LETTES THE E *DIT M cWilliams' death a tragedy TO THE DAILY: Long after the drug war bureaucrats who persecuted him are gone and forgotten, Peter McWilliams' memory and writings will live on the *the hearts and minds of the people he touched, with his wit and wisdom. The thoughts and beliefs contained in Peter's books have had a profound effect on many people, including myself, and his untimely and tragic passing leaves an emptiness in many of us. 1. for one, will rededicate my efforts to seeing Peter's and our founding fathers' .dreams of a free country, become reality. Hopefully. those who hounded and destroyed this great American treasure, will realize the horrible ramifications of their self- serving agenda and rectify this terrible abomination in American history, called the information and outlaws communities" 6:1900) as a well-meaning attempt to stop the flow of dangerous drugs. Given the utterly coun- terproductive results of hun- dreds of other drug laws, it is impossible to attach any virtue to morons who pro- mote the destruction of the Constitution as a means of fighting drugs. Those who endorse an utterly failed drug prohibition scheme are either profoundly stupid or have another agenda in mind, such as incarcerating blacks 13 times as often as whites for violating drug laws. There is nothing well meaning, honest or virtu- ous about any new drug lasv other than repeal. REDFORD GIVENS SAN FRANCISCO, CA Rose is no longer a loser' Tihe two faces of modern American politics F or those of us living happily in agendas and pricing schemes of liberal and conservative or our era of "peace and prosper- those sources, the changing regula- Democratic and Republican side. ity'there isn't a whole lot to worry tions on fuel production, various There is no room for a compro- about these days. Sure, gas prices gas tax levels between states and mise position between the two and are a little high, but the amount of the tendency of companies to definitely not a third one that nei- driving being done has actually charge whatever the market will ther is pushing. In any debate, one increased over last year, so we can bear for their products, I was under position will be our salvation and obviously handle it. Sure the impression that the other will destroy humanity. there's an impact, but if finding out what caus- This absurdity is partly the pub- gas prices weren't slowing es fitel price shifts was lie's fault. By becoming ever less the economy, the increas- complicated. itterested in the news in general ingly jittery Fed would be. "Not so;' proclaims and politics in particular, the polit- Although you'd never Al Gore. lie says this ical class has been left to pander to know it from listening to is all the fault of big oil those who do pay attention, the politicians, there is no gas companies. purists - those who really do crisis. From watching the "Nonsense,: says believe Armageddon will be upon mounting federal and con- George W. Bush, this is us if we prevent late-term abor- gressional inquiries to the all the EPA's fault. tions or say you can't keep an AK- endless hoards of politi- PETER These arguments from 47 under your pillow. clans piling onto talk CUNNIFFE the head honchos of In order to appeal to these left shows to cast blame on their respective parties and right-wing political junkies, someone else as quickly are quickly carried to traditional news programs and the and frequently as possible, all corners of the cotn- ever proliferating all-news cable one gets the impression there's try by our nation's political class - channels are turning to debate pro- some kind of imminent national its politicians at every level, their grams more and more to draw in doom looming on the horizon. staffs and lackeys, special interest viewers. An issue is not newswor- This debate has quickly broken groups and the increasingly coot- thy if Bill Press and Mary Matalin down into those blaming the gov- mentary-driven news media. can't take opposing sides and hec- ernment -- specifically, new EPA The current debate about gas tor mid-level politicians and party regulations - and those blaming prices reflects what is happening to functionaries about it. oil companies for raising prices to almost every national debate today. Even poor Ted, Dan and Peter increase profits. It doesn't matter how complicated have been reduced to dragging in Considering the innumerable an issue is, there are two sides, one pundits at every opportunity to foreign and domestic sources from right and one wrong. Or more appease the masses with the com- which we get our oil, the differing accurately, one right and one left, a bat they desire. And with no one listening except the ideologues most of time, attention-loving politicians wholeheartedly throw themselves into one side or the other. And as the political class contin- ues to carve itself utp into warring factions, the public withdraws fur- ther from public policy. The insidi- ous dualism of modern public life has forced most people, who don't see the world in black and white, to loose interest in how their nation is being run. I've always been interested in politics, but find myself willing to follow it less and less. I have a hard time listening to shrill politicians - even ones I agree with - who just tout their own ideas and make hysterical condemnations of any- -thing else. It all becomes an end- less blur of bitching about the same things every day. So I stop listening. I look around and every- thing seems all right, so Itjust go on with life like everyone else, bliss- fully unaware of what my nation's leaders are doing. I'm taking the easy way out because like every- one, I'm busy. And I don't really know what else to do. -Peter Cunniffe can be reached via e-inail at pcunniffumich.edu W"War sOt Peter. Farewell, GOv acti( *M cU deat To THE C Thank rial Mont death" 6 the trag *McWillia In the of mariju to be a from ma McWillia was not ernment Please Drug not' mea TO THE I m etglssy.TO THE DAILY: we' .lins you. It is unfortunate that you my frietnd. choose to characterize Jalen Rose career as that of a MIKE PLYLAR "loser" ("Rose gets Monday KREMMLING, CO reprise" 619 00). Fortunately, the great repu- tation of U of M sports ernm ent teams was not built on the backs of 'losers.' Why does )n led to the strong confidence and V braggadocio behavior of a Wilams young college athlete still manage to elicit such nar- row remarks that can best be characterized as jealousy? DAILY. The so-called Fab Five Ayoe for your edito- did their best by getting past day ("LUnecessary all others who also wanted to 19 001Uregarding play for the national champi- ic death of Peter onship. So they didn't win. i d fe Not every college team does. 5.000 year history Any team sthat has worked ana use.a hisyry hard enough to play in the dtscetted death finals has something to be drijsana use. Peter proud of. Not all graduates died because e are fortunate to go on and ms iedbecusehe play for an NBA 5eam. For allowed by his gov- those who do go on, they to use It. find success at the hands of a e stop this insanity. good coach a the NBA level. School's out in the NBA. KIRK MUSE Rose's current chal- VANCOUVER, WA lenges in the NBA are about the concerns of an adult pro- fessional athlete, not a l laws sophomoric unfocused ath- lete. The stakes of an NBA 'we|| championship are Jar greater than that of an nIng NCAA basketball champi- onship. The only thing that DAILY: seems to be losiing here is L1 disagree ith the logic of your compari- .. - son. Escaping the political fantasy world, T he full force of the Presidential RoboGore2000 took the stage and election year is upon us, bear- removed their masks. They were ing down on the masses with a like two aging computer systems. I flood of rhetoric, abortion think they could have debates and trivial word been Apple II's; their plays that pander to as beige cases were dis- large a constituency as pos- colored from age. sible. With campaigns run This Postmodern more by poll-reliant advis- World: How do you ers than candidates with feel about the ever any vision, the political widening gap between debate is nothing but a the rich and the poor'? puppet show of intricate Dubya: I'm a cots- proportions. If big money passionate conserva- is calling, the advisors pull JOSH tine, so I - the string and Dubya's WICKERHAM TPW Gore? hand goes op. RoboGore2000: I RoboGore2000 lurches invented the Internet. onto the stage at S1000 a TPW Right. I see. plate dinners and hooks his What about campaign mind into the teleprompter, making finance reform? just-the right plays. Duba: I'm a compassionate It's easy to think of politics as a conservative, so I - very complicated gatoe of chess. TNI' RoboGore2000? But I think of it more of a comput- How do you feel about er simulation, like IBM's Deep campaign finance refons? Blue, the computer that beat the RoboGore2000: Does not world chess champion some years compete. Does not cot- back. Candidates are just the front pttte. Does not compute. men for gigantic political Cmpitgn Aid: My god! machines, chock full of transistor- His floating point units on like advisors, wiry experts and the brink again! blinking, glowing advocates. It's a But Dubya knows what to finely tuned circuit, but something do. He smacks RoboGore- is wrong with the operating system. 2000 in the back of the Having a political debate in this head. RoboGore2000's country is like trying to carry on a head slowly swivels around conversation with your computer. he lnges at Dubya. Dubya The answers are so fornlated that grins masiacally, morphs there's no possible way an intelli- into his alter ego, Alfred E. gent, sentience being with any sort Newman from "Mad of emotional connection to reality Magazine" and takes could have come isp with them. RoboGore2000 by the ears It just so happens that This to unscrew the entire ial- Postmodern World slipped into a functioning cranial region. secret meeting of the two party Political aids swarm the duopoly wrhere both Dubya and stage, trying to plug the two creating my own candidates back into their respec- tive positions. In a desperate attempt to regain the necessary illu- sions of the democratic process, aids stun Dubya with a cattle prod, focusing their attention on RoboGore2000. This Postmodern World runs off behind the scene in search of aid. Finding only a room partitioned by a velvet curtain a la "Wizard of Oz," TPW reveals the final illusion: the reptilian overlord of American politics. He has claws of an eagle and the head of a dinosaur. His arms are like octopus tentacles - but scaled - and pull at the levers of an ancient punch card computing machine. He wears an American flag around his waist and is tat- tooed with dollar signs. Squinty- eyed and alarmed by my presence, he bears his teeth like a raptor and emits a long, shrill reptilian hiss that calls the aids to his attention. Horrified and flabbergasted, I stumble backward as the creature pulls the curtain closed to contain himself. I hear aids scrambling to this monster's aid. Aid: Oh god, no! Uncle Sam! Another aid approaches me: What did you see? TP I don't know! Then things get frizzy. I found myself three days later on the floor of the bathroom at the Daily writing this all down, not sure what it means. I guess the neces- sary illusions of our democratic process are a lot more pleasant than the demons pulling strings behind the velvet curtain. -Josh Wickerham can be reached soia e-mail at jtwvicker h aumich.edu 'A19XIN G A CtIE F"o- r thEc CAhtI'Ai~r5 1 ,FOAct+A NEW Lo W4. t ash Wicker hams portrayal of the "Methamphetamines Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999" ('low Congress bans AUDREY JACKSON ALUMNUS