4A - Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The Michigan Daily -- michigandaily.com

4A - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom

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LT c dicigan Daily
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
TIMOTHY RABB
JOSEPH LICHTERMAN and ADRIENNE ROBERTS ANDREW WEINER
EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS 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.
Private mail
Drastic measures must be taken to save USPS
In the 2012 fiscal year, the United States Postal Service has
reported a loss of $15.9 billion. This is an unsustainable finan-
cial trajectory and policymakers in Washington D.C. have
realized this. In the face of this impending crisis for the USPS, many
solutions have been proposed, but none have caught on. The reality
is that Congress lacks the ability to institute structural reforms in
time to stave off a default. The best option is total privatization.
The financial difficulties of USPS are root- provided at a loss by the USPS, namely mail
ed in two base problems. First is the unique delivery to remote areas. If the government is
structure of the organization. The USPS is to continue their moral mission to provide the
legitimated by a clause in the Constitution basic right of mail to everyone, they will need
that states the government has the right to to subsidize the high cost of delivery to remote
"establish Post Offices and Post Roads" - com- areas for a newly privatized USPS - otherwise
monly interpreted throughout the years as a the new USPS may decide delivering to these
right of all Americans to have access to paper isolated regions isn't an option if they're trying
mail, regardless of geography. Congress con- to turn a profit.
trols USPS and directs them to complete this With the growth of e-mail and the decrease
task. Yet, USPS receives no federal funding, in the volume of mail and revenue, the only
and relies on stamps and other services for way to save the USPS from liquidation is
revenue. This combination of subordination privatization. Although access to mail is con-
to the federal government and financial self- sidered a basic right of U.S. citizens, the USPS
sufficiency has created many problems. The is following an unsustainable fiscal model,
required payments to pre-fund retiree health and has lost $25.4 billion between the 2007
benefits is an exemplary case. These payments and 2011 fiscal years. Although privatization
are unique to USPS, and alone make up $11 bil- may result in more expensive mail, especially
lion of the losses in fiscal year 2012. for isolated geographic areas, it is necessary
The second problem is the Internet. The for the USPS to survive rather than van-
proliferation of e-mail corresponds directly ish .in bankruptcy. The federal government
to the decreased use of paper mail, the USPS' will need to shoulder some of the burden of
primary source of revenue. This means that the new USPS by subsidizing mail delivery
without federal support, the USPS balance is to high-cost areas. Ultimately, as snail mail
never leaving the red. becomes increasingly irrelevant and more
Privatization would allow new management people gain access to the Internet, a priva-
to institute dramatic reforms in a way a parti- tized USPS will be better able to adjust to the
san legislature never could. However, a newly climate of decreasing revenues and search for
privatized USPS may be financially unwilling, new ways to serve the American people with-
if not unable, to provide the services currently out running an unsustainable deficit.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Kaan Avdan, Sharik Bashir, Barry Belmont, Eli Cahan, Jesse Klein,
Melanie Kruvelis, Patrick Maillet, Jasmine McNenny, Harsha Nahata,
Timothy Rabb, Adrienne Roberts, Vanessa Rychlinski, Paul Sherman,
Sarah Skaluba, Michael Spaeth, Gus Turner, Derek Wolfe
Stand down, Renublicans

Before it's too late

fter a long presidential
campaign that hardly men-
tioned climate change, it

was refreshing
to see President
Barack Obama
make a short, but
important refer-
ence to the topic
in his victory
speech on elec-
tion night.
"We want our
children to live
in an America
that isn't bur-

