Posted on 01/20/2004 12:21:47 PM PST by arrow107
Poll results bode well for ballot initiative
Americans don’t like discrimination much, no matter who is doing the discriminating. It’s not surprising, then, that a recent poll showed broad support in Michigan for a state constitutional amendment banning racial preferences in public institutions. Some 63 percent of 600 people polled said they will vote for the amendment if it appears on next fall’s general election ballot. Collectively, this group demonstrates considerably more common sense than the quirky U.S. Supreme Court, which last year upheld a general affirmative action program at the University of Michigan law school, while striking down the undergraduate school’s more ham-handed formula of awarding admissions points based solely on race. In the former ruling, the court signed off on racial preferences designed to more gently gerrymander in favor of a "diverse" student body. It is discrimination nonetheless. The goal is fine; no one is arguing that major colleges and universities — where admissions are most competitive — should be exclusively white. However, when much-coveted diversity is achieved by turning away students solely because they do not belong to select ethnic minority groups, the proponents of affirmative action have struck a deal with the devil. Enter the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which is expected this month to begin gathering the more than 317,000 signatures needed to get a racial preferences ban on the ballot. Don’t be surprised if the group is successful, even as opponents begin to strangely argue that the state somehow will be harmed by adhering to the equal protection guarantee of the U.S. Constitution. If the civil rights group forces a vote, Michigan residents will have an opportunity to say at the ballot box what the Supreme Court lacked the courage to say in unqualified terms — that people should be judged solely on their ideas and actions. Only then can we finally refocus on the real meaning of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream that Americans regard “content of ... character” above all other considerations, most especially skin color.
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