4A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, February 13, 2006 OPINION Ibe Str gztn :4aift DONN M. FRESARD Editor in Chief EMILY BEAM CHRISTOPHER ZBROZEK Editorial Page Editors ASHLEY DINGES 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 JIam the Jesus Christ of politics." - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who will be up for election in early April, at a dinner with party supporters Saturday, as reported yesterday by CNN.com. KATIE GARLINGHOUSE H-o U>SE ARREST Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their author. x w :.: ry yt ._ .. Sr's" XFi Jd. And the show must go on MARA GAY COMMON SENSE yr, o rage has been more misdirected and more unproductive than that of those who refuse to support this year's "Vagina Mono- logues: A Colorful Production." It is a pet- ulant, absurd, ignorant rage, and it threatens to undermine efforts to stop violence against women everywhere. Variations on Eve Ensler's play "The Vagina Monologues" are performed each February as part of a worldwide V-Day campaign to raise awareness about violence against women - all women. And this year's take on the play will be no different. The producers of this year's "The Vagina Monologues," one of whom happens to be a friend of mine, set out to compose a cast almost entirely of women of color because they felt strongly that women of color have been underrepresented or misrepresented in previous productions of the play. Many believe the play was designed unfairly to begin with, offering women of color only a few parts, which tend to be those of victims. The deci- sion to use a "colorful cast" was made out of a desire to empower women of color and offer them a positive voice, not to disenfranchise or silence white women. But predictably, the play has been met with charges of "reverse racism" and discrimination from all sides of the spectrum. Last week, the controversy continued as Law student Pierce Beckham filed a complaint with the Central Student Judiciary, arguing that the casting policy violates the University's nondiscrimi- nation policy and the 14th Amendment. Just two weeks before the curtain goes up, Beck- ham apparently wants to see this year's V-Day celebration stopped. It is true, of course, that healthy dialogue and robust debate make this campus a bastion of bet- ter ideas, and Beckham has every right to make his case. But as V-Day approaches and tickets go on sale, the rest of this campus should take note: The efforts of Beckham and those like him are not a call for equal rights under the law or a valiant effort against racial exclusion. Beckham's endeavors are nothing but the reactionary cries of an individual too embittered to understand the significance of a single pro- duction in a single year that shines the spotlight on groups of women whose voices have previ- ously been driven to the margins and silenced. If he is truly interested in equal rights, I am sure there is a place for him at Men Against Violence Against Women, or at the Sexual Assault Pre- vention and Awareness Center. One in three women worldwide will be beat- en or sexually abused in her lifetime. Every 90 seconds, someone is sexually assaulted in America. Women are 16 times more likely than men to be the victims of sexual violence. One woman is battered by her husband every 15 seconds. And according to the National College Women Sexual Victimization Study, one in four women will be raped or experience an attempted rape during her college years. If we boycott "The Vagina Monologues," we boycott the empowerment of every woman on this campus. Eve Ensler's message is as relevant and important today as it was in 1998 when the play was first published. "I bet you're worried. I was worried. That's why I began this piece. I was worried about vaginas. I was worried about what we think about vaginas, and even more worried that we don't think about them. I was worried about my own vagina. It needed a con- text of other vaginas - a community, a culture of vaginas. There's so much darkness and secre- cy surrounding them - like the Bermuda Tri- angle. Nobody ever reports back from there." If you are worried about vaginas, do not allow Beckham and others like him to use race to divert our attention from V-Day and all that it represents. Over the past seven years, produc- tions of Ensler's play have generated more than $25 million dollars to support local, national and international organizations that support women, regardless of their race or ethnicity, religion or sexuality. And the empowerment of women that V-Day has helped foster simply cannot be measured. So go ahead, buy your ticket today. Do it for the millions of women around the world who are abused and sexually assaulted each year, for the women who hold second-class citizen- ship in the human race. Do it for your mother, your girlfriend, your sister, your best friend or for yourself. But buy that ticket, because on Feb. 19 this campus needs to send a strong message to Beckham and others like him: The show will go on until the violence stops. 