4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 9, 2005 OPINION be S irbigun it tIg 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 44It gets rid of a lot of dogma that's being taught in the classroom today." - John Bacon (R), a member of the Kansas state Board of Education, expressing agreement with a change that injects intelligent design into the state's science curriculum, as reported yesterday by CNN.com. -ws lt j u THEi KIM LEUNG THE T AK -CK T B3.x 7, Th1~~'&uiAG M4 pteple i 'fr4 VM. The student section DAVID BETTS PONTIFICATIONS Barring a gradu- of the unfortunate masses who left the stadium lower decks to separate everyone - no club ate school that evening. Thank God I stayed. I missed the seats and luxury boxes. admissions Penn State game a couple weeks ago, possi- If indeed the luxury boxes and club seats offer, these next two bly missing the one great win my senior year do come to the stadium, which they eventu- Saturdays will be my may have to offer. I was in Washington for the ally will, it will be up to the student section to last in the student sec- Millions More Movement - a once-in-a-life- ensure that Michigan Stadium is undoubtedly tion at Michigan Sta- time experience. But part of me will probably a college venue. The students have to make dium. I've got to be always wish I had stayed to watch the game. sure all of the traditions stay. The student sec- honest, I'm going to Slowly but surely college football is becom- tion must continue to stand the whole game, really miss the place. ing more commodified. The University made must continue to control the most coordinated I'm going to miss several ill-fated attempts to get fans to tailgate wave I've ever seen, must scream and yell to everything from the band coming out of the on both Palmer and Elbel fields. The generic fight the perception that the Big House is a tunnel to the horde 'of people walking down ESPN tailgates were colossal failures, and I wine-and-cheese crowd. The student section is Hoover after the game is over and everything couldn't be happier. I would hate to lose the the unquestioned lifeblood of the stadium. We in between. I will really miss laughing at experience of walking past the individual tail- don't contribute the most revenue to the Ath- 111,000 or so people completely failing to stay gates in student neighborhoods on the way to letic Department, but we easily contribute the on beat when singing "The Victors" and won- the game. I went to the Detroit Lions game most energy. It's the only place I've seen some- dering whether everyone is too drunk to keep against the Carolina Panthers in October, and one dressed as Santa Claus crowd surf after a time. I will really miss standing and watching maybe it's because the Lions are so bad, but touchdown. It's the only place where people football games with 20,000 other students who the spirit in the building just couldn't compare will shake keys on 3rd down and then do the may or may not realize that watching a game to the Big House. There was no monumental claw, or chop or whatever arm motion, if the from a student section will be one of the last anticipation as the teams took the field, no defense gets a stop. Regardless of the destiny places they can be young and dumb and have it shaking of keys on 3rd down and definitely no of the cement and steel aspects of the stadium, be not only accepted but expected. crowd-surfing after touchdowns. All the fancy the student section must continue to be the bas- During my college career I have seen some graphics and bright lights on the video-board tion of loud, youthful enthusiasm that separates of the greatest games in University history. I advertisements seemed too contrived - there college from professional football. began my freshman year with the Washing- was nothing natural about the experience, I've got two more chances to go to a football ton game when Phil Brabbs kicked the game- nothing organic. game as an undergraduate student, and I hope winning field goal after having been benched When the renovations to Michigan Stadium they're monumental experiences. I've got two earlier in the game for missing kicks. My soph- actually happen, I hope the place doesn't lose more chances to watch the band come out of omore year I witnessed Chris Perry run him- too much of its character. With so few people the tunnel and see the drum major lean back self to being a Heisman trophy finalist while sitting up in the walled-off universe of the and put his head on the ground. I've got two destroying Notre Dame. That same year I wit- press box, there is a certain sense of equality more chances to make the painfully long, yet nessed a victory over Ohio State that was one in the stadium. Equality in the sense that when entertaining walkfrom the Hill to the Stadi- holding penalty away from being a full-fledged I go to these last two games I will be sitting in um. I've got two more chances to be a kid at a blowout. During my junior year there were sev- the same seating bowl as a Law student, the football game in a section specifically reserved eral memorable games: the last-second victory same seating bowl as a 65-year-old alum, the for kids. over Minnesota comes to mind, but the most same seating bowl as a guy who bought tickets memorable game was against Michigan State. from some guy standing in front of the Union Betts can be reached at I was about 10 seconds away from