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4A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, April 7, 2003
OP/ED
able Sitchutwu maddIu
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
You are
a minion and
a lackey."
-Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin
Ramadan, telling Saudi Arabian Foreign
Minister Prince Saud al Faisal to "go to
hell" after al Faisal called for Saddam
Hussein to step down, as quoted
yesterday by The Washington Post.
SAM BUTLER THE soA mox
Co~re . - ei 'S wo ctn"Frc'e~ndsL a ..cAl fe,% AJs
p ~ e ~ r .rce . a , ecav v 'e u O r y 4} , e o ,{ 1 r 't r e r. s ~ 4 - y .
Rewriting the laws of life
JON SCHWARTZ Two SIDES TO EVERY SCHXwARTZ
ver the course of
many lunches in
the past year or
so, my-friend Michael
enlightened me with his
theories and philosophies
on life. "Brooks' Laws,"
he calls them, and the
numbered system has
points applicable to just
about any element of life and the world.
One particularly impressed me, and while
I don't remember its exact number or word-
ing, I'll do my best to paraphrase: There's no
learning without mistakes.
As someone who's made more mistakes
in three years than most people do in their
lives, I can attest to the law's truth. But as I
try to weigh my life's mistakes by his rule, I
find two things lacking; call them
"Schwartz's Laws" if you will: Life is about
when and where you place your periods, and
living is what comes after..
The most obvious (and certainly dumbest)
mistake that I made at the University is
undoubtedly the force that guided me since,
helping me become who I am now. To put it
delicately, my roommate and I didn't get
along too well freshman year. It was rough
from the start and got progressively worse as
the year went along. After a particularly frus-
trating experience, I did something pretty stu-
pid. I sent an e-mail to a mailing list of
friends that contained one particularly foolish
line. Long story short, he saw it, got mad and
got me kicked out of the lovely confines of
Alice Lloyd Residence Hall. So you can say
that my e-mail effectively put a period on my
life as a dorm resident.
Did I learn my lesson? Sort of - I recog-
nize that it was a stupid thing to do, and
though I'll contend that it was harmless and
blown way out of proportion, I certainly
never did it again.
Michael's law does hold up to a degree.
But where it falls short is a result of the.
necessity to strive for learning. I didn't want
to learn anything in the weeks following the
incident - I just wanted to save my neck and
go on with life. Like many people in similar
situations, I was willing to bypass the lesson
while running away from repercussions.
The remaining weeks of freshman year
found me living on a friend's couch and hav-
ing the time of my life. It also strengthened
my resolve to become a fixture at the Daily.
For the first three-quarters of the year, being
in my room was so miserable that I chose to
live at the Daily. Without the first option, the
Daily became an even bigger part of my life.
People may choose colleges because of
the academic reputation, but the real learning
most of us do is seldom in classrooms or lec-
ture halls. I grew up by working until 3 a.m.
at 420 Maynard St. and followed it up with
some extra credit at Fleetwood Diner.
I'd say I'm a better; more complete and
capable person since the e-mail incident, but
not necessarily because of it. That brings me
back to "Schwartz's Laws."
When you make a potentially life-chang-
ing mistake, you need to put a period on the
incident to move on. The question, though, is
what you do afterwards. As a response to
being sent packing (literally), I chose positive
living instead of negative rehashing and
"learning."
Like ' omany people, I'Ve" beeftsthrough'
numerous stages in college. Each one ended
with a period, placed with discrimination. In
other words, essential to growing is knowing
when a phase is really over, and not just
throwing around periods willy-nilly. For
example, each semester I put a period on each
of that term's courses. Each April I said
goodbye to friends who were graduating. In
January 2002, I put a period on my time as a
sportswriter at the Daily. I was done with it,
and moved onto other things.
But it's what comes next that's important.
What you do with your education long after
your final exam is what matters (that one's
for you, Mom and Dad). My friendships have
survived many graduations, and will surely
thrive for years to come. A few paragraphs
from now, when I put the last period on my
tangible connection to the Daily, it won't sig-
nal the end of my emotional tie to the most
important institution at this university, and
the place where I got nearly all of my educa-
tion at Michigan.
When I graduate in 19 days (knock on
wood), my life, like it has so many times,
will become a capital letter waiting to start
a new sentence. That's when it gets excit-
ing. That's living.
Living is looking back while simultane-
ously moving forward. Living is holding on
to the things that will make the future
brighter. Living is understanding that there is
no learning until you make mistakes, but real-
izing, to quote the movie, that "everything
that is past is prologue to-this."
Living is making your periods matter.
Now, 21 years after my first capital letter,
I'm ready to try it again.
