and playing on their fears). It is understandable that parents with children who are getting the best education the schools have to offer are afraid of losing what they have. However, “preserving excellence” for some at the expense of others weakens the entire school system. It’s not enough to preserve excellence where it exists. It is also necessary to create excellence where it does not exist. The underlying problem: The school system is part of a larger social and political system based on economic exploitation and nourished by racism, sexism, heterosexism and so forth. The truth is that the people who own and control most of the wealth in this city need to keep us ignorant and squabbling over the crumbs. That’s why it doesn’t matter if a third of the kids don’t learn how to read, and most do not learn to read well. The school system is consciously stratified in order to prepare our kids for their future roles in the work force or prison system. It wouldn’t do to have low-wage workers think they are basically as smart as the highly compensated managers who boss them around. Nor would it do to have “middle class” workers who identify more with low wage workers than they do with their bosses. It all comes down to a question of power: Who exercises power for whose benefit. The school board’s power is preserved by keeping us divided and fighting among ourselves. They ask for our input about policy issues. They need our input to validate their decision-making process and to help them market their policies. But our input doesn’t really have much influence on what they decide to do. As Malcolm X once said, “Power never takes a step back except in the face of greater power. And Power in defense of freedom is greater than Power in defense of tyranny, because the power of a just cause is based on conviction, and leads to resolute and uncompromising action.” We can and must use our collective power to make the entire school system excellent and equitable. I’m sure that many teachers, students, and non-parents will support us in this important struggle. Doug Mann Open letter to the President Dear President George W. Bush, I hope your staff will not consider this letter as a wish list and throw it in the garbage. In this letter, with all my heart and my lifetime experience, I am offering my services to fight against terrorism. As I described in my previous letters, there are a few Turkish citizens in Minnesota and in the United States. Those people are modern, secular, well-educated, loving people. As I explained in my letters, those modern Turkish citizens can be a backbone for future American Muslims. The United States Government is working very hard to stop the terrorists who are coming to this country. (There are already 47 Turkish citizens in custody after the Sept. 11 attack. We respect that.) However, there is no discussion or explanation how the American Government plans to help the good, loving, hard working people who are in this country without proper documentation. I would like to have your help for three of them who came to the United States eight years ago. They were misled until this moment to have false documents to work in the United States. Now, they are afraid for their future. They are afraid to talk, they are afraid to walk, they are afraid to go outside. They love this country. They are good Turkish citizens and ready to be good American citizens. I need your help: HELP ME SO I CAN HELP those people to have their proper documents for permanent residency. I would love to make “your help” a story and to send to my Turkish Associates to publish it as news in the well-known Turkish Dailies. This is a PR opportunity for us to show some people and the world that the United States Government is not against all Muslims. If you do not break your silence and do not help those people, they will have to borrow thousands of dollars to hire a lawyer. They would be very vulnerable during this period. Let me have a chance to fight against these terrorists side by side with you. Regards, Mustafa Kemal Ozturk Lt. Colonel, Re. Former Security Chief of Turkish Air Force |
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| “Don’t take my [general fund] revenue
from me.” -Gov. Jesse Ventura in response to sources of stadium funding. Mere months ago, Gov. Ventura and legislative leaders blathered on and on about how Minnesota overtaxes its citizens, complained about the cost of public services and divvied up rebate checks. Today, we are officially in a recession (retroactive to March, according to experts) and face a budget shortfall of about $2 billion, which could blow through the state’s $653 million budget reserve and $235 million surplus, according to budget director Peggy Ingison. The revenue forecast, which came out Dec. 4, is almost twice as much as many projected. The Ventura administration had already directed agencies to prepare for the worst and plan to trim up to 10 percent from their budgets. Jesse must be jumping for joy. His unstated plan to passively starve government services is exceeding all expectations. Let’s call it management through inaction. And with very real anti-terrorism measures to address, he has a bulletproof rationale for putting a hold on grants from state agencies to nonprofit organizations, and to further cut contemptible programs like higher education. His administration wants to identify $130 million in higher-ed budget cuts. Ventura has often reinforced on his radio show the stereotypes of greedy, lazy bureaucrats and babied college students to create more resentment toward public programs and promote tax cuts. And he tried to put the squeeze on nonprofits last session with a proposed tax increase. However, these programs are small change in relation to the state budget, said John Gunyou, finance director for former Gov. Arne Carlson, whose administration faced a similar budget crunch. The big ticket items are health and human services and K-12 education, which represent 25 percent and 40 percent of the state budget, respectively, Gunyou said in his Pioneer Press commentary. The increasing cost of health care for Minnesota’s aging population should have surprised no one, but was not a pressing issue when we had a surplus. (It’s also difficult to deny services to the elderly.) Instead, Ventura addressed K-12 education by shifting the funding base from a relatively stable source, local property taxes, to income and sales taxes, which are “vulnerable to economic downturns and political pressures,” Gunyou said. The reform did nothing to control personnel expenses—the main cost of education. Consequently, about 180 districts had referendums to cover the gap. For many of the 58 districts where levies failed, layoffs and program cuts soon followed. More cuts might be necessary after the state balances its budget now that they almost completely depend on state funding. Major revenue sources have already fallen $178 million short, budget director Ingison said in November. This gap will grow every day these decreased revenues do not meet the existing budget, which is why Gene Merriam, former state senator who headed the finance committee for a decade, suggests the governor call a special session to address the budget. The major state revenue sources: that is, income, sales and corporate taxes, are directly linked—they all soar during the good times and plummet during the bad times. (Ventura’s plan to broaden sales taxes might not generate much revenue for this reason.) Minnesota’s tax revenue per capita has ranked in the top five in recent years. Instead of viewing it as being “overtaxed,” it could have been viewed as a sign of doing better than anyone could imagine. When employed, people make more and spend more. They don’t file unemployment claims, use food shelves or emergency housing, or resort to public transportation. Therefore, the cost of government is also lower than expected, which adds to the surplus. Conversely, the cost of government services goes up when folks hit hard times. Anyone who has taken Intro to Economics knows the good times don’t last forever and that the state should have acted accordingly. But instead of investing in the mundane, but necessary, services to prepare for the impending economic downturn, our representatives have focused on instant gratification in the form of “Jesse checks” and license-tab fee reductions. While the checks came from the surplus, the license-tab fees went directly toward our state highway fund, which should be replenished from another source, possibly “Jesse’s general fund.” The governor can be forgiven for not projecting unexpected recession-induced costs, such as unemployment claims that are more than double last year’s level. But ignoring problems we’ve known about throughout the surplus years—our aging population, our aging roads and bridges, rising prison costs, the University of Minnesota’s deteriorating buildings, increasing numbers of K-12 students with learning disabilities or who don’t speak English, etc.—is downright irresponsible and might hamper our ability to get out of the recession. But hardships should be expected during wartime. |