4A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 2, 2000
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Delirium: Without sleep, but at least Axl's at my side
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 ACHENBAUM
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.
Mental illness deserving of campus attention
Saturday, 3 a.m. -- It was inevitable that
I'd end up writing a column slightly
intoxicated and very tired, seeing how I'm
usually one or the other and by the end of
the weekend I'm definitely both. This
evening my night ended with the house
party dissolving
before me, many a
beer sloshing in me;
I was loaded like a
freight train, flyin'
like an aeroplane,
feelin' like a space
brain and Axl's whis-
pering in my ear:
Taaaaaake
meeeeeeeeeee
hoooome.
I need sleep. I'm
Lloyd Dobler and I've Emily
found my version of AChenbaum
Diane Court: I like
sleeping. Sir, that's D m di
what I want to do Rough
with my life. I'm
good at it.
People smirked at Lloyd for pursuing
kickboxing and Diane but it made him
happy. I like sleeping and music (Axl's
spent an unprecedented four straight weeks
in my bedside C.D. player, bouncing words
off the swerve of his hips and into all
aspects of my life. Bless his little heart,
because life is far more amusing when you
have a soundtrack to emphasize your emo-
tions.) So why can't I just do my own thing
and devote my life to listening to G 'n' R
and passing out in my glorious, overstuffed
bed? AxI gets up around whenever, he used
to get up on time. Can I get a job doing
that? Mmm probably not, but I can incor-
porate it into a column.
Like many other seniors in college,
we're at the point where the novelty of
school is wearing off. I've seen everything
imaginable pass before these eyes. I expect
few surprises from either a discussion sec-
tion or a night at Skeeper's.
Sleep, one of the greatest things in the
world, always surprises me by how consis-
tently enjoyable it is. Look around at your
classmates. We're all so exhausted. We
could be spending these four years in bed.
The waste.
The harsh truth about student life is
that it puts my boyfriend Sleep and I on the
rocks. A steady, monogamous relationship
with Sleep is impossible. I love Sleep very
much, although I don't always show it the
way I should. I could spend more than the
recommended one-third of my life with
him, but I don't. I make excuses - a paper
to finish, HBO to watch.
Sleep and I haven't been seeing much
of each other and it sucks. I tell myself
yesterday was Tuesday maybe Thursday
you can sleep but school starts much too
early. Nine a.m. classes and 12 noon foot-
ball games have made for some nasty part-
ings from bed. Who am I to skimp, to
cheat on Sleep? Even though tonight's
house party got broken up and the Wiscon-
sin game was boring, today won't be a
total bust because I get to go to bed tonight
- and every coming night. Life is grand.
Sleep is going to be good: My bed, like
a puppy, is always happy to see me. I
always get the side of the bed by the wall. I
can barely hold down Sleep as a steady, so
lord knows with a boyfriend I would get
even less Sleep. And what if the boy
doesn't work out - think of all the Sleep
hours lost trying to make that relationship
work.
I hear the other girls all try and outdo
each other: I only got two hours of Sleep
last night. Yeah well I got one hour and I
have to pull an all-nighter tonight. Why is
it so bad spend time in bed? Why brag
about your under-eye circles the way peo-
ple brag about having four midterms in a
week? I feel gluttonous, indulgent and
anti-feminist for admitting I want to spend
so much time with my boyfriend. I day-
dream about Sleep, but our afternoon nap
quickies aren't enough to satisfy me. A girl
needs both quantity and quality. In the
morning I hit the snooze button five times,
it's a teasing dance (Sleep gets mad when I
tease), but I show Sleep I love him more
than being showered and arriving on time
to classes.
Everything seems like a good idea
when you're curled up in bed - skipping
lecture, skipping Friday, seeing how many
references to "Appetite for Destruction"
you can put in a column.
Unfortunately I can only listen to music
while I'm awake (unless I do hear it in my
sleep, well well well, you just can't tell.)
Don't go rushing from "Paradise City" to
"Sweet Child o' Mine," forgetting that
"My Michelle" is the gold in-between.
