4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 8, 2000 tje £irbidtu &ilg 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109 MIKE SPAHN daily.letters@umich.edu Editor in Chief Edited and managed by EMILY ACHENBAUM studets at the gEditorial Page Editor University of Michigan 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. Welcomed Shorter move-in week will prevent boredom W elcome Week, the gap between move in and the beginning of classes, gives stu- dents an opportunity to adapt to their new sur- roundings without the added burden of study- ing. Next year, incoming students will have one less day to situate themselves. Responding to student concerns that Move-In Week was too long, the Office of New Student Programs and University Housing wisely decided to shorten it. A full week for move-in was a longer peri- od than new students needed to acquaint themselves with Ann Arbor. Having already been exposed to the campus during orienta- tion, students did not need an extra week to repeatthe process. What did new students do to kill the extra time? The University wanted to involve first- year students in social activities to make them" feel more at home. There certainly were some good programs such as Maize Craze and Artscapade/Escapade which effectively accomplished this goal. But few programs were this successful. The problem was not with the structure of these individual activities, but rather in the sheer number and repetitiveness of the events. Contrary to popular belief, there was a limit to the amount of pizza and Coke a student could consume in a few days. Sick of such pro- grams, students were left to wait anxiously for the first day of school. With the massive amount of extra time, students inevitably got themselves into trou- ble. They embarked upon their own orienta- tion to University life. Some acquainted them- selves with the Ann Arbor Police Department or DPS, earning MIP or UIP citations. The less fortunate got a tour of the University hos- pital. Ironically, in an effort to give students more time to adjust to university life, the longer Move-In week actually introduced them to a lifestyle that was very unlike a typ- ical college day. The new shorter week should help to alle- viate some of these problems. With less idle time, next year's first-year students will final- ly feel more "welcome" than bored. Disillusionment, participation and the purpose ofvoting am often asked, as a result of the work I sion they make, every problem they attempt money, and good money brings power. I do, why I believe young people do not to solve, every goal they dare to establish. Americans are told, in the form of news vote, or participate in any large numbers The young know of the multitude of updates and analysis, who is politically in with the civic events around us. I have given opinions, concerns, ideas and necessities this vogue, and which issues are important. To many answers, since many are true. I am diverse country holds. If ours were simply the young, this only aids the ignorance of likewise asked why not addressed, it would be possible to cling those who purport our representation. We they should vote, or to an ideology. We would convince ourselves see good men and women - our men and participate at all. And that our representative, and those attempting women- battered and destroyed by an. the answer here is to represent us, had so many interests to information giant. Furthermore, real ideas close to my heart. The attend to, that our own were factored in to the and real solutions are abandoned because following thoughts common good; not solved, perhaps, in the they do not fit into a news segment or a attempt to answer manner we might choose, but addressed in sound bite. No, real hopes swell and multi- both. Welcome to my the least. If we managed to convince our- ply. They cannot be confined to a television column. selves as such, we might even participate. set or a hard drive. They burst bandwidth of Writing as the We might even vote. But we do not, in large all diameters, and satellites cannot transmit Federalist, No. 10, numbers, do either. And we, do not because them. The information highway was built for James Madison we are betrayed. And we are betrayed not today's young: a path to a great future. We do described the imper-Josh simply because we are unheard, but because not want it. fect nature of his new we are not even asked. This is why we do not And so we do not vote, and it is a shame. g o v e r n m e n t: Cowen vote. For voting, while the first course of change "Complaints are E The young see voting as a payment. To us abandoned by the cynic, is also the last everywhere heard Em hs s it is our charge to those who might govern. stronghold for what we crave. Voting is not a from our most consid- Mi We expect something in return: considera- charge or a payment, it is not a favor or a erate and virtuous cit- tion, gratitude in the form of attention. We donation. It is not always the means of izens ... that the public good is disregarded have our particular concerns: salaries, educa- accomplishment, but it is always an act of in the conflicts of rival parties, and that mea- tion, in recent years gender and race equali- pure participation. Oliver Wendell Holmes sures are too often decided, not according to ty, AIDS and the environment. These are said "it is required of a man that he should the rules of justice and the rights of the important to us because they will each effect share the action and passion of his time at minor party, but by the superior force of an our daily lives when today's leaders live no peril of being judged not to have lived." interested and overbearing majority." longer. Our government has specialists, task This, in the end, is what we want:To par- Madison might well have been comment- forces, even whole departments dedicated to ticipate in something real; to take part in a ing on the current political scene. Two vehi- these issues because they overlap with the great event large and infinite. We want to cles of public manipulation, political oppor- concerns of an average citizen. Their