Wednesday, June 5, 1996 - The Michigan Daily - 5

I'M GONNA SAY IT NOW

I

y 'goodbye'to the
udsons building
Friday marked my last free day before I had to
rt my summer job, so I wanted to spend the day
ing something special. I decided to venture into
etroit. Detroit holds a special place in my heart.
grew up in the shadow of the city, and I've had
e opportunity to study the-
i Simply, the city of
it fascinates me. So I
nciled in "Detroit in my
lanner for the day.t
My specific destination was l
owntown Detroit's Renais-
ne Center. I went to the topI
f the Renaissance Center, 72
ones above the city. I stayedE
the observation lounge for
er an hour. It was quiet, and it GREG
ffers the absolute best view of PARKER
oit available. I thought
some things I know about the city in the per-
ective of my god's view.
Enough of this bird's eye view business; I decid-
to go out onto the streets. I strapped on my
llerblades and proceeded to Hart Plaza, the park
jacent to the Renaissance Center and bordering
e Detroit River. I skated through the park down to
e river just in time to witness a stupendous Great
akes freighter wallow by. Of course, Detroit is no
nn Arbor, and a college boy like myself
blading through the city is quite a spectacle.
I skated down to Cobo Hall, past Joe Louis' huge
ist and the Spirit of Detroit sculptures, up to
oodward Avenue. I decided to go up Woodward a
ouple of blocks, but while I was waiting to cross
efferson Avenue, I noticed a headline of a local
ewspaper. It read something like "Hudson's build-
g slated for demolition.' This struck a chord with
e. The Hudson's building represents Detroit per-
aps more appropriately-than the auto industry. It
resents the vast amounts of wealth the city pro-
d the division of wealth the city produced, the
segregation of the city and even the death of
e city, as when Hudson's opened a suburban store
at outside of Detroit.
The Hudson's building, with its once high-fly-
g American flag, was slated for demolition. Of
ourse, it isn't the first (or hopefully last) time the
uilding has been slated for destruction, but this
eadline had particular impact on me because I
as in the city, within sight of the Hudson's build-
ng, when I read it. It hit me hard.
& kated further up Woodward to gets closer view
>f building, and to perhaps take some pictures of
(fortuitously, I packed my camera in my backpack).
personally relate to the building, though I am far too
oung to remember its heyday, with its Christmas
lebrations and the window displays. I did see one
hristmas exhibit at the downtown Hudson's,
ugh, in what may have been the last year the
uilding was open. I remember that many of the
oors of the building were closed off. But the magic
f that building hasn't left me to this day. When I
kated closer to the building, I noticed the window
ays were empty or often simply covered-up.
i not sure why I get so sentimental about the
estruction of inanimate objects, but maybe it's
cause they contain parts of every person that
ver had anything to do with it. Inanimate objects
ike the Hudson's building represent more than just
he architect or the company; they represent the
essence of the community of which they are a part.
And it is certainly sad to see something like this go
down in rubble. It's probably time for the city of
it to move on, raze the Hudson's building,
a put something much more beneficial to the
city in its place. But all I want is a promise - a
promise that whatever takes the place of the
Hudson's building captures the essence of the
lotor City as wellas this building does.-
- Greg Parker can be reached
via e-mail atglparker@umich.edu.

NOTABLE QUOTABLE
"I think they should do it [the Naked Mile] three times a
year. It's the happiest time I see in Ann Arbor."
-Ann Arbor resident Richard Naden, who has submitted his
videotaped footage of this year's run to public access cable Channel 9

