4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, November 11, 1994 CijE £ibitwn tui1g 'Jewish leaders must realize that they cannot trifle with the attempt of unity among Blacks and at the same time expect for Blacks to perceive them as anything but a problem to be loathed and feared.' -, Trinity Townsend, in the Nov. edition of the Black Student Monthly 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Jessie Halladay Editor in Chief Smoking: a Sam Goodstein Flint Wainess Editorial Page Editors Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of a majority of the Daily's editorial board. other articles, letters, and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. All ,,t<(c Tenants bewar LL~EC~E. J99Lf) Resources are available to prevent lease trouble 11t This is the time that many students begin to seriously consider where they will be liv- ing next year. For a large proportion of first- year students and sophomores, that means exploring off-campus living options. One look in the classified section of this paper reveals the scores of landlords offering their services to such students. But be wary! There are landlords in Ann Arbor that will take advan- tage of unsuspecting students. With minimal effort, there are many options that students can pursue to ensure that when they do start look- ing for off-campus housing, they will be fully aware of their rights and responsibilities as tenants. It's true that many landlords in Ann Arbor are honest and fully comply with the rules and regulations set down by city and state law. But one must keep in mind that, no matter how friendly or honest a landlord appears, they are in the realty business to make money. Protecting yourself with familiarity of these laws will go a long way in ensuring that the contract signed with the landlord will be fair and equitable. There are numerous ways of finding out what your rights are. The Ann Arbor Tenants' Union (AATU), located on the fourth floor of theUnion orthe University's Off-Campus Housing Office on the first floor ofthe Student Activities Building, are just two options. The AATU publishes a guide booklet titled "How To Evict Your Landlord" that does a good job of condensing almost every- thing a prospective tenant needs to know into a manageable size. The Off-Campus Housing Office also has further information on most known landlords that rent to University stu- dents. It has files containing complaints against landlords and should be able to tell anyone if a particular landlord has had a history of com- plaints against them. Also, if trouble begins afterthe lease is signed, Student Legal Services in the Union is a first step in finding out what you can do to solve the situation. If any student has had trouble in the past with a particular landlord, it's also important to let others know. If students don't make their landlord grievances available to others, future student tenants could go through the same situation all over again. When a landlord does something from just shifty to outright illegal, chances are it's not the first time it has hap- pened. Both the AATU and the Off-Campus Housing Office will hear grievances against landlords. If you were mistreated by a landlord, don't keep it a secret. It would be nice to think all landlords will be completely honest, however, there are nu- merous tenant/landlord disputes that end up going to court every year because of failed legal obligations. Unfortunately, the burden lies on the student to be aware of his or her rights in contracting a lease. The information is readily available and there are many private and University organizations whose main pur- pose is to help Ann Arbor and University tenants. We strongly encourage any person thinking of living-off-campus to prepare them- selves with knowledge of the law. The purpose is not to encourage an adversarial relationships with landlords, but one that is confident and informed. B3e a hero: gfiveblo Competition with OSU raises awareness, pints lmost everyone, at one time or another, donate every day. It's an important collective as wanted to be a hero, and that stands to good from which everyone can benefit, and at reason, as being a hero is a laudatory goal. It some point in their lives, most people will. gives a person recognition, gratitude from Admittedly, the process makes some people those whom he or she has helped and the uncomfortable, especially if they are donating realization that the worldis alittle better off for for the first time. In reality, though, it is quite his or her having walked it. Perhaps the best safe and painless. They sit you down, ask a few thing about being a hero though is that it is so questions concerning health and lifestyle, check easy. your temperature, pulse and blood pressure. Even the most seemingly insignificant ac- Next, they draw about a pint of blood. This tions can make a difference in a person's life, usually causes a momentary feeling of discom- actions like giving blood. fort, but that quickly disappears. As for con- It might not seem like a major thing, to tracting disease while donating, there is virtu- donate a pint of blood, but the truth is that there ally no chance of it, as new sterile equipment is are few deeds a person can do that can make a used each time. There are few if any side effects more profound impact on the lives of others. as well. If they allow you to donate, you can When you donate blood, you almost never get definitely spare it. They even give cookies and to meet those who receive it, but they owe you juice at the end. What more could a person ask their lives. More than merely being a heroic for? The University is sponsoring a campus activity, however, blood donation is an impor- wide blood