4 -- The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 31, 2000

Ulbe 3irbit gn &ilg

10 reasons for columns of depreciation and decadence


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 refect 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.

Drug lockout
Loans should not be kept from drug users

1 For fame and frivolity: The pall bearers of
the conscience. Like the sexually cumber-
some and mechanically disinclined D.H.
Lawrence, I purport conscience as a mechanism
of fear. Fear of Society and Fear of One's Self.
Simple. Religion, par-
ents, abortion, corrup-
tion, government and
fornication come later
(the preps can feel free
to add resume-writing,
watching Ally and car-
rying overpriced cell
phone plan on that list).
A dead conscience is, in
essence, great column
material. I like my pic-
ture on pg. 4. 1 like my
name in print. I like it
when beautiful women Syed
point me out in coffee T
shops. Sue me.
2. For Picking on Kann-utra
In-Staters (and Out-
of-Staters with similar tendencies): Many
(repeat, many) of the Midwestern boys and girls
I know are exactly that. Boys and girls. Grow-
ing up was limited to playing. Playing euker,
playing church, playing softball, playing visits
to Mackinac Island, playing apple farming,
playing Windsor-beer-runs, playing foreigners
stink and cannot-speak-English, playing when-
I-go-to-Michigan-i-will-expand-my-mind-by-
studying-abroad-in-Spain (where I will take
courses in American history and enjoy the nude
beaches with my newly found sweetheart from
East Haven, Connecticut).

3. For the Greeks: Because I feel (repeat,
feel) for them, I want to help out the Greeks.
Taking into consideration the fact that most of
the boys at Tappa Kegga Bru (credit: James
Miller) have managed to complete just one
book in their life, namely ESPN Sports Century
(that's right boys, the one with the gold cover)
and many of the broads at Cacha Richas Lawya
have never ventured beyond women-on-toppers
like Sydney Sheldon and Jackie Collins, I want
to give them a feel for reading about real stuff.
Stuff like bitching and moaning about Cau-
casian hegemony in the Mud Bowl, in the
AAPD, in the Republican Party ... You know,
things the Greeks go with, besides the Nissan
Exterras, the Fossil Watch Company and the
Kate Spade handbag regime.
4. For the Commies: They read Nick's
columns and then politely breeze through mine
... Thank you, Comrades!
5. For Demonstrating That Foreigners
Can Speak and Write English: They can. It's
true. Perhaps even better than most of you. And
just so you know, they are also aware of strange
concepts like planes, trains and automobiles.
Maybe because they're building most of that
stuff for satiating your Visa and MasterGod
habits daddy takes care of by web-banking from
his White Plains and Bloomfield Hills abode.
6. For Hugh Hefner of the Playboy Cor-
poration: Who cares about the New Yorker or
the Economist. Gimme a job, Mr. Hefner ...
tremendous talent lies right here to accompany
the Annual Book of Lingerie. My single status
at this segregated school has chiseled a cam-
paigning and bitter slut of bastard columnist. I
therefore propose myself to be the ultimate

accoutrement to Miss November. With the
important pages stuck shut or missing, underes-
timated writers like myself will finally get the
reading audience they deserve. I don't want
those balding PhDs from research think-tanks
reading my stuff. I want to instill my love for
my buddies from Pike (even though they kicked
me out of my first and last frat party becauseI
was getting popular on the dance-floor of their
house without fraternal status).
7. For the TV Nihilists: I threw my TV out
earlier this term (I swear I did) because of
David E. Kelley, the Fox News Team and the
moving ticker on CNBC. I also threw it out
because of the adverts. Sprint adverts. And
Nokia adverts. And E-Trade adverts. And Mer-
rill Lynch adverts. And the Eric Estrada long
distance phone company adverts. And those
Media One adverts where that fat blonde is
standing in front of that van wearing that tight
polo shirt and talking about random, random,
random shit. If you throw your TV out and
show me evidence and/or search and destroy the
fat blonde, I will dedicate a column to you.
8. For Strategic Depth: That's the military
intelligence term the CIA employed in the 80's
to describe its purpose for training the armed
Mujahideen resistance against the Soviets in
Afghanistan. I thought it sounded cool, and, as
you can tell, have obviously run out of ideas and
am impressing female poli sci majors.
9. For the Rendezvous Girl.
10. For Bleeding Maize and Blue intellec-
tuality... Every two weeks...through 700
words...To kick bourgeoisie ass...
- Wlj Sved can be reached
via e-mail at wajsved@umich.edu.

