4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 14, 2004 OPINION 4 U 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 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 pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE This is the single most evil thing I have ever experienced." - Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly, explaining on his website, billoreilly.com, why he has filed a lawsuit against individuals accusing him of sexual harassment. WDN iF FNNY MiASCHIF.F FolLOW, T1I:I'.lThOU %ktR~LT CQVE 1.WE FoR L4F1 AY FOR EYE, -RcOTH FOR -Tf11 HlNti FOR H 4NPtr O oT Pop, So~ 5~URNNCI FOR BURNINGi, NOVNb FOKWDVNI>) &TF1PE fOR STRiP C. leXOD&)S al ;2B 49L COLIN DALY TLNM:qIA i .Y u CAR.Vl- 111 N GRAN 1TJ When (and why) will it end? ZAC PESKOWITZ THE Lo WER FREQIENCIES "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." - Stein's Law as pos- tulated by Herbert Stein, the late chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. -Ior those of us who don't follow the vicissitudes of the fashion world, the Lance Armstrong LiveStrong bracelet is the most highly vis- ible trend in apparel. More than 8 million of the bracelets, which retail for $1 a piece with the proceeds going to the Lance Arm- strong Foundation, have been sold, and the University community is certainly respon- sible for a disproportionate share of those sales. The bracelets make a great case study in the adoption of social trends, and their popularity raises a dilemma that most com- mentators have ignored: When will we reach the other tipping point? Namely, when will people stop wearing the seemingly ubiqui- tous bracelets? Giving up on the LiveStrong bracelet isn't exactly as simple as switching in your pair of UGG winter boots for the comforts of spring's flip-flops. The bracelets bill themselves as a symbol for deep values, and merely giving up on them would suggest callousness to the plight of cancer survi- vors. For most causes celebres that generate an apparel-based sign of support there is a tangible sign that a wrong has been reme- died and the symbol can be dropped. A war ends. A political prisoner is freed. A corpo- rate tax bill is vetoed, etc. If Emile Zola had asked the dreyfusards to wear pins featuring a drawing of Devil's Island they would have known to end their effort when Dreyfus was eventually pardoned by the French govern- ment. Of course, cancer isn't going away within any of our time horizons despite the best efforts of groups like the Lance Arm- strong Foundation. So are we obliged to wear them ad infinitum? The first and most pressing concern is olfactory in origin. It's true that the LiveStrong bracelet is made of 100 percent synthetic silicon rubber and unlike, to give an example, a hemp lanyard, the LiveStrong bracelet is less susceptible to this fetid threat. But while the stench threshold of the LiveStrong bracelet is substantially high- er than in the case of other, less synthetic wristwear, it is nonetheless an unavoidable reality. Maybe not today, maybe not tomor- row but someday soon a foul cloud of odor will hover around everyone still wearing their bracelets. From a social welfare per- spective, continuing to wear the bracelets after this fail-safe date would be simply disastrous. Fortunately, the Michigan winter provides an excellent, low-cost escape opportunity. As soon as the bitter cold mandates the don- ning of long-sleeved shirts and bulky coats the bracelet can be tastefully, and unno- ticeably, removed. Six months later, when you can once again allow your wrists to be exposed to open air without fear of frost- bite, the bracelets will be gone and no one will be the wiser about this abandonment of principle. The accumulation of debris and body odor clearly presents an insuperable barrier to the perpetual popularity of the bracelets, but there are other considerations that suggest the bracelets may have to be thrown off before nature works its noisome course. Obviously, no one wears them for social acceptance or to get a hot date - that would be wrong and self-interested and all the things that the Lance Armstrong Foundation stands against. But let's just make the highly speculative assumption that there are actually some peo- ple depraved enough to wear the bracelets for conformity pressures. So while seeing that Ben Affieck, Matt Damon, Bono, Angelina Jolie and John Kerry were all wearing the bracelet might have encouraged some people to go to their nearest Niketown, plop down a dollar and do their part in the fight against cancer, seeing that the googly-eyed kid in your stats lecture wears one might not result in the same behavioral response. Actually, market research has definitively shown that no one has purchased one of the bracelets because of John Kerry. But the greatest obstacle of all remains the one first articulated by the great, self- loathing Groucho Marx. "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member." Eventually and despite our best efforts, we are all forced to accede to the logic of this tragic conclusion. Peskowtiz can be reached at zpeskowi@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 4 Yankees fans are loyal during the regular season TO THE DAILY: As a Yankees fan, I am offended by a recent column published in the Oct. 13 edi- tion of The Michigan Daily. In response to the column, Fans at the root