4-Friday, March 28, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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the University of Michigan since 1890.
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ANDREW GROSSMAN
EDITOR IN CHIEF
GARY GRACA
EDITORIA( PAGE EDITOR
GABE NELSON
MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials leflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board.:All other signed articles
and illustrations represent solely the views ofttheir 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.
FROM THE DAILY
A student gov't stronghold
Competitive elections would boost election turnout
fter a term plagued with scandal, this year's student gov-
ernment elections should have driven students to the ballot
box to elect representatives who would change the Univer-
sity for the better. However, last week's embarrassingly low voter
turnout proved that an overwhelming majority of students remain
disillusioned and apathetic about student government elections.
Just as in years past, there is much concern, but few original ideas.
Here's the obvious solution: In order for students to regain their
interest in voting and student government, more legitimate political
parties from which voters could choose.
NOTAL QOTASL
Do you think we are going to supply you
with a translator all of your life?"
- Peter Olszewski, Pennsylvania county judge, sentencing four Spanish speakers to learn English while on
parole or serve the jail time for convicted assault, as reported yesterday by The Associated Press.
JASON MAHAKIAN E-MAIL MAHAKIAN AT MAHAKIAJ@UMICH.EDU
1ooKscieticious5
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-iCKEYi
The limis of idealism
0
0
Only 6.4 percent of eligible voters - a
measly 2,246 students - cast ballots last
week, and as expected the Michigan Action
Party swept the election. In the Michigan
Student Assembly's presidential race, 71
percent of voters picked MAP's candidates,
and all 13 MAP representative candidates
earned spots on the assembly. In LSA Stu-
dent Government, MAP ran unopposed for
the presidency and vice-presidency and won
nine representative seats. These results are
almost carbon copies of those from the past
few years - in each election, MAP or its
predecessor Students 4 Michigan crushed
the competition.
Many could dismiss this as another exam-
ple of voter apathy, a problem emblematic
of young people's attitude toward voting in
races at every level. But at the University,
the situation is different. These blowouts
hardly convince students that their votes
make a difference. It's not that students at
the University don't care about student poli-
tics; they just don't have an incentive to care
about an election that seems more and more
like a formality.
It hasn't always been like that. The high-
est voter turnout in. recent years was in
2006, when there was real competition
between parties with platforms that were
different, yet legitimate. The two main com-
petitors were S4M and the Michigan Pro-
gressive Party. The Conservative Party and
the Defend Affirmative Action Party threw
their hats in the ring too, though they ulti-
mately proved to be less serious contenders.
But all the parties offered students some-
thing they don't really have now: choice.
To be fair, other parties were represent-
ed in last week's race, with DAAP and the
Change In Action party both putting forth
candidates. The problem with these par-
ties was that their-platforms weren't strong
enough to pose a serious threat. DAAP has
noble intentions of integrating campus, but
its goals of abolishing the student code of
conduct and ending racism are broad and
vague, and the party's platform lacks con-
crete goals that is could reasonably accom-
plish. The Change In Action party, while
adamant in its opposition to corruption,
was still a fledgling party.
If new parties intend to legitimately chal-
-lenge the MAP political powerhouse, they
have several obstacles. They must be persis-
tent, bucking the trend of new groups that
spring up and then fizzle out after a loss.
But endurance isn't enough. A legitimate
new party must address issues missing from
other parties' platforms. It must set an agen-
da that is relevant to campus with realistic
goals that it will pursue once elected. Even
when a new party loses with an innovative
platform, the dominant party is expected
to incorporate some of these ideas - that's
accountability.
Students need contested elections and
more choices to make them feel that their
votes really matter. This year's turnout
should not be taken as voter apathy; it
should be seen as a plea for more and better
choices.
a
ive hundred kids were lined
up at 9 a.m. and the 8,000 free
tickets to see the Dalai Lama
were gone within
three hours. I'm not N
exactly surprised
by the popularity
of the event - after
all, he is the world's
most famous monk
- but I'm curious to
know what exactly
it was that moti- ASHLEA
vated thousands of
college students to SURLES
crawl out of bed on
a freezing morning
to gettickets to hear an old man speak.
Was it the mere prospect of being
in the presence of greatness? Were
students anxious to check off "see the
Dalai Lama live and in person" from
their life to-do list, or waxing obedi-
ent and fronting for their parents? Or
were young intellectuals simply com-
pelled by the promise of words of epic
wisdom and unparalleled inspiration?
After all, this is the.Dalai Lama we're
talking about.
