Wednesday, July 16, iuu - he McnI Ui -

NOTABLE QUOTABLE
"America's parents have won back their living rooms."
- Vice President Al Gore, in a press conference unveiling
last week's changes to the television ratings system
ETTERS TO THE DITOR

.onstruction
)rojects are
iecessary
'O E DAILY:
am writing in response to
ie article concerning the con-
truction on the Diag
"Summer construction
lagues 'U'," 7/9197). Several
eople were quoted as saying
tat the work is a major hassle,
vhich I have to agree with. I
to would like to sit there after
tough day and soak up the
Jniversity's atmosphere. The
rc*m is, many of those
ame individuals feel that the
york is unnecessary. How
xactly did they come to that
onclusion? Are they not here
February or March when the
now melts and the grass por-
ous take on the appearance of
lake? One of my favorite pic-
res from the LSA admissions
oo et is of a group of stu-
eiwwalking through the
iag. Someone captured a
uching moment of some
lass-bound students and their
flection in one of the mas-
ive pools that develop due to
e Diag's compact soil and
oor drainage. Once the
pairs are finished, that prob-
m will be dealt with.
Stationary water is not the
niroblem that the con-
ruction is going to fix, but
udent-made footpaths over
e grass are going to be paved
s well. Itsis sad that so many
udents were too lazy to walk
cross the sidewalk when com-
g to or from Angell Hall, but
ow that problem will be

cleared up with little student
effort.
People were probably too
busy to notice that-the side-
walks were in need of repair as
well. Many sections, the north-
west end in particular, were in
pretty rough shape.
I think the Diag construc-
tion is a pain too. There have
been major projects going on
all four of my years here, and
it would be nice to see a cam-
pus free of debris and noise. It
is a pain, but in a few weeks
we can all reap the benefits of
this project. Look at the sec-
tion by East Hall for a while; it
was one of the worst sections
of campus. Now itsis one of
my favorite spots to sit and
take a break. Those improve-
ments are similar to what we
can look forward to once the
the Diag construction is fin-
ished.
CHRISTOPHER WITMER
LSA SENIOR
Skepticism
lacking in
Roswell
TO THE DAILY:
As Liz Lucas noted in her
7/2/97 column, ("Roswell
shows the public distrust of the
government") the gullibility
over the Roswell flying-saucer
"incident" does indicate an
appreciable degree of public
distrust in our government. But
it also indicates something far
worse than that: A widespread
decline in U.S. citizens' ability

to think logically and critically.
What combination of confu-
sion, despair, ignorance,
malaise, insecurity and silliness
has led to this condition, who
can say? But this gullibility -
this vulnerability to the lowest
level of con artists and huck-
sters - is a far more serious
problem for our society than is
suspicion of government con-
cealment and falsehood. It
would be encouraging if one
could dignify this hysterical
and herd-like public attitude
with the term skepticism. But
skepticism is an outlook that
must be earned through rational
inquiry and deliberation. Even
more alarming is the fact that
the mass media have played a
leading role in the Roswell con
job, and in so doing, influential
journalists have betrayed our
profession's responsibility to
the public. Good journalism
innoculates the public against
pseudoscientific hooey of all
sorts.
University students should
be encouraged to be truly
skeptical rather than, as Lucas
urged them in the conclusion
of her column, to be lamely
vulnerable to the notion that
the crackpots might have been
"on the right track all along."
Our scientists landed a probe
on Mars last week. I'm sure
none of them believes that
aliens landed at Roswell and
just as sure that no Roswell
"believer" or Roswell con-
artist can send anything into
outer space.
JOHN WOODFORD
EXECUTIVE EDITOR,
MICHIGAN TODAY

