MMOM 4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 9, 2003 OP/ED IIfpe M&r i 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 (I believe in my dogs. They are heroes." - Dog trainer Russell Lee Ebersole, convicted and sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail in .June for selling faulty bomb-sniffing dogs to the government, defending his dogs, as reported by The Associated Press. Palestine, how bout you Are you ready for some FOOTBALL? STEVE COTNER AND JOEL HOARD OPERATION PUSSYCAT Hey Laura, I have one thing to say you... ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL! ?I put it to you, Britney.. ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL! "Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens." Throwing the book at Honest Jack AUBREY HENRETTY NEUROTICA Beware of profes- sors who assign their own books. Be more than ware. Be vigilant. Avoid these people as fiercely as you might avoid a boy you used to date if you saw him walking in your general direction on your way home from a three-hour bluebook and you'd neither slept, nor showered, nor changed your clothing in the preceding 72 hours, even if it means ducking conspicuously behind a flagpole or a sorority girl or crinkling papers noisily into your backpack as you prepare to walk out of class the moment the phrase "my book" escapes the professor's lips. Think of a professor who assigns her own book the way you'd think of a used car salesman who calls himself "Honest Jack." It is entirely possible that the profes- sor's book is the most groundbreaking and/or comprehensive scholarly piece in Field X and it is entirely possible that Hon- est Jack sells quality used cars at low, low prices. But for the same reason you'd be disinclined to trust a man so eager to let you know how honest he is that he'd capi- talize the word and proudly display it in front of his first name, it's probably wise to think twice before entrusting your instruction in Field X to someone who tells you she wrote the book on it. Because probably (cold and cynical as this may sound) all Honest Jack wants is your money and all the professor wants is 300 students who will spike her book sales and dutifully ingest and regurgitate her every theory. Authentically honest people - be they used car salesmen or construction work- ers or professional manicurists - very rarely identify themselves as such unless provoked. Professors who write truly monumental books often don't bother with them in the classroom, choosing instead to expose stu- dents to the work of those who inspired the monumental books in question. Some of you precious overachievers are scratching your heads. "But wait," you are saying, "If I'm taking a class on the develop- ment of the cotton gin and Eli Whitney is my professor, why should he assign anything but his own work?" First of all, if you're taking a class with Eli Whitney - who is, by most reasonable accounts, dead - you've probably got more important things to worry about than his textbook choice. But I see your point. You're right. Sometimes, your professor will be the foremost authority on the mater- ial he or she teaches. But usually not. Usually, like Honest Jack, Professor Inmybooklsay has something to prove. She dances on the fine line between paralyzing self-doubt (left over from that time in third grade when Mr. Morris, the social studies teacher, called her stupid when she couldn't remember who Eli Whitney was) and snide arrogance (nourished by the knowledge that since the Eli Whitney inci- dent, she has earned three whole graduate degrees --take that, Mr. M.). Even worse, once a professor's own work becomes central to her class, the usual level of student brown-nosing sky- rockets to a new, almost perverse high. No matter how dismissively the professor chuckles and says, "Of course you don't have to agree with me" the week before the each paper is due, the damage has already been done. When a teacher thinks highly enough of herself to devote some or all of her teaching time to her own book, pupils censor themselves accordingly - in dis- cussion, in papers, on exams. When Honest Jack gazes honestly into your eyes and tells you what you really need to make this dependable old hatchback run smoothly is a $200 cap for your oil, you tell him he's full of shit. But if you're like most people, you're probably not going to be so candid with your highly paid, well-respected, mul- tiple-degree-holding professor. But you should be. Everyone should be. Don't honor her syllabus with your presence or your tuition dollars. It's not worth it. Teaching shouldn't be about the teacher. A publishing contract and a biography on a book jacket do not a genius make. If the book's real- ly that amazing, you'll read it eventually, hope- fully without all the pressure not to wound its author's ego. Selling used cars shouldn't be about honesty. At least not explicitly. If Honest Jack is as virtuous as his name suggests, he won't sell you so much as a spare hubcap 'til he's sure you've shopped around. I Henretty can be reached at ahenrett@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Attacks on 'How to Be Gay' are bigoted, uninformed To THE DAILY: Thanks for your Monday editorial, How to be dumb (09/08/03). It points out quite well the struggle for politics and culture to retain autonomy despite their tense interre- latedness. However, the editorial also con- tradicts itself by glibly dismissing the "popular misconception that one can actu- ally 'learn' how to be gay." Isn't that the point of Prof. David Halperin's course? "Gay" is not an innate or essential quality, and in this heteronormative society queers