4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 30, 2000 UItw irbgan &Utg Looking for sympathy? Sucks to be you... 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, M1 48109 dailyletters@umich.edu Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Before I could skip town for Thanksgiving last week, I had to finish up a lengthy paper for one of my classes. And by "finish" I really mean "start" - I know my fellow pro- crastinators will give me a hearty "Amen, MIKE SPAHN Editor in Chief EMILY ACHENBAUM Editorial Page Editor Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials rect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articls, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. brother!" on that one. Here's the story: The paper's due by 5 p.m. Wednesday evening, so I start working around 11 a.m. or so. Before I know it, the afternoon's speeding by faster than Bo Jackson and I'm only half-done. So I'm sitting there, furiously whipping out such classic English major stock phrases as "There's a certain sense in which..." and "The- matically speaking," when my roommate starts packing his bags for the weekend. New Coke. Think of David Hasselhoff's chil- dren. Think of Roy when Siegfried's in one of his moods. Those are people you can look right in the eye and say, "Man, it sucks to be you" Oh, but it doesn't stop with them... It sucks to be the guy working the late shift at Bell's, because every weekend you have to deal with the drunken jokers who never cease to find the humor in ordering a 12-inch sausage ("Dude, dude ... is that served ... hot?"). ® It sucks to be the guy who attended the finest film school in the nation, wrote a fabu- lous thesis on movements in cinema verite and yet is presently forced to support himself by working as a key grip on the USA original series "Silk Stalkings." It sucks to be the guy who's known for smoking a lot of crack - I mean, if you smoke even a little crack, you've got some major issues, so for people to single you out as the guy who smokes "a lot" of crack, you must be seriously messed up. ® It sucks to be the guy who gets caught playing air guitar to anything off of the "Mon- ster Ballads" compilation. And it really sucks to be the guy who gets caught buying the "Monster Ballads" compilation. 0 It sucks to be the local TV meteorologist who just got divorced and hates his life and knows that he's going to have to force a toothy grin during those final 30 seconds of the broadcast when he and the two WASPy co- anchors exchange snappy patter about the 90- year old grandma that plays the tuba and then the sports guy - oh no, not the sports guy - adds his two cents about the Dodgers and, Jesus, just kill him now. It sucks to be the player's player who takes his special lady out to see smooth R&B singer Joe and mistakenly buys tickets for Ugly Kid Joe. It sucks to be the high school cheerleader who gets a T, E, A and M and believes she has just spelled "meat." It sucks to be the Buddhist monk who puts all his faith in good karma and then gets reincarnated as a thirty-something sales exec who has a blond wife named Cyndi, coaches youth soccer, reads Dale Carnegie success manuals and owns Styx's greatest hits album. ® It sucks to be the guy whose girlfriend asks him, "You don't mind if my ex-boyfriend comes to visit next weekend, do you?" It sucks to be Hall. It sucks to be Oates. And, yes, it sucks to be Hall and Oates. It sucks to be the Leno guest who, despite being a Nobel Prize winner, appears second after Fred Savage. ® It sucks to be Bob Evans, always looking over your shoulder to see what that scandalous bastard Bill Knapp is up to now. It sucks to be the guy who spent his entire Thanksgiving weekend deciding who sucks more than him. - Chris Kulas tired of the sucking, the endless sucking. He can be reached via e-mail at ckula@umich.edu. 0 Preventing future presidential debacles Chais Kula Unsun Annr Arbor From a corner booth in the Michigan Union to floor of House of Represen- tatives, people around the country are asking each other one question: hat's happening in Florida? Although history has witnessed some close elections, not many can compare to the excitement and confusion that this year's presidential election has generated. Although some of the confusion can be attributed to honest mistakes and the anomaly of such a closely contested national election, most of the blame for the chaos in Florida must be shouldered by TheBu the two candidates and their &olitical parties. campaa Bot . ushand Gore campaigns are ity of nothing f out the entire election from a r debacle. Even thoug af slick politics are natura- ly prevalent in elections, recounf ( agreeing to a set of stan- dards and procedures to Simply so elect thepresident must s be treated with the def- Bush' s e erence due a bipartisan the P"res issue. Instead of agree- ing to work together to resolve the situation with integrity, the Democrats and Republicans have repre- hensibly put their agendas above integri- ty. Aside from all the partisan politics, however, the request by the Gore cam- paign for a recount of ballots in various disputed Florida counties must be hon- ored. These recounts are absolute nec- essary in order to protect the rights of both the candidates and citizens. Bloth Al Gore and GeorgeWBushhavearightto request a fair recount of any and all bal- lots which thereasonably believe to be in question. Tis is the case in Florida. Not onlyhas there been widespread criti- cism of the ballot design but there have also been various accounts of machines malfunctioning causing "pregnant chads" PC and complaints of discrimination against minorities in the voting booths. The last allegation, which threatens