4 - Friday, January 22, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com E-MAIL DANIEL AT DWGOLD@UMICH.EDU e Mt igan Batlg Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu DANIEL GOLD GREAT AMERICAN BLUNDERS THE TONIGHT SHO W 0 JACOB SMILOVITZ EDITOR IN CHIEF RACHEL VAN GILDER EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MATT AARONSON 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. Busting health care Republicans must put health care reform above politics The debate over President Barack Obama's revolution- ary health care bill has raged in recent months. And the future of the bill descended deeper into uncertainty this week when Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts won the election to fill the late Edward Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat. Brown's election makes him the 41st Republican senator - and gives the GOP the filibuster power they need to indefinitely stall the important health care bill. But the bill is about more than party politics. Republicans must forego this political obstruc- tionism and work with Democrats in order to ensure that com- prehensive health care reform is passed. The perfect blend of learning On Tuesday, Brown defeated Democrat- ic Massachusetts Attorney General Mar- tha Coakley in a special election to fill the state's vacant Senate seat. This reduced the Democratic majority in the Senate to 59, keeping them one seat short of the votes that they need to prevent Republicans from employing the filibuster - a procedure that allows Aenators to stall a bill indefinitely in the absence of 60 votes to the contrary. This election has shaken up reliably left Massachusetts with major policy impli- cations on the national level. Nowhere is the effect more noticeable than in the health care debate. Ted Kennedy, who occupied the Massachusetts seat for the last 47 years prior to his death in August of 2009, referred to health care reform as "the cause of my life." This sentiment sym- bolizes the significance of the legislation Brown's election now threatens to kill. Accordingto U.S. Census Bureau statistics, 46.3 million Americans were without health insurance in 2008 - a number this nation shouldn't tolerate. Considering the intent of recent health care legislation - making health care affordable to all Americans - the Republican Party should be willing to work with the Democrats to deliver a bill that achieves this goal. Health care costs are out of control, and reform is important to all Americans. It's appalling that even though the United States has the advanced medical technology and the ability to treat so many ailments, health care remains out of reach for millions of its citizens. As the minority party in both houses of Congress, Republicans have consciously evaded the role of a constructive partner in the legislative process by placing politics above the welfare of citizens. U.S. Senator Jim Demint (R-S.C.) infamously said, "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him," a clear sig- nal that Republicans may care more about thwarting Obama than working to improve the quality of life for their constituents. Republicans have consistently used every tool available to prevent the bill from being taken to a final majority vote, where they are outnumbered. Health insurance statistics make it clear that the status quo isn't working. Congres- sional drama won't cure the nation's ill, but efforts at reform will. Republican senators must stop placing their own agendaabove the well beingoftheir constituents and become a contributor - not a roadblock - to the legis- lative process. That means putting aside the filibuster now and working with their Demo- cratic counterparts in order to make health care reform a reality for all Americans. After spending two years at the University and finishing the cross-discipline sampling that is the beauty of dis- tribution require- ments, I now knowj a little bit about the biology of nutri- tion. I took the class "Biology of Human Nutrition" to ful- fill the natural sci- ence requirement that my philosophy LIBBY major didn't cover. ASHTON But because my nutrition class was held in a lecture hall filled with history majors trying to satisfy their own natural science requirements, I still don't know any- thing about biology majors. Because of this lack of exposure to students of the non-humanities, I haven't been able to achieve any real concept of how their minds work. The only impressions I've been able to form are rooted in their stereo- typed identities. For example: I am a philosophy major. Iam "pre- tentious, planning to spend the rest of my life working at Starbucks, judging you for being shallow, unshowered." You are in the Business School. You are "high on Adderall, selfish, wearing a tucked in button-down, loudly complaining about your finance homework." She is a communications major. She is "in a sorority, also studying psychol- ogy, trying to take the back door into the advertising/marketing world, hot." He is an Engineering student. He is "self-important, socially incompe- tent, a minority, going to make more money than the rest of us." I came to the University wide-eyed and ready to wring every drop of stim- ulation out of my liberal-arts-meets- major-research-university education. I chose not to go to Kenyon College in Ohio or Bowdoin College in Maine because I wanted to expose myself to more academic diversity than I expected to find at these classic lib- eral arts colleges. I wanted to study with engineers and business-minded students along with the less linear thinking, more familiar students of the humanities. I saw the University as the perfect shade for me, blending together every color I looked for in an undergraduate experience. The potential for integrating the minds of the University's diverse intel- lectual community is not being actu- alized. The components of my perfect shade have been divided up, branded as primarycolors and stuckinseparate buildings throughout Ann Arbor. The B-School students stay in their palace on Tappan Street, only to be bothered by the rest of us when we crash their cafeteria for the sushi option - because you can only go to Sadako so many times. The English majors, who are rumored to be the coolest kids on campus, are probably drinking coffee