Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4 — Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Emma Chang
Joel Danilewitz
Samantha Goldstein
Elena Hubbell
Emily Huhman
Tara Jayaram
Jeremy Kaplan
Sarah Khan
Lucas Maiman
Magdalena Mihaylova
Ellery Rosenzweig
Jason Rowland
Anu Roy-Chaudhury
Alex Satola
Ali Safawi
Ashley Zhang
Sam Weinberger
Erin White
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MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA
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EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
M
ost, if not all, of my
favorite memories in
my entire
life take place inside
a
national
park.
There was the time
I climbed a 14,000-
foot
mountain
located in a national
forest in Colorado,
or the time I spent
multiple
days
hiking in beautiful
Zion National Park
in Utah. One of my
most
surreal
experiences
occurred laying on a beach
in Acadia National Park in
Maine, staring up at more
stars than I had ever seen
at
one
time,
connecting
them to form constellations
and seeing the Milky Way
shine brilliantly across the
expansive
night
sky.
My
times in the national parks
are what have driven my
passion for the outdoors and
my relationship with the
environment. It is difficult to
see these places and not leave
with a profound discovered
respect for the natural world.
This
is
not
a
unique
sentiment.
The
national
parks are visited each year by
hundreds of millions. Summer
is one of the most popular
times for the parks, especially
among students looking for
a more adventurous summer
break than the typical beach
trip.
There
is
no
doubt
that
today
the
National
Park Service is one of the
most beloved and enjoyed
government agencies and is
often something supported by
both major parties. The first
national park was Yellowstone
in Montana and Wyoming,
established in 1872. It wasn’t
until Woodrow Wilson came
around that the National Park
Service was created under the
“Organic Act” in 1916.
Before going further, I feel
it is important to talk about
something often overlooked
in the history of the national
parks:
the
indigenous
people
who
inhabited
the
land. Parks such as Glacier,
Badlands, Mesa Verde, the
Grand
Canyon
and
Death
Valley were, as an article by
Hanne Elisabeth Tidnam in
Medium
describes,
“taken
from the Native American
communities that lived within
them as part of the United
States
government’s
larger
efforts to relocate and remove
them.” The establishment of
Yosemite drove out
the Ahwahneechee
people
who
had
inhabited the land
for
thousands
of
years prior.
This is just one
example in a laundry
list
of
injustices
carried out against
indigenous nations
by
the
United
States
government
throughout
history.
It
is
important to include this part
of the narrative when talking
about
the
national
parks.
Current campaigns like Stop
the Con are aimed at raising
awareness
around
issues
involving
conservation
and
indigenous people globally. The
parks are beautiful monuments
to nature that millions of
Americans enjoy every year, but
to disregard their complicated
past would be irresponsible.
Recently, President Donald
Trump’s
administration
surprised many by signing an
expansive public lands bill
that actually expanded the
amount of protected land and
permanently reauthorized the
Land and Water Conservation
Fund, which supports efforts
to
conserve
and
promote
outdoor recreation nationwide.
Environmentalists
hailed
this as a major victory in
an administration that has
historically
championed
slashing
as
much
environmental regulation as
possible. National Geographic
keeps
a
comprehensive
running
list
of
how
the
president is affecting the
environment, and it is mostly
all bad news. Could this
be a turning point for the
president?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t
look like this is the case.
President
Donald
Trump
released the Department of
the Interior’s Fiscal Year 2020
budget this week, and it deals
devastating blows to public
lands and the national parks.
Thankfully, as Wes Siler for
Outside said, “the president
does not set the official
budget — Congress does.”
While it is extremely unlikely
that this version of the budget
ever gets passed, it still
highlights where the current
administration’s
priorities
lie.
All of this comes just a
few months after the longest
government
shutdown
in
history, which left many of
our beloved national parks
unprotected for days — if not
weeks — on end. During the
shutdown, many of the parks
suffered damages as staffing
was
drastically
reduced.
Joshua Tree in California, for
example, suffered damages
to its ecosystem that could
remain for over 300 years as
vandals came and cut down
the
protected
trees
from
which the park gets its name.
Headlines like these are
extremely
concerning
to
those who value the parks.
What can be done?
By all means, I highly
encourage
traveling
to
national
parks.
Michigan
is actually home to a few
nationally
protected
areas
such as Pictured Rocks, Isle
Royale,
and
the
Sleeping
Bear Dunes, which are each
breathtaking in their own
way. But we collectively need
to do a better job of caring for
these lands and treating them
with respect. That means
recognizing their complicated
history
and
actively
cherishing the land. It also
means
providing
adequate
funding for conservation and
maintenance needs.
If you do find yourself
traveling to one or multiple
locations in the future, it is
crucially important to be
mindful of your surroundings
and take care to not disturb
the environment around you.
As the old saying goes: “Take
nothing but pictures, leave
nothing but footprints, and
kill nothing but time.” In line
with its original directive,
we need to make sure to
leave the parks unimpaired
for the enjoyment of future
generations.
Timothy Spurlin can be reached at
timrspur@umich.edu.
I
cannot pay attention.
In an age in which
we are so thoroughly
interconnected,
there
is
always something else to do.
Something to read,
to look up, to watch,
to
communicate
— there is always
something.
