4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, April 5, 2002 OP/ED 0 a1be lkbrligF~tn attaIQ 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, M1 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 We can spend a century thinking about it, another century deciding who is going to do something and then another century figuring out what to do." - Jon D. Giorgini, a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif, commenting yesterday on the non-urgencyo the possible asteroid collision with thee rth 878 years from now, as quoted by the AP. No~~YuTA~ N 0 THOMAS KULJURGIS TENTATIVELY SPEAKING TH[ OE4GOING EE TO SlNG A MINoR-MWOK4IlU CAMS CELESKITY: N O 1 1 Y i See you at the Trash Bash JEREMY W. PETERS DON'T MAKE ME COME BACK THERE e white-trash extrav- aganza that will com- mence tomorrow at "high noon" (oh, how clever) is the 31-year-old deadbeat child that Ann Arbor just can't get to move out of her house. She's tried everything. Begging, pleading, threaten- ing and now she's just hoping her friends and neighbors will ignore him as he loafs around in a dazed and chemically altered state. She won't do anything rational to discourage him like hav- ing him thrown in the pokey for a night, so he just won't go away. Hash Bash, as he is known, each year draws a truly motley crew into the city. Just walk down any street around campus tomorrow and you'll see a despicable display of human existence. The hippies (and not all of them may be accurately called hippies because the only link they have to the '60s is having seen the NBC made-for-TV movie bearing the decade's name) will roll into town around 10 in the morning, clogging the streets with their rust-rotted Volkswagen vans and cramming the sidewalks with their nappy dreadlocks and potato-sack pants. They will peruse the local shops, rarely buy- ing anything, instead making a mess of the objects they handle and leave behind a trail of stench reminiscent of Pigpen from Charlie Brown. They will make getting a table at any restaurant near campus impossible while they linger over their bean sprout pitas and soy milk, usually leaving a tip that consists of little more than loose change, as any area waiter or waitress will tell you. Some - the chosen few - will accost passers-by to sign their medicinal marijuana peti- tions. As if the true motive of these people is to provide relief for the ailing elderly. Not likely. Then once "high noon" approaches they all stumble to the Diag where a series of blathering, incoherent speeches are intended to incite moti- vation for seeking social change. But if you glance around at those who are actually paying attention and aren't passed out, you'll come to the realization that the only thing these people know about change is that they don't do it with their underwear. The Hash Bash coordinators even give out awards and induct people into their "Hash Bash Hall of Fame." What an elite society this must be. After all the pomp and circumstance, the stoners assemble their hemp bags and head back to their cars, leaving, of course, a flurry of garbage behind them. As if their mere presence alone didn't sully our city enough, they have to leave us a physical reminder of their visit. The organizers of the event have tried recently to legitimize it. This year they are using the deaths of two marijuana martyrs as their pre- text. The "official" website of Hash Bash bemoans that participants will "focus on the tragedy that happen (sic) at Rainbow farm." Eloquently put. A look into the events of this alleged tragedy reveals that what happened was actually a vio- lent five-day standoff provoked by a man want- ed on charges of felony possession of a firearm, growing marijuana and maintaining a drug house. The Hash Bash heroes, Tom Crosslin and his partner Rolland Rohm, were shot by authorities after they drew their guns on FBI agents and Michigan State Police. During the standoff, people inside the Rainbow Farm campground fired their weapons repeatedly and at one point hit a television news helicopter. All the while, Crosslin's friends and family were insisting that all he wanted was a "peaceful" resolu- tion. (Incidentally, Crosslin assaulted a woman in 1995.) I'm no police negotiator, but firing guns in the air and then turning them on the police doesn't seem to be the best way to a peaceful solution. If the Hash Bash promoters think these two potheads turned martyrs will bring an air of validity to their annual embarrassment, think again. The bums have lost. You're not wanted in this city. Why else do you think Hash Bash is overwhelmingly attended by people from out- side Ann Arbor? My suggestion: Move your gig to a city more fitting of your stature. Ypsilanti, Toledo or (insert your favorite Downriver community here); they'd probably be happy to take you. Or you could just move the bash to Washtenaw Commu- nity College, most of the people who will be on the Diag tomorrow go there anyway. Go any- where. Just get the hell out of Ann Arbor. Put that in your hash pipe and smoke it. Jeremy W Peters can be reached atjwpeters@umich.edu. a I LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Coverage of death insinuated that Inter-fraternity council and SRC are good things To THE DAILY: The tragic death of my friend Dustin Goodman will obviously not affect the Greek system at the University of Michigan, for the brothers of Zeta Psi have deliberately sepa- rated themselves from the North Face-wor- shipping, suspicious sex-having mainstream fraternities which virtually control this cam- pus. Rob Goodspeed's article (Troubling histo- ry follows frat, 4/3/2002) was completely biased toward organizations which partici- pate in the Interfraternity Council, going so far as to insinuate that this could have been prevented if the "Social Responsibility Com- mittee" could have been