must engage in a process of "learning" how our desires differ from the perceived main- stream. The New York Times last month chronicled what they call "metrosexuals," self-identified straight men who spend their time grooming A la "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," another example of "learn- ing." Queers aren't born with the lyrics to Sondheim hardwired in our brains, after all (or else I totally missed that lavender bus- in-the-womb). For better or worse, culture is learned, and gay subculture, with its own normative tendencies, can be studied - this is a university! - as much for its coherence as for its contradictions. But the point - bravo - is that some of Michi- gan's legislators enter the discussion with hateful, intolerant presumptions and few clear ideas of what is going on in the class, despite Halperin's and the Daily's best attempts. JASON HERLANDS Rackham Boycotstadium concessions to bring back Entree Plus TO THE DAILY: I was glad to see Emily Kraack's article regarding Entree Plus in the Big House in yes- terday's paper (Hungry students find Mcard use- less in Big House, 09/08/03). As one of two Michigan Student Assembly representatives who worked to get Entree Plus installed in the Big House in the first place, I was highly disap- pointed'to notice its absence in the first two weeks of the season. Blame for this occurrence, however, is to be shared. Ridiculously high turnover is the reason MSA is to blame. I don't often criticize MSA, but winning a popularity contest is hard, and therefore over half the assembly is replaced every semester. Thus, new projects are begun and old ones are pushed aside. Of the two people who worked to initiate Entree Plus in the Big House, I left the assembly and the other went on to become president, rightfully shifting her attention elsewhere. In the future, new representatives need to work harder to maintain and improve the accomplishments of past assemblies. As far as the other three par- ties are concerned, each is partially to blame. Housing is to blame for charging way too much money for card readers. The Athletic Depart- ment, which uses the readers a handful of times each year, should not have to pay as much as Wendy's, which is able to use the machine daily; cut them some slack. On the other hand, the Athletic Department/concessionaire (Glad- ieux) is to blame for failing to accommodate stu- dents. They didn't lose money last year, because housing donated the machines for the pilot. What happened was their revenue did not increase enough to justify the purchase. Additionally, complaining about installation of data lines is just plain wrong. Installation is a one-time (sunk) cost continued use of Entree Plus would only help to "coup losses" that never actually existed. All you had to do this season was rent card readers and everyone would have been happy. But why accommodate the students, they are going to purchase from you anyway, right? Wrong! To students, I say, "Stop buying conces- sions!" Purchase dollar waters before the enter- ing the stadium and you'll be fine until Michigan has the game out of reach three hours later. Show the Athletic Department and Glad- ieux what losses really are, and I'm sure every- one will be more than willing to accommodate students in the future. RICK MESTDAGH LSA junior Former MSA representative COME TO THE DAILY'S MASS MEETINGS AT 7 P.M. TONIGHT AND SEPT. 18. 40 VIEWPOINT A'neocon'replies 0 BY DAVID HOROWITZ A wit once said that it's every man's right to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege. Ari Paul, the author of an incoherent and illiterate diatribe (What the hell is a neocon?, 09/03/03) in The Michigan Daily is one such individual. Paul's column ("Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Paul Wolfowitz" - get it?) purports to be about how the dread neocons are driving the war on terror in behalf of Zionism. Here are just a few of his inanities and errors. According to Paul, neocons are "all Jew- ish." False. Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Bill Bennett have been marching for the civil rights of black Americans since 1948, before Paul (and probably his parents) were born. I am today active in the inner city as a supporter of black organizations like Operation Hope, for whom I raised $500,000 dollars last year. I am in the process of organizing an inner-city summit which I will also finance to draw resources to communities that are poor, Hispanic and black. Virtually every panelist at the conference will be Hispanic or black. I am primarily responsi- ble for the election of Shannon Reeves, the president of the Oakland, Calif. branch of the National Association for the Advance- ment of Colored People to be secretary of Israel when the left was rallying for the Pales- tinians." This is false and also malicious. Irving Kristol was a famous conservative in the 1950s. Norman Podhoretz, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Richard Perle and other neoconservatives left the Demo- cratic Party in the mid-'70s as a result of first the McGovern campaign and then the failure of their political leader, Democratic Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson, to get the presidential nomi- nation in 1976. The issue that caused their break was the Cold War and the Carter Democrats' failure to stay the course. The issue of Israel moved some neoconser- vatives - like Podhoretz - to the conserva- tive side to be sure. But to write a piece whose central claim is that neoconservatives are Jew- ish natinaiskts Aout to control American nolicv ! ' t ur.i n 1 wiar 1re ti dtI Ine.nther there : 'tt nb+trues udern r resenit J