Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

SAPAC to keep crisis line open

Posted by swoll on 25. June 2004

Excerpts from an email sent by the DSA (Department of Student Affairs) entitled “SAPAC update 2004,” that was sent out to many in the U-M community just a few hours ago.

Dear U-M Community Members:

I am writing to let you know about an important decision regarding the SAPAC crisis line, which provides an around-the-clock resource for survivors of sexual violence who need immediate assistance and support.

As you know, we have been in discussions with Safe House, a community organization that offers a similar crisis line, to plan for Safe House to handle crisis calls from the U-M student community. However, we heard from many in our community that despite some specific advantages offered by coordinating with Safe House, the SAPAC crisis line should remain student-centered and should continue to be administered as a University resource. We have listened carefully to these concerns, and we have considered the circumstances faced by Safe House as well as other potential models for operating the crisis line. After much thought and discussion, we have made the decision to continue to run the crisis line out of SAPAC. Safe House has been a very gracious partner and we will continue to foster a coordinated and supportive relationship with their community crisis line and related services.

The SAPAC crisis line phone number will continue to be (734) 936-3333. We believe it is important for the crisis line to be staffed by full-time professionals with specialized training and experience. The current crisis line, which relies on student volunteers and a pager-and-callback system, will continue through June 30. Beginning July 1, we plan to staff the crisis line with full-time, dedicated staff members who will be directly available to all U-M callers whon need immediate crisis intervention and support related to sexual violence. We are working to add TTY services for the hearing impaired, as well as Language Line translation services in the near future.

[...]

Our crisis line volunteers are a tremendously dedicated group of students… We thank them for their unselfish service, and we will encourage our crisis line volunteers to stay involved in SAPAC and to get engaged in our other volunteer efforts.

Our planning for other changes related to SAPACs services, including the expansion of education and advocacy activities and the coordination of counseling through Counseling and Psychological Services, continues as we participate in an ongoing dialogue with members of our community.

Your feedback is essential if we are to ensure that our services will meet the needs of our students. To facilitate this process, Vice President Royster Harper has decided to engage an outside expert who can provide consultation as we implement and evaluate the changes we are making. This consultant also will be a resource to community members for sharing input, thoughts, and questions.

Please let me know if you have immediate questions about the crisis line or any related changes underway at SAPAC.

Kelly Cichy, PhD
Director, Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center

For more information about SAPAC in general, click here.
For more information about the (strong) opposition to the proposed SAPAC changes, please visit the website of Our Voices Count, A Coalition Dedicated to Preserving SAPAC’s Mission and Services.

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Alma Wheeler Smith to be honored this Saturday at Democratic Social

Posted by on 25. June 2004

Alma Wheeler Smith is a former State Senator from Ann Arbor and candidate for governor in 2002, whose father was the first African American mayor of Ann Arbor and founder of the Ann Arbor NAACP. Her reputation is one who stands up for the rights of all, and she is one of the strongest advocates for CHOICE in the state of Michigan!

Democratic Social this Saturday

Honoring Alma Wheeler Smith – come meet one of the most praised public figures in Michigan, numerous other Democratic leaders, labor leaders, and activists.

Host Committee:
Congressman David Bonior, Llenda Jackson-Leslie, AFSCME President Al Garrett, MI Teamsters Legislative Director Bill Black, Ronnie Peterson (AFSCME), House Democratic Floor Leader Mary Waters, Rep. Glenn Anderson, Washtenaw County Commissioner Jeff Irwin, Washtenaw County Commissioner Martha Kern, Rep. Bill McConnico, WSU Governor Richard Bernstein, Jenny Nathan, Amanda Stitt, Katey Aquilina, Charles Williams, David Bullock, Alanna Jackson, Deb Blair, Bert Dearing, Jamiel Martin, Cynthia Overton, Tim Gardner, Corri Wofford, Isaac Robinson, and Alfred Williams.

Saturday, June 26th
7 to 9 PM

Aubree’s
39 E. Cross
Ypsilanti

(Directions-Coming from Detroit take 94 West to Huron Street exit, make a right on Huron to Cross, make a right on Cross). Suggested donation $25, students/seniors $10.

To volunteer for Alma Wheeler Smith or RSVP contact Isaac Robinson at isaac (at) alumni.northwestern.edu.

