4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 10, 2000 ict4h, a1 E gttn tti[g Taking things too far or how to be a Michigan activist ,. AAW 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, MlI48109 dailylercers@umich.edu hat is it with the people on this earn- pus? Not everyone, mind you. Not MIKE SPAHN everyone has gone crazy, but there certain- Editor in Chief ly is a large and vocal group of people here who seem to want to draw attention to their Edited and managed by . EMILY ACHENBAUM students at the University of Michigan 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. cause. Nothing wrong Fni 1a ' V U 1 71 I hv I a zv roc vt ..i . I Have a good trip? ® Study abroad trips need to remain safe tudying abroad is one of the best advisories of the United States State opportunities that students can Department and talking to former have to expand their liberal arts edu- study abroad students for advice. Fol- cation and broaden their life experi- lowing these steps will allow partici- ences. Encountering firsthand pants to become more aware of what unfamiliar cultures and customs, for- to expect when they study abroad and eign languages and unknown settings, given them greater insight on the cus- students are provided with a more toms, current news and styles, cultur- extensive education than what they al practices and politics of the would normally receive on campus. country they will be visiting. But in order for When studying students to take full Students along abroad, students advantage of the s b shouldnt expect an rewarding and exct ith government environment similar ing experience that to the United States. study abroad pro- ficials and Every country is grams offer, safety unique, and the vary- Students, aiori t Unistysiyin c customs, government oficials lifestyles andatmos- and University admin-ad among us are what istrators mustestab- art one country lish Land mtaintainba mus[ establish and frtma oenother.conr few important ground m t a few Of course, these rules for study abroad A W risks should not dis- programs. . ,mportan driiaind courage .students Government offi- i n t ground from continuing to cials and University rules for study abroad. Class- study abroad pro- s room learning is grams need to do abroadproram . always important, but more to help increase a there is no learning the safety of their stu- _environment that can dents studying in for- replace experiencing eign countries. They need to ensure something firsthand. The ability for safe travel and contact accessibility students to travel to a country to with students from any university or study a foreign language or take up college, not just wealthy private residence in a country to study a par- schools or large universities with ticular style of government is indis- well-established programs. pensible and should not be curtailed This can be achieved most effi- in any way by recent incidents ciently by government regulations to involving study abroad trips., standardize the safety measures of By being open to new situations study abroad programs at universities and perspectives, whether going to follow the best run programs in the abroad for a year, summer or semes- country. ter, studying abroad has the ability to Even with these changes, the most be one of the greatest experiences of important thing for students prepar- a student's college career. ing to study in a foreign country is to Government officials and Univer- learn as much as they can about their sity administrators must work togeth- country before going there. This er to ensure that study abroad trips means reading specific guidebooks are as safe as possible for students. from libraries and bookstores, fol- Students must share some of the bur- lowing the guidance provided by their den as well, by doing research on study abroad program, reading the their destination. Fuel for thought Alternative energy sources need attention A s the price of gasoline remains Rather than quick fixes, the high, the same culprits are once mounting energy problem demands again held accountable and tired, pre- long-term action; alternative energy dictable solutions are advocated. The (solar, tidal, photovoltiacs, wind, nation, and in particular the presiden- nuclear, etc.) is promising if not tial candidates, debate oil policy. already available. The merits of plans to engineer the Research is being undertaken to price of oil have become points of expand and maximize alternative contention within the energy possibilities; current presidential Rather than quick this research should race. Proposals abound be continued, to halt or at least stymy esthe mountingeexpanded and escalating prices,.x encouraged. Those Indeed, the implemen- enery roblem sources of alterna- tation of subtle oil tive energy already ecome a pointof con- splementedulonabe tention between the national scale. Clear- major parties. action; nly feasible, and From Vice President energy is promising working under limit- Gore's plan to dip into ed implementation, the strategic petroleum if notar dthese alternative reserve to Governor energy resources Bush's proposed available. should be given drilling in Alaska, it______________ equal or greater seems that everykcan- attention than their didate has a particular method where- less efficient and less abundant coun- by the price of oil will be controlled. terparts. The cleaner promise of These plans come complete with alternative energy should never be assorted detractions. Alaskan drilling overlooked by the fleeting abun- brings the reality that drilling in dance, availability and relative pric- Alaska will destroy some of the ing of fossil fuel. nation's most beautiful landscape. As the specter of an energy crisis Concerning Gore's plan, reports have again looms overhead it is imperative already surfaced that oil released that every effort be taken to solve the from the strategic petroleum reserve long term energy problems. will be sent overseas. Alternative energy solutions must However, the evident common be researched, utilized and optimized. denominator remains, these plans Energy consumption should be held mainly treat the price of oil for the in check by self-restraint, and energy near future. In short, current oil poh- efficiency improvements. From more cy is a quick fix for an energy addict. efficient cars to solar energy, the pos- The United States voraciously con- sibility of energy free from the con- sumes energy. To feed this habit of straints of oil is possible. The country wanton energy consumption the U.S. simply needs to make the decision to turns to relatively cheap oil and other make alternative energy sources a fossil fuels. priority. with that, don't get me wrong. I admirey anyone who is willing . to stand up for what they believe in. But it seems to me like a lot of people are jumping onto any issue they can and ruining what- ever purpose they had by employing sense- lessly radical tech- niques. Manish Look at some of' the big issues that have shaken up the '< University recently. ,Michigamua. Was I the only "person of color" (I abhor that term) who was embar- rassed to be in any way associated with the Students of Color Coalition, if for no other reason than the fact that the SCC's name suggests that it's an umbrella that repre- sents all of us'? It's not so much that they didn't have a point, albeit one that I didn't personally agree with. It's that they took it too far. Besides the taking over of Michigamnua's space. which was ridiculous in and of itself, there was one thing that struck me as odd during the whole situa- tion. When the two groups finally sat down to negotiate, the talks were broken up when the SCC went off on an emotional tangent about Michigamua's name, in a blatant attempt at restricting freedom of speech. Third world labor. This is one that I definitely agree with. Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality has basic ideologies that I agree with, but some of their methods seem a little extreme. Call me middle of the road if you'd like, but I don't see Kohl's making any dramatic changes to their production methods based on ten protesters - six of whom were first-year students and sophomores - get- ting arrested. It's not that I don't agree with them, it's that their actions seem awfully insignificant. Equal opportunity is something worth standing up for, but will ten arrests in a local store make any differ- ence on the lives of poverty-stricken labor- ers in Nicaragua? Some may believe so, but I remain skeptical. Abortion. A tricky topic at best, a vio- lent one at worst. If I were forced to pick a side of the fence on the Diag to have been standing on, I would have been on the inside. Ideologically, I'm anti-abortion, but realistically, I'm pro-choice. This may seem like a conflict of interest at first, but I firmly believe that the issue of abortion is a moral one and one that necessarily involves a personal judgment call on when life begins. I happen to believe that life begins at conception, but I don't feel that my opinions, or anyone else's, ought to dictate a person's own beliefs on such a controversial decision. So yes, if I was forced to pick a side, I would have been inside, but I would do so with resentment, because the comparison to genocide is entirely off base and insulting. Not to say that those on the outside were being angels about the situation either. "Sexist, racist, anti-gay; right-wing bigots, go away!" were the chants heard around the Diag, which is silly because issues of homosexu- ality and race were never brought up. I may be anti-abortion, but a "right-wing bigot" I am certainly not. Affirmative action. As anyone who knows me is aware. I am strongly opposed to affirmative action as it is practiced today. It's ludicrous to extend extra help to people who had the "misfortune" of being born a minority. That extra help would be much more useful if extended to those who have had the very real misfortune of being born poor. But, with no consideration for logic, there is a push to defend the Univer- sity and its hypocritical admissions poli- cies. My point? I'm sure that, if you have made it this far without developing a deep loathing for me and everything I stand for, you're wondering what my point is. My * point is this: Radicalism isn't an answer. The "righteous anger" of radicals often overshadows, and occasionally defeats entirely, whatever purpose there was behind the protests. It's not that radicals don't have a point. It's simply that radicals often fail to see the other side of an issue, and in being so blind, they make their own ideals seem silly and irrelevant. My only advice is this: Look before you leap, know what you stand for before you stand for it@ and try and at least see the other side before attacking it. Stand up for your beliefs, but don't do so to such an extreme that you lose the integrity of your views. Prudence isn't a virtue reserved solely for the ineffectual and the meek. - Manish Raiji can be reached via e-mail at mraiji ieumich.edu. N etAB U AnBEhg.' 'There's a lot of paranoia when you walk through the Diag. There are thousands of people and anyone could eIn thegame.' - LSA Junior Adam Demarow, member of Society of Assassins, on participating in the hunt and kill type game. Greek Derby Days deserved Daily's attention TO THE DAILY: While much of the campus was watch- ing the game on Saturday, many members of the Greek community were at Sigma Chi watching Derby Days. Derby Days is a philanthropic event run by Sigma Chi which features a number of events including boxing and tug-of-war competitions. The lack of coverage of this esent in the Daily is perplexing. Besides ignoring the accomplishments of the winning box- ers from Sigma Chi. Phi Kappa Psi and Beta Theta Pi, the Daily missed a golden opportunity to show the Greek community at its best. Unfortunately, this has proen to be the rule rather than the exception at the Daily. While scores of philanthropic events and other Greek accomplishments are ignored, it seems that the Daily jumps on every opportunity to write about fraternity trans- gressions. This anti-Greek bias has never been as clear as last spring, when a wildly success- ful Greek Week received minimal cover- age. A click on the "articles" link of the Greek Week webpage shows one article and two pictures for the entire 10-day event. With dozens of fraternities and sororities working together for charity, this could have been a great opportunity to shed some much deserved positive light on the Greek system. As usual, however, the opportunity was allowed to pass. When I talk about the University Greek system. I acknowledge the negative and accentutate the positive. 