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OPINION

Page4 Tuesday, November 30, 1982 The Michigan Daily

'A. C.! A.C .':Tribute to a

gridiron god.

By Jon Weiss
All ranks pay (homage) to the
hero of the day ... Hear the shouts!
The people cannot see him enough.
They delight in a man.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sure, I know it's fashionable to sneer
at "dumb jocks." Especially at this
University, where football is "big
business" and academic programs are
being discarded as fast as polyester
leisure suits.
I know it's obscene when Bo Schem-
bechler can make more money than
several professors combined, or when
Don Canham can build a million dollar
indoor sports complex so his boys won't
catch cold.
YET NONE of this can take away
from the thrill of watching one man
play football. To see Anthony Carter
gracefully leap for an overthrown pass,
or run like a gazelle after being forced
to slow down for a ball thrownrbehind
him, is to watch an artist at work. It is
pure beauty.
As a current senior, I have been
blessed with the kiss of fate. My years
at the University have corresponded
with those of the great Anthony.
I will never forget screaming for

"A.C." His spine-tingling touchdowns
were my touchdowns. I also will never
forget the sick feeling-the real pain-
that used to gnaw at my stomach
whenever Carter got belted to the
ground. He looked so little, so
vulnerable ... for a gridiron god.
INDEED, so close is my vicarious
relationship with Carter, I mark my
years here by his years.
As a freshman, I was intimidated by
the size of the University, yet, at the
same time, eager to experience
"college." All that was encapsulated in
my first Michigan football game. I not
only helped "pass a girl up" (for which
I received a painful "wedgie" from the
woman sitting behind me), I witnessed
Anthony Carter's first touchdown. Who
could believe that off the field this gif-
ted athlete was as quiet as me?
If I retain a vivid snapshot of that
touchdown run from my first year, I
prize a roll of pictures from my second
year, all with a similar image-the
deadly accurate passing of John
Wangler to, of course, Anthony Carter.
AS MY ALTER ego on the football
team was gaining more confidence and
settling into his role, so was I. By
sophomore year, the ,University had
become less hostile, my friendships
more established. As I had found my
niche, the gridders, led by the Wangler-
Carter express, had found the roses in
Pasadena.

Then came my junior year-and a
new roll of film was inserted in the
camera. Wangler had graduated,
replaced by "promising" sophomore
Steve Smith. The Wolverines were
ranked in first place in pre-season polls,
and the glittering Carter gained wide
exposure.
As for myself, I had moved into a new
apartment with a great location. Hopes
were high.
BUT ONCE the season started, it was
as if someone had stuck their finger
over the rosy lens. My classes sucked,
my apartment was pint-sized, and my
roommates smelled funny.
Things were not much better for the
Maize and Blue. Wisconsin upset us in
the very first game. The Smith-to-
Carter connection failed to click, and
the camera began to jam.
Heroic Anthony did make his share of
spectacular plays that year and the
team won the Bluebonnet Bowl, but
there was something tragic about it.
Ironically, "God's gift to football," as
Carter was called, had to depend on the
frailties of a very human quarterback
to get him the ball. Never again would
he catch as many passes or score as
many touchdowns as he did in his
sophomore year.
BUT LIKE many incoming seniors,
Carter and I both looked forward to our
senior year as the culmination of our
college careers. As my mother pointed
out when she saw my bed made, I had

grown up during the past three years.
Carter's change over time, however,
seemed even more dramatic than my
own. Once painfully shy, he was now
the captain and leader of the football
team. His picture leaped out from
magazine covers. He was touted for the
Heisman trophy.
A.C. saved some of his most elec-
trifyingsathletic feats for his last year,
and despite mortal throws, he set
several noteworthy records. And if he
had played for a school that stressed
passing, he no doubt would have set
countless others.
SLOWLY, THE roll of film has ad-
vanced-but in light of Carter's
brilliance, it has too often been un-
derexposed. His statistics this year are
even lower than last year's. The most
exciting player in college football-
some say in college football's history-
now has little chance for a Heisman.
This waste of his extraordinary talent
hurts me more than watching little An-
thony get bashed on the gridiron. Our
Anthony deserves better, a lot better.
And no one must be more aware of
this than Carter himself. e a
But, through it all, have we heard
from him one word of complaint?
He must be more than God's gift to
football. He must be a god.
Weiss is an LSA senior.

