Well, my friends, the election is just six days away. That means, following the most recent model, we only have about 50 days of election hell to go through. On to the fun!

My roommate, who, for the record, is from Palm Beach County, got his absentee ballot two weeks ago. Hoping for some divine intervention to keep Ralph Nader off the ballot, I took a look, and let me tell you this: Whomever Palm Beach hired for its ballot design in 2000 is still working and created yet another bea-uuu-tiful piece of work.

Let me try to describe this masterpiece to you. Here’s how you vote: After each candidate’s name is a broken arrow. To cast your vote, you must connect the arrowhead to the end with a freehand stroke of the pencil. If you mess up, better go get another ballot! This isn’t fraud, but it is asinine. My R.A. showed me his absentee ballot from Massachusetts. Its method of voting? Fill in the bubble. It’s a scantron. Maybe you feel confident enough in your motor skills that you could figure out both, but I’m pretty sure I could have worked out that butterfly ballot too. Don’t overestimate people. We need simple, not pretty, especially when democracy is on the line.

There’s more to worry about than stupidity, and I’m not just talking about a lack of a paper trail (I’m still convinced if I had cast a paper ballot in the primaries, Dean would be the nominee). I went to vote on day one of early voting. I waited in line for about an hour (take note, apathetic public. The line was an hour long 15 days before the election; just think what it’s going to be like a week from now). When it was my turn, I went up to the nice ladies at the laptops to get my information verified. Name, Patrick H. Gibbons. Check. Address, 3300 SW 34th Court, South Miami. Huh? I’ve never even been there, let alone lived there. In fact, it’s 20 minutes away from where about 900 of my closest friends and I really live. Everything was worked out and I got to cast my ballot, but I was this close from being disenfranchised, and I’m not even black!

But speaking of people who couldn’t vote, take my friend John. He registered to vote in the Breezeway in August, as presumably much of the University community did. If you’re like me, when you see people with clipboards registering people to vote, you assume that you’re going to be able to vote when you get to the polls. Surprise! There was nothing the election workers could do for him. He doesn’t get a say in democracy until 2006.

Moral of the story: You can’t protect against idiotic ballots, but you should make sure you’re registered, because apparently even Get Out the Vote campaigns don’t care if you are. Call 305-499-VOTE to make sure you’re on the rolls.

Patrick Gibbons can be contacted at p.gibbons@umiami.edu.

It couldn’t happen. There was no possible, conceivable way, on God’s green earth, that the Yankees were going to lose to the Red Sox.

In game seven.

At Yankee Stadium.

After being up 3-0 in the series.

No, it was going to play out the way it always played out: The Yankees would come back for an incredible victory, to preserve the curse for one more year. The Yankees had the Red Sox’s number like UM had Chris Rix’s.

But Wednesday night was different. The Sox jumped off to a 6-0 lead after two innings and never looked back. For the first time since 1918, they are destined to win the World Series. In the A.L.C.S., David had beaten Goliath.

But, this game will be remembered as much for the Yankees choking as it will for the underdog Red Sox winning. The Yankees were Jean Van de Velde on the 18th in the 1999 British Open. They were the Houston Oilers giving up a 32-point lead on the Buffalo Bills. They were, if you will, the 1978 Red Sox giving up a 14-game lead…to the New York Yankees.

Now, I consider myself a nonpartisan baseball observer. I can’t say “fan,” because I know that baseball is what people from New York and Boston watch while the rest of the world pay attention to real sports (OK, so maybe I’m not nonpartisan; but I am a Detroit Tigers fan). As a Tigers fan, I’ve had the perspective from the bottom of the cellar up with a crystal clear view, much like “Da Mayor” from Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. And, from what I’ve observed over the past few years, when the going got tough, the tough joined the Yankees.

Giambi, Sheffield, Matsui and even a guy named A-Rod who makes $25 million and almost started this season in Beantown: Those are the kinds of ballplayers who have made the pilgrimage over the past few years to the Mecca of baseball. Add in some live pitching; hang onto proven leaders like Jeter and Torre, and things don’t look so expensive for George Steinbrenner as long as they bring home the gold.

Any New York fan knows they have bought a team of champions-whether it’s ethical or not doesn’t matter. So, when a group of guys with bigger flaws and smaller paychecks can come together and beat the men in pinstripes, we all must point to that old adage in sports: The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Whenever effort beats talent, true fans of sport should applaud.

Yankee fans are no exception.

Ben Minkus can be contacted at b.minkus@umiami.edu.

Nothing gets my blood boiling more than ignorance and hypocrisy, and a lot of that’s been going around since Charles Rangel’s (D-N.Y.) bill calling for a reinstatement of the military draft got considered and subsequently knocked down.

The bill was lambasted as being nothing more than a brilliant scare tactic, indicative, supposedly, of Democrats using the threat of military conscription to scare young people into voting for Kerry, or rather against Bush.

Rangel’s bill was scary, because it would require us – young college-aged men and women – to stop everything we’re doing and go fight. As President Bush said, “war is a scary place.” Not that he would know, but it is. And we young people – Democrats and Republicans, those for the war and those against it – probably agree on that.

However, the real irony here is that the people my age (20) on this campus who voice full-throated support for the war in Iraq (read: College Republicans) are the least likely to actually fight it.

Somehow, we’ve gotten to the point where we consider our all-volunteer army to be an entitlement, so that when there’s a conflict, we can safely say “bomb [insert country here]” without having to give anything of ourselves. But the truth is that the troops fight because we won’t, and because they have very few options other than enlisting.

Can you imagine what would happen if the young people my age who support this war in Iraq were actually called upon to serve via a draft? There would be rioting and protest! The College Republicans would mutiny and jump ship! Luke Kosar (the president of the Young Democrats) would be inundated with membership requests!

I’ll never support a war that I wouldn’t be willing to fight myself, and I’d like to extend that message to all those who support this war, even tacitly. If you support it by doing such things as writing columns or defending the war on University talk shows, then why not go the extra step? Why not stop by your local military recruiter and volunteer to fight? “Other priorities”?

The bill to reinstate the draft is not a scare tactic; it’s a gut-check. It’s for all the supporters of this war who would never dream of serving in the military, and it’s for the people who say that they “support the troops” because, let’s face it, it’s a lot easier to support the troops than to actually be one.

Moises Jacobs III can be contacted at m.jacobs3@umiami.edu.

RE: Flu vaccine shortage

Why isn’t the Bush administration being held accountable for the flu vaccine shortage? My elderly in-laws live in Florida, and members of our extended family live throughout the state. All over this country, senior and disabled citizens are standing in lines for hour after hour for a flu shot. Many of them are on respirators, using canes, in wheelchairs or in pain. Many have gone to two, three or four clinics, showing up hours early, only to be told there won’t be enough vaccine for everyone. Why didn’t the government have a backup plan when, for years, public health officials have cited the real risk of a flu pandemic? How can we trust the Bush administration to protect us from a biological terrorist attack when it can’t even manage to provide flu shots?

Timothy Smith
Rehoboth Beach, Del.

This year’s Homecoming, which begins with opening ceremonies this Friday, will be different than the ones past, as the Homecoming Executive Committee [HEC] has changed the rules regarding the festivities.

The organizations involved in Homecoming used to be divided into three categories: Fraternities, sororities and independent, non-Greek groups. Each organization would get points for activities ranging from the blood drive to Hurricanes Help the Hometown, and one organization would win in each category. Under the new rules, however, organizations will compete in two categories, large and small organizations. Also, Homecoming will last one week and not three and a half, as it has in the past.

The changes were implemented by HEC to make the Homecoming festivities less about competition and more about spirit and fun. The new format is being hyped up to ensure that, even though Homecoming lasts a shorter period of time, it will bring more interest and people to the activities.

We agree with HEC that Homecoming had become too much of a competition. In recent years, the committee spent more time understanding complicated criteria and tallying points than celebrating life at UM. Instead of uniting alumni, faculty and students, the events excluded many students that were not members of the competing organizations. Last year