4A - Wednesday, October 17, 2007
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Is
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@umich.edu
KARL STAMPFL IMRAN SYED JEFFREY BLOOMER
EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles
and illustrations represent solely the views oftheir authors.
The Daily's public editor, Paul H. Johnson, acts as the readers'representative and takes a critical look at
coverage and content in every section of the paper. Readers are encouragedsto contact the public editor
with questions andcomments. He can be reached at publiceditor@umich.edu.
Gore, Nobel laureate
Those working to prove global warming deserve award
Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday and, ironically,
the world ended. So some leaders on the Right, hopelessly
stuck in denial of scientific fact, would have us believe.
Gore's win (shared with the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Cli-
mate Change) has been criticized by conservative pundits as the
latest in a long line of the Nobel committee's politically motivated
selections. But regardless of whether Gore personally deserves
this (he does) or whether the win propels him into a run for the
White House (if only), the most important thing to consider here is
that the immediate, dire threat of global weming is finally getting
the attention it deserves.
This case is every woman's worst nightmare."
- Prosecutor Blaine Longsworth, during the trial of Orange Taylor III, the former Eastern Michjgan University
student accused of murdering another EMU student, Laura Dickinson, last year.
A tradition not worth reviving
a
Last week marked a monumen-
tal moment in University his-
tory. After an 11-year hiatus, our
campus revived its
homecoming cel-
ebrations - com-
plete with a king,
a queen and even a
parade.
If you are any-
thing like most
students on cam-
pus, you prob- GARY
ably didn't notice
or take part in the GRACA
festivities. I didn't
vote for homecoming king and queen.
I didn't go to the homecoming parade.
Until I heard that the Michigan Stu-
dent Assembly was putting together
the event, I didn't even know that Sat-
urday's game against Purdue was the
homecoming game.
Nonetheless, I was alittle intrigued.
Maybe those Columbus Day protest-
ers finally got through to me and made
me think about why we celebrate the
things that we do; I couldn't help but
wonder why MSA spent more than
$5,000 to revive this abandoned tradi-
tion. I figured that homecoming cel-
ebrations in the past must have been
prettygreat - somethingworthbring-
ing back. Turns out they weren't.
Arguably the first school in the
country to host such a game, Mich-
igan's first homecoming game took
place on Oct. 30, 1897. At the time, the
game was a contest between returning
alumni and the varsity football team.
As The Michigan Daily reported, the
game was "a splendid intermixture of
good and bad football" with "the old
boys" beating the varsity team 15-0.
Three years later, the game became
what we are more familiar with today:
a contest between universities. Michi-
gan hosted Purdue, the same team we
played in this year's homecoming. By
1911 or 1916, depending on whom you
ask, the game was officially designat-
ed as homecoming.
When it was created, homecoming
was intended to be for alumni, hence
the name. As Ronald Rosiek wrote in
his short history of Michigan home-
coming games, "The University of
Michigan: Homecoming Football
Games," the intent of playing a home-
coming game was to "attract the
attention of the alumni ... reinforce
Michigan tradition ... (and) bring
alumni together." Nowhere did he
mention rousing school spirit among
students.
While the history of the game is
interesting, the celebrations have
always been lackluster and unneces-
sary. According to Rosiek, celebra-
tions for the game didn't really start
up until later in the 1920s when the
University started a variety of events,
including an alumni brunch and a
parade. However, the festivities, if
you want to call them that, were inter-
rupted for the two world wars, keep-
ing them from becoming meaningful
institutional traditions.
The supposed heyday of homecom-
ing was during the 1960s and '70s
- that is, if you consider violence and
unrest to be part of the glory days. In
1965, the final float of the homecom-
ing parade was a protest against the
war in Vietnam, featuring a mock con-
centration camp and a sign that read
"This is homecoming for Vietnamese
displaced by American bombing." As
the float turned onto South Univer-
sity Avenue, it was mobbed by roughly
50 people and torn apart. According
to several accounts in the Daily the
following day, when the police were
asked to intervene, at least one officer,
a former Marine, refused to step in.