drive this week. Blood will be tant community service that almost everyone collected at various locations ' until Friday, can participatein. Every minute, patients across November 18. It is important that everyone America use more than 36 pints of blood. That donate who is able not only because we are in adds up to 53,000 pints of blood used every competition against Ohio State to see who can day to save lives. It has to come from some- donate the most, but because the blood is where, and it comes from ordinary people who needed to help save lives. Be someone's hero. Agreement at the Union Recognition and appreciation should be given to Union officials for their efforts to come to a mutual agreement on the long standing debate on Christmas decorations. Last month, they held forums on the issue and an arrangement was reached that will enhance mutual religious respect at the University. Any MSA -registered student group may reserve space in certain sections of the Union for up to 12 days in which they can put up religious displays. While it would have been disappointing, and downright bland, to do away with all festive decorations, the decision to allow decorations year round willfoster awareness and interest. But more important is the process in which the agreement was reached. Student input and open forums were utilized so that all those who wished to voice concerns would be heard andthatthefinalpolicy would have the approval of everyone. To all involved: Nice job. -Jeff Keating The Daily goes downhill To the Daily: I have always seen the Daily as symbolizing the great things a group of motivated college students can do. Three years ago, I was a part of the Daily as a sports reporter. I couldn't believe just how much time some staffers spent over on Maynard Street. It was a great feeling to see my name over articles in the Daily, and I felt tremendous pride over having a hand in the tremendous task it is to put out a daily publication. I wanted every person in the country who called our gen- eration "lazy and pathetic" to just spend one evening down on Maynard Street, watching staffers pour their effort into our newspaper. Not for re- wards, because there are none, but for the pride we felt when we went to class and saw ev- eryone reading what we found so hard to create. Being a sports staffer, I never really paid much atten- tion to the political views of the Daily. I knew I didn't agree with what was on our editorial page, but I just kept writing my sports stories. I was satisfied that even though I didn't agree with the editorial and news staff's opinions, these staffers wrote well and represented our staff well. They were profes- sional in their actions. Lately, I'm not so sure this has been the case. More and more I see articles which spit out the same rhetoric I see in all of the major newspapers. I'm starting to wonder if the diversity and fresh ideas on this campus really are dead. This week's article, "'U' students appalled by mudsling- ing,"represents an all-time low. How the Daily can run this story at all, much less as a side to the lead, I really don't know. The second sentence calls the survey "unscientific." Talk about an understatement! The 82 people surveyed is not enough to support the Daily's headline, much less the state- ment proclaiming "Also, Uni- versity students would elect virtually everyDemocratic can- didate on the ballot." I wasn't surprised that the survey found majority support for each of the candidates which the Daily endorsed, with the lone exception of Ingrid Sheldon, incumbent Republi- can mayor of Ann Arbor. Why did this piece run? This is the poorestexcuse for journalismI have ever seen in the Daily, for which there is no excuse. Why couldn't more people have been surveyed? This wasn't a sur- prise election! The Daily is an important part of this University. It is something I am proud to read Daily news errs in article on SAFE House shelter To the Daily: I am writing in reference to an article entitled "SAFE House Acquires New Facility with Millage Funds," which ap- peared in the Daily on Oct. 25, 1994. This article, which de- scribes the funding of the Do- mestic Violence Project (D.V.P.)/SAFE House's new shelter site, contains some glar- ing factual errors. To be spe- cific, the article states: "...the shelter's location is being treated with sensitivity and dis- cretion. The old location was next to the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department, but the new location is confidential." In actuality, the situation is re- versed. The old shelter's loca- tion was confidential; the new shelter site, which is public, is located next to the County Sheriff'sDepartment. This may seem like a minor point, but it reflects a major policy change on the part of the D.V.P./SAFE House. The decision not to seek another secret shelter site was made for a number of reasons both philosophical and practi- cal. First of all, a secret loca- tion just reinforces the notion that battered women have done something shameful for which they must go into hiding. This is certainly not the case and it is the public's responsibility to see to the safety of families victimized by assailants. Fur- ther, a public location makes D.V.P./SAFE House much more accessible to battered women and children as well as to the public. Finally, it would be unlikely for a community to give $3.2 million to a shelter that community members could not visit or see. In making this policy shift, D.V.P./SAFE House greatly considered safety factors. In light of the following, it was concluded that a new, public shelter location will not be a serious threat in terms of safety to residents and staff of SAFE House. Battered women's shel- ters across the country have