4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 19, 2001 OP/ED Ulbe **irbijjuu DZiIQ 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 daily.letters@umich.edu EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 GEOFFREY GAGNON Editor in Chief MICHAEL GRASS NICHOLAS WOOMER Editorial Page Editors 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. NOTABLE QUOTABLE If not, we'll go to war against him." -Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as quoted in the Maariv newspaper, giving Yasser Arafat one week to turn over all Palestinian militants or face direct retaliation. f JUSTR VE WEEKS &O, / l~s WO)b% ALL. U/ UEBL.. 0 Time to study? REBECCA ISENBERG ONE TURNTABLE AND A MICROPHONE It's that time of year almost six weeks. So you have to think quickly say, write this column, and the girls who live again. No, not the time and not let anyone distract you on the way. above you start playing, "All I want for Christ- a of year when love is in This will be the hardest part. mas" by Mariah Carey for absolutely no rea- the air. And not the time of Most people who find themselves in this sit- son. Or for a reason. If this happens to you, year when the weather is uation are not alone. Chances are your friends don't let it tear you away from copying your getting warmer. Instead, are also slackers. And chances are they may not friends' lecture notes. it's the time of year when be so ready to change their slacker ways. So Another distraction, which sometimes you quickly have to remind don't let them persuade you not to start hitting seems like something productive in disguise, is yourself why you attend a the books. They may use many tactics. As e-mail. You may tell yourself that your check- university to begin with. Where you have to you're packing your things to go to the library, ing your e-mail twenty times "for class." But remember that you actually do have classes, a new concept for you altogether, they may try let's get serious. Checking your e-mail has and that these classes have actually had assign- to stop you. They may try and lure you in by nothing to do with midterms. Unless someone ments since September 5. And if you're like me laughing uproariously at the syndicated Sein- is e-mailing you the test, which they're not, this time of year can be scary. Yes, I said it - feld episode that's on. "Look it's the one where you're really just wasting precious moments It's Midterms. George says, 'the jerk store called and said logging into Pine. In theory, a midterm should be a simple they're running out of you."' Your roommate Procrastination when you're studying, can thing. It's only testing half a semester's worth may call to you. And even though this is a clas- often be blamed on your stomach. You may of information. And in theory, you should have sic and it may be your favorite episode, ignore have eaten dinner five minutes before you sat already completed all the reading, been to every her plea and keep moving. down to teach yourself everything you ever lecture, and been fully prepared for this little Once you get to the library you may wanted to know about plant biology, but it's test that should gauge how you're doing in the encounter even more distractions. You're prob- safe to say that before you've reached the end class so far. Unfortunately this theory does not ably going to see many people that you know. of chapter one your stomach will be growling. always work out for most of us. And we find Because around this time of year, the library And wouldn't it be wrong to deny yourself ourselves scrounging around to pick up the quickly becomes the scene of all scenes. It food and all the basic nutrients needed to sur- pieces of the slacking that we've done all looks like a frat party that's gone academic. vive? It would be but in this case, eating is just semester. Because we still haven't remembered Everyone has their full backpacks, is wearing an excuse. And it's too late for excuses. how to do work, since the University does give their glasses and is hitting the books. But don't If you're able to stand your ground and us almost four months off each summer to for- let them fool you because they're probably just keep your head in the books until that midterm get. as behind as you. You also cannot let them dis- arrives you'll most likely be in good shape. Getting back into work mode is tough. You tract you. You may feel tempted to talk to your You'll get an A and feel confident enough in have to be willing to sacrifice everything friends, the familiar faces calling out your your grade to slack off for the remainder of the you've been doing that has been getting in the name, begging you to procrastinate. But you semester. Just in time for finals. way of your studying in the first place. Because must walk past them. That is unless, they're in chances are you have less than 48 hours to your class and willing to give you information. Rebecca Isenberg can be reached learn information that has been taught for Sometimes you'll be trying to study or let's via e-mail at risenber@umich.edu. V LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Y VIEWPOINT What does Jesse know about BAMN? . . . ,. . r , . . r . ,, , , BY JIM SECRETO Today, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, famed civil rights leader and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, will speak at a rally to promote affirmative action sponsored by the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary. The event comes just four days before a federal court of appeals in Cincinnati examines the University's use of affirmative action in admissions. The rally, which is being dubbed as a kick- off to an even larger BAMN event in Cincin- nati on Tuesday, will take place in the Michigan League Ballroom at noon. And Jack- son, along with BAMN, will likely take center stage as the media descends on the campus to see him. Yet it is unclear if Jackson knows what an increasing number of students under- stand about the sponsors of today's rally - that BAMN is a divisive force in the defense of affirmative action and a Trotskyist organiza- tion controlled by non-student activists. Obviously, Jackson has an interest in pre- serving affirmative action at the University. But if he really knew the history of the unprecedented number of problems BAMN creates on campus, would he really choose to affiliate himself with this organization? There are two possible explanations for Jack- son's participation in today's rally: Either Jack- son knows the truth about BAMN or he doesn't. No matter which explanation is correct, both scenarios create a situation that could be damag- ing to Jackson and affirmative action as well. If Jackson is unaware of BAMN's true identity, he could get himself into a problem when they inevitably start screaming about mass militancy, ostracizing - as they always do - affirmative action's more moderate sup- porters. As the leader of an organization that strives to unite people from a variety of differ- ent ethnic, religious, economic and political backgrounds, Jackson makes a careless deci- sion to align himself with an organization that has a less-than-friendly relationship with minority and activist groups on campus. A simple inquiry to minority and activist leaders at the University would have provided Jackson with this information, so if he is still unaware of BAMN's lack of legitimacy in the campus community, his lack of knowledge demon- strates reckless behavior that could hurt the defense of affirmative action. If Jackson does understand BAMN's Trot- skyite tendencies, his appearance at today's rally represents the worse aspects of oppor- tunism. Working with an organization regard- less of their ideology would be an insult to the groups on campus that have had to bear the brunt of BAMN's wrath. Despite a poor decision by Jackson or any controversy created by BAMN, affirmative action at the University faces its toughest chal- lenge yet. If Jackson's presence brings positive attention to the appeals, it will matter little who sponsored today's rally. But if the increased attention allows BAMN to embarrass him and hinder the defense of affirmation action, Jack- son will have no one to blame but himself. LSA senior Jim Secreto, former vice president of the Michigan Student Assembly, is a member ofthe Daily's editorial board. Livshiz' viewpoint 'hurtful,' full of 'empty accusations' TO THE DAILY: I was absolutely disturbed after reading David Livshiz' article on the "roots" of ter- rorism, ("Hatred of U.S. stems from hate in schools," 11/18/01). Livshiz indicts the entire "Arab" population, which spans 22 countries, about 250 million people and is rich with cultural and religious diversity, as individuals who are trained to not only "hate" the U.S. but to also "blow themselves up ... to kill Americans." Livshiz, like his cohort Jeremy Menchik, paints an obnoxious picture of Nazi-like operations where school grounds are noth- ing more than "future terrorists" camps. Livshiz purposefully ignores, inter alia, how Arabs from Algeria to Yemen and their governments, have been unequivocal and categorical in their condemnation of the Sept. 11 atrocities. Livshiz also closes his eyes to the fact that the vast majority of Palestinians view the terrorists responsible as no more than villains, who have never showed interest in Palestinian politics until now and that Sept. I1 had nothing to do with the Palestinian struggle for indepen- dence. This strategy of blaming "Arab" society as the root cause of terrorism is not only dangerous, but is hurtful. Most of us are aware of the consequences of constructing the evil monolith, which Livshiz's castigat- ing article seeks to accomplish. As a reminder, Israeli inflammatory actions in southern Lebanon as well as the brutal oppression of Palestinians are a direct result of portraying Arabs as no more than terror- ists. Livshiz may want to evaluate his educa- tion first before casting these empty accusa- tions at the peace-loving peoples of the Arab world. ALMAN MACKIE Rackham The letter writer is also student in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. MSA not legitimate governing body TO THE DAILY: This past Tuesday evening, I resigned Scarcity of anthrax vaccine 'not FDA's fault' TO THE DAILY: The Daily's editorial entitled "Anthrax concerns grow: U.S. must expedite vaccine approval" (10/16/01) sorely misses the underlying flaws of our health care system. Whereas the anthrax vaccine has been developed and approved for its use, the manufacturer of the vaccine, BioPort Corporation, has failed to meet basic "Good Manufacturing Practice" regula- tions issued by the Food and Drug Administration. It is not the FDA's fault that this company cannot afford to com- ply with basic safety regulations. Rather, it is the fault of our government's insis- tence that health care should be subject to the crushing blows of a free market economy. Sadly, the absence of a competent manufacturer for the anthrax vaccine is only the latest example of our follies in free market health care. The most poignant example of the failure of privatized health care is the inexcusable number of Ameri- cans who lack health coverage. Most of the 40 million uninsured Americans have jobs and belong to a class of society called "the working poor." Interestingly, until last month Bio- Port and the uninsured shared a common experience in America. They both offered services that our society deemed too menial for proper economic recompense. Hence, the uninsured are left without the Recent cases of anthrax sent through the mail have postal workers on guard. coverage they deserve and BioPort owns a factory that cannot produce a widely needed vaccine. Surely, the time has come for a nationalized health care sys- tem that places people before profits. AMER ARDATI Medical Student feeling on campus without going to imprac- tical extremes such as polling the students. The only ways to determine the feeling of the student body and campus community at large are either by directly communicating with them, or listening to them during the 60 minutes allotted each Tuesday evening during MSA meetings. There can be little doubt that had the resolution been made public even just 24 hours in advance, that meeting would have been filled with Uni- versity students who would have voiced their opinions. Two hours is not enough time for a rep- resentative to decide how his/her con- stituents want him/her to vote on a resolution that makes such a large statement as supporting the war efforts. Alongside this is the fact that this resolution was brought ,,, ~ ~raC-Ei rax f-r thn ..a e- haa protest of this, I have resigned my seat on the assembly. Many might say that I am walking out on my job, and I am walking out on my constituents. To them, all I can say is that the assembly did that for me when they decided to collectively ignore the student body in passing a resolution that served their interests first. FADI KIBLAWI LSA junior LETTERS POLICY The Michigan Daily welcomes letters from all of its readers. Letters from University students, faculty, staff and administrators will be given priority over others. Letters must include the writer's name, phone number and school year or University affiliation. The Daily will not print any lerrer rhar cannot be verified. Ad hominem attacks be