,- ...Sv I S T ' .. r : 1 Solutions for athletic problems TO THE DAILY: I don't disagree with the obvious character faults demon- strated by some University rev- enue-sport athletes, as described by Jon Zemke in his recent sports op-ed article ("Rotting in excess of themselves," 7/26/99"). Speaking as one alumni, I'd exchange a squeaky clean record and exemplary academic perfor- mance by Michigan athletes for a few wins anytime. But I think Zemke has to join the real world. Is he really proposing to the University and Athletic Department administra- tion that they close down the rev- ~enue sports for a few years? It that the vest solution to the prob- lem that he can can up with? If Zemke were appointed as a stu- dent representative to the Athletic Board of Control and made that proposal, I'd guess his career as someone in a leadership position in the University administration would be short-lived. Proposals to correct the "rotting" Zemke describes have to have some chance of being effective, I think. PAUL GAECKE UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS ings of God, Marx, or some other authority. In their estimation, there shall be no free speech for "fascists" and that extremism in the harassment of those deemed racist (next week it will be "sex- ist," "homophobic" or some other rather hard to define crime) is no vice. As these fanatics love to say, "By any means necessary."And if your rights or mine are trampled by them (I don't much care whether some temporary fence already has been; that's not in the least what the argument is about), that's of little concern. I heard Bill Ayers, a former national leader of the Weatherman faction of SDS state on this campus, "I wish I knew as much about anything at 40 as I knew about everything when I was 20." Of course, by the time you've gained that kind of wis- dom, you're irrelevant to the extremists. In any event, if I did- n't have a job, I might well follow Ms. Curtin's advice, but my attending court might not be what she had in mind. MICHAEL PAUL GOLDENBERG UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS Article language suspect TO THE DAILY: I write in response to Michael Grass's July 26 article "Study: Race not a barrier to success for law grads" in which he discusses a recent study conducted by the University Law School that addresses how race affects the success of law graduates after they leave the 'U.' I can not tell whether Mr. Grass is for or against using racial factors in admissions. You might say that I should not be able to since he is just 'reporting the facts' but I believe he, like the new editorial staff at the Daily, consistently use linguistic tricks and shadow definitions in order to appear unbiased while decid- edly framing their one-sided views against using race in admissions and against affirma- tive action in general. I would like to point out a most blaring exam- ple in the July 26 article: In the article. Grass takes from the Law School study, stat- ing that though white lasyers earned nearly 25 percent more on average than black lawyers the "disparity can be tied to the fact that white graduates took higher paying positions in law firms". It sounds so simple and straightfor- ward. Black lawyers just did not want higher paying positions, right? The black lawyers just did not take the higher paying jobs. In a very subtle, but logically obvi- ous way, the line 'white graduates took higher paying positions' implies that black lawyers did not 'take' the positions and therefore the disparity in incomes is the fault of the black lawyers. The statement misses the point entire- ly that black lawyers are not offered those jobs. Itsis this kind of logic which allows people to make statements like: "Race not a barrier to suc- cess." For some reason, Grass, possibly the authors of the study, and certainly many more people would like to believe that racial disparities are caused by the peo- ple on the losing end of the dis- parity. It simply does not make sense. Blaming the problem on someone else works because it tells people what they want to hear. They do not want their msti- tutions criticized since that criti- cism is often taken personally. I would ask readers of the Daily to read with a keen eye. PARIS VON LOCKETTE, PH.D. UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS Letter short on wisdom Monday, August 2, 1999 -The Michigan Daily - 5 Save the world with your fork Tmagine 30 days in the wilderness without the hr. shifts in blood up to their ankles. comfort of the "frontcountry": no phone, no I could write about environmental ruin, like radio. those streams in New Mexico, or about Central Add a topographic map (which initially looked America, where the leading cause of rain forest like a series of green fingerprints to me, rather than destruction is cattle production for the U.S.- Nike my key to survival), a 65-lb. pack, one pair of isn't the only corporation keen on exploiting the underwear (yes, one) and a dozen strangers. lower costs of third world countries. I'm not describing MTVs latest But the worst of it is not the damage concept for a show. My time in New the meat industry does to the environment Mexico's Gila Mountains on a course or the horror of slaughterhouses. with the National Outdoor Leadership In supporting the industry, we're liter- School was an adventure in survival: wr ally starving the rest of the world. life, stripped down to the barest essen- The statistics on world hunger - over tials. No mail. No showers. No frills. 50,000 people die of starvation every day Try as we might to live a "natural" - are astonishing. But our planet pro- existence that May, we couldn't have duces twice as much food necessary to rnade it without some "outside" assis- feed every single person. A lot of blame tance - specifically, purifying iodine for this gross contradiction lies within the tablets. EMILY meat industry. Even hiking on some of the most ACHENBAUM To support this enormously powerful pristine land in the country, we couldn't DIA)MOND IN industry, food producers are feeding ani- escape the damage done to streams by iTih ssR:Oi I malts raised for slaughter the very food cattle farming. A nasty little disease car- that would eliminate starvation. ied by cattle, jardia, had snuck into even the In the U.S., the world's largest producer of food, impossibly isolated streams we collected water 95 percent of the soybean and oat crops and 80 from. percent of the corn is fed to animals. Grains and I had already been a vegetarian for three years legumes grown in the U.S. and fed to livestock and when I encountered that mountain spring water, converted into meat is consumed by only as small unnecessarily contaminated by cow crap. minority of people in the world's wealthiest I take a lot of flack for being a vegetarian, even nations, such as the U.S. and Western Europe. If from other vegetarians, since I do eat fish. Yes, I'm these grains and legumes were made directly avail- an animal-lover who saves injured kittens and talks able, it would be enough to feed all the hungry to Diag squirrels. But don't brush me off too quick- people in the world. y - I've seen that sentimental-about-animals eye- The waste and single-mindedness is gruesome., roll a million times - because the biggest reason I I don't want to make a simple pleasure like don't eat meat has nothing to do with animal rights. food complicated. But I do want to make you stop It's the meat industry itself and think. It's pure evil. - Emily Achenbaum is the Editor in Chief of I could write about watching the throat-slitting the Daily. This is her last columnfor the summer of live cows, hung by their hind legs from the ceil- She can be reached via e-mail at ings of slaughterhouses, where workers spend 16- emiylsa@umich.edu. Smoking may not be healthy, but it sure is cool Governments and non-profit organizations myself, but I didn't listen. In the end it took me a annually toss millions or maybe even billions week in the hospital with pneumonia to realize that of dollars into the wind in vain attempts to erase maybe smoking wasn't the best activity for me to ideas deeply ingrained into America's collective take up. psyche y.Stll, the pneumonia didn't deal a deathblow to So much effort, so much money and all they my inclination towards tobacco and even though a have to show for it are ad campaigns of frying eggs, cigarette hasn't given me a buzz in a long while I formerly pregnant women tortured by continue to smoke socially, albeit irregu- their guilty consciences and teenagers larly. Why? Image. You call it a teeny- discussing the indescribable joys of wait- bopper mentality, I call it being honest ing for that "special time" on their wed- with myself. Don't deny it, smoking can ding nights. be downright poetic. It's obvious why all of this money has Carpe Diem has a special meaning for gone to waste - drugs will always make smokers, most of whom will justify their people feel good, often abortion is the habit by saying that they don't want to only rational choice and the loss of one's live forever anyway, conveniently forget- virginity is (almost) always a relatively ting their last cancerous ten years will awkward (if not harrowing) experience, almost certainly be filled with pain and so why not get it over with? No one is NICK anguish. Smoking is a way for the non- buying it because some truths are just WOOMER public America to have a piece of the fast impossible to deny. BAC \IO life and we need to ask ourselves "can we But truth is not the cause of all such THE W Ost justifiably condemn people confronted failures; sometimes itsis the mere image with the trials and tribulations of the TV of a certain practice is enough. culture this simple pleasure?" If so, then certainly I smoked (and actually inhaled) my first ciga- not with a clear conscience. rette at the rather late age of 18, right before I grad- For this simple reason alone-to make the dull uated from high school. As I sat in an elementary and meaningless lives of millions of Americans a school parking lot, floored for about half an hour little bit brighter, we as a society must triple, no, at from the nicotine buzz, my friends gazing down at least quadruple funding for research to cure or pre- me in total awe of a first cigarette's potency, I vent lung cancer and emphysema. This way the thought to myself "so this is why people smoke!" days of glory, where absinthe was legal and smok- Well, I soon found that that's not at all why peo- ing was good for you, can return. ple smoke. I smoked fairly heavily right through my A certain political party spends so much time summer orientation at the University (where I expe- trying to figure out how not to enrich people's exis- rience that secret camaraderie between fellow tence - by building Neutron bombs, giving rich smokers for the first time) all the while the buzzes people all of their money back, making sure you steadily diminished. Though I was dancing with it, can't sue the HMO that didn't think that tumor was I had not reached the point of physical addiction. a big deal, etc. - that it seems like they could at Had I been completely rational I would have least do this. Are you listening Senator Helms? told myself that what I was doing was stupid - I - Nick Woomer can be reached via e-mai at was getting no buzz and simultaneously killing nstoomer@umich.ed. TO THE DAILY: The July 26 letter from Jessica Curtin ("Evidence in case flawed") is more of the tired, empty rhetoric of NWROC and related groups that feel that peo- ple who commit crimes and deny free speech rights to "evildoers" (and if you don't know who is evil, just ask members of these groups), operate with the bless- r FRANK F to & KOIN, e 191, r----- _.I.. ...... . ,.. ------ C Sr So.' .-~ status I til Alf-TIM W' V A.C P SSEAACHA FINALL'3r 54OWN A . L: *L FSOOf THAT < ' ALWAYS A:OJO A- f Ok _ ..