I

t-

s the government continues to
A lose the "War on Drugs," it still
manages to create new ways to harm
college students with ineffectual,
biased laws. One law, part of Con-
gress' 1998 Higher Education Act,
stipulates that all convictedndrug
offenders - most non-violent and
causing no harm to themselves or
others - lose their federal aid for a
set amount of time.
Not only does this unwarranted act
deny education to those who want
and need it most, but
by the very nature of Most teel
drug laws discrimi-
nates against the poor whoex
and underprivileged
minorities, haunting with drug
and harming students
for many years after eathat
their illegal activities
have been punished facing a
by other laws.
Since July 1, 2000, loss of fin
when the law first
took effect, more than when the
7,000 students nation-
wide have lost access dru_ or
to federal aid. These
drug offenders lose ti
access to basic stu- me
dent loans, as well as
work-study programs
and Pell Grants, often vital in order
to afford rising university tuition
costs.
For their first offense, offenders
lose aid for one year. For the second
offense, the time is bumped up to
two years. For the third of ense, aid
is permanently removed. The only
way to currently dodge this absurd
sentence is to take a mandatory reha-
bilitation, which most offenders do
not want or need. This is a complete
waste of taxpayer dollars.
This provision of the Higher Edu-
cation Act will harm poorer students
more than wealthy students. First,
wealthy citizens are less likely statis-
ticall to be convicted of drug offens-
es. Minorities and the poor make up

s
ny
ly

the bulk of drug arrests, based largely
on racial profiling and other discrim-
inatory police tactics.
Second, and most significantly,
upper-class students do not always
need federal aid. Thus, an economi-
cally deprived student will face a
penalty far moresevere thatthan
faced by an affluent student. Minority
students are once again hit the hard-
est, when in fact they are frequently
the most in need of financial aid for
education.
Most teenagers
who experiment with
Lagers drugs have no idea
Ilent that they are facing a
ossible loss of
have no financial aid when
they try drugs for the
first time. For some-
one unfortunatel
rssible caught and convicte(
they will no doubt be
~nia adsurpris ed, on fused,
ancia aideven outrageduthat
they now may have
try no financial backing
he first in pursuit of higher
education. The pun-
ishment does not fit
the crime.
Congress has over-
looked the fact that
there is no reason why a college stu-
dent who smokes pot should be
forced out of educational opportuni-
ties with a loss of financial aid. To
assume that someone who chooses to
smoke marijuana no longer wants to
learn is absurd. Rather than let peo-
ple learn and move on with their
ives, they are forced to surrender
student loans as well as face the
criminal justice system, thus penaliz-
ing them twice for the same act.
Congress should repeal this law
immediately before thousands more
lose what may be their only opportu-
nity for a college education. This
unjust law doubly punishes drug
of enders by denying educational
means to productive citizens.

'it will take a while to get back on my feet ... the laws
are structured so that not only are you punished for a
crime, you're continually punished.'
- Mike Laffan, convicted drug-offender on the effect of a law
witholding federal funding for education from convicted drug-offenders.