MICHAEL
SPAETH

dened by debt, that isn't weakened
by inequality, that isn't threatened
by the destructive power of a warm-
ing planet," the President declared
to a roaring crowd of supporters in
Chicago.
Last week, in his first press con-
ference since June, Obama reiter-
ated his commitment to fighting
climate change: "I am a firm believ-
er that climate change is real, that
it is impacted by human behavior
and carbon emissions. And as a
consequence, I think we've got an
obligation to future generations to
do something about it." However,
he conceded that "for us to take
on climate change in a serious way
would involve making some tough
political choices."
Translation: Obama wants to
fight climate change, but the cur-
rent political landscape is holding
him back from making a significant
dent in the problem.
I understand the logic behind
the President's recent statements.
Since there seems to be some com-
mon ground between both parties
on issues such as the fiscal cliff and
immigration reform, it makes sense
to focus on those issues first. Howev-
er, in the process, we can'tforgetthat
climate change is the most important
issue of this era - even moreso than
the economy. It won't matter wheth-
er our economy is thriving, poverty is
eliminated or any of the other major

challenges facing our country are
resolved if we live on an irreparably
damaged planet. Several decades
from now, it might be too late to curb
the damage.
The World Bank recently
released a new report with a dire
warning: if we continue our current
policies, "we're on track for a 7.2*F
warmer world marked by extreme
heat-waves, declining global food
stocks, loss of ecosystems and bio-
diversity and life-threatening sea
level rise." According to Reuters,
the report also mentioned some
climate change effects happen-
ing now: "Arctic sea ice reached a
record minimum in September, and
extreme heat waves and drought in
the last decade have hit places like
the United States and Russia more
often than would be expected from
historical records."
But climate change isn't just
about higher temperatures. In its
summary of the report, Reuters
wrote that "all nations will suffer
the effects of a warmer world, but it
is the world's poorest countries that
will be hit hardest by food short-
ages." Underscoring the urgency of
the situation, in a recent conference
call with reporters, World Bank
President Jim Yong Kim said, "We
will never end poverty if we don't
tackle climate change. It is one of
the single biggest challenges to
social justice today."
Climate change is harmful to
our struggling economy. Harvard
Law School Prof. Cass Sunstein
recently wrote that even conserva-
tive icon Ronald Reagan supported
reducing damage tf the ozone layer
because of the economic benefits
of doing so: "Reagan's economists
found that the costs of phasing out
ozone-depleting chemicals were
a lot lower than the costs of not
doing so." Sunstein wrote, "econo-
mists of diverse viewpoints concur
that if the international community
entered into a sensible agreement
to reduce greenhouse gas emis-

sions, the economic benefits would
greatly outweigh the costs."
To his credit, Obama took some
steps ?in the right direction dur-
ing his first term: he "doubled fuel
efficiency standards on cars and
trucks" to take "alot of carbon out of
the atmosphere" and "doubled the
production of clean energy, which
promises to reduce the utilization
of fossil fuels for power generation."'
But we need to do more.
Climate change
is one of the
biggest social
issues we face.

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So what can college students do
to help reduce the impact of climate
change?
We can take small steps to reduce
our individual carbon emissions,
like carpooling when we drive
home or walking or riding a bike
around campus instead of driving.
But even that won't be enough to
solve the problem.
The most important way We can
help combat climate change is to
keep pressuring our elected repre-
sentatives, senators and president
to develop legislation that will put
a huge dent in the growing prob-
lem. The influence of our' genera-
tion is grouting: according to Edison
Research's early National Exit Poll,
19 percent of the people who voted in
the 2012 election were ages 18 to 29,
which was 1 percent higher than in
2008. Politicians are listening to us.
We need to let our lawmakers
know that we are notgoing to let this
issue go away - not when we're the
ones who will have to pay the price.
- Michael Spaeth can be
reached at micspa@umich.edu.

