4A - Thursday, February 7, 2008 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 74C idiCgan 4il Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. ' i 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu 0 ANDREW GROSSMAN EDITOR IN CHIEF GARY GRACA EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR GABE NELSON MANAGING EDITOR The Department of Defense is like the world's biggest supertanker." -Defense Sec. Robert Gates, speaking about the U.S. military's inability to change course quickly or continue operations without an influx of resources from Congress, in his Congressional testimony yesterday. CHRIS KOSLOWSKI I ' CUT T ,A S'IR E Unsigned editorials reflect the official position oftthe Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their 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 encouraged to contact the public editor with questions andcomments. He canbe reached at publiceditor@umich.edu. Post-graduation education U' must learn from mistakes with commencement A fter more than a month of outrage from seniors and a lot of backpedaling by the University, there's good and bad news. The good: Graduation won't be in Ypsilanti. The bad: It won't be at Michigan Stadium. With two remaining venues for Spring Commencement, the University did exactly what it should have done months ago: assemble acceptable options and provide students with a compelling excuse for why the Big House is out of the running. However, it is important that neither students nor the University forget that both solutions are consolation prizes, neces- sary only after the University botched the original planning. And they were agreed upon only after student input was sought. The Union Wendy's should be shut downl For too long has it contributed to the slaughter of bovines! The new Stack Attack has two grilled, all-beef patties for only $1? OBSCtNE Arrogantly ignoring positive trends throughout the burger industry, the Union Wendy's food is extremely tasty, and the service is ridiculously fast! It must be stopped P STIPTilEE PI[RIT SLAU ETEI cjc Dear Union Wendy's Employees, Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making your Wendy's an oasis in the fast food desert that is Ann Arbor. With undying love, Chris Koslowski 0 1111illitiffil-M a s 0 a a a a a 6 a a. a a lain a. a a s a 1 2 a a a a a a a ff In Love is cheap While the news that commencementwon't be held in a city that many students have never even visited - let alone feel attached to - is certainly welcome, there weren't any winners after last week's announcement. The simple fact is that it should have never gotten to this point. what the University did to students was insulting. First, it forgot about them in the supposedly well-planned stadium construc- tion project. Then, it blindsided them with the announcement (not the option) of hold- ing graduation in an unacceptable venue, Rynearson Stadium. And finally, it tried to come out of the whole thing as the savior, surveying students, sympathizing with their anger, explaining itself and offering two better options: Elbel Field and the Diag. But these aren't landmark victories. They are desperate settlements. Granted, Elbel Field and the Diag are both good options, and students should weight these alternatives carefully. The Universi- ty's explanation for why the Big House is no longer an option is also understandable. Any reasonable person would probably agree that dodging 80 foot-deep craters to get into the stadium is not safe for guests and filling them in with 40 semi-truck loads worth of asphalt is not good for the environment. However, the way the University haphaz- ardly solicited input from students - con- ducting flawed surveys and meeting with very few student representatives - was questionable and months late. You didn't need to be a statistician to notice that the surveys asked questions that were mislead- ing and in many cases unnecessary. For example, on the survey it asked how impor- tant issues of accessibility were. But the bottom line is that any graduation venue has to be accessible by law - why would it matter what students think? Further, a sur- vey question asked students to select what the most important factor in a graduation is, offering a choice between having eight guests at the ceremony, being at the cer- emony in person and having the ceremony on campus. Yet, these options aren't mutu- ally exclusive. Even after this problem, the fact that it took the University so long to supply its explanations and final options illustrates how little analysis it did before choosing to hold commencement at Eastern Michigan University, not how hard it worked to rec- tify the situation. The University must learn from this expe- rience and mend its tattered relationship with students. It must stop discounting the value of public discussion. The University might have avoided all of this mess had it not suppressed opposingvoices and rammed its plans through the approval process. That approach barely worked with adding luxury boxes to Michigan Stadium. It didn't work with commencement, and it's not the way the University ought to do business. If the University had been up front with students after it realized that graduation couldn't be held at the Big House, it could have avoided the embarrassment of a planned ceremony at EMU. It could have saved itself the time and money it spent planning and replanning graduation too. Believe it or not, students can be rea- sonable and understanding if they aren't deceived and marginalized. The University has a