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 0 w . 1 o , " .. _ i " '4Ht~ , - 4 ' Z i . 3,, i . ,+ k At {1 4iG i.t t+A . f " Rr . .. 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- 11