I
OPINION
Page 4
Saturday, November 5, 1983
The Michigan Daily
Dreading the
future as a
' ' graduate
4
y By Karen Tensa
I don't want to be an alumna. Don't
get me wrong, I do want to graduate,
and plan to, eventually. But after spen-
1ding a football Saturday among the
;alumni - from the tailgaters on the
golf course to the seats on the eastern
side of Michigan Stadium - I seriously
doubt I will ever be the typical "Go
Blue" grad.
First of all, as a lifelong resident of a
nearby Detroit suburb, (I'd rather not
admit which one) I had long ago gotten
'my fill of maize and blue sweats and Bo
Schembechler-style Michigan baseball
'hats. But alumni dress as if they bought
out the combined inventories of U
Cellar, Ulrich's, and Follett's.
MOST OF THE alumni crowd dress
n something (anything!) emblazoned
with the word MICHIGAN - a style of
dress usually limited to younger
siblings of enrolled students. Every
possible style of maize and blue hat,
visor, sweatshirt, sweatpant, t-shirt,
jacket, scarf, and legwarmer, could be
seen. I was particularly amazed, as I
sat in the warm sun that Saturday af-
ternoon, at the number of people
wearing knit tams, probably the
tackiest "M" clothing sold. As a fellow
West Quad resident used to say to me
my freshwoman year - "just think, when
we're alums, we'll get to wear ugly hats
too."
Speak for yourself.
These typically wealthy alumni even
spend large sums of money on maize
and blue clothing for their toddlers. As
one woman said, "you have to indoc-
trinate the kids before it's too late...
dress them up in the school colors,
teach them the right fight songs... It's
wonderful, by the time they're seven or
eight, they're on the right track to a
good college."
But these "alumni children" seemed
more interested in throwing paper air-
planes and putting their Michigan foot-
ball player puppets in their, parents
faces than making college plans. And
since I've taken child psychology, I can
say with complete confidence that the
eight month old baby who sat on his
dad's shoulders a few rows up from me
is too young to appreciate Big Ten foot-
ball, much less realize the quality of the
University's academic programs.
DESPITE THEIR seeming devotion
to the University, alumni, strangely
enough, don't appear to enjoy being in
Michigan Stadium. In fact, sitting in the
alumni section is about as fun as wat-
ching a Wolverine game at home in my
parents' living room. It was quiet
enough to study. The only intrusion of
student-style fun was the unrolling
streams of toilet paper that oc-
casionally invaded alumni seats.
But even former University students
are still Michigan students at heart; the
alumni drink themselves into near
oblivionfthroughout the game. But in-
stead of the smuggled-in beer that
students consume, most alumni drink
from thin, concealed flasks containing
Schnapps.
Some of the alumni do, however, still
drink beer. They buy it during the half-
Actually, I was surprised that many
of the women bother to come to the
games at all. Wives tend to sit
separately and talk through the game.
One even stressed the importance of
bringing friends to the game so she had
something to do while her husband and
his friends watched the game.
I did receive a good deal of advice
from some of these women in the stands
- Michigan grads, all. They advised
me to marry an engineer, just like they
had. That way, my husband could
provide for me and I could "raise my
kids anyway I wanted and join any club
or organization." All in all, marrying
an engineer seems like good advice. Af-
ter all, my brother married one.
I was rescued from further discussion
on my marriage plans by a non-alum.
She cautioned me "not to be too hard on
the Michigan alumni. They contribute a
lot of money to the University and one
of the reasons why is there are these foot-
ball games."
As these wealthy alumni contribute'
more and more money to the University,.
their seats creep closer to the fifty-yard'
line. I doubt that a winning football
team could inspire me to donate money:
to the University after I graduate. I'vet
given enough already by paying myI
tuition.
After spending an afternoon with the{
alumni, I don't think I want to be one for;
life. I wonder if I should leave school;:
with 119 credits - 120 would make me
an alumna.
Tensa is a Daily stdff writer. ;.
I
I
Daily Photo by DEBORAH LEWIS
Maize and blue t-shirts and baseball caps and (ugh!) hideous tams are the standard garb for future and past University
students. If the lad on the left knew his fate, he'd be crying rather than cheering.
time show and drink throughout the
third quarter. Alums, of course, are
careful not to leave their garbage lying
in the stadium, as the students do.
SOME OF THE alums find students'
actions at the games, in a word, "un-
civilized." One commented that she
and her husband used to sit in the
student section, but stopped because
the "marijuana smoke made her
nauseous." Strange, I felt the same way
about her husband's cigar.
I
- 1
.1 .
