4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, April 7, 2006 OPINION a1je irhortttip~u 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 What a great day for breast- feeding moms. - Dr. Lewis Gregory, chief medical officer of Select Health of South Carolina, speak- ing about a newly passed state law allowing women to breastfeed in public, as reported Wednesday by The Associated Press M GEOFF SILVERSTEIN NIT lR MAYP AFI E -,,IItNDS 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. Wishings and wonderings JESSE SINGAL STEM THE TIDE nd just like that, it's time for the last column of my third and final semester as a Daily opin- ion columnist. It would be nice to be able to summarize all the grand, meaningful lessons I've learned, but there haven't really been any. I'm leav- ing Ann Arbor for the comfort of my parents' basement for the next 10 years with far more ques- tions than answers when it comes to politics and the way this country discusses them. It's been a confusing few years, and the tones of the various debates have been discouraging to many. With that in mind, here's a brief list of things I'm wishing for and things I'm wondering about as I depart my post as a Daily columnist. I wish that the discourse in this country would improve. All you have to do is turn on one of the cable news networks or tune into AM radio, and it's clear how bad things are. We have truly devolved into a culture of talking heads, of ad hominem attacks, of fear-mongering and of genu- ine hatred and misunderstanding where there should be mere disagreement. Politics is too iden- tity-oriented these days; people seem far more concerned with who they are - that is, to which political parties or advocate groups they claim membership - than with what they think and whether their ideas stand up to critical scrutiny. I wonder which social issue the GOP is going to exploit in time for the upcoming elections? They're going to need one, that's for sure, if they hope to distance themselves from Presi- dent Bush, his disastrous war and his utter lack of accomplishment on the domestic front. The immigration issue (which has brought with it GOP infighting) won't bring voters to the polls, so watch for the Republicans to turn to what they do best: homophobia. We're going to be hearing the words "tradition," "sanctity" and "marriage" more and more as November approaches. I wish we could figure out a way to get over the non-issues that often seem to dominate discourse. The bizarre fixation on "the War on Christmas" this past winter proved that an idea, no matter how stupid, can spread like wildfire if granted enough repetition and obsession. And for every moment a pundit on Fox News spends hacking away at a straw man, actual problems - poverty, port secu- rity, health care - continue to go unsolved. I wish AM radio and cable news pundits would stop treating liberalism as some creeping disorder that must be rooted out of our schools and our government. Liberalism is constantly and intentionally misrepresented, and some of the language used to describe it - and the need to cleanse the nation of it - borders on the fascistic. Liberalism, like conservatism, can mean a thou- sand different things, and any conservative who makes a blanket statement about liberalism (or, for that matter, any liberal who makes a blanket statement about conservatism) is taking the cow- ardly and intellectually lazy way out. I wonder if there could possibly be a bettei Sean Hannity quote to back up my previous point "(Liberals) encourage tolerance for the teachings of the Koran but not for the teachings of Jesus Christ. They oppose the Pledge of Allegiance tell us that 'God is dead,' that 'Christianity is for losers' and that evangelical and Catholic conservatives are more dangerous than radi- cal Islamic militants." Yes, Sean - thanks foi telling us what all liberals think and do. That's from one of his books, "Let Freedom Ring Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism." I wish there was a powerful, well-organizec liberal political party in the United States. Idi- otic, hysterical assertions from Hannity et al not withstanding, the Democratic Party has utterly failed to represent a huge block of vot- ers that has consistently supported it. Where's the opposition on gay marriage? On marijuam laws? There is a huge range of issues for whic- only one side is truly represented in the hallh of Congress. And if Hillary Clinton - who lasi year cosponsored anti-flag burning legisla- tion, and who has made a minor crusade out of fighting video-game violence after approving the very real violence of the Iraq war - ends uf being the Democratic nominee in 2008, ther liberalism in America will be in even sorriei shape than