4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, November 16, 2001

OP/ED


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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
It would be rather
easier to measure the
success of the west's
war aims if those aims
had not shifted with
every presidential
announcement."
- George Monbiot, in a column for yesterday's
issue of London's Guardian newspaper.

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A stranger in a range land
REBECCA ISENBERG ONE TURNTABLE AND A MICROPHONE

4

here's a magical
place right off U.S.
23. A place where
people of all shapes and
sizes come together for a
common cause. A place
where you can forget your
troubles and get lost in a
world of fun. A world of
imagination - of nature.
A special place where to be honest I never
thought I would ever end up. Yet, something
about this place seems to be calling my name
in the night. Beckoning me to get off the exit
and turn left. And so this past weekend, my
cronie and I decided to give in to temptation
and join the rest of the crowd. Oh yes, we
went to Cabella's: The World's Foremost Out-
fitter.
If you know what I'm talking about when I
mention this store you're part of a lucky crowd.
You'll feel right at home when I speak of hunt-
ing, fishing, taxidermy. But most likely, you're
like most of us who have no idea what this phe-
nomenon is. This Disneyland of hunting sup-
plies.
This massive store that seemed as big as a
city to my friend and I as we looked upon the
entrance with wide eyes. We were like kids in a
candy store. But instead of lollipops and
gummi bears we were greeted to stuffed moose,
gazelles, and an aquarium filled with real live
fish. This is an outdoorsman store. This is for
the man's man. A store for people who love to
wear camouflage or fly fish or stuff the deer
that they shoot for fun on their weekend out-
ings. I am the opposite of this kind of person. I
don't do the outdoors. I'm a city girl. I like the
mall. And when I say mall I don't mean the
mall of fly fishing and deer hunting.

But somehow, this place has taken over my
life. Why? you may ask. Why would I feel the
need to go to this store, and why would my
friend go with me? Well, the answer is: Once
you go Cabella's, you never go back. When
Stephanie and I went there last Sunday it
wasn't my first time. I had been there before
with my father, who decided that we needed to
"check this place out" on our way from New
York to Ann Arbor in August. He dragged me
into the store, unwilling. But once I was inside I
too became obsessed with the merchandise. My
father, who also is not a hunter or anything of
the sort, pretended to be interested some sort of
bird calling paraphernalia. I made sure the other
hunters saw my embarrassed looks, however I
really wanted to jump of for joy at the mere
sight of that there fishing rod. Or did I?
At the start of the semester I met this guy
who starting claiming Cabella's. When I heard
the magical words I quickly exclaimed, "Hey I
know that place." The kid, who we'll call Eric,
wasn't kidding about loving this store though.
He went there for real reasons. Not to just
check it out. "Was that possible?" I thought to
myself. As the phenomenon of outdoors man
outfitters began to infiltrate into my every day
vernacular I soon realized that I needed to go
back. So that's why I made Stephanie come
with me to uncover what is really going on with
this place.
And uncover it we did.
Steph and I were out of place to say the
least. We creeped into the parking lot and spent
around 15 minutes finding a spot. We circled
the massive lot and admired the huge bear stat-
ue in front of the entrance. Where did all these
people come from? What were they doing
here? We pondered these questions as we got
out of the car and stumbled into the wide world

of nature. The two of us stuck out like Phish-
heads at a Backstreet Boys concert. We asked
an older couple to take our picture in front of
the stuffed deer. They looked at us with eyes of
bewilderment. Stephanie tried on fly fishing
gear and camouflage jackets. Yet, all around us
we realized that no one else was kidding in this
place. They were all there for good reasons. To
get supplies, to become outfitted. It is the
world's foremost outfitter, ya know.
Not that I'm knocking outdoor sports. I just
have never seen anything like this place. I never
really thought that somewhere like this existed
and that there was such a big market for the
merchandise. There were probably double the
amount of people there than are at the Briar-
wood mall on any given Sunday. But what's
weird about Cabella's is that it'snot a clothing
store. It's a hunting supply store. This is a store
strictly devoted to the sport of killing animals.
Kids run amok in a store filled with shot up
game and bait. Call me crazy but this just
seems wrong.
What I realized on my second visit to
Cabella's is that this store is probably normal to
most people. I bet you're reading this right now
and getting mad at me for mocking this fine
establishment. But I'm not hating on this place.
I love it. It has helped me learn about a whole
other part of American culture that I never
learned about growing up in suburban New
York City. The closest I came to taxidermy was
a beanie baby. But now I love this place. Yes, it
makes me a little nervous. But it's a phenome-
non unlike anything I've ever experienced. So
like the song says ... "give me a home, where
the buffalo roam." And there you have it.

