4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 9, 1993
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420 Maynard
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Edited and managed
by students at the
University of Michigan
JOsH DUBow
Editor in Chief
A NDRIEw LEVY
Editorial Page Editor
. ,
Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of the Daily editorial board.
All other cartoons, articles and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily.
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Home is where all of your stuff is
"I'm going home," says one stu-
dent to another. Quick: what does she
mean?
"Home address," reads the form
you're supposed:
to fill out. Quick:
what do you:
write?
If you failed
this quiz, con-:
gratulations: you:
are a college stu-
dent, (Thank
goodness the SAT
wasn't this hard.)
Unless you com-
mute, you are .a, T- ..
among the ranks
of the confused collegian, who doesn't
know how to answer that all-impor-
tant question: where is home?
The answer to that question is an
easy way to tell how old someone is.
To a first-year student, home is home
-where their parents are, where they
grew up, where their comic books and
prom corsages still sit on the shelf.
Nope, say the older students, that's
not home - that's your parents'
house. When you begin to use the
phrase "my parents' house," you have
become an official sophisticated col-
lege student. Add a cigarette and an
apartment, and you've got the com-
plete set (some assembly required.)
Then there's the issue of vacation.
To a first-year, vacation is the best
time of the year. They're out every
night with their high school friends,
having the best of times. When you're
older and your high school friends are
old news, you go home and realize
you have nothing better to do than
count how many Cheetos are in a full-
size bag (by weight, not by volume,
remember). Going to the mall and
counting the girls with big hair only
kills a few hours, and then it's back to
the Cheetos.
If you really want to count things,
Digs against Penn St.
were uncalled for
To the Daily:
As a graduate of Penn State's
Leisure Studies Department and a
longtime resident of State College,
Pa., I was personally offended by
your recent editorial titled "Un-
happy valley" (10/15/93).
I was outraged at the
inaccuracies of your editorial, and I
hope that in the future you will do
better research on your topic, and
take into account people's feelings.
How would you feel if someone
totally put down your major, alma
mater, and hometown? Think about
it. I thought Ann Arbor was
supposed to encourage "diversity"
and sensitivity to others.
I don't know about anyone else,
but I certainly don't feel welcomed
here.
SHERRY FRICK
Ann Arbor
though, you should count the number
of things that have changed in your
hometown. After a few times back,
you begin to sound like the old farts
who liked to hang out on the street
corner and talk about the old days.
"Way back in 1991, that shopping
center was a vacant lot," you croak.
"And when I was here, the high school
didn't have that newfangled science
wing. 'Course, we didn't have those
durned gang shootings in the halls,
neither ..."
Even the new McDonalds on that
old familiar corner can't compare to
changes in your parents' house, how-
ever. I flew home for Thanksgiving
my third year of college only to have
my mother tell me, with a wry smile,
that I was welcome to sleep in the
newly redecorated guest room. Little
did I know she meant my room. Gone
were my ragged posters, the com-
forter I'd had since I was nine, the
bright wallpaper I'd stared at many
sleepless nights. The new bed had
matching sheets and pillowcases, and
was centered under the window (com-
plete with - you guessed it - ex-
actly matching curtains.) On the
nightstand was a double frame, con-
taining mine and my brother's senior
pictures. "Who moved the department
store display into my room?" I asked,
and my mother laughed. "I didn't
think you'd mind," she said. "Neither
did I," I replied. But I did.
Chicago had more or less become
my home - my friends were there,
my life was there. Yet in many ways
I felt like I didn't have a home. I'd
been in the same dorm for four years,
and my room was filled with all of my
books and furniture (and a good num-
ber of memories)- it was as much of
a home as my parents' house (hee).
But any place you have to move out of
every nine months isn't really a home.
And then I committed the horrible sin
of graduating, and they kicked me out
for good. This summer my home sat
in a storage shed in Ann Arbor, wait-
ing fob me to reassemble it in yet
another place.