He's probably the strongestvoice for
peace in our time, the most prominent
proponent of harmony and the most
legitimate hippie to date. He's a Nobel
laureate, an honorary Canadian citizen
and recipient of America's prestigious
Congressional Gold Medal. Now, he's
advocating a movement towards "post-
identity thinking." As he proposed in a
TIME magazine interview, we should
"look past divisions of nation, race and
religion and try to address our shared
problems at the source," rather than
taking them out on one another.'
The magazine called this a "new
global vision" and described it as "one
of the brightest hopes for our new
world order." But I don't quite under-
stand why. Hasn't the bulk of society
been striving to achieve this appar-
ently "revolutionary" ideal of ethnic,
religious and racial equality for quite
some time now? All things considered,
history suggests that this goal of uto-
pian coexistence is more than a tad
too ambitious for humanity to handle.
I can't help but write off the Dalai
Lama's suspiciously peaceful idea as
nothing less than a fantastically far-
fetched daydream - let's be serious,
this is the 21st century, we don't really
do that whole peace thing anymore.
In many respects, our troposphere
is just as heavy with hatred as ever. A
declining global economy, stacked on
top of heightened immigration and
intensifying globalization, has pit-
ted natives of all countries against
immigrants of all heritages. And ris-
ing inflation in many nations seems
to be levering the ever-widening gap
between the rich and the poor even
further open. In many cases, prejudice
is being crystallized, if not created,
everywhere everyday. And his 68-year
reign - which has earned him tle sta-
tus of the most seasoned leader on the
planet - has ensured that the current
Dalai Lama has not missed any of this.
So, considering all he has seen, how
can the Dalai Lama still fervently
expend his energy and Tibet's resourc-
es, advocating what seems by all
accounts to be nothing more substan-
tial than a happy daydream? it could be
his religiosity (after all, he is the world's
foremost Buddhist monk) that ties him
to this outlandish ideal. But he actually
claims to value the scientific over the
spiritual; he aptly advises people "not
to get needlessly distracted by reli-
gion," and has taken heat for endorsing
secular ethics more so than any of his
predecessor. So, essentially, the Dalai
Lama appears to be a level-headed and
world-renowned advocate of a mental-
ity that I, for some reason, consider to
be about as realistic as magic wands.
And so, ironically, that makes me,
the fresh-faced (but apparently not
so much) representative of youthful
optimism, absolutely skeptical about
the value of the Dalai Lama's "new"
campaign. But isn't youth supposed to
be synonymous with optimism? Upon
consideration, I wonder if I am a prod-
uct of a generation that has entirely
skipped the rose-colored glasses phase
of young adult life and made my way
through college to promptly settle
right into the mindset of a weary, late-
Questioning the
Dalai Lama's
message of peace
life cynic? It seems so, by all accounts.
I don't know if that's because the world
we live in has been much less idyllic
than it was for our parents, but I am a
21-year old with the cynicism of Dio-
genes. I cannot even fathom a world
of post-identity, non-prejudice, all-
embracing, completely equitable pro-
portions.
And I don't believe thatI am alone in
my unlit tunnel. When the Dalai Lama
takes the podium in a few weeks and
turns his wide-eyed gaze out into the
sold-out audience, perhaps he will be
looking out into a sea of my counter-
parts - young people seeking a reason,
or a way, to be inspired about the pros-
pect of a better world.
Ashlea Surles can be reached
at ajsurles@umich.edu.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Emad Ansari, Harun Buljina, Anindya Bhadra, Kevin Bunkley, Ben Caleca, Satyajeet Deshmukh,
Milly Dick, Mike Eber, Emmarie Huetteman, Theresa Kennelly, Emily Michels, Arikia Millikan,
Kate Peabody, Robert Soave, lmran Syed, Neil Tambe, Matt Trecha, Kate Truesdell,
Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Rachel Wagner, Patrick Zabawa.
LEE DITOR SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU
Top students on campus
can be found in all colleges
TO THE DAILY:
In the Statement Wednesday, the Daily's
"Students of the year" (03/26/2008) featured
10 student leaders who work tirelessly to
improve the world around them. They have
all made strides in their fields, both literally
and figuratively. They all deserve recogni-
tion for the difference they have made on
campus. They are also all LSA students.
Was the Daily unable to see leadership in
Rackham Graduate School? Was there no
ARIELA STEIF
one to recognize from the Business School?
There weren't any Engineering students,
Social Work students, Art and Design stu-
dents or Nursing students who made the cut?
It seems ludicrous that the College of Litera-
ture, Science and the Arts could be the only
school producing notable leaders.