CHRIS FLOYD IVIEWPOINT
Leave no man behind

It's hard to believe that within the past
100 years, issues like political participa-
tion of women and African Americans
were controversial topics
that divided the country. At
this point, it seems absurd
that anyone would believe
women or African Ameri-
cans didn't deserve the
right to vote, but there were
42 years between the intro-
duction of the 19th Amend- MARY
ment and its ratification GALLAGHER
in 1920. Now, if one politi-
cal party was to oppose
the suffrage of women or
minorities, the opposing party would overtake
them in a landslide victory, no matter how rea-
sonable the anti-suffrage party's views were on
the economy or other issues.
The Nov. 6 election has shown us that a
new group of issues may be making the leap
from controversial and partisan to accepted
facts of life in the United States. Of these, the
most obvious is same-sex marriage. The bat-
tle for gay rights began to gain steam in the
late 1960s and has made significant strides
since, with same-sex marriage legal in nine
states and Washington D.C., and the ubiquity
of realistic and progressive portrayals of the
LGBT community in the media.
However, there's still a lot of progress to be
made: 41 states continue to reject the validity
of same-sex marriage. Though, in this elec-
tion cycle, gay marriage won battles in every
single state where it was in question: Maine,
Maryland, Washington and Minnesota.
Each of these was a ballot initiative, which
means every state voter had a say. Because of
this, it can't be argued that this is a case of
the government usurping popular opinion, as
organizations like the National Organization
for Marriage have maintained about similar
court rulings or legislative decisions. The
people spoke, and they spoke overwhelming-
ly in favor of same-sex marriage.
Another oft-publicized point of contention
during this campaign was the argument over
abortion and access to birth control. Although
Roe v. Wade was passed nearly 40 years ago,
there's still a significant number of Americans
who believe that abortion should be made ille-

gal except in cases of rape or incest - some even
believe that it should be altogether outlawed no
matter the circumstances. However, it seems
that most of the population is hesitant to make
it completely illegal. Ina May 2012 Gallup poll,
77 percent of Americans responded that abor-
tion should always be legal or sometimes legal.
Despite this fact, the Republican Party contin-
ued to stand behind their position, seemingly
oblivious to the fact that they now represent a
minority of the population.
Some day, we'll
wonder why anyone
ever got up in arms
over gay marriage.
In a democracy like ours, the government
shouldbe ruledby the people, not the other way
around. It's easy to lose faith in the system and
to believe that individual voices and opinions
don't really matter. But then an election like
this comes around and reminds us that chang-
ing the minds of the voting public really can
make an impact on the government.
It seemed like the way many people framed
this election was around the issues of gay
marriage and abortion, rather than on more
complex subjects such as the economy or the
environment. I prefer these Democratic eco-
nomic models to that of the Republican Party.
However, I'd rather hear an election that was
a debate between two different plans to actu-
ally make the United States a better place to
live, rather than bickering over subjects that
the majority of the country has come to agree
upon. Rachel Maddow said it best on elec-
tion night, sayingthat if the Republican Party
continues to focus on outdated issues, "we
are all deprived, as a nation, of the construc-
tive debate between competing, feasible ideas
about real problems."
-Mary Gallagher can be
reached at mkgall@umich.edu.

Last week, I read Ben Estes's
article, "Life after Football: the
Struggles after Playing Days Come
to an End." I spent the last five
months interviewing for an inspir-
ing story about turning challenge
into opportunity, on both an indi-
vidual and institutional level.
The story promised to highlight
the benefits of the M-PACT pro-
gram, which helps student athletes
transition into life after gradua-
tion, by providing a compassionate
and honest illustration of the career
challenges undergone by three for-
mer University football players
in the twelve years following our
National Championship victory in
1997.
I hoped the story would focus on
the lack of inclusiveness pervad-
ing the interaction between former
football players and the program we
gave so much to, and focus on sug-
gested avenues for bridging this gap.
To say I was disappointed would
be an understatement - but if you
want a story told right, you should
tell it yourself.
My story started in 1994. I was
an All-American running back from
Detroit's Cooley High School on an
athletic scholarship at the Universi-
ty, the second youngest of seven sib-
lings and the first of those seven to
attend college. Football was my top
priority; developing the life skills
to supersede a career-ending injury
was not. My career path would have
benefited from the existence of a
program like M-PACT and the pas-
sionate work of people like M-PACT
director Shari Acho.
I was a starting fullback for the
118th Big Ten and National Cham-
pionship football team of 1997 that
finished 12-0. Those of us who were
a part of that team still carry that
pride deep in our souls. But another
thing many of us have in common is
the feeling that the athletic depart-
ment we care so much about no lon-
ger cares for us.
This attitude of exclusivity hurts
everyone by precluding the ben-
eficial contributions we can make to
the program as former student ath-
letes with a wealth of experience,
talent and unique insights. Our
frustration over feeling excluded is

exacerbated by the difficulty many
of us have had transitioninginto our
professional careers as a result of
underdeveloped life skills.
In the article, Acho referred to
me as a "lost soul" and said that
stories like mine fuel her passion
for her work. If I was a lost soul, it's
because I was an 18-year-old kid liv-
ing a dream. And, because the most
persistent lesson our "leaders" ever
taught me was: "Your number one
mission is to win a Big Ten Champi-
onship and graduate." So I did both.
I support the M-PACT program.
But it must incorporate better sup-
port for inner-city and minority
student athletes, many of whom are
left feeling disillusioned by a uni-
versity with seemingly no regard
for how we'll get by when they're
done with us. Transitional services
should also extend to any student
athlete who studied here before
M-PACT's inception.
And for God's sake, please don't
call us names!
In 2002, I retired from the
NFL and came to work for Mike
Gittleson, Michigan's first direc-
tor of strength and conditioning. I
never intended to be a college foot-
ball trainer, but Gittleson knew
I'd work hard and he hoped I'd
find a second passion. In my four
years under Gittleson, I applied
for countless jobs in the athletic
department, but was told I needed
to further my education and diver-
sify my work experience to move
up in the program.
So I earned a master's degree,
worked for the NFL Players Asso-
ciation, the Detroit Lions, Wayne
State University Athletics, the Gfn-
eral Service Administration and
the Department of Defense, before
applying to be the assistant direc-
tor of alumni engagement this year.
The job was all but promised to me
during the months in which I left
my former job and moved back to
Ann Arbor. Perhaps I quit my job
prematurely, but I did so in good
faith, only to learn they gave the job
to someone else.
Finally, after 10 years of feeling
rejected by the athletic department
I've remained so loyally devoted
to, my frustrations gave way to an

inappropriate Twitter post that-
became the subject of much noto-
riety.
I regret my lapse in judgment,
but those wounded feelings remain.
I may not have been the most
qualified for this last role, but
surely, in 10 years an opportunity
must've existed for me to remain a
part of the program to which I've
given my all. Healing the discon-
nect many former student athletes
feel with the football program
beginsby institutionalizing a spirit
of empowerment and support for
those "lost souls" who need to feel
that this place is still our home.
Anyone who has played foot-
ball for the University knows that
if a coach or director makes you a
promise, his word is his bond. It
comprises the very fabric of the
program and the shared values that
produce men who form a brother-
hood from all walks of life:
1. Be on time.
2. Respect everyone.
3. No excuses.
4. Positive attitude.
5. Make a promise, keep it.
This, means showing respect to
those who helped to pave the way
and validating the bond of trust
between former athletes and the
program they remain committed to.
The program needs a more inclu-
sive and transparent hiring pro-
cess that expands post-graduation
avenues and repays the meaningful
contributions of its former athletes.
We also need a shared dedication to
life skills preparedness on the part
of coaches and student athletes
alike.
My message to current student
athletes comes frompast U.S. Presi-
dent Calvin Coolidge:
"Nothing in the world can take
the place of persistence. Persis-
tence and determination alone are
omnipotent."
. Students, be persistent in your
career planning and challenge the
status quo. The University has one
of the richest and most storied tra-
ditions of any university. But with
this power comes responsibility.
No M-PACT program can save our
"lost souls" if we just blindly follow
the "leaders."

CONTRIBUTE TO THE COVERSATION
Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and Viewpoints. Letters should be fewer
than 300 words while viewpoints should be 550-850 words. Send the writer's full name and
University affiliation. to tothedaily@michigandaily.com.

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