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