{, pi

Abraham/Stabenow
campaign is crucial
TO THE DAILY:
The candidates for U.S. Senate have very
different records on two important issues, repro-
ductive rights and handgun control. Debbie
Stabenow is pro-choice and has also been a
strong advocate for better handgun regulation;
she was a featured speaker at the Million Mom
March in Lansing last spring. Spencer Abraham
voted against reaffirmation of the principles of
Roe r. Wade. He has consistently voted against
gun control, and has received support from the
NRA. The choice that we make in Michigan
will have national impact on these vital issues
for the next six years. This race is very close,
and every vote will count.
MIRIAM MEISLER
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Death penalty is an
effective deterrent
TO THE DAILY:
Okay, here we go again with more editorial
propaganda from the Daily!
Now, I know that this paper swings
waaaaaaay left and Erin McQuinn has an agen-
da to try and persuade as many young voters as
possible not to vote for George W. Bush but
let's set the record straight about a few items in
her column.
First, capital punishment works. I challenge
McQuinn to name one executed death row
felon who came back and committed another
cnme.
Second, anyone who takes the life of anoth-
er without justification should, in turn, sacrifice
their own life.
Third, unless she has been living under a
rock, McQuinn would've noticed the headlines
in the papers have been littered with statistics
about the crime rates decreasing, including vio-

lent crimes.
Hey? Aren't we in a death penalty mode in 1
this country? Doesn't seem to make sense when
compared to McQuinn's phantom California +
study.I
Fourth, no state in the union has executed a
juvenile since 1990, according to Amnesty ;
International. Nine men were put to death who 1
were convicted at a juvenile age. All were 17 at+
the time of their conviction. Of these nine, fivel
were from Texas. Of these five, only two were 1
executed under Governor Bush. The others +
were executed under Governor Ann Richards, a
Democrat. Of the two who were executed under
Governor Bush's watch, John Joseph Cannon, a 1
white man, was put to death in 1998 at the age+
of 38. He was convicted in 1977. The other,
Robert Anthony Clark, a black man, was put to
death in 1998 at the age of 33. He was convict-1
ed in 1981. So Texas leads the rest of the nation
by two since Bush became governor.

Perhaps if McQuinn thinks that the death
penalty is too severe, we could let her try to
reform these thugs and if she succeeds, we
could give her a half-way house to help her with
her efforts.
I know that college is a great time in a
young person's life when they idealistically try
to change the world, but, someday, when you're
older and perhaps married with a family to sup-
port and protect, you'll better understand that
the truly evil persons among us are better off
dead (for everyone's sake). Some people are k
just not referable. I theorize that most convicts
on death row are not experiencing their first trip
to the "Big House," however, they are expen-, 
encing their last.
Oh, by the way, Al Gore is also a proponent
of the death penalty. His words, third presiden-
tial debate.
MARK PERREAULT
ENGINEERING STAFF

I

THOMAS KULJURGIS

TENTATIVELY SPEAKING


Mars or bust
Mission to Mars is in nation's interest

MICE COSfT ME WPAT ARE
You 1DM-SV UP AS?

NW1 44 A' Y

ars has forever been the subject
M of myth and fascination.
Movies and pop culture have given
us Martians and flying saucers, but
science has given us the exciting
prospect of discovering water and
evidence of life below the surface of
the red planet.
The excitement of the Mars
Pathfinder scouring the surface and
bringing back images
on the Internet in real The Mars
time gave us a show
of the reach of new Path finde
technology in 1997.
And after last year's the surfac
failed probin mis-
Sbs n , N SA L
ainounced last Fri-g
day a renewed thrust images or
of exploration, with ae
unmanned missions Internet i
to: the fourth planet
from the sun beg n e av
ning textimyar.
vite eitizens and show of t
government entities
alike are wise to ofnewte
envision a new goal:
Mars or bust. in 1997a
NASA's new pro-
gram, which was
rethought after two
lost spacecraft, promises to launch a
powerful new orbiter in 2005, land a
laboratory for delicate scientific
analysis on the surface by 2007, and
bring back Martian rock samples in a
2014 return mission.
From an objective scientific point
of view, these missions will prove
invaluable.- Keeping the government
involved in space exploration pro-

r
co
i
h'

motes pure scientific endeavors and
prevents private powers from com-
modifying and exploiting space.
But space travel has not been a
priority since the Kennedy adminis-
tration. According to the U.S. Office
of Budget and anagement, federal
funding of NASA has consistently
declined as a portion of GDP as well
as inflation-adjusted dollars since
1968. This needs to
change.
Right now, NASA's
SCOUrig new plan resolves
budgetary and public
e and interest setbacks of
recent years b spend-
ick ing a reasonable $450
million annually. In
the addition to the pro;mo
tion of space for the
real sake of scientific
knowledge, these mis-
us a sions also build inter-
national solidarity,
e reach with likely involve-
ment from France and
hnology Italy in space explo-
! ration.
Why go to Mars?
Understanding the
origins of life on
other planets and pos-
sibly tapping into new resources is
reason enough to fund exploration to
Mars. For now, government entities
are the only institutions capable of
nobly entering space. Private inter-
ests can achieve exploration only on
the cusp of technology developed
through the continue dfunding for
government space exploration pro-
grams.

OUR 0, ItAT4 %.
- AT ~I~T"VEY CULAv L.
' ° >CLASS^
n .f

Tangible visions of Red markets

T hings are pretty good - ask just about any
political science or economics professor
teaching an introductory-level class - "Third
Way" democracy and globalization are hot,
Marx is not and these World Trade Organiza-
tion/International Monetary Fund protesters?
They should take a shower or at least invest in
patchouli futures.
In his recent cover piece in "The Nation,"
Thomas Frank coins the term "market pop-
ulism" to refer to the apparent emerging cross-
class consensus that
"markets manage to
express the popular will k
more articulately and
meaningfully than do
mere elections"
Market euphoria has
reached such a fever..
pitch that The Wall Street
Journal's opinionjour-
nal.com editor James
Taranto wrote in an
8/24/00 column that - Nick
because stock ownership
has become so common Woome'
- "the U.S. is now clos- &Eck tthe
er to (the) Marxian ideal Wo

public. Instead, most students who are genuinely
reflective about capitalism object to establishing
a more humane economic system on practical
grounds. These are the people who begin their
arguments with phrases like "socialism is a real-
ly nice idea, but..."
This is hardly the first time in history that
people with radically different visions of soci-
ety's ultimate destiny have faced "pragmatic"
objectors - some of the greatest minds ever
opposed democracy on the premise that it is
destined to self-destruct. Even in the Republic,
Plato has Socrates asking, "isn't democracy's
insatiable desire for what it defines as the good
(freedom) also what destroys it?"
But once the theoretical argument for capi-
talism (that capitalism is just and non-exploita-
tive, etc.) has been abandoned, it is simply a
matter of demonstrating that a viable and pleas-
ant socialist alternative exists. That alternative
very well could be "market socialism."
While there are many different proposals
that fall within the general category of "market
socialism" they all share the feature of common
ownership of the means of production while
putting as few restraints as possible on market
forces. Market socialism acknowledges the fail-
ure of the centrally planned economies of the

Very roughly, the system works like this:
Vouchers would be non-transferable and could
not be exchanged for dollars and vice versa -
this would eliminate the incentive for poor peo-:;
ple to liquidate their vouchers. Upon reaching
adulthood, every person would get an equal
quantity of vouchers with which to buy stocks
and when they die all their vouchers and stocks
would fall back into the general treasury to be
redistributed to the next generation. Neither
vouchers nor stocks can be inherited.
Owning stock in a company would give a
person the rights to vote on company policies at
shareholder meetings and the right to a share of
the company's profits in the form of dividends
paid in dollars. The only way vouchers could be
exchanged for dollars would be when firms
trade the vouchers individuals have invested in
the firm into a central bank that would deter-
mine a dollars/vouchers exchange rate. Firms
could then use those dollars to invest in, say,
machines. The result of such a scheme would be
that it would empower everyone to invest in the
stock market (and benefit from it) while pre-
venting small classes of people from accumulat-
ing too much wealth over several generations.
Naturally, there is more to Roemer's propos-
al than this - it would require complex regula-


Drop Us ne.
daily.letters@umich.edu for letters to the editor,
ideas.opeds@UmiCh.edu for editorial topic suggestions.

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