4A -The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 20, 2004 OPINION 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 opinion. michigandaily.com tothedaily@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 Every single year, George Bush has promised to create jobs. And every year, he's ended up losing them." - Presidential candidate John Kerry, at an event in Washington where he received the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, as reported yesterday by CNN. N l- T D l ot - ES 5 nn ) _ { ,w,__ _ 1. SAM BUTLER THE SOAPBOX I I "I "& T"E bocroae a 4 01 --Wow Thoughts to ponder over break LouIE MEIZLISH As MEIZLISH SEES IT couldn't think of one single issue to write about this week. So I won't. I'll spare you the column about what the Muppets can teach us k about international rela- tions, as well as the one about Judith Steinberg Dean and gender relations in America. Instead, here's a few things to think about over Spring Break: 1. Budget cuts and dental care A Tuesday Detroit News story said it all: "On Oct. 1, the state stopped paying for, dental, chiropractic and foot care for every Medicaid recipient in the state over age 21. "From now on, Medicaid will only pay for emergency procedures - which means people ... who can't afford their own checkups will have to go without routine cleanings, fillings and gum care until their teeth are rotting." How many poor people will have to get their teeth pulled because the state couldn't afford checkups for them? Hasn't the budget cutting gone far enough? Good God, if there ever was a problem that needed to be fixed it's health care, and nothing is being done. 2. The death penalty After two Detroit police officers were shot and killed, one state legislator renewed his call to reinstate the death penalty in Michigan. Rep. Larry Julian (R-Lennon) wants the Leg- islature to place before the voters the opportu- nity to, by referendum, remove the state constitution's ban on capital punishment. After that happens, the Legislature could write laws prescribing the circumstances under which juries could apply the death penalty. Julian, a retired state trooper serving his last term in the House, said in a release that the death penalty should only be applied in the most "heinous" crimes where a "smoking gun" removes any doubt as to the guilt of the accused. While Julian's motives are surely pure - after all, it's hard to say that killing a cop-killer is unfair - the problem with our criminal jus- tice system, as is inevitably the case with all, is that it's not 100-percent perfect: there's no per- fect conviction. Some defendant will end up with a lousy lawyer, the evidence will be fabri- cated, the trial won't be fair ... whatever the case, the wrong person will eventually fry for someone else's crime, and the death of one inno- cent person is too high a price. The inherent genius of a life sentence is that if the accused is later exonerated, he still has his life. 3. Student government elections Are you ready? I mean, ARE YOU READY? It's time for the most inconsequential event of the school year, when political wannabes spend the next month hustling around campus hoping to win a popularity (or, should I say, name-recognition) contest. They enlighten all of us with brilliant political rheto- ric like "Vote Students First" or "Vote U Party." All this to pad their resumes and act as a rubber stamp for the University administration. Keep up the good work, guys. 4. What an idiot! University of Colorado President Eliza- beth Hoffman placed her school's football coach, Gary Barnett, on paid leave following outrageous remarks he made after hearing that one of his former players, female place- kicker Katie Hnidaas, has accused some for- mer teammates of rape. As printed in The New York Times, Barnett told reporters on Tuesday: "It was obvious Katie was not very good. She was awful. You know what guys do? They respect your ability. You can be 90 years old, but if you can go out and play, they'll respect you. Katie was not only a girl, she was terrible. OK? There's no other way to say it." OK, Coach, so what you're saying is that if the new teammate is good players should respect her, and then it's not OK to rape her? Or did I misunderstand - you're say- ing that because she was a lousy football player she must be lying? Don't get me wrong, I truly respect Gary Barnett's rights to free speech, but I must admit the speech I'd respect even more would begin and end with the words, "Coach, you're fired." 5. SuperTuesday Well, it looks like this election might end up being a little more interesting than all the pundits, even the most enlightened of us (me!), expected. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina now has the chance to go mano a mano with just one candidate, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. It should be noted that both of these cam- paigns were left for dead until the last couple days before the Iowa caucuses, so if there's one thing that we can learn from this whole process, it is: Elections matter. The candidate who began with the most money and the most endorsements, Howard Dean, is now out of the race. So let's see which message resonates more: George W. Bush lied to you, I served in Vietnam and I know all about national security (Kerry's); or, I spent my life fighting the big bad guys, I'll keep fighting in the White House and let's bring people together (Edwards's). 