MMIR 4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, November 8, 2002 OP/ED G~hbe ltirbgu huI 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 NOTABLE QUOTABLE (( They give him a 'slow puncture,' meaning he will die over a period of time." SAM BUTLER THE SOAPBOX 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. _ r7 A~v~CA~ - OEM~S- At, ,. 01 - Gideon Morris, the director of the General Inspectorate of Prisons in South Africa, as quoted yesterday by Reuters on the use of AIDS rape by prison gangs as punishment. Kwame takes his stand JOHN HONKALA TOo EARLY IN THE SUN ;Q;.: # 4; J ust when it seemed Kwame Kilpatrick was well on his way to carving out a lackluster legacy as Detroit's first earringed mayor, the wishy-washy Con- gresswoman's son has taken off his kid gloves and jumped directly into Metro Detroit's mass- transit fray. According to last week's Metro Times, Kilpatrick is championing a new state-of-the- art $45 million public transit center to be locat- ed in Detroit's Times Square. And fear not ye pessimists, this ain't just for the People Mover; the center would be designed to accommodate light rail and Kilpatrick intends to utilize it, feet-dragging suburbs be damned. Kilpatrick's proposal comes just in time for transit boosters, whose only action this year has been to follow the Detroit Area Regional Transit Authority bill's stilted path through the Michigan legislature where it has been left for dead by petty House Republicans upset that the Chamber of Commerce threw their weight behind Jennifer Granholm in the governor's race. DARTA, which would essentially bring Detroit's and the suburbs' busing systems under one regional authority, was emasculated long before the election, though, and it wasn't just because of Republicans. Nay, the DARTA bill languished in committee purgatory all summer because a good number of suburban politicians believe their car-driving con- stituents won't benefit from more efficient and comprehensive mass transit. Metro Detroit politicians are bull-headed and myopic by nature, but their resistance to mass transit begs a million more pointed metaphors that I will not subject you to. (Think bats if you must.) The laundry list of mass-tran- sit beneficiaries includes the environment, com- muters, the poor, teenagers, etc., and it's central to the creation of a truly sustainable region. Imagine, for a moment, University students hopping on a train to catch a show at the State Theater and dinner at the Cass Cafe on Friday nights; workers from Pontiac riding the rails to work in Dearborn; and, yes, even the rural chic in towns like Milford locomoting down to Royal Oak and Birmingham to fill their Prada bags with Prada clothes. But I digress. The mayor's transit center doesn't include any of this. It will cost mil- lions just to construct a basic loop around the center of Detroit. And thus far, only a hand- ful of suburbs have expressed even luke- warm interest in expanded bus service, much less a rail system. But if he does indeed pro- ceed with the plan, Kilpatrick will have taken a step that should've been taken long ago in the '70s when Metro Detroit fumbled away $900 million in mass-transit aid from the federal government; he will have laid a foun- dation around which the entire region's transportation system can be built upon. If Livonians don't want to admit that theirs and Detroiters' destinies are inextricably linked then so be it. Ann Arbor, on the other hand, would be more than welcome to link itself to Detroit's transit center. We have grown so accustomed to mass- transit's almost complete marginalization in Metro Detroit that a watered-down bill to link busing authorities had us sweating into our Vernors all summer long. Our counterparts in Chicago and New York must have thought us absolutely darling. With Kilpatricks' declara- tion that "it's time to move the discussion out of buses" we have at least shed a bit of our neophyte image. And leave it the city "where life formerly thrived" (to quote the Daily's "8 Mile" review) to breath new life into Metro Detroit's sluggish mass-transit debate. (Pre- sumably the virile suburbs were too spent from their work commutes to come up with anything constructive.) What the nationwide, "8 Mile"-inspired barrage of rib jabs aimed at Detroit's sup- posed hopelessness miss is that the 950,000 plus people who live in Detroit are doing just fine without your condescending pity, thank you. And while both Detroit and its suburbs are complicit in the region's historical failure to work together, today it's the suburbs that have given up. Case in point: Recent proposals for a $1 billion plan to widen I-75 in Oakland County have met little resistance, despite that it is common knowledge that the plan will only increase traffic and sprawl. But fixing roads is easy and requires nary an eye to the future. And if that's not giving up hope I don't know what is. On a campus so deeply enmeshed in an historical affirmative action court case, I am constantly surprised by the number of other- wise liberal folks who appose the concept. Keith A. Owens' wonderful column in this week's Metro Times does not directly address affirmative action, but it just might add some perspective to your dissent. John Honkala can be reached at jhonkala@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Playboy-video game ad may Promote violenCe TO THE DAILY: "Nice" to see the "Playboy and Playstation" ad on (Wednesday's) page 9 ... "Conquer the Terrain", indeed. This sort of association of 1. scantily-clad women with 2. "conquest" and 3. the cheap excitement of video games will really help all the young men at the University who may spend too much time playing with their joy- sticks (?) become more mature adults who care about gender equality. (Remember Playboy Play- mate Dorothy Stratten, murdered by slimy hus- band-pimp Paul Snider in 1980? (as portrayed