Page 4-The Michigan Daily-- Tuesday, March 16,1993 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 JosH DUBow Editor in Chief Edited and managed a ERIN LIZA EINHoRN by students at the University of Michigan OpinionEditor Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily editorial board. All other cartoons, signed articles and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily. b1UF 0~/ItO'i fPR Nc PHasESg5o o S. . SNo PINK TRIA J&LQ z "' ~, 4 MlHI .- j 0 THE MICHIGAN PARTY Third party will bring change to MSA PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATE FOR the dates, Greenberg and Kight are not inexperi- MichiganStudent Assembly Jason Hack- enced people running solely on the platform of ner has excellent ideas that - combined change. They are knowledgeable student leaders with his experience as president of the Univer- who understand the need for MSA to reach out to sity Activities Center - would be a valuable the campus, and they have made concrete pro- contribution to MSA. Unfortunately, his run- posals to improve communication between stu- ning mate is so unimpressive that she was not dents and assembly members. Their ideas in- even willing to clude holding one speak at the North MSA meeting per Campus debate last monthinaresidence week. In addition, hall. the Progressives Unfortunately, represent every- five of the six ex- thing that is wrong ecutive candidates with MSA. There- - with the notable fore, despite exception of Jason Hackner's abilities, y. Hackner - are cur- ourendorsement for rently members of MSA president and MSA. Although ex- vice president goes Giperienceis generally to the Michigan gKa positive attribute Party. Craig Greenberg and Brian Kight, the for a student leadership position, these five can- MichiganPartyexecutive candidates, are quali- didates must realize that drastic reform in the fled for the job, and while not as impressive as student government is needed immediately. If Hackner, are still the best option. the University administration continues to view The Progressives have controlled MSA fQr MSA as the weak organization that it is, it will the past year and have been desperately ineffec- continue to take advantage of a voiceless student tive. During the reign of current MSA President body and feel free to create more policies in the andProgressive Ede Fox, the University admin- worst interest of students. istrationhasinstituted questionablepolicies such Another new MSA third party worthy of as the overly restrictive Diag Policy and the attention is the ridiculously named Keg Party. Statement of Student "Rights" and Responsi- Despite the fact that the party has no executive bilities. candidates and most likely entered the race as a TheProgressives have launched protests and joke, the enthusiasm shown by Keg party candi- whined a little, but have effectively done noth- dates has been noteworthy. Candidates have ing to stop these measures. Furthermore, MSA made extensive efforts to gainrepute for MSA by has continued to be completely out of touch with approaching students in residence hall cafeterias students, drawing less than 10 percent of eli- and by making themselves accessible. All MSA gible voters to last November's MSA election. members could learn a lesson about community While the Progressives are not responsible for outreach from the Keg party's enthusiasm. all of MSA's faults, the fact remains that they If it were possible to create the ideal MSA have had a working majority for the past year ticket, it would be shaped as follows: and have focused on silly resolutions rather than the experience and willingness to reform empowering students. exhibited by the Michigan Party. These candi- Although it has offered a good presidential dates understand that the two-party system has candidate, the Progressive ticket is too weak, left MSA spinning its flat tires in the mud. A new and the party has not accomplished enough to party, dedicated to reform, can make MSA an deserve our endorsement. effective body. The Michigan Party was formed this year as the intelligence and leadership abilities of aresponseto the bickering betweentheProgres- Jason Hackner; and, sives and theConservativeCoalition. Tradition- the enthusiasm of the Keg party. ally, voters have been reluctant to support third Unfortunately, it is not possible to create the parties, however, the extensive student govern- ideal ticket. Instead, voters are left with multiple ment experience of Michigan Party executive and somewhat inadequate options. The logical candidates Greenberg and Kight should allevi- choice of this election is to vote for Greenberg ate these fears. Unlike many third party candi- and Kight of the Michigan Party. 