0 4A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, February 3, 2003 OP/ED URbe Atdigu m atfdg 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 LOUIE MEIZLISH Editor in Chief AUBREY HENRETTY ZAC PESKOWITZ 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 you do your job . you're likely to wind up with a deficit, lots of enemies, harassed reporters and broken windows." - Daily editor Roger Rapoport on the hazards ofjournalism. Rapoport's piece originally appeared in the Feb. 11, 1968 edition of the Daily. c, t 1c sp .lAc, 6t hc; reo~cd'kY 5-- Gov . SAM BUTLER TtE SOAPBOX Remembering not to forget the space program JON SCHWARTZ Two SIDES TO EVERY SCHWARTZ Iknow I'm not alone here. I know there are millions of people who, like me, have always been enamored with the idea of space travel. We dreamed about putting on that suit and helmet and being launched out of the atmosphere. We imagined life with- out the shackles of gravity. We watched "SpaceCamp" seven or eight times a week until, thankfully, something better came along in "Apollo 13." The moon? It wasn't some ball of rock in the depths of space; it was our destiny. We exist. And I still get goosebumps every time I hear about some space mis- sion. I still possess the bad habit of find- ing my way into the astronomy section of bookstores and spending hours leafing through books on the space program. Friends don't know this. Family members don't know this. But it's true. So "I spent a good deal of this past Sat- urday watching intently as everyone and their brother tried to figure out what exact- ly went wrong on the Columbia shuttle's descent back to earth. And I heard every- one from Walter Cronkite to shuttle pro- gram manager Ron Dittemore say that Americans too easily forget just how dan- gerous space travel is, and just how amaz- ing it is that Saturday's disaster was only the third time NASA lost astronauts on a mission. -. That'-&certainly4rue. There is no doubt that space represents the most dangerous and mysterious frontier imaginable, sim- ply because its limits far outreach the con- fines of our minds. But there's something more that poses an even greater danger to Americans in the wake of Saturday's tragedy. The real prob- lem, in my view, is that, were it not for the explosion, the shuttle would have landed safely. It would not have been in the news. It would not have been important. About 90 percent of Americans wouldn't have even known that the mission was over, if they even knew that it had ever begun. STS-107, Columbia's ill-fated mission, was a significant voyage. Though the intentions were purely scientific, one part of the ship's cargo got quite a bit of news coverage. Ilan Ramon, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force, was a member of the seven-person crew that launched on Jan. 16. The launch, for the first time in recent memory, was prominently reported on the Internet news wires directly after liftoff sent the first Israeli into space. For this reason, I was able to catch a story about the mission on launch day. It was a 15- minute return to my old dreams. What had become almost an irrelevant event, the launching of men into space, was suddenly back in the news. Then I took a shower and went to class. And I forgot. Forgot that at any given moment, it was possible that seven people in an oddly shaped ship could be fly- ing right above me. Forgot, until my room- mate told me Saturday morning that a space shuttle had exploded. But at least I got to forget. Had this been just about any other mission, Ameri- ca's first contact with the astronauts would have been in the form of an obituary. Astronauts, the people we, all wanted to. become, have become as important to many Americans as the people who clean the shuttle. Hopefully, that ended Satur- day. We've gotten too good, too big, too quick. We've been to the moon, so we won't pay attention until man stands on Mars. That International Space Station is fine, but damn it, by the year 2003, weren't we all supposed to be living there already? America's space program costs billions of dollars a year to carry on. And that money goes to some of the most important explorations that humankind has ever seen. Nothing groundbreaking may have been intended on STS-107, but look at what space in general represents. Astro- nauts are congruous with the pioneers of exploration on earth. Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong. The list of great explorers will continue to grow as NASA finds ways to put people in places beyond imagination. Saturday, anyone associated with NASA asserted that qualified people would work to identify what went wrong, and then the program will continue. What's more important, however, is that someone finds a way to make people real- ize the importance of space exploration. Once NASA can get through the mourning period for Saturday's tragedy, it needs to find a way to make sure. that space no longer becomes a fascination that young- sters betray when they become teenagers. Everyone knows the stories about crew members dying during Columbus' voyages to the New World. Nevertheless, the mis- sions carried on. And here we are to show for it. But where will we be hundreds or thou- sands of years from now? That's the ques- tion NASA needs to find an answer to. Schwartz can be reached atljlsz@umich:edu: 1 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Senior edition of Daily 'crude,' 'disgusting, ''not funny' TO THE DAILY: "It's just a spoof edition." "It's sup- posed to be funny." "We really didn't mean what we wrote." Three excuses that can be used to justify offensive comments in Friday's Daily. Here is a news flash for you: They were not funny. They were crude, degrading and misrepresented our University. We realize that the Daily's spoof edition is a tradition and, sad to say, this is the fourth time in our four years here that we have felt this way. The truth is that you can make a spoof paper really funny without making offensive comments like "Bruce Springsteen is a homo. Seriously, words cannot encompass his gayness." Placing this comment in your spoof edi- tion inherently meant that the Daily thought someone out there would think that com- ment was funny. We personally know many people who did think it was funny. That fact is a disgrace. So our plea to you is this: Make a spoof edition; it is tradition. But think before you again help perpetuate stereotypes that our University actively tries to eliminate. DAVID KING JAMIE JAMESON LSA seniors Daily reader is confused TO THE DAILY: Could somebody please explain what was going on with the Daily online Friday? All of the articles are crazy and do not make sense. It is usually not like this. MIKE PUCKETT Reader Posturing of student leaders prevents development of open dialogue on MidEast confict TO THE DAILY: Concerning Students Allied for Freedom partition of British-mandate Palestine was taken by Egypt, Jordan and Israel. After the internationally-recognized defensive 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured the remainder of that land - Gaza Strip and West Bank - from Egypt and Jordan, respectively. Begin- ning with the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israel began to turn over portions of the territories to the Palestinian Authority. The West Bank has been divided into three types of areas, "A," "B" and "C." In "A" areas, which contains six of the largest cities in the West Bank, the Palestinian Leg- islative Council has full responsibility for internal security and public order, as well as full civil responsibilities. In "B" areas, which contain most of the towns and villages in the West Bank, the Palestinian Legislative Council has full civil authority and responsibility for public order, although Israel has overall security authority, which is stated to take precedence over Palestinian responsibility for public order. In "C" areas, which contain mainly unpopulated areas, Israel has full responsibil- ity for security and public order (This entire, unedited paragraph can be found on the web- site of the Institute of Law at Birzeit Univer- sity, a Palestinian university in the West Bank: lawcenter.birzeit.edu/overview/pa.html). I think it is time for our student leaders to refrain from misguided rhetoric. Romanticiz- ing the plight of the Palestinians by claiming they have never had "a single day" of politi- cal self-determination only confuses the pub- lic, presents blatant falsehoods as historical fact and undermines any attempt to have con- structive dialogue on this campus. ELI SEGALL LSA junior Corporate sponsorships coud alleviate tuition crunch fr students at the University To THE DAILY: Due to state budget cuts, the University faces a debilitating deficit. Now, as the Daily reported (University remains silent on its contingency plan for lawsuit loss, 01/30/03), the University could be responsi- ble in paying up to $5 million in legal fees if it loses its cases. Who picks up the tab for the needed m na Xe _ oAinoTn h ah T We could even have corporate sponsor- ship of entire departments. The geology department, instead of being a tremendous drain on the University's resources, could make us money if it was paid for by Exxon- Mobil. Electrical engineering could be sponsored by General Electric, the School of Natural Resources and Environment by Ben and Jerry's and the political science department by Kerry, Edwards, Lieberman, etc. for president in 2004. What's in it for the corporations? Well, there are 38,000 students currently enrolled in the University. Assume we capitalize on our degrees from this prestigious university and make $100,000 a year each. That amounts to $3.5 billion in earnings every year! Wouldn't the corporations love to pay a few million dollars now to get some of our billions later? Does this plan go against the morals of the University? Not as much as you may think. The football team, designed to teach student athletes to play football and to pre- pare them for future football careers, is already sponsored by Nike for many mil- lions. Similarly, the Business School, designed to teach business and to prepare students for careers, could be sponsored by Visa. Is that so different? People have no problem receiving fellowships and scholar- ships from corporations. In fact, those cor- porations are considered charitable. Would it really matter if, in exchange for their pay- ing part of our tuition, their logos appeared in the bottom right corner of your profes- sor's Power Point presentation? Let's face it. We're all going to be work- ing for them some day. They might as well pay for our education now. The alternative is higher tuition. DANIEL FRIEDMAN LSA sophomore 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 should include the writer's name, college and school year or other University 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. 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