Wednesday, July 28, 1993 - TheMihgan Day Summer Weekly -5
VIEWPOINT
Social commentary from a spinning cube
By SPINNING CUBE
Since the beginning of time (assuming the
beginning of time exists, and I would be loathe to
do so), spinners (or humans, as you like to call
yourselves) have searched for the meaning of
existence. How misguided you've all been.
Shakespeare, Locke and the rest of you can
continue to ponder the unanswerable: But to spin
or not to spin, that is the only true question.
All dizziness aside, if one wish was all you
had, be a cube for a day. From my vantage point,
Regents Plaza, I can see all. "Whoooeeee," I
exclaim as yet another spinner allows me to
transgress nature's infinite laws and enter the
land of freedom. A land devoid of human triviali-
.ties. A land where the only patriarch is love and
all in it's kingdom serve it, and it alone.
"Whoooeeee!"
True enough, one could say that Isimply need
to spin to blur life's realities; spinning is my
intoxicant, my escape, my vice. How wrong you
are, my friend. To understand me, you must first
be me. Imagine seeing what I see. Two worlds,
one of light, of regents meandering (give me a
break, I'm dizzy, everything looks like meander-
ing)out of their ivory offices, of students appear-
ing, Entree Plus in hand. The conversation: mere
trifles, how to get into business school, what to
have for lunch, the weather. Ah, but then the night
comes upon me like a frog, flicking its long
tongue towards its unsuspecting prey. And the
new world begins. I blend in and the sounds of
love embrace me, sing to me, hold me. I can't
escape. Thank the night.
This is why I spin. I spin to think of the night.
I spin because it's my dance, my muse and my
freedom. But do you, in your human pomposity,'
understand?Of course not. For to you, the world
is your dumping ground, your barren wasteland.
You spin me only for your humble amusement,
notrealizing that you're sending me on the fabled
Dance of the Seven Veils. In that dance, I am not
forced to deal with that evil end of the evolution-
ary chart - humans.
Where do you touch down? Where do you
stop? When will you cease to put yourselves
through such misery? Free! Free! Be free! Re-
lease yourselves, humans, of all of the bonds that
hold you down. Spin for a short time, and under-
stand that reality always exists. This world is real,
and you are destroying it. With your discrimina-
tions, destructions, and ensuing dilapidations,
you will drive yourselves to the brink, and be-
yond. I will concede that humans are hardly my
favorite being (I much prefer little blue signs),
however, I do want to save you. Without you,
nobody will spin me off into my bliss. But watch
yourselves.
"The unreal never is: the Real never is not.
This truth has indeed been seen by those who can
see the true." - Bhagavad Gita 2:16
This phrase is all important. You see, some-
times as I watch you walk by, worried about this
and that, I think to myself: These beings are not
living in reality. The reality is harsh and danger-
ous, fools. Reality is the majority beating down
the minority in every socio-economic manner
I
Parking plan unfair to students
To the Daily:
The University plan to convert the 3 FREE
North Campus commuter parking lots on
Hayward/Hubbard to a limited number of PAID
fee parking for. students is unfair in many re-
spects.
1) The required fee is $168 for 8 months,
while faculty and staff pay around $393 for 10
months. These fees are incommensurate with the
differencebetweengraduatestudentstipendsand
faculty/staffsalaries.Thepaidadvertisementfrom
Parking Services publishedin the July6th edition
of The University Record states that the parking
fees are in line with other peer universities. How-
ever,neglectingthe private university permit fees
(Yale and Harvard) the parking fees assessed by
the public university (such as the University)
range from $51 to $140.
2) Because only a limited number of permits
will be available for students, it must be con-
cludedthattheselots willbeprimarily forfaculty
and staff. For example , NC26 (near the Naval
Architecture Bldg.) generally contains 3-5 cars.
Also the lots behind Space Research and in front
of the Naval Architecture Bldg. (NC22) are
rarely even half full.
3) Stu ntswhoareeither unableto affordthe
$168 fee or who do not obtain one of the limited
number of permits must park at Glazier Way,
which will be the only remaining free commuter
parking lot near North Campus. Parking in Gla-
zier Way will necessitate relying on the Univer-
sity bus system for transport to classrooms and
laboratories on North Campus because there are
no sidewalks along the Glazier Way road. This
will be extremely inconvenient and result in the
loss of one-half hour to an hour per day waiting
for buses.
4) Inaddition, the Glazier Way lot isremotely
located andrmuch less visible for campus security
patrol. This is a safety issue of particular impor-
tancetowomengraduatestudents whoworklong
hours in their laboratories.
