Letters to the Editor

'U' should be sensitive to other religions

To the Daily:

Congratulations, (or should I say, Mazel Tov?), to the university that would be a model for the working world and give its students the ability to observe their own religions without subtle penalty.

I believe the working world is slowly coming to grips with its substituents' needs for personal time, for family leave, for childcare, eldercare and religion. By relaxing the work week to include more part-time and flexible hours, the working world has adjusted to be more user friendly.

I believe the University could do the same and be more accessible to those who have commitments other than just school and the standard religion. Given the current cost of education, the University will likely be forced to move in the same direction as the working world.

Vicki Heller

University alumna

Book sale needs new guidelines

To the Daily:

This past Friday, the undergraduate library held its semi-annual book sale. For those of you not familiar with the scene, let me describe the first few minutes of the event. (Yes, like the Big Bang those are the most important ones)

At 10 a.m., when I arrived at the library, there were about 20 to 30 people lined up waiting for the sale to begin. When the gates opened, the carnage began and by the time I got to the section I was interested in, which was no more than one minute into the sale, almost all the relevant books (and there were lots of them) were already gone!

If they were giving away free tickets to a football game, then you wouldn't be so surprised at the level of aggression, but these were supposed to be students shopping for, of all things, books.

The explanation is that the aggression did not come at all from the students but rather from a few professional book sellers who were grabbing whole piles of books, stacks of 20 or maybe 30, and putting them away into boxes which they have strategically located in the room. After grabbing as much as they could - and preventing anyone else from having a chance to see what was available - they would calmly sort their piles and return what they didn't need.

All this was happening within the span of less than 10 minutes.

From talking to the organizers, I learned that this is a recurring theme and a problem many people have complained about in the past. But for different reasons, nothing has been done about it.

What I am suggesting is one possible solution: Why not restrict the number of books per purchase to five? This way, while they wait in line to pay, which might take a little while, others will have a chance to benefit from the sale too.

And keep those boxes out!

Jonathan Korman

Rackham

Notable Quotable contained bad grammar

To the Daily:

I was rather perplexed on Thursday as I read through the Daily and found a Notable Quotable credited to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Geoffrey Fieger (9/24/98). It read, "Where is it in the Constitution where we gave away our bodies away to the government?"

Exactly what does this quote mean? Is he for or against assisted suicide (I assume he is trying to state that he opposes it)? More importantly, can't he afford better speech writers? I have to admit that I am far from an English major (in fact, English is not even my native tongue), but the grammatical ineptitude of this statement should be obvious to anybody.

Far be it from me to judge a gubernatorial candidate by their handling of the English language, but I seem to recall a certain vice president a few years ago, Dan Quayle, I think was his name, getting a lot of flack over misspelling potato (in fact, he was merely reading from a flash card in which the answer had been misspelled, thus demonstrating impeccable reading skills).

In any case, this statement makes either Fieger or the Daily's staffers look bad, amusing though it was to read. Perhaps the Daily staff meant this as a joke? Kudos to it if it did!

Armando Bayolo

Rackham

Students should strive for more interaction

To the Daily:

Michigan State University students make jokes about University of Michigan students, and while most are made out of jealousy, one joke is more true than funny.

MSU students say U of M students are cold and so wrapped up in school, they leave no time and energy to be socially friendly. I have been here for 4 1/2 years and I completely agree. In my home town, people smile and say "hello" when walking in the streets. But here, people are more likely to just keep walking with their eyes glued to the sidewalk ahead. Maybe it is just me, but the last time I looked in the mirror, I didn't think I was scary looking, so why the cold treatment?

My fellow students, we need to get over our inhibitions of being friendly to our peers. If everyone set a goal of saying "hi" to five to 10 strangers a day, imagine how much warmer and more inviting this campus would be to us all?

Secondly, college is supposed to be a place where people not only learn about their careers, but also about people and the diversity they have to offer. That is what sets us apart from the guy who sits in his trailer, learning about society through "The Jerry Springer Show."

Why do we students concentrate so much on finding groups made solely for our exact facet of society? Signs up all over campus tell us to join support groups for Jews, Indians, Asians, African-Americans, etc..., keeping us confined to our own kind, instead of going out there and meeting people of different races and ethnicities.

Why don't we spend less time on supporting each other from the effects of segregation and more time on forming a community of people from every different background imaginable?

This is a college town, filled with intelligent, open-minded people, so let's get together and have a great time learning about all of the beautiful culture our world has to offer. Have pride in yourselves, have pride in our college, and finally, have pride in being given the privilege of meeting an incredible array of people from all over the social spectrum.

For those who read this, I hope you takes it to heart and pass this message on for others.

Beau Warren

LSA senior

'Rush Hour' review took comedy too seriously

To the Daily:

I am writing to ask if the Daily reviewers really goes and sees the movies that it reviews after reading the review of "Rush Hour" ("Chan's 'Rush' slows to a halt," 9/21/98).

Can Daily Arts Writer Matthew Barrett actually say that he was expecting Oscar material? To go to a comedy and look into the characters as though they were a part of some dramatic hit and not even take the time to see the humor in everything shows that Barrett should stop wasting his time writing reviews.

In regards to his comment that the jokes are something that someone under 10 years old would enjoy, I am 20 years old, as were the other people I saw the movie with, as were the majority of the people in the packed movie theatre we saw the movie in. So, Barrett, maybe the problem is not with the writers of the movie, but with you.

Sarah Thankachan

LSA junior

09-29-98