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Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:29:09 -0500 (CDT)
To: Daniel Reeves <dreeves &AElig umich.edu>
cc: Nate Clark <ntclark &AElig eecs.umich.edu>, improvetheworld &AElig umich.edu
From: Bill Rand <wrand &AElig northwestern.edu>
Subject: Re: MCRI
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        I used to be a Libertarian, the long and the short of it is that I
decided that economic power can be just as harmful as political power.  
Now I adopt the view that Political Power should be minimal but is rightly 
justified when used to balance out the harmful effects of Economic Power. 
Thus I feel that in cases where there is historical wrongs that have 
disturbed the balance of economic power in the world it is okay to 
rectify that imbalance with political power.  I would completely 
support this initiative in a world where all "races" (I hate using 
that word so unscientific) had started from a level playing field, 
but since that is blatantly not the way it is, I have a hard time doing 
away with all affirmative action.   Of course I no longer live in 
Michigan, so I don't get a say one way or another.  On a completely 
different subject, for those who do live in Michigan btw the following is 
great news:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061011/NEWS06/610110366/1008/NEWS

-Bill


On Wed, 11 Oct 2006, Daniel Reeves wrote:

> Ooh, great question.  My work on Yootles is turning me into a libertarian 
> and for the sake of consistency, if nothing else, I think I'm going to go 
> with Yes on MCRI.  (I suppose a hardcore libertarian would say No -- no 
> legislation concerning race at all.  But since I think anti-discrimination 
> laws are important I'd prefer the simplest, fairest, most consistent form 
> of such laws possible, ie, "no racial discrimination for any reason 
> ever".)
> 
> But I'm torn for the same reasons you are.
> 
> Straw poll here:
>    http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves/improvetheworld/
>      (Put only your name there; for discussion use email.)
> 
> --- \/   FROM Nate Clark AT 06.10.10 21:24 (Yesterday)   \/ ---
> 
> >
> > Those of you in Michigan, what do you think about the Michigan Civil Rights 
> > Initiative, to be voted on in 4 weeks?
> >
> > The ballot language says it will "Ban public institutions from using 
> > affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or 
> > individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin 
> > for public employment, education or contracting purposes."
> >
> > In principal, I agree with it, that the color of someone's skin should not 
> > give anyone special treatment. I strongly believe that people from worse 
> > socio-economic situations SHOULD get preferential treatment, though, and I 
> > recognize that they are, more often than not, non-caucasian.
> >
> > Is it conscionable to remove what I believe to be unjust forms of affirmative 
> > action, without immediately having another form in place?
> >
> > I keep thinking about a friend of mine from Argentina. Both of his parents 
> > are plastic surgeons who make more money than I will ever see. He got to go 
> > to UMich for free because he's hispanic. This is wrong, and the MCRI would 
> > end this type of thing.
> >
> > But without other forms of affirmative action, it seems like the MCRI would 
> > do more harm than good.
> >
> > ~Nate
> >
> 
> -- 
> http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves  - -  search://"Daniel Reeves"
> 
>