4 - Friday, September 30, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com I 4- Friday, September 3D, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com I can say I'm nowhere as fast as Shoelace:' - Minnesota quarterback MarQueis Gray said about Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson, as reported by The Michigan Daily today. Speak out against bullying STEPHANIE STEINBERG EDITOR IN CHIEF MICHELLE DEWITT and EMILY ORLEY EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS NICK SPAR MANAGING EDITOR 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. Buy local or bye local White Market shouldn't close its doors White Market has been a grocery staple for countless stu- dents over the past 62 years. However, the Williams Street building the store occupies was recently sold, and the White Market owners are unsure about the future of their lease. If White Market were to close, there would be no other place on cam- pus for students to get fresh produce and affordable groceries. Stu- dents should voice concerns about the potential closing of the store and support local shops and restaurants to ensure they continue to thrive in Ann Arbor. (44 ur lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that mat- ter." Years ago, an African- American pas- tor uttered these words encour- aging people to speak up against racial discrimi- nation. Today, I'm uttering these words, to speak up against HARSHA NAHATA Last week, the building that houses White Market was sold after being on the market for over a year. The current owners of the market, Dave and Darlene Jones, are unsure whether they will renew their lease, which expires at the end of the year. They told The Michi- gan Daily their business's survival depends on negotiations with the new landlord and expressed interest in their customers and a desire to continue supplying students with fresh food. Currently, there are few grocery stores available to students on campus within a walk- ing distance - and even fewer that offer fresh fruits and vegetables. Last year, Village Corner, on the corner of South University and South Forest avenues, closed its doors. While CVS and 7-Eleven convenience stores have recently opened oh State Street, they only provide lim- ited produce options. There is a grocery store beneath Zaragon Place on East University Ave- nue, but much of the food is gourmet and not affordable for most students. If White Market closes, students on campus will have no fresh, affordable grocery shopping options. While Meijer, Whole Foods and Kroger are all located near campus, they require either car or bus transportation, which poses a struggle for many students who don't have access to a vehicle. Relying on the AATA bus, and carrying several bags of groceries also is not convenient. A grocery store within walk- able distance is a necessity for students who live on or near campus. Many local shops have left Ann Arbor over the years, and State Street has become an increasingly commercial shopping area. While it's important for students to have options for where they shop and eat, they should real- ize the important contributions that locally owned businesses make to the city of Ann Arbor. Small businesses stimulate the local economy and help give Ann Arbor its charac- ter, which improves the environment where students live and go to school. Shopping at and supporting local business- es is what helps the Ann Arbor community grow and continue to thrive. Locally owned shops like White Market contribute to the success of the Ann Arbor economy. If White Market doesn't renew its lease, students and others who live and work in downtown Ann Arbor will be left with fewer options for gro- cery shopping. Students should support White Market, so they can continue to have afford- able, fresh food options on campus. teen bullying. Fourteen-year-old Jamey Rode- meyer committed suicide in his New York home on Sunday, Sept. 18. Rodemeyer was just starting his freshman year of high school. For the past couple years, he complained of being bullied on the Internet regard- ing his sexual orientation. Parents and friends expressed outrage over harassment and gay slurs directed toward Jamey. According to local reports, one post on a social network read, "JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND ... UGLY. HE MUST DIE!" Another claimed, "I wouldn't care if you died. No one would. So just do it :) It would make everyone WAY more happier!" Unfortunately, Jamey is one per- son on a long list of bullying victims. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, during the 2008-2009 school year, 28 percent of students between ages 12 and 18 reported being bullied in school. The most prominent form of bullying isn't through physical aggression, but through ridicule, insults and rumors. A 2009 survey by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network reveals that 85 percent of gay and transgender high school students claim they've been harassed because of sexual orientation and 60 percent because of gender identity. The Cen- ters for Disease Control and Preven- tion estimate that everyday 160,000 kids across the country stay home from school because they are afraid of being bullied. This is unacceptable. School is a second home - it's a place that should be comfortable and secure at the very least, if not warm and welcoming. No child should be stay- ing home because they are afraid to go to school, or don't feel safe in the classroom or among their peers. There is no