the very fun- damental voting rights of American citi- zens, has t an mvestigationinto events that took place in Floda byrthe Congressional B lack Caucus. Gven these circumstances, it is clear that a full hand recount of the disputed counties in Florida should continue without being subject to deadlines or op sition by the Secre of State; this is the only way to ensure t election has been won farly. In such a close election, every citizen's vote must be counted. We has cannot allow ex 'dien- cy to be placedeabove i fear each and ever individ- ~ * ual's right to have their ount;, I say in telection. one finaljThe Bush campaign has nothing to fear rnld from a recount; if any- g, one final recount Fidify will simply solidify George W. Bush's claim aim to to the presidency If, as he has claimed Bush Y has won more votes than Gore, then the quickest way to silence the naysayers would be to allow a supervised recount of the counties Gore is requesting, under the condition that both campaigns will adhere to the results. In order to prevent, or at least miti- gate, the problems in this election from occurring in the future the government must pass election reform. Nott-of cal tehooyshould be used isedof the voting machines inplace today to lessen machine error. Also, a set of national ballot designs should be institut- ed to prevent confusion among voters of different states. Finally, the outdated elec- toral college should be abolished in order to allow the President of the United States to be a representative of the peo- ple, not some 538-odd Florida voters. I tell him that I've got another five pages to go before I'm done, and as he walks out the door with his luggage in hand, he laughs cru- elly and says, "Sucks to be you." Now, that got me thinking. Granted, I hate cranking out last-minute tripe as much as the next guy, but it seems there are plenty more people that it would really suck to be. Think of the ad wizard who came up with . _ ,,, 'I'd like to see the day when black students are not an under-represented minority, but are a large and significant part of the population.' -LSA senior Sabrina Charles commenting on the drop in minority enrollment this year at the University. - u i Stokhithe h19 court Medical marijuana's SupremeCourt battle L ast June, California resident Peter McWilliams choked to death on his own vomit because he was denied the right to use medical marijuana, the only sdibstance that would allow him to stom- ach a potent combination of AIDS and cancer drugs. Though California legal- ized marijuana for medicinal purposes in 1996 with Proposition 215, McWilliams was denied the right to mention the proposition in his federal trial for manjuana possession, despite his constant nausea, weight loss andthe spreading of his cancer. But hope may be in store for millions of patients who face the same circumstances as McWilliams. A case to be presented to the U.S. Supreme Court early next year has the potential to stop the injustices of federal attacks on medical marijuana users. It is good that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear this case because states should have the right to decrimi- nalize medical marijuana without feder- al intervention. The case in question has been snaking through district courts since 1998, when the Justice Department, under the urging of the Clinton admin- istration, won an injunction to prevent the distribution of medical marijuana by California's cannabis growers clubs. Because Proposition 215 violated feder- al law under the Controlled Substances Act, states' rights to allow ill patients access to marijuana were denie& A U.S. Appeals Court then overturned the decision because medical necessity can be used as a defense against charges under federal law, though that appeal has since been stayedbythe Supreme Court until the proba e ruling next June, so California's Prop 215 is still rendered impotent.. The case itself hinges on the issue of medical necessity. Medical marijuana advocates must be able to prove that no other substance works to alleviate symptoms of certain diseases like glau- coma, asthma, AIDS, cancer and even the common headache. This is not an easy task, since independent medical marijuana research has been banned in the United States for more than three decades. Therefore, no one at the feder- al level has the hard scientific proof that marijuana can be used medicinally. According to federal drug schedulin laws, medical marijuana has no medical uses. But accumulating evidence sug- gests otherwise. The U.S. Supreme Court case has the potential to free medical marijuana users and legal suppliers from prosecu- tion under federal law. Until then, med- ical marijuana will remain an unfairly prosecuted and underground black-mar- ket trade. The Supreme Court has every responsibility to pay attention to the democratic process that has legalized marijuana in California and eight other states during the last five years, despite unjust claims by federal officials that claims of marijuana's medicinal use is unfounded or simply a stalking horse for legalizing pot for recreation and per- sonal use. The Supreme Court also has the right to deny states and municipalities the right to create laws legalizing med- ical marijuana. This is especially impor- tant at a local level as activists attempt to legalize medical marijuana within the city of Ann Arbor and the state through ballot initiatives. The Supreme Court is right in hearing this case and must not deny the the sick their fundamental right to this valuable medicine. Medical marijuana laws must be free from feder- al oversight. Faith, not atheism, leads to a just society To THE DAILY: I was both disturbed and disappointed