4'- The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, December 6, 2000
Uwe 3icigw ai 9g
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
daily.letters@umich. edu
Edited and managed by
students at the
University of Michigan
MIKE SPAHN
Editor in Chief
EMILY ACIIENBAUM
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.
More athletes should be graduating
Safety or freedom?
'm glad I live in a country where some-
one can drink themselves to death on
their 21st birthday.
Now, take just a second to review that
sentence and evaluate. Go on --- probe it,
dissect it, interpret it and read between the
lines. What did you_
come up with?
The tragic death of
Engineering sopho-
more Byung Soo Kim
last month onlyi
served to further illu-
minate the presence
of a problem that.
exists throughout col-
lege campuses across
the nation. Young
people are drinking Branden
too much too often
and something must Sanz
be done about it. g
That, at least, seems
to be the common Y
perception. I'm sure
that within the next few months the county,
the state and perhaps even the University
officials will all sit down and pick each
other's brains. They will ask themselves,
"How did this happen?" More importantly,
they will ask, "How do we stop it from hap-
pening again?"
So what will they do? My guess is they
quickly pass a bevy of new laws that will be
as equally ineffective as the ones we have
in place right now. Why not? It gives the
bureaucrats something to do to prove how
invaluable they are to the well-being of cat-
tle like you and I that can't think for our-
selves. In addition, it gives the police more
tickets to write which will produce for rev-
enue for the government. I mean, it's not
like the cops are really busy or anything
right now, you know.
What I am referring to here is the ram-
pant confusion among Americans that pro-
vides fuel for the legislative juggernaut our
You can't have both
government has become. Are we pro-free-
dom? Sure we are. We believe in freedom
of the press. We believe in a woman's right
to choose whether to abort or not to abort.
We believe that people who are 18 and can
vote or go to war should be able do drink
alcohol or dance nude if they want to. Why?
Well, because they are adults and should be
able to make their own choices. Duh!
But what happens to "freedom" when it's
value is placed against something equally
intangible? What about safety? We can eas-
ily say that it's not "safe" for 18 year-olds
to drink alcohol or that abortion is not a
"safe" practice. We can equally say that it is
not "safe" for people aged 18-20 to dance in
the buff or for people to own handguns.
Wait a second here! Didn't we just say
that we were adults and we should be able
to make our own choices? I'm sure there are
plenty of people out there that drank before
their 21st birthday without ever seeing any
ill effects. I am also positive that there are
plenty of good, honest, hardworking women
that have used exotic dancing as a means to
pay their way through school or to support
their child after that shitbag of a husband
walked out on them. And I am equally cer-
tain that there are plenty of people out there
that own handguns that are responsible
owners and will never shoot their neighbor
in a quarrel over a parking space or care-
lessly leave their gun out so their elemen-
tary-school children can have an accident
which makes front-page headlines across
the nation.
So where do we draw the line between
freedom and safety? That, my friends, is the
question that has mystified governments
and citizens alike since we emerged from
the "Divine-will" age of emperors and god-
kings.
It is not a simple question of choosing
between anarchy and totalitarianism. Obvi-
ously, we Americans believe we must have
some freedom - hence the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights. But we obviously
believe we must have some safety as well
- hence the concept of "laws" and the cre-
ation of a police force. But the problem lies
with the fact that the two things mix like a
Star Trek convention and a Sigma Kappa
date party. They are mutually exclusive in
that, if you desire more freedom, you must.
be prepared to give up some safety and
visa-versa.
So ask yourselves this: Would you like to
live in an Old West-type anything goes
atmosphere where you have legal drugs,O
legal alcohol, legal abortions, legal hand-
guns and pretty much legal everything else?
Or would you rather live in a Big Brother-
type environment with no drugs, no alcohol,.
no tobacco, no firearms, no abortion, no
pornography and cameras watching your
every move to insure that you go to work,
go shopping and go home without violating.
the law like the proper mindless automaton
that you are?