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I LETTERS

I


A plea for peaceable
assembly
To THE DAILY:
This past Saturday, I received a visit at my
dorm room from a member of the National
Womens' Rights Organization Coalition. She
handed me a flier with the title, "Smash the
KKK." Apparently, the Ku Klux Klan has
announced that it will march in Ann Arbor on
June 22. I am a Puerto Rican, and I'm pretty
sure that my race is not part of the Klan's idea
of the ideal human. The lady from the NWROC
explained that they wanted to hold a rally just
before the Klan would march to cause the Ann
Arbor Police to cancel the Klan's march due to
fear of a confrontation.
I initially thought that this was a good idea,
but after reading this flier I might have changed
my mind. The flier talks of other marches the
group has lead to counter KKK marches in

other cities, and in various places calls the
marches "angry anti-racist crowds" and "Anti-
racist youth rebellions." Now, maybe it's just
me, but after the arrest of Mr. Matlock and the
racial attacks at the Law School, there have
been some racial tensions in the University.
I shudder to think what could happen if the
NWROC does lead its "angry anti-racist
crowds" against the Klan and the Ann Arbor
Police are not able to avert a confrontation. I'm
sure that there are many who despise the Klan
and would like nothing better than to run them
out of town, but to follow what the NWROC
calls their "militant strategy" could be asking
for trouble. I think that the only way for us to
fight racism and show others who are racist that
they are wrong is to march peacefully. If we
show them that we do not need to stoop to their
level to overcome them, then maybe they'll see
that they have no business in Ann Arbor.
JOSE ALVAREZ
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING SOPHOMORE

LITTLE EARTHQUAKES
Alarms and
other surprises
As a child, my mother would wake me for
school with a gentle touch on the forehead.
Waking to a mother's cool, soft hands is a lovely
way to start a new day. Eventually, I was forced to
trade this peaceful awaken-
ing for anaarmclock.
Everyone hates alarm
clocks. They make an
awful, shrill, nerve-jangling
noise. Their only purpose is
to jolt us out of calm and
peaceful slumbers. The
sound of an alarm clock has
no pleasant associations -
it means either "Ha ha ha.
it's 6:30 a.m. and pitch dark ERIN
outside and you have to go MARSH
fail high school calculus
now;" or "Ha ha ha, it's 7:15 a.m. and although
you slept for only three hours, you have to go
convince your French TA that you are bilingual
enough to fulfill the foreign language proficien-
cy requirement;" or, worse of all, "Ha ha ha,you
have ten minutes to make it to your Economics
final exam." Alarm clocks have a truly terrible
sound.
Against my better judgment, I bought a new
alarm clock last week. Because I am always get-
ting ripped off on electronics purchases, the first
thing I did when I got the Torture Device home
was plug it in to check the alarm. I set the time
and then the alarm to go off one minute later.
Settling back to wait out that minute, I felta lit-
tle twinge of dread for the inevitable moment
and prepared myself for the tone.
The numbers flipped to mark the passing
minute. The alarm sounded - and I jumped.
Jumped almost out of my skin.
Waiting for the alarm - and even knowing
it's coming - does nothing to quell the shock.
Anticipation and the surprise we feel in spite of
ourselves affect us frequently. I remembera few
years back, when a friend's grandfather died. He
suffered from terminal cancer - the family
tried to console themselves with the inevitabili-
ty of his death. They knew it would happen. But
that didn't make it hurt any less.
Another friend of mine just graduated from
Notre Dame. She is moving to New York to start
a new life with her fiance - they've been apart
since he took a job there two years ago. She has
anticipated this move for many long months,
and now that it's imminent, she can't believe it.
"It's weird," she says. "We can finally get on and
off airplanes together"
I anticipate certain inevitable events in my
life, too, both joyful and tragic. I know that the
anticipation will do nothing to dull the pain or
the elation. I wouldn't want it to. That would be
selling the experience short - degrading it to a
nice, comfortable, manageable level.
We have a strange relationship with the con-
cept of experience. On one hand, we value it dear-
ly on many levels. We must - why else do we
see the evolution of trends like "vintage" fash-
ion? Why do people shell out $50 for a pair of
used Levis at Urban Outfitters? They are paying
for the time someone else spent in those Levis.
On the other hand, we seem to fear experience
so much that we'll do anything possible to
shield ourselves from it. We buy insurance for
our cars, our homes, our lives. We take precau-
tions: we educate ourselves in anticipation of
careers; we exercise and diet to prepare our bod-
ies for the effects of age.
But life is full of alarms, and they will sur-
prise us no matter how much we expect, antici-
pate or fear them. The numbers will flip - we
will jump at the sound.
- Erin Marsh can be reached over
e-mail at eemarsh@umich.edu.

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