4A - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, January 18, 2000
a t cbIg
420 Maynard Street HEATHER KAMINS
Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editor in Chief
daily.letters@umich.eduf
Edited and managed by JEFFREY K SSEFF
students at the DAVID WALLACE
University of Michigan Editorial Page Editors
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.
Taking the shine off the shrine: Goodbye halo!
No motor in ote
Students should vote where they live
T he shine's coming off the halo, my
friends, and for some if not most of us,
it's not happening soon enough.
Since the debut of Michigan Stadium's
renovations at the beginning of the 1998 sea-
son, I've heard plenty
of complaints about t
the halo surrounding
the stadium's upper
rim. In the crowd fin-
neling through the
turnstiles, peoplek
commented on the
garish color. The over-
sized letters spelling
out verses of our fight
song drew disparage-
ment from the pews of
nearly every section. David
Even when the team Wallace
won, you heard fans
in the postgame E
throng ridicule the vyniard St,
football-shaped sec-
tion numbers and audacious scoreboards.
In four years at the University, I cannot
think of another issue more students agreed
upon than the eventual, necessary excommu-
nication of the halo for high crimes and mis-
demeanors against our retinas. It's too bad so
many picked an issue so worthless to con-
cern ourselves about. Perhaps Martin Luther
King Day reminded us of more gallant pur-
suits.
There were a few dissenters to popular
opinion, of course. Perhaps the halo's unpop-
ularity gave it an unholy appeal. Whatever it
was, blasphemers on campus said the impi-
ous: "I like the halo." Spoken in the church
of Michigan football, those words presum-
ably shatter the stained-glass windows of St.
Fielding, St. Fritz and St. Bo. The mere pos-
sibility of such sacrilege began the fans' ver-
bal crusade to raze the stadium's ornamental
battlements.
If you wonder what I thought about the
halo, well, I didn't. I never contemplated the
halo's merits and demerits. I simply never
had a problem with it. But then I got used to
it, and I preferred that we not dismantle it
when I heard doing such will take about
S100,000 out of the Athletic Department's
coffers.
I realize that sum is little more than a shot
in the bucket, but spending more money on
aesthetics seems counter to athletic success.
There must be something more worthwhile
that could use an offering of that size.
Personally, if I played on a club sport
struggling to buy equipment, I'd feel kind of
disenfranchised seeing the Athletic
Department spend a hundred grand to take
down stadium adornments.
To everyone who insightfully comment-
ed that the halo was "ugly" (number one
answer, Richard Dawson would say), I must
ask where you will turn your attentions next?
The LSA Building, for its crimes against
burnt sienna? Indict the Fleming
Administration Building for slandering the
geometric patterns of Mondrian?
As a congregation, we students have little
justification to impugn anyone's decorating
sensibilities. Most of us live in decrepit
houses and make our beds in rooms painted
a color Crayola might call "Public
Restroom." For ambiance we place a
"Reservoir Dogs" poster here, my favorite
band's poster there. So we're giving advice
on decor like HGTV? We should not sell the
Athletic Department, or anyone, our indul-
gences.
Hey, football works in mysterious ways.
Not to eulogize the halo, but I did like its gar-
ishness in some sense. Only the winningest
football program in history could get away
with something so vainglorious. And at the
same time, its audacity satirized our fanatical
devotion to the Maize, Blue and Winged
Helmet. Now I'm as much of a Michigan
football acolyte as you, but I don't find harm
in a playful treatment of our traditions absent
of malice. That's what we had here.
Hyperbole.
Speculation, and only speculation, says
the halo resulted in penurious alumni gifts.
After the halo's premiere, the athletic depart-
ment received $500,000 less than projected
from donations. Certainly, dissatisfaction
with the halo could not account for the entire
drop-off, but the large deficit raises eye-
brows that some alumni and fans - and who
knows how many or few - played the role
of art critic when signing the checks. I think
it would be foolish to suppose no one
begrudged the halo, given that the decrease
in gifts came the year after national champi-
onships in both football and ice hockey.
Anyone who did so should seek absolu-
tion for sins against Michigan athletics.
Architecture does not provide a valid reason
to pillory the Athletic Department, which
trickles down to the athletes whose exploits
we praise together.
Looking out the window of my apart-
ment yesterday, I saw the dismantling in
progress. I was too far away to see how they
were taking down the letters, whether it was
with crosses, garlic and holy water or some-
thing more secular (cowboys and lassoes?).
The partial halo read, "IL TO THE VIC-
TORS." Ugly and unbefitting Michigan or
not, it wasn't worth the argument. For
Wolverines fans, there's really only one tra-
dition: winning. I'll laugh next fall if we go
8-4 and fans call for the return of the halo. Ill
to the victors, indeed.
- David Wallace can be reached over
e-mail at davidmw@umich.edu.
GRINDING THE NIB
S tate Sen. Alma Wheeler Smith (D-
Salem Twp.) and the American Civil
Liberties Union of Michigan announced
this week that they are considering filing
suit to repeal Senate Bill 306. The bill,
which was passed last summer and is slat-
ed to take effect this April, requires that
the addresses listed on citizens' driver's
licenses match those on their voter regis-
tration cards. This will disenfranchise a
significant portion of the state's student
population.
