4A - Friday, November 6, 2009
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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CHRIS KOSLOWSKI I
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ROBERT SOAVE COURTNEY RATKOWIAK
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR
Greetings feolks
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GARY GRACA
EDITOR IN CHIEF
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Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles
and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
Progress makes perfect
State must continue to lead on stem cells, marijuana reform
year after the historic election of President Barack Obama,
the verdict may still be out as to whether he's living up to
expectations. But for voters in Michigan, this year's Elec-
tion Day marked another important one-year anniversary - the
state's approval of ballot initiatives legalizing medical marijuana
and expanding stem cell research. While these progressive mea-
sures were intended to provide relief for the chronically ill, they
are affecting many residents of Michigan in positive ways. A year
after their approval, positive developments are occurring on both
the stem cell and medical marijuana fronts - and Michigan must
continue to be a leader on these issues.
In last year's election, Michigan became
the 13th state to allow certain patients
with specific medical conditions to use
marijuana. With permission from a doctor,
patients gained the legal right to cultivate
and use marijuana to help relieve their
symptoms. But the legalization process has
not been seamless - with some users still
facing unjust legal repercussions - nor has
it provided a method for users to obtain
marijuana short of growing it themselves
or using approved sources. Supporters of
medical marijuana rallied in Lansing in
early October for clear regulations to make
use easier.
In addition to removing legal hurdles
to medical marijuana use, the state gov-
ernment needs to make sure it doesn't fall
behind other governing bodies that are
beginning to adopt even more lenient mar-
ijuana policies. Marijuana usage should
be legal, for medical and non-medical rea-
sons, and public sentiment is slowly but
surely turning in favor of such a position.
Indeed, supporters in California are pre-
paring to launch a ballot initiative cam-
paign calling for total legalization.{Even
the U.S. Justice Department is is shift-
ing opinion, announcing last month that
federal officials wouldn't arrest patients
following state laws regarding medicinal
marijuana use.
Michigan is ahead of much of the coun-
try in legalizing a safe, already widely
practiced behavior. But the state can do
even better. Michigan should continue to
push the envelope, allowing users to obtain
marijuana more easily and eventually aim-
ing for total legalization.
And while Michigan can be said to
be at the head of the pack on marijuana
reform, the state is even stronger on stem
cell reform. Last year's Proposal 2 lifted
restrictions on stem cell research, instant-
ly making Michigan competitive with
other states in a promising field of study
that has the potential to cure diseases and
save lives. And as a sign of the state's prog-
ress, Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced
on Oct. 15 that Detroit would be the site
of the 2010 World Stem Cell Summit. The
event will be co-hosted by the University,
Michigan State University, Wayne State
University and the Michigan Economic
Development Corporation.
Michigan must keep its place at the fore-
front of stem cell research. Aside from the
obvious benefit of saving lives, increased
stem cell research brings the best minds
to our universities and the state. This will
create jobs and expand the state's indus-
tries intocutting-edge research and devel-
opment fields, facilitating an economic
transformation.
One year after the passage of these bene-
ficial and progressive amendments, Michi-
gan stands at the forefront of important
social and economic changes. State policy
must continue to push the envelope on
these issues in the years to come.
ND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU
other states and countries.
Additionally, these items are not displaced
because they are "redundant or conventionally
uninteresting to the museum." Items are kept in
storage for many reasons. Some are not stable
enough for display and need to be kept in cli-
mate-controlled settings. Others are not a part
of the Kelsey's current thematic display. Some
are currently being used by researchers or are
under repair.
While I understand Syed's dissatisfaction
with 19th and early 20th century antiquities
laws and, in fact, share his view, his argument
about returning items to their countries is lost
in the random list of complaints that he seems
to have.
Syed moves from the concentration of wealth
at the top of society to the fact no one ever uses
these artifacts, detours to a comment about
"colonialist advances" and then somehow ends
with a demand for recognition that an archae-
ologist somewhere might have gotten an artifact
under less-than-ethical circumstances. What is
Syed's real complaint? That the Kelsey has too
many artifacts in storage? That the Kelsey
should give everything back, except for the
things they're using, the things they loan to
people, or the things other people use? Or that
colonialism is bad?
Syed would be well-served by researching
his topic and focusing his argument. Com-
plaining about a lot of different things on a
similar topic doesn't indicate a valid argument
about any of them.
