Final play made up for Alamo Bowl's failings

To the Daily:

I am a University alum living in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, where I work for the U.S. Embassy, and I just watched the Alamo Bowl live over the Armed Forces Network. Of course, the end score was disappointing, but I have actually never been prouder of the Maize and Blue. Wow! The season was not what we fans may have wanted, but that team is extremely talented, as was demonstrated by one of the most exciting examples of football playing I have ever witnessed - the last play of the game. It left me breathless! Of course, there should have been offsetting penalties, and the game can't end on a penalty, so Michigan should have had another play, but oh well. And then there was the missed call for pass interference, which would have kept the second-to-last Michigan drive alive with a first down, but oh well again. None of that matters, nor does the loss, because Michigan demonstrated in that final play what it means to be a team, and that is really what it is all about. Despite the losses this season, I say "hats off" to a magnificent coaching team led by Lloyd Carr that can produce that type of teamwork, athleticism and sportsmanship. Well done, Wolverines.

Katya Thomas

Alum

Carr's poor coaching lets down team year after year

To the Daily:

Dear Lloyd Carr: How many more times are you going to put these kids through this? You take a supremely talented team on a road trip to a big game; they're brimming with enthusiasm and natural athletic ability. But because they're poorly coached, their trip back home is once again silent, pained and full of self-doubt. Players return blaming themselves because they lost a game they should have won.

Coach Carr, how many more times? Your inability to win the big game on the road has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Please stop putting these kids through this unnecessary pain.

If you don't step aside during this offseason, can we have your assurance that a loss to Notre Dame next September (your seventh straight road-opener loss) will bring your immediate resignation?

Mark Pekalai

Alum

Tookie's efforts for peace outweighed his past crimes

To the Daily:

It is with a heavy heart that I write to you expressing my disbelief over the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams. Tookie, who was convicted of killing four people in 1979, used his 26 years in jail to better society in ways that few have been able to do. A founder of the notorious Crips gang in the '70s, Tookie reformed his ways, writing numerous books advocating against gangs. He served as a peace broker, most recently in 2004, bringing the warring Crips and Bloods together under the now-famous "Tookie Protocol for Peace." It astonishes me that in today's society we are so ignorant to change and refuse to see the error of our ways.

Proponents of the death penalty constantly cite its use as a deterrent to future crime as a reason to employ it, despite the fact that we are virtually the only industrialized nation to still kill its own citizens. Although capital punishment's use as a deterrent has been proven wrong study after study, the same people who advocate for its use refuse to see how Williams's actions served to deter gang violence in ways that his execution can never accomplish. Left alone, Tookie would have surely continued to spread his message of peace, further making our society a better place to live. His peace efforts have won him international praise. From President George Bush's letter of commendation to his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, people around the world recognized that his positive work needed to be rewarded by commutation of his sentence to life in prison. Even the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a rare move, recommended to then California Gov. Gray Davis in 2002 that he commute Williams's sentence to life in prison. Sadly, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to heed the court's advice, and one of the great peace activists of our time has been killed by the state. For this, I call on University President Mary Sue Coleman to fly the University's flags at half staff in his honor.

Peter Borock

LSA sophomore