somewhere (because I hear they never really have work to do) and reminiscing about the good times they had while attending the New England Literature Program. The political science majors sneak into whatever part of the Law Library is the most off-limits and try to look as intensely studious as possible. I guess they think the more they look like law students, the more likely they'll one day become law students. No one knows where the pre-med students go. Apparently they lose all their friends by the time they're done with Orgo II. The division among academic con- centrations is so tangible to students that it becomes nearly impossible to take individuals out of their major subcategory and see them as peers in a larger educational context. As with the division among any set of groups, stereotyping exists often as a cogni- tive shortcut to processing informa- tion about someone or something unfamiliar. Generalizing the identity and behavior of students studying some- thing different from what I study makes the humanity of these people less salient to me. I see them as two- dimensional figures roaming around the Diag on their way to some class I'll never take. One method of adding dimension to these faces that deco- rate my walk to class is to make our paths intersect. Interdisciplinary classes bridge the concentration gap. The declaration of a major can't be avoided and shouldn't stop. But the University could make a stronger effort to promote integration among the different departments. Perhaps the University could implement a policy wherein students are required to take four seminars during their time at the University. This policy - which would be inde- pendent of concentration qualifica-I* tions -would provide anopportunity to satisfy distributional requirements in an intimate, discussion-based environment. These classes would be similar to first-year seminars in that a variety of departments would offer them and students from a variety of departments would enroll in them. 0 As it stands now, the general edu- cation requirements encourage Engi- neers to take -a sociology class and film and video studies majors to take a statistics class. However, the nature of a large university is such that few of these classes foster genuinely collab- orative learning among the students wherein we can directly benefit from our engagement with each other. The University offers us an ideally explorative, integrative and broad- ening college experience. We have the entire color spectrum, running through the streets of Ann Arbor and it's the University's responsibility to cultivate their blending. - Libby Ashton can be reached at eashton@umich.edu. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Nina Amilineni, William Butler, Nicholas Clift, Michelle DeWitt, Brian Flaherty, Jeremy Levy, Erika Mayer, Edward McPhee, Emily Orley, Harsha Panduranga, Alex Schiff, Asa Smith, Brittany Smith, Radhika Upadhyaya, Laura Veith JOE SUGIYAMA | Allow wind farm.in in Mich. 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 tothedaily@umich.edu. An underrated colun With the economy in Michigan at historic lows, the state should be jumping at opportuni- ties that would provide a surplus of jobs. With America's dependence on fossil fuels at an all time high, the development of green sources of energy should be a top priority. With the mounting environmental implications of burn- ing coal, people should do everything pos- sible to reduce their carbon footprints. Well, according to the citizens of Oceana and Mason Counties, in the western part of the state, these actions might cramp their style. As reported in the Muskegon Chronicle last month, the $3 billion dollar project, proposedby Havgul Clean Energy AS, would place between 100 and 200 wind turbines over a 100 square mile stretch off the shore of Lake Michigan. The Aegir Offshore Wind Farm would produce approximately 1000 megawatts of energy and power roughly a million homes. The wind farm would help to invigorate Michigan's struggling economy by offering thousands of jobs during construction, which is predicted to take 5 to 10 years, as well as roughly 200 positions after its completion. Who would argue with such a valuable proj- ect? Apparently, the residents of the counties on the coast of Lake Michigan would. Many of the citizens of this coastal area attended a meeting with Havgul Clean Energy to discuss the project and most opposed construction of the wind farm. The project would place 300- to 450-foot-high wind turbines four and a half miles off the Ludington shores. Though this may seem like a sufficient distance, the models provided by Havgul showed the turbines would be clearly visible from the shoreline, much to the distaste of those who attended the meeting. The coastal citizens complain that much of their revenue is derived from the natural beauty of Lake Michigan, and gaudy turbines may lower property values, hurt tourism and harm fishing. These seemingly legitimate con- cerns raise the question of why the state would choose an area that relies so heavily on scenery for revenue. Havgul extolled the many benefits of the project, citing the optimal prevailing winds of the area and its proximity to Detroit and Chica- go. The cities would utilize the energy, allevi- ating the need for fossil fuels and maximizing use of the energy generated by the wind farm. Though the benefits of this project are plen- tiful, the question of the environmental impact needs to be examined. Environmental engi- neers will need to survey the area during a $10 million pre-production process taking place before any construction. The outlines for this process haven't been released, butI suspect the pre-production team will survey the terrain of the lake bottom, create models to predict any adverse current alterations and attempt to understand any negative effects the turbines might have on the local fish, bird and flora populations. They will certainly consider the construction and maintenance of the massive structures as factors. Following the research, there will be massive efforts to minimize any and all of the adverse environmental impacts of the wind farm. But with all of this laid out in front of them last month, the majority of citizens of the lake shore communities who attended the meeting with