it is now. A Singal can be reached a; jsingal@umich.edL Skybox deceit IMRAN SYED DEMAGU;' )t1ES DEBUNKED JOY ERIN RIUSSELL LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send all letters to the editor to tothedaily@michigandaily.com. Diag has long been a place of flyering and protest TO THE DAILY: I'm writing in response to Mark Giannot- to's columns (Attention nerds: Don't give me your flyers, 04/06/2006). Mark, I wanted to let you know that not everyone shares your opinion on flyering in the Diag. In fact, there are students who occasionally look up from the pavement, stop listening to their iPod and take a second to listen to a motivated Diag promoter. If you are so paranoid of human contact, maybe you should avoid the Diag altogether. It is a social place with a long history of political and social advertising and protest. Handing someone a flyer is not "forcing" something on you. It is a very effective means of adver- tising. You can deride the Men's Glee Club all you want for promoting their concert, but the fact is that anyone who has walked through the Diag this week knows about the concert - and many of them will be there. Maybe in your opinion flyering is not as "cool" as playing beer pong at your frat, leering at girls and hollering at passersby, but at least it serves a purpose. On another note, your libelous article had all the flair and banality of a high school newspaper article. John Rhoades LSA junior The letter writer is a member of the Men's Glee Club. Handguns make streets safer, deter crime he robs or does physical harm to her. Per- haps Ray thinks he will have time also, or maybe be able to reason with a criminal before he is raped. I think they both are not basing their lives in reality when they perceive that hosting talks with the police will make them safe. Handguns are but one option to consider in protecting oneself or one's loved ones. If one chooses not to be involved with such, then don't profess to know what's best for me. An armed and law-abiding citizen does make the streets safer, and I choose this course. Earl Milton Plant Department Column like 'vomiting up undigested Big Ten Burrito' TO THE DAILY: Although Mark Giannotto did not use the phrase "heretofore" incorrectly in this week's column (see Give me my Coke back, 02/09/2006), reading this week's column (Attention nerds: Don't give me your flyers, 04/06/2006) was still an experience remi- niscent of vomiting up undigested Big Ten Burrito. First, Giannotto's condescending attitude toward the vast majority of cam- pus invalidates any semi-legitimate points he makes in the column. Rule of thumb: Calling someone a "jackass" is not the most effective way to initiate a construc- tive discussion. Another one of Giannotto's witty euphemisms appears when he refers to the Men's Glee Club as "choir boys." Hilarious. Wait, I mean hateful. So basi- ,,ii ..1 - - f Michigan football has anything going for it, it's tradition. The maize and blue is legendary, its greatness and legacy unques- tioned. But on what is this tradition built? I ask you to consider that question in light of the recent controversy surrounding the addition of luxury boxes in Michigan stadium. I'm as big a Michigan fan as you'll find on campus. I had season tickets before I became a student. I cheered for Tom Brady and Anthony Thomas from the stands the same as I did Chad Henne and Jason Avant last year. But in love as I am with the maize and blue mystique, I can't for the life of me understand the backlash towards the skybox idea. Any fan worthy of his ticket stub will tell you Michigan has had three Heisman trophy win- ners: Tom Harmon in 1940, Desmond Howard in 1991 and Charles Woodson in 1997. The wholly folksy argument put forth by Joe Skybox-hater goes: "Skyboxes would change the appearance and 'character' of the stadium. Them Wolverine legends played over 50 years apart, and yet they still walked essentially the same stadium. We can't let that change just to make a few bucks." I guess I would agree - if that were true. Ever seen highlights of Michigan games from the 1980s? One thing that jumps out right away is the ugly artificial turf, or Astroturf as it is more commonly known (though, if we're minding our p's and q's, it was actually Tartan- turf). Desmond Howard played on that turf. By the time 2003 rolled around, however, the sta- dium featured state-of-the-art Fieldturf, made from - of all things - ground up tennis shoes and tire rubber. And Tom Harmon? You can be damn sure he never played on no turf other than God's green earth. Why was there no backlash when artificial turf was installed? Frankly, because times change, and the stadium must too. The same argument applies to skyboxes. Almost every other football