I don't know about you, but I'll take the
former any day and twice on Sunday. Free-@
dom has it's price, to be sure. We are legal-
ly allowed to ingest chemicals that can kill
us. That freedom of speech we treasure
allows people like the KKK to spread their
ignorant vitriol as well. Sometimes we
don't feel safe walking the street. We are
told that such things as automobiles,
firearms and alcohol can kill us if we don't
respect them, yet still, some of us refuse to
give these things the respect they are due.@
And some of us will die as a result. Sad and
tragic? Yes, but it's Darwinism at it's
finest.
So stop and think next time you propose
to "Ban _ "
Once we ban-______,what's next?
Where does it end? Doesn't it feel good ti
live some place that permits it's citizens the
freedom of something so offensive others
feel they need a law to get rid of it? I sure-
do.
Last week, the National Collegiate
Athletic Association published a
report that slam-dunked the University's
graduation rates for athletes. Of the
ntale basketball players who enrolled
from the fall of 1990 to the fall of 1993,
only 17 percent graduated within six
fears; of the football players who were
&Erolled over the same period, only 41
percent graduated. Overall, the gradua-
tion rate for athletes was
68 percent compared to Many ath
83 percent university- have cho
wide.
While the graduation reason, I
rate for male basketball track tot
players leaves much to
be desired, many of different
these athletes have cho-s
sen, with reason, to fol-
low a track totally Universit
different from most stu-
dents at the University. Imagine you are
a basketball star and recruiter offers you
a contract for a few million dollars.
Unless you have the intellectual perse-
verance of the old Greek philosophers,
you'll take the money and pursue your
life-long love. And with rare excep-
tions, you will never return to complete
your degree.
For these students, the University
should develop a long-distance learning
program. Duke University has created
such a program for athletes and their
basketball team stands as a monument
to the unity of athletics and academics.
Besides leaving for the pros, many
athletes transfer to other schools in
order to increase their playing time.
h1
'C
to
This problem presents many more diffi-
culties than the matter of players enter-
ing the draft, because, according to
University associate athletic director
Warde Manuel, it reflects a highly
focused culture within college basket-
ball: If an incipient basketball star
thinks he can catch a scout's eye on
another team, he'll transfer.
To combat this problem, the Athletic
Department should
letesestablish some screen-
len, with ing process to ensure
that athletes who
D fOllOW a come to the University
intend to graduate
from the University.
from mOSt Although some sports
at the serve as career spring-
boards, the University
. is an academic institu-
tion first. The Athletic
Department should make athletes' aca-
demic experience as rewarding as possi-
ble. The athletic program already
provides an array of support services to
help athletes with their academic pur-
suits: Manuel oversees the Academic
Success Program for athletes and Ath-
letic Director Bill Martin is pushing to
build an academic support facility.
The University's 68 percent overall
graduation rate for athletes is well over
the NCAA graduation rate of 56 per-
cent. While other schools might be
comfortable with meeting the NCAA
rate, the University has an academic
reputation to maintain and defend. The
Athletic Department is wise in setting
goals for improvement.
Branden San- can be reached via e
mail at hamrheadWumich.edu,
'I
'Every once in a while someone asks me, 'Doesn't this.
degrade you?' It degrades me no more than it does
these men who are here.'
- Eastern Michigan University student and Deja Vu dancer 'Sabrina.'
commenting on career-related self-esteem.
S"
A dre a0 m not realized
Desegregation initiatives are still needed
Nearly 40 years after Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.'s plea for equality
in his historic "I Have a Dream" speech,
the federal appeals court in Richmond,
Va. still feels as if segregation is a rele-
vant issue in the South.
On November 30, the 4th U.S. Circuit
of Appeals overturned a lower court rul-
ing that would have ended three decades
of court ordered desegregation in the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district in
North Carolina. In doing so, the court is
alleging that without its intervention
schools will return to their pre-civil
rights movement racial makeup.