moved to public sites and there have been few incidents where assailants have hurt residents or staff. These few incidents were not found to be correlated with the public/private issue. In ad- dition, almost no assailants have visited the current D.V.P./ SAFE house shelter site al- though its address has been in the phone book for four years. Furthermore, the new shelter facility will have a state of the art security system and its grounds will also be patrolled by the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department twice a day. Finally, ifany security prob- lems do arise, area police agen- cies including the Sheriff's Department, with which D.V.P.JSAFE House has a close working relationship, can be called upon for assistance. Lori Grubstein Graduate Student of Social Work and D.V.P./SAFE house Intern prosperous career move 4 I understand why people smoke. Really, I do. It all became clear to me when I was 15, and a friend of mine came up to me. "I'm going to start smoking," she said. "Why?" I asked, impudently. "Because," she said, befuddled, "I can breathe now, and, quit franly, I don't enjoy it very much. And it's not just the breathing -my whole body is basically healthy. My voice is clear, I have energy, my hair smells clean, for God's sake. I don't like it. And I'm not just going to sit around and live for another 55 or 60 years. I'm going to do something about it." "Like what?" I asked, still with out any pudents. "Didn't you listen?" she said, still full of fuddles. "I'm going to start smoking. Not just a little bit, either. A couple of packs a day. I figure within a few months they'll be measuring my breathing with a Richter scale." "But you'll be hanging out with different people," I said. "How will I be able to find you?"., "I've done the math," she re- plied. "On a clear day, you'll be able to smell me from anywhere in the county." "Cool," I said. "That should be quite the sniffing experience. I'm really looking forward to it. I feel like Scooby Doo." "You're welcome," she said. "Listen, could you do me a favor?' "Sure," I said. "What would you like?" "Can you run down to the store and get me a big bucket?" she asked. "I'll need something to hold theciga- rette butts." "Absolutely," I said. "You know me. I'm always willing to help you hold butts." "I don't think I'll ever be able to run down the street again," she said "Hell, I don't think I'll ever be able to get out of bed again without being out of breath. It's nice. Every time I walk up a flight of stairs, I'll have to stop halfway up, before my lungs burst. It's good to have something to rely on." "This is quite a commitment," I said. "It is," she agreed, agreeab "I'm really concentrating on it. haven't been this proud since the seventh grade, when I set off that smoke alarm with a belch." "That belch was impressive," I said, reminiscing. "It was a two- Coker, if I remember correctly." "One-and-a-half," she said. "But I had a pack of Fizz Wizz with it, so you round up to two." "Right," I said. "Now, suppose you wanted to repeat that feat. Could you do it when you're smoking two packs a day?" "Depends on the wind," she re- sponded, respondently. "ButI doubt it. You see, every time, I want to belch, I cough." "So how do you plan to do get into the addiction?" I asked. "Well, I'm going to start on 4 couple of Marlboro Lights every day," she said. 'Then, I'll move up to a pack, then two packs." "Then you're all set?" I asked. "No," she said. "That would take a few years off my life, but I want to really mess with my health. When I get to two packs a day, I'llbe switch- ing to regular Marlboros, then Newports." "Wow," I said. "That sounds like4 you won't ever have to breathe again." "Yeah," she said. "That should be enjoyable for a while, not breath- ing. But it could get boring." "Then what?" I inquired, inquisi- tively. "Well," she said, "I figure that thinking may get boring after a while. That's where the drugs come in. I'14 start with marijuana, then move on to bigger and better things, like co- caine and heroin. That should stop any kind of brain activity. Of course, I may get bored with not thinking at all." Il H College Dems thank voters of all parties To the Daily: On behalf of the U of M College Democrats, we would like to thank those students who exercised their right to vote on Tuesday. We thank those of you who voted here in Ann Arbor and those of you who voted back home by ab- sentee ballot. Whether you voted Democratic, Republican, or Libertarian is not the issue. The fact that you did vote is. Of course we encouraged students to vote Democratic, but our main goal was to in- crease student turnout. We reg- istered well over 1,000 stu- dents to vote this Fall, we brought BOTH local and state candidates to campus and pro- vided students with candidate information, all in an effort to increase participation. Your vote and your voice made a difference in this election. Those of you who did vote here in Ann Arbor elected a Democratic U.S. Congress- woman, a Democratic State Senator, two Democratic State Reps., a Democratic County Commissioner, and four Democratic City Council mem- bers. For example, in the 4th Ward, it was the student pre- cinct (South Quad) that was responsible for the Democratic victory for City Council. We are very thankful for your participation. Democrats in Ann Arbor have had a suc- cessful election day. Our vic- tories, however, are tempered by Republican successes across the nation. We congratulate both our Democratic and Re- publican victors. We hope that the next two years are produc- tive and that we can work to- gether to benefit the common good and improve the commu- nities in which we live. Mike Pokrywka Robin Evans U of M College Democrats N m II