4A -The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 20, 2003 OP/ED Uabe frtaiitn &Ugl 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 "We know from history that every medium - air, land and sea - has seen conflict. Reality indicates that space will be no different." - From a 2001 report by a panel appointed by Congress to study "space- related national defense issues, "as quoted in yesterday's New York Times. SAM BUTLER THE SOAPBOX 0 -- CP On poets and protests STEVE COTNER MY BACK PAGES 0 remember last year when student protests happened all the time. It was easy then to think some students were just enjoying a revival of the radical chic fash- ion, eager to wear "Bush Sucks" stickers and yell alongside the Radical Cheerleaders ("Hey Bush ... Hey What ... We don't need no..." and so on). But that was OK, because the Radical Cheerleaders were ingenious, and the protest itself was a friendly and hopeful gathering for the students and townspeople who marched to the Federal Building on Liberty Street Dissent was alive and well, despite some notable instances of suppression around the country. This included Laura Bush's cancel- lation of a White House symposium on poet- ry once she realized that poets are an unruly group of thinkers. But even that instance showed the strength of the movement - the website poetsagainstthewar.org collected more than 13,000 poems, and poets and pro- s testers " . '"Days of Poetry against the War" around the globe. We were all very confused, and we protested all the more because of it. But political dissent is different this year. Everyone is excessively practical. The war in Iraq has already arrived, so no one holds onto the blind hopes they had last year - maybe the largest worldwide anti-war demonstrations in human history will give our leaders a moment of pause. At that time, we were in the hopeful posi- tion that poet Helen Frost described like this: "It has not happened yet. We can move our minds together as shorebirds rise above an ocean, arc in evening light - grey silver white - rise higher, turn, and find a way together back to land." How naive we were. No, this year we do not wonder about the nature of violence, the impetus toward imperialism, or the absurdity and inescapa- bility of our situation. Instead, critics on the Left have been pigeonholed into dwelling on a few wait-and-see issues: the existence of weapons of mass destruction, the number of troops dying each day, the need for U.N. assistance, and the question of Iraqi support for U.S.-built institutions. The poets are not working en masse anymore, and the ones that are writing sound trite and too topical. In the most recent issue of The Nation, Calvin Trillin wrote a short poem about Bush's speech: "You tell us, with a casual by-the-way, / Iraq was not behind that awful day, / As if we'd never heard your staff and you / Implying just the opposite was true. / The web must say, or maybe Lexis-Nexis, / If chutzpa is a word they use in Texas." It is the chipper tone of an established critic not the up-and-coming fire of a pro- tester or even the world-weariness of a true poet. And there is room for all of these in the world, but the shift to such jolly fact- oriented verse indicates an intellectual flight from the larger picture. The poet's job is to take us outside of day-to-day jour- nalism, not to set the day's stories to rhyme. Paul Krugman and other colum- nists already have the fact-digging market cornered. All of this is important because if we don't think abstractly about our situation, even a bit absurdly, we will lose touch with our own insights and be swept up in the current. Recent polls have indicated that Americans are dabbling with the Democratic opposition: One showed a majority of Americans opposing the war, and another found voters favoring Wesley Clark over Bush in the next election. But all of this is just a little bit of alarm at the slow development of wait-and-see issues. It is the inevitable outcome with an admin- istration that stakes its worth on the validi- ty of certain promises and speculations. It is not the same kind of opposition that guided Americans of conscience in the early days of the war, when we thought we might still return to shore. That was a reac- tion that superceded politics and policies; it was rooted in appreciation for the value of all life and in profound disgust at the way Americans can march over other cul- tures, but also in ambivalence about the whole thing, a recognition that the world is not divided along the lines that Washing- ton has drawn. No one among that movement would have supported Clark, who believes in wars of choice, who led the war in Koso- vo, and who turned Democrat 20 minutes ago. No one would have let the terms of debate become so trivial and compartmen- talized as they are today, when the Bush administration might appear vindicated if it will just fulfill the promises it initially made. But no one today will do otherwise. If poets and protesters did any good before the war, it was to document their free thoughts before they disappeared. Cotner can be reached LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 0 Civil liberties not at issue with smoking restrictions TO THE DAILY: Once again the Daily throws around the words "civil liberties" as if it is defending some constitutional right (Where there's smoke, 10/16/03). I think we would agree what you do in your home or bedroom is your own business. However, when you do something in public or that affects the pub- lic health or welfare negatively, a supposed civil liberty is and should be in doubt. You have no constitutional right to engage in an activity that causes cancer to other unwill- ing participants, just as you do not have a right to run a restaurant without a health permit, possess and use large explosives, play music so loud in your house that it dis- turbs half of your block or park in snow emergency zones during a big snowstorm. If not enforced, all of the previous exam- ples, as well as smoking, can lead to public safety nightmares. The government can reg- ulate your activities if they have a potential- ly harmful impact on society. If the Daily wants to squeak like a liberal and back what it thinks are liberal ideals, it should have some real force behind its arguments rather than randomly throw out happy phrases like civil liberties and call it a day. KEVIN NOWAK Law School Students, markets must determine outcome of local venues TO THE DAILY: I wish to comment on your editorial regarding the dominance of national food franchises in Ann Arbor, So many you'll freak (10/16/03). If students are truly concerned about the diversity of Ann Arbor's commercial scene they should focus their attention on their consumption preferences rather than on the supply that meets those preferences. Blam- ing "corporate America" is always popular, yet it has little to do with how diverse Ann Arbor is since corporate America is simply kets should not always rule, but they should determine the coffee we drink and the sand- wiches we eat. DORON TEICHMAN Law School Young people should take politics more seriously To THE DAILY: I just read Sravya Chirumamilla's col- umn, Hillary's fashion faux pas (10/17/03). This column, quite simply, doesn't make any sense. Hillary Clinton is criticized for wearing a "black pinstripe suit with a white shirt and pearls," and then is chastised for "missing an opportunity to dress for the job she wants." As an alternative, Chirumamil- la says Clinton could have worn a "pants- and-sweater combo" like the hosts of "The View." Hillary Clinton is a current senator for the state of New York. There are also rumors of a possible presidential bid by Clinton. I'm not sure exactly what a sena- tor and presidential candidate would wear to appear as if they are "dressing for the job they want," but I would think that a suit would be an appropriate clothing choice; after all, that's what most other senators and presidential candidates wear while on camera. Why do we need to analyze fashions anyway? The only justification I can see is that Chirumamilla says that years of reading fashion magazines has ingrained a need for analyzing the fashions of politicians and leaders. While I respect other's choices of reading material, perhaps before she writes another "political" column for the Daily, she could attempt to read a magazine or watch a TV show that covers actual political issues. I also enjoyed the neat way she criticizes Hillary Clinton for not using her time on "The View" or "The Daily Show" to espouse political beliefs. Neither of those shows are meant to give intensive political information; they're meant to entertain. As for the discontent that she claims many American feel toward their politicians, perhaps the same remedy could be applied. Sure, putting a novice into office sounds like a good idea, but mostly to those who don't understand that effective governing takes more than a pretty face and the right clothes. unresponsive to the needs of young people. It would indeed be a great day if a non- career politician could be elected to the White House or the Senate, but it's not going to happen as long as Chirumamilla and her friends have their noses buried in the newest issue of Cosmo and get their political information from "The View" and "The Daily Show." . AMY CHATFIELD Alum Honors Commons open to all, Honors Program seeks more racial diversity To THE DAILY: One day before his viewpoint criticizing the Perlman Honors Commons appeared in the Daily (Perlman Honors Commons dishonor- able, 10/16/03), Rob Goodspeed defended the Residential College's Benzinger Library against a (rumored) University closing on his weblog (www.goodspeedupdate.com), saying that the library "serves as a resource for the Residential College: RC professors put ... materials on reserve there, and the library has hosted a variety of artistic and educational events in the past." The Benzinger Library is a resource for the RC in precisely the same sense that the Perlman Honors Commons is a resource for the Honors Program. Each exists primarily to support the activities of its respec- tive program. The Honors Commons' function is to provide a site for honors seminars in its internal classroom, for intellectual events such as the Fresh Ideas symposium I host biweekly, for events planned by the Honors Student Steering Committee, for meetings between honors faculty and students, for student meet- ings, for student (and faculty) study, and'for informal conversation. As for access, Good- speed is simply mistaken when he says that access is restricted to honors students. Although the primary function of the com- mons is to support Honors Program activities, we have not found it necessary to restrict access to serve that function. Of course, unlike the Benzinger Library we have a central loca- tion, so we can't guarantee that that will always be so. Finally, I would like to clarify a misunderstanding about our admissions process. It is true that this year we will be able 4-. - 1, - .. 4 _ T« ...«.:..1. ..- - -«« :,. . s . , Y .. .3-