0l Human beings gone but not "All they show (on t.v.) is foreigners fightin',killin' each other. But the same shit is happenin' over here.Idon't know what it is, Man. Either they don't know, don't show or don't care about what's goin' on in the hood." - Doughboy (Ice Cube) "Boyz-N-The Hood" For me, those words hung in the air long after the film itself ended. A testament to many, to the ignored, the belittled and the forgotten. They shook me to the point of tears. All of the frustration, the fear, the utter desolation in those words were staring at me, piercing through me, forcing me to contend with what I had handily suppressed for far too long inside my mind. The faces of friends. Those faces bring to mind my own sad, and alarming thoughts. I think of my many friends who have died violent deaths in the past few years. No one talked about their lives either. They seemed to be forgotten. Just more Black youth bleeding in obscurity. When the media even bothers to cover it, this is what you read: "Black male, approximately 22 years of age,found shot in front of club on east side of Detroit. Homicide victim. Suffered mul- tiple gunshot wounds to the stomach, neck andface. The victim was dead upon arrival. Police could find no suspects. May have been drug related. Investigation pending." Standard police report. So dry. So callous. So very unreal. I'm sure you've all read something like this before. Another Black male found dead of violence. Your response to it is probably quite typical. You probably take it as a matter of course, utter- ing something like, "it's a shame or that's too bad" while you subconsciously revel in the, "I'm glad it's not me" mind trap. And it does happen all the time. So you con- tinue, turning the page on some faceless entity with a name you never knew, a life you never wanted to know. I had done the same thing before. But on this occasion I could not. This time the face that stared back at me from the page was a familiar one. It belonged to a friend. I was utterly outraged with the manner in which they talked about Eric. The report never touched upon his humanity. And the stats didn'tgive the entire story. He was not justa demographic arranged on somepage. forgotten paramedics finally arrived he, though obvi- ously weakened, adamantly refused to let them touch him. He wasn't delirious; hejust felt getting into the ambulance signified that he was giving up, that he was relin- quishing his life. Now those were not the actions of some non-entity, some faceless dead person without a past. That was some- one who loved, hated, laughed and cried as we all do. That was a human being. But you never get that from a police report or television. You never get that from any mass-media service. All you see is another addition to someone's fact sheet. Oh well, another Black childslain. Somean- ingless. So typical. At least that's the way most others see it. I can't believe that people are so desensi- tized, so accustomed to the deaths of others that they consume, ignore and bury it like any other piece of information amidst hair appointments, bills and the like. It doesn't seem to have any effect on some people. Me, I am reminded of Eric with every news clip, every telecast. So I can never ignore those faces. Nor can I ignore the humanity that is lost with their deaths. I've heard too many eulogies, seen too many eyes staring up at me from some coffin. Writing this has nothing to do with railing against an inane system, as I suspect I do sometimes. This is something that is very personal to me. I can no longer stand idly by and watch others fade away into mindless obscurity. I simply don't feel that I would be true to myself if I didn't put this on paper. Iwouldn't be true to myself ormy "forgotten" friends. I owe them that much. Brian Meeks' column appears every other Tuesday [T Brian Meeksl This brother did not consistof ink on paper, to be read, disregarded and left to yellow in some forgotten place. He was a human being, with thoughts and emotions. The newspaper never talked about the strength and courage that he exhibited that night either. As he lay there, his body riddled with bullets, he still talked, making jokes about Detroit's Emergency Medical Services and their "slow-as-molasses- asses." We laughed nervous laughs, scared for him, for everything that had just hap- pened to us. We knew that he recognized the fear in our eyes, and that this was his way of trying to assuage them. When the Understand MLK day, don't compare B.ALLOT QUESTIONS Vote 'yes' on question one for SLSfunding TUDENTS SHOULD SUPPORT ballot ques- tion number one in tomorrow's Michi- gan Student Assembly election. Ifpassed, the required MSA student fee will be raised to $7, an increase of73 cents. While MSA has not established itself as a particularly effective stu- dent government, the 73-cent increase is war- ranted because one-third of it will go to Student Legal Services (SLS), one-third will be allo- cated directly to student groups, and the least- deserved third will help cover MSA's operating expenses. SLS, which provides the invaluable service offreelegal counsel to students involved in civil or criminal disputes, relies heavily on MSA funds. Students, who might understandably be reluctant to give even more money to an organi- zation they perceive as doing absolutely nothing, must realize that increased funds to MSA may help them in the long run. Without the financial support of MSA, SLS would be rendered help- less. In addition, MSA does a reasonably good job of allocating funds to student groups. If ballot question one passes, more money will