by Muriel Hemingway and Eric Roberts in the film "Star 80") Maybe pornography and its milieu can in fact tend to promote violence against women. Perhaps the Daily can start running ads for prostitutes and customized crack pipes next. (Rhetorical statement; not a suggestion.) When the Daily editorials on the same day complain about cheesy ads (Just plane ridiculous), and about "a state of perpetual elec- tion" (Double trouble), perhaps the paper should also look at the advertisements it itself elects to print, and at any nastiness perpetuated by certain unpleasant ads and attitudes. DAVID BOYLE Law School alumnus Reader: Boondocks-weary TO THE DAILY: I'm weary of the Daily's solitary comic strip, "The Boondocks." The strip has been featured in your publication since I can remember, and I think it's reasonable to express desire for some- thing refreshing - perhaps others feel similarly. Tuesday's strip included a joke on Winona Ryder: her crimes of theft and vandalism are, in short, pardoned because she is white. I under- stand entirely that it's a joke, and that I should enjoy Mr. McGruder's parodying my society, but I'm ready for something new. How about a strip that doesn't remind me each day that my identity is my race? Isn't the fact that my life is governed by white privilege old news? The Daily quotes Raquel Fernandez today ("Students find it difficult to keep her- itage"): "If you forget about where you're from you become a fake person." I'm from rural Arkansas - you know, the "boondocks." Despite Mr. McGruder's subtle portrayal of my ,m nnncear ar, nmvinnat ader1ncd1A~0innl ih irPI' Boondocks" and (ironically) should defer to the desire of the majority? TOM CHAPPELL LSA senior Boot's comments re: Nolan's e-mail 'rather amusing' TO THE DAILY: I find Sarah Boot's comments in your article regarding Matt Nolan's e-mail to students (E- mail questions effectiveness of MSA leadership 11/21/02), rather amusing. Boot claims that the e- mail was "in direct violation of the integrity of the election" and "he Nolan sent that e-mail with the malicious intent of ruining the election for our (Students First) candidates)." First, violating the "Integrity of the Election" is actually clearly defined via a clause in the MSA Election Code. Nowhere in this clause does it state that sending an e-mail stating your opinion on the election is a violation. If such a rule did exist, I can say with some confidence that mem- bers of all parties, including Students First, would be in violation of it. There'd probably also be some issues with the First Amendment. Second, how was Nolan trying to "ruin" the election of Students' First candidates? Not once is the term "Students' First" even used in the e- mail. Nor is there any mention of particular can- didates or members of MSA. Rather, it seems to me that Nolan was simply doing an A to B com- parison of the 2001-2002 Assembly vs. the cur- rent Assembly. I find it hard to believe that could "ruin" the election for any candidate. Instead of accusing people of "malicious intent," Boot's time might be better spent attempting to fix the long standing problem that Nolan touched on in his e-mail - MSA's cam- pus-wide status as a joke without a punchline. ALOK AGRAWAL Alumnus University ruining aesthetic value of historic building with architectural 'renovations' TO THE DAILY: I read with dismay that another beautiful building on campus will be "renovated," which really means destroyed. The College of Litera- ture, Science and the Arts building, like so many other buildings on campus, represents unique 4-..0.-, withinl a., a itP,~-tu-.r,. .,riac circh hn.,,1Ah. ings are considered as testaments of art and beau- ty. In the last few years, this campus has under- gone an alarming renovation trend that doesn't respect the existing architecture of the affected buildings. maintaining the architectural integrity of a building should mean more than keeping the exterior facade. Interior spaces represent historical, ideologi- cal, and aesthetic trends in architecture as well. For example, Lane Hall looks great on the out- side, but inside is cookie cutter drywall office boxes. Mason Hall, on the first floor, has changed dramatically: The bathroom has been destroyed, transformed from a beautiful piece of history into a small box. Does anyone remember? One can go in to any building on campus that hasn't been renovated and leam so much about the past just from observing the way interior space has been used. I hear Frieze is slated to be next. God knows what Rackham will look like. Will Hill Auditorium still have those elegant fixtures, coat- hangers and glorious spaces which show the beauty of the early twentieth century? i think not. these are works of art that should not be destroyed. these buildings can be renovated in smarter ways so as to not compromise their integrity. One could argue that University is try- ing to save money(hah!) or save resources, but I can tell you that new technology (like plumbing fixtures, heating/cooling units etc) all breaks and is often much shoddier that that which it has replaced. (Have you noticed that the new no hands sensor toilets still screw up? Or that the new doors and windows are harder to use than the old?) The ideology behind the notion that the old must be replaced by the new is scary. We have seen the tragedy of this mentality historically, during the Mao revolution, during Hitler's reign, etc. the old buildings on this campus should be left intact, not destroyed in order to satisfy the current administrations need to feel like they've actually done something. As I said before, most cultures in most countries tend to treat old build- ings with respect, as representations of historical significance. Why doesn't the University? SCOTT NEWELL LSA senior 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. L etters shouil be kept to approximately 300 0 I'!Y T .~ i