4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 17, 2005 OPINION I LI p uiu 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 If you live to be a million, you will never ever in your life meet anyone more blessed than me." - Robert Blake, upon being found not guilty of murdering his wife, as reported yesterday by CNN.com. COLIN DALY T- ic- D: 3F I Gaining the competitive edge JOEL HOARD OH YEAH 've always had noth- ing but the highest of ' Lexpectations for my three children. Usually they take care of business at school and around the house without much coax- ing, but every now and then, they need a proverbial kick in the pants. Take for exam- ple my oldest son, Brandt, who's now 11. When Brandt was six, I signed him up for tee ball in the local little league. He had some trouble catching on, and he was much smaller than the other kids on his team. A few games into the season, he told me that he wanted to quit. I told him what I always tell my kids when they want to quit something pre- maturely: "You made a commitment, and you're sticking to it." Brandt said he would much rather take an art class or join the kids' theater troupe, but I wasn't letting him off that easy. He agreed to stick with it, and I agreed to help him overcome his lack of size and turn him into a player to be reckoned with. A solid year of coach- ing, and Brandt had the basics down, but he just couldn't seem to grow. At age seven, he stood just shy of 3-foot-10 and weighed only 74 pounds. I knew something had to be done if Brandt was to turn into the baseball phenom he was destined to become. First I took Brandt to Dr. Rooney, who's been treating our family since we moved to the Phoenix area 10 years ago. Dr. Rooney said that Brandt was a normal, healthy child and that I shouldn't be concerned. Rooney's always seemed like a trustworthy doctor, but I had to question his motives on this one, considering his grandson David played for one of Brandt's fiercest rivals in the little league. At that point, it was time to take matters into my own hands. I studied the top baseball players of the past decade: Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and I asked myself what set them apart from the rest of the pack. A good work ethic and natural ability for sure, but there was something else I couldn't quite lay my finger on. Then one night as I watched a "20/20" investigative report, the answer struck me: steroids. Those wonderful gifts of science had made ordinary men into baseball behe- moths, and I was hoping they would do the same for Brandt. When it comes to fulfilling your child's dreams, be they going to college to become a doctor or lawyer, owning a For- tune 500 company or, in Brandt's case, becom- ing the best baseball player the game has ever seen, you should be willing to do anything to help him along the way. I made the trip down to Mexico by myself. It wasn't difficult to find what I was looking for. Pharmacies with signs bearing phrases such as "American Drugs! CHEAP!!!" and "Cheap Pills!!! No Perscription (sic) Needed!" were around every corner. The pharmacists were more than willing to help me with Brandt's plight, and I was soon on my way home with a one-year supply of injectable steroids and human growth hormone. At first, Brandt was wary about his weekly shots. Getting 500 cc of steroid serum and HGH injected into your hip can't be all that comfortable. Occasionally he would cry and ask me why I kept giving him the shots, but I would gently remind him that it was a small price to pay to reach his goals. Besides, I reminded him, Barry Bonds never cried when his father injected him. On top of that, I was confident that Brandt would change his tune once he saw the results he could get. And boy did he ever get results. With his weekly injections, a strict diet and a rigor- ous workout regimen, within six months Brandt grew more than a foot and put on 75 pounds of pure muscle. By age nine he stood 5-foot-3. At 10, he crossed the 6-foot mark. And now, at 11, he's 6-foot-4 and is a hulking 250 pounds. Some of Brandt's teachers have expressed concerns over changes in his attitude and his recent aggressive behavior, but they don't con- cern me. There's no amount of aggression that a good session in the weight room or batting cage can't handle. As for Brandt's prowess on the diamond, well, his league-leading 46 home runs and 116 RBI (all in the span of 35 games!) speak for themselves. Let this be a lesson to all the other parents and children out there struggling to attain their dreams: In the end, it all comes down to hard work and careful planning. Keep reaching for those stars, and don't let anyone or anything stand in your way. Hoard can be reached at j.ho@umich.edu. EDITORS' NOTE: A few weeks ago, Joel Hoard wrote a col. umn for the Daily (4w the hMmosexuaLssoL my child's innocence, 02/24/2005) that gener- ated a great deal of controversy both within the University community and across the state. We would like to take this opportunity to clarify the Daily's editorial policy toward the conteift of opinion columrns. Because the right to free speech is critical to the mission of the press, the editors of the Daily have chosen to afford opinion colum- nists a great deal of autonomy. We recognize the need for creative license and only choose to edit columns when they contain factual inaccuracies intentionally designed to mis- lead readers. The content of signed articles, letters and cartoons that appear on this page is the respon- sibility of identified authors. These pieces do not represent the opinions of the Daily's edi tors, nor the