0 0 Gay can be reached at maracl@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send all letters to the editor to tot hedaily@rnichigandaily. corn. Campus should relax over wireless Internet issues To THE DAILY: The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Drop out of school, take a vow of chastity and repent because the world must be ending! Didn't you hear the news? Students at the University don't have 100-percent wireless Internet coverage! If that isn't a sign of Armageddon, I don't know what is. At least; the storm of angry Daily articles in the past few days certainly makes it seem that way. From the front page (Dorms still far from complete wireless coverage, 02/09/2006; Lack of plan dooms wireless, 02/08/2006; Tangled wires: LSA lags behind in wireless coverage, 02/07/2006) to the editorial page (A low-tech 'U' in a high- tech world, 02/09/2006) students have been "demanding" that they have the ability to check e-mail, instant message, and Facebook in every single classroom on campus. Some even argue that the lack of wireless in the classroom pre- vents them from checking notes. (What hap- pened to their notebooks?) Now, I'm no Luddite. I'm majoring in elec- trical engineering, I work at a computer help desk and I'm a self-professed computer geek. So I certainly recognize the potential comput- ers have as an information-gathering tool. How- ever, students have been perfectly successful for hundreds of years with another information- gathering tool that works even when the power is out: their hands. Locate yours. Raise it. Ask a question. You may not be able to call up your friend at Duke and brag about being on the list of the top 50 wireless campuses, and you may not be able to browse Facebook during Linguis- tics 211, but if asking questions has worked for centuries, it will work for you. The University of Michigan is a top pub- lic university, and your education here won't become useless if wireless coverage is only at 58 percent. The University should spend the "millions of dollars" Ron Loveless estimated that expanding wireless would cost on more important projects, such as giving students a break on tuition. Wireless will eventually be universal, but until then my advice to all you Chicken Littles is this: Stand up, walk next door, check your e- mail there and calm down. Hans Kuder Engineering and Music sophomore that it's like I've just awoken from a 2,000-year slumber during which a pile of Legos was my only pillow-bumpy side up. And it's the Daily's fault. Actually, it's Mark Giannatto's fault. I read his column. I'm sure you've already noticed this, and it's probably part of some postmodern edito- rial vision that I'm not privy to, but Giannatto is awful. Giannatto's Coke column (Give me my Coke back, 02/09/2006) literally makes no sense, as though he sat at the computer and began vomiting sentences until reaching his word limit. Giannatto claims that "nowadays, the student body is much closer to the center of the political spectrum." Not quite, G-dawg. Michigan has a whole office of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender affairs. If a transgender person even set foot in my hometown, three rednecks would immediately begin brawling over who would get to shoot her or him first, only to be beaten to it by the local sheriff. But Giannatto's incoherence shines most brightly when he argues that because there are so many important problems in the world, "super- libs" (They're super-liberal, get it?) should just "mind their own business." Huh? Did the Dai- ly's editors even read this stuff before they pub- lished it? If they did, they should have realized that Giannatto possesses the insight of uncooked steak and the prose of a damaged seventh-grader: "Heretofore, I will call these extremists 'super- libs."' Heretofore, I will call you an idiot. Anyway, as a former staffer, I love you, The Daily. Really. But please, please, take Giannat- to's keyboard and hurl it into the mouth of an active volcano. Adrian Chen LSA junior Burma deserves more attention from students TO THE DAILY: "Burma: The Richest of Poor Countries": This was a headline on my National Geograph- ic back in 1995. This first encounter with pho- tos and stories about my family's native country allowed me to feel a certain connection to my heritage. However, this was a superficial link; National Geographic focused on the lush land, the traditions passed on through the generations and the golden Burmese pagodas whose value truly makes Burma the richest of third-world countries. It was not until later that I understood tary regime appears to dampen the hope for a free Burma. Attempts have been futile, and most notably, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whose own father fought for Burmese democracy from British rule, has been under house arrest since 1989, and she is guaranteed freedom from arrest only if she leaves the country. Burma is a country filled with breathtaking natural beauty and with a deep sense of loyalty, respect and tradition. As long as one more person takes the time to learn about the struggles the people of Burma face ahead, we will be one step closer to democracy. Cynthia Saw LSA senior Female empowerment begins with a strong handshake TO THE DAILY: From a young age, boys are taught to have a strong, confident handshake. It becomes ingrained in their minds that their very first impressions come from this handshake. One must look the other person in the eye, have a firm grip and never, ever let his wrist go limp. I have noticed, however, that the case is differ- ent for girls. As a woman with a firm handshake, I find myself in the minority. When I grasp a fellow female's hand, whether it is in a business or social situation, she is more likely than not to make a floppy, unimpressive showing. As women, we already have enough to over- come in order to rival the men in our respective fields; let's not make matters worse by coming off as insecure and weak before we even get a chance to speak our minds. Ladies, please: The next time you find your- selves in a handshaking situation, be confident. Think about what you are communicating through your body language. Julie Mida LSA junior Marvelous students reach out to a student in need TO THE DAILY: Hello, University students - you are marvelous! When our dear resident, LSA junior Nimmy George, was struck by a car on Tuesday, Feb. 7 outside of the Martha Cook Building, your kindness and caring were over- 0i 0 ra vs