0 4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 12, 2002 OP/ED J~lbe 3litigzu 1 tilg 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, letter's and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE You don't even need a bomb. Just open a can and people will die." - Abel Gonzales, the director of radiation and waste safety for the International Atomic Energy Agency, on cesium 137-filled canisters that are scattered throughout the former Soviet Union. The quote was reported in yesterday's Washington Post. t3re~-k f.act-CocJ( . BONNIE KELLMAN MIXED NUTS ACcorckmcg to -the, VUnvvefsd av aA C r y r. .- -. ye'scoeAde r " nr . And kai &am~vpiortv iip bcanViefs Will ej-&se- +ieEdNc( r-bb 0 E?, Suve -to btafr, - Ve~&. Mt'451 F~ I I __________________________________4 b."e l'& vm^c, e '5 A^ O?.E C-K' 0~-- 4L _ Win for the University of Michigan JON SCHWARTZ Two SITES TO EVERY SCHWARTZ bout two weeks ago, after a partic- larly uneventful night at work, my friend Dave and I decided that we needed some sort of adventure. The choice was easy - North Campus. (We're simple people.) The destination we had in mind was the peculiar wave field in the corner of the campus. We'd never seen it, and though it was about as cold as it has been so far this year, we thought it would be a great place to throw a football around. That got old pretty quick, so I told Dave that we should go find some music note sculpture somewhere on the other side of North Campus. I was really intrigued by it since I'd seen a picture and it looked interesting. He wasn't so impressed by the idea, but he trudged along. In the car, he kept asking why we would be looking for something like this at 2:30 in the morning. My answer was that we were going because I thought it was something that really represent- ed the University, something that, no matter how small it was, I would always remember when thinking about my four years here. He didn't put up a fight after that. Why do I tell this story now? Because I love this University. I love this campus. I love the people here, the experiences I've had, the other ridiculous late-night adventures I've taken. I love the football team, the hockey team, the bas- ketball teams, the water polo team. Call me anything you want, but I still think about that stupid music note and it makes me smile. And I know it will for years to come. ++++;.+ I know that I'm not the only one who, when I was much younger, would ask my mother if she'd still love me even if I didn't do well on a test. And I know that mine was not the only mother who always answered cryptically that she'd love me even more. I was too young at the time to understand what she could possibly mean by that. But on Thursday afternoon, reading about what Uni- versity President Mary Sue Coleman and Ath- letic Director Bill Martin said in the press conference announcing Michigan's self- imposed sanctions on the basketball program, I finally realized how moments of failure can make you love something even more. I find it odd that I was partially lured to this University by a group of five fabulous players, a team that, looking back now, apparently never existed. And I was laughed at today when I asked a Borders clerk if they planned on getting in any more copies of Mitch Albom's fictional classic "Fab Five." Seriously, though, like just about everyone else on this campus, the University can do noth- ing to make me forget the magic those five stars made or the change they affected on college bas- ketball as a whole. But while some use that as a reason to express disdain for the Athletic Depart- ment's actions, I, in turn finally see the first ray of light coming from the program, something that I haven't seen in my first three years here. And it's about the basketball program loving the University like so many of us do. There's no question that Chris Webber, Maurice Taylor, Robert Traylor and Louis Bul- lock did not love the University while they were here. They definitely don't now. They came here because it was a means to an end. For Chris Webber, that end was the No. 1 pick in the 1993 NBA Draft. For Louis Bullock, it was a basketball career in Europe. Whatever they are saying, none of them is crying right now because the banners are down. If you love something, you don't malicious- ly break its rules for personal gain. If those four players (who may or may not have attended Michigan) are upset right now, it's not because they selfishly brought shame to a great universi- ty, but because they got caught in the process. I've said before that a big difference between college and professional athletics is the attachment many college fans feel for their teams. It's not as much always the Wolverines, at least in my mind, as it is the University. The problem is that the athletes we revere don't understand this. Chris Webber was play- ing basketball. It didn't matter whether it was St. Cecilia's church, Arco Arena or our own Crisler Arena. He was shining on the biggest stage he could find. And in order to play, he, Taylor, Traylor and Bullock only had to enroll in the school and go to classes here and there. Bill Martin loves this University. If he didn't, he wouldn't have been fighting back tears throughout his press conference. More- over, so does current star LaVell Blanchard. As a senior on a team barred from the postseason this year, he has nothing to play for. Nothing, that is, except the University. "I am a Michigan man," the normally stoic Blanchard said Friday. "All I can do is smile because even though this may be a hard time, I think back to the tradition and the fun I had with this program, and I would not trade it for anything else." In these days of apparent failure, how could you not love something like that. I can't say for sure, but I have a feeling that there's something on this campus that Bill Mar- tin, Mary Sue Coleman and LaVell Blanchard will think about