It is not uncommon for university stu-
dents to move with relative frequency to
meet the costs of housing on a limited bud-
get. Some do not drive while on campus;
others come from out of state. For these
reasons, many students choose not to
change their license information. Under
Senate Bill 306, these students won't have
their say at the ballot box in the districts
where they spend the majority of the year.
According to Secretary of State Candice
Miller, the premise of this regulation is to
establish a statewide registered voter data-
base.
Currently, each voting district keeps its
own listing. But the rationales do not add
up. The measure loses any pretense of effi-
ciency when one considers how much it
will cost to process all the license changes
it is supposed to elicit. The system already
allows for distinct resident and mailing
addresses. Surely it will not take much
more effort to adjust for separate license
and voter card addresses. The administra-
tive improvements that have been offered
are hardly sufficient reasons to restrict
access to a citizen's Constitutional right to
vote. Most University students spend more
time in Ann Arbor than in their hometowns.
Consequently, community affairs are of
crucial importance in their everyday lives.
By placing obstacles before students
who wish to register to vote in Ann Arbor,
Senate Bill 306 makes it difficult for them
to express their opinions on local and
statewide matters. In an era of widespread
low voter turnout, our legislators should try
to facilitate voter participation, not dis-
courage it.
The vote is the most powerful tool for
citizens to have a voice in how their com-
munity is run. This right should not be con-
tingent on whether someone spends 12 or
nine months of the year at a given location.
It certainly should not have to depend on
where a citizen drives the most. Senate Bill
306, with its obstructions to the voting
rights of students, is unnecessary in prac-
tice and undemocratic in spirit. We encour-
age Wheeler Smith and the ACLU to pur-
sue their case to repeal this fundamentally
flawed law.
CHIP CULLEN
D0 o U BUILD OR VAKV P0(JM
WALLS?
Budgei on
B allot initiative should legalize marijuana
Someone is arrested every 20 seconds
on drug charges in the United States. In
1997, the federal government spent about
$18 billion on its "War on Drugs." States
added another $20 billion to the taxpayer's
bill for their own smaller-scale drug wars.
According to a recent San Jose Mercury
News story, the United States, with 5 per-
cent of the world's population, houses a
quarter of the world's criminals. With ludi-
crous minimum sentencing laws requiring
longer prison terms and a drug scheduling
policy that lumps dangerous drugs like
heroin and cocaine with more benign nat-
ural substances like marijuana, it is no
wonder that some say the United States is
beginning to resemble a police state.
It is no surprise that the war on drugs
has done little to curb the use of marijuana.
It has succeeded only in wasting taxpayer
money and criminalizing a large percent-
age of middle- and lower-class America
while creating criminal syndicates to
smuggle narcotics into the country. In
effect, we are living through what amounts
to being a modern-day prohibition.
According to the Website
www.deoxv.org, Abraham Lincoln said of
Prohibition in 1840: "It goes beyond the
bounds of reason in that it attempts to
control a man's appetite by legislation,
and makes a crime out of things that are
not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a
blow at the very principles upon which
our government was founded."
Harsh punishment for a drug that is not
physically addictive, occurs naturally and
has a long history of religious and sacra-
mental usage around the world is ridicu-
lous. Marijuana should not be part of
America's "War on Drugs."
Upon visiting the United States for the
first time, Albert Einstein remarked that,
"The p.restige of government has
undoubtedly been lowered considerably
ing laws which cannot be enforced. It is
an open secret that the dangerous increase
of crime in this country is closely con-
nected with this," according to
www.deoxv.org.
A proposed amendment to the
Michigan Constitution addresses the
hypocrisy of a government that guaran-
tees us the right to the pursuit of happi-
ness while waging war on its citizens.
Called the Personal Responsibility
Amendment, this legislation, if adopted
by Michigan voters in November's elec-
tion, would decriminalize marijuana for
personal use.
It would allow anyone over 21 years of
age to grow and possess up to three
ounces of marijuana, provided it is within
the confines of their own home. It would
also legalize medical marijuana for any-
one with a prescription.
This amendment goes one step further
than the policies adopted by seven west-
ern states on medical marijuana because
it realizes that unenforceable laws erode
respect for government and the idea of
personal autonomy. It asserts that
informed personal judgement is a better
alternative than restrictive legislative
acts. For more information, visit
www.ballot2000.net.
Ann Arbor libertarians are also prepar-
ing a ballot initiative to legalize marijua-
na within the city limits. Needing only
4,000 signatures to get on the ballot, as
opposed to the Personal Responsibility
Amendment's statewide 300,000-some
signatures, this proposal would give citi-
zens the right to make informed decisions
without fear of penalty.
