4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, December 9, 2003 OP/ED U £ut & 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've never known an administration more narrow, more limited and more mean; the lack of respect and the meanness is beyond me." - Actor Robert Redford, on the Bush administration's environmental policies, before afundraiser in Nevada for Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, as reported by The Associated Press. c"Oumi'AAW COLIN DALY HliE MICHIGAN DALY R8YOU A IF 2 OTH L EM - Say 'perspective' one more time I dare you AUBREY HENRETTY NEUROTICA 11 semester I've place, somewhere joyless, thanks to this lot of people are telling me I need perspec- been sitting in guy with the books. tive as though perspective is a physical the same seat Today, it's the final insult. My thoughts object, a kind of diploma I'll receive if I in my philosophy dis- drift (or rather, careen) toward all the suffer long enough in the real world. The cussion section (the things I try to pretend I don't think about, "real world" being a horrible, stressful back corner on the like "Maybe I should have been a biology place where everyone's either out to get r. left), but Wednesday I (or at least political science or economics) you or couldn't care less that you exist. walk in one minute major" and "God I'hope I don't end up Essentially the same things they told me at late and this guy is sit- writing infomercials." the end of high school about college. ting in my seat - I think about graduating in April and It's not that I doubt life's ability to kicked back, comfy, the year sabbatical I'll be taking from make me the interesting person I've always books all over the place - like he's been academia and how people usually think I'm dreamed of becoming. What I doubt is that waiting for this a long, long time. I gape at going to do it because I want to get some any one experience (or set of experiences, him. It's stupid, it's just a chair (my practical or wacky life experience under place of residence, terrible or fantastic job, chair), but I am incredulous. Who does my belt so I'll have something to write sight seen or derring-do done) can change that? Who switches seats with three class about later. Their eyes light up and their much of what keeps a person awake at periods to go? And to the back corner seat! imaginations run wild: So I want to be a night. Time, place, location, occupation - The back corner seat is an institution. This writer, do I? I must be planning something these are secondary. It's always the stupid is not merely a case of gee-I-think-I'll-sit- spectacular! One of those crazy eccentric little things that make or break us - the somewhere-else-today. This is deliberate. things you always hear about writers guys that steal our seats, the idiotic things This is outrageous. doing: opening up a bikini shop in Tikrit, we blurt out and regret instantly and replay I sit down one row forward and three working on an assembly line in a factory over and over in our minds every day for- seats to the right and try to shake off my where they put the covers on telephone ever, the tiny little offhanded remarks that righteous indignation. Righteous indigna- books, locking myself in a log cabin and shatter our hearts into a billion pieces. The tion, like dread and love, never creeps up subsisting only on wheat berries and creek small joys: long letters from dear friends, on me - it drops from the sky like an water and carving a novella into the walls cloud-watching, singing in the shower. anvil to the head and I see stars (or hearts with a Swiss army knife. Nearby Meijers and good pizza, fountain or tweeting birds or what have you) until Usually I smile and let them think what pens and coffee at night. something equally unsubtle snaps me out they like. Maybe. If there's one thing I'm Perspective on one's place is illusive by of it. For now, though, it's hopeless. My good at, it's leading people to believe I'm definition. We can't really know where we defenses have been down because it's the more interesting than I actually am. But stand until after we're not standing there end of the semester and I'm behind - ter- some people worry. They worry I'll get anymore, but we can learn plenty about the ribly behind in everything, school-related married and forget to go to graduate world from just about anywhere if we keep and otherwise - and at times like this I school, or that I won't do anything danger- our eyes peeled and our minds open. Some- rely on small joys to keep my veneer of ous or miserable enough to remind me that times we don't need to change seats to fig- relative sanity from disintegrating, to keep all the world is not like college, that most ure out that the back corner really is the me thinking about the things that are sup- Americans are going to vote President Evil best one in the whole room. posed to matter to everyone, the big-pic- into office again next year, that big cities ture problems: politics, justice, God, etc. and small towns can be unfriendly places. Henretty can be reached I'm tired and now I have to sit in a strange "Perspective" is the word of the day. A at ahenrett@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Career Center offers valuable sewices to students TO THE DAILY: On behalf of the Career Center staff, I want to thank you for yesterday's editorial (Need a job?, 12/08/03) on the merits of using Career Center services. We believe it is important for students to know about the myriad