4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 10, 2004 i UPINION a~be Mtch npm&du 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com opinion.michigandaily . com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 JORDAN SCHRADER Editor in Chief JASON Z. PESICK Editorial Page Editor 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 " Cable thrives on repetition and ... exhaustive analysis, which has to constantly be freshened. If there's a powerful piece of video to fuel it, it's going to be repeated even more." -CBS News President Andrew Heyward explaining why the media overplayed Howard Dean's scream after the Iowa caucuses, as reported by the Associated Press. COLIN DALY THE MICHIGAN DALY 4 1 ,,.r .,. ' - n . t , q r M v 1'0~ r =eot*9 " You probably think this column's about you, don't you? AUBREY HENRETTY NEUROTICA The Internet is destroying our generation's capacity for confronta- tion. Once upon a time, we were tough - we held our own in dodge- ball and full-contact foursquare - but no more. We have spent too many years in electronic worlds where there are no immediate conse- quences for the things we say and do, and it has turned us into a bunch of solipsistic, passive- aggressive brats. E-mail is a good example. You would scarcely believe some of the terrible, terrible things people have said to me about my writ- ing, my intelligence, my character, my moti- vations, my soul - assessments all based entirely on the columns I've written for the Daily - via this beast. Things that would have horrified their mothers and that I know they wouldn't have said if they thought they might meet me someday. E-mail turns the cowardly arrogant and the arrogant shrill, and it saves all of them from having to own up to what they've said. Another example: There was a big article in The New York Times Sunday Magazine this week about computer-virus writers and how most of them never actually send their viruses to anyone. Apparently there's a huge online com- munity of virus writers, and they post the source codes to their data-devouring, server-crashing concoctions in public webspace where any idiot can (and does) copy and circulate them. The virus writers shrug off any damage their viruses do, saying that, well, it isn't their fault some idiot turned the viruses loose. It's a handy excuse, and more and more young people are co-opting it. It's not a girl's fault if, for instance, a guy cheats on his girl- friend (twice) with her and this girl writes about it in her LiveJournal and a friend of a friend of a friend of the girlfriend's reads it, and by the end of the day, the girlfriend shows up at the guy's house with a printed copy of the entry and stuffs it down his cheating throat. Right? Venues that make passive-aggressive hijinks so easy and so much fun are bound to lull us into some nasty habits, and unfortu- nately those habits may creep into our flesh- and-blood lives if we're not careful. Like this: My roommate and I live in a base- ment apartment, and, though we have never met the people who live directly above us, we hate them. Hate. They are loud, and not in a lovable music-blaring, hard-partying sort of way. No, if the racket we endure is any indication, the peo- ple upstairs awake every morning promptly at 5:00 a.m., at which point they pound the floor (a.k.a. my bedroom ceiling) with sledgeham- mers for several minutes. And roughly every 45 minutes after that for the rest of the day, they drop pots and pans and bricks and marbles and canned goods and medicine balls and small appliances on the floor, just to make sure no one is catching a quick nap down here. It drives us crazy, but we never complain. Maybe one of us knocked on the ceiling once. Now, the indoor stairwell leading down to our apartment is extremely dark. There are two light "fixtures" (a term I use very loosely here) - one at the top of the stairs, in front of our neighbors' door, and one at the bottom, in front of ours. We recently changed our bulb, but when we got home the other day, it was out and the other one was working for the first time in weeks. We could have shrugged and concluded that maybe light bulbs didn't last quite as long as we'd thought. We could have knocked on the door at the top of the stairs and said Excuse us, but yesterday your light wasn't working and ours was and today your light is working and ours isn't, and we were just wondering whether it was a very well timed coincidence or a case of you stealing our light bulb and thinking we wouldn't notice. But no. We are 21st century college stu- dents. We had a plan. We would switch the light bulbs back late at night while the lead- footed indoor-hopscotch players upstairs were sleeping soundly, dreaming of loud, heavy things. And we were going to leave a copy of today's Daily - open to this page, on which there would be a column exposing them as the loud, despicable thieving hooli- gans that they are - in plain view on the stairs. Brilliant, I know. We almost did it, too, but just as we were about to exchange the worthless old bulb from the bottom of the stairs for the shiny new one at the top of the stairs, we realized that the worthless one was too big to fit in the upper fixture, meaning it couldn't possibly'have been there in the first place. Oops. It's a sheepish feeling I'm glad for, one I wholly deserve, and one I hope doesn't vanish entirely from the public conscience as dodgeball is banned and journals go live. Henretty can be reached at ahenrett@umich.edu. 0 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Approach to recent health hazards seems half-hazard, 'U' should rethink policies To THE DAILY: As a student, a parent and a registered nurse, I read the front page of the Feb. 6 edition from varying point of view. I am referring specifically to the adjacent sto- ries about the flu outbreak in Markley Hall and the sewage backup in Pierpont Com- mons (Flu outbreak spreads and Restau- rant stays open despite sewage backup, 02/06/04). As a registered nurse and as a parent of an undergraduate - who does not live in Markley - I felt that the reaction of the Housing Office, Health Services and Occu- pational and Environment Health was appropriate for the situation in the resi- dence hall. However, I was quite frankly appalled to read of the decision, apparently with the sup- port of OSEH, to allow the Earl of Sandwich in Pierpont Commons to remain open in the wake of a sewage spill. The concern and response to the situation in the residence hall should have carried over to the incident in Pierpont Commons. The description of handwashing and restricted contact in the res- idence halls is an appropriate response to the spreading gastrointestinal virus. However, the bacteria commonly found in sewage can cause many of the symptoms being experienced by students with the flu, and in some cases, can be more dangerous. To set up handwashing stations in residence halls and then allow food preparation to be car- ried out by employees who have cleaned up a sewage spill is contradictory at best, and danger- ous at worst. I would suggest that OSEH review its procedures with all employees and act more responsibly and conservatively in future responses to risks to food safety and the health of patrons of the Catering Department. YVONNE FORD School of Nursing Coverage of racial profiling commendable, but contained some inaccuracies TO THE DAILY: Thank you for your coverage on the recent release of the Ann Arbor Police Depnartment stopped was inconsequential. In addition, I challenged the absence of gender data that council had sought. As the sole council member to challenge these findings at the meeting, I must empha- size that the Daily's editorial on this matter was simply wrong as a matter of fact. WENDY WOODS Ann Arbor City Council Fifth ward Hockey fans entitled to freedom of speech at Yost TO THE DAILY: As a fourth-year ticket holder, "cowbell guy" and longtime fan of Michigan hockey, I feel sick to my stomach every time I read a letter about how the fans at Yost Ice Arena need to clean up their act and censor their words (Time for 'U' community to rethink hockey cheer, 02/09/04). Yost fans have been counted by numerous pub- lications some of the most intense and support- ive in the country. As a group, we have a long tradition upon which to draw, which is one of the reasons there is such an intense atmosphere during the game. For as bad as some would say it is now, it used to be worse. A few years ago, our students used to individually pick fights with the opposing teams' fans, which was classless behavior, and thankfully snuffed out by Red and the athletic director. Now, however, some "fans" are also calling for the group censorship of the whole crowd because of a few vulgarities. Does anybody actually think what we say is worse than what you will run into by flipping the chan- nels on the television? I would rather bring my little brother to a hockey game than have let him see Justin and Janet practically having sex live on network television. If you would rather not support your team by chanting along with the students, then don't, that's your choice. But don't try to ruin the fun of a few college students by criticizing their behavior long after you have graduated and for- gotten what it's like to be in college. And in case you were wondering, we added "We love you Red" to the end of the cheer because we want him to know that our cheering is not out of disrespect for him, but because we want to support Michigan hockey with every- thing we have. KYLE ARON Engineering senior Daily's endocrsement of Fria i artv 1 ci ivwtia out for our interest? They seemed to have been bought not on any actual substance but because of some perception of that congenial Southern charisma. I tell you he's selling snake oil! He may not be negative in his tactics, but that's because he is an opportunist with no real mes- sage. What makes you think a first-term senator has the experience that we need to win more decisive battles in Washington when he doesn't even support the common interest when he has had the opportunity? The Daily mentions that he doesn't come from a particular unique background, but he does. He amassed a fortune as a trial lawyer - the profession that is in large part respon- sible for why we do not have affordable health care in this country, the rate of mal- practice insurance. My father supported Bush in 2000 and has vowed to vote for any Democrat but Edwards. I attest that any of the five others candidates are a better choice, especially Howard Dean, who has inspired a genera- tion to believe that we actually have the power to make a difference, not that it's up to some smooth-talking sugar daddy to make it all better. You should know better! DAVE SOMERS Rackham Panel's speaker does not promote a positive attitude TO THE DAILY: Last Friday, the Daily covered Students for Choice's panel discussion on reproductive rights (Speaker pushes for abortion activism, 02/06/04): One of the main speakers at this event was Laszlo Sogor, medical director of Planned Par- enthood in Cleveland. During his talk, Sogor described some instances when he would consider it necessary to perform a partial-birth abortion procedure. One case he presented was that of a baby with an extra chromosome 13, a condition similar to Down Syndrome, according to Sogor. This chromosomal disorder causes developmental disability. Or, as Sogor put it, "the brain activity ain't there." He explained further, that after the baby is born, "it cries like a cat for about 15 hours and then dies." The callousness of his words hit me hard - I have a brother and a sister with Down Syn- * 0 a la # JJ.1C C.x 1 47k# y Gi v4 14 F.# b k3r'.kf ... 'l l.7t }aC7 :: .............. Fkii x lF+,ra *k s x wxwvv3rs c. s. .v+ w r .: