4- The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 15, 2002 OP/ED 4 c~be 1aIrbg--i uDZiQi 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 JON SCHWARTZ Editor in Chief JOHANNA HANINK Editorial Page Editor 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 "Media persons under no circumstances should stand side-by-side with criminals." - Afghanistan Culture Minister Syed Makhdoom Raheen on al-Jazeera, quoted in the Times ojIndia, on the establishment of a court to try journalists who violate the country's new media law. ONEW. OF ThE KPEtSOr 5EING A HMOCZ- MIROK- HIAO CAM.PUS CE.L~kTY: THOMAS KULJURGIS TENTATIVELY SPEAKING 1'LKL YOUC CAKTOONJS. (I ~ r~ OUT H lE? i ' No.; v L 1-02 "'z I 0 Under suspicion: You may be on this list JEREMY W. PETERS 1)ON'T MAKE ME COME BACK THERE Being the keen observ- er that I am, I've picked up on a few behaviors that students at this university should never, never indulge in. Mainly the perpetrators are the younger members of our community, freshmen and sophomores who haven't quite figured out what is and is not acceptable. Of course, there are also those who belong to the upper classes and somehow haven't advanced at a normal level. So, if you are either: 1) too young to remember the CRISP lady, or 2) you do remem- ber her but are the type to take notes on your lap- top, read on, this list should serve as a guide for making your college experience (and those of people who sit next to you in class) a bit more loosely wound. 1. Never ask a question in lecture during the last minute of class when the professor says, "Does any- one have any questions?" This point really shouldn't require any further explanation, but I feel as if there are some of you out there who just can't figure out that class is boring and most of us don't want to be there any longer than we have to. If you have a question, go to office hours. That's what they're for. We don't care to listen to you talk just so you can hear your' own voice and schmooze the professor in the process. 2. Don't make your frat or sorority a frequent topic of conversation. You know who you are. Greeks who find it necessary to broadcast to everyone within earshot how they had "the coolest two-way with Alpha Barf Up Dinner, and the social chair was too drunk to work the door so we're afraid we'll be on social probation now." Newsflash. Being in a fraternity or sorority doesn't make you cool and if you need to talk about it profusely because it makes you feel cool, please step in front of the next moving bus you see. 3. If you're over 30, please don't take class- es here. Accuse me of ageism, but I find these "older" people to be a major distraction. They do things like ask questions in the last minute of lecture (see above), tell stories about how "when I was in my 20s" and occasionally bring their kids with them to class. I had a lecture once with a 45 year-old woman who used to bring her 10 year-old son with her from time to time. This kid was bigger than me and somehow, these two would always find a seat right behind me so he could conveniently kick the back of my chair with his L.A. Gear light-up shoes. 4. Don't take up any more than one seat in class. I've seen kids who have occupied up to four seats at one time. One for their coat, one for their coffee, one for their feet and one for their slovenly self. Once someone (one of those "older" students) had her coffee resting on the armrest of the chair next to me - a chair she was not sitting in of course because she needed it for her coat - and knocked her latte right in my lap while she was adjusting from one butt cheek to the other. I stopped going to that class. 5. Don't think you're a journalist just because you work for WOLV-TV. 6. Don't ask your neighbor to keep the noise down unless it's absolutely necessary - especially if you live in the dorms. We're in college, people. It can be noisy. I had the fortune of living next door to the Minority Peer Adviser my freshman year. This woman had an entire quad (with a private bathroom) to herself while the other RAs lived a peasant's life in one of the typical University dorm rooms and had to walk down the hall to shower. This woman used to call DPS on my roommates and I when we were partying on Friday nights. Meanwhile, I had to ask her at least twice to keep it down on nights during exam week. What her logic was, I have no idea. 7. Never take the elevator to the second floor. I can't tell you how many times I've been on the elevator at Dennison and it's packed with people, all saying "hit 5" or "could you hit 7, please" and there's always the one girl (usually bordering on heavy-set) who says "hit 2 for me." No. I will not hit 2 for you. You can walk your fat ass up the stairs and burn off some of those calories from that Wendy's triple bacon-cheeseburger you're munching on in that chubby little hand of yours. Well, this is almost a top ten list. There are certainly more than seven things wrong with the student body here. When and if I go to class next, I'm sure I'll come across one of you people I missed. Know this: You're suspect. Jeremy W. Peters can be reached atjwpeters@umich.edu. I I LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Farah oversimplifies, Arafat an 'incompetent dictator' TO THE DAILY: Chris Farah's viewpoint, To fight or not to fight (2/14/02) presents an overly simplistic view of the recent refusal of some Israeli sol- diers to serve in the occupied territories. Refusing to serve is, indeed, undemocratic in a country where the army's policy is determined by a democratically elected government. The job of a soldier is to carry out his orders in the most humane way possible. If he feels that he has been given an order that is illegal or inhumane - and I agree with these soldiers' view that many of the army's poli- cies are excessively brutal and exacerbate the conflict rather than