While the students spotlighted Wednes-
day certainly earnedtheirsmall acknowledg-
ment, I can't help but feel that the Daily has
completely overlooked the other 19 schools,
colleges and departments that make up the
University. What about the rest of us?
Courtenay Holscher
Engineeringjunior
E-MAIL STEIF AT ASTEIF@UMICH.EDU
Generation speedfreaks
y
Ace
hristopher Reeve's death -
while no doubt an important
moment in history - was not a
defining momentof
our time. It wasn't
a moon landing. It
wasn't Sept.11. The
man who played
Superman died.
A few days ago,
a friend of mine
was explaining
why CNN.com was
the homepage on DAVE
her computer. She MEKELBiURG
said she made the
change after learn-
ing about Reeve's untimely death five
months after it actually happened. She
didn't know about it because she didn't
have a homepage or an RSS feed to ram
it down her throat. At the time, this
struck me as perfectly normal. And it is
- at least for us.
When I say "us," I'm speaking about
our generation. Fellow Daily colum-
nist Karl Stampfl mused in his column
Monday about our how generation
should remain nameless (The unnamed
generation, 03/24/2008), but I don't
quite agree with his assertion that
diversity or globalization will be our
generation's legacy.
After reading Karl's column, what
my friend said about Reeve's death
kept ringing in my head. Then it hit
me: There was something inherently
generational about our exchange. We
don't seek out information. Instead,
it walks up and smacks us in the face.
We don't even notice it anymore. A
breaking news ticker on ESPN.com no
longer screams "Read me!" but quietly
mumbles "Guess what, that WNBA
score you probably don't care about is
ready."
The $6 million, save-the-world ques-
tion is this: How the hell do you sift
through all the distractions and non-
sense? The nearly $1 billion answer is
this: Adderall. Or Ritalin. Or whatever
wonder drug suits your pharmacologi-
cal needs. A new University study says
roughly 20 percent of college students
use prescription drugs. There are more
non-prescribed users of Adderall and
Ritalin than users with prescriptions.
I mean, shit, I'm on Adderall right
now. I have a prescription for it and
need it to do work (I actually have
Attention Deficit Disorder) but still,
I'm flying. For those of you straight
shooters, you're just as hopped up as
we pill-poppers are: your coffee, Red
Bulls, Diet Cokes, green tea and gin-
seng replace our dextroamphetamines.
Even my 13-year-old brother drinks a
cup of coffee before school. We're all
speed freaks.
When someone tells you our genera-
tionhas noidentity,youtellthat person
that we are a single beating heart. That
single heart just happens to be beating
a million times per minute because it's
cracked out on Ritalin.
On the positive side our hyperactiv-
ity has increased our productivity. Yet,
I can't quite shake the feeling that for
all the countless hours spent on blogs,
Facebook,YouTube andWikipedia,our
energy is a bit misdirected. It has led to
such odd phenomena as "Wikipedia
Syndrome," my term for someone who
spends countless hours on Wikipedia
looking up useless shit but couldn't tell
you what day it is.
Our generation seems like it has no
idea what's going .on. We're the kids
who can't figure out where Iraq is.
We're responsible for pageant queens
who say Africa stole our maps. Yet we
are still going at 400 miles per hour all
the time. Something is wrong here.
The quest for knowledge is dead. We
can search Wikipedia all we want for
information, but that doesn't make us
more knowledgeable, especially when
we forget what we read two minutes
later. Even then, are we really seek-
ing out any of that information? Speed
killed our curiosity. In an age of infor-
mation overload, it's easy to get infor-
mation. There's so much out there, we
can't possibly be expected to want to
know all of it. We've been told all our
life that we'll never know everything,
but no other generation has had that
fact driven home as hard as we have.
No drowning man ever asked for a sip
of water.
Even our response has been fleeting.
No one cares what we think - unless
you read our blogs (which no one does,
so shut up). Our irrelevance to our
elders is deafening. Unlike other gen-
erations, we have ignored older gen-
Moving at 400
mp.h., we've still
fallenbehind
erations as they cast fearful glances
below at our speed-crazed ascent to
adulthood. The Baby Boomers - The
Worst Generation in my book - hold
The Greatest Generation up toward the
heavens. We just don'tgive a shit.
Maybe that's our most redeeming
quality. In our generation's stimulant-
fueled drive, the normal amongus have
tuned out the criticism from above. We
aren't whining, kicking and screaming
at older generations like our parents
did in the 1960s. We speak only to each
other, quietly biding our time until we
rise to power.
We might even do something pro-
ductive once we're there.
Dave Mekelburg was a Daily fall/
winter associate news editor. He can
be reached at dmek@umich.edu.