4- The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 17, 1997
(14e lC'rrl i ttn jDtflg
420 Maynard Street.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109f
Edited and managed by4
students at the
University of Michigan
JOSH WHITE
Editor in Chief
ERIN MARSH
Editorial Page Editor
Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All
other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily
FROM THE DAILY
Telnet troubles
E-mail must be accessible to students
uring the first couple of weeks of University's network, has
:D classes, it is unusual to see so many taxed the system. With the nu
-s tidents at Angell Hall banging heads on net servers growing from 2
,:desks and slamming fists onto keyboards. more than 10,000 today, prol
-Professors, students and organizations should have been anticip
often depend on e-mail as a primary means Munn-Fremon, LTD's actin
of communication. More often than not operations, said adding an
this fall, a slow or downright unresponsive security for dial-in users ca
server has greeted students hoping to the University's vulnerability
d eck their e-mail. The University's Although this may slightly
Information Technology Division should some students and faculty n
have been better prepared to handle the security measures would in
fiall's inevitable increase in network traffic. speed and ITD should exped
ITD must correct for its miscalculations ment them.
with immediate action - by devoting all In addition, computing p
ifs resources to correcting e-mail system caused delays in sending an
difficulties. mail. Sent messages may tak.
Students checking e-mail anytime out- days to reach recipients, a
side of early morning or late-night hours, almost immediate transmissi
have undoubtedly encountered obstacles. are working correctly. Studen
Sometimes, server crashes have incapacitat- this situation in mind - for
ed not only electronic mail - but have calls are a more reliable way t
stripped student access to IFS accounts and communications.
word processing and spreadsheet programs. Hardware difficulties an
Attending school at the University is have also contributed to netw
soarly impossible without computing and Disk crashes may shut dow
Internet access. Over e-mail, professors hours - and, since users are
respond to student questions, homework is crowded University server
ebt out, faculty collaborate with colleagues will inevitably result. Fremo
nationwide and organizations give meeting working diligently to fix the
schedules to members. Orientation leaders are considering adding hardy
like to regale to new students stories about uring the system and cha
th'e University's abundant computing options. Nevertheless, she ad
r-esources - however, merely possessing were) low in our estimates of
thousands of computers is not good enough. increase in users."
ITD must make sure they are working Fixing computing difficu
quickly and efficiently. ITD's immediate priority. In t
- ITD claims a host of unanticipated net- should re-estimate the Univet
work problems is causing the campus-wide demands for computing capal
computer crisis. Unusually high levels of rely on computers for their da
SPAMing, a term used for outside users ness at the University - the
Who route messages through the fall must not become a comm
Cultural bridges
unexpectedly
umber of inter-
13 in 1994 to
blems like this
gated. Cheryl
g director ,of
extra layer of
n help reduce
y to SPAMers.
inconvenience
members, such
crease system
itiously imple-
problems have
d receiving e-
e up to several
as opposed to
on when things
its should keep
now, telephone
to make urgent
d disk crashes
work problems.
n a server for
routed to other
s, slowdowns
in said ITD is
network. They
ware, reconfig-
anging server
mits that "(We
the size of the
ilties must be
he future, ITD
rsity's growing
lbility. Students
ay-to-day busi-
events of this
on occurrence.
NOTABLE QUOTABLE.,,
'I became a little bit upset. If you are the coach, you
want the students in the stands. I was a player. That's
who I wanted to get in the stands.'
-Athletic Director Tom Goss, expressing his distaste for the
split-season tickets issued to first-year students
JORDAN YOUNGT N p
-le s sc,rre... "
_ ,.un~a~in~l Lt^( L MoP. ,C'ParNSn
A- iM~1-T-.-o'J~lr .-
VIEWPOINT
Exposing hae spreads awarenes
By ERIC HoCHSTADT formed after the official end of yourself, "How could anyone
This past weekend, the Ku apartheid, continues to shed let this happen?" Once you
Klux Klan held a rally, pri- light on the inhumane way in have asked yourself that ques-
marily for the purpose of dis- which a majority of white tion, it becomes harder for
tributing membership infor- "cops" treated black suspects. those groups of people who
mation in the Upper Peninsula For those of you who do not feel justified in destroying
town of Ironwood, Mich. know, this Commission will another group of people to
When one thinks about free grant amnesty, if confessors fulfill their goal in life.