Ut

Daily Photo by JEFF SCHRIER'


Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan

Wasserman

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WELARE PROGRAS

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Vol. XCIII, No. 67

420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board

A touch of honesty

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HE PRESIDENT, to his credit,
has gone out of his way to make
"the point that his proposed gasoline tax
increase is not a jobs program,
although it will create hundreds of
-Ahousands of jobs. At least he's-honest.
Such honesty is, of course, a
refreshing change of pace from the
man who appointed James Watt to
save the environment and who sought
to increase government revenue by
cutting taxes. But aside from any sub-
tle changes in style, the essence of
the Reagan program remains intact;
the administration continues to ignore
the major issue.
And what is the major issue? As even
the president's supporters in Congress
admit, the issue is unemployment.
"Jobs is the single biggest issue in the
country now," admitted Senate
Majority Leader Howard Baker (R-
Tenn.) on Sunday. "It has supplanted
inflation as the number one issue."
Yet despite the growing Republican
awareness of the nation's economimc
woes, the administration has yet to
propose any realistic programs to cope
with high unemployment rate.
The public works projects to be
financed by the gasoline tax are, as the
administration readily admits, hardly
a means to fight unemployment. The
areas which will benefit from the
projects will not necessarily be areas
with high unemployment, and the
300,000 jobs which may be created by
the plan are insignificant compared
with the total number of persons

unemployed-more than 12 million.
Further, both of the two options to
fight unemployment mentioned recen-
tly by administration officials are un-
workable and face substantial op-
position from Congress. The first, a
proposal for reducing the minimum
wage for teenagers, would not greatly
increase employment prospects for the
urban poor as the president suggests.
Instead, it would create even more
adult unemployment while doing
nothing to train or educate teenagers.
The second option in the president's
repertoire is ludicrous even by Reagan
standards: The president wants to
start taxing unemployment benefits
because it's too "lucrative" to be
unemployed. The notion that people
choose to be unemployed because it's
so "lucrative" is ridiculous, and the
whole idea of the tax is just bad
economics. Such a tax wouldn't create
any new jobs, but would effectively
sabotage the positive economic effects
of unemployment benefits. Under the
president's proposal, benefits would no
longer support consumerspending
during economic downturns. By
removing the effectiveness of unem-
ployment compensation, the president
would be removing all hope for a con-
sumer-driven economic recovery.
The president is, to be sure, attem-
pting to patch up the nation's economic
problems in a number of ways. But un-
til he starts to attack the unem-
ployment problem head on, the
president's economic bandaids just
won't stick.,

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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:

4

'U' actions on divestment 'appalling'

To the Daily:
The actions of the University of
Michigan administration on
November 17 were outrageously
appalling.
On that day, a representative
jfrom the University appeared at
the Michigan Senate Judiciary
committee meeting at Lansing.
After discussion opened on House
Bill 4553, which displays the
state's complete disapproval of
South Africa's apartheid policies,
the woman representing the
University was invited to the
front to speak.
The reason she was invited to the
front is because she was the only
person out of the entire crowd
who wanted to express views of
opposition to HB 4553.
Ever since this piece of
legislation passed through the
state House, the University of
Michigan has been actively in-
volved in lobbying against it. To
most citizens in this state it ap-
pears that the University is

state actively opposing the bill.
HB 4553 was designed by Rep.
Perry Bullard to be another clear
signal to South African officials.
It certainly is not a first-it
follows previous legislative ac-
tion including the passage of a
resolution and an anti-apartheid
banking bill. Section F of HB 4553
specifically states an education
institution shall- not "encourage
or condone legally required
discrimination against an in-
dividual on the basis of race or
color by knowingly making or
maintaining an investment in an
organization operating in the
Republic of South Africa."
The only argument that has
been presented by the University
against the bill that makes any
sense at all is that it would harm
its financial concerns. And even
this argument is infested with
flaws. How can University ad-
ministrators he worried about
the financial feasibility of
divestiture when colleges and
universities throughout the

presented by the University of
Michigan. To a person who has
reviewed testimony from tor-
tured non-white South Africans,
the University's actions seems
deplorable at best.
HB 4553 will soon be before the
full Senate. Having met with
senators, aides, and proponents
of anti-apartheid legislation, I
can assure you that, regardless of

the bill's outcome, the battle
against apartheid will continue.
It's too bad that University of
Michigan administrators haven't
recognized their serious mistake.
It's too bad that any studentl
should have to attend an
educational institution that in a
roundabout way supports racism.
-Mark Giuffrg
November 23

Banners downed

. 11",

To the Daily:
A group of students who belong
to the Union of Students for Israel
worked hard on the design and
construction of two banners an-
nouncing the showing of the film,
"The Issue Is Peace" and a talk,
on the question of Palestinian
autonomy by Prof. Arthur Men-
del.
After having received per-
mission from the University to
display the banners on the Diag,
we hung them from a couple of

about the upcoming events of
Monday, Nov. 29. To our dismay,4
both banners were ripped down
between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. on the
29th.
We are disappointed that
others prevented our
organization from dispersing in-
formation and hope that such an
occurrence does not happen
again.
-Randy Hermap
Sara Jaffee
Todd Miler

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