stadium in the world has them - not because their owners are insane, but because skyboxes are a necessary financial reality of the time we live in. The tradition argument blown to bits, Joe I'm- reaching-even-more-now turns to blatant dema- goguery. "Skyboxes are a sellout to the corporate interests and will pollute the Michigan brand," he'll slobber at you, with minimal regard for coherence. Funny - where was this guy when Domino's signed the contract to monopolize pizza in the stadium? Where was he when Nike decided a checkmark was all our hallowed jer- seys were missing? Where was he when the Uni- versity, along with the rest of the Big Ten, took God knows how many millions from ABC to give that network exclusive rights to its games? Unfortunately, much of the opposition to sky- boxes is built up not on true feelings, but by a bandwagon mentality rivaled only by the fight to tear down the halo that once encircled the Big House. How many of you who mock the halo today actually saw it? Though it may be easy to whine about how gruesome it was, more people simply jumped aboard the anti-halo bandwagon than actually detested it. And while we're exposing falsely folksy argu- ments, what's all this nonsense about skyboxes promoting elitism in the stadium? Face it, folks: People who can afford tickets to Michigan games are not the huddled masses anyway. At worst, the skyboxes will separate the rich from the richer - what a tragedy that would be. We already have different levels of seating, and with the steep price of good seats - not to mention monstrous seat premiums and taxes - the average fan can- not afford first row, 50-yard-line seats anyway. But you know who can? The 84-year-old alum from the class of '44 who made millions from his business ventures. Will this guy, care though he' does for the team, stand and do the cheers and jeer his lungs out at opposing safeties? I doubt it. Why do skybox-haters get so much pleasure out of making this man sit in the pouring rain with sharp pain creeping up his spine, thanks to the wonder of aluminum benches? You want rowdy fans? Move people like this up to their luxury boxes and the stands will be filled with none but the most rambunctious. And the stadium will be louder for it, too. The skyboxes will hold in more sound - some- thing the Big House desperately needs (how can 110,000 people be so quiet, Detroit sports talk radio personalities often wonder). Will the sky- boxes be ugly? Well, they will certainly change the look of the stadium, but as they say, beauty's in the eye of the beholder. The crusade to ban skyboxes is about as disingenuous as they get - all this talk about protecting the sanctity of the stadium. Is the lack of skyboxes the one thing that makes you love Michigan stadium? Is it the one thing that makes it unique? Of course not. The stadium has changed plenty since it was first built, but it'll take a lot more than a few luxury boxes to take away the maize and blue tradition. Syed can be reached at galad@umich.edu 0 S 4 VIEWPOINT Why students don't attend Hash Bash BY BRIAN DURRANCE I read with amusement Drew Philp's article about the lack of University student attendance at this year's Ann Arbor Hash Bash (Hash Bash invades Ann Arbor, 04/03/2006). In it, he quotes organizer Josh Soper, who speculates that stu- dents don't attend the annual rally because there are too many "older people" from "out of town." He says that as a result, the festival now "kind of has that image," apparently scaring students away. As an alum who grew up in Ann Arbor and declared it an official holiday. Now the campus is deserted on MLK day. I'm told that last year's MLK parade drew 50 people, and most of them were probably "out-of-towners." In the 1970s, Hash Bash was held on April 1 - April Fools Day (get it?). This guaranteed that the festival would usually fall on a week- day, just before Spring Break, and right in the middle of a typical University lunch hour. There was always a sizable crowd (young and old), and the streets were clogged at rush hour with revel- ers who enjoyed a lively rally, petitioners, street performers, musicians, group hugs and huge and teach-ins that occurred in the surrounding classroom buildings were an important part of the tradition. Sadly, those voices are miss- ing from today's rallies partly because festival organizers choose to hold their event when the campus is asleep. By formalizing the holiday and pandering to the work schedules of the "older hippies" and the "out-of-towners," the festival has lost much of its electricity and a good deal of its intellec- tual grounding. If Ann Arborites want to preserve this fes- tival as some kind of museum piece for future aPenerations to eniov. the~v need to make chanL-e I