LPM OnlineSeptember 21, 1999 |
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Its only two days until the Oakland County LP sponsored seminar, "Beyond Left and Right" An Introduction to Libertarianism. This is going to be a highly informative event presented by LPM Executive Director, Tim O'Brien. Even if you are already convinced that Libertarianism is the way to go, this will be a great place to pick up information that you can use to better inform people you encounter who may be interested in the Libertarian Party! Also, don't forget to bring that friend of yours who you've been trying to convince for the past two years. Thursday, September 23, 1999, 7:00 PM at the Southfield Civic Center, 26000 Evergreen Road, Southfield, Michigan. There is NO CHARGE, however, seating is limited. For more information, please call 248-299-5668.
Michigan State University's Michigan Political Leadership Program (MPLP), recently featured on "The Wall Street Journal's" front page, is offering an all-day seminar on the nuts and bolts of running for elected office or managing a candidate's campaign. The seminar is entitled "Elections 101: Getting Ready to Run". It is sponsored by MPLP's Alumni Association and the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) of the College of Social Science. The seminar will take place on Tuesday, September 28 in Big Ten Room A at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing. Registration will begin at 8:00 a.m. and the program will conclude at 5 p.m. The registration fee after September 17, 1999 is $65 and includes a continental breakfast, lunch, parking, and a campaign reference binder. Some of the seminar topics will include: Understanding Campaign Finance Requirements, Developing A Campaign Plan, Getting Your Message Out, and Knowing Your District. Featured speakers reflect a variety of political perspectives them: Ken Brock, Political and Public Affairs Consultant; Ken Cockrel, Detroit City Councilman; Carol Conn, Capitol Fundraising Associates; Dave Doyle, Marketing Resource Group; Robert LaBrant, Michigan Chamber of Commerce; Al Mann, Michigan House Republican Caucus; John Moralez, WKAR TV, Michigan State University; Susan Safford, Office of Representative Pam Godchaux; Craig Ruff, Public Sector Consultants; Ed Sarpolus, EPIC/MRA; Sam Singh, Michigan Nonprofit Association; John Truscott, Office of Governor John Engler. We are pleased to have MPLP alumni included in the mix of presenters. The MPLP is a multi-partisan program designed to develop skills in the ares of personal leadership development, effective governance and public policy analysis and process, as well as practical politics and campaigning. The program recruits Michigan citizens who are interested in positively affecting public policy decisions in Michigan. It is co-directed by Lynn Johdahl, Executive Director of Michigan Prospect for Renewed Citizenship and former Democratic State Representative of 22 years; and Anne Mervenne, Special Advisor to Governor John Engler and former Ingham County Commissioner. If you are interested in attending, please call the MPLP office to receive a registration form at (517)355-6672 or download a registration form from the IPPSR website at www.ippsr.msu.edu.