As a letter writer wrote to the Daily,
"There was pure murder" on "the
faces of those patriots who so valiantly
attacked the float."
But one bad parade shouldn't have
killed the spirit, right? If the home-
coming celebrations were so festive
for so long, there must have been a
groundswell of outrage when they
were ended in 1997.
But no one seemed to care then,
either. When I looked through three
years of old Daily archives between
1995 and 1997, I couldn't find a single
story, editorial or letter that dealt with
homecoming's demise. Somewhere
between 1996, when the last mention
of a parade occurred, and 1997, home-
coming just faded away without any-
one even noticing.
It's no wonder that it did. If you
consider homecoming to be a celebra-
tion of returning alumni, it's pointless.
There are thousands of University
alumni who come back for whichever
football Saturday is most convenient,
not just homecoming.
If you consider homecoming to be
a celebration of tradition, there's not
much to back up the claim that this
was an important event in the past. It
has just come and gone arbitrarily.
Homecoming
would be OK - if
there was a point.
If homecoming is supposed to be a
way to rally school spirit, there might
be something there. But why a parade
and a homecoming court? Parades
are boring, especially because no one
shows up.A homecoming court seems
a lot like a high school popularity gon-
test, where "the best representatives
of what it means to be a Wolverine,"
as MSA Homecoming Chair Gibran
Baydoun said, are really just the pop-
ular faces of the Greek community.
(Seventy percent of this year's court
had fraternity or sorority ties.)
Other universities, like the Uni-
versity of Florida and Northwestern
University, have large and attractive
events for homecoming. At Florida, the
"Gator Growl" is the nation's largest
pep rally and a nationally recognized
tradition. Last year at Northwestern,
pop culture phenomenon and North-
western alum Stephen Colbert led the
homecoming parade. These events
boast school spirit.
Here at Michigan, homecoming is
back, but why?
Gary Graca is an associate
editorial page editor. He can be
reached at gmgraca@umich.edu.
I
I
In an editorial Sunday, The Wall Street
Journal's editorial page listed all the people
and groups it believes were far more deserv-
ing than Gore of the Peace Prize but were
overlooked for political reasons. No one is
going to deny that Burmese monks, Zimba-
bwean opposition leaders and "the people of
Iraq" deserve recognition for their strife. Cer-
tainly they have all suffered more than Gore
but that shouldn't that take away from the
work Gore and the IPCC have done to inform
the world about global warming, a threat as
significant as any the planet has ever faced.
It is understandable that Gore's celeb-
rity streak is questioned by those looking to
evaluate the legitimacy of his contributions.
A documentary about his effort to raise
awareness about global warming, "An
Inconvenient Truth," won an Academy-
Award in February. Gore certainly didn't
shy away from the red carpet spotlight then,
or when he won an Emmy last month for
co-founding Current TV, a new-age televi-
sion network centered on viewer-generated
content. His book "The Assault on Reason"
topped the New York Times bestseller list
earlier this year, and the former vice presi-
dent is seemingly reveling in the attention
he has received.
Never mind all that. None of that will
change the fact that Gore co-sponsored
the first congressional hearings on global
warming in the 1980s; he was talking about
it before most of us were even born. It won't
change the fact that Gore has devoted his
life to this cause because he believes it is a
true threat to our world. Much like fight-
ing against nuclear proliferation and pov-
erty and for human rights (all of which the
Nobel committee has cited in the past as
worthy of the Peace Prize), global warm-
ing threatens to end our world as we know
it. Gore didn't do the research to prove this
fact, but without him we probably wouldn't
know or care about it.
Let's not forget that it isn't only Gore being
honored here. The thousands of scientists
that have worked for decades to intricately
model and prove the science behind global
warming (and often been thwarted by gov-
ernmental bureaucrats) are now recognized
too. The IPCC consists of researchers from
around the globe, including at least eight
from the University of Michigan, who have
contributed to the scientific consensus that
Gore repeatedly points to. Certainly, these
researchers are the true heroes, the foot
soldiers in the war of public opinion. They
deserve the Peace Prize.