impor- change the world but we want others to want tunism and media influence, have distorted tance to young people is incidental. Since we it too. A vote expresses this. A vote says that the democratic process in the pursuit of their see voting as a payment, and since we do not the problems we face are ours as they are respective interests: Victory and audience. feel compensated, we feel robbed. Our issues yours, that success is a banquet to nourish us Of the various social groups divided along have been stolen to finance electoral victory. all, and that we will never cease to progress- traditional lines-ethnic, gender, age-young We tell ourselves to live and learn, and we as individuals and as peoples-no matter how people are most injured by this. The state of lock our doors. We feel like victims assigned abandoned we are today. A vote hopes, public affairs is, after all, a direct link to the random numbers, statistics-incidental. dreams, believes and expects. A vote does future. When our government fails to If our disillusionment is the result of a not cure disease, end hunger, bring races address the concerns of its people today, it theft, today's media are those assigned to together, or end war. But it promises that attenuates this link by creating uncertainty bring justice. Reporters, commentators, ana- someday humanity will. and disillusionment. The young, scarred by lysts, affiliates and corporations have not So vote. this betrayal, will feel its sting in the years to only failed in this task, but have conspired in - Josh Cowen can be reached via come. It will inflict itself upon every deci- the cover-up. Good stories bring good e-mail at jcowen@umich.edu. ETER T CHIP CULLEN GRNOiNJ T HENIB WLETTER'SiCAI.TMO Fight for your right ACLU's party handbook a necessity for all I n an effort to inform students of their rights while having a good time, the University branch of the American Civil Liberties Union recently published "House Party Handbook: IKnow Your Rights." This informational l'ochure covers topics such as "how to keep the cops away" from festivities, "how to han- dle [them]" if they show up, and "how to a.void getting caught for doing illegal things." If even comes complete with cutout signs that students can post to prevent unauthorized entry by civilians and officers alike. The ACLU should be applauded for its efforts to educate the student population. Such knowledge will help guard against stu- dents unwittingly forfeiting their right to pri- vacy. Not many people know that police offi- cers often do not have jurisdiction to enter a party. They are only allowed to enter a build- ing in three circumstances: If they have a search or arrest warrant, if there is a 'real emergency' inside the house (e.g.: if they hear a cry for help), or if the resident allows them inside. The Ann Arbor police often trick students into incorrectly believing that they are allowed inside. In such cases the spirit of the constitutionally protected right to privacy is violated, even if the letter of the law is not. It is important to note, however, that in no way does the ACLU encourage illegal behav- ior. The handbook specifically states the best way to avoid getting caught for illegal activity is to not commit such crimes in the first place. It recommends checking ID's and warns against selling alcohol. The handbook aims to prevent students from unintentionally break- ing laws they do not understand, not to teach students how to commit crimes without get- ting caught. By writing about this issue, the ACLU addressed an extremely relevant topic to stu- dents' daily lives. Even though the handbook may not address typical civil rights issues, it does inform students of valuable civil liberties here on campus. Kosseff is 'raving lunatic' TO THE DAILY: How did a raving lunatic like Jeffrey Kosseff("Racism doesn't always hide behind a white hood," Feb. 7) get hired by the Daily? I thought the Daily was supposed to be repre- sentative of the University students. not of some left-wing psychobabble propaganda machine. Apparently, the Daily feels it's neces- sary to not only jump on the ultra-liberal high horse, but to beat it when it's already dead. To quote Kosseff: "CIR, like all affirma- tive action opponents, promotes a racist agen- da." Statements like these make Kosseff a danger to society, not to mention himself, Using his own line of thinking, this makes him more of a threat than the KKK. What I am trying to say, Kosseff comes across as a brain- dead machine Kosseff makes no coherent points in his article, and he just doses his cred- ibility with that idiotic, immaterial statement. My advice for the Daily: Screen your writers before they plan on taking on the KKK. NIKHIL KUMAR LSA SENIOR Affirmative action is not perfect TO THE DAILY: In response to Jeffrey Kosseff's Feb. 7 column ("Racism doesn't always hide behind a white hood"): To state that all opponents of affirmative action are racist is extreme and damaging rhetoric that, in this PC climate, strong-arms dissenting opin- ions into silence and halts any potential intellectual discourse. But I will not be strong-armed into silence. Kosseff's logic is bankrupt. He con- cedes that affirmative action may discrimi- I klUVARY V5. C&WlLIAM%. I'S6t~AWM t 7 TA~ CITIZEMS OF I16W YORK. i G/ 'I ' 1 f / (4' i; . - - .... ...... a LSt IL Eli) I 1-- F I ...M f4~~~~% ~~*~I~CA nate on the basis of race. He justifies this by stating that "everybody's doing it," the politicians, the police, our professors. Just because others do something that is harmful does not make it OK. I tried Kosseff's logic on my parents many a Friday night back in high school, and they didn't buy it then, and I don't buy it now. Moreover, his argument left me wonder- ing: If affirmative action opponents are racist on the grounds that they promote dis- crimination, aren't affirmative action pro- ponents just as racist? So now everybody's racist. Are we happy now? His logic gets his argument, as well as a discussion on affir- mative action, absolutely nowhere. In addition, in his article, he states that Abraham Lincoln "won." He may