Being
forthright,
while
writing
this,
I
probably checked my
phone, went on social
media and worked
on an assignment.
With
information
so
accessible,
constant
distraction
feels
inevitable. This inability to
entirely devote my attention
to something for an extended
period
of
time
has
only
gotten worse and this lack of
discipline has seeped into all
aspects of my life.
Family
gatherings,
hanging out with friends,
class — the dynamics of how
we interact are different given
that
almost
everyone
has
access to devices that allow
them to divert their attention
elsewhere. It is one thing to
look up further information
on something in class. It is
another thing entirely to miss
out on what is happening
around you.
This sounds like something
that may have an easy solution
— simply just putting one’s
laptop away or phone down
should do the trick. But in a
society in which we are so
dependent on technology, is
that even really feasible? I
have, along with many college
students, become entirely too
accustomed to living with the
ability to access information
whenever and wherever I
want and a transition away
from
such
could
prove
difficult.
My
struggle
to
pay
attention has taken away my
ability to live in the moment.
Growing up, my mom’s
response to being on phones
was always, “Live in the
moment” — and she was
right. Due to the reality that
my
brain
is
consistently
multi-tasking, I cannot fully
appreciate what is
going on around
me.
Within
the
last few months,
I
came
to
the
determination that
taking
a
social
media hiatus would
cut back on my
technology
usage
and allow for me
to participate more
fully in what is happening
in the present, instead of
viewing life through edited
squares and filtered posts.
While this worked for some
time, my dependence on not
necessarily just my phone,
but
access
to
distraction,
remains. I still use my phone
just as often as I would have
beforehand,
maybe
just
approaching
social
media
with more of a second thought
than before.
This leads me to pose the
question: How can I live more
in the moment and move
past this persistent need to
always be doing something?
Can I, with the prevalence
of interconnectedness, take
a step back and just be? I do
not know. I could put my
phone away, use it less or
not bring my computer to
class as a means to ensure I
pay full attention, but would
these disciplined choices be
drawbacks in a society in
which usage of technology is
almost expected?
With
these
resolutions
come the fear that, without
technology, I will fall behind.
I will not be caught up on the
latest piece of news, what
is going on with friends or
family or even the weather.
I will not be fully equipped
to
manage
my
day-to-day
without the possibility to
be efficient and juggle the
differing expectations. This
anxiety that I could always
be doing something else takes
away from focusing on one
thing and doing it well.
While I understand this
might not pose an issue for
everyone, many of us seem
to live in this frantic manner
in which technology is an
omniscient presence — an
accessory to our being. This
has caused a counteraction,
with many, some ironically on
social media, saying that they
are going to “unplug.” This
movement away has become
in vogue, but is it possible?
Moving forward, living in
the moment will be a priority.
I can do so much more if I
figure out how to silence the
noise of constant distraction
or the temptation to check
my phone in class or at work.
I can be without having to
think about the next thing.
I want to be able to sit and
have a conversation, read a
book or finish something for
school without having the
urge to try and accomplish
numerous things at once. I
want to be able to rid myself
of the inability to be present
that technology has created
by firmly establishing myself
within a singular moment.
I cannot pay attention —
and maybe I should start by
putting my phone down first.
Protect our parks
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TIMOTHY SPURLIN | COLUMN
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Disconnecting to combat distraction
SAMANTHA SZUHAJ | COLUMN
I
am writing in response
to The Michigan Daily’s
coverage of the incident
on Saturday. While I really
appreciated
the
care
and
sensitivity with which the
writers approached this topic,
as well as the discussions of the
ways the incident particularly
affected Muslim and minority
students, I have to take issue
with one detail — the way The
Daily presented the role of
word-of-mouth
information
during
the
events.
While
misinformation and the spread
of rumors should, of course,
generally be discouraged and
in this particular case such
rumors did more harm than
good, I don’t think it is wise
to discourage students from
texting their peers and friends
during potentially dangerous
situations. In the absence of
official news, which, like all
sources of human knowledge, is
fallible, these fleeting rumors
and texts are all we have. On
Saturday we didn’t need them,
and now we condemn them. But
imagine a day when we do
—
when there is a real dangerous
situation and official sources
are not responding. Word-of-
mouth
information,
despite
its easy and frequent misuse,
could mean life or death in a
real active shooter situation.
As the famous proverb says,
better safe than sorry
— and
better confused and scared
than dead.
EKATERINA MAKHNINA | LETTER TO THE EDITOR
JOIN OUR EDITORIAL BOARD
Our open Editorial Board meets
Wednesdays 7:00-8:30 PM at our
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welcome to come discuss national, state
and campus affairs.
How can I live more in
the moment and move
past this persistent
need to always be
doing something?
SAMANTHA
SZUHAJ
SUBMIT TO OPINION ABOUT THE EVENTS ON SATURDAY
If you felt impacted by the circumstances surrounding
the false reports of a shooting on Saturday, we
encourage you to submit an Op-Ed to The Michigan
Daily. You can send any writing to Joel Danilewitz
(joeldan@umich.edu) and Magdalena Mihaylova
(mmihaylo@umich.edu).
Ekeaterina Makhnina is a freshman
at the University.
We collectively
need to do a better
job of caring for
these lands
TIMOTHY
SPURLIN
Communicating through crisis