present. Though I abandoned the Greek party sys- tem before the end of my freshman year, when most intelligent students realize that they do not need to purchase their friends, I distinctly remember at least a few instances when fraternity brothers had been forewarned of the "random" SRC checks. These rules can be worked around or bro- ken quite easily, yet Zeta Psi does not have enough money to be able to "buy" back its good image like several of Michigan's IFC fraternities. It is shameful that Goodspeed used this. event to promote this superficial, racist and exclusionary institution, one which already exerts too much influence over the students of this campus. REBECCA GEORGE LSA senior Daily expresses biases on all Palestinian issues To THE DAILY: I am writing to express my disapproval of the biases that this newspaper provides on a "Daily" basis when any pro-Palestinian issue is at question. It disheartens me to see when the whole editorial staff totally discredits the conference in itself and does not publish three large pages of positive remarks about the quality of the speakers and the conference just like it did when the "Israeli conference" was in town three weeks ago. It just says some- thing about the biases of the whole Michigan Daily and the staff's lack of journalist ethics. It's definitely not the journalistic approach of trying to present both sides equally when all that you see in the newspapers are how Muslims "riot" and intentionally sell "evil" books at their conferences and never mention anything about the program of the conference, about their speakers and the lectures that were held. But yet we always seem to read about the wonderful and innocent Israeli sponsored events and how cruel people are to them. Hopefully in the future you will be more professional and ethical in covering all events on campus. MUHAMED HALOVIC Rackham LETTERS POLICY The Michigan Daily welcomes letters from all of its readers. Letters from University students, faculty, staff and adminittrators will be given priority over others. Letters should include the writer's name, college and school year or other Uni- versity affiliation. The Daily will not print any letter containing statements that cannot be verified. Letters should be kept to approximately 300 words. The Michigan Daily reserves the right to edit for length, clarity and accuracy. Longer "viewpoints" may be arranged with an editor. Let- ters will be run according to order received and the amount of space available. Letters should be sent over e-mail to letters@michigandaily.com or mailed to the Daily at 420 Maynard St. Editors can be reached via e-mail at editpage.editors@umich.edu. Letters e-mailed to the Daily will be given priority over those dropped off in person or sent via the U.S. Postal Service. 4 4 VIEWPOINT Drug war a blow to democratic credibility of U.S. BY NEIL PAIs It's a sad thing that on the eve of yet another Hash Bash - perhaps Ann Arbor's most endearing festival - there has never been a worse time to be a responsible drug user. The United States drug war has proven to be the most ill conceived domestic campaign of our times, claiming the freedom of hundreds of thousands of American citizens. In 2000 alone, there were 1,579,566 arrests, of which roughly 40 percent were for the simple possession of cannabis; this figure alone suggests something horribly wrong with the operation of our federal bodies. However, the effects of the drug war are far-reaching in other spheres, as well. The drug war, as it stands now, is one that is entrenched in a fundamentally poor understand- ing of the nature of psychoactive substances and addiction. The crusade for prohibition began in 1914; the result of this offensive on narcotics has been the 1,500 percent increase in substance year, an estimated $20 billion has already been put to use in attempting to dent the supply of illegal drugs. This gross excess of federal spend- ing only drives street prices up and contributes to the further tainting of drug purity. In the months following Sept. 11 and a sub- sequent declaration of "war on terror," the war on drugs has somehow also come into the national spotlight. Many have seen the televi- sion ads that seek to equate the drug trade with international terrorism. These advertisements, engineered by the Office of National Drug Con- trol Policy, are offensive and fallacious. They depict ordinary citizens claiming direct sponsor- ship of terrorism as a result of their individual use of illegal drugs. This type of ad campaign- ing constitutes nothing short of wartime propa- ganda. The claim that personal drug consumption is correlated with mass murder is not only ludicrous but also incredibly irresponsi- ble. It preys on the fear of most Americans and seeks to manipulate the public's consciousness drugs are deemed to be insidious elements of society, prompting the federal government to grossly misallocate resources when it could be focusing on more pertinent social issues. The libertarian response to drugs can easily be perceived as the best resolution to our nation's dealing with addiction and drug-related violence. Holding private property as the focal point of the argument, libertarians are true in their assertion that one's body is his own to do whatever he wishes with it. If they are as con- cerned with individual freedoms as they purport to be, federal lawmakers should trust in the judgments of their constituents, rather than try and enforce unfair and exaggerated penalties. The detriment that brutal policies currently employed poses a greater detriment to society than any narcotic; families are continually frac- tured by arrest and employment files are need- lessly marred by information that should be private. In short, the drug war that the United States rnnnn ic +to.'.xfno ,mayn rh4-nne hPithe m~nnct Rio-t a *