I
4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 13, 2002
OP/ED
NA
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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
This must not happen
again in November.
People don't trust in
our ability to run an
election."
- Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Panelas,
as quoted in yesterday's U.S.A. Today,
after more voting foul-ups led to problems
tabulating the Democratic gubernatorial
primary race results.
SAM BUTLER THE' SoAPBoX
Hold onrcs
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Give me a 'G', give me an 'M'
JOHN HONKALA Too EARY IN THE SUN
F or those of you "saved" economy apparently entails one even J.P. Morgan blush.
concerned about where unemployment sits near six percent So we are left again with a confusing line
your 401 Ks, and our bush league president has gone and of information to process. All summer, corpo-
your college loans, blown the entire surplus on helicopters and rations were bad. (Please see photos of CEOs
w your job: You can rest spy technology.)in handcuffs.) Now they are good again.
easy now. The altruis- The feature goes on to celebrate GM's Don't audit, laud it, or something like that.
tic General Motors patriotism, its sense of duty and its benevo- Kidding aside, it was quite disheartening
Corporation has been lence, glossing over the uncomfortable to read the GM story and see the colossal
,'ottr ii.looking out for us. angle that the corporation was simply trying headline. Admittedly a bit on the feeble side
And in case you aren't to sell cars. of hard hitting, the media's coverage of cor-
aware of all the corporation has done for Which was in fact precisely the corpora- porate scandals this past year had restored
you, dear American, the Detroit Free Press tion's intention. That and attempting to res- my belief in the crucial role that newspapers
has laid bare the heart-rending facts. urrect its tarnished image. But either way, and television can have in the American
Last week, the paper ran a front-page fea- it's preposterous to believe that GM has political process. Big media can be an
ture, under the dubious headline "How GM somehow become the consummate American invaluable conduit for information. Used as
Saved The Economy," that breathlessly cred- corporation, a progressive little darling with it was, to uncover corruption and injustice,
ited the corporation with, well, saving the a deep concern for the economic health of media can help narrow the divide between
economy after last year's World Trade Cen- the American people. the average citizen and an oft-confusing,
ter attacks. No, the real impetus for economic recov- always overwhelming political process.
Here is their explanation: After the tow- ery (if that is indeed where we stand) is the Yet, less than a year later, the critique of
ers came down - and along with them the millions of people who went to work in the corporate America is already beginning to
sales of GM automobiles - the corpora- last year, the millions of people who spent disappear. And eventually, by the way, so
tion's finest filled themselves with caffeinat- their money on cars. Money, by the way, that will GM's zero-percent financing. GM will
ed coffee and No-Doz, dug into their would have been spent regardless of GM's gradually bring interest rates back up to their
corporate-headquarter faux-holes and bargain, a concept that the feature's author, pre-Sept. 11 levels and GM will go back to
emerged a week later with a radical plan to Jeffrey McCracken, conveniently ignores. being GM, except that instead of being the
get Americans consuming again. The compa- It's no wonder that so many people are company that is fighting California's pro-
ny would offer its cars with zero-percent either confused or apathetic about the Ameri- gressive new emissions laws, it will be the
financing. Marketed under the slogan "Keep can political process. Blaming the media is an company that saved the U.S. economy.
America Rolling," (imagine the ravers' easy out, of course. It's no secret that corporate Half a century ago, GM president Charles
delight) GM launched its campaign within a interests control news and editorial content of E. Wilson proclaimed, "What's good for GM
month of the attacks. This, of course, rejuve- big media, that a handful of corporations own is good for America." Today, the corporation
nated an ailing economy and sold barges and most media outlets, etc., etc. But the sheer no longer needs its executives to make inane
barges of cars. absurdity of the Free Press' endorsement of boasts; it has its own cheerleaders, Jeffrey
Said Anthony Chan, chief economist for GM is mind-boggling and worth, I think, not- McCracken and the Detroit Free Press, to do
Bank One Investment Advisors, "I think ing. We are not, after all, that far removed it for them.
everyone in Detroit should be proud about from Enron, et al. and the collective recogni-
what Detroit did. I think automakers saved tion that our biggest corporations have been John Honkala can be reached at
the economy from a deep recession." (A hoodwinking usinways that would have made jhonkala@uich.edu.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Daily review was as to be Austin Powers soundtrack (it was available on in his piece with regard to SFL (Beware
the "Hitchin' a Ride" single in 1997), and that the whackos: SFL, BAMN, 9/9/02). Chris
expected: Terrible "Ha, Ha You're Dead" was not released prior Miller complains about "The Genocide
to "Shenanigans" (it was released on Adeline Project" and its "traveling" version and
records several months ago). notes that this display is "a sick attempt to
TO THE DAILY: These errors lead me to believe that Ding impose ideology on others."
