4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 11, 2000 i4ig&auailig When th s ofyesteryear come a-calling 01 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109 MIKE SPAHN daily.letters@umich.edu Editor in Chief Edited and managed by EMILY ACHENBAJM students at th EP University of Michigan Editorial Page Editor Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majoritv off the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. suppose if m 1y lie wer aCZ teL\sion series then last coupic days wouid be titled Blast From the Past Weekend 7 ve had so many deja vu-iike experiences its almost creepy. I read somewhere iha- according to the ancient Greeks. mans relationship with time was one where we tend to walk back- aords into the future. We can't see the future, only the past spread out behind ius. From that past that we can see, we try to notice the patirn.s there and, in so doin, come up witha probi- ble future. Okay. that actually seems pretty sound o me but I m h a 7in one helluva time fig- uring out what this / '4i _ ,, Renters: Know your rights D '~oes this sound familiar? "We are lords who think that we are too n wondering whether you and your to retaliate against their mistr iroommates have decided to stay in ment. Not all landlords are bad, e your apartment next year because we cially when you rent from a comp have already had offers for it and who has regulations to follow ar would like to respond to them." It is reputation at stake. Beware of l the beginning of October, thoughts of lords who are not affiliated with next year are about as prevalent as unions or companies, there are s worrying about what to do with an who will attempt to get away v LSA degree after graduation, yet murder. For most students, this is once again housing fever is in the air. first experience dealing with let And it seems to be even earlier this and landlords. year. Last year students tried to sign a What a lot of students don't r lease before ize is that we Thanksgiving, this RiHTS OF TENANTS tenants, have ri year Halloween that we need seems to be the hol- exercisehin orde iday of choice. I)$Before Signing the Lease~ keep these la Gr nt dr ee waidead the lease carefully before lr$o hi Granted, renewal f h a~~~~~ orcs on their t+ dates for housigng ng it. The landlord ma try to That was companies are not sp illegal ase, utey thought behind ntenlforceable regardless touhtbein going to change nr bAnn Arbor Ter goy ein thane whether you have signed the Union, anytime in the nearUno, w future, but October l's-formed in 196 seems a bit early to 2Th order to ensure be makingtdecisions 2he Law State law wveseten- ereceive for nex year.ants the right to withho d rent if ihsw r for next year. E ad rights we are e School has been tied to. To find in essonforjus aquate mantenance. Make sure Y about your rig: insession fao jut a alert the landlord that you r oucan reer to little over a month, yucnrfrt and already students doing this and state y AATU Websit are being forced to andlord can deduct fro h t t p : // w w think about housing ~urmnic h. e thin abut ousangsecuirity deposits for three things Zaal hh for next year. I pSua orDo'tbeafaiuh Although technical- D con't be afrai ly there is no dead- 2' Unpaid Uent confront hr line for lease lord if somethin signing, most hous- 3. tual damages t the:wrong. ing c ompanies rental unit (not normal wear and Wo kn demand to know e whether the hou whether students companies re wish to remain in 4) When you first move into have received of the same place your apartment, the landlord is already. It c again next year by equpred to resent with an just be a scare the middle of Octo- nventory k s s tic, but for man ber. ~ ~ rotection against being chargedsestobw ber. f seems to be we That definitely Ior amages h x b ing. Perhaps we puts pressure on adownp tg is st students to find a wreaeveryd ame iypsees onourselves.I new place to live if regardles ser howeminpo igttieg as a collective they decide not to Itk c r sbe iy e epf i ingetting. dent body wo stay in their current ebd ourese just .relax, t residence. Making finding hou that ultimate deci- could wait unt sion not to stay in more op port sion no tosta inthin submitted to the landlord asmre ptht one's house or time. Yet, there apartmentcan give always going t a feeling of dis- those people placement. Instead will take advan of worrying about midterms students of everyone else's slacking andt have to worry about finding a place laugh at their stupidity for follov to live. The residence halls allow this advice. You are not oblige people to wait until March to make respond to the pressure from up their minds, but by then all the housing company and perhaps ou houses and apartments off campus principle should not. have already been gone for months. It may only buy you a week o After finding a place to live the but at this point time is of burden is temporarily lifted; however, essence. we then have to deal with the land- Happy hunting. Round number two Students should watch second debate ever had. A person that I could easily summa- rize by the term "soul mate" although I hate that phrase because it sounds so trite. Anyway, due to a severe case of assaholia on my part, we haven't spoken in 18 months. So on my way back, I thought about the whole scenario and when I got home I sat down for three hours and wrote her a four-page apology. It felt pretty lib- erating. Things got even weirder on Thursday. I checked my e-mail to find a letter from my friend Dawne, who I haven't seen or talked to since March of 1997. It was one of my old friends from the year I spent stationed out at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. In retrospect, I'm quite certain that that was the best year of my entire life. Young and free with money and the only responsibil- ities I had were to keep myself in good physi- cal shape (something I'm neurotically obsessive about anyway) and become fluent in Arabic in 63 weeks. I guess some people might get bored studying one subject seven hours a day, five days a week, but for me it was heaven. Language school was for me what I'm sure the University has been to many of you - that first bona fide adventure away from the parental teat, with equally full measures of freedom and responsibility. I