4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, February 2, 2005
OPINION
eIJE £tdi~u Mg
JASON Z. PESICK
Editor in Chief
SUHAEL MOMIN
SAM SINGER
Editorial Page Editors
ALISON Go
Managing Editor
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890
420 MAYNARD STREET
ANN ARBOR, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
NOTABLE
QUOTABLE
''President Bush
should forget about
privatizing Social
Security. It will not
happen. The sooner
he comes to that
realization, the better
off we are."
- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid
(D-Nev.), speaking yesterday morning
after a Democratic caucus meeting, as
reported by The Los Angeles Times.
I THINK THE
U.S. HAS ULTERIOR
MOTIVES IN IRAQ
ITIKTHE
U.S. HAS ULTERIOR
MOTIVES IN IRAQ
SAM BUTLER ThE seAPBOx
"
y\
1 ,
r.
A F IT E E [ L E C T ON S
BEFOE lELECTIENS
"
Some feedforward for the kids
ZACK DENFELD 8-BI CR1TIC
Instead of tying up loose
ends, or giving an over-
view of the tumultuous
last six months, I thought
my last column for the Daily
should introduce a few new
threads ripe for investiga-
tion, and - why not -
make some more wild and
flailing predictions. Hell, if
sports columnists can get
away with it...
As political parties begin what will probably be
a decade-long drift into a new configuration (My
prediction: Dems with any spine become Greens,
the GOP becomes even more unstable waiting to
bust, fracturing into libertarianists, neocons and
populist conservatives. And almost all of the poli-
ticians will continue to sell the last vestiges of our
hard-won humanist souls to corporations), here
are couple of equations to keep your eye out for.
Atoms = Bits.
Most people who are awake, (i.e. those few citi-
zens not lulled into an infotainment haze of Fox
News fluff pieces or reality-TV dreamscapes)
realize the absolutely revolutionary effect that
biotechnology and (probably) nanotechnology
will have on human cultures, if it even delivers
a small part of what the proponents are promis-
ing. True designer babies are a ways off, but bio-
photo-copiers are basically here. Want a sculpture
grown from your own cells? Buy me a plane ticket
to Australia and we'll talk.
Believe it or not, art and design will again
become central to society's discourse (note to the
United States: Ramp up private and public fund-
ing for the arts, especially anomalous thinkers, or
you're going to be left in the dust) because we are
going to have to figure out if, and how, we want
to design life. And design is still the province of
artists (Although do keep in mind that the term
artist is larger than it has ever been).
The debates are going to be glorious - and
the strange bedfellows, stranger than ever. Think
about it: bioconservative (and neoconservative)
Francis Fukuyama teaming up with culture-
jamming lefties and the Christian Right to try
to legislate hallucinogenic genetically modified
watermelons out of existence in order to "save
democracy" as well as eco-diversity, while trans-
humanists and extropians led by Ray Kurzweil
will be trying to clone themselves as living sculp-
ture or freeze-drying their grey matter in order
to upload their brains sometime in the 2050s. At
least C-Span will be a gas...
On that note:
Slow = the new "Fast."
The 20th century sure whizzed by. The nearly
unshakable faith in speed that modernism brought
was ratcheted up to frighteningly new highs dur-
ing the "American century." As roboticist, and all
around crazy-man/cyber-shaman Jan Moravec
tells us, humans are reaching "escape velocity,"
soon to be replaced by progeny who probably
don't need or necessarily want us around.
But as I float in my infotainment bubble, with
52 new e-mails, a cell phone call and sound, light
and info pollution preventing me from me get-
ting my damn bearings, or putting my feet to the
ground, it's obvious that it's time to slow down.
Some nice thoughts:
1. The slow food movement (et al.). Enjoy-
ing a properly prepared meal, in the company of
community members, with a glass of wine, a few
hours to relax and converse and, most important-
ly, utilizing locally organically grown produce
whenever possible (encouraging true-cost eco-
nomics). Of course, as identity-correctors the Yes
Men have pointed out, if developed nations start
making time for slow food or siestas, it would
sure screw up the global economy, what with
different, (and specifically) slower working and
living schedules. The World Trade Organization
isn't threatened by protesters, but geographically
specific culinary activists? That's threatening.
2. Place matters. Come on, even the most
extreme free-market-or-bust whack jobs have got
to admit American strip malls and their conve-
nient redundancy are starting to get a little sore
on the eyes, never mind our brains. This is not a
radical indictment of capitalism run amok (That's
for later), but, unmodified capitalism plus culture
minus public funding for positive externalities
equals places that are the same and suck. One
might be able to get his bearings in the informa-
tion onslaught if he knew where the hell he was
located, but when every damn suburban enclave
has the same few big box stores plopped down,
and the powerful folk live in houses behind fenc-
es behind gates with guards, only accessible by
car, is it any surprise we're all wandering around
the world wide information traffic jam wonder-
ing when we'll reach our destination? For some
solace try "Digital Ground" by the University's
own Prof. Malcolm McCullough or the fine folks
at www.headmap.org Know your place! The start
of the space/time revolution?