speech in general, almost can prove to the panel that they I will end this piece with
every person agrees that it is are telling the full truth, and if the question I started with:
extremely important; howev- the attacks, killings and beat- Could such an atrocity ever
er, many people make the ings were politically motivat- happen again to any group of
argument that extremist ed. This past week, the people? To those who say no,
groups, like the KKK, are so Commission listened to the we are too civilized, too edu-
offensive that their right to testimony of Harold Snyman, cated and too aware, let me
free speech should be with respect to the brutal way tell you about a letter distrib-
revoked. I disagree. We all in which he and the four other uted to all the residents in the
have knowledge of the horrors "officers" he was command- Mary Markley dorm this past
perpetrated against humanity ing beat Steven Biko, a popu- Tuesday. It was written by T.
during the Holocaust. lar black leader in South Rose Roane, the Coordinator
Could this atrocity happen Africa, to death in 1977. Some of Residence Education, and
again? I do not know. Some people might question if this is Marita Inglehart, Director of
might say that what happened really justice. Beat the crap out the 21st Century Program,
in Bosnia several years ago, of a person because of their and stated, "Over this past
while the world's lone super- "inferior" skin color, confess weekend, someone wrote
power and the rest of the your sins 20 years later and be swastikas and other derogato-
world stood by and watched, granted amnesty. Once again, ry language on several resi-
was another genocide. you have to think about the big dents' room doors ..." People
However, knowing the picture, without emotion. If who hate still, and sadly, will
KKK is actively out in public "policeman" Snyman was just probably always, exist.
spewing its rhetoric and tried and sentenced to jail, he The only way to prevent
recruiting followers is better would never have informed the another Holocaust, to prevent
than having them hold secret world about the atrocities that what happened in South
rallies in the forest at night, he and many others committed Africa during apartheid and
giving people the false under the justification of to prevent what happened in
impression that the same peo- "superiority." Bosnia these past few years,
ple who once hated them The only way to ensure is for people to have knowl-
enough to pile them in ovens that this never happens again, edge of what happened in the
and cook them alive, no to any group of people, is to past, and to be aware of who
longer exist, document what actually took is out there today. Hate still
Similarly, halfway across place and to learn from it. exists.
the world in South Africa, the Learn from it to the point- - . --
Truth and Reconciliation where you are so disgusted - Eric Hochstadt is an
Commission, which was and appalled that you ask LSAfirst-year sudent.
GUEST COLUMN
The silence of the tin drums
A step-by-step I
'U'datingguidl
'We will now discuss, in grer
detail, theastruggle ag anat celibacy
- Charles Darwin, sorb
As professional students, we as
Asupposed to care about learni
growing as young people and bcoI
in useful, happy members of socie
That is, if you listen to commencem
speeches. Our whole reason for bei
here and spending
great, big hay
bales full of
money is the
attainment of
these goals.
So does it sur-
prise anyone else
that this entire
campus is
obsessed with get-
ting laid?
Maybe it's just JAMES
because classes MILLEI
have just started, l LEft.
rush is starting ON TAP
and it's generally
mating season. After a few weeks all
the beautiful women will get snatched
up by guys with cars that are too nic,
teeth that are too straight, pecs that a
too bulbous and heads thataare to
empty, and I'll be stuck at hoipq,
watching Comedy Central on a lot,
wondering how to shave my palms
without cutting myself.
Oops. Was that out loud? Let's g6
on. People always complain that they
never learn the things they want to
know while they're in college. Sine
they don't offer a class in elementary
college dating, I thought I'd help. The
following is a loose framework, a bl
print for the confused, until they ge
their sea legs.
Date the first: There are two primay
objectives that must be reached on thi
date. The first of which is deciding
your dating persona. Who are you
going to be? Are you an offbeat,
romantic guy? Are you funny,
reminds-her-of-her-gay-high-schodl-
friend guy? Or are you the fleece
Lothario? Exactly who you are is n
really important, as whichever oie
impresses her the most is the correct
choice. The second objective is to
establish plausible deniability. All this
means is that the date must be innocu-
ous and sterile enough that when you
see that she thinks you're a knuckle-
dragging primate, you have some
cover. "Oh, whatever, dude. We just
went and got some coffee together;
she's in a few of my classes. It a'
like that."Apart from those two thing,
avoid mentioning old girlfriends, nod,
smile and you should be okay.
Date the second: This date is reallya
test of endurance. If the first date w nh
well enough for there to be anothr
then this is the one where both of you
are trying your damnedest to impres
the other; a pursuit that will make the
both of you unbelievably obnoxious:
He will have to pretend that he car
what she and her friends did on spring
break last year, and she will have to act
as if tales of drinking and puking make,
him look like more of a man. She says
that she likes to watch basketball.
games sometimes, and he says that he
likes the Indigo Girls. ("You know,
like some of their earlier, acoustic
stuff.")
Date the third: Also known as the
"Jesus, we might actually have sex
sometime in the near future" date.
purpose of this date is to convince
yourself that you know your date well
enough to sleep with and sublimate
your sexual tensions under the-guise of
a true emotional connection. This
requires you take the level of conver-
sation up a notch. Instead of "get to
know you" chit-chat and war stories;
the situation demands something adbit
more stringent. Her sister's eating di
order, for example. Tales of inattenti
parents or harmless, suburban child
hood trauma are also pretty good. But
be careful. You want to go past "Mora
didn't love me," but stop short of
"Mom used to dress me in my sister's
clothes and walk me around the neigh-
borhood on a leash:' This is clearly
tipping your hand.
Date the fourth: This one is tricky. At
this point, sex, or something resem-
bling it, may have already occurre
There are two facets to this situation:.
The first is if the two of you would like
to continue having sex. In this case'
you should probably concoct a date
that has at least a contrived sense of
comfort and ease. Sweat pants and
"When Harry Met Sally" is a perenni
al favorite. Use pet names (start out
with a simple "hon" if you are new at
it.) Remember, college sex is, almo
by definition, cheap, but the fun
everyone'samass delusion on this point
So coo at one another and pretend
one day this will all be a "when your
mother and I were courting" story
That is, until that girl in your poli-sc
class finally talks to you, or the hunka-
hunka burnin' love from the Bivouac
strikes up a super-groovy conversation
about Bob Dylan with you. Then alt
bets are off. If you no longer want tQ
have sex with this person, then -you'
just have to buck up, and face tI
music. And by that, I mean blame your
break-up on some emotional vagaries
or meaningless Oprah phrases about
"space" and "what I'm looking for."
Date the fifth: These people are pret-
ty much married. But then again, I
don't know if people ever get this far
anymore. After all, we wouldn't want
to do anything serious, would we?
--James Miller can be reache
- over e-mail atjamespm@umich.edF
State should continue
his past Thursday, the Michigan
Council for the Arts and Cultural
Affairs awarded more than $21 million in
art and cultural grants for the next fiscal
year. These monetary allotments to various
organizations are similar in value to those
handed out last year. Given the current con-
troversy surrounding the National
Endowment for the Arts, retaining this fund-
ing should be considered a cultural triumph.
Over the past two years, Congress has
dramatically curbed the amount of money
appropriated to the NEA, from about $137
million in fiscal year '96 to about $82 mil-
lion for the fiscal year '98. However, this
past summer, the House of Representatives
voted to end all of the organization's federal
funding. The rationale behind the House's
decision was that the NEA supports contro-
versial exhibits that are "immoral" or
"obscene."
Legislative leaders seem convinced that
during this period of downsizing the
American government, private organiza-
tions and block grants to the states should
fund the arts. It is admirable that the state
government is bucking this national trend
- by trying to protect the arts through con-
tinued financial support. The support puts
the state fourth among the 50 states in per-
capita funding for the arts.
Two hundred twenty-seven applications
were awarded state funding for the next fis-
cal year, and arts groups in Washtenaw
County will receive a total of $1 million.
Grants were awarded funds on the basis of
geographic distribution, diversity and
underserved communities. Thus, the state
government is trying to continue one of the
NEA's noble objectives. However, while the
supplemental funding
state tries to support its artists, the public
must not forget the national organization's
value. The NEA - under attack by law-
makers and budget cutters - provides
smaller communities with access to culture
that otherwise would be impossible to
attain.
Critics of the NEA argue that sponsoring
artistic expression with tax dollars is unnec-
essary. However, it is a mistake to cut back
on funding for the arts or other programs
designed to increase the options available to
communities. There is no guarantee that the
states will now begin to foot an increasing
arts bill. Supporting artists and exposing
the community to expressive options they
would not have been otherwise able to tap
supplies them with outlets for diversity.
Throughout history, national governments
commissioned many of the world's greatest
works of art. Other industrialized nations
continue to offer solid and well-supported,
arts endowments-- but America lags far
behind its counterparts in the sphere of
public support for artistic expression.
The state of Michigan and the Michigan
Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs
should be commended for their continued
support of these important programs. As
Congress tries to implement national cut-
backs, states throughout the nation should
look to Michigan as a role model in the area
of sponsoring the fine arts. However, the
federal government is not off the hook. Arts
funding is a microscopic slice of the federal
budget, and a group of staunch conserva-
tives is putting these precious dollars in dan-
ger. The government must recognize the
importance of the NEA and preserve it at all
costs.
BY MICHAEL PEREIRA
A man in the middle of
America was lynched some
weeks ago for renting a
movie. Sounds strange, does it .
not? Or perhaps "lynched" is
.too strong a word. Let's try to
soften the blow. A man in the
middle of America was
hounded some weeks ago for
renting a movie.
It's hopeless -- nothing
seems to work, no matter how
we say it. The specter of cen-
sorship - and its sidekick,
ignorance - will always
show through the guise of
euphemism. I am thinking of
a recent, barely publicized
incident in Oklahoma City. A
man rented a movie called
The Tin Drum from the for-
eign section of a local video
store. As he watched in the
privacy of his home, a band of
self-appointed morality troop-
ers stormed his residence,
stole the tape, destroyed itand
brought the viewer to the
attention of local authorities.
So what is it about the The
Tin Drum that could elicit
such a strong moral backlash
from normal-seeming citi-
zens? We know some vicious
atrocities of the Bosnian war
were captured on video and
later sold in black market
bazaars for thousands of dol-
lars. Can The Tin Drum be
among those sordid snuff
films, a sadistic and outra-
geous catalogue of the excess-
es of war?
The assailants, after all,
said the movie was "child
pornography," and that the
viewer, therefore, was a certi-
fiable pervert. Of course,
none of them had ever seen
the film. Like most aggressive
moralists, they based their
dogma on hearsay and vague
assumptions.
In fact, the film is difficult
and dreamlike, with surreal
sections and black comic
pathos that buttress its politics
with an aesthetic sensibility.
But The Tin Drum is by no'
means pomnographic or propa-
gandist. On the contrary, it is
at once revolting and touch-
ing, ambiguous and yet one of
the most scathing indictments
of Nazi Germany ever to
appear on screen. Director
Volker Schlondorff derives
his story from a Gunter Grass
epic novel of the same name
- the novel credited with
reinventing the German lan-
guage from the rubble of Nazi
argot.
In the book, as well as the
movie, young Oskar
Matzerath willfully stunts his
growth at the age of three as a
revolt against history. His
adventures bring him into
contact with camnival freaks
and Nazi commandants, pre-
cocious sexuality and bizarre
scenarios which seem sadly
believable next to the horrors
of historical fact.
The film version of The
Tin Drum won an Academy
Award for best foreign film in
1979, as well as the Grand
Prize as Cannes that same
year. The stature of Grass'
novel as the highest artistic
achievement is incontrovert-
ible. Taken together, the two
Tin Drums represent one of the
most successful efforts to pen-
etrate that era of darkness. Yet
almost 20 years after its screen
incarnation, some seem to
have forgotten the reminders
so artfully adumbrated by
Schlondorff and Grass.
The incident in Oklahoma
City signifies only the top of a
frightening iceberg - a resur-
gent mindset inimical to
learning and fast at forgetting.
Everyone witnessed
Oklahoma City's first run-in
with this ignorant new wave;
he was recently issued his
final orders. But McVeigh's
sentence by no means put any
closure on the issue; if any-
thing, it only polarized camps,
sending the angry and mili-
tant even further under-
ground.
Among the rubbleeand
embers of the city's federal
building, there still lurks a
seething and volatile zeitgeist
- a vicious circle of misin-
formation that staunchly
refuses to stare the facts in the
face. The man who tried to
watch The Tin Drum experi-
enced that relentless will to
censorship. Taken to its
(il)logical conclusion, censor-
ship concludes in complete
cultural deadening: the
absence of information, and
the presence of lies.
Eventually, the suppressed
side of the argument fades
from memory, and all that's
left is the immanence of sup-
pression itself. This is a lesson
of The Tin Drum - a lesson
apparently still left to be
learned by those who would
have the movie banned.
Whether they are called neo-
Nazis or any other name that
designates a group whose sole
commandment is hate, their
goal is essentially the same:
conformity, uniformity, same-
ness, etc. Those who would
enforce ignorance fail to
admit that the real pornogra-
phy is in the censor. The will-
ing execution of ideas is the
first step on a downward stair-
case leading to a country of
permanent night.
- This column was
originally published in the
Daily Pennsylvanian
on Sept. 4, 1997.
I MA
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