be avail- able to student groups on campus. If students choose to vote down this question they will only be shooting themselves in the foot. Hopefully students will be able to put aside their contempt for MSA in order to vote yes on this ballot question. If the questionpasses, everybody will win- students requiring legal services, student groups, and MSA. To the Daily: I am writing in response to the letter written by Wayne Adam, "President's Day holiday goes unnoticed at 'U"' (3/8/93). I will attempt to explain to you why the University pulls out the stops for Martin Luther King's birthday. A major reason is because the King holiday is still new. It became a legal public holiday in 1986. Lincoln's Birthday was first formally observed in Washington D.C. in 1866. George Washington's Birthday was first formally observed in 1796. It is possible that the University pulled out the stops for Lincoln's Birthday when it was a new holiday. I find it interesting that a Canadian is so concerned with comparing American holi- days. I could ask you why doesn't Canada have a Prime Minister Day, or why isn't Sainte Jean Baptiste Day a national holiday? It is pointless to compare one holiday to another. I am pleased that the University is taking part in celebrating Martin Luther King's birthday. It is a holiday which commemorates a major turning point in American history. It represents unity and justice for all Americans, an important concept of the American constitution. Without Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Move- ment, the ideas of George Washington during the American Revolution and Abe- Lincoln during the Civil War period would not have been fulfilled. Phydariel Jones Pharmacy student UMET represents 'U'in sporting event Maize-n-mi fans' spirit impresses reader, fan' To the Daily: I must say, I felt immense pride watching the UM-MSU basketball game Sunday afternoon (3/7/93). While I did enjoy seeing our beloved Wolverines defeat the lowly Spartans, the feeling of pride stemmed the performance of the folks in the stands. The students and other Maize-n- Blue faithful exhibited fantastic enthusiasm and support for Michigan in a manner that remained tasteful from this perspective. As we all have heard, the element of tact on the part of student bodies has been a hot topic in the UM-MSU rivalry, especially since the disgrace- ful exhibition by State students at the season's first match-up in East Lansing on February 2. I have used this forum to complain about poor student support at football and basketball games in the past, but I'm happy to say that I feel proud to be a Wolverine even more now than before. Not only has the enthusi- asm grown, but class and tact reigned from the television S S 6 'Yes 'on question two will benefit MCC STUDENTS NEED TO resoundingly approve ballotquestiontwo ontomorrow's Michi- gan Student Assembly ballot.'The ques- tion calls for a fee increase of 35 cents to pay for MSA's membership in the Michigan Collegiate Coalition (MCC), a Lansing-based student lob- bying organization. Ballot question three, the Conservative Coalition's call for the severance of all financial ties between MSA and MCC, must be rejected. In lobbying on behalf of student interests, MCC provides a valuable service for the stu- tively unnoticed on campus because MSA has been unable to effectively inform students of MCC's work. However, MSA's liabilities should not be confused with MCC's. While MSA has been desperately unsuccessfully inits attempts to represent students on campus, MCC has consis- tently done good work on behalf of students. Proponents of ballot question three claim that students should not have to pay 35 cents to an organization that they claim is ineffective. They claim fiscal responsibility starts with indepen- dence from MCC. However, linking MCC with MeAC a 'o in'nraftarivrn nnn a i ~r antri naor ii rnta To the Daily: As president of the University Equestrian Team I would like to comment on James Cho's article, "Equestrian team breaks in horses" (2/12/93). There seemed to be a slight confusion of facts and I would like the opportunity to clarify for the student body the goals and inten- tions of our team, as well as outlining the new UMET Riding Program that began this January. The primary purpose of with horse-riding instruction and greater access to horses" as was stated in Cho's article. This was a misquote and a confusion of the equestrian team and the new UMET Riding Program. I believe the real story is the organization of the UMET Riding Program which started on January 16. It was initiated with the intention of providing affordable riding to all members and improving the overall quality of horseman- e-p through cooperative Team Executive Board decided to improve the team by starting the UMET Riding Program, which is maintained by the team but remains a separate entity. Four horses were donated to the team in November, and we spent two months organizing the logistics of the program In January the animals were installed at Paragon Farm and we are now working toward a summer program, as well as expanding the number of horses in the fall. In closing, I would like to I