4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 20, 2003 OP/ED pipe £tctgau *UilQ 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com NOTABLE QUOTABLE STEVE COTNER AND JOEL HOARD OPERATION PUSSYCAT EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 LouIE MEIZLISH Editor in Chief AUBREY HENRETTY ZAC PESKOWITZ Editorial Page Editors ((I like to remember 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. what Viscount Slim said during the Burma Campaign. He said use a sledge hammer to crush a walnut, and that's exactly what we will do." - Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division stationed in Iraq when asked how U.S. soldiers will respond to increasing attacks, as reported Tuesday on CNN. w Day 1. The police are at Neverland again. I served them tea and crackers. Day 2. Morning jog and eggs on sidewalk. Police kicked me out of house. Day 3. Ralph's does not have dictionaries. Need to look up "lewd" and "lascivious." Day 4. Left Camus book at Tito's. Saw myself on telenoticias. Very lonely. I A rS Between a rock and a Hard Rock Cafe LAUREN STRAYER IN THE ACTlIVE VOICE t the end of the needs. Like any other Hard Rock Cafe, ours will tions on their way home each night. workday, down- not entice patrons to live, work and spend The depressing truth of this situation is that town Detroit downtown. People will come to the Cafe once, Detroit desperately needs more stores like Bor- .,. empties. The city's pro- buy their T-shirts, and leave - taking their revi- ders - under the right circumstances. It needs fessionals rush to their talizing money with them. big corporations to open stores and keep themn Big Three vehicles and The cafe may only be one business, but it open late into the evening. While many of us in' head home. They drive represents a risky trend. It's possible that much suburbia lament the sprawl - over land and away from the heart of a of the coming Super Bowl XL investment will local business - of the corporate big boxes, we city that seems a bustling be similarly unproductive in the long run. often forget the economic stability and advani metropolis during work- Becoming a mecca of clichd tourist attractions tages they afford our communities. We fail t' ing hours but is eerily may be profitable today, but it will not pay off remember the positive economic power of big quiet by 7 p.m. This is the downtown of a city in the days and years following the 2006 game. retail corporations and how they define many of for commuters, not for residents. It's a down- Hosting the Super Bowl is a great opportunity the favorable aspects of our suburban lifestyles: town without community beyond the functional for Detroit, but policymakers and event planners Retail and other industries have left networks of the business world, and despite last need to remember that the structural problems American inner cities detrimentally under week's contrary fanfare, it's a downtown for hindering economic development today will not served. Without the products, services, jobs; which Michiganders must demand more than a be easily fixed with a gimmicky event, and taxes these ubiquitous stores can pro- tired chain restaurant and a trifling bookstore. Given this critique, it may seem that the vide, many of the economic problems of Last Monday, Detroit's first Hard Rock Cafe opening of the adjacent Borders bookstore is inner cities have been compounded or a and first Borders bookstore opened simultane- exactly what Detroit needs. If a business can least have gone uncurbed. The conventional ously on Woodward Avenue. The hype sur- represent the antithesis of the Hard Rock Caf's explanation for such retail deficiency is the rounding the new businesses portrayed them as economic impact, that business is a bookstore poverty of many urban communities. Fortu symbols of Detroit's impending revitalization with the purchasing power and name recogni- nately, studies and progressive corporations and transformation into a tourist spot. Local tion of Borders. Through public events, book are finding that the collective purchasing media hailed the pair as the piece de resistance of clubs, and a coffee cafe that invites lingering, power of these communities is large enough. the new Compuware world headquarters and as bookstores naturally build the sort of communi- to sustain new stores. the harbinger of all the great investment the city ty atmosphere that draws people into a city. Though the grand openings of Detroits is to reap for hosting Super Bowl XL in 2006. I would apply this positive analysis to Hard Rock Cafe and Borders were Though it seems this pair is the perfect partner- the 8,000-square-foot Borders if it were overblown, they demonstrate the difficult ship of novelty and stability and of tourism and open past 7 p.m. on any weeknight or after position of Detroit's policy makers who community, I am not convinced. 