To the Daily:
In response to Ulises Silva's letter to the editor ("Lawsuit against 'U' is racist," 10/31/97) I would just like to make an observation. Silva labels the lawmakers and plantiffs, who are bringing a discrimination suit against the University, as "law-spewing bigots." Silva and certain other supporters of affirmative action claim that racial discrimination against whites is morally justifiable since the "historically underprivileged minorities" were oppressed for hundreds of years by the white ruling classes of America.
Silva then states that the plantiffs in this case are "feeling that they are in the same boat as students of color have been for countless decades now." If Silva realizes that racial discrimination is painful, why on Earth would he support imposing this suffering on other members of the human race? This is a disturbing and insane logic. It would be akin to members of the Jewish community demanding that 6 million Germans, including those who may not have been involved in the Holocaust, be systematically murdered to make up for Nazi war crimes.
I admit there are many racists of all races in this country, but punishing the innocent for the crimes of the guilty is unfair and inhumane. The people of today are not and should not be liable for the crimes of the past.
Mark Adams
Engineering junior
To the Daily:
Last week the Daily printed on the front page a so-called "analysis" of the affirmative action issue. There was no analytical thinking present in this article. It mainly repeated previous statements of Rep. David Jaye.
The next day, however, the Daily did not cover the important statement that President Bollinger made in an interview with the Ann Arbor News. Bollinger stated that if the University loses this important affirmative action case, it could mean the "resegregation of America." He also said that the current lawsuit could be the catalyst for a renewed activism on campus.
These new statements by the president of the University were certainly more worthy of coverage on the front page of the Daily than were rehashings of the opinions of Rep. David Jaye. Jaye, by the way, was at one time voted by his colleagues the worst representative in the state legislature. His shamelessly playing the race card to get elected to the state Senate, and the Daily giving him so much press, illustrates that his colleagues knew him far better than you do.
Ahmad Rahman
Rackham
To the Daily:
It is about time that Tom Goss made a positive decision for this University. When Goss walked on this campus in early September his head began growing exponentially. He came in with some stupid scheme to win over the student body (his four core ideas). Next he made a poor decision in firing Fisher. Not only did have no way of knowing Fisher as a man, he had not been around the program enough to know it.
But when I picked up my Daily last Wednesday, a great feeling game about me. Goss is finally doing something good. Goss's plan to add 5,200 seats to Michigan Stadium is great. It is not just the fact that Goss is attempting to add these new seats but why, for the student body. Tom Goss may have screwed Fisher, but at least he is taking care of the student body. So a few months into his command, Tom Goss has finally made a change for the better.
Brendan Davis
LSA sophomore
To the Daily:
I understand that the Daily is not a national or even state-wide newspaper, but I feel that does not excuse its many mistakes.
On Wednesday, Oct. 29, a group of students compiled mainly of ENACT members, had a rally about climate change and clean air on the Diag. The Daily's news coverage of this event was inaccurate. The rally was both for clean air and climate change, but the title of the article and the opening paragraph spoke of clean air only. These are two different issues that we combined into one rally because they are both prevalent issues in Washington, D.C., at this time.
However, the article failed to mention that President Clinton is signing an international treaty about climate change with perhaps 166 other nations. This event, to be held in December, has been a huge deal in the media in the past month as Clinton has announced the U.S. proposal on climate change. This major event was not even mentioned in the article. In fact, I was misquoted when it said we had collected more than 1,000 signatures for clean air. We collected signatures for a strong U.S. stand on climate change, not clean air!
I would not be writing this letter if this were the only time I had been misquoted or the Daily got the story wrong. In the four years that I was a student here involved in activism on campus, I have been interviewed by the Daily and have participated in numerous events with Daily coverage. I would say the Daily got its story right about 25 percent of the time. What kind of journalism is this? It's one thing to spell a name wrong, but it's not cool when you can't get the story straight and miss major points of events as with Wednesday's rally! I think the Daily needs to hire better reporters or at least put them through a rigorous training program before they are allowed to cover news. No, this is not a national newspaper, but even a college student newspaper should be able to get the story straight at least most of the time.
Ami Grace
University alumna
To the Daily:
To the student who I nearly killed when you stepped in front of my car from between two parked vehicles on the section of State Street in front of Angell Hall:
I understand that pedestrians have right of way on the roads and that it scared you to have a car screech to a halt so close to you (I'm assuming that was the message of your single finger salute), but please understand that while I want to obey traffic laws, I have to obey physics. I can't brake in zero time and I can't know ahead of time what you are going to do when I don't even know you're there.
Pedestrians, please - meet the drivers halfway on this one. Look both ways before crossing the street.
Chris Dwan
Rackham
To the Daily:
The article you ran about the Student Co-ops looking to purchase Oxford was excellent. There was one error I wanted to point out. Jim Jones is not the president of the ICC; he is the Executive Director. He is our employee. His job is mainly to oversee the staff and follow the directions of the Board of Directors (made up entirely of students). He advises us, but has no decision making authority except what the Board of Directors gives him. As such, the error of calling him president may have given people the wrong impression, about what his position is in our organization.
Related to this issue, Isaac Kriegman (me) is not the "student president," but rather the president (though I am a student). My job is to oversee Jim (I'm essentially his boss), facilitate Board Meetings, and act as CEO of the corporation.
Isaac Kriegman
ICC president
11-04-97
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