lot to learn. Next time, it should try not to make the survey misleading. Since John Edwards dropped out ofthepresidentialrace lastweek, . have come around to what is apparently the cause of my genera- tion: I now support Barack Obama. However, my support for Obama comes not for his brilliantly stirring orations of the need to rise and bring IMRAN about change: SYED Rather, I have stud- ied him as deeply as is possible (in a non-stalker way), and come to realize that I admire the man Obama really means to be, even if elec- toral pressures forbid him from ever talking about it. What exactly that is isn't the issue here. The real issue is: Have you, the Obama youth army, done your home- work before laying your eternal elec- toral allegiance before the largely unproven, though undeniably promis- ing, fresh force that is Obama? If experience is a guide, then I'll bet that most of you haven't. I'll bet that you support Obama with the same blind fervor that brought college kids to rally, campaign and blog for How- ard Dean four years ago - only to be absent from the process when the eventual Democrat nominee John Kerry needed them. Iadmit, your excitement is notewor- thy. Even though the complete wash that was Super Tuesday still leaves Obama as a slight underdog, college kids everywhere can taste victory, and they swear that this is the time of something unprecedented. The paral- lel that is often raised by overzealous young politicos is that of Bobby Ken- nedy - all that the next generation could have beenhad he not beenkilled in 1968. Not since then, letters to the editor have said, have young people. been so excited by politics. That's partially correct. Except- ing the brief blip that was the Dean Machine, the last time college kids made noise during a presidential election was in 1968. However, those OD'ing on the Obama Kool-Aid (and there are many of you) should con- sider that the commotion and chaos at the '68 Democratic National Con- vention was not out of a passion for Bobby Kennedy. The hell raisers - among them the infamous Chicago Seven, which included former Michi- gan Daily editor Tom Hayden - were actually protesting the unfair process by which the Democratic party gave the presidential nomination to Lyn- don Johnson's vice president Hubert Humphrey instead of the anti-war candidate, Eugene McCarthy. Bobby Kennedy has become a leg- endary figure, and while he was an unabashedly bold idealist, let'sremem- ber that his legend grew considerably, by the hero worship that followed his death. In life, Bobby was a promising, though far from perfect candidate. He entered the race late and splitthe large anti-war faction that had been backing McCarthy. Before and after his death, the youth vote was with McCarthy. This example matters because it shows that a lot of us haven't learned our lesson. This is the first time many of us are actively engaged in a presi- dential campaign so it's understand- able we'll make mistakes. But let's get one thing straight: Barack Obama doesn't need your hero worship. I know, I know; change is in the air; you can feel it, you can taste it and Common is talking about it. But if you're on the Obama bandwagon just because it's cool, please hop off. Read Obama's first book, "Dreams from My Father," to understand exactly how he feels about those who support important causes without full knowledge of what they're doing. In talking about his uninformed adora- tion as a youth of figures like Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela, Obama is crit- ical of his own intellectual laziness. He overcomes those initial -delu- sions of social consciousness to even- tually gain insights most of us cannot fathom, but that was only after years of work and a monumental struggle of self discovery. Take the time to learn about that part of this great man. Or better yet, learn about any of the many fascinating parts of Obama's experi- ence that the vapid 24-hour horserace coverage will never discuss. Go learn about Obama's faith - how he found it and how many unique experiences he has had with religion. Learn about his efforts to organize disadvantaged communities in Chi- cago and the significance of the mixed results they achieved. But don't simply try to read about this on his'website; The evils of the campaign have forced Barack Obama doesn't need your hero worship Obama to mute some of the most admirable facets of his character. The real information is in his books, in deeper news articles and in the scat- tered words of all those who knew him back then. It's perfectly fine to be inspired by what Obama says. But that inspira- tion must translate to reason, belief, resolve and action - not blind venera- tion. Let's not relegate Obama to the vain hippy pipe dreams that put icons like Malcolm X and Che on the same vintage T-shirts that have now begun to feature Obama. He's much bigger than that, and we shortchange our- selves by not exploring the depths of his greatness. Imran Syed was the Daily's fall/ winter editorial page editor in 2007. He can be reached at galad@umich.edu. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Emad Ansari, Anindya Bhadra, Kevin Bunkley, Ben Caleca, Satyajeet Deshmukh, Milly Dick, Mike Eber, Emmarie Huetteman, Theresa Kennelly, Emily Michels, Arikia Millikan, Kate Peabody, Robert Soave, Imran Syed, Neil Tambe, Matt Trecha, Kate Truesdell, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Rachel Wagner, Patrick Zabawa. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor. Letters should be less than 300 / words and must include the writer's full name and University affiliation. All submis- sions become property of the Daily. We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedoily@umich.edu. SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU Happy birthday, Great Communicator TO THE DAILY: Yesterday was the birthday of one the greatest Americans of our time President Ronald Reagan. In his 2002 book, "Letters to a Young Conserva- tive," Dinesh D'Souza, who was a policy analyst in the Reagan administration, described Reagan as a cheerful, for- ward-looking man who always appre- ciated the effectiveness of humor. But beneath his jovial nature, Reagan was a determined president and was not afraid to take on the biggest idea of the 20th century: collectivism. Reagan was the first to say "Government is not the solution. Government is the problem." As president, Reagan sought to stop the growth of welfare state at home and dismantle the Soviet empire abroad. He accomplished both. Because of the Reagan administra- tion's policies and decisions to cut taxes, America saw an economic boom. The annual deficit not only vanished, there was also a budget surplus. Many claim this was caused by the Clinton admin- istration. However, it was the economic growth stemming from policies in the Reagan Era that proved to be the cause of the treasury's tax boom. Reagan today is seen as the hero of the conservative movement. He was successful because he was confident and stood firm on his moral ground, not letting the rough politics of Washington D.C. dismantle him. He also didn't care what the political elites said about him nor wish to win their approval. The only people Reagan sought to satisfy were the American people. Ronald Reagan, thank you for win- ning the Cold War, reviving the U.S. economy and invigorating the Ameri- can spirit. Sarah Ledford Engineeringjunior The letter writer is the chair of the University's chapter of YoungAmericansfor Freedom Date auction a missed opportunity for Daily TO THE DAILY: I'm disappointed that the Project Suyana Mardi Gras Date Auction was not covered in The Michigan Daily. The members of our group worked many hours organizing this event, and I feel that a lot of the good we did went unno- ticed. Instead, when I picked up the paper Tuesday, all I saw was the half-page picture of Barack Obama's barber that covered most of the page above the fold. What was not on the front page or in the paper at all was a mention of the Proj- ect Suyana Mardi Gras Date Auction, a unique event that was considered by some to be the one of most diverse, cre- ative and compelling charity events this campus has seen in years. There was no mention of how Michi- gan football punter Zoltan Mesko punt- ed beads into the crowd of more than 400 people; no mention of how a date with Stella Binkevich, chief of staff in Michigan Student Assembly, was auc- tioned off for $530; no pictures of the beautiful green, purple and gold balloon arch that stretched across the stage; no mention of how the event was hosted by 14-year college senior Johnny Lechner, the real-life Van Wilder; no mention of how the event was broadcast live on CollegeHumor.com; and no mention of how the event featured some of the University's most diverse student lead- ers and performance groups. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go to Chicago to get my hair cut by Obama's barber - I have to look good for my Valentine's Day date that I won at the auction. Reda Jaber LSA senior The letter writer is executive director of Project Suyana and head coordinator of the Mardi Gras DateAuction class when progress was being made? tion location while only one major anti- More importantly, while the pros- war student group exists on campus pect of holding graduation at Eastern Like many, Eber jumped on the band- Michigan University was distasteful (I wagon and wrote off this generation, also sent an e-mail or two voicing my which is his loss. annoyance), it was not on the same level Students may not be occupying build- as, say, protesting the draft. Sending ings as often as their parents did, but letters to the University administration many more are involved in other activi- was an appropriate type of discourse for ties to change the world for the bet- expressingdiscontent about commence- ter. Too bad this isn't good enough for ment. I am relieved that there was no Eber. major march because it would have been disheartening to see hundreds of Max Eddy people show up to protest the gradua- LSA senior + Lack ofprotest caused A by lack of necessity TO THE DAILY: In his recent viewpoint about the failure of online activism and behav- ior to effectively translate into action (Uploading lazy activism, 02/06/2008), Mike Eber was way off the mark. While he blames the Internet for a lack of stu- dent participation in protests, I would suggest that he look beyond the recent graduation debacle. In my four years at the University I have witnessed numer- ous demonstrations and displays of pub- lic outcry. People do care. Given that, one would posit that the reason so few people showed up for the Maize OutMarchthatEberwas involved in was not because students are lazy but because there was no reason to show up. Even before the Daily announced that graduation would be held at either Elbel Field or the Diag, which made moot the march's main goal of forc- ing an on-campus commencement, the University's administration had already shown signs of capitulation. Why miss RIELA STEIF wr . 4 \ r. /C o p r C .til5V e3el5tsA r2D~P~ 01 '/