1lw tcbigan Iailj
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
420 Maynard St.
Vol. XCIV-No. 52 Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
A '" -b~u
L
Under Lebanon's
F YOU HAVE been reading the head- to get Isra
lines on stories coming out of the Lebanon v
Lebanese reconciliation talks in right to f
Geneva this week, you'd probably Gemayel a
think the various factions are making holds out h
some progress toward an agreement. could nor
There is a big problem with headlines, trade som
though, they often bare only the sur- Oppositi
face of the story. this pointi
Read past the headlines on those has been s
talks and it will become apparent that should wi
the parties have made little or no separate;
progress toward a lasting settlement Druze offic
uniting the factions that keep they want
Lebanon in chaos. establishes
for the J
The major "agreement" the nine Israeli troy
sides in the talks reached was to So the a
suspend discussion of the U.S.- headlines
sponsored Israeli-Lebanese accord on agreement
Israeli troop withdrawals. In essence, contention
the factions have decided not to talk more diffic
about this "problem." Is agreeing to faction lea
ignore a problem progress? Of course organizati
not. ture of
Yet even that backward step for- Palestinia
ward belies the heart of the story: The and long to
sides disagree as to what this basic name a fev
agreement means. lot more
Lebanese President Amin Gemayel agreement
said the move empowers him to find Unless,
"any way he could" - within the agree to ig
general framework of the May pact - a few more
headlines
eli troops to withdraw from
while still giving Israel the
patrol southern Lebanon.
also said the new agreement
ope that Lebanon and Israel
malize relations and begin
etime soon.
on factions said assent on
means that the Israeli pact
scrapped and Israeli troops
ithdraw under provisions
from the earlier accord.
cials went further. They said
a pact with Israel that only
s a secure northern border
ewish state and removes
ops from Lebanon.
greement ballyhooed in the
is nothing more than an
to ignore a point of serious
. That is a signal that the
cult problems with which the
ders will be grappling - the
on and power-sharing struc-
the government, -,the
n Liberation Organization,
erm relations with Israel, to
w - will probably produce a
friction and a lot less
t.
of course, they decide to
nore the problems and make
e headlines.
yu uh ,WANNA
GRENAIDA'
. FATS
C
d m~~
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Free speech more
than three queries
..0
To the Daily:
The disruption of Alexander
Haig's speech on Thursday, Oct.
20 has alarmed and insulted
many. We hecklers were seen as
rude, disrespectful, and self-
indulgent - even anti-
democratic and anti-American.
Limited to two-second outbursts
during the speech and a total of
three questions afterwards, there
was little chance to intelligently
state our position. So here is an
explanation of why we (I am only
attempting to speak for others)
felt it necessary and just to ex-
press our outrage as we did.
Freedom of speech is a con-
stitutional right and one of our
most important democratic
freedoms; this cannot be denied.
But one must not interpret this
right in a narrow, formalistic
way. One must recognize that it is
systematically undermined by
inequalities of wealth, power, and
control of and access to media.
Freedom of speech, is further
restricted by our relatively un-
critical trust in government, in
expertise, and in their "value
free" facts.
Democracy is founded upon an
innrp ~ antiA nrti4 i , n £1
orginization of equal access to
resources so that all can be
heard. And when Afghanistan is
denounced, democracy means
being able to say: "what about
Vietnam, Guatemala, Lebanon,
Bay of Pigs, El Salvador, Chile,
and unmentionable others?" It was
with these beliefs and analyses
that we felt compelled to take ac-
tion on Thursday night.
One more thing - during the
speech it was rather forcefully
suggested that we should "go
back to Russia!" This was,
amusing because not too many of
us have ever been there. Mostof
us are very glad to wake up in
America every morning, but it
shouldn't stop there.
We differ with Mr. Haig, who
believes that a true American
should wake up and feel so
relieved not to be in the Soviet
Union that he automatically ac-
cepts everything that America
is: the beautiful as well as the
ugly, our wealth as well as the
price paid for it.
We will not accept the lies and
injustice around us. We will not
sit idly back and relish our rights
- no, we will use the freedoms
we have as a beachhead against
what has yet to be liberated. We
will not let the government con-
trol our lives not will be let it tell
us that the way it is, is the only
way it can be.
- Andrew Boyd
October 22
I
.. .But have we come full circle?
To the Daily:
Can a man do as much good by
provoking questions as by giving
answers? This is what the street
performer attempts to answer.
But he is persecuted and
repressed by the establishment.
He is harassed by the law and
looked down upon by the ad-
ministration. He has not the
power of wealth. He breaks no
BLOOM COUNTY
law by voicing his opinions.
Surely any political official is ac-
customed to opposing viewpoints.
So why is he put down for voicing
his opinions?
I had the pleasure of eating
lunch with one such person whom
I had listened to over the previous
week. He spoke of political in-
volvement, social awareness,
and his views on society. This I
always believed to be freedom of.
speech. Yet still do the ruling-
powers continue to harass, even
arrest, this individual.
It seems to me that such people
were jailed for voicing opinions in
public a little more than 200 years
ago. Could the administration be
afraid of history coming around
full swing for a repeat perfor-
mance7
- David C. Bard
October 17
by Berke Breathed
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