of Yankee hatred, by Sharad Mattu, I feel that Mattu's absurd- ly biased opinion is faulty and selfish. The fans of the New York Yankees are among the most loyal in all of sports. Mattu says, "Yankees fans pay no attention to baseball until October, because they know they'll make the playoffs." Personally, I went to 10 games this season. This sea- son, the Yankees had a home attendance of 3,775,292. That's about 300,000 more fans than the next team. The Mets finished 17th, and they have 40 percent of the New York area fan base, according to a Quinnipiac Poll. My Captain Theory proves how unedu- cated Met fans really are. John Franco, a local New Yorker and struggling pitcher for the Mets for 15 years, is the captain of the team and the heart of the Mets franchise. Yet game after game, Met fans boo him when- ever he enters or exits a game. In the Bronx, Derek Jeter is the captain of the Yankees. Yankee fans never booed him, even when he batted .189 at the end of May. If someone is going to hate the Yankees, hate them because of the payroll, hate them for their front office and hate them because they win all the time. Do not hate them for the fans! Mattu, I know that you are jealous of the Yankees, and you chose the wrong team to root for growing up, but don't bring your frustration out on the fans of the Yan- kees; it's very unprofessional. I'd like to close with a quote recently stated by Steve Lyons (baseball commentator), "They are the most loyal and knowledgeable fans in all of baseball." Matt Steinberg LSA sophomore Daily editorial page finally home to variety of views TOT HR nT V. rial board more encompassing of the broad spectrum of political views that exist, rath- er than positing the pretense that only one logical position exists on every issue. I sin- cerely hope the Daily will continue to offer a more balanced gamut of political opinions in the future and thus alter the exclusively liberal slant that has so characterized it in the past. Ian MacKenzie Rackham Housing rush ties Greek system's hands TO THE DAILY: Although I was surprised to see a Daily editorial stick up for the Greek system at the University (Greek autonomy, 10/12/2004), I couldn't help but notice the nice little cheap shot the editorial made at fall Rush. What it failed to mention was all the pressure our national organizations put on us to fill up the housing leases really quickly. The edi- torial should have mentioned that the root of the problem lies in lease-signing in Ann Arbor. Housing corporations make us all com- mit to a lease very early in the fall semester. While I agree that Greek Rush is too early in the year, it needs to pre-empt the housing rush. We would all struggle each year to fill our homes that so many people on this cam- pus love to come to and trash with us. What I would recommend is some kind of student renters' union. If we could all sign some type of legally binding contract that states, "I will not sign a lease until (insert date)," I believe the Greek system coulddefinitely delaythe Rush process. Joseph Kesner LSA senior The letter writer is a member of the fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi. Bush has made a number of mistakes as president TO THE DAILY: When an audience member asked President Bush to name his three biggest mistakes in last week's debate, Bush failed to name a single one. Bush not only lacks the resolve a brief entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack on U.S. Soil." You failed to capture Osama Bin Laden when you had him cornered in Tora Bora (this was consistent with your policy of outsourcing American jobs to foreign labor markets). You lied to the American people, Con- gress and the world by telling us that Sad- dam had WMDs when he clearly did not and hastily rushed us into Iraq without a plan to win or an exit strategy. You gave a tax cut to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans (probably your old drinking buddies) and turned our $5 trillion projected surplus into a $2 trillion deficit, wasting $7 trillion. You failed to fund the No Child Left Behind Act, sending a crushing blow to the public school system and leaving .millions of children without a quality education. I'd like to recommend Mr. Bush, that you keep a copy of these points in your pocket to "refresh your memory" the next time you're faced with that question. America can't afford four more years of your mis- takes. Omkar Karthikeyan Medical School LETTERS POLICY The Michigan Daily welcomes letters from all of its readers. Letters from University students, faculty, staff and administrators will be given priority over others. Letters should include the writer's name, college and school year or other University affiliation. The Daily will not print any letter containing statements that cannot be verified. Letters should be kept to approxi- mately 300 words. The Michigan Daily reserves the right to edit for length, clarity and accura- cy. Longer "viewpoints" may be arranged with an editor. Letters will be run according to order received and the amount of space available. Letters should be sent over e-mail to tothedaily@michigandaily.com or mailed to the Daily at 420 Maynard St. Editors can be reached via e-mail at editpage.editors @umich.edu. Letters e-mailed to the Daily will be given priority over those dropped off in person or sent via the U.S. 4 d