Lisa Lark
School ofEducation
Sophomore year slump
C onventional wisdom says that has been assigned to you by the many free resources for help with
that freshman year is the big University? Most of the big decisions career choices, roommate crises,
transition year for college are made for freshmen with little clash selection and many of the other
students leaving wiggle room. With Resident Advi- decisions a Wolverine has to make on
home for the first -- - sors and academic counselors thrust a day-to-day basis. There is a study
time. It's impos- upon them, new students can almost abroad group on CTools, professors
sible to ignore the put themselves on autopilot. that double as advisors, and, if you
hype about mov- 4 But come sophomore year, paren- actually take the time to look, more
ing from high tal and staff support subsides while information on Wolverine Access
school to college, course lists become daunting. There than you could possibly imagine.
and every home- is no longer an obviously laid out yel-
ward-bound frosh low brick road for students to follow.
is interrogated For the first time since their arrival Second-years
about it during his LEAH at the University, many sophomores are
or her first visit PTI are expected to make important like the m d l
home. Parents POTKIN decisions on their own. I may know middle
ask nervously and my way from East Hall to the Mod-
family friends ask ern Language Building better, but' children of college.
cordially, but the adjustment to col- aside from that, I think freshman
lege is on everyone's mind. year enhanced my partying skills
For me, freshman year was filled more than my decision-making ones. Another option is to form our
with new faces and new opportu- The truth is that the transition own means of support through peer
nities, and my infatuation with my from coddled freshman to self-suffi- groups. Today, I got an e-mail from
dream university lasted all the way cient, independent sophomore isn't my sorority announcing the forma-
from Welcome Week through final as easy as one might expect, and the tion of e-mail groups for each popu-
exams. I hardly ever thought about challenges and growing pains may lar major. This provides a supporting
the transition. But I'm finding that make it the most emotionally difficult network of peers who likely share
my sophomore year is much more of of the college years. I'm not trying similar academic struggles. And,
a struggle. For me and for many oth- to understate the challenges facing once again, this resource is free.
ers, sophomore year is the real tran- overburdened upperclassmen, who After recognizing the resources
sition year. as juniors are forced to address press- available to me, I trust I will be able
Sophomores are like middle chil- ing scholastic decisions and as seniors to make much more effective deci-
dren - somewhat ignored, but seek- must start planning for the real world. sions when choosing my classes for
ing the attention that, in this case, is But somewhere in the mix of every- the winter semester. And though it
usually centered on incoming fresh- thing, sophomore year gets lost. And will surely take me the remainder
men and upperclassmen. But upper- with nowhere to channel their anxi- of this school year - perhaps longer'
classmen already have two years of ety, many sophomores end up wan- - to fully make my transition to life
experience under their belts and are dering, seeking direction without the as an independent college student,
self-sufficient by necessity. obvious guideposts that facilitated this Thanksgiving, I will be the one
On the other end of the spectrum, most of their previous travels. at the dinner table asking the ques-
freshmen have yet to cut the cord So, what's a troubled sophomore to tions and seeking advice. While I
binding them to their homes. Parents do? Maybe the answer lies in learn- may have soared through fresh-
still do everything in their power ing to seek out the help and guidance man year without a glitch, the road
to check up on their babies-turned- that was so readily handed to them in is still filled with many bumps, and
young adults and help them adjust to the past. As I started to realize that attention and guidance are still very
the college routine. I wasn't going to be spoon-fed help much appreciated.
What's so hard about signing up for and started looking for it on my own,
a few classes from a list of required I realized that resources and support -Leah Potkin can be reached
courses or moving into a dorm room are available. In fact, the school has at ipotkin@umich.edu.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Nina Amilineni, Emad Ansari, Emily Barton, Jamie Block, Ben Caleca, Nicholas Clift,
Michelle DeWitt, Brian Flaherty, Emma Jeszke, Raghu Kainkaryam, Sutha K Kanagasingam,
Erika Mayer, Edward McPhee, Harsha Panduranga, Alex Schiff, Asa Smith, Brittany Smith,
Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Laura Veith
NICHOLAS CLIFT |
A broken B.S. detector
0
6
0
Rich Rod's coachingfails to
encourage team to be great
TO THE DAILY:
I have to be honest and say I was not a fan of
Rich Rodriguez when he was hired. Iam an avid
defender of Lloyd Carr and I think he was forced
out too soon. But that is neither here nor there.
On Monday, Rich Rod was quoted as saying,
"I mean, I want everybody to have patience. I
don't have much of it, but I wish our players
would" (Warren and Graham look off the field
for defensive answers, 11/02/2009). What does
Rodriguez mean by this? Does it mean Carlos
Brown and Brandon Minor should have more
patience running the football? Should Tate
have more patience in the pocket or should the
defensive backs be more patient on routes so as
not to get beat deep?
To me, he is saying that the players should
wait to return to Michigan's dominance and
that the players need tobe patient till he has his
"type" of players in there. Bu, that's bullshit.
Why should Brandon Graham have to wait
for Michigan to return to a powerhouse? It's
his senior year. He has three games left in his
Michigan career, and his coach is telling him to
be patient? I think Rich Rod is sending his team
the wrong message by saying that. The talent
is there to be winning - the Notre Dame game
proves. that - but Rodriguez is telling them to
wait? He should want his players to want to
win right away, go to the Rose Bowl and com-
pete for a National Championship.
This may not mean a lot coming from just an
average student, but I say to the players: Don't
be patient or wait for it - go get it. Win your
last three games and beat Ohio State. I sure
hope Rodriguez doesn't tell you to be patient
when that game comes around, because you
guys have earned it.