Since 1969, the Charlotte-Mecklen-
burg school district has been ordered to
bus children to schools outside of their
neighborhoods in order to achieve a
racial balance. Last year, U.S. District
Jqdge Robert B. Potter ruled that the
school district had achieved this balance
and that it was unnecessary to continue
with the court ordered bussing. Yet, in a
2-1 ruling, the 4th Circuit held that racial
imbalance still exists in school locations,
transportation policies and student
achievement levels. It is this last catego-
ry that especially needs to be alleviated.
This practice of de facto segregation
has suppressed blacks and kept many
from achieving the same success as
whites. Schools in black neighborhoods
are often of lower quality than schools in
white areas and do not give students the
proper preparation they would need for
either college or a high-paying job out of
high school.
It is unfortunate that at the dawn of a
new millennium, a court still feels the
necessity to enforce desegregation laws
in schools. Yet, based upon the backlash
toward this ruling by several white par-
ents, it is clear that our society is still
resistant to genuine racial equality.
These parents complain that their
children are bussed to poorer schools
that are in predominately black neigh-
borhoods. Yet, if race were no longer
used as a factor in assigning schools,
about half the children in the district
would end up in single-race schools. Sta-
tistics show that blacks have a lower
graduation rate and thus fewer go on to
receive a higher education. Perhaps if the
district would create a more uniform
standard for their schools, children
would all receive the same quality of
education.
This ruling is a victory for black
Americans, as well as the children who
attend schools in this area. Diversity is a
necessary part of education. Children
should not be isolated from other races.
Racism is a learned trait that can be
avoided through education and desegre-
gated socialization. There is no valida-
tion for white parents to claim that their
children deserve a better education than
black children. Besides, this segregation
could never substitute for the tolerance
and understanding that children gain
through diversity.
Bussing is not the ideal answer. Ideal-
ly, neighborhoods would be racially
mixed and schools would be equal in
quality. In 1963, King dreamt of a world
in which people are not judged by the
color of their skin, in 2000 it seems as if
this dream has yet to be fully realized.
It an 18 year-old can
strip, then an 18 year-
old can drink
To THE DAILY:
Bravo to the Daily for its editorial "Not the
state's place" (12/4/00). The Daily is damn
right it's not the state's place to tell people what
they can and cannot do once they are legally
adults!
I propose that the Daily write another editor-
ial. The drinking age should be 18, not 21! How
dare the government not let us drink once we
are legally adults! They let us smoke at 18!
Why not drink?! "A person becomes the sole
proprietor of his or her body when he or she
becomes an adult." Well then every 18 year old
adult should have the right to fill their bodies
with alcohol!
Do you sense any sarcasm here?
JOHN KORSAKAS
RACKHAM
Taxpayers should not
have to subsidize
student loans
TO THE DAILY:
We shouldn't deceive ourselves into think-
ing that the federal student loan program is as
high-minded as the Daily suggests. In insisting
the federal government is justified in using tax-
payer dollars to take over the student loan mar-
ket, the Daily's Dec. 5 editorial ("Bank
robbery") regarding commercial banks' law-
suits against the Department of Education suf-
fers from two critical oversights.
First, the continued insistence of the Depart-
ment of Education to offer loans to bad credit
risks at below-market rates may serve the self-
interest of the legions of students who take
advantage of them, but that doesn't justify the
intervention of the federal government into the
commercial lending market. The bottom line is
that the federal government doesn't belong in
that business. It's using the power of taxpayer-
subsidized lending to carve out a niche in a
business where it doesn't have to play by the
same rules as its competitors.
When companies do that, we excoriate
them, rightly, for abusing their market position
to the detriment of consumers. When govern-
ment does it, we should excoriate them for that
same abuse. The federal government is crafting
a loan enterprise using taxpayer dollars to subsi-
dize its attempt to grab market share. Student
loans are an important part of our educational
system.
