4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 4, 2006 OPINION iE l~iduipugttna n 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 I can't raise them to be gay any more than I can raise them to be tall." - Actress Rosie O'Donnell, responding to questions about her HBO documentary, 'All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise," which fol- lows gay families on a Caribbean cruise, as reported yesterday by The New York Times. COLIN DALY TtE MiCHIGAXN LDRaY 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. ."~. ~, 0 ~A~~LY ~ ~ A What I've learned DAVID BETTS 2ONTIF(A-TIONS el College is sup- posed to be the greatest time of our lives. Students are supposed to have more fun than they've ever had before, more fun than they'll ever have again. We are supposed to learn more than we ever have before, be exposed to things we've never fathomed. Col- lege may be the closest thing American society has to a rite of passage into adulthood. Scoop Jackson is one of my heroes in life. For the one-year anniversary of his being a writer for ESPN.com, Scoop talked about the things he had learned in his year of service. Join me as I essentially steal his format for that column while sharing some of the things I have learned during my four years. I have learned that life is a perpetual testos- terone contest. I realize estrogen is the major hormonal influence in women, but women still have to compete with and deal with men in the workplace. Thus, women have to participate in the testosterone contest that we men go through on a frighteningly regular basis. I have learned that diversity is the key to enjoying pizza on a regular basis. I eat way too much pizza - several times a week when money is right. Thus I have realized that humans cannot survive on Pizza House alone. We must also consume Cottage Inn, In and Out, Bells, Mr. Pizza, NYPD and Hello Faz's. I've learned that people get really, really angry with Daily writers for reasons too numerous to discuss. Many times the anger is justified. Other times the anger is so irra- tional, so off-the-charts venomous that I have to wonder if it comes from the type of people who will one day commit hate crimes. You've never seen most of the really irrational com- ments; they usually come directly to writers' inboxes. I have learned that many of my classes may be really useful, even the ones I've failed. Now, I am a liberal arts major who avoids math and hard sciences like the plague. Instead, I have tried to take classes based on how cool I think they are. I also hang out with people who, for the most part, are completely comfortable discuss- ing social issues that are related to the classes we are taking. But for some reason I feel like a lot of the classes I have taken over the years are applicable to life outside of the extent of my social sphere on this campus. I have learned that moving back home after college may not be the end of the world. I kinda have to accept this, as after graduation I am moving back home. I have learned that I love walkability. Living on Central Campus for the last four years, I have realized that I love being able to take a quiet stroll through downtown Ann Arbor. I have learned that North Campus is where walkable Ann Arbor goes to die. It's the begin- ning of where Washtenaw County thinks it's still rural and tries to hide its development behind pine trees and manufactured wetlands. No one should believe in the rural nature of Ann Arbor anymore - especially while driving at least 45 miles per hour down a four-lane road toward a freeway. I have learned that having a hold on your stu- dent account is stressful. I have learned that very few people under- stand how racism manifests itself in modern society. There are very few people who will just come out and blurt a racial slur. I have learned that editing a movie is real- ly, really time-consuming. I have a newfound respect for film students. I have learned that Ralph Williams is more of an entertainer than a lecturer. He still con- veys pertinent information, but he does so in a style so charismatic that he deserves to teach in an ornately designed, gold-paneled auditorium - not just in the Natural Science building. I have learned that being in a student group in college is a bit like spring training in base- ball. The games count and people play hard, but really it is just an opportunity to work on various skills and iron out how to handle situ- ations. I have learned that Seasonal Affective Disor- der is real. One would think that I, having lived in Michigan my entire life, would be used to the crazy weather and the perpetual gray skies. But most of grade school is spent indoors with little concept of how much the sun is showing. Now that I have to go outside to get from class to class, the weather is really getting to me. I have learned that being a residential advi- sor is difficult - even in a relatively small resi- dence hall. I have learned that this page is pretty power- ful. I think that it may have more influence than the Michigan Student Assembly does in regard to showcasing student opinions. M 0 Betts can be reached at djmbetts@umich.edu. VIEWPOINT Why you should care about Darfur BY COLIN DALY Since 2003, the Sudanese government has been waging a campaign of genocide against targeted African communities in Darfur. Bru- tal murders and rapes continue as government- backed militias attack refugee camps. Disease and malnourishment are rampant in the camps. More than 2 million people have been dis- placed, and 400,000 people have died. The United States acknowledged that geno- cide is taking place in Darfur in Sept. 2004 