Matt Kautz
LSA junior
Syed mischaracterizes the
practices ofKelsey Museum
TO THE DAILY:
It is clear from Imran Syed's most recent col-
umn that he didn't attend the Kelsey Museum
opening and that he didn't speak with any Kelsey
staff members (Hoarding history, 11/02/2009).
While it's true that the vast majority of the
Kelsey's collection is kept in storage, by no
means are these items being "hoarded" or are
"concentrated in the hands of the elite few." The
Kelsey Museum is open to the public, and its col-
lections are used by researchers across campus
and indeed across the world. Pieces from the
Kelsey's collection are on display in museums in
The Internet has knocked America's B.S. detector
askew. Americans are so used to attributing the national
stench to Washington that we haven't noticed our own
steaming piles - the premature, poorly informed politi-
cal conclusions we've all been jumping to. In gaining the
freedom to explore all the views the Web has to offer, we
also have new power to see only those ideas consistent
with the conclusions we've already made. But the crap is
starting to hit the fan. Those bad, smelly conclusions are
dividing America.
We should have first smelled it during the national
health care debate. During Congress's summer recess, we
saw images of extremists shouting over others at town
hall meetings to discuss health care. Their rude interrup-
tions suggest that gears are grinding somewhere within
our old democracy. When people become so frustrated
that they see no worth in the views of their opponents,
something is wrong.
And it's not just those already on the fringe who are
growing more extreme. A poll conducted by the Pew
Research Center in May, just as the health care issue was
moving to center stage, shows that the political parties,
are more starkly different than ever. In two years, the
percentage of Republicans who believed that government
regulation of business does more harm than good rose
from 57 percent to 75 percent. Over the same time peri-
od, the proportion of Democrats who agreed sank from
57 percent to 41 percent. Divisions grew similarly across
a variety of issues, with what Pew defines as the "aver-
age difference between the opinions" at its highest since
measurement began 22 years ago.
There's nothing inherently smelly about disagree-
ment, but the growing contrast can't be explained by
the personal nature of health care or economic recovery.
Instead, division has grown because the ideas Americans
are exposed to are less diverse, and decisions made while
cut off from the broader realities of issues are stinky ones
indeed.
The Internet, hailed by some as the tool to diversify
our information intake, has done much the opposite.
Provided with millions of Web pages, most prefer using
the Internet to tailor the information they read. It's a
phenomenon renowned Harvard Law professor Cass
Sunstein spoke about when he visited the University last
December. According to the Daily on Dec. 12,.2008, Sun-
stein argued that the Internet tends to lead people into
isolation "from the variety of beliefs and opinions needed
for rational political discourse." With plenty of sites like
the Huffington Post and political blogs to choose from,
people are getting better and better at avoiding acciden-
tal encounters with opposing viewpoints.
When opinions are never exposed to the sanitizing
power of daylight, they tend to grow uglier. In one study
Sunstein conducted, conservatives and liberals were sepa-
rated into two groups and asked to discuss political issues.
Over the course of the study, people in both groups devel-
oped more extreme views. They were isolated from the
whole debate and thought their conclusions were reason-
able. In other words, their detectors were knocked askew.
Impressively, New York Times columnist Thomas 4
Friedman made my point about growing extremism with-
out a single allusion to feces. He compared the current
poisonous political environment in this country to that in
Israel in the days leading up to the assassination of Israeli
Prime Minister Yitznak Rabin in 1995. Rabin, who was
ready to trade land for peace with Palestine as part of the
Oslo Accords, was portrayed by some right-wing Israelis
as a treasonous Nazi until one Israeli extremist ended
Rabin's life. "The parallels to Israel then and America
today turn my stomach," Friedman wrote in a Sept. 29
New York Times column.
With so many Americans isolated from exposure to
opposing ideas, the division is crippling national debate.
When it comes to health care and fixing the economy, we
must choose to be exposed to ideas we find contrary to
our own. Otherwise, compromise will remain elusive and
urgent issues will continue to be left unresolved. It's time
to recalibrate our collective crap sensor, start reading the
blogs we disagree with and bring moderation back to the
national debate.
Nicholas Clift is an Engineering freshman.
U libraries offer many
resources for students' use
TO THE DAILY:
This is a gentle reminder from your friends at
the University of Michigan Library in response
to the coverage of the copyright infringement
case against the local shop Excel (Excel Test
,rep loses lawsuit overcopyright infringement,
10/30/2009). The University Library acquires
through purchase and license a phenomenal
range of materials available to University stu-
dents and faculty. Many materials are available
electronically through our website. All of these
materials are legally available for your aca-
demic needs. Before seeking copies through a
course pack, take a moment to see if we have
what you need.
Our librarians can help you in person at
any of our locations, and of course at www.
lib.umich.edu. For copyright guidance, go to
www.lib.umich.edu/copyright.
Kathleen Folger and Melissa Levine
University ofMichigan Library staff
i "1
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. Letters are edited for style, length, clarity and accuracy.
All submissions become property of the Daily.
We do not print anonymous letters.
Send letters to tothedoily@umich.edu.
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