The Michigan Daily - Monday, July 28, 2003 - 5
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
State's budget is
indeed good for
higher education
To THE DAILY:
I wish to respond to the edi-
torial entitled Budget Crunch:
Large funding cuts will hurt stu-
dents and state (7/21/03).
As the Michigan Student
Assembly's external relations
chair, I have worked extensively
with other schools throughout
the state of Michigan to lobby
on behalf of the University's stu-
dents. While I agree that the new
budget will hurt Michigan stu-
dents, it is inevitable that any
budget in our current economic
situation would have such an
effect. I would like to address
two of the major points in the
editorial, funding discrepancies
and the Merit Scholarship.
While it is definitely true
that Grand Valley State Univer-
sity will fare better this year
than other universities, it is
important to understand recent
history. Last year GVSU
received less than $3,000 per
student, while the University
received approximately $9,000
per student. While one can argue
a difference in educational qual-
ity between the schools, GVSU
and Saginaw Valley State were
the only schools to fall below
$4,000. When the Association of
Michigan Universities, a lobby-
ing body consisting of student
government officers of the 15
public universities, met this past
year, one of our priorities was
equalizing the discrepancies in
state funding. I truly believe that
the state's creation of a $3,850
per student floor funding is a
positive step in advancing edu-
cation throughout the state of
Michigan.
With regards to the Merit
Scholarship, it has been shown
that students from more affluent
areas will do better on the exam,
that is not in dispute at all. In
fact, the governor's proposed
Michigan Opportunity Scholar-
ship program was designed to
move some of the Merit money
toward financially needy stu-
dents. However, your own article
applauds the legislature for not
supporting this program as it is
heavily biased toward private
school students. Additionally,
this past fall Proposal 4 was a
ballot measure that would have
taken the Merit money and given
it to hospitals and health care.
The citizens of Michigan over-
whelming voted against this
idea, and supported the students
of higher education. The state
needs a merit-based incentive
for students to keep her highest-
achieving students in the state.
Whether the Michigan Educa-
tional Assessment Program test
is the most appropriate way to
gauge students, well, that is
another issue.
The final budget definitely
supports students more than
anyone could have predicted 8
months ago, and I personally am
very pleased to learn that tuition
will only increase 6.5 percent, as
opposed to the rumors of 10 to
15 percent that circulated last
winter.
BOBBY COUNIHAN
Engineering senior
The letter writer is the external
relations chair of the Michigan Student
Assembly and an MSA representative
from the College of Engineering.
No evidence U.S.
government wants to
'Christianize' Iraqis
TO THE DAILY:
In Ari Paul's latest article, he
brought up concerns that Ameri-
can missionaries might be given
carte blanche by the U.S. gov-
ernment. While these might be
valid concerns, such a fear has
no historical precedent.
Although the United States is a
religious nation, spreading reli-
gion has never been the agenda
of the government. Only one
such incident, as I can recall,
was President William McKin-
ley's letter after the the Philip-
pines had been won from Spain
during the Spanish-American
War. In that letter, he wrote that
it was the duty to "Christianize"
the native peoples (even though
they had already been reached
by Spanish missionaries).
Despite this, it was the
premise of the U.S. government,
not propagating religion, that
attracted the Chinese to deal in
trade with the Americans during
the latter years of the Qing
dynasty. The British, French,
Italian and Dutch had, at times,
influence in the imperial court
through missionary ties and the
Americans had no interest in
doing this. ,
In conclusion, I find Paul's
apprehensions, while valid, to be
slightly unfounded. I don't
believe the U.S. government has
any agenda to spread religion.
The only challenge I foresee is
making sure the Iraqis see the
mission of the American govern-
ment and the mission of Ameri-
can missionaries as distinct and
separate.
RAHMAN WooDs
Alumnus
It must be the shoes
DANIEL ADAMS ADVANTA G? PUSH.
Number nine on
my cable box
is E SPN.