0 0 Meizlish can be reached at meizlish@umich.edu. The bitter aftertaste of Valentine's Day SOWMYA KRISHNAMURTHY AUMo ALTERAM PARTEM 0l The sweet smell of pheromones has been replaced by rotting flower bouquets and half- eaten boxes of candy. The cards have been read, checked for the important Hallmark seals and tossed out. Valentine's Day is offi- cially over. Men, relax; the pressure to impress your wives, girlfriends, mothers, etc. is over, until the ever-inane Sweet- est Day arrives at least. But we women still have a few more weeks to brag - oohing and aahing over the gifts we received. Every year I celebrate the onset of Valen- tine's with a severe case of sarcasm and indiffer- ence. Although Valentine's Day is traditionally intended to commemorate the delight of romance, society has misconstrued the holiday as an excuse for the country to increase its gross domestic product; in other words, corporate interests dipped in chocolate. According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one bil- lion Valentine's cards are sent each year, mak- ing it the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, while the Society of American Florists estimated 156 million roses were sold for Valen- tine's Day in 2003. Thus a day of affection turns into a day of consumption, with couples clamor- ing to prove their love in the form of Teddy bears and candlelight dinners. The usual rule of thumb: The more you spend, the more you love. At this point I probably sound like the proverbial CSF - cynical single female. For those who have never been so lucky as to be sin- gle on Feb. 14, the CSF is the person who vehe-, mently opposes Valentine's Day - a Valentine's grinch of sorts, who would rather have a root canal than down another one of those trite can- died hearts. But can you blame me? Society has conditioned women in particular to gauge their self-image via this day, right after birthdays and Christmas. If you do not receive any gifts with especially hefty price tags, consider yourself worthless and in need of improvement. Being giftless further negates your chances at bragging rights. Contrary to popular notion, most women pay little attention to the creativity or impetus behind a gift selection; baubles or jewelry by Tiffany's are steeped in cliche and yet women yearn to receive them. This is because the real treat of Valentine's Day is not the present itself, but the element of competition, comparing with girlfriends and obtaining the coveted envy of others. It is not so much what is acquired as how many people know about it. Why else do you think people are so eager to receive flowers and gifts in the workplace? Many bachelorettes do their utmost to escape the leprosy of singleness, if even for one day. Every major female-oriented publication boasts ideas for a dateless holiday. Some of the more revolting suggestions: "Wallow in Self- Pity for One Day" and the incomparable "Pre- tend You Have a Secret Admirer: Send a dozen red roses to your workplace and sign the card: 'To the most beautiful woman in the world.' You'll feel so special and no one will be the wiser." With about 85 percent of all Valentine's cards actually purchased by women, the latter is more disgusting than improbable. Some women, though, opt for a more noble approach. Instead of sending gifts themselves, they beg men to do it for them. Many girls would rather feverishly scroll through their cell phones and solicit the most vapid men as dates - even if this entails suffering through a terrible dinner and even worse conversation - than spend a night alone. There exists a profound paradox here. We as women pride ourselves in being modern, more intelligent and autonomous than our mothers. We do things for ourselves and not for men; you'll never catch us bare-foot and pregnant in the kitchen! Yet once a year we tell feminism to take a respite and exchange our war cry with superficiality and pathetic grov- eling; anything to avoid the risk of being labeled a "dateless wonder." There is nothing innately wrong with exchanging affection with loved ones on Valen- tine's Day, but there is a problem when actual love is replaced by an artificial display of love. Valentine's Day should be a time to commemo- rate special relationships, not to upstage and marginalize others. If you choose to, go ahead and celebrate with your mate, friends or even yourself. But do so out of personal choice, not out of the pressure to publicly consummate your love and your worth to the world. Correction: It has been brought to my attention that my last column lacked some information. When discussing Nobel Prize nominations, I failed to mention that indi- viduals other than those on the Nobel Committee can make nominations (e.g. members of national governments, interna- tional courts of law; and foreign affairs leaders). The questionable President Bush and Tony Blair nominations should be equally attributed to these people as well. I apologize for any misunderstanding this may have caused. Krishnamurthy can be reached at sowmyak@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Media conglomeration is not a real problem today TO THE DAILY: Your editorial on media conglomeration (A Goofy idea, 02/19/04) is based on a false prem- ise. The media industry is not highly concentrat- ed; furthermore, it is less concentrated than it has ever been in modern times. During the late '90s, the top 10 media com- panies accounted for only 41 percent of all media revenues. One measure of economic con- less than 12 percent of all radio stations. I refer Daily readers to the book "Who Owns the Media? Competition and Concentra- tion in the Mass Media Industry," by Ben Com- paine and Douglas Gomery, if they would like to examine the facts further. Refusing to face the facts about deregulation will lead us to a misery like that of our parents, who faced truly concentrated media markets in their youth before deregulation. n DAN KRAWIEC LSA junior got an easy "A" and didn't question his ethics. What Chirumamilla should instead complain about is the disgusting laziness of her profes- sor, who recycles entire exams after just one semester of classes, or possibly write a column on how her parents robbed her of a normal childhood. As for her assumption that students won't even help out their peers on resumes, I feel she probably needs to start associating her- self with more normal people, and she will find this probably isn't the case. Another assumption she makes that I feel is grossly off is that people come to college to only learn .~n farlr sa'rn ii-f"isn A I-71