6 p.m. on weekends. With hours that vary must find the right balance between the While it is more than appropriate that so little from those of typical working pro- desperate need for investment and the neet Motown finally has a Hard Rock Cafe, policy- fessionals, the downtown store will do little for sound development policies. makers need to be careful with such economic to draw people into the city during those Until then, I'll be wearing my Hard Rock investment. By nature, Hard Rock Cafes capital- critical evening hours that reveal Detroit's Detroit T-shirt. ize on tourists' desire to broadcast the extent of vacuity. This store will primarily serve their travels; they don't focus on cultivating the Detroit's professionals, many of whom community atmosphere that Detroit lacks and probably commute past other Borders loca- Strayer can rched t LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Students should boycott added a noticeable element to the student Ancient documents show that section this year. Stutlent gov t sp mmers While I understand the desire to commem- Some things never change orate the 100th meeting of this great rivalry, I question the call for a "Blue Out," and wonder To THE DAILY: why maize was overlooked on ihis occasion if To THE DAILY: This morning, I received seven unsolicited e the intent was to create an intimidating and Two cover stories appearing in Monday's mails from the Students First party. I forwarded awe-rispiang environment. I hope this advice edition of the Daily (Parents care for kids until age: all seven of them to the IT User Advocate as a will be heeded in the future, and that maize 34, recent study says and Digging up a story: violation of the University's spam policy. I did will become the official color of choice when Undergrad unearths ancient documents) provide a not ask for these emails, nor did I appreciate such ventures are undertaken wonderful point of intersection. The first com- receivng them. Because of the Students First CLARENCE WARDELL iII ments on the "successful transition to adult-' party's blatant abuse of University technology Engineering senior hood," which "depends, perhaps more than ever, resources, I will not be voting for the Students on continuing support from parents" while the. First party, specifically for Mike Rudin, Larry ,s Cartoon mepsecond reports the discovery of letters written by Fogel, Jeremy Oliver or Russ Garber. a Roman soldier stationed in Egypt to his father, I urge all University students to boycott any misconstrues C iren's tale "who writes to ask for warm socks and boots party which resorts to abuse of the University's and to ask his reluctant father for permission to: email system in order to spread their campaign marry his girlfriend." messages. Flyers on the Diag are one thing, but TO THE DAILY: Comforting to know of the things that have spam opens up a whole other "can." I.want to thank Colin Daly for his extreme not changed in two millennia. MICHAEL ROTH sensitivity to Jews on campus. Recognizing SUDIN BHATACHARYA LSA sophomore that there is a Jewish aversion to pigs, he was Rackham careful not to depict Israel as such in his car- 'Blue Out' unimpressive, toon satirizing the three little pigs (11/18/03). b "P oweeronthis occasion, I think he was try. oom ch na d1rve, not maize a better future choice ing to be so politically correct that he over- enough sex in Daily looked the error of his metaphor. TO THE DAILY: In the well-known fairy tale, the three pigs I'm writing to express my displeasure at are each in danger of being killed. While the To THE DAILY: the "Blue Out" which is to take place this first two pigs make the fatal mistake of not Your paper is terrible. Aside from printing Saturday at the Ohio State game. My main building a strong enough barrier to protect disgusting mindless liberal drivel (your editorial gripe lies in the fact that those behind the themselves, it is the third pig that has the fore- columnists are awful), you have an incredibly organization of this seem to not be aware sight to protect himself with a strong, brick boring Weekend Magazine this year. What hap- that a "Blue Out" has little to no effect on house. The moral of the story is the impor- pened to all the stories about sex? I mean come the eye, as the navy-blue color does not tance of planning ahead and defending against on, what else do college students care about? stand out and looks like any other dark col- future attacks, a wise and prudent practice that As for last week's Weekend, I don't care to ored jacket or sweater that may be worn must, at times, be done. So while I do thank read about what I should have or could have. and is not impressive at all (see Michigan Daly for his general desire not to offend, I done about my freshmen 15. Its done, over with State 2002). The Athletic Department got it hope that he does not let this desire continue and I need to get on with my life. Frankly I'm to twist his understanding of this and other proud of the extra pounds. This year's paper is, right this year with the design of the maize welkonsre. and I quote, "for me to poop on."; T-shirts. Because of the brilliance of this well-known stories.JOSH SKARFKARsLENSS color it is easily distinguished and has