to read Nick Woomer's column "Celebrate a God- free holiday season," (11/28/00), not only because it belittled the spirituality central to the lives of many students, but also because it con- tained blatant mistruths. Some of these blatant mistruths can be seen in Woomer's statements that "if you're certain that eternal paradise or a better next life waits, there ceases to be any motivation to risk much here on earth" and that "by offering people visions of a glorious afterlife, spirituality weak- ens people's desire for a more just society on earth.' People such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Angeli- na Grimke (a leader in the abolitionist move- ment), Raoul Wallenberg (a University grad who died saving lives during the Holocaust) and countless others have been led by spiritual convictions to risk everything they have on earth and to fight for a more just society. While I can understand Woomer's frustra- tions with apathy in the lives of people of faith, I think such generalizations belittle the pas- sions and pursuits of people throughout history and in our society today. I would hope that in the future, before preaching atheism as the way to an abundant life and a just society, Woomer would honestly examine those who have lived lives of faith and consider whether or not he really believes, as he wrote in his article, that those who considered themselves "heaven- bound" possibly ended up disappointed when their time came. ANNE MITCHELL SNRE SENIOR School of Americas should be shut down TO THE DAILY: Being one of the University students who participated in the protest covered in the Nov. 21st issue of the Daily, ("Students arrested dur- ing Ga. protest"), I would like to note that the article contained some incorrect information. The article incorrectly stated that 1,700 protest- ers (including myself and eight to ten other University students) had been arrested and cited with both criminal trespass and resisting arrest, when in fact we had just been appre- hended for criminal trespass. Also, it should be noted that not all University students who went were charged with criminal trespass. Only those who chose to enter the base and approach the blockade of unarmed military policemen (fol- lowing the principles of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience) were. The reasons why we went to Georgia to participate in the protest for the closure of the School of Americas (SOA) were not clearly explained in the article either. The SOA is a military training program for Latin American soldiers that is run by the U.S. Army. The school does not train its students to be honor- able soldiers, nor does it train them to operate with dignity. Rather it trains Latin American soldiers to denude themselves of their human conscience and lose their sense of morality. Once these soldiers "graduate" from the SOA, they return to their respective countries as mili- tary zombies ready to destroy economically poor communities (generally villages contain- ing indigenous peoples) and torture, rape and/or murder their civilian residents. zombies that torture, rape and murder civilians. Perhaps it would be more appropriate if they renamed the SOA as "The School of Assas- sins." Or better yet, why don't we just close the SOA and not have to worry about what would be an appropriate new name for it. DEEPAK KuLKARNI LSA SENIOR 'Beemer' is not a term used by BMW TO THE DAILY: Although I enjoyed reading Gautam Baksi's "Daily Driver" column in the Weekend, etc. section, the term "Beemer" was repeatedly used incorrectly in reference to BMW automo- biles in "BMW backs up 3-series claims" (11/16/00). While both Beemer and Bimmer refer to BMW products, the press has taken upon itself to use Beemer exclusively for motorcycles, not automobiles. Bimmer is cor- rect for cars. Therefore, I believe Bimmer should have been used throughout Baksi's arti- cle. FYI: Only BMW refers to its productsonly as, you guessed it, BMW. However, too many misinformed consumers have been using Beemer in place of the correct term. As a BMW enthusiast, I was appalled to see such blunder. In fact, I believe any car enthusiast would be. JASON LEE RACKHAM Smoking isa problem on campus TO THE DAILY: The article "Smoking poses risks to women" (11/16/2000) just gives us a few lines but makes a lot of significant impressions about the old but not out-of-date health prob- lem: Smoking. The fact that lung cancer sur- passed breast cancer in 1987 as the number one cause of cancer death in women is a reason for catching attention of policy makers, health educators as well as other responsible sectors in our society. The health problem becomes more important when the evidence provided by the new study at University of Maryland Med- ical School shows that "women smokers were 50 percent to 500 percent more likely to pass on harmful health conditions to their children.' Our recent survey (10/2000) on 204 Uni- versity students presents the percentage of 25.3 female students current smokers, with similar percentages for males. Why do students like to fade their most precious property of health into smoke? Why do female students want to risk their future children having physical or mental preventable infirmities by harmful effects of smoking? We can see many people, including stu- dents, smoking every day. Why are helpful pro- cedures for quitting or prevention of smoking initiation too sparse in our University environ- ment? PHUNG TAN LE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH THOMAS KULJURGIS 'TENT' A I-V ELY PEAKNG . ( - K' A WOWI ATIs- e X. . , - ,g ,, ---- ----- --- - 'AC X-4 U N ?(t... su.r. dm m . I . Alb, . 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