ALSO…

Walk for Alma Wheeler Smith before the Big Party on Sat. June 26th. We are looking for people to walk in groups between 10-1 PM or 3 to 6 PM or anytime that day you can volunteer. Volunteers get in free to the Alma Party at Aubree’s. Again, please contact Isaac Robinson if you can help.

Send Alma Back to Lansing! A few hours will help!

Comment [6]

Starbucks: The New Religion?

Posted by on 25. June 2004

David Crumm shares a new twist on the Starbucks phenomenon in today’s Detroit Free Press, writing about the parallels between the current spreading of Starbucks across the globe and the historical spreading of religion.

“Scholars of religion endlessly debate which spiritual movement is spreading most rapidly… Well, I’m convinced the experts are missing a hands-down winner: Starbucks Coffee shops… Religious leaders have spent decades trying to market their churches to an increasingly demanding population, but Starbucks’ marketing gurus are close to beating evangelists at their own game.”

That’s right folks. What Crumm cleverly titles “spiritual solace in the midst of urban life” has now become an apt replacement for religion or church life for many not just in America but around the world.

“In two decades, 4,000 company-owned shops have opened in 50 states. This is also a mission-minded group, having established 2,000 bases in 38 foreign lands.”

“There is no specific god here, but these temples aren’t lacking in soul. A company publication labeled “Living Our Values” says: “A Starbucks is really like a third place, beyond home and work, where people can come together.”

Towards the end of the article, he gives a shout out to the Starbucks in Ann Arbor on State Street as one of his favorite places to demonstrate his point.

I don’t know about you folks, but for some reason this is telling me me to be afraid; be very afraid.

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Op-ed: Protests Confuse Religion with Politics

Posted by Ari Paul on 25. June 2004

In an op-ed in Thursday’s Ann Arbor News, two Jewish community members write that they feel that those protesting Beth Israel Congregation for Israeli military operations in the West Bank and Gaza are missing the point.

“True, Beth Israel Congregation – like 99 percent of Americans, like the United Nations, indeed, like the Arab League – supports Israel’s right to exist as a basic principle. True, as a Jewish organization the congregation is more emotionally and publicly invested in that principle than the general population. But no officer or publication of Beth Israel has ever endorsed, officially or unofficially, any Israeli military action, political party, or leader. No officer has ever issued a statement of any sort about the disputed territories. The rabbi himself virtually never speaks about Mideast politics, and when he does so, it is only to pray for peace and understanding in the most abstract, ecumenical sense. All this is entirely appropriate for an institution whose raison d’etre is religious, not political. To conclude that Beth Israel is a suitable target for picketing because the organization, according to the May 28 writer’s allegations, supports the occupation is therefore utterly gratuitous. (Although I have doubts, I take at face value the picketers’ claim that they object to Israel’s actions in the disputed territories, not to the existence of Israel per se.) If they wish to protest an Israeli policy, let them do so before a body that has expressed an opinion about that policy.

As individuals, moreover, Beth Israel’s 1,300 members represent a wide array of views on the Mideast, from utter indifference to fervent support of Likud to equally fervent support of Peace Now. Apart from absurd assumptions of Jewish essentialism, there is no reason to imagine – nor do picketers have the slightest evidence – that congregants as a whole are more sympathetic to Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank and Gaza than are the generality of Americans. Indeed, insofar as a large majority of Jews historically vote Democratic, one might imagine that they are more liberal and less sympathetic to military solutions in the Mideast than Americans at large.”

To avoid confusion for the goyish readership and those unfamiliar with the Jewish lexicon, the ‘Israel’ in Beth Israel, does not refer to the Israeli polity, but the abstract nation of the Jews, a notion that predates the mere concept of Zionism by a few thousand years.

Comment [23]

The Corporation

Posted by Scott Trudeau on 24. June 2004

This year is shaping up to be the year of the (semi?) popular political documentary. We had SuperSize Me, Control Room and starting tomorrow is Fahrenheit 9/11 .

Another award winning documentary, The Corporation has recently been released in the US. It has not yet opened in Michigan, but will open in July at the Detroit Film Theater and Royal Oak’s Main Art Theater, September in Grand Rapids and November in Sutton Bay. Ann Arbor, which gets more independent films than any other town in Michigan, is not yet on the schedule . Strange.

Based on Bakan’s book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power , the film is a timely, critical inquiry that invites CEOs, whistle-blowers, brokers, gurus, spies, players, pawns and pundits on a graphic and engaging quest to reveal the corporation’s inner workings, curious history, controversial impacts and possible futures.

