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 -- ---- i r \ ! I'-