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Th Mchga .Dil W desay Nvebe 20
Overcoming apathy'
ast week, a sea of students
flooded the Diag chanting
"O-bam-a! O-bam-a!" and
singing "The Star-Spangled Ban-
ner," as we wrote our own chapter
in Diag history.
That kind of thing wasn't sup-
posed to happen at the University
of Michigan anymore. That purely
kinetic energy, those rallying cries
that echoed down South University
and in the Diag - none of it could
have come from college students.
Especially us, the apathetic gen-
eration, the generation our parents
said was in trouble, possiblythe one
that couldn't be saved, the one that
stood by and sighed through eight
x years of Bush politics and bitched
about a war in Iraq that we didn't
like, but didn't do anything about.
But then it happened the night
of Nov. 4. As the first lines of our
national anthem resonatedthrough
the tightly bunched mass in the
Diag, I joined in with the words,
singing a song I had never so ear-
nestly sangbefore.
We should have risen before this.
We spent a large chunk of our lives
being watched by a Bush adminis-
tration we complained about. We
might have held a few signs on the
side of the street and thought we.
were actuallyworkingtoward some
grand change in America. But then
Bush was reelected by a majority of.
Americans while we stood on the
sideline and murmured our discon-
tent, and then we went on with our
lives. Sure,some ofus protested,and
POT WATCH
From Page 7B
door for Cannabis Club-style dis-
pensaries as caretakers or patients
growing weed for themselves must
keep their store in a locked facility
only they can access.
But while Michigan's medical
marijuana law likely won't lead to
a pot-cicle shop on State Street,.
they're more liberal than most.
Of the 12 states that enforce pos-
session maximums, only Oregon
goes above Michigan's maximum of
2.5 ounces and 12 plants by allowing
patients to possess up to 24 ounces
of useable marijuana along with
18 plants under 12 inches and six
held those signs high, but nothing
grand came of it, and we returned
to our routine of Advanced Place-
ment calculus and writing essays
in order to get into this place, the
University of Michigan.
The election year in 2004, when
somehow Bush was still "our presi-
dent," we thought we would elect
John Kerry, a real man of change,
to turn the country around. It was
our generation's turn. We'd be the
deciding factor of change. "Our
president" had thrown us into a
war reminiscent of the ghost of
our parents' youth, and we would
end it. The fear of a draft hung over
our heads, and my parents' fears
shrouded my future more than the
concerns of getting into Michigan
or paying for school. But I largely
ignored most of it because I could.
It didn't directly affect many of us,
though friends were arrested for
sit-ins and I occasionally went back
to those street corners, protest-
ing things I didn't even completely
understand. But I was taking a
stand for our country. Maybe.
Then we voted, some of us who
were old enough, and we were
blindsided by an America that
thought it was best to again choose
a president that it would prefer to
have a beer with, rather than an
intellectual. My father was floored,
pronouncing the death of America
as a war raged on. I was crushed,
fearful of my future, seeing Amer-
ica's electoral map split into fiery
reds and chilled blues. We saw the
mature plants.
It's exceptional that Michigan's
law doesn't put a limit on size or
make a distinction between imma-
ture and mature plants - mature
meaning a plant with flowers that
can be harvested, dried and smoked.
Most states have limitations similar
to Colorado's maximum ofsix plants
in total with three producing at a
time.
But states like Colorado, Maine
and Nevada provide better condi-
tions for cultivation by not speci-
fying where plants must be kept,
which allows growers to cultivate
larger plants within the quota by
planting outside.