Second, the federal student loan program
constitutes one of the single largest wealth
transfers from poorer taxpayers to students from
middle income families. -While a sizable portion
of middle-income students go to college with
the aid of the student loan program, far fewer
the federal government, especially when our
degrees are financed by the labors of working
class taxpayers who didn't have that- same
opportunity. It's our responsibility to shoulder
the burden of paying for our own educations,
even if that requires paying a fair market rate,
rather than asking the less fortunate to do so on
our behalf.
PETER BALDWIN
BUSINESS SCHOOL
Attacks on the living
wage should cease
To THE DAILY:
The Daily's editorial board should receive
great praise for articulating its support for work-
ers who would benefit from local living wage
resolutions across the state of Michigan ("War
over wages," 12/4/00). People often confuse the
concept of a "minimum wage" law and a "liv-
ing wage" law. The former is a floor at or above
which all employers must pay all employees in
the area of jurisdiction. The latter is a floor that
applies (in most cases) only to the workers
employed through city contracts and/or the
city's public services itself. Dozens of cities and
counties across the nation including Baltimore,
Los Angeles and Detroit have passed living
wage resolutions that require all city contractors
to pay their workers a non-poverty wage.
A "living wage" always reflects a careful
analysis of the cost of living and in virtually all
cases the implementation of a living wage reso-
lution has not significantly increased the budget
of the aforementioned cities. Proponents call it
a "living wage," but really it means that anyone
employed via city contracts will not receive less
than a non-poverty wage - in Ann Arbor that
would be $&00 plus health care or $10.00 with-
out health care. The concept of the living wage
resolution and the living wage movement is that
our public institutions, including public univer-
sities, should not pay their workers a poverty
wage, either directly or indirectly. Despite an
unprecedented peacetime economic expansion
in the 1990s, there are still 35 million Ameri-
cans living in poverty and the number of work-
ing poor has continued to grow. The real value
or purchasing power of the federal minimum
wage has fallen more than 31 percent since
1968. While some states such as California
have raised their state minimum wages above
the federal level, most states have chosen not to
mandate livable wages.
The Republican-dominated Michigan state
House recently voted to usurp the power of
"minimum wage" setting from local authorities.
This decision is troubling because it steals the
authority of municipalities to decide what'type
of jobs its city should promote - poverty or
non-poverty jobs. The law not only sets a bad
precedent for taking away local authority over
local issues, it also contradicts the status quo of
the current federal and state system where states
are allowed to set their own minimum wages
above the federally mandated level. While the"
law conceptually and in effect will limit the*-
minimum wage setting behavior of local gov-
ernments, attorneys from the Ann Arbor Living
Wage Coalition have articulated that legally
"living wage" resolutions might not be affected
by the State House's legislation. However, even
if the legislation does not preclude living wage
resolutions, the Republicans in this state are*
clearly attacking the women and men who work
hard for the cities and counties across the state,
from administrative assistants to janitors. Stu-
dents Organizing for Labor and Economic
Equality will continue to work with local and
national coalitions to promote the rights of all
workers, including a living wage or workers'
basic needs. SOLE invites students to join us in
standing in coalition with workers, labor and
religious organizations to promote workers'
rights and stop this systematic attack on Michi-
gan workers and citizens.
PETER ROMER-FRIEDMAN
RC SENIOR
ANN ARBOR LIVING WAGE COALITION'
THINK YOU'D MAKE A
GOOD COLUMNIST? DOES
THE 'U' COMMUNITY NEED
TO HEAR WHAT YOU HAVE
TO SAY?
LEARN WHAT DESTINY
MAY HAVE IN STORE FOR
YOU.
E-MAIL MIKE AT
mgrass@umich.edu OR
NICK AT
nwoonier@umich.edu
FOR INFO ON HOW TO APPLY.
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