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