The following article is the latest in a series of Op-ed articles written by LPM Executive Director Tim O'Brien and submitted to news outlets across the state for publication. This current article was published on September 16, 1999 in the Detroit News and can be viewed on their web site at: http://www.detnews.com/search/navi.htm There must be something seriously wrong with how we define our political spectrum if I can somehow have been moved from one end to the other while always standing in the same place. Take the issue of racial discrimination. Not since my college days when I marched in the streets in uncompromising opposition to the notion that individuals may be segregated or otherwise discriminated against based on the color of their skin, has race been such a hot political topic. The flashpoint then (and for that matter, now) was admissions to government sponsored educational institutions. Many of us insisted that any institution supported by everyone must be equally open to everyone who meets objective admission standards. These criteria might include grades, test scores, even athletic prowess or alumnus legacy. However, admissions ought never be based on any intrinsic (and irrelevant) characteristics such as a student's gender, sexual orientation, ethnic group, race, and so forth. Universities, especially in the south, were adamant that criteria for admittance should be entirely within their administrative discretion. That position is echoed today by our own University of Michigan which is currently embroiled in lawsuits over its racist admissions policy, nowadays euphemistically called: affirmative action. "Can you get into an admissions process by a court?" president Bollinger asks in words that could have come directly from a 60's vintage diatribe by Lester Maddox or George Wallace. In the style of those "segregation forever" southern governors he goes on to rail against "anybody coming from the outside [saying], 'This is fair, this is unfair. I don't like this thing you are doing, I don't like that thing. If we can just get inside this admissions policy, we're sure we can do a better job.'" And, having asserted a self-righteous moral superiority justifying exemption from societal norms and accountability, Bollinger proceeds as his political forebears did to offer up one spurious argument after another to rationalize racial discrimination against individuals whom no one denies are utterly innocent of any wrongdoing. He begins by smugly stating that the notion that race is no longer a significant factor in American life is a myth. This is what in argumentation is called a "straw man" -- a debating ploy whereby, a claim is attributed to the opponent which he never actually made for the sole purpose of then knocking it down. The fact of the matter is that opponents of affirmative action never said that race is not a factor in contemporary America. Indeed, it is, ironically, affirmative action proponents such as president Bollinger who continue to make it one. Apologists for contemporary discrimination assert that "diversity" (by which, incidentally, they mean only of the most superficial, physical kind -- diversity of viewpoint, for instance, is ruthlessly repressed) is not an optional characteristic of a particular university environment but rather an essential element of the entire educational process. This would, no doubt, have come as something of a surprise to the scholars and academics from time immemorial whose devotion to the knowledge and teaching of the arts and sciences, irrespective of the ethnic composition their student bodies, somehow managed to get us through to the 21st century. And in traditional left-liberal mulishness the fact that his own students tend to prefer congregating and interacting within their own ethnic groups only reinforces the belief that efforts to impose social engineering must be redoubled. The more persistent the failure, the more this is taken as evidence of the necessity. Coincidentally, in Washington U.S. Representative John Conyers, D-Mich., has introduced a bill to prohibit the practice of racial profiling. Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer also claims to oppose the practice. Perhaps, they can prevail upon president Bollinger to explain the rationale behind treating people differently based on their skin color since he so vigorously endorses the idea and supports the practice. The fundamental fact that is utterly ignored by those who would impose their vision of a just society is that there is no such entity as the black race, the white race, or any other discrete collective, that can either perpetrate or suffer from injustice. There are only individuals -- some particular characteristic of which places each into one or another of those amorphous categories. There are only unique students with their own, personal hopes and dreams for a happy and productive life. Like James Meredith, who in 1962 used integration laws to become the first black man to attend the University of Mississippi, going on to a distinguished career as an author, civil rights activist and attorney, who ran for U.S. Congress and worked for a time (interestingly enough) in the office of conservative U.S. Senator, Jesse Helms (R- NC). And like Jennifer Gratz, the math major and homecoming queen who graduated from a high school in Southgate with a 3.8 GPA dreaming of one day becoming a doctor, who has now filed suit against the University of Michigan to stop that institution from destroying her aspirations by denying her admission simply because she is white. None of us dreams in black and white. We only dream as individuals. There is no fairness or balance achieved by compensating those who never suffered under a system of legal discrimination at the expense of those who never caused it. A great American leader back in my college days once said he dreamed of a day when each of us would be judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character. I thought he was right. I still do.
Big Daddy's is the place to be this Wednesday night, if you are a Libertarian in Oakland County. Big Daddy's Parthenon is located on the east side of Orchard Lake Rd., just north of Maple (15 Mile Rd.). As usual, we meet for dinner and drinks at 6:30PM and begin the business portion of our meeting at 7:30PM. Please join us and hear what went on at the recent Affiliate Leadership Conference, as well as our activities and plans for the future. This will also be our opportunity to wrap up final details for Libertarianism 101 - scheduled for Thursday evening (9/23). This promises to be an exciting week for the LP of Oakland County. We look forward to seeing you! |
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