but has yet to take the action necessary to stop the violence. The African Union is failing to keep the peace with its limited number of poorly trained and poorly armed troops. The United Nations continues to talk about sup- porting AU troops with its own forces without taking action. Meanwhile, 500 people contin- ue to die every day. I want to share why I think it is important to take action on this genocide and on all injustices and hatred in the world. We need people to fight injustice because it is those people who have been changing the world for the better throughout history. There's always an alarmist notion that soci- ety is going downhill, but the opposite is true. Think of how far our own country has come since our own genocide and the enslavement of our brothers and sisters. Our progress is the direct result of the hard work of millions of dedicated people who refused to give up. We need people who triumph over hatred with love. We need individuals with a passion within them that drives them to keep fight- ing, even though the world may never see a day when hatred doesn't exist. It drives them to keep going when they fail over and over again, when change seems impossible, when the world calls for their crucifixion. We can all be one of these people. It requires a conscious decision to strive to love others and ourselves. It requires a commit- ment to continue fighting hatred with love any way that we can until our death. It takes prac- tice, patience, persistence and sacrifice. There will always be the temptation to give up. It is never easy, but it is always worth it. April 6 will mark the 12th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. More than 900,000 people were slaughtered as most of the world looked on and did nothing. The world needed people to step up - but few did. Genocide is happening again, but you can step up. From April 3 to 7, the University's chapter of the national group Students Taking Action Now: Darfur will be hosting a nation- al week of action on campus. We will be edu- cating ourselves and our community about what is happening in Darfur, demanding that our leaders stop the genocide now and rais- ing money to send to humanitarian agencies. I hope you will join the fight. For more infor- mation, e-mail darfuraction@umich.edu. Daly is a Rackham student. He is a cartoonist for the Daily and a member of the University's chapter of STAND. 0 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send all letters to the editor to tothedaily@rmichigandaily. com. Daily coverage of DP Day misleading on many levels TO THE DAILY: We are writing on behalf of The Detroit Project planning team in regards to yester- day's article, Detroit Project sweeps away urban blight (04/03/2006). We are wholeheartedly disappointed with the way in which our orga- nization, its mission and the communities in which we work were misrepresented, and we would like to clarify any misconceptions. The goal of The Detroit Project is to connect the community in Ann Arbor with the greater Detroit communities. We do this through a wide variety of programs, including more than 35 weekly projects with more than 25 different Detroit-based partner organizations. We do this through on-campus educational activities. We end our year with DP Day, the largest-scale ser- vice-learning event on campus. DP Day is not a day to "sweep away urban blight." DP Day is the culmination of an entire year's worth of dedi- cation to strengthening connections between cities with the overarching goal of strengthen- misrepresented the attitudes and intelligence of those quoted, as well as the sentiments of all DP Day participants. In the future, we hope that the Daily's cov- erage of our programs will more accurately reflect the goals of The Detroit Project and the partner organizations with which we work. Paul Teske Rachel Pultusker The letter writers are LSA seniors and are the external director and youth programs director of The Detroit Project, respectively. Columnist looks beyond the one-sided issues TO THE DAILY: Over the past four years, I have regularly read the opinions of the Daily's editorial board and its columnists. Some I have agreed with, oth- ers I have not. Regardless of how I felt about them, I was interested in what ideas were float- ing around campus. Typically, however, the col- umns have been heavy with left-wing ideologies nr ove.fat s -a ..h -o-nn sn nh n~-- . thank him for going beyond trite, partisan rhet- oric and one-sided rants in his columns. I also hope that future columnists see his work as an example of intelligent dialogue. Scott Rudolf Engineering senior Daily is to blame for the flag on the moon rumor TO THE DAILY: Is the Daily right? Is there no Michigan flag on the moon, as it claims in Debunking the moon myth (03/29/2006)? Maybe, but it is also responsible for spreading the story about the flag. Most recently in an article titled The right stuff (02/14/2006) the Daily states the Michi- gan flag was famously planted by the Apollo 15 crew. Again, in University Alumni Association courts larger classes, (10/22/1998) it is mentioned that there is a Michigan flag on the moon. The Daily follows this article with another article in the Friday Focus section (11/20/1998) that says the rumor about the Michigan flag on the moon "r nnn h nfiren Editorial Board Members: Amy Anspach, Andrew Bielak, Kevin Bunkley, Gabrielle D'Angelo, Whitney Dibo, Milly Dick, Sara Eber, Jesse Forester, Mara Gay, Jared Goldberg, Mark Kuehn, Frank Manley, Kirsty McNamara, Suhael Momin, Rajiv Prabhakar, Katherine Seid, Gavin Stern. Ben Taylor. lessica Tend, Rachel Wagner, Jason Yost.