Unjust marijuana legislation has
helped turn prisons into growth industries
and otherwise law-abiding citizens into
criminals. The "War on Drugs" is show-
ing itself to be nothing more than an
Government script-
review is analogous
to literary dystopias
TO THE DAILY:
Over the past few years, our govern-
ment has taken a new step toward becom-
ing an omnipresent tyrant. In 1997, the
federal government purchased nearly one
billion dollars of advertising time on
major television networks (FOX, ABC,
NBC, CBS, UPN and others) at half price.
Since then, the price of advertising time
has risen significantly making the gov-
ernment's coriginal purchase extremely
onerous to the networks. In an attempt to
capitalize on the increased value of the
advertising time they purchased, the fed-
eral government negotiated an agreement
with nearly all major networks whereby
they would return some of the purchased
time in exchange for the insertion of anti-
drug messages into popular television
shows. Shows such as "Beverly Hills
90210." "ER," "The Practice" and "The
Drew Carey Show" have all contained
such messages as a part of this agreement.
Furthermore, as a part of this agreement,
government officials have reviewed the
scripts of these shows and even suggested
substantive changes to their content.
In our "free" society, it should outrage
us all that the federal government has
covertly attempted to integrate messages
urging support of its policy positions into
mass media entertainment. The issue of
whether the use of some drugs is appro-
priate or not is an ongoing political
debate (as evidenced by the recent and
partially successful movement to legalize
marijuana in California and Oregon) and
for the government to attempt to secretly
influence our opinions concerning such a
live debate is a cowardly, authoritarian
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tactic wvorthy of a literary dystopia. By
dangling the almighty dollar in front of
the corporations which control the mass
media, the government has purchased a
nearly subliminal path into the minds of
television viewers. The danger of allow-
ing such actions cannot be over-estimat-
ed.
Perhaps developments such as these
are inevitable in our "liberal" society
which accepts the role of government as
some sort of benevolent father who is
responsible for remedying every social
ill. Perhaps it is, along with the death of
our Fourth Amendment rights, a conse-
quence of the draconian war on drug
users which has occupied us for the past
20 years. In truth it is probably a little of
both, but more importantly this new vehi-
cle of propaganda is a reminder that gov-
ernment cannot and should not be trusted
- not ever.
Forcing students to
show ID's detracts*
from crowd unity
TO THE DAILY:
I am writing this letter to voice my
concern with the University's proposed
policy change of carding students in order
to gain access to the student section. The
main drawback that I find in this new
concept is that instead of hitting Badgers
and Buckeyes, we will have to turn our
marshmallow wars against our fellow
Wolverines. I feel that allowing this
would be an outrage and a serious burden
to our unity. Besides, there are only so
many times that I can hit my cousin in the
junk with a marshmallow before it's just
not funny anymore.
ERIC MouTz CHRIS ZANN
LAW STUDENT LSA JUNIOR
While we laud the Daily's Dec. 10
endorsement of the UN's Hungersite
Webpage ("Will click for food"), we
would like to add a couple of crucial
points about hunger which were not
addressed. To truly understand (and work
to stop) hunger, we must take a hard look
at some of the relationships between
hunger, poverty, government policy and
business.
It is commonly believed that hunger is a
consequence of food shortages. In truth.
enough food is available to provide 4.3
pounds to every person every day: two
and a half pounds of grain, beans and
nuts, about a pound of meat, milk and
eggs and another of fruits and vegetables.
So hunger, like poverty, is an issue linked
not to the amount of food or wealth, but to
the inequality of distribution.
We often think of hunger as a "third-
world" problem. It may come as a shock
to some that it is an increasing problem
here in the U.S. as well. According to a
I nL _....,.. 1 1 ..- r*T . , - - - .:
must pay for child care, as well as the
homeless, have been left behind in the
race for wealth. What is most shameful
about American hunger is that our pro-
duction-oriented agricultural system pro-
duces so much food that the bottom has
fallen out of almost every agricultural
commodity market. Even the farmers who
are feeding us are being forced into pover-
ty, homelessness and hunger. The irony is
sickening.
The situation is even more acute on the
global scale, where nearly one in six go
hungry. While Americans generally con-
sider international hunger to be a conse-
quence of people living in a state of
"under-development," the real cause is
usually "undemocratic development." In
many nations the balance of economic
power slides toward a small minority who
control the vast majority of resources,
especially arable land and government
representation.
Economic globalization has exacerbat-
fix that allows us to ignore the larger
causal links between our mouse button
and a homeless person seeking change on
South University. That the site's sponsors
are helping to redistribute wealth is
encouraging, but the continued disenfran-
chisement of the poorest global citizens
goes hand-in-hand with the unequal con-
centration of wealth that profit-seeking
shareholders demand of big business.
The massive protests at the WTO
Ministerial showed that an increasing
number of people are beginning to see
that hunger, like poverty, natural resource
depletion, labor injustices and social
inequality, are branches sharing a com-
mon root in flawed government policy
skewed toward socially-irresponsible cor-
porate benefactors. Seeing the common
root of many problems gives us power.
Supporting legislation that helps local
farmers, protesting sweatshop labor or
purchasing stock and products of compa-
nies that refuse to commodify communi-
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