I urge fellow students to protest this action by
Parking Services. NC49 and NC53 on Hayward/
Hubbard should be designated for students only
and asignificantly more reasonable fee should be
assessed.
Christine E. Kalnas
Graduate Student Research Assistant
Daily now sexist and racist!
To the Daily:
We already knew, thanks to Edgar Ho's letter
exceptitwould bedraftedspecifically forwomen.
The Michigan MandateisaBROADproposal..."
(emphasis ours). How you could even dare to
make such a degrading and insensitive pun is
simply beyond us.
To add insult to injury, you also chose (in an
adjacent article) to negatively stereotype activist
women by trumpeting unproven, vicious, and
scurillous accusations against individual mem-
bers of SAPAC, accusations that we can only
conclude tobe motivated by adesire to perpetuate
the patterns of subjugation of women in this
oppressive male-dominated environment. Your
glaring omission of the words "and Awareness"
from the full title of SAPAC further betrays alack
of precisely that quality among your violently
bigoted staff of troglodytes, who, lamentably,
have not been adequately apprised of the special
and unique vulnerabilities of women.
This isdefinitely the last straw. Nothing short
of an immediate apology and a S100 contribution
to the Julie Steiner Anti-Defamation Fund (in
cash) will save the Daily from losing the last
shred of credibility thatiteverhad in our eyes. We
mean it.
possible. Reality is starving children. Reality is
ignoring genocide.Iknow this (you can learn alot
listening to Michigan Daily editors have it out in
Regents Plaza), and you know this. The differ-
ence is, you can do something to solve it. I cannot
do anything, bolted down to this cement block.
You have complex (or so you claim) minds, you
have technology, do something!
I apologize, I do get overzealous at times. I
will mind my own business from now on. When
you walk by, I will stay quiet. But late at night,
when nary a soul is in sight, if you listen closely,
you may hear me, in flight, dancing to therhythm
of your footsteps. If you do hear, take note. Ilam
more than a piece of metal, I like to think that in
my own small way I could lend you some good
advice.Watch yourselves, butmore importantly,
watch each other.
Spinning Cube is president of/the Inanimate
WritersGuild ofAmerica andis a combination of
the two Daily Opinion Editors.
SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE...
It's almost as if it is becoming some sort of
sick ritual.
Every April, classes end on a Tuesday or
Wednesday, and the Regents raise tuition 9 or 10
percent on Thursday or Friday. This year was no
exception, as tuition jumped another 10 percent
for undergraduates, and even more for some
professionalschools(MedicalSchooltuitionwent
up over 30 percent).
In real terms, this means in-state undergradu-
ates will be paying $121 more next yearto attend
the University, and the increase for out-of-states
will be more than twice that much.
And while an additional $121 may not seem
like that much money when compared to the
S1100-plus students are already paying in tuition,
we must remember that housing and food costs
are rising too. The effect on students of inflation
in these three areas alone will likely raise the cost
of attending the University next year over $300.
The problem is compounded by the fact that
these costs rose last year and will almost certainly
rise as much or more next year, while students'
incomes reman relatively constant.
The brunt of the blame must fall on the state
legislature and the governor for failing to carry
their share of the higher education burden. The
University is widely accepted asone of the finest
state-supported institutions in the nation, yet it
continuestogetinadequatesupportfrom thestate
govermment. Year after year Michigan rnknear
the bottom in state funding of higher education.
This is simply a matter of priorities, and it is
time the state's priorities changed. The Univer-
sity is rapidly becoming affordable only to the
very wealthy, and the very poor - those suffi-
ciently indigent to qualify for scholarships. It is
the vast majority of middle-class persons who fill
the state's coffers with their tax dollars, and now
it is they who are being priced out of the higher
education market.
The state higher education appropriations
aren't finalizedyet,and thereis tilltimetoreorder
prioritiesandgive the colleges and universitiesof
Michigan the funds they need and deserve. It is
time the governor and the legislators live up to
their responsibility to make a college education
available and affordable to all Michigan resi-
dents.
- The Michigan Daily, May 5, 1978
(July 7), that the Michigan Daily is a profoundly
racist institution. We can now see that it is a Serge Elnitsky
blatantly sexist one, as well. Ara Pehlivanian
Inapage 1 articleintheJulyl4issue, describ- David Santos
ing a proposal aimed at improving the plight of Rackham students
women at this University, you wrote: "The pro-
posal would be similar to the Michigan Mandate,