Get up, stand up
(In response to Athena Salman's Nov. 18 column “ASU needs to be socially embedded.”)
I am the vice president of the ASU STAND chapter and the National Communications Coordinator for STAND. Socially responsible investing is something that has always been at the core of our movement.
The reporter mentioned that, in the 1980s, students stood up against the apartheid government in South Africa. They asked for their universities to divest from South African businesses in order to show the country that even though we are thousands of miles away, we care about human rights around the globe.
In 2005, a student from UCLA, Adam Sterling, did the same thing. He petitioned to have California divest from companies that support the government in Khartoum, Sudan, a government that aids the genocide in Darfur. Sterling helped create what is now today called the Conflict Risk Network that calls for companies, universities and individuals to divest from regions of intense conflict.
I joined the ASU Coalition for Human Rights because I have seen how powerful socially responsible investing can be. I believe that Arizona State University needs to continue its legacy of ending investments in companies that support massive human rights abuses worldwide.
ASU STAND has sought information about the ASU Foundation's investments because we wanted to see if ASU is investing in companies like PetroChina-companies that directly support the genocide in Darfur. However, our requests to see ASU's financial investments were denied. […] ASU, we are your stockholders. Let us help make a difference. Approve the ASUCHR's proposal to create an Advisory Committee for Socially Responsible Investing at ASU.
Christina Massey
Reader
Government's politics
There is a troubling flaw in our nation’s political system: state-elected politicians in Washington, both Democrats and Republicans, no longer advocate policies on behalf of their constituents.
Justifiably, the word “politician” is currently spat off the lips of disillusioned Americans as if it were a vile acid. Too often, a politician’s vote is dictated by the wants of the highest corporate bidder instead of by his or her constituents. It is a term now associated with corruption and ineffectiveness when it should identify a positive community authority.
A real politician is a representative who thinks of herself or himself only as a tool of the people — nothing more [or] nothing less. Such a person would selflessly advocate for the majority opinion of her or his constituency. The craving for the luxurious life that often accompanies political office would be replaced by the drive to serve the public good through appropriate legislation.
Unlike a large percentage of the current politicians in Washington, such leaders would never forget that their political power is derived from the people they represent, not the CEOs or interest groups that offer payoffs under the guise of campaign funds. True politicians would never mistake corporate monies as a substitution for citizens’ ballots. “Pork barrel” spending would be a thing of the past, and lobbyists with the fattest wallets would have to form a line behind represented citizens to speak to officials.
We need a government that is for and by the people, not by and for the politicians.
Drew Reasor
Reader