Architecture senior Musicjunior VIEWPOINT Pro-Israel 'Blue Out' reductionist and alienating I I LoUIE MEIZLISH / IN PRINT The do-little assembly With the mid-term elections for the Michigan Student Assembly approaching completion, perhaps it's time for a brief history of campus poli- tics and our illustrious student government. March 2000. Hideki Tsutsumi, a stu- dent whose communications skills are otherwise less than stellar, campaigns for an entire year wearing a sandwich board and is elected MSA president. He is unable to control the raucous assembly meetings and frequently turns the gavel over to his vice president. March 2001. Matt Nolan, a smooth- talking conservative masquerading as a cen- ter leftist, leads the Blue Party to a short-lived dominance on MSA and is elect- ed president. As the public face of the stu- dent body, he speaks in support of affirmative action and works with the Uni- versity to post signs at bus stops complete with maps of the various bus routes. March 2002. Sarah Boot leads an anti- Blue coalition known as the Students First Party, composed of campus leftist as well as right-wingers disgusted with Nolan's wishy washiness on social issues. As MSA presi- dent, Boot helps establish the airBus shuttle to Detroit Metropolitan Airport. March 2003. Students First continues its dominance of MSA, this year with Angela Galardi as the elected leader. Galardi under- goes media training provided by the Universi- ty and gives semi-impressive soundbytes to national media on the Diag when the U.S. Supreme Court rules in the affirmative action cases. AirBus continues its service. Impressive, eh? OK, maybe not. Don't get me wrong, MSA does do some things. One area in which it has performed admirably is the allocation of money to stu- dent groups, with virtually no controversy surrounding the $400,000 yearly appropria- tions to the groups. Though often criticized or its long debates on "meaningless resolutions," it's hard to argue that a student assembly shouldn't be voicing its sentiments on "non- student" issues, because, yes, even wars affect students. MSA's problem, in fact, is it does small things and then touts them as huge achieve- ments. When he discovered that several seats were vacant on the Central Student Judicia- ry, there was the "student general counsel," Jason Mironov, firing off a press release as if he'd struck oil in the Frieze Building. (Don't worry, the vacancies have been filled and there's more than enough "justices" for a quorum. And that means ... I don't know. Fair elections, maybe.) But when the University decides to raise tuition by 6.5 percent - 3.5 percent- age points higher than the inflation rate - do MSA representatives say anything? Nope. Not a peep. It could establish a committee to analyze Mary Sue Coleman's budget and look at the tuition increases, maybe invite University to officials testify why program X had to be cut, why the useless program Y saw its budget doubled, etc. Or maybe that's too difficult. Or when our oh-so-benevolent Univer- sity revises the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities (I still call it "the Code"), saying it has granted students the right to legal representation at Code infraction hearings, just maybe MSA could pass a resolution blasting the Uni- versity and then organize some sort of protest. At least MSA could do more than leave it to a former chair of the Student Rights Commission to speak up and say, well, it's just not real legal representation when the lawyer can't speak at the hearing - and then leave it at that. Maybe rather than just sitting on search committees for new deans and appearing publicly with University officials to legit- imize their actions, maybe MSA officials could make some noise once in a while and, dare I say, complain. While cheap transportation to the air- port is no doubt important to most out-of- state students, it's hard to believe that running the airBus is all MSA is capable of. BY MOHAMMED ELGHOUL, ABBY HAUSLOHNER, SALAH HUSSEINI AND SHOSH RUSKIN The Progressive Arab-Jewish Alliance wishes to express its discontent with yester- day's "Blue Out," which displayed the state- ment, "Wherever we stand we stand with the views and opinions of such a large and diverse group of students under the umbrella of "Israeli Solidarity;" to do so alienates a large part of the Jewish community on campus. Many Jews cannot stand with all of the Israeli government's policies, due to the viola- tion of Palestinian human rights. The shirt can be seen as a tool to marginalize these voices of opposition and as an attempt to quell any criti- ions of both Arabs and Jews. We hope to demonstrate that these two ethnic or religious groups, which are perceived to be involved in an' eternal struggle, can realistically be unified in a movement for a just solution. The Arab and Jewish members of PAJA agree that the only just solution to this conflict is an end to the occupation and a recognition of both peoples as having the right to live in freedom, peace and -r. 1. - --41-.- Aa Meizlish can be reached at