have won, but not a battle for the African-Americans in this country. Lincoln did not free the slaves. Read the Emancipation Proclamation. Sure, it declares a bunch of slaves free, except in cer- tain counties already under Union control. So. this "Great Emancipator" was saying to the fighting South, albeit in the finesprint, "if you surrender, you will be able to keep your slaves." He was more concerned with keeping the Union together than freeing people; his: proclamation was political, not philosophical. Back to the topic of affirmative action:, Affirmative action is not a bad thing, and I'm glad Kosseff admits it's not perfect. It harms as well as helps. Many people say it gives undeserving minorities the right to waltz into the University and sets them up to fail. Well, everyone is deserving of the best education possible, and anyone with half a brain who's not on drugs could get through this university if they attend class and do the work (most people I know do drugs, skip class, and still do fine). To be sure, benefi- ciaries of affirmative action succeed at the big "U," and Kosseff himself proves that there are a lot of stupid white guys. But, we should all give a moment of silent reflection and remember the victims of affirmative action: Those unfortunate white kids from the Detroit suburbs and who end up having to go to MSU. Now that's a tragedy. M. HOPE ALLEN LSA SENIOR Movers and shakers Dance Marathoners break records with style etting an example for philanthropic campaigns at the University, more than 200 students and faculty stayed on their feet for thirty hours to benefit children's hospi- tals at the third annual Dance Marathon. Culminating a year of effort on behalf of this weekend's event, 206 dancers helped earn $107,340 for child rehabilitation pro- grams at Ann Arbor's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Royal Oak's William Beaumont Hospital. These dancers were only part of a cam- pus-wide endeavor that included well over 1,000 University affiliates. Although around 30 universities across the country participate in similar events, the efforts of dancers, organizers, morale officers, spon- sors and other key contributors throughout the year should be congratulated for creat- ing the most successful Dance Marathon at the University so far. The Dance Marathon was successful not just in raising more than $100,000 for the first time in its history at the University, but also for bringing together a diverse group of University affiliates and increasing aware- health care by allowing students to meet those affected by their efforts. Many of the families who will benefit from the money raised this weekend were present to show their appreciation and offer personal accounts of how important the efforts of Dance Marathon have been to them. Children were able to participate in games and other events during the 30 hour period including dancing and wheel chair basket- ball. Formerly associated with the Children's Miracle Network - to which most Dance Marathons around the country affiliate with - the University's program decided to break their ties with this national organiza- tion in order to direct their funds at improv- ing local child health facilities like C.S. Mott and William Beaumont. Their success is incredibly important in supporting vari- ous physical and occupational rehabilitation efforts that are usually not covered by insur- ance. Everyone who contributed this year to the Dance Marathon should be congratulat- ed for working towards providing essential health care procedures to families that oth- Regis Philbin, I accept you as my lord and savior Forgive me, Charles Van Doren, for I have sinned. It has been 14 days since my last confession and in that time I have seen 27 game shows on television. On any given night, I watch (insert game show here) with host (insert cheesy septuagenari- an here) on (insert net- work here.) I have even resorted to taping "Twenty One" since it airs at the same time as "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" On the plus side, I've figured out why they call it the idiot box: There are idiots on it, but I'm also an idiot for watching. I sit there and feel superior because I know what my final answer is before Reege the idiots on the television. I can't turn it off because then I lapse back into my little life with my little activities and my little thoughts. In that painful hour of trivia mania, I have something to live for: Superiority. A few years ago a poll was conducted of Howard Stern listeners; I don't have the exact statistics, but the conclusion was that Howard Stern haters listened to the disc jockey for far longer than those who actual- ly liked him. The same principle is at work with the game shows and I. Most of you probably root for the good guy to "feel the need for greed" and walk home with the big bucks. I'd rather see them go home empty- handed so I can laugh at them. Part of the problem is the circus-like spectacle that has sprung up around these shows. Late last week, I was horrified to discover I had absolutely no idea which game show I was watching. The dizzyingly mechanized camera moves swooping down, pop culture card as well. I suspect that all of these shows are engaging in some gladia- tor-like competition whose main tenet can only be described as "survival of the dumb- est." My horror at seeing a round of "Jeopardy!" that contained category titles all relating to Madonna was mitigated only by the fact that I knew every answer and the poor contestants, rich with encyclopedic knowledge but woefully uninformed about such activities as vogueing, crashed and burned. The saving grace in all this madness comes from a man whose show isn't even on network television, but on Comedy Central. "Win Ben Stein's Money" remains one of the most innovative shows, game show format or not, on TV today. Stein is deliciously droll, but never hokey or smarmy. He, co-host Jimmy Kimmel and his contestants aren't competing for the million dollar payout. There isn't thirty sec- onds of forced suspense while the host dra- Erin Podolsky You will ".C:Fxl ft '9T. " I