I wanted to drop a couple of lines about waste
= food, but it appears I have rambled on for too
long. Short-list reading recommendations: "Natu-
ral Capitalism," and "Cradle to Cradle" and all
that jive. But be warned: An eco-realist who can't
name at least five native species is just a free-mar-
ket apologist wearing tree-hugger garb. Until we
meet in the videodrome:
Your loyal troublemaker,
Zack
Denfeld can be reached
at zcd@umich.edu
0
0
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Daily focuses only on
negative side of Detroit
TO THE DAILY:
I cannot say how disappointed I am with Dan-
iel Adams's column (The myth of the Detroit renais-
sance, 01/31/2005) and in the Daily in general. I am
preparing to graduate in April, and in all my time
here, I do not think I have read one article about
Detroit that did not include a negative perspective
or underhanded remark. Even when you tried to
celebrate Detroit in Weekend Magazine last year,
you still managed to fit in enough of the downfalls
to outweigh the good aspects. If I did not know bet-
ter, I would say the Daily is deliberately perpetuat-
ing the stereotypes and myths about Detroit. We
are a diverse campus with students from all over
the country and the world, many of who have no
personal experience with Detroit. What do these
students think when they read the Daily describe
Detroit as a "failing city," rife with violence, politi-
cal turmoil and economic setbacks? The Daily has
failed to give a balanced viewpoint on Detroit and
has consistently downplayed all the improvements
that have been made.
I acknowledge that Detroit is struggling to
overcome many obstacles, but why do we always
have to focus on the problems? Drew Sharp's col-
umn in last Saturday's Detroit Free Press did a
good job of illustrating how Detroit can recognize
its problems, like any major city, but not dwell on
them. Detroit is trying to fix itself, but we do not
need to make the job harder by saying things like
"stop talking about the renaissance." Momentum
is a precious thing, and it would be a shame to
waste all of it that we have built up in recent years.
I do not know how much time Adams has spent in
Detroit, but I have lived there my entire life, and
for the past five years, I have worked downtown
during the summers. I hear about the renaissance
as well, but I also see growth everywhere and
people coming to have a good time, not in spite of
being in Detroit, but because they are in Detroit.
Detroit a failing city? I hear about it. I just don't see
it. So to Adams and the Daily still talking about it:
Please stop.
Paul Indyk
LSA senior
Columnist ignorant, too
pessimistic about Detroit
Tn ryr Th *Ilt .
alone, make up a critical component of creating a
vibrant and livable city.
Last Saturday we drove downtown for the auto
show, parked cheaply in a structure away from
Cobo, took the People Mover, which dropped us
off inside of Cobo, then took the People Mover
again to Greektown for dinner. Unlike Adams's
claim that people came downtown to see the auto
show and then simply left, I can guarantee that
thousands of others did the same thing as we did,
pouring millions of dollars into the downtown
economy.
When it comes to Detroit, we feel that you can
either cop out and join with the "Detroit sucks"
crowd or you can realize the problems and help
work toward a solution. We read your column,
and what we hear is simply another person refus-
ing to give the city a chance, without offering any
solution or suggestion to make it better. We hear
people spouting that kind of uninformed self-righ-
teousness, and just think: Please stop.
Michael Rohde
LSA senior
Brad Johnson
LSA junior
Preserve cheer without
offensive vulgarity
TO THE DAILY:
As I'm sure many are well aware, Executive
Associate Athletic Director Michael Stevenson
recently made the decision to start ejecting any
spectators who participate in the profane ending
of the "C-Ya" cheer that has been a staple of the
Michigan Hockey experience at Yost Ice Arena.
Yost has a reputation of being arguably the most
difficult CCHA venue for any away team to per-
form at, and our Wolverines thrive on the pres-
sure that the crowd puts on the opposition. The
proof that supports this is evident when you com-
pare our team's home record to its away record.
Friday's loss to Northern marked the end of a
long home conference winning streak; converse-
ly, at times the team has struggled to perform on
the road. The "C-Ya' cheer is not only a catalyst
that excites the crowd, it is a piece of Michigan
tradition that must be preserved.
I must admit, the cheer has a vulgar ending,
and I agree that it must be changed to better rep-
resent the character and integrity of University
students. It is unfortunate that the current final
vn11lr or in ;,~the chan,,t c-anht on at all-!and it
My message to the student body that supports
the hockey team is this: please be reasonable.
Cheer as loud and as intensely as you possibly can,O
but please, leave the cocksuckers at home.
Matt Rodriguez
Engineering freshman
C-Ya chant a part of
tradition-rich program
TO THE DAILY:
As a former hockey season ticket holder and
cover boy for the Detroit Free Press "Puck"
magazine about the Yost cheers in 2003, I am
saddened to read that the athletic department is
taking such drastic measures to end what has
become such tradition. Yost Ice Arena has been
compared to the storied basketball arena Cam-
eron Indoor Stadium at Duke University. Those
student fans, like ours at Yost, are known for cre-
ative, oftentimes off-color cheers. Students make
up these teams and it's the students that support
the teams so ferociously. The athletic department
has taken steps to stop the student section before,
and this is another step in the wrong direction.
First, it split the student section in two parts with
the University's players' parents in between , then
it moved the band to the other side of the ice,
hoping that this would end the verbal taunting
visiting parents had to endure from the students.
Things did not change, thankfully.
Yes, these cheers contain words that par-
ents might found offensive, but these words are
much more tame than what you would expect to
hear at any other sporting event these days. Red
Berenson has told the student section numerous
times that we help provide "a goal a game." By
removing these cheers, the tradition is being
killed off. Without the students' cheers, Yost
would not be an imposing place to play. Having S
gone to a few away games while I was at the
University, our players receive the same sort of
treatment, if not worse when on the road. The
University is hated in the CCHA for it great
team, hostile stadium and rich tradition, so why
fix what isn't broken?
Ben Madden
Alum
Local man explains his
actions, thanks students 0
...,5 .+..u. ..i. ~wa (. .F....w ::...; i +ii..4 r% :: t ' 'N.r+iS+ 'iiG