position of its editorial board. -Suhael M-min, Sam Singer Editorial Page Editors 0 0 LETTER TO THE EDITOR The need for FDA nformis deter new nor h)ted To TE DALY: As someone who teaches a University course on prescription drug safety, I was glad to see the topic discussed in recent issues of the Daily (How Adderall slipped through the cracks, 03/15/2005, Columnist ignores complicated, lengthy FDA approval process, 03/16/2005). I will not add to the commentary on specific medications. It is, however, important to note that the concern about prescription drug safety is no recent creation of "mainstream media," as one letter writer suggested. Every major proposal for reforming the Food and Drug Administration that we have heard recently has been sought for at least the past 35 years. In 1970, for example, a panel of the National Academy of Sciences (about as far from popular media as it gets) recommended establishing a National Drug Surveillance Center independent of the FDA drug approval divisions. In 1998, the Journal of the American Medical Association asserted that "the nation needs an office of drug safety with the author- ity, independence, funds, and legal mandate to undertake a basic drug safety monitoring pro- gram. This investment in drug safety has the potential to save thousands of lives and prevent tens of thousands of serious injuries every year." In 2000, Janet Woodcock, then the Director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, described what she called a "sweat- shop environment" within the drug review offices of the FDA. In a recent survey, fully two-thirds of the FDA's own medical review- ers expressed a lack of confidence in the FDA's post-approval safety monitoring system. The drug safety crisis in this country is not hype. It's a public policy issue that is as seri- ous as it gets. The responsibility for facing it, however, goes far beyond the FDA. We, indeed, need a media, a Congress and a public prepared to see it through. Henry Greenspan The letter writer is an RC lecturer. 0 VIEWPOINT The future of PIRGIM at the University BY RESE Fox AND CAROLYN HWANG Students are often told that we are tomorrow's leaders. We are told less often that we are today's leaders. In Ann Arbor, throughout Michigan and across the country, we face more problems than we should have to tolerate and more solutions than we use. From students not knowing their rights as renters, to the skyrocketing cost of high- er education, to low youth voter turnout, to the plague of hunger and homelessness, to the poi- soning of Michigan's lakes, rivers and streams with toxic mercury pollution, we are surrounded by profound challenges. Through dedication to solid research, strategic activism and finding solutions, students possess the power to tackle these problems and get results. This spirit has motivated Students for PIR- GIM's campaign to restart a Public Interest Research Group In Michigan chapter here at the University. Students for PIRGIM wants to get results for students. We want to launch a housing hotline where students can get simple nonlegal questions answered about their rights as renters. We want to convince Gov. Jennifer Granholm that a $30 million cut to higher education in her and win results. Funding a chapter will allow students to hire a full-time organizer as well as a staff of experts - advocates, scientists, lawyers and issue experts - to work for us and make sure we win our campaigns. By sharing our expenses with other student PIRGs across the country, we gain access to this wealth of staff and experience at a very small price. Our opportunities are with- out bounds. Early this semester, Students for PIRGIM came to the Michigan Student Assembly with a propos- al to fund a pilot chapter. We went out of our way to speak to every assembly member individually to answer questions and hear concerns. Less than a week before the vote, we were confident that a clear majority of the assembly supported the resolution and that we had answered all questions and responded to any concerns brought before us. Then the obstacles and red tape began. We expected that some people might not sup- port us, but we never imagined the way our oppo- sition would arise. We expected that if someone was going to object to the proposal, he would do so based on its merits. Never did we imagine that what would give us the most difficulty would be bureaucratic red tape. highly questionable. MSA is currently consider- ing a resolution that would adequately establish these funding guidelines. Due to the recent CSJ ruling, MSA will have to undergo a long and con- voluted process ending with the approval of CSJ. Finally, questioning whether students could hire staff is ridiculous. Students across the coun- try hire staff all the time with both tuition and stu- dent fee money. The Student PIRGs are just one example of this practice; many student groups and student governments do much more. What makes students at the University any less quali- fied to do the same? It is a shame that an idea with so much support on campus that could address some of the most pressing problems University students are facing today is being stopped by a grab bag of proce- dural red tape. We have played by the rules and followed the practice of MSA. Now the rules are being changed for no other reason than to thwart our efforts. We are working hard to act in good faith and to be open and honest with MSA and the student body. These red-tape maneuvers are the opposite of good faith: last minute, no open dialogue, never working to solve problems, only fighting to cre- 0 ;. ;: