To the Daily:
M-Flicks diverse in its audience and selection of movies
We were surprised when we saw an article criticizing M-Flicks audiences in this week’s B-Side (A rush of blood to the head, 10/04/2007). Unfortunately, the article mischaracterized our organization in several ways. Although the article states it “is not a diatribe against M-Flicks,” it continually uses the phrase “M-Flicks crowds” and insults the people in them. We value and respect our audiences, and we would never ask someone to leave because they feel a certain way about a film or because they enjoy particular genres of film. The article ignores many M-Flicks screenings, such as “Knocked Up” and “Stranger than Fiction.” Going to our website (www.umich.edu/~uac/m-flicks/) would have corrected many of the mistaken assumptions about M-Flicks.
The article states that M-Flicks shows too many violent movies. This semester our list of movies includes “The Lives of Others,” “Memento” and “The Incredibles.” We also have several sneak previews this month including “American Gangster,” “Dan in Real Life” and “The Wristcutters.” We show a variety of movies from all genres.
The article mentions the “base and vulgar bloodlust” of our audience members at “The Kingdom.” During most scenes of incredible violence, the reaction heard was an audible gasp. The only time that there clapping was when a protagonist survived a very emotionally draining scene. We do not believe that our audience should be ashamed of reacting in any way.
The only thing the article seems to have correctly reported is that we ask people not to cut in line.
Adam Massarang and Jacqui Schaffert
The letter writers are co-presidents of M-Flicks.
Britney Spears and her kids don’t belong in the pages of the Daily
The number one thing I should have known on Tuesday was that Britney Spears lost custody of her children (Three things you should know, 10/02/2007)? Seriously?
I expect that sort of information in supermarket tabloids and even on CNN occasionally, but not in The Michigan Daily. The Daily is telling me that the number one thing that educated University students should care about is that some worthless, washed-up starlet who never contributed anything meaningful to society lost custody of her children. Is there nothing more important happening in the world? What’s next, news on Paris Hilton’s new handbag or Brad and Angelina’s most recent feud?
This crap is not news. It does not belong in a newspaper, especially the one for the University’s student population.
Jake Miller
LSA junior
Help fight for women’s criminal justice rights in Lansing today
According to “Prosecutors and Domestic Violence: Local Leadership Makes a Difference,” One woman dies every five days in the state of Michigan from domestic violence. That is astonishing. I cannot believe that in our democracy-touting, human-rights watching, free and fair society we still face issues like this in our own state.
Many of these horrors are hidden within the walls of our prisons. Many women are in prison because of charges stemming from duress or abuse by family members. Women, especially women of color, are denied fair trials, fair sentences and fair parole hearings. Women are being victimized in multiple ways. After being abused by a partner, ignored or abandoned by social, legal and criminal justice systems that should provide equal protection and access, they are dumped in jails and prisons.
The Michigan Women’s Justice and Clemency Project is trying to help such women. The organization is currently working to free about 50 women from Michigan’s prisons. The Michigan Women’s Justice and Clemency Project is holding its annual rally today in Lansing to address Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the state to demand justice for women wrongly convicted and to argue for the human rights of all women in Michigan prisons.
Lydia Mitchell
LSA junior
Universities have no business telling the military what to do
It will be a scary day when university administrators are able to have a say in the formulation of military policy (From the Daily: Above the law, 10/04/2007). The entity charged with the duty of defending our freedom should have the ability to access the best and brightest minds this country has to offer in order to carry out its objective to the best of its ability.
When liberal administrators at elitist institutions refuse to provide opportunities to students who want to serve their country through the Reserve Officers Training Corps programs, or to even allow the military to provide information on campuses because of disagreements over how the Pentagon operates, they are only serving as an impediment to the defense of the free and open country where these administrators and professors are free to preach their liberal and radical ideas and values.
The government has no financial responsibility to private universities. If a school refuses to allow the military access to its campus, the federal government should rightly refuse funding. As in the aftermath of Proposal 2, the Daily’s editorial board has displayed a disregard for the law of the land. The U.S. Supreme Court, an entity charged with determining what is constitutional and what isn’t, ruled on the side of our government and our military. They won, and liberal university administrators and their downright anti-American policies lost.
Instead of wasting time complaining about how the military is “blackmailing” universities, the Daily should be trying to find a way to realistically push for a change in military policy toward the LGBT community. This kind of change cannot come from liberal administrators and student senates but rather from people with genuine oversight over military policy. If you have a problem with military policy, fix it by getting the people you want in the executive branch. Until then, abide by the social contract and recognize the crucial role that the military serves in our country.
Andrew Gaber
LSA senior
What you can do to keep the Hot Dog Man in the Big House
I would like to call on everyone who cares about our hero, Hot Dog Man, to write a letter to Athletic Department Facilities Manager Rob Rademacher (Hot dog toss is illegal in A2, welcomed at NU, 10/04/2007). Giving out free food and donating money to charity is certainly not as dangerous as throwing people up in the air after a touchdown or throwing around inflatable killer whales and beach balls. I would like to commend Hot Dog Man for his selfless charity work, and to Rademacher, I would like to ask that you please let him stay.
Matt MacKinnon
Engineering senior