Michigan requires that medici-
numbers of dead military 'person- watched Iraq struggle, an economy
nel grow and knew there was a falter and approval ratings plum-
problem, but I largely ignored it, met. Maybe we bought a bumper
still hoping for a bigger and bright- sticker or a shirt condemning Bush
er future that would appear out of and Dick Cheney, but that was the
nothing. extent of our revolt. Change was
And then we became Wolver- needed once and for all, and again,
ines. We pretended we were politi- the younger generation was called
cally active, but all we really cared upon to make the world a better
place. Global warming, new indus-
tries, a health care crisis - our
elders cried that a slew of problems
Recalling the would fall to us, but we didn't want
any part in it.
night that The presidential primary races
began almost two years ago and the
Obama stirred man who rose to the top of the Dem-
ocratic pile was Barack Obama, the
the "apathetic candidate who was supposed to be
too young and too black to become
generation" the next president of the United
States. We supported him - he was
the man of change; he was the voice
of youth; he was the anti-Republi-
about was passing our intro classes can. He was change we needed to
and getting drunk to cheer on the believe in.
football team on game days. The But this time, our generation
only time we'd assemble en masse, decided to do something more than
endlessly happy, would be for the stand on the sidelines. Hundreds of
big games when our team was on thousands of college students sup-
top was able to pull off the impor- ported Obama like no other presi-
tant victory.. Belting "The Victors" dential candidate before him. We
or banging a cowbell, we would made ran voter registration drives;
have summoned a good amount of we canvassed neighborhoods; we
enthusiasm for a National Cham- e-mailed, texted and called. In a
pionship, but nothing short of that style unique to our technological
could of taken priority over our age, the generation of apathy took
everyday concerns. And as our luck a stand.
would have it, I never got to see And last Tuesday night, it
one. showed. We all were afraid to
Three years passed and we mutter the L-word, landslide, but
were hopeful, and when the ini-
tial returns started to flow in, and
Obama clinchedthe election before
midnight, our hopes and dreams
were realized and campus erupted.
As the mass of students sprinted
down South University and made
a sharp left turn for the Diag, the
apathetic generation - died. We'd
never seen such returns on such
effort. This was our protesting of
the '60s. This was the America we
needed and wanted.
As I too held my phone in the air
to record the chaos and jubilation
of the throbbing crowd, bursting
with an air of patriotism, "The Vic
tors" took hold of the crowd. This
was better than any football cham-
pionship. This was the national
championship we needed to believe
in America again. This was the
proof that our generation was not
doomed, that we could write our
own chapter in Diag history. And
the moment the "The Star-Span-
gled Banner" resonated through
the warm, fall air is a unique time I
will tell my kids about when I think
their generation is the apathetic
one. I'll tell them of the chills I felt
yelling the closing the lines of the
national anthem, "And the home of
the brave," and of the way Ameri-
can was reborn for me.
Goodbye, generation of apathy.
Hello, generation of change. This is
our America now.
-Matt Emery is one of The
Michigan Daily's managing arts editors
establishingaclear,easilyaccessible,
legal way for qualified patients to
get marijuana --adopting instead
the mindset of the majority of medi-
cal marijuana states of "you can do
it, but we won't tell you how."
Marc Emery, editor of Canna-
bis Culture magazine in British
Columbia, said that states that don't
define a means of distributions leave
patients little choice but to attain
marijuana, or at least the starter
plants, illegally.
"It's unfortunate that the legisla-
tion didn't define a way for patients
to acquire marijuana," Emery said.
"It's all black market illegal if the
legislation didn't provide a means
for distribution."
nal marijuana plants be kept in an
"enclosed area equipped with locks
or other security devicesthat permit
access only by a registered primary
caregiver or registered qualifying
patient."
Even though indoor plants don't
grow as large, 12 plants could pro-
duce quite a bit. The average yield of
an indoor cannabis plant in bloom
is about 1.2 ounces, according to a
study in the Journal of Forensic Sci-
ence. As an annual species, cannabis
plants grown indoors flower three to
five times before dying - meaning
the yearly yield of a medical mari-
juana grow site in Michigan could
be between 43 and 72 ounces.
Medical marijuana patients in
Washington used on average about
15 grams a week - or 27.5 ounces
a year - with the highest amount
reported being about double,
according to a survey conducted in
western Washington between 2001
and 2003.
Michigan beats the most liberal
states concerning medical mari-
juana - California, Oregon and
Washington - in one respect. After
Montana and Rhode Island, Michi-
gan became the third state to honor
the identification of medical mari-
juana patients and caretakers regis-
tered in other states.
But despite all of the liberal attri-
butes of Michigan's marijuana law,
the state failed to join California in