Havgul still felt that this eco-friendly, economy-boosting project wasn't worthwhile. I respectfully and wholeheartedly disagree. Students at Michigan are so often beat over the head with the environmental problems of global warming and deforestation that we may forget that not all people are as focused on this issue. Even so, there is enough news coverage out there for the average person to understand that dwindling supplies of fossil fuels and the dangers posed by global warming are major concerns. With this in mind, the benefits of green energy are undeniable. There is no question that we must take full advantage of the world's renewable resources if we are to preserve healthy life on this planet. By opposing this project, citizens of the lake- shore counties are preventing the state from becoming an innovator and leader in renew- able energy. The wind farm would contribute to the revitalization of the state economy. It is unacceptable for such a positive development to be shot down by a concern about lakeshore aesthetics. For the sake of the environment and the economy, I hope that those in opposition will come to see the good that can come from this project. Joe Sugiyama is an Engineering sophomore. There is nothing worse than being on a first date or out with friends, and reaching a point in the con- versation where nobody knows what to say. The well is dry. You sit there and pretend , to look around, admiring the scenery while des- perately search- ing your brain for LINCOLN something remote- ly interesting to BOEHM break the deafen- ing silence. Beyond being as awkward as .farting during sex, these conversation-less circumstanc- es leave all parties involved feeling uninteresting. Well, those days are over. I recently invented a game per- fect for such situations. I call it "over- rated/underrated." While the game's premise is simple - and at first glance seems too simple to be fun - it's hard to stop playing once you start. The game goes like this: one person names something that they find to be overrated or underrated. For exam- ple, I think that air is underrated. We breathe it all day and can't live without it, but rarely think about it. From here, other parties either argue or agree with my assessment of air's value and then move on to a different topic. Not only is this game surprisingly entertaining and endless, but the more you play it, the more you learn about the person you're playing with. In contrast to the awkward conversa- tions that persist on first dates, play- ing overrated/underrated gets to the core of what the person on the other side of the table values. As opposed to hearing about what sports they played in high school, you'll find out whether or not they agree that Nickelodeon's "Doug" is vastly underrated. Here is a sample game for you to study: Massages: underrated - "The Rock" on Washtenaw Ave.: overrated - Hubie Brown: underrated - CPK soups: underrated - Peanut But- ter and Jelly: underrated - Manny Harris: overrated - Leather: over- rated - Finished wood: underrated - Stickers: overrated - The NFL: overrated - Nature: overrated - Playing basketball in your driveway: underrated - Detroit Metro Air- port: underrated - Bar Louie's food: underrated - Middle Earth (as far as shopping for presents is concerned): underrated - Hanging out in your underwear: underrated - Watching sports with your best bros: overrated - Florida: overrated - The beach: overrated - Sunblock: underrated - Lloyd Carr: underrated - Bo Schem- bechler: overrated (I'm not saying he wasn't a great coach, but he didn't even win a national championship! I have a feeling that one is going to get me stabbed. Ugh.) - Clint Eastwood: overrated - Mel Gibson: underrat- ed - Performance art: underrated - Skateboards: underrated (were overrated back in like 2001 but have recently become less popular, mak- ing them now underrated) - Moses' accomplishments: underrated. At this point, you might be wonder- ing, "What am I learning from this other than your opinions on about 20 random things?" The answer: enough to determine whether or not you and I have anything in common. If I were to tell you that I love writing and trav- elling and am from California, you would know general things about me. But, if I told you that I think potato salad is an underrated appetizer, and find the "cuteness" of babies to gen- erally be overrated, you would know much more about my substance as a person and probably be able to guess how I feel about other similar topics. Now, where was I? Playboy: overrated - Egotastic. com: underrated - John F. Kennedy: overrated - Queso: underrated - Subway on South U.: underrated - No Thai!: overrated - JC Rich Korean Restaurant: underrated - The peri- odic table of elements: underrated - The refractory period: underrated (that's when you get all your work done) - G-strings: overrated - Boy shorts (sexiness): underrated - "MILPS": overrated - George Karl: underrated - Numbers: underrated - Instincts: underrated - Wash- ing machines: underrated - Arnold Palmer (the drink): underrated - Arnold Palmer (the golfer): overrated - Identity theft: underrated (as far as it's ability to ruin your life) - Ashton Kutcher: underrated - Sex appeal: underrated - Ancient Egypt: under- rated. Do you need a way to fill those pesky awkward silences? I'm stopping here only because my editors are making me stick to aword count. I could go on for days. In a world with tons of serious problems, why am I writing about Moses, Lloyd Carr and Ashton Kutcher as underrated cultural fig- ures? Because it's easier for people to argue about guacamole thad about the United States's involvement in Iraq. Learning to engage one another in intellectual discussions is a great goal, but we have to get to know each other and learn to communicate first. This game takes you on a roller- coaster of topics, and in the end gives you a pretty solid understanding of what a person is like. My guarantee to you - on a side note, "The Guarantee" is my Jersey Shore nickname - is that after playing this game with people you don't know very well, you will be able to immediately determine wheth- er or not you want to hang out with them again. That's "The Guarantee." And by the way, Daily opinion col- umns: underrated. - Lincoln Boehm can be reached at Isboehm@umich.edu.