in years to come. Maybe it will be as big as the Burton Bell Tower or as small as the "M" on the Diag, but I bet there's some- thing. For all I know, they might even be will- ing to accompany Dave and I on our next absurd adventure. Who knows what else this University holds. When you love something, it stays inside you. Which is why I can't help feeling that Webber, Taylor, Traylor and Bullock have never once thought about a stupid music note sculpture on North Campus. And call me any- thing you want, but that seems sad. I Jon Schw z can beriched ILsz@tmnich.edu Holla back, Bubbe! JOSEPH LITMAN TI- ,WV ENDTHEORY T wo very schticky much of the nation. stances. The Democrats? They were last people visited Both my mom and my dad are pro- seen rolling over in the Senate out of fear of Ann Arbor this choice and anti-war. They support a pletho- appearing unpatriotic. Where did that leave weekend. In response to ra of social welfare programs and believe in my parents? They had already been quite an online quiz that I had the absolute protection of civil rights. They upset with their party's "platform" and after created for the amuse- don't hate minorities; they don't vilify the last week, they were left to stew in their dis- ment of my friends and poor. The only people like them that I know content. Yet talking about how bad things family, one of our guests are, here or at home. And even in New have been did nothing to motivate Tom asked me if Swanson, as York, many of the "liberals" that Mom and Daschle. Upon too few ears did my parents' in the brutally hot Dad know are liberal only after securing gripes fall, and too little was done otherwise. Kristy, was a Jewish last name. The other their own safety and prosperity through Why do I make that conclusion given the visitor spent five minutes on Washington conservative means, rights and altruism be pockets of Democrats in places like Chicago Street looking at names of all the office- damned. The pole of the political spectrum and Los Angeles? Because after hours of building tenants and deciphering who was at which you can find Alfred and Betty Jane bemoaning the fate of the Democratic Party, Jewish. They both told me a great deal about is a lonely one. my parents. and I went to see Michael some upcoming bar mitzvahs. Last week's election was a clear indica- Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Moore Two very down people also visited Ann tion that the forces of conservatism were poignantly showed that the violent culture of Arbor on Saturday. One of them carried on either coopting or overpowering their leftist this country is perpetuated by a confluence about how much she liked a Counting Crows counterparts. During one of the opening of the proliferation of guns, the media-driven CD that a 16-year-old had made for her. sequences from the old cartoon "Super- fear engendered in most on a daily basis and Prompted by another one of the quiz's ques- friends," The Justice League (Superman, a serially underlying fear of "others" (or tions, the second traveler asked me if he had Wonder Woman, El Dorado et. al.) collides "ethnics" as NRA President Charlton Heston really neglected to include Tracy McGrady with the Legion of Doom (Lex Luther, said in the film). My parents were shocked on his list of NBA players whom he claims Giganta, Grodd, et. al.) and the opposing by how dissimilar they felt from many por- he could.dismantle one-on-one. They both groups meld together to form the show's trayed in the documentary. They don't know followed up some of their statements with a logo. In "Superfriends" terms, last Tuesday people who own guns; they don't know rhetorical "Nome sayin'?" the Legion of Doom collided with the Justice where to get a gun. The first group and the second group are League but just kept going, not stopping for This insulation from the real America comprised of the same two people: 54-year- logos or credits. The Republican gains in the provided a melancholy reminder of why last old, enlightened lawyers from New York. House and Senate were so striking not Tuesday happened: liberals don't live in the May I please present my parents, Alfred Ira because they were historic or because of United States. They live elsewhere, and Litman and Betty Jane Jacobs,. who flew their implications, but because Aquaman, since the liberal message is swallowed by its from the liberal cloister that is Manhattan's Batman, and the rest of the Democratic lead- supposed protectors, elsewhere is getting Upper West Side to the only other place ership saw Toyman, Scarecrow and the rest smaller. My parents flew home yesterday where they feel as comfortable in their poli- of the Republicans coming and did nothing. since no one can drive through hostile tics, Ann Arbor. My parents are examples of Republicans galvanized and activated waters. how completely outnumbered the liberals in their supporters much better than the Democ- this country have become, how they have rats did theirs. Cunningly using fear and failed at playing politics and how that dwin- group warfare as motivation, Republicans Joseph Litman can be reached dling group is unfortunately insulated from were able to give their voters issues and atlitmanj@umich.edu. LETTER TO THE EDITOR } 4 Daily editorial attempted to disrupt the goals of Anti-War Action student group dents for Choice) who are apparently divert- ing attention from opposition to the war in Iraq. Three of those groups (not MSA) are actually boycotting the Daily, which conve- niently results in either unchallenged mis- representations or a temporary break against the boycott. and military practices, which for SFC meant discussing the reproductive health restric- tions in the military and the health ramifica- tions for women and children during war-time. The editorial misrepresented our actions and falsely suggested that feminism is irrelevant to discussions of war. . . Ar A