I've done my best to make Ann
Arbor my home, what with having an
apartment and a microwave and a cat.
When I say, "All of my books are
home," I now mean my apartment as
opposed to my office, and not back in
Texas.
But I no longer know how to an-
swer the question "Where are you
from?" When I was traveling with a
tour group in Europe this summer, I
often answered this query with "Uh,
good question," and then proceeded
to tell them half my life story (the ha
that was required to answer the ques
tion.)
Yet for all the drifting, I wouldn't
have done things any differently. I
give a special salute to my fellow out-
of-staters: it takes courage to start a
new life in a new place, but in the end
you'll find you're a better person for
it. There's a word for people who
stick around the same place all their
lives: provincial. I can't begin to cour4
the number of people in my Texas
hometown who believe that the rest
of the world is just like their little
corner (which in this case is white,
Southern Baptist, and Republican.)
Your home may end up in a moving
van for a few weeks, but you'll end up
a more independent and well-rounded
person.
And if I ever forget where home i
all I have to do is look at my car -
has Texas plates, a University of Chi-
cago sticker on one side, and a Uni-
versity of Michigan sticker on the
other. My passport in the glove com-
partment (handy for those trans-At-
lantic roadtrips) will inform you that
I was born in Minnesota. Maybe some-
day I'll get back there, but for now I'll
go wherever the winds of academia
will take me.
Fund bill is a bill from which
everyone would benefit.
Conscientious objectors would find
relief from the dilemma they face
each tax time of whether to pay
military taxes and violate their
consciences, or whether to withhold
military taxes and violate human
law. It is worthy of your support.
TIMOTHY PEARCE
Ann Arbor
an inflated rape-crisis mentality.
ABRAHAM BATES
Dialogue Facilitator,
Program on Intergroup
Relations and Conflict
Plants have feelings too, you know
8y OLIVER GIANCOLA
The Daily's recent article on Uni-
versity animal research presented the
views of Maria Comninou, founder
and director of Washtenaw Citizens
for Animal Rights. Commenting on
the use of mice in leukemia research,
Comninou said, "Just because they
are mice doesn't mean we can use
them as if they were beans or some-
thing." I was incensed by Comninou's
flippant, insensitive reference to
beans. Comninou, like many other
vegetarians, displays an utter con-
tempt for this planet's most down-
plants' nervous systems, 'Bose found
that "the conduction of excitation in
plants is fundamentally the same as
that in animals." Plants injected with
alcohol "swayed like drunkards."
Plants feel love as well. Geneticist
Luther Burbank was able to convince
a certain variety of cactus to grow
without needles merely by telling
them, "You don't need your defen-
sive thorns. I will protect you."
The efforts of Backster, Bose and
Burbank represent the first step to-
ward full-scale communion with our
earthbound companions. The evi-
on "farms" (plant concentration
camps) across the globe. If that wasn't
enough, many animal activists indulge
in plant-eating. Since plants are sen-
tient, such vegetarianism is the moral
equivalent of cannibalism.
Nor are vegetarians, in their self-
righteous high-mindedness, the only
ones who deserve blame. Indeed,
people who use marijuana, tobacco,
and alcohol abuse plants in the basest
way possible. Although I condemn
recreational drug use, synthetic drugs
like LSD provide a hefty kick without
the nasty moral side-effects.
Don't exaggerate
rape statistics
To the Daily:
Sexual assault is undoubtedly an
issue deserving careful
consideration on college campuses
across the United States. But the
use of misinformation and
exaggerated statistics in order to
scare people into action is
detrimental to the prevention of
rape and assault. In a recent Daily
article ("SAPAC week to foster
awareness of sexual assault," 10/15/
93), the first paragraph states, "The
FBI estimates that one in three
women will be raped in her
lifetime." But there is simply no
such FBI report.
Support the Peace
Tax Fund bill
To the Dally:
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