The annoying dilemmas of working for the public
T he scene: Arby's at 9:55 p.m. the night before busy she is and how I'm going to make her late.
my last final exam for Winter term. My rat- What I said: "I'm sorry, I'll be with you shortly."
tIed nerves caused by my utter lack of studying in What I should have said: "Good God, would
the face of exam hell convinced me that eating you press the mute button? Your babble has
something would help me pull the all-nighter achieved little more than to annoy me and every-
(yeah, right) necessary to ace the final. one else around you."
And I wanted a Jamocha shake. Evil-Customer Dilemma No. 38: A young cou-
After waiting behind the Hell's pie with a small, rambunctious toddler is
Angels and Mrs. Soccer Mom USA, I waitingfor help at a neighboring line. In
stepped up to the cashier and placed . afit of energy, the youngster runs at me,
my order. screams, and kicks me in the shins. The
She didn't seem happy to see me. In parents coo in joy at the incredibly cute
fact, by the look on her face, I was one thing their child has done.
step from becoming the next day's What I said: "Oh ... ow!"
Arby-Qs. What I should have said: "What are
She grudgingly got my food and you on, crack? As cute as the little runt's
threw it in a bag, mumbling something actions were, I think you need to sedate
under her breath about how rude I was. him before he commits a felony."
But I didn't get mad. I've been there JACK And everyone acts with a confident
and done that more times than I can SCHILLACI arrogance permeating their every word
count. I've had more than my share of JACK IN and movement.
customer-service jobs (though I never THE PULPIT It's enough to turn your stomach.
had to deal with annoying customers I know what you're thinking. A friend
and "mystery meat" at the same time) and I knew of mine recently made the observation, "I've
what was putting her in a bad mood. always known Jack was bitter." Who, me?
You know the type of job: You get all the honor It's not like I go home, light up a Lucky and lis-
and joy of working with that mass of idiocy that ten to PJ Harvey's "Working for the Man" while
is the public at large. And you better know what sipping Wild Turkey and lamenting about the
you're doing and do it fast, or else Mr. John Q. giant hole that my life has become.
Public himself will come up to you and start But I don't expect to be treated like crap just
whining about how busy he is and how you're because I'm working a crap job, and I understand
slowing him down. why other employees aren't always thrilled to see
As if I have nothing better to do than sit at a lit- me when I prance through their lines or sit at
tle computer/cash register and do work that is so their tables.
mind-numbing that I daze out every five minutes. So the next time an employee treats you rudely,
No, I work because otherwise I would be broke just shrug it off and don't be snotty back -
and ATMs would give me messages that say "You chances are, their day has sucked just as much as
have insufficient funds for that transaction" yours.
Evil-Customer Dilemma No. 12: A customer - Jack Schillaci is at work listening to some-
waiting in my line starts screaming at the top ofher one complain about how expensive everything
lungs about how slow the line is moving and how is; you can e-mail him atjschilla@uimich.edu.
'Band-Aid solutions'do not supplant parents'roles
B y some standards, children are being better dentedly stable economy, most families still need
protected today than ever. two paychecks to get by - assuming there are
Last week, tobacco companies agreed to two parents in the family to begin with. Which
remove Joe Camel's image from their advertis- brings us back to the unsupervised child at home.
ing, on the theory that the suave, nicotine-addict- People our age have had to contend with three
ed beast encouraged kids to smoke. things our parents' generation rarely faced: Single-
Also, all the major TV networks (except NBC) parent families, economic uncertainty and regula-
agreed to step up the TV ratings sys- tions designed to protect us. That last
tem, adding letters to denote a pro- item may well be a result of the first two.
gram's content - 'S' for sex, 'V' for "' . Let's say there are two kids, born in the
violence, etc. In theory, this would help late '70s, as most of us were. Their par-
parents decide what shows their chil- ents are divorced and their mother works
dren should and shouldn't watch. most of the time. After school they go
The key word here is "theory." These home alone and smoke cigarettes they
ideas sound wonderful, but in practice, got from a friend, or listen to a tape that
they're not likely to do children much has a "Parental Advisory" sticker on it,
good. or sneak into an R-rated movie.
For example, most kids begin smok- Probably all of us have done these
ing out of curiosity, or because their LZ LUCAS things at some point in our lives. And
friends already smoke. I don't know COUNTRY while we were doing them, our parents
any people who started smoking FEEDOBACK were no doubt thinking that we'd be
because their role model was a camel safe - that our friends couldn't get cig-
- changing tobacco ads will probably not be arettes, that the record store wouldn't sell us
very effective. advisory-labeled music, that the TV programs
As for the TV ratings, well, kids are going to after school were all right to watch.
love them - there's no better way to decide what As we all know, we weren't necessarily safe -
to watch "This one's got violence and language! we got away with plenty of things. The regula-
Cool!" tions made no difference, except to give our par-
So why have these solutions been proposed? ents some peace of mind. But a false sense of
Because they're easier than actually confronting security doesn't do anyone much good.
a problem. When parents can't supervise their children as
In the smoking debate, there are more pressing closely as they'd like to, for whatever reason,
issues than advertising. It would be worthwhile they put their faith in these regulations. They
to find out how underage kids can get cigarettes, hope that the cigarette-advertising restrictions, or
or why they don't take the health risks of smok- the TV ratings, will be just as effective as
ing into account, or why no one is telling them to parental authority. But these rules won't work -
stop. there really is no substitute for a parent. We
We might want to think about why so many should all consider this simple fact before we
children are home alone, watching programs they start looking for more Band-Aid solutions.
probably shouldn't be seeing. To go along with - Reach Liz Lucas over e-mail
that, there's the strange fact that, in an unprece- at erelucas@umich.edu.

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