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8 - The Michigan Daily - FOOTBALL SATURDAY - Friday, September 21, 2001
Friday, September 21, 2001- FooTB
(iht 1Mirbigttnx iaiI
420 MAYNARD STREET
ANN ARBOR, MI 48109
daily.letters@umich.edu
NOTABLE QUOTABLES
HOUSE OF PAIN
LL
If the Americans go to war, I pity those boys. I pity their mothers and sisters
and brothers. It will be 10 times worse than Vietnam. Vietnam will be a
picnic by comparison. Here they will get it in the teeth. Oh, they will get it
Wolverines fall to Hi
EDITED AND MANAGED BY
STUDENTS AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SINCE 1890
GEOFFREY GAGNON
Editor in Chief
MICHAEL GRASS
NICHOLAS WOOMER
Editorial Page Editors
good."
- Former Soviet colonel and Afghanistan veteran
Yuri Shamanov in Tuesday's London Evening Standard.
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.
' The first 'victims' of America's self-avowed global war against terrorism
have fallen. Not in the rugged lawless wilderness of Talibanised
Afghanistan, but in the eminently civilised ambiance of mainland
America itself."
- Tuesday's staff editorial in the Times ofIndia, reacting to the murder
of a Sikh businessman in Mesa, Arizona earlier this week.
'toughts on building an
inclusive peace movement
NICK WOOMER
BACK TO THE WOOM
By Jon Schwartz-
Daily Sports Editor
SEATTLE - If Michigan could
erase one minute from its game against
Washington, the team could have con-
ceivably escaped Husky Stadium with
a hard-fought win.
After all, the fifteenth-ranked
Wolverines played 59 minutes of exem-
plary football, good enough for an 21-
9 victory.
But as the Wolverines learned, all 60
minutes are taken into account when
the final score is tallied. And because
of that, Michigan suffered a 23-18 loss
to No. 10 Washington.
From late in the first half until the
middle of the fourth quarter, Michigan
appeared to have developed control of
the game. But a blocked field goal that
Washington's Roc Alexander returned
77 yards for a touchdown, and an inter-.
ception return for a touchdown three
plays later shifted control - and the
lead - to the Huskies.
The whole swing took 51 seconds.
"I'm tremendously disappointed
because we expected to win and we
could have won but we didn't,"
Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said.
One dominating factor in the game
were the small breaks that the Huskies
got in several key points.
At the end of the first quay
Michigan's Marquise Walker bloc
Derek McLaughlin's punt from the
yard line. But, as Carr pointed
Walker may have blocked the kick a
too well. The ball bounced out of
back of the endzone for a Michi
safety. The two points that the t<
received could have just as easily l:
seven, critical in a game that en
with a five point difference in score
"Whether we got the six points or
two points probably would have mad
difference there at the end," Wa
said.
Also, with Washington driving I
clinging to a 20-12 lead, the Wolver
made the stop around midfi
Salvaging the situation as best possi
Michigan was going to receive the p
with about five minutes left.
But safety Cato June was called f
questionable roughing the pas
penalty on the play, giving the Husk
15 yards, and a few plays later,
insurance field goal, the third on
day by Washington's kicker Jc
Anderson.
Anderson's three field goals v
Washington's only offensive points
the afternoon.
"There are three things that need
this col-
umn - that's
what a lot of Americans would
say anyway. Others might just call
me a naive jerk.
Why? Because I oppose,
unequivocally, the massivepmili-
tary response to the Sept. 11
tragedy the Bush administration
is trying to sell to this country.
One would think that, in the
wake of all the death the nation
endured last week, it would be
hard to convince U.S. citizens that
much more blood - foreign and
American - ought to be shed.
Fortunately for the war hawks and
defense contractors, an utterly
complacent corporate media has
worked tirelessly to render absurd
any suggestion that we should
think twice before we restart the
killing machine.
Instead, the public is bom-
barded with stories of retail stores
selling out of American flags, of
previously apathetic youth now
invigorated with patriotism, and
spontaneous eruptions of "God
Bless America." Certainly, all
these "patriots" are not necessari-
ly militant nationalists - for
many, the United States' diversity
alone is enough to evoke a deep
love for this country. But the
venom spewed last week by opin-
ion-makers like Jerry "The ACLU
Did It" Falwell and Ann "Kill
Their Leaders and Convert Them
to Christianity" Coulter is proof
that, at least for the post-Sept. 11
jingoist right, "patriotism" has
become a synonym for "blood-
lust."
Once again, the United States
needs a strong, broad-based anti-
war movement to bring everyone
back to their senses. And in my
estimation, the students at the
renowned, large public universi-
ties in Berkeley, Madison and
Ann Arbor are the best hope to
initiate a process that will ulti-
mately produce such a movement.
These three cities are historically
predisposed towards fostering
political dissent and probably
have the largest concentrations of
progressives who are particularly
skeptical of the American propa-
ganda machine. Already in Ann
Arbor, some students and com-
munity members are organizing
against our government's seem-
ingly imminent war. As they plot
their strategies, I respectfully sub-
mit a few thoughts on how to best
proceed:
It is imperative that when the
anti-war movement speaks, its
message reverberates around the
country, and the only way to do
this is to get noticed by the
national media. Given Ann
Arbor's unique place in the histo-
ry of student activism, anti-war
activists here are particularly for-
tunate in that they can play up the
Vietnam-era nostalgia factor for
reporters. But nostalgia will only
take a cause so far - the key to
building any sustainable grass-
roots movement is to get as many
people as possible out to demon-
strations, marches and rallies -
and the only way to do that is to
narrow the message so that the
movement is as inclusive as possi-
ble.
The biggest challenge for"any
progressive movement is to stay
on-message. The left, being com-
posed of people with an acute
appreciation of the complex inter-
relationships between seemingly
separate forces, is prone to split
itself into factions that each sup-
port specific political agendas.
We can't do that.
But that is what we're doing.
At a Monday night coordinating
meeting for tomorrow's anti-war
rally on the Diag, the discussion
meandered around. "What should
be the precise wording of the
rally's plank against racial scape-
goating?" "Why aren't we dis-
cussing the origins of the impend-
ing war in the context of U.S. for-
eign policy?" "What should we
say about preserving civil liber-
ties?" These are all important
issues that are worthy of discus-
sion in themselves, but they are
also tangential to what ought to be
the primary focus of an anti-war
movement -stopping the U.S.
government from starting a mili-
tary conflict that will only result
in the destruction of even more
innocent human beings.
Integrating any peripheral issues
into a call for peace and reason
only makes an already difficult
public relations job even harder.
A surefire way to alienate
people who otherwise support
peace (and allow media spinsters
to distort the fundamental mes-
sage) is to draft up some sort of
multi-plank agenda - no matter
how basic those planks seem to
be. One of the most notable things
about last Tuesday's vigil on the
Diag was that it brought together
students who would otherwise
have nothing to do with each
other: Students who stand with
Israel and students who want to
free Palestine, socialists and liber-
tarians, atheists and religious fun-
damentalists. Only a movement
with a singular, uncompromising
plank - stop the imminent war
- will be maximally effective at
bringing people into the anti-war
movement.
The war hawks have already
had one week to urge Americans
to "put aside their differences"
and whip-up popular support for a
war that promises to produce
death on a massive scale and
make the world a more dangerous
place. A new peace movement
will have to take the nationalist
"unity" rhetoric to heart to pre-
vent even more horror.
Nick Woomer can be reached via
e-mail at nwoomer@umich.edu.
This column orinally ran
on Wednesday.
JESSICA JOHNSON/DUail
Running back Willie Hurst and Washington didn't need much offensive production
to defeat Michigan last Saturday.
Va. Tech
Pummels
We stem,
31-0
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) -
Virginia Tech's running game could-
n't be healthier despite losing star
tailback Lee Suggs.
Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer
reverted to his old philosophy of let-
ting his defense take charge of the
game and getting some good special
teams play.
And the Hokies looked fantastic in
those two phases of the game. The
Hokies blocked another kick, and the
defense shut Western Michigan
down.
It must have been disturbing for
Beamer that his offense was unable
to punch the ball into the end zone in
the first quarter. They had a fourth
down and were turned away at the
goal line. He had no Lee Suggs to get
into the end zone.
Beamer used about five different
running backs, trying to get some
players experience. He will continue
to do that for the next month because
he has time.
His schedule is soft enough where
he can work players into the game
AP PHOTO
Keith Burnell showed Western Michigan that the injured Lee Suggs isn't the only
stud running back in Virginia Tech's arsenal.
and figure out who is the best. Will it
be Keith Burnell or Kevin Jones?
Who can carry the load? He may
decide to give each one 10-12 carries
a week.
Fullback Jarrett Ferguson seemed
to touch the ball more in critical sit-
uations than normal. At least that
was the impression. Beamer is test-
ing the offense, looking around to
see what it can do. It was a sound
approach.
The Hokies' offense is clearly not
where it needs to be to ,take on
Miami later in the year.
The ninth-ranked Hokies (2-0)
handed the ball to six backs, pound-
ing out 271 yards on the ground in a
31-0 victory over Western Michigan
in the first meeting between the
teams.
Keith Burnell ran for 74 yards and
a touchdown in his first career start.
Kevin Jones and Wayne Ward com-
bined for 125 yards, and fullback
Jarrett Ferguson added 35 yards and
a TD against the Broncos (1-1).
"As a team, we really got out
there," Burnell said. "I was very sat-
isfied that coach gave me the ball to
show what I can do to help carry this
team - but I can't do it by myself."