Comment [4]

Court Favors Cheney, Gov't Secrecy

Posted by Ari Paul on 24. June 2004

The New York Times reports that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to decide on a case that would force the Vice President to reveal secrets on his energy task force:

“The Supreme Court handed a major political victory to the Bush administration today, ruling 7 to 2 that Vice President Dick Cheney is not obligated, at least for now, to release secret details of his energy task force.

The majority of the justices agreed with the administration’s arguments that private deliberations among a president, vice president and their close advisers are indeed entitled to special treatment — arising from the constitutional principle known as executive privilege — although they said the administration must still prove the specifics of its case in the lower courts.

“A president’s communications and activities encompass a vastly wider range of sensitive material than would be true of any ordinary individual,” the court said in a summary of the majority opinion written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.”

Those that brought the case against Cheney were “Judicial Watch, a conservative legal organization, and the Sierra Club, a liberal environmental group.”

Justices Souter and Ginsberg were the lone dissenters.

Comment [2]

Ann Arbor Population: Up 29 People in 2003!

Posted by Rob Goodspeed on 24. June 2004

According to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau, Ann Arbor’s population “grew by 0.03 percent last year, to 114,498 from 114,469 the previous year” in 2003. This from the Ann Arbor News story:

” ... Cities like Grand Rapids are enjoying some success attracting new residents by revitalizing old downtown buildings into condominiums and loft apartments.

“The inner cities are kind of being developed by young singles and empty-nesters,” Metzger said. “It’s good to have reinvestment in the cities and the older areas. But at the same time that’s happening, families are still saying, ‘We want more land, we want larger homes.”’

Sixteen of the state’s 50 largest cities gained residents. Among those with the highest percentage gains were the Detroit suburb of Novi (3.4 percent), the Flint suburb of Burton (1.9 percent) and Portage (1.3 percent), which is near Kalamazoo. ...”

> From AANews: “Ann Arbor population avoids fall”

Forum for Peace in Middle Easternville

Posted by Ari Paul on 24. June 2004

“Prospects for Israel Palestine Peace”

THURSDAY EVENING
JUNE 24, 2004
310 South Ashley, Ann Arbor
{Second Ward Public Building ? Hathaways’ Hideaway}

6-7:30 potluck and looking at materials, maps, art, etc brought back from Israel and Palestine (and France) and showing a short video of the Megiddo archeological site, and the “peace table”.

7:30 report: What we saw and did on our recent trip to the Holy Lands among the topics: life in the occupied territories, Ta’ayush, (Arab Jewish Partnership,) non-violent women’s action at the wall, state of the peace movement and left in Israel, release of Mordechai Vanunu from prison, finding family, and description of various peace efforts, Gate to Humanity, NIR School of the Heart, Sulha, and also, progress on the Megiddo Peace Project and our related endeavors at the art fair, the “Human Chain for Peace,” WILPF and re-membering sds.

Followed by discussion, including other eyewitness reports and comments leading to further actions, including planning a next presentation at the Jewish Community Center, Sunday Afternoon July 11, 2004.
We can be reached at (734) 761-7967, or megiddo at umich.edu

Comment [2]

From Yesterday's Ann Arbor News

Posted by Rob Goodspeed on 24. June 2004

“Israel releases U-M alumnus after arrest

A University of Michigan graduate arrested Sunday by Israel Defense Forces for protesting has been released, according to several local residents and the Web site www.arborupdate.com.

Fadi Kiblawi, a U-M grad who moved to East Jerusalem this summer, was arrested during a West Bank protest. Kiblawi was the co-founder of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality while in Ann Arbor. He is currently a law student at George Washington University.”

(In Brief)

"Afro-Punk" Documentary and Cipher July 7

Posted by Rob Goodspeed on 24. June 2004

The Rad Art Collective’s next scheduled event is a screening on July 7 at 7pm at Trotter House (1443 Washtenaw Ave., at S. University) of the award-winning documentary “Afro-Punk: the ‘rock n roll’ nigger experience” The documentary “explores race identity within the punk scene,” following four people who “find themselves in conflicting situations, living the dual life of a person of color in a mostly white community.” The screening will be following by a performance of the band Cipher, which is featured in the documentary. Admission is all ages, $6-10 sliding scale.

Comment [1]

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