Don't skimp on your sleep. Don't find
another piece of the action. Sleep's not
overrated. In the long run, what is the most
consistently fun? Oh Sleep, I can't imagine
a better way to spend an evening.
- If you can find all nine G 'n' R refer-
ences in this column, Emily Achenbaum
will sleep with you. Kidding. E-mail at
emilylsaCumich.edu, and she might pry
herselffrom bed to write back.
T his week is national Mental Ill-
ness Awareness Week. Many col-
lege students struggle with
depression, eating disorders, alco-
holism or other mental illnesses. Con-
sequently, mental health resources
should be easily accessible. The same
academic considerations given to
those with physical illnesses should
be extende to those with mental ill-
ness. Mental illnesses are no less seri-
ous than physical illness and can be
successfuly treated through counsel-
ing and medication. Unfortunately, an
adequate safety net
does not yet exist. Me ta
A government en4
study released last Awarem
spring conducted by Inforf
the Centers for Dis-
ease Control
revealed that ten r
percent of college Thursday 10 am-
age students have MiChigan LLague
contemplated sui-
cide, while a 1996ti F
survey of college Spotsr ed by stud
students found that this.Friday on the
only six percent of 15PsychiatrEel
college students
said they would 24/7 consultation
seek help if they byUHS:9964747
thought they had a 3Fr rresources:1
problem with stress Of
or depression. Fur-
thermore, 2 er. .. . .. .
cent of college age Serious menta ilr
students thought during the colleg
their stress or these events and
depression level someone you kn(
might be higher mental illness,
than normal. Unfor-
tunately, some col-
lege students succeed in taking their
own life; suicide is the third-leading
cause of death among 15 to 24 year
olds. Serious mental illnesses such as
depression, bipolar disorder and
schizophrenia often emerge during
the college years, reinforcing the
necessity of adequately funded and
easily accessible mental health
resources.
Indeed, a variety of mental health
resources are available on campus at
no cost for enrolled students. At
UHS, clinicians can refer students to
psychiatric specialists at no cost and
l
ti
0e
QI
Counseling and Psychological Ser-
vices offers free counseling services
to enrolled students. The University
Hospitals also provides services for
mental health emergencies: It main-
tains a 24-hour Psychiatric Emer-
gency hotline (996-4747), which
offers free consultation over the
phone and assistance to walk-ins at
the emergency room.
Several mental health eventsrare
scheduled for this week: As a p art of
Mental Illness Awareness eek,
CAPS will be hosting a free depres-
sion screening and
Ills informational event
on Oct. 5th, from
ss Week 10 a.m. to 3 po.
latIon on the second floor
of the Michigan
League. The
eg: department of Psy-
.m, 2nd floor chology is co-host-
ing a lecture,
"Family Psychoed-
ucation: Clinical
ant group Mentality and Functional
lag. Outcomes Over 20
;ency Hotlire. Years" on Oct. 4th
'li l at 10:30 a.m. in the
otline mainta-Ied Maternity/Child
Health Care Audi-
IS offers a variety torium on the med-
rod studenis. ical campus.
Additionally, the
student group
sses often emerge Mentality is spon-
years. Check out soring a series of
esources if you or events this week to
shows signs of heighten awareness
about mental health
issues, including an
information fair on
the Diag on Friday.
Because many do not choose to
seek help, everyone should be con-
scious of behavior changes in their
friends and roommates and refer them
to help if a problem is suspected. Pro-
fessors should treat mental health
emergencies with the same deference
they treat physical health problems,
granting extensions and exemptions
for course work as they would some-
one physically ill. Virtually all mental
illnesses are treatable and students
should take advantage of the mental
health resources here on campus.
'It's a petroleum reserve, not a political reserve.'
-Republican presidential candidate George W Bush on Vice
President Al Gore's endorsement of the decision to release
oil from the nation 's Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
RU-486 is a step toward abortion rights
L ast week, with the Diag display
by the Genocide Awareness Pro-
ject, abortion was the hot topic on
campus. This debate is certain to
escalate after the Food and Drug
Administration approved a pill to
induce abortions in women. RU-486,
which will be marketed as Mifeprex,
has been available in Europe for
years. But politics had forced the
FDA to test and retest the pill, despite
numerous studies demonstrating its
high success rate and relative safety.
R eg ar dless of this
otical pressure, the Ato
DA will allow sale of
the beneficial ill. credibility
RU-486's arriva ony
our shores is long 46ite
overdue.
The .primary advan- ithas beer
tage of RU-486 is that
it allows women toaal-i
have an abortion early b
in their pregnancy Eu
through a non-invasive ropean
process. Most women for more t
will be able to take the
pill in their physi-
cian's office. The pill years
is also relatively safe,
requiring further surgery in only five
to ei ghtp ercent of cases.
Eligible women for this pill must
have experienced their most recent
period less than seven weeks prior.
The next step is to consult a doctor,
who will provide them with the pill
and sign them up for a mandatory
check-up two weeks later. If the pill
fails to work, doctors will perform a
standard surgical abortion.
Often lost in the argument is the
right of a female to do what she
chooses with her body. Rather than
having politics dictate a woman's
right to control her body - which is
able to decide if she wishes to under-
go an abortion. The new Mifeprex
pill allows more private abortions.
Like the 72 hour morning-after pill, it
places more responsibility and oppor-
tunity in the hands of the people who
most deserve to determine what to do
about pregnancies.
Women will have abortions,
regardless of whether abortion is
legal. To prevent a return to the days
of back-alley abortions, it makes
sense to provide a safe, le al alterna-
tive. The U. S.
Supreme Court's Roe
v. Wade decision is
of RU- approaching its 30th
anniversary. The
fac, rL _, dbut of the new pill
oulbe,along with
the opening of the
first abortion clinic,
Roe v. Wade and the
debut of the "morn-
g-after" pill, one of
countries the landmark events
in female reproductive
liberation.
Adding to the cred-
ibility of RU-486 is
the fact that it has
been available in European countries
for more than ten years. In France,
studies have found that RU-486 has
not replaced traditional surgeries as
the most common form of abortion
and has not increased the number of
abortions as a whole.
Despite this, George W. Bush, to
gain favor with the more conservative
voters, has vowed to ban RU-486
should he be elected president. Rarely
has such a pill undergone so much
scrutiny, enduring attacks against all
medical logic. Abortion is legal in the
U.S. And abortions should be as safe
a medical procedure as possible. The
Library's new
computer policy
cuts down on porn
TO THE DAILY:
I would just like to thank the library
system for putting out its new policy
restricting use of computers on the 3rd and
4th floor of the Undergraduate Library
(Science Library). For as long as I can
remember - but worsening significantly
this year - many patrons completely lack-
ing any affiliation to the University have
been using these computers (16 on the 3rd
floor, one on the 4th) for personal use with
disregard for academic purposes. They use
our resources to view pornographic materi-
al and gamble at online casinos, and more
benignly, to "chat." Most disturbing is the
fact that no one is allowed to restrict the
information these patrons view, so that they
can - and do - view pornography, much
to the chagrin of library staff and other
patrons.
The new policy becomes effective Oct.
3rd and states that only two of the computers
on the 3rd floor are to be used by non-Uni-
versity patrons and that even those must be
forfeited should a student or staff member
need them. (Previously, the staff member on
duty would have to request that the patron
get off the computer so that the student/fac-
ulty could use it, and oftentimes the request
would be refused.)
These patrons were a hindrance to many
students and I myself endured more than a
few confrontations, after which I felt com-
pletely powerless and indignant since there
was summarily nothing that could be done.
So I congratulate the library system on
this new policy and extend my apprecia-
tion for their initiative.
LUKE REDMAN
LSA JUNIOR
Men do perpetuate
the glass ceiling
TO THE DAILY:
Jim Knapp's letter to the Daily on Sep-
tember 25, "Quandary of the Straight White
Male," struck me as ignorant and naive. He
states that the attitude of women on this
campus is such that if "John Q. Whiteguy
has a complaint about the way things are
going, he is told to stop crying." He then
goes on to state that it is a stereotype of
white males to assume that "they have it eas-
ier than everyone else." He then backs up
this claim with the obviously fabricated sta-
tistics that "neither himself nor 90 percent of
the other white guys out there have ever
racially oppressed someone or done their
part to perpetuate any kind of glass ceiling."
So I'm asking Knapp to please explain to
me the following: The alarming number of
occurrences of male violence towards
women, the general salary difference
between men and women and whites and
Knapp to take his race and ethnicity
requirement with an open mind and learn a
little bit about people that are different from
himself.
KATIE MACFARLANE
LSA SENIOR
Affirmative action
deserves support
TO THE DAILY:
I'm writing this letter to express my
support for the University in its fight
against the lawsuit to end affirmative
action. Without affirmative action, a great
many of the teachers on this campus sim-
ply would not be here. Without affirmative
action, if you are female, you wouldn't be
here either, especially if you are non-
white. Stand up and support your Universi-
ty! It is your school, and the University
deserves support for its stand against
racism. Learn your history and defend
affirmative action for all people.
SCOTTANEWELL
LSA SENIOR
Concert review was
off the mark
TO THE DAILY:
I am writing on behalf of School of
Music Jazz Department faculty and students,
as well as the vast majority of jazz musicians
and fans in attendance at Keith Jarrett's per-
formance at Hill Auditorium on Sept. 23.
While I certainly appreciate the fact that a
review of an artistic endeavor will necessari-
ly reflect the opinions and, in this case, prej-
udices of the individual reviewer, ("Jarrett:
Blahing the blues away at Hill," by John Uhl
9/25/00) there is a certain level of objectivity
which ought to be maintained in the process.
At the School of Music, Uhl's review of
the concert was met with shock, disbelief
and eventual merriment as, one by one,
knowledgeable jazz students and faculty got
to read his invective-laden diatribe. I
wouldn't even dignify his extremely silly
review with a response, except that I would
hate for unsuspecting readers of your paper
to be left with that review as their only con-
nection to a concert that was, for everyone
in the audience except Uhl, a magical event.
Spontaneous standing ovations and wild
cheering aside, the complete and utter quiet
which enveloped the capacity audience dur-
ing the performance was just one measure
of the level of musicianship and artistic
excellence on display.
Not content with insulting Jarrett in
inappropriate and ignorant fashion, Uhl
also proceeded to insult the audience,
describing them as "tight-assed." I am
assuming that he does not plan to have a
career in journalism as that sort of imma-
ture pronouncement does not bode well for
his future literary endeavors.
I would also like to correct Uhl on a few
of his "facts." As a professional jazz pianist I
can assure him that occasionally singing or
humming along as we improvise is not a
"fetish," i.e. it is not a practice "whose real or
fantasied presence is psychologically neces-
sary for sexual gratification" (Merriam-Web-
ster Dictionary). The ECM Record Label has
the enormous respect of every jazz artist and
connoisseur that I know, even those who may
not always be a fan of the music recorded by
the label, as they have slavishly allowed artists
to perform their own music under the most
ideal recording circumstances possible -
often at a serious financial cost to the compa-
ny.
This concert was also certainly not an
example of the trend to feature "blockbuster
jazz names" on the same ticket in some arbi-
trary fashion. As he correctly pointed out, Jar-
rett, DeJohnette and Peacock have been
playing together religiously for 20 years and
are one of the most highly regarded piano
trios in the history of the music.
If Uhl feels that jazz can only be per-
formed authentically in whorehouses and that
it has to be "dirty," I guess that is his preroga-
tive. Fortunately there are millions of us out
there who love hearing the myriad evolutions
that the music has gone through since the
early 1900's and who can actually enjoy and
appreciate the musical genius of artists like
Keith Jarrett in a variety of settings, from con-
cert halls to jazz clubs. 'I would hope that U~hl
can learn to temper his pompous assertions
with a bit of objectivity and to not try and pre-
sent opinions as fact. It will allow his readers
to take him more seriously.
ELLEN ROWE
ASSOCIATE PROF. OF JAZZ STUDIES
SCHOOL OF MUSIC
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DANE BA RNESLD ": ." B : SLEEP
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