learned more about myself and other people in that year than I did in all four years of high school combined. But the best part was the friends I had. There were 13 of us, all told - nine guys and four girls - and we did everything together. Not just class, but everything from ski trips to beach trips, from weekends in San Francisco to camping in the redwoods. To this day it amazes me how so many people who were so different could know each other so well and still all like each other so much. But that's how it was. I still get a little misty-eyed when I think about it. Last time I saw Dawne, we were both living in Georgia. However, turns out she is living up here now and attending the University to boot. Even crazier, her roommate is one of my other Army friends from Monterey -- also attending the University - and the two of them have been here since last October. Life is truly an amazing thing. But that's not all. The fun didn't stop there, as on Friday I was at work and ended up ran- domly talking to some girl who, turns out, grew up right next to an ex-girlfriend of mine that I went out with for over a year but haven't seen in almost three years. Wacky. So what's the point of all this? Why am I droning on about people that most of you will never meet and don't care about? Well, it's just this little fact that I've been able to glean: The unexpected does happen. Perhaps not a very profound statement at first glance, but when you look deeper, maybe it is. It seems we, as college students, feel the need for some sort of road map. You know, like four years undergrad + three years law school + two years slaving away as the gopher in some firm = lots of money = nice house, nice car, nice wife = satisfaction. It feels good for me to realize that some- times the road map is just superfluous bullshit. Something can randomly strike you and make you reevaluate yourself and take a close look at your priorities. Maybe today is the day I wake up and something unexpectedly wonderful hap- pens. Maybe it's unexpectedly terrible too, but, that's life isn't it? The fun is not knowing and just taking it as it comes. I guess the point is that as I sit here, moving into the future and looking back on the past, for the first time in a while I'm just really glad to be alive. (For Dawne and Nabil) - Branden San: can be reached via e-mail at hamrhead &umich.edu. aive eat- spe- any nd a and- any ome with our ases real- as ghts 1 to er to and- oes. the the nant hich 8 in that the nti- out hts, the e at w. du tm . d to and- g is ows sing ally ffers uld tac- ny it ork- are ress f we stu- uld hen sing til a une are Sbe who tage then wing d to the ut of r so, the last week is supposed to mean or what it is sup- posed to lead to. The first thing that hapenned was that on Wednesday I went up to Flint to turn in all my Army gear to my fonm r me tn Guard unit. This was significan enogh that i wlas one chapter of my life, spciialv a ove-hate rela- tionship spanning thebe er part of a decade, coming to a close. On my way back it turns out the 1-69 to 1-75 interichae was closed due to construction - big surprisenSon as I wandered around Flint trying to fnd my wa back to the freeway, without e er reall knominA how I got there, I sort of stumble d to a ittl park f had forgotten about. Then he w e hit me. You see it was ther at tht park, almost exactly two years ao at I had a very serious conversation with one of the best friends I have W 'We have swimming pools ... outstanding weather for two or three months and then there's social entertain- ment - sometimes I think the University is basically a dating service with an educational component.' - University President Lee Bollinger on attracting out-of-state students to the 'U'. 'New Urbanism' was not founded by Architecture dean TO THE DAILY: The Land Use Summit. organized and led by our college facult\last week. was nicely covered by the Dil. The article mentioned me as the founder of New Urbanism, a design and planing move- ment that has become poptlar in America during the last decad_ While I have been involved from the start. I am not the founder. And while I hae great respect for its principles and practices. there are some of which I am critical, n fat "laubman College is planning a conference Feb. 9 and 10 to evaluate New Urbanism in terms of regional, environmental, architectural and social justice. Further detail will be avail- able on our Website later this year. Douo KELBAUGH DEAN, TiBMAN COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE & UPrBAN PLANNING McQuinn's column displaed snobbery TO THE DAILY: After reading Erin McQuinn's Oct. 10, column ("A week end in East Lansing makes me appreciate A'." 10 10 00) 1 have to question the integrity of people at the University. I thought that we werspecial because we are accepting of {11pol- people of all races, religions and back- grounds. It is great to b proud of your school, but it is not acceptable to ridicule people because they are not as financially secure as you are. Many of the people at the University, including myself, would not even know where to go to get a Prada ba and a lot of people struggle to come up with the money to pay tuition or have a plceto live. People think that we are snobs not only because we think that we are academically better than everyone else and have a great football team, but because we are "rich snobs,. I hope that more people don't support this stereotype by ridiculing the less fortu- nate crowd --- clothes do not make the woman or man. I thought that we were bet- ter than Michigan State because we saw past the makeup and the desiners and because we realize that personality is not expressed by the costhforcltig Many of u o exn kn or care what's "in this season. If you are wealthy, you are fortunate and vo are not required to be a snob; I know many people xho have money but would rather support their local arts group than own ten pairs of capri pants from bebe. If we are plain, so be it. We care about more important things. MAY KowALsKi LSA JUNIOR soul on campus. It is important to realize that the occupation of the Union tower was not a spontaneous decision on anyone's part. If you talk to any alumnus who was part of the many civil rights movements that took place on this campus, they will