Jon Schwartz wants to thank everyone wh
helped him live and learn over the pastfour
years. Ike can be reached atjlsz@umich.edk
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Reader deconstructs Second scary: North Korea will not hold rightly so).
to deals made in diplomacy. Former President Fourth scary: The dictatorships that we
Adams' viewpoint on Bill Clinton knew this and examined the supported during the Cold War were the
option of a military operation there but the mechanisms by which we believed we could
ractitcal case against war proximity of Seoul to the demilitarized zone stop Soviet-backed regimes from gaining
limits this. We will eventually go back to control. We didn't do it out of pure sport. I do
diplomacy with North Korea but we can not think we should learn from past actions and
To THE DAILY: talk with a nation that is only issuing not support regimes such as those but I don't
I feel that Dan Adams' viewpoint (A prac- demands via nuclear threats. That is not see how removing a dictator is related to that.
tical case against the war, 04/04/03) lacked diplomacy. Last paragraph sans a scary: In Adams'
basis. I have organized my response based on Third scary: "The mechanism that helped last paragraph, he makes it a foregone con-
each of Adams' paragraphs. pull us through the Cold War." I don't know clusion that removing a brutal dictator will
First scary: Anti-American sentiment is if Adams intended to give such credit to the leave Iraq and subsequently the world in ter-
not a reason to go to war. It was present United Nations, but it is definitely not what rible shape. An Arab democracy in the Mid-
before the war and will be present after the helped the United States win the Cold War. dle East is needed to stem the tide of militant
war. The idea that it will fuel anti american The Cold War was won by large military Islamic groups (Wahabbism in Saudi Arabia,
sentiment in the much vaunted "Arab street" spending and a capitalist system to back it up. mullahs in Iran, Syria with Hamas and
is valid. However, the message it sends to the The U.N. was a place where we could talk to Hezbollah, to mention some major groups).
governments of Arab countries like Syria and the Soviet Union and that is the reason we War is terrible, but I think that appeasing
Iran is that we will take action. Since, it is the never dismissed it like we did the League of Saddam for a decade is a mistake that is best
governments that have the power to supply Nations. As for not talking to anyone, we did corrected now.
money/arms and not the people, we should a lot of diplomacy (10-12 years) that Clinton LUKE CARMICHAEL
try to influence the governments. didn't do in Yugoslavia or Somalia (and LSA senior
VIEWPOINT
Operation Iraqi Freedom: an honorable mission
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BY LATH ALATIAR
As U.S. and coalition forces close in on
Baghdad, Iraqis are becoming increasingly eager
to see coalition forces rolling into their neighbor-
hoods. Since the only media available to them is
the propagandistic Iraqi state-run television, see-
ing our troops in person is their only means of
confirming that Operation Iraqi Freedom is
indeed underway. For the time being, however,
they must suppress their feelings of joy and
relief, for they know too well that they cannot
celebrate until Saddam Hussein and his regime
of terrorism are gone for good.
Please allow me, as an American who has
lived in Iraq for many years, to share a per-
spective held not only by the United States
and the coalition of the willing, but also by
the Iraqi people themselves, in and outside
Iraq. Simply put, the Iraqis want this war.
They are waiting for us to liberate them, and
fortunately, we are doing just that.
There is not a better indication of this libera-
tion than the plea of the Iraqis themselves, who
have endured many years of oppression, and are
now counting the hours and minutes that sepa-
rate them from their promised freedom. The
Iraqi people are waiting for American and coali-
willing nations to liberate Iraq and rid the world
of Saddam and his weapons of mass destruction.
In case anyone still doubts the danger and
brutality of Saddam, here are a few of the count-
less atrocities that crowd his record. It is not pos-
sible to gather a comprehensive catalog of his
atrocities, not only because they are unbeliev-
ably numerous, but also because most are unbe-
lievably graphic and obscene. Some crimes have
finally found their way to various media outlets,
as is the case with the 1988 gassing of 5,000
Kurds and deportation of 500,000 others in
northern Iraq, and the sickening 1991 terror plot
in which Saddam crushed another significant
proportion of Shiite Iraqis following a post-Gulf
War uprising in southern Iraq. The invasion of
Kuwait is no secret either. But there are millions
of other innocent people that have been raped,
tortured and executed for nothing more than the
most mundane misconducts. As would soon
become evident, Saddam and his thugs were
extremely creative in their methods of torture
and terror. Take this scenario as an example: At
a gathering of family and friends, someone
makes a joke about Saddam and three others
laugh; all four are executed within hours. Other
punishments include rape, torture and physical
disfiguration (cutting off tongues and ears is not
uncommon).
war was the opposite of peace. Those who
claim to be speaking on behalf of the Iraqi chil-
dren and allege that Operation Iraqi Freedom is
a cause of the Iraqis' suffering know nothing
about the Iraqi people and even less about their
suffering. They are deluded pacifists who have
unfortunately dismissed the fact that the number
of civilians killed and tortured by the Iraqi dicta-
torship in any given day far exceeds any casual-
ties in Operation Iraqi Freedom. They march
and sing for peace, not knowing that they are in
effect propelling the continued suffering of
Iraqis. Make no mistake about it, the Iraqi peo-
ple do not appreciate those who opposed Opera-
tion Iraqi Freedom, and will surely hold them
accountable for their positions.
I have great trust in our president and all the
men and women who have stood together
against the evils of terror. Today, more than
ever, I am proud to be an American, and grateful
for the virtues of our nation. We are affirming
our leadership role as a beacon of liberty, justice
and peace. As for the silenced Iraqis, allow me
to speak for them once again and commend
Bush for his commitment to their liberation, the
result of which is sure to be an unprecedented
alliance and friendship between the people and
governments of the United States and Iraq.
When Iraq is liberated, the United States will be
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THE BOONDOCKS
A ARON AZGRUDER
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