resources available on campus and appreciate you taking the time to identify our office as one in which students can get the assistance they need as they seek out intern- ships, full-time employment or continue their education. On a large campus, it is often dif- ficult to capture students' attention, so we value the fact that you've taken the time to indicate to your readership the ways in which our office can assist them on career issues. In this type of an economy, students need to tap every opportunity available. Thank you again for sharing information about the Career Cen- ter with the student community. KERIN BORLAND Senior associate director, Career Center Sport writers and coaches mistaken, Oklahoma best team in the country TO THE DAILY: In what is a very rare occurrence, the sports writers and the National Collegiate Athletic Association football coaches actually agree on the No. 1 and 2 teams in the coun- try. It's such a shame, then, that they must both be so horribly wrong. Then again, that's nothing new. While the 35-7 shellacking Kansas State gave to Oklahoma may have shattered the appearance of Sooner infallibility, it did absolutely nothing to elevate the skill level of either LSU or Southern Cal. Southern Cal. has coasted along to a lack- luster one-loss season with a weak schedule. The score of its season-ending win over Ore- gon State deceptively hid the truth of the game: an inconsistent offense and a defensive secondary that has holes a mile wide. Good team? For sure. Do they have a chance against a tried and tested opponent? The hun- gry Wolverines will prove an emphatic "no" beyond this writer. Trojan fans argue that they were never beaten by 28 points as the Sooners were. So what? The Trojans never played a team who finished in the top ten. Especially this season, we have seen that on any given Sat- urday, any team can beat anybody else. People who give this big loss (and it is a big one) absolute weight in the national title race are intentionally missing the point. So I'll spell it out for them: At the end of the day, the Sooners would knock the piss out of the Trojans. They're not even in the same class. The same writers that voted in the Trojans as the number one team in the land this week wrote last week that this 2003 Oklahoma team is one of the best college teams to ever play the game. What? You can't have it both ways. You can't write one week "best of all time" and then write "not even top two in the coun- try." It makes no sense. Nothing has changed. Sure they lost. But they are the same team who week after week dominate opponents. Even the best have bad days. Are Trojan fans going to cry about this for the next year? Of course. Will they wail about the injustice of the BCS. They will argue that their impending loss to Michigan was just a bad day - that they really are bet- ter than that. I don't like the BCS as a rule. I don't like it because it usually gets things wrong. Com- puters look at nothing but numbers and ignore the big picture and the context. Per- haps they're learning because for once, the computers got it right. CHRIS IMIRIE Alum Lassiter's lectures are engaging and informative, worthy of the Golden Apple TO THE DAILY: As a recent graduate who possesses great adoration for the University, I often reflect upon my time in Ann Arbor with a obfuscatory warmth that helps me ignore the school's few shortcomings and instead focus on its many strengths. However, even with this cheery predisposition, I am still able to separate the truly remarkable experi- ences from others that were simply great. in which I am lent perspective by Lassiter's teaching. His courses were encompassing educa- tional opportunities, also the products of the well-structured and meaningful discussion sections I attended. While the quality of those sessions owed, in great part, to the graduate student instructors who led them, those graduate students seemed to have received excellent guidance and understand- ing from Lassiter. His passion was always evident. Lassiter, in my mind, is one of the University's faculty members who sets the bar for excellence in education. Given these experiences, it came as no surprise to me that Lassiter won a Golden Apple award last week. He is a most deserv- ing teacher, and the University community should continue to recognize and appreciate the wonderful assets he contributes to the school. Congratulations, Matt. JOSEPH LITMAN Alum Oriental' not a racial slur, has no negative connotations To THE DAILY: I was appalled after reading Lauren Strayer's column (Racism among friends, 12/04/03). In the column, she described a meeting with an old friend that casually used the term "Oriental" to describe the various ethnicities in his apartment. Since when has this word become a racial slur? Strayer should not have overreacted to this usage, as it is common usage in society. She thought that her friend was a racist and a bigot just because he said there were some Oriental people on the second floor. The term Oriental is used commonly in society, including by people that consider themselves Oriental/Asian. The guy across the hall from me is half Thai, and his mother uses the term Oriental to refer to herself. The prestigious University of London has a School of Oriental and African Studies. There is a research group called the American Schools of Oriental Research that studies "the peoples and cultures of the Near East." Nearly all of my family and friends have used that term. I have never once in my life ...