When nothing else is
on, I know exactly
what to expect from
this network - pure
drivel. ESPN is a fas-
cinating creation of
cable television. A
good idea on paper, except for one small
problem - sports aren't played 24 hours a
day. Solution? Boil entire games down to
highlights, and show the same highlights
all day. Then, have a bunch of has-beens
and never-weres talk about the highlights.
Now that's quality entertainment.
Media outlets like ESPN have a unique
and unparalleled ability to turn athletes into
personalities. They build these men and
women up into icons; then, with great
quickness, dispatch the dogs to tear them
apart. So I can only imagine the wet dream
ESPN and its executives had over Kobe
Bryant's current legal trouble. Huge, gaping
holes in programming can now be stuffed
full of Kobe. Their packs of analysts now
have a lamb for the slaughter - an athlete
at the peak of his career, without a blemish
on his record. Without doubt, Kobe Bryant
was untouchable in the media, that is, before
he opened the door and let a 19-year-old,
and a world of problems into his life.
How hard they fall, and how fun it is to
watch. We collectively gasp when a sports
star is exposed as having personal problems,
when most of us have our own skeletons in
the closet. Kobe Bryant cheated on his wife.
Did we expect more of Bryant? He promised
the fans wins, not marital fidelity.
You want an athlete? There he is. You
want a role model? Be careful what you
wish for. The media put these men under
the microscope, expect perfection then
wonder aloud why athletes can't deliver.
They say they want upstanding role mod-
els. They say that Bryant had a responsi-
bility to seta good example.
Turn the channel: number 74 on my
cable box is the Outdoor Life Network,
with such fine programs as "The Running
of the Bulls," "Total Bull: The PBR" and
"Bill Dance Outdoors." Somewhere in the
middle of all that garbage, OLN broadcasts
the Tour de France. In this year's tour, two
Americans dominated most of the field and
put on a pretty good show. Chances are
pretty good that you've heard of one: Lance
Armstrong, the bike rider, turned cancer
survivor, turned five time Tour de France
champion. It's hard to underestimate how
miraculous his story is, both athletically
and personally. The other rider, Tyler
Hamilton, has ridden almost the entire
length of this year's Tour with a double-
fracture of his collarbone, an injury he sus-
tained in the first stage of the event. Here's
the kicker: He finished fourth in a field that
includes the finest cyclists in the world.
Just like Bryant, these men are dominant
in their sport - athletic perfection. Unlike
Bryant, these men have demonstrated
courage and integrity - the very things
Bryant seems to be lacking. Sports media
have in Armstrong and Hamilton the role
models they claim to demand, yet aren't
interested - the only station that carries the
Tour is OLN, your source for professional
bullriding and sport-fishing. Sure, ESPN
mentions Armstrong in passing and some-
times features a small clip of him dropping
the hammer on his rivals, but asa whole it is
uninterested in promoting Armstrong to the
extent it had once promoted Bryant.
Why? Bikes don't draw ratings. Here
we have two amazing athletes that have
proven to be upstanding individuals, but
happen to participate in a sport that does-
n't make money with an American audi-
ence. If Bryant had a responsibility to set
a good example, ESPN too has a similar
responsibility to step up and showcase
men like Armstrong and Hamilton.
It won't, however, because cycling is bor-
ing. How sad. Meanwhile, our favorite
sports: basketball, baseball and football, have
given us a veritable all-star team of fallen
icons. If we are to boil sports down to the
individual and turn athletes into celebrities,
we had better be more careful of whom we
choose to elevate. This recent episode with
Kobe Bryant won't be the last-time an athlete
has fallen from the public's good graces. It's
part of a long and disturbing pattern, yet the
fans will keep coming back for more and
come laden with the same misplaced trust.
Fool me once? Shame on you. Fool me a
hundred times over? I'll take box seats.
Adams can be reached at
dnadams@umich.edu.
Cheney eyeing brand new liver spot
JOHN HONKALA Too EABLY I THE SLN
Hey politicos!