Perhaps itdoes saysomethingunfortunate
about our society that it takes someone with
the celebrity appeal of Gore to bring atten-
tion to the prescient work of thousands of
scientists. But is that to say none of it should
be recognized? Too many of our leaders
have failed us on this issue. It took President
Bush about a term-and-a-half to even admit
such a thing as "global climate change." And
there are still people like Sen. James Inhofe
(R-Okla.) who recently claimed that global
warming is nothing more than a hoax per-
petrated by The Weather Channel in an
effort to gain higher ratings.
Such is the sentiment infecting the think-
ing of some of our leaders about a threat that
could drastically change our world within
our lifetime. The thousands who have bat-
tled that sentiment for the good of humanity
- Gore among them - are more than wor-
thy of a Nobel Peace Prize.
ALEXANDER HONKALA WP
Embracing the obscure
0
SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU
Ron Paul supporters rude,
insensitive to dissenter
TO THE DAILY:
At Republican presidential candidate Ron
Paul's speech on Thursday evening, I was
holding a sign addressing Paul's opposition to
reproductive rights, social welfare, all taxes
and humanitarian intervention in Darfur. A
friend held a sign articulating the belief that
a good president would not only be against
the war in Iraq but also a supporter of human
rights here and abroad.
As I stood in the crowd, answering ques-
tions from some of Paul's supporters, I was
berated with profanities. After I told one
individual that I disagreed with Paul's isola-
tionist stance toward Israel, the person said
he "knew I was a Jew." The same person later
went on to tell me that I murdered the nearly
3,000 people who died in the attacks of Sept.
11, 2001 because of my support for Israel.
While I am sure that such sentiment is
not held by every Ron Paul supporter, it was
encouraged and applauded by everyone pres-
ent and admonished by no one. This event has
made me feel ashamed to be a Michigan Wol-
verine. I am truly saddened that at a univer-
sity that holds social justice, social welfare and
diversity as its defining principles, such hatred
could be expressed so vociferously and meet
no resistance.
Zachary Goldsmith
LSA freshman
Connecting Detroit andA2
starts with transportation
TO THE DAILY:
I applaud The Michigan Daily's recent
editorial advocating for a Detroit semester
(Neighborhood outreach, 10/10/2007). As a
graduate student studying urban planning
at the Taubman College of Architecture and
Urban Planning, I hope to take advantage of
our proximity to the city of Detroit to learn
from its failures and contribute to its revival.
The connection between Detroit and the
University is still tenuous, though, as dem-
onstrated by the lack of a shuttle service to
transport students between these destina-
tions. Perhaps the University should consider
this small step before committing to a Detroit
semester. As an environmentally conscious
student, I do not own a car. This means that
my ability to take advantage of opportuni-
ties to learn in Detroit and the University's
Detroit Center is greatly limited. A shuttle
bus service between Ann Arbor and Detroit
would allow students to access the city more
easily, and as a result, would expand learning
opportunities and enhance the traditional
curriculum.
The University should encourage its stu-
dents to work in and learn from Detroit by
first providing them a better way to get there.
Caitlin Greeley
Urban Planninggraduate student
Go to the Reel Pride Film
Festival this week
TO THE DAILY:
The Reel Pride Film Festival, an annual gay
and lesbian film festival taking place between
Oct. 12 and Oct. 19 at Royal Oak's Main Art
Theatre is an experience that everyone should
have. The festival is a hip, entertaining event
for all audiences that also packs an important
social punch. '
For audiences outside of the gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender community, adiverse
selection of films helps to demystify gay cul-
ture through film, a medium we all adore. For
GLBT audiences, the festival offers the thrill
of seeing films on the big screen that are gen-
erally only available on DVD. Most important,
the proceeds from the event go toward assist-
ing victims of hate crimes.
This year's line-up of more than 50 short
films, feature films and documentaries span-
ning every genre and topic guarantees that
the tastes of all movie buffs, within or outside
of the GLBT community, will be satisfied.
Meryl Schwartz
The letter writer is an LSA senior and a
member of the Triangle Foundation.