dulling it - then he should refuse to carry out the order and face court-martial. As Farah suggests, "the best way to support democracy is not to blindly obey, but to challenge it": Indeed it is, but these soldiers have made the wrong decision with respect to how to challenge their govern- ment's policies. It is also worth pointing out that the Israeli- Palestinian conflict is not one-sided; contrary to what Farah seems to think, the two-sided violence is not simply a function of what the democratically chosen Israeli government does or does not do. Farah characterizes the current government as "nothing more than an angry mob who'd rather shoot first, ask ques- tions and think about it later." This is, unfortunately, not far removed from the truth, but would he characterize the Palestinian side any differently? One of the main reasons for the failure of the peace process is the conspicuous lack of democracy on the Palestinian side. If the Palestinian Authority was a democ- ratic institution with separation of powers, rule of law, and an ensured peaceful transfer of power, as many Palestinians want it to be, then its use of terrorism would be far less common- place. A majority of Israelis signed on to the peace process with the hope of creating a peaceful and stable state next door, but unfor- tunately, the Palestinian Authority is ruled with a mixture of chaos and autocracy by a petty tyrant who both harbors and encourages terrorists, contrary to all the agreements he has signed in the past decade. Certainly Israel has violated its share of agreements, but nobody has a worse record of compliance than Arafat. This is the true tragedy of the Palestinian people, who could already be free of their ongoing oppression if they had not been so horribly misled by an incompetent dic- tator who flees responsibility at every turn and is ultimately accountable to no one. HAGGAI ELITZUR Rackham 'U' tunnels could be an exercise in natural selection To THE DAILY: Regarding yesterday's article about stu- dents caught tunneling, "Curious students explore tunnels," I'd tend to agree with the students that there is a fair amount of absurdi- ty in the Department of Public Safety taking such action in a relatively insignificant section of tunnel. The three offenders are clearly students of urban exploration, and I can only assume that action was taken because of injury lia- bility or some equally stupid concept. If this wasn't such. a litigious society, the physical difficulty of the tunnel network could pro- vide another instance of natural selection to those trespassing in the name of ignorance and malice. On the other hand a thrilling educational experience could be had by the equipped and aware explorers in search of such incredible sights as the Fetus Room. It would be a shame to see these young men charged with inflated felonies if they weren't doing anything harmful to the equip- ment within. Assuming that they were explor- ing only to satisfy curiosity and documentation (by the short list of equipment confiscated), it would seem really stupid to judicially cripple their futures when they are guilty of nothing but physical and intellectual exercise without harm to others. Some time in the last two decades, "enter at your own risk" vanished in order to welcome the useless and socially unrealistic world of the oft-abused liability suit ... and it is this concept of misplaced liability that American and Cana- dian universities use as an excuse to enforce tunnel population. Another case of DPS trying to emulate the practices of law enforcement, snuffing an honorable hobby in the process? Probably. It seems like those in charge are just upholding policies that aid people who refuse to accept responsibility for their actions ... the ulti- mate cause of this country's gradual decay. ScoTT JAEGER Music sophomore VIEWPOINT LGBT rights important for everybody BY BENJAMIN CONWAY also due to economic issues, effectively, half a mil- the conservative retort immediately: I have spent lion soldiers died between 1861 and 1865 in the time abroad and am very appreciative of the Last week homophobic terrorists firebombed struggle to abolish slavery, and this does not opportunities that I have been afforded because of the home of two University alums and their22- include the countless people who died as a direct my American upbringing. However, I refuse to use month-old son in Montana (Rate of gay hate cim2s result of slavery itself. During the 1960's, many those positive elements as an excuse to ignore the continues upward trend 2/13/02). Some may cringe people were jailed, beaten and killed during the plight of innocent people in my back yard. atmyueofup wrd"trrorsd"n3/i2). o re entge Civil Rights movement and while people of color So, you're probably asking yourself "is there at my use of the word "terrorist" in light of recent now have equal rights de jure, anyone intelligent some coherent argument?" If there was, however, events, but no English word better describes peo- enough to be at the University knows that this it would be this: Who we are objectively is not at ple who would perpetrate such actions. equality is, de facto, a myth. all relevant to who we can become. At a local This triple attempted homicide is just the latest Countless people died at, or as a direct result level, every person on this campus has the poten- act of violence in the struggle for the rights of les- of, work before labor standards were enforced by ts bian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) per- tegvrmn. Now, one could argue that the mitymkthUivnerssipat a n theiint imentco sons in the United States: Neff and Grayson were issue of women's suffrage lends an interesting siT isomne whm you consider ifer- attacked because they were publicly identified as example of social change without direct violence. sit d with eone wham you consider d l