tell you that the University administration and students of color on this campus have been conversing about the Michigamua issue for years and years. Since my time here, I have witnessed countless conversations around the bas- tardization of Native American culture that Michigamua chooses to take part in and how it severely affects not only Native American students that attend this University but all minority students and the greater campus community. Retention is, a huge issue for Latino, Black and Native American students on this campus and knowing that one's racial identity is being abused by a society that is supported in privilege by the University contributes to the poor retention rate. You can only have so many 'conversations' with the administration about these issues until you have to take mat- ters into your own hands. That is exactly what the Students of Color Coalition did and in doing so, educated the University community about the racism that exists on this campus (and yes, bastardizing one's culture is a form of racism). I am a stu- dent of color on this campus, an Asian/Pacif- ic Islander student and an Indian American student. I will stand with my community and other communities of color against institu- tionalized structures like Michigamua. I will speak for those that are continuous- ly oppressed. If Raiji continues to be so criti- cal of mass human rights movements, when it comes your time, who will speak for you? RUPAL PATEL LSA SENIOR 'Assassins' game is no testament to Ann Arbor's coolness TO THE DAILY: In response to Erin McQuinn's column: Although no one is denying that Michigan State is a haven for losers ("A weekend in East Lans- ing makes me appreciate A'," 10/10/00), I don't think we should be applauding our own arro- gance when one of the front page headlines speaks of this "hip" new assassins game ("Campus trains new assassins,"10/10/00). Talk about the kids who got picked last for kickball. I think the studs featured in the assas- sins picture may have a bit of trouble tipping over a car if they were so inclined. In closing, if I get hit by a nerf bullet as I am walking to class or whatever, the opposing team will lose more than a silly little game. Oh yeah, I'll be the one with a bull's eye on my chest. MATTHEW WILLIAMS LSA SENIOR 'Disturbing' does not imply 'immoral' To THE DAILY: I was shocked by the argument Andrew Shirvell presented to the Daily in his letter ("Horn exemplifies what is wrong with pro- choice mentality," 10/9/00). In reference to the pro-life movement and the Genocide Awareness Project display in particular, Shirvell comments that Horn's inability to get the photographs of aborted babies out of his head speaks as to what GAP has accom- plished on this campus. Furthermore, Shirvell claims that the fact these images don't change Horn's stance on abortion illustrates just how much society is plagued by rampant immorality. I would suggest to Andrew Shirvell that the GAP as done neither: I would suggest that what GAP did was attempt to use "shock value" to draw a correlation between two completely unrelated things, the visual impact of a medical procedure and its morali- ty. Had GAP plastered the Diag with photo- spreads of cancerous tumors being removed or a kidney being transplanted, I'm sure Horn and many other students, would have been repulsed and sickened; and they would have had trouble trying to keep those images out of their heads. Tissue, bone and blood are not pleasant things to look at under any circumstances. What Shirvell is trying to say is that because photographs of aborted babies are disturbing, it follows that aborting babies is wrong. This is a laughable claim. Ask anyone who has been saved by having a malignant tumor removed if they would want to look at still photos of the operation; and yet I'm sure even Shirvell will admit that there is nothing immoral about this procedure. A medical operation's visual impact carries no moral imperative. All GAP tried to do was pander faulty logic. KYLE BANAS LSA JUNIOR 0 0 T he second of the three scheduled presidential debates will be held today at Wake Forest University and again will be televised by all the major networks. At tonight's debate, Al Gore and George W. Bush will be seated at a table and for the final debate on Oct. 17, both will respond to questions in a "town hall" format. Because of the national importance of this election and Michigan's status as a swing state, all students should watch the debate and hear what these two candidates have to say. While the first debate may have been revealing, there are still plenty of relevant issues for the Gore and Bush to dis- There ma, cuss, such as affirma- tive action, drug policy two cand and the death penalty. debating, While watching the debate, remember that does not, ~.there are many other debates L candidates for the pres- idency and that the The first4 Commission on Presi- har dential Debates (the dly Co organizer of these of the rel debates) has excluded s-. Ralph Nader, Pat issues Buchanan and others from participating. The "Bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates" is exactly that di IV+ le three debate criteria, the candidates must: 1) Meet the constitutional requirements to be president 2) Be on the ballot in enough states so that they could win and 3) Show more than 15 percent public support in five nationwide polls. While the first two criteria are entirely realistic, the last virtually prohibits any participation by third party candidates. Since many voters hear the candidates for the first time at the debate, it is unfair to restrict participation to only the well- known candidates. In 1992, Ross Perot's support rose dramatically after his appearance in that year's debate - proving that Yb many voters have not fates made up their minds but that until seeing the debates. An open presidential lake the debate ensures equality relevant. between all candidates, regardless of their eco- ebate nomic resources. ered all Although Nader and Buchanan - the vant most popular third- party candidates - have consistently polled below 10 per- cent, many nationwide surveys show that over 30 percent of Americans would like to see a four-way debate. 0 CHIP CULLEN GRINDING THE NIB aen - Camites lis - tastes 6et~pr made 6 ' lt