justification for bullying and no justification for a child feel- ing anxious about going to school in the morning or coming home feeling worthless. But simply reiterating that bully- ing is bad won't make it go away. To combat bullying in schools, everyone needs to play their part. And that doesn't mean just not being a bully. It means speaking out against hurt- ful comments; it means watching what you say and, more importantly, whatyou don't say; it means goingup to the student who's being taunted and reassuringhim or her that you're there, that they're not alone. It's not just about professing tolerance, it's about empathizing and understand- ing; it's about letting people in when the world shutsthem out. And it's about making sure the right laws are in place to protect stu- dents. Michigan is one of few states that has yet to enact anti-bullying legislation. And that isn't because the bullying problem somehow magi- cally skipped Michigan. In January,, the American Association of Uni- versity Women of the University of. Michigan testified on bullying claim- ing that in the past year, 24 percent of Michigan high school students reported being bullied on school property, and 7.4 percent of high school students reported missing school because they felt unsafe. The problem is there. Now the solution needs to be too. It's difficult, if not impossible, to take a tough stance against bullying without comprehensive anti-bully- ing legislation. Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and the Michigan State Board of Education have recommended clear legislation, but so far that call hasn't been adequately answered. The recently passed anti-bullying bill in the State Senate attempts to address the issue but falls short. It neither requires schools to accept the outlined policies, nor does it clarify the process by whichteachers should report bullying - basically render- ing the bill useless. We can do more. We have to do more. And we have to demand our legislators do more. Students should treat each other with respect. 4 I Jamey was involved with the "It Gets Better" campaign, which spreads awareness about teen bully- ing via Facebook and Youtube. One of his final posts stated, "I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens. ...What do I have to do so people will listen to me?" What more has to be done? How many more victims do we have to hear about before we start taking this seriously? October is National Anti-Bullying Awareness month. Don't let Jamey's story fade into the backdrop - don't let it be something you hear about, feel bad about and then forget in the routine of daily life. Speak up, do something - whether it's watching your words, making a stranger feel welcome, cheering up someone who is down or spamming your legisla- tors. Bullying isn't just between the bully and the victim. It's something we all should work to stop. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., we can't become silent about things that matter. -Harsha Nahata is an assistant editorial page editor. She can be reached at hnahata@umich.edu. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Aida Ali, Michelle DeWitt, Ashley Griesshammer, Patrick Maillet, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata, Emily Orley, Teddy Papes, Timothy Rabb, Seth Soderborg, Andrew Weiner JESSE KLEIN | O 'Hollywood' correct LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor. Letters should be fewer than 300 words and must include the writer's full name and University affiliation. We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedaily@michigandaily.com Try to pencil in flaws Let me preface this by saying that the rest of this article will be written by my ratio- nal brain. My irrational metaphorical heart jumped up and down, got warm and fuzzy and screamed at the TV when Blaine and Kurt from Fox's "Glee"finally kissed. My irrational heart waited three years for Calvin to decide his feelings for Heath were more important than the fact that they are in rival fraterni- ties in ABC Family's "Greek." My irrational heart wanted to smack Georgia upside her face when she accidentally outed Eric and Jonathon on the CW's "Gossip Girl." My irra- tional heart loved the family dynamic of Cam and Mitchell of Fox's "Modern Family." And I can't wait for Brittany and Santana to say "screw guys and their head games" and finally be together on "Glee." But my brain worries about Hollywood TV shows bombarding viewers with gay charac- ters. Are they actually tryingto show the real- ity for gay couples or are they just trying to be politically correct? Are theytrying to advance the plot, or are they just going along with the Hollywood line, "we accept gay people?" Do they really care about these characters or are they just trying to get a wider audience and media attention? Every time there is a gay kiss on primetime television - like on the "Dawson's Creek" season finale in 2000 - the media explodes. Every time, they say this is the first time gays have been portrayed this way. When Blaine and Kurt kissed on "Glee" for the first time last season, many entertainment news sites came out with articles that had different forms of the headline "First Honest Gay Relation- ship on TV." I personally know this is untrue because "Greek" debuted a stereotype-break- ing, open gay relationship - in a fraternity no less - three years ago. And not only did this gay character have serious emotional relation- ships, but also the drunken one-night stands that stereotype the college experience. The most prevalent gay relationships on TV are on "Glee," with half the relationships being between same-sex partners. The creator of "Glee" is a gay male who has publicly stated that the struggles Kurt faces are loosely based on his own. The Blaine and Kurt storyline is one that many viewers, including myself, love. I think the idea of a confident gay teenage boy in a relationship with a boy who needs a role model, following an attack from a homophobic, in-the-closet bully, is very important. Where I become skeptical is the Brittany/Santana rela- tionship. It seems forced and unrealistic. Their "girl cuddling" and their tearful rendition of "Landslide" seem like the writer's way of bal- ancing out the much-loved male gay relation- ship and saying, "Hey, we like lesbians too." There are fewer lesbian relationships on television than male gay relationships. It is my belief that mostly women watch these types of shows, and girls find male gay relationships cuterthanlesbian relationships, whereas men, stereotypically, claim to like lesbian hook-ups. Agood example is Fox's "House," where Olivia Wilde had a straight relationship, but a ran- dom, lesbian hook up. "House" is a show that is watched by both men and women, unlike "Greek" or "Glee" that draw a predominantly female audience. At least "Glee" focuses on these relation- ships and tries to make them part of the story, but the worst is shows like "Gossip Girl." They have awkwardly inserted gay characters like Eric and Jonathan just to have them there. They rarely are featured in the episodes, and there has been no gay kiss on the show. It seems as if they are only there in an effort to be PC or, more accurately, Hollywood Correct. Jesse Klein is an LSA freshman. 've never been a perfection- ist. I never colored inside the lines of my princess coloring books. I never had good hand- writing, and the part in my hair was never entirely straight. But I've always had perfection on my mind, LEAH in the way I'm POTKIN sure every other PTKIN _ overachieving University stu- dent does. I want to be the perfect student, daughter and friend, and I try hard not to make mistakes while striving to be all those things. However, the esteemed English Prof. John Rubadeau mentioned something this past week in class that really got my wheels turn- ing. He told my class to look at our pencils and asked us what was on the top. Well, of course the answer was an eraser. The lesson? Pencils have erasers because the users are expected to make mistakes - sim- ple as that. Everyone learns from the time they're in elementary school that it's ok to make mistakes and that people learn from their mistakes. But, in an environment as competitive as the University, the long-taught lesson is easily for- gotten. Sure it's important to work hard and strive to do your best, but it's not always about that extra club position or the A+ papers. Some- times, it's just about learning, and if that learning comes from making mistakes, so be it. This lesson rings true for me the most in my writing. The key to writ- ing is rewriting, says my profes- sor. The key is to mess up, and then fix the mess you made. Students shouldn't be afraid to go to a profes- sor or tutor with "stupid" questions because it is by asking those ques- tions and making the mistakes in the first place that the student learns. For me, the pencil-eraser analogy is more of a type and delete scenario, as I know it is for many students. But even the computer doesn't truly let students realize their own mistakes, as the computer has spell-check and a built-in thesaurus. I'll be honest, I'd be lost without spell-check, but it certainly wouldn't hurt me to see my mistakes pointed out by someone other than the Microsoft paper clip helper, as I hardly register my mis- takes when they are auto-corrected without my knowing. While it might take a bit more effort to notice and correct my mistakes, the extra work is worth it. Learning from mistakes doesn't only apply to writing. It is appli- cable in all walks of life, embody- ing everything from lackluster jobs and internships, to failed relation- ships and business endeavors. If not for making the mistake of accepting the first internship I was offered this past summer - which turned out to be very disappointing - I wouldn't have realized my passion for an entirely different field of work. Many of the world's great discover- ies resulted from mistakes, including post-it notes, chocolate chip cook- ies, and America, to name a few. The examples could go on for pages, but I'm sure each reader has a similar E example of his orher own. Learning comes from making mistakes. 4 I know all too many students who stress over A's vs. A+'s, suffer from a too heavy workload and endlessly plan all aspects of their daily lives hoping to portray themselves as the perfect package, or ratherthe perfect job candidate. But striving for per- fection and being afraid of making a mistake can inhibit students from taking risks that will challengethem, and ultimately will stifle creativ- ity and experimentation - essential tools for learning and achievement in life. So although it seems cliche, I can only hope that students take a second to remind themselves of this child- hood lesson, as it applies as much at the age of 20 as it did at age 9 - if not more. So, we all know that it is always good to strive to be your best, but ultimately, if you make some mis- takes along the way, well, that's what erasers are for. 4 Leah Potkin can be reached at Ipotkin@umich.edu.