'The Daily, it seems, accentuates the negative while all but ignoring the positive. The Greek sys- tem has accomplished so much in recent years, and there is so much more yet to come. It'd be a shame if all Daily coverage of the Greek system continued to be fil- A weekend in East eing a girl born and raised in the great mitten state of Michigan, I couldn't wait to graduate high school to get thehell out of here. But through some heavy parental convincing I somehow ended up in-state. here at the University, while the rest of my high schooli went to Michigan Stalei University. And after a sketchy visit to State last weekend, I became vividly aware of just I how much we are shaped by the colleges we attende My friend and I I stuck out like sore y- thumbs in East Lans- Erinl ing. In our Michael McQuinn Stars stretch-tees and black booty pants we were highly contrast to the standard American Eagle boots and big orange fleeces. I felt foreign -where were all the jean jackets and big hoop ear- rings'? They were nowhere to be found. And what the hell was going on out on the dance floor? People weren't dancing, they were trying to have sex while still wearing clothes. This was above and beyond grind- ing. It was so high school that I was just tered through a clear anti ty bias. Carr's coach responsible 1 Purdue loss TO THE DAILY: I would like to register Carr's coaching. After wa game, a worse display ofc difficult to imagine. Scoring second half, getting the ba point lead and two minutes giving Purdue the opportuni field goal. There's not much that kind of coaching - the -fraternity/sorori- uninspired, conservative, unimaginative, pre- dictable come to mind. I've always said Coach Carr is a towering STEVEN KYRITZ mediocrity, who manages to win because the LSA JUNIOR program draws superlative talent from around the counnry. The 1998 championship season belonged indmore to Brian Griese than to Coach Carr. I know the University won't fire Carr this sea- for son. I"know Carr will probably never be fired. And even if Carr was released, the Athletic Dept. would forego interviewing qualified can- didates and simply hire an assistant. But I can't help dreaming what could be it the University would simply offer the position my disgust at Lloyd to. and interview. someone other than a tching the Purdue "Michigan Man." There are a lot of good coaching would be coaches out there - Lloyd's not one of them. three points in the I've suffered through Schembechler, ll back with a two Moeller and Carr long enough. For God's sake, remaining, and still stop the pain! ity to beat us with a you can say about ough the terms dull, PATRICK PEARLMAL ALUMNU THOMAS KULJURGIS 1 4''uJ: 4vs; ~gy'y I1O1DERA O JQX1LE4"R.ZR8OYfS A RAlNCOA' FORg11 tMAN I$ PRESIPC NTrAL PCDA S. a.4 'w i I:.?PATat. FOP( LALL "E $.qtr 10 se $pwm ILSW1AY. 0 0 Lansing makes me appreciate A2 waiting for the principal to come in and blonde. Or maybe it was just because about break it up. 99 percent of them hail from "The Great* But perhaps the scariest part of the Lakes State" - probably the second night was seeing some random guy run- plainest state next to Idaho. ning around in a black wife-beater. State We are all products of our environ- isn't a party school - it's a continuation of ments. At MSU I stopped to think for a high school for all the kids who grew up in moment how different my life would be Michigan. And boy are they bitter about it. now if I had gone for the green-and-white Anytime. that I told someone that I was. rather than the maize-and-blue (even our from the University of Michigan, I heard a colors are more sophisticated). I would quick retort of "Oh yeah, I totally could've probably have more hiking boots and fewer gotten in!" Not that I asked or anything, Prada bags. And for once, I was actually buddy. thankful to my parents for making me do* Our parties are about 500 times better something. than theirs. And we don't riot when we win So maybe I have become that "arrogant (I'll never figure that one out). But for asshole" that all the people who hate the some reason I definitely couldn't see the University said I would be. Wait - I know boys at this party rioting. It didn't look like I have. But not in the typical way. they could do a hanging arm pull-up, let I don't cry when we lose a football alone flip over an entire car. These were game and I definitely could care less if a the boys who couldn't climb the rope in school's ACT average is lower than ours. gym class. Tall, skinny and wearing big But all those people who have discovered leather jackets with shoulder pads. The "the softer side of Sears" and treat the frat really sad thing was, we were at supposed- dance floor like an under-18 club - that's ly one of the best fraternities on campus - just wrong. I'd really hate to see the worst. It will be a long time until I return And whoever started the myth that again to East Lansing. I think Michigan State has "really hot girls" must not have State can be summarized by the sole factor been at the party I was at either. All the that they think it's super-cool to have one girls seemed terribly plain - not hideous, person dance in the center of a circle while just plain. everyone else claps. I think they all went to K-mart together-- Erin McQuinn can be reached to buy the same off-the-shelf-box shade of via e-mail at eimcquinn ifumich.edu.