I hate to sound like the music snob that I am, had his review of this album mentally written While it certainly can be argued that
but Tony Ding's review of Green Day's latest before he even heard it. Furthermore, if he was the displays appeal more to emotion than
album "Shenanigans" (Breaking records: simply going to regurgitate what countless oth- reason, he misses the point of the displays.
Green Day, Shenanigans, 9/10/02) provides me ers have already said, then he would have done They simply state the pro-life message
with the perfect opportunity to point out every- us great justice by at least citing the sources of which briefly is ...
thing that is wrong with your Arts and Enter- his feeble opinions. My point, no matter how 1. Abortion is murder.
tainment section. Your reviewers' lack of asinine and impertinent it may seem, is that a 2. Murder is wrong.
ingenuity and independent thought, as always, college newspaper should reflect the knowl- 3. In addition, it (murder/abortion) is so
astound me. Time after time, the Daily's edge, creativity, and genius of its students - wrong that it is wrong to even allow others
reviews are cheap imitations and mindless something that your Arts and Entertainment the "choice" of committing it - Steven Dou-
echoes of respectable and well-informed critics. section, as always, fails to do. glas' if you don't like slavery then (just)
For example, though Green Day has mel- CARYN TAYLOR don't own slaves fallacy comes to mind.
lowed over the years and, undeniably, waned LSA junior Considering the number of abortions
in popularity, Ding uses this information as performed, the magnitude of the slaughter
the sole basis for his research and, subse- tis in line with (or even greater) than the
quently, review of their new album. Their Miler fails to recognize that Holocaust and other atrocities. All that
"matured and measured progressions," "Do abortion is murder, wrong "The Genocide Project" does is forcefully
Da Da" and "On the Wagon" were released in state in visual form the pro-life opinion.
1996 and 1994, respectively. Both were writ- Those who disagree, are in a way (accord-
ten well before Green Day's foray into mid- TO THE DAILY: ing to the opinion) supportive or at least
tempo pop-punk. Several other facts work to Though I'm not a member of Students neutral toward baby killing.
discredit his review, including the assertion For Life, I (as a pro-lifer) would like to NELSON CHEN
that "Espionage" was first available on the point out the mistake Chris Miller makes Engineering
DAILY MASS MEENG: SE 17, 19; .M., 23; 9 P.M. SUDENT PUSs. BUIWING, 420 MAYNARD
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Commitment to Afghanistan sadly forgotten
ANDREW DUGAN FROM THE UNIVERSITY WIRE
I
I
T e will continue to fight harm could be done. However, Kabul has
against terrorism." Pretty seen many car bombs in the recent past and
generic statement in the post- lost one of its vice presidents to violence (the
Sept. 11 world, wouldn't you think? Those country has three of them).
words could have been spoken by about any- Now, as with the advent of the first
one these days - President Bush, perhaps, anniversary of Sept. 11, Karzai plans to visit
in his speech to the United Nations he will be Ground Zero and offer his condolences to the
giving today to win some support against country that put him in power and vow to
Iraq. Or perhaps it was spoken by Defense remain committed against terrorism.
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in one of his It's obvious this leader is dedicated to
stale press conferences. These words could combat against the dark face of terrorism, but
have even been spoken by some unknown are we? It seems as though the campaign to
local official looking to cash in on the high purge Afghanistan of its terrorist inhabitants
approval ratings of President Bush. is only half over, but our country is ready to
Lots of possibilities, all plausible. So who call it quits and move on to Iraq. Meanwhile,
was the speaker? al Qaeda continues
A man who has fought noth- TECHNICIAN to hand out litera-
ing but terror and anarchy since T ture predicting the
he took office a little less than a I CAROLINAS T recapture of
the Iraq campaign with money and military
forces.
It is also worthy to note that Karzai only
holds real power in Kabul and various war-
lords run the rest of the show. It is known
that American money is being sent to these
warlords to fall in line with Karzai, but the
recipients aren't acting accordingly. Instead
Afghanistan is starting to look like the quag-
mire it was before we set foot on its soil.
These problems aren't impossible to
solve, particularly for a country as powerful
as the United States. All it takes is resolve,
dedication and, of course, money. And the
attacks of Sept. 11 showed that Americans
are willing to extend all three to parties
truly in need, in the name of freedom and
democracy.
Iraq may hold threatening weapons, but
it is highly doubtful those weapons will be
turned on the United States, save the case
of militarv invaion. Anyviunprovoked
4
year ago. Afghan President Hamid Karzai
was the solemn orator of the sentence. Grant-
,an ftpv , ano~t hrrllinn+t nrilcnr evnx n ale
Afghanistan and making its network even
stronger.
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