being one at 11:30 that morning. There are no upper and dmbetts@umich.edu. Please don't 'do it for the kids' EMILY BEAM LOOKING FOR AM ERCA y parents' American Values disagrees. She wrote in Sun- lower stress levels. The positive aspects related divorce day's issue of The Washington Post that "there to marriage come with the healthy, close-knit was, as far is no such thing as a 'good' divorce." In her family relationships it can - but does not nec- as divorces go, pretty book "Between Two Worlds," she finds that essarily - foster. ideal. Even as a 7-year children whose parents divorce even under the What concerns me is when pro-family con- /9 old, I saw it coming best circumstances are less likely to report that servatives take these marriage statistics and - to the extent that I their family life centers on children and more conclude that divorce is evil and heterosexual bet my best friend my likely to feel like adults well before their 18th marriage is the only legitimate foundation for parents would divorce birthdays. She suggests ending "low-conflict" a family. Rather than making marriage laws before hers. She still marriages, like that of my parents, is more more binding, as seems to be the current trend, owes me $5. As things traumatic than preserving them and should legislators should look to promote policies fell apart, there were important conversations be avoided whenever possible. I wasn't aware that build strong families regardless of wheth- hidden behind shut doors that my sister and I things like spending more time alone as a child er they resemble the "Leave it to Beaver" ideal. were not to hear, and there were unimportant were enough to invalidate cases of divorce like Focusing resources on poverty reduction, for conversations turned shouting matches that we that of my parents, but maybe that's because instance, would be much more effective than couldn't avoid. Everything culminated when I I'm one of those victims of divorce. the current pro-family conservative approach was 10 with the big announcement that my dad I'm just one anecdote; I'm not Marquardt's of misinterpreting correlation as causality by was moving out for a while. In their attempt nationally represented survey of 1,500 young blaming poverty on failing and nonexistent to minimize the emotional damage they were adults. To some extent, she is right: Even in marriages. It might very well be the reverse, as inflicting, they did all the good things parents what I would consider this best-case divorce the instability and financial stress that accom- are supposed to do - explaining that it had scenario, it was still hard at times. But I have pany poverty take their toll rather heavily on nothing to do with us and they both loved us no doubt it would have been worse had they family dynamics. very much. My dad found an apartment, my stayed together. If my parents had stuck it I'm immensely thankful that my parents had parents stopped fighting and we moved on out, as Marquardt suggests, would they have the foresight not to stay together "for the kids." with our lives. realized that those last years of arguing were Our teenage years would have been miserable: Of course, my situation is far from normal; no more than a mid-life crisis? That seems Their lives would still be miserable. No amount few divorces proceed as smoothly as that of unlikely, of premarital counseling could have told them my parents. I was spared evil stepparents, the Given all the direct and indirect damage that more than two decades later they might outright pitting of the kids against the "bad" associated with divorce, making marriages not be the same people were in 1974, and no parent and the emotional trauma of thinking I work seems a reasonable aim. Pro-family con- amount of marriage counseling could have never had a "real home." Instead, my parents servatives highlight all sorts of statistical evi- saved their marriage once it failed. In the case talked - and still talk - regularly. They car- dence demonstrating the correlation between of some marriages, things just don't work out. pooled to my high school choir concerts. My healthy marriages and benefits ranging from Saving the family is more important than sav- mom doesn't like to go to my dad's house and increased happiness to lower poverty rates. ing the marriage, particularly when marriage they each grumble about the other from time Why is that? It's not the wedding day picture is increasingly an outdated notion of bride, to time, but overall, my parents get along much or the marriage license that help children work groom and "till death do us part." better than they did in the last years of their hard in school. It's not the "institution" in any marriage. It was a good divorce. formal sense nor the blessing of whatever Beam can be reached at Elizabeth Marquardt of the Institute for clergy or city official that is correlated with ebeam@umich.edu. LETTER TO THE EDITOR Editorial Board Members: Amy Anspach, Reggie Brown, John Davis, Whitney Dibo, Sara Eber, Jesse Forester, Mara Gay, Eric Jackson, Ashwin Jagannathan, MSA's Voice Your Vote Commission didn't execute As a former off-year Voice Your Vote Commission co-chair, I recognize the dif- ficulty of mobilizing voters for local elec- direction. MSA should be commended for creating a City Council liaison and com- mittee this semester. However, without real stuudent votes and Dower behind these I