It's been a
tough two
weeks for criminals,
but that hasn't stooped
The Scoop from
peeping through
Y blinds and rifling
through personal files
to find the latest dirt
on American politicians and entertainers.
It took us a while, but boy did we find
some damaging slander! We've got the
black eyes to prove it.
Sources close to Vice President Dick
Cheney tell us he's considering getting a
Mikhail Gorbachev forehead blemish
surgically implanted on his own shiny
dome. Seems our creepy VP is a big fan
of the former Soviet leader. Let's just
hope he doesn't exchange his lovely wife
Lynn for a Russian mail-order bride!
Lynnie's just too cute.
Item! It appears that U.S. Army sol-
diers stationed in Baghdad have been pre-
occupied lately. It seems that last April a
troop accidentally blew a hole through
the wall of Iraq's only mental hospital for
the clinically insane and then left the facili-
ty and its drugs open to looters. (Better
keep an eye on Matthew Perry!) Appar-
ently all the crazies left the joint and have
now joined chief U.S. administrator for
Iraq Paul Bremer in aimlessly wandering
the streets of Baghdad. Let's hope those
soldiers had their minds on the lovely
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos of USO Project
Salute 2003 instead of Kid Rock. (Or vice
versa for those pretty-lady combatants.)
It says here that the nation's unem-
ployment rate has hit a nine-year high -
6.4 percent. We found this little tidbit in
some rag called The New York Times.
Well, we here at The Scoop don't know
what sort of operation these Times peo-
ple are running, but they might want to
find a fact checker. Don't they know that
if the unemployment rate reached such a
crippling rate, our Savior and Manna,'
George W. Bush would be doing some-
thing about it? We think it's time for the
Times to punch their time card and get
out of the news business!
Item!A joint Congressional committee
released last weeka report on the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks, directing most of its criti-
cism toward the C.I.A. and the EB.I. for
their failure to exchange crucial informa-
tion. Well, duh! Tell us something we don't
know. Now, if only the committee could
tell us who let Secretary of Defense Don-
aid Rumsfeld publish a book of poetry.
Uh oh! Fighting in the streets of
Liberia. Seems like the tiny West African
nation was created by none other than our
favorite imperialist, The United States of
America, so we're obligated to help them.
Good thing we have so many troops in
Baghdad right now keeping their military
skills sharp. Just tell the Liberians to call
us whenever they need us. We'll be there
as quick as you can say "Let's rape our
national park system!"
And speaking of the military, some-
body should have told President Dubya
that getting out of Baghdad wasn't going
to be as easy as getting in. Shoot, didn't
Georgie learn anything from former big
cheese Bill Clinton and handbag designer
Monica Lewinsky?!
Item! Uday and Qusay Hussein were
killed by American forces in northern Iraq
last week. I guess no one told them before
they died that pig Latin is only funny when
you're 10. Oh well, at least they died with
their faces on playing cards (Aces at that!),
which is more than we can say about for-
mer Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand,
who was slaughtered and turned into dog
food in Japan last week. If we could be
serious a moment, don't the Japanese real-
ize that horses are not to be treated like
some sort of cow, raised specifically to be
slaughtered bloodily for hamburger meat?
Item! People magazine is reporting
that Los Angeles Lakers basketball star
Kobe Bryant recently purchased a $4
million ring for his wife after confessing
publicly to an adulterous affair with a 19-
year-old woman in Colorado. Doesn't he
realize that $4 million equals 45 extra
minutes we could have troops stationed
in Iraq? C'mon, Kobe, where's your
patriotism? Looks like my Kobe Sprite
poster is headed straight for the trash bin
along with my copy of the Dixie Chicks'
"Wide Open Spaces" single.
That's it for this week, folks. Don't for-
get to read next week's column where we
reveal why Tom Cruise is our arch-neme-
sis. Until then, The Scoop says read USA
Today and shop at Wal-Mart. (Psst ... word
is, glamorous Hollywood actor Freddie
Prinze Jr. does too!)
Honkala can be reached at
jhonkala@umich.edu.