Is science democratic? People don't really have a say
about whether research funds go toward curing diabe-
tes or toward elucidating how Viagra helps hamsters get
over jet lag (I'm not making that up, it's actual research).
While we all can easily agree that curing and finding bet-
ter treatments for asthma are laudable research goals
with immediately tangible benefits to society, we can't as
easily find the value of research like "Ultrasonic Velocity
in Cheddar Cheese as Affected by Temperature" (again,
the title of a real research paper).
Public esearch funds are distributed under the
assumption that the research done with that money will
at some point have a tangible benefit for the public. As
such, does it make sense to place the distribution of sci-
encefundinginthehandsofafewelite,highlyspecialized.
committees trained to evaluate grant proposals? That is
how the system currently works, and it workswell for the
most part, with a few embarrassing exceptions.
Nonetheless, how much different would the relative
distribution of science funds look if the public had a direct
say upon how they were distributed? Sickle-cell anemia
have been cured. Tasers may never have been invented,
and thatresearch money might have helped lead to a bet-
ter cure sooner for common types of cancer. What would
such a distribution reveal about society itself?
Perhaps it would be revealed that society is much
more pacifistic and environmentalist than our leader-
ship would believe. I find it difficult to imagine that
society would choose to develop a new generation
of tactical nuclear weapons rather than fund basic
research upon more effective technology to combat
global warming or smog. Likewise, we couldn't claim
to be a just and moral society if we chose to invest in
research on luxury electronics without also investing
in the technology to make the production of said elec-
tronics as green as possible.
The current system by which funds are distributed is
also an exemplar of our representative democracy. We
elect legislative representatives who in turn represent us
when they appoint officials to the posts that regulate the
flow of public research funds. In doing so, we vote with
the implicit trust that research will eventually benefit us
somehow. But how efficient is this process?
In some areas of scientific inquiry, the connection
between research and beneficial technology is readily
apparent and quickly adopted, sometimes with revolu-
tionary results (Colossal Electromagnetic Resistance
in your iPod, for example). Yet other fields of thought
seem to rarely yield anything of benefit to human-
ity (such as the research directed toward determining
why woodpeckers don't get headaches). So how are we
to collectively determine the relative importance of
different fields?
Sure, physics has had a huge impact on'the design and
implementation of electronics, and biology has revolu-
tionized Western medical practices, but when was the
last time that papyrology benefited us? While it is impor-
tant to have super-fast microprocessors and wireless
pacemakers, how important is it to study ancient manu-
scripts written on papyrus? The answer to this is that we
don't exactly know, because we can never truly antici-
pate when some obscure science may suddenly have an
impact on our lives.
To give society as a whole complete control over the
distribution of research monies would be a disaster to
obscure fields of thought, which in the end would leave
us culturally poorer. So in the end we do accrue benefits,
although they may not always be how we expect within
the current convoluted oligarchic system.
This is usually true, even with papers like "Will
Humans Swim Faster or Slower in Syrup?"
0
0
JASON MAHAKIAN
Michigan Stadium
soe~ t i S
NOTHNG IS.
FR-E H$T
FREE NOT-DOGS FORn
EELL, YIT NE
I DO'T AVEANYSON, WHAT YOU
MOaaYeonTnocAREsmarii
S MHUNRY.
DAGROUS..
6 i
Alexander Honkala is an LSA senior
and a cartoonist for the Daily.
Editorial Board Members:
Emad Ansari, Kevin Bunkley,
Ben Caleca, Milly Dick,
Mike Eber, Brian Flaherty,
Gary Graca, Emmarie Huetteman,
Theresa Kennelly, Gavin Stern,
Jennifer Sussex, Neil Tambe,
Matt Trecha, Radhika Upadhyaya,
Rachel Wagner
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Readers are encouraged to submit
letters to the editor. Letters should be
under 300 words and must include
the writer's full name and University
affiliation. All submissions become
property of the Daily. We do not print
anonymous letters. Send letters to
tothedaily@umich.edu.
0.
0
I