0

Rebecca Isenberg can be reached
via e-mail at risenber@umich.edu.

V LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

ROTC promotes
conformity, damages
integrity of 'U'
To THE DAILY:
While I respect students who participate in
the ROTC program as individuals and I respect
their decision to enter this program, I am dis-
heartened by the excessive publicity and rever-
ence that the University and the Daily give them
"Reserve Officers' Training Corps," 1.1/15/01).
Shining one's boots and wearing flashy uni-
forms is not only an absurd waste of time, but
also damages the academic integrity of this uni-
versity. The ROTC promotes a spirit of confor-
mity in dress and attitude that is not appropriate
here.
Also, it is unfortunate that ROTC propagan-
da and publicity distracts attention from other
legitimate political, social, and academic organi-
zations. Apart from money, the ROTC offers
nothing that cannot be found elsewhere at the
University. For example, students wishing to
repel, rock climb and practice leadership skills
should explore the many other options at the
University.
The University should keep openly discrim-
inatory and violent organizations like the
ROTC at arm's length and should not allow
them to use the Michigan seal or student mail-
ing lists to distribute propaganda and recruit-
ment literature.
ERIC MOBERG
LSA freshman
Daily headlines
'appeal to ignorance
and prejudice'
To THE DAILY:
The Michigan Daily's use of the term
"racial preferences" in the headline of the
recent article ("DAAP aims to fight for racial
preferences," 11/06/01) about our party's bid
for student government was uncalled for. The
editors of the Daily know well that the term
'racial preferences' to mean affirmative
action is an effort to mislead people. This
term is used only by those who wish to
deceive and to undo the progress we have
made toward integration and equality in edu-

MSA hopefuls should be

punished for
To THE DAILY:
The Daily's editorial staff refers to the dis-
qualification of two Blue Party candidates as
the "break-in" scandal ("They're losers:
Childish student government campaign scan-
dals persist at 'U,"' 11/13/01). With this
description, it appears that the Daily, as well
as MSA, may be mistaken as to the true cul-
prit in this situation: The Department, of Pub-
lic Safety. The Blue Party members claim to
have "entered the Dennison Building through
unlocked doors."
If the doors were indeed unlocked, then
there cannot have been any break-in; further-
more, it is unreasonable to expect the candi-
dates to have realized that their presence in an
unlocked building might violate any rules.
I, for one, am inclined to believe the can-
didates when they say the doors were
unlocked. I work in the Dennison Building -
often late at night and often on weekends -
when the building is- officially closed and
when DPS is in charge of locking the doors. I
would estimate that DPS fails to lock the
doors to the Dennison Building more than
half the time. On each of the past four Sun-
days, and several weeknights, I or one of my
colleagues, concerned for our own safety, has
had to call DPS to remind them to lock the
doors. Given the events of the past months,
such negligence on the part of those charged

true 'offenses'

0

FILE PHOTO

Don't get me wrong -- I'm al for the dis-
qualification of numerous candidates for the
upcoming MSA elections. But I'd rather see
such punishment come in response to behav-
ior that is actually offensive (e.g. the posting
of campaign ads that request my vote in
exchange for a pun involving the candidate's
surname).
MATTHEW WALKER
Rackham


"gender preferences," or "reverse sexism."
Third, as is true in the University under-
graduate affirmative action admissions poli-
cy, socio-economic hardship can (and
should) be taken into account by affirmative
action. You will never hear the opponents of
affirmative action speak of "class prefer-
ences" or of "unqualified poor people."
The Daily's headline writers should not
use inaccurate terms designed to appeal to
ignorance and prejudice.
AGNES ALEOBUA
BEN ROYAL
LSA juniors
The letter writers are members of the Coalition to
Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for
Equality By Any Means Necessary and the Defend
Affirmative Action Party.

his own reasons. Either way, he has done an
impressive job of compromising the luster of
one of the great World Series. Immediately
after Game 7, there was Selig, talking about
contraction. I can't weep too many tears if
the Expos go; they may need to be put out of
their misery. As for the Marlins and the
Devil Rays, I don't understand why both of
these teams exist in the first place. But the
Minnesota Twins?
The Twins are a team with a great history
going back over 100 years to their time as the
Washington Senators. Granted, they aren't
the Yankees, but they have won two World
Series in the last 15 years. They also have a
good fan base, and even contended for a sub-
stantial portion of this year. I have fond
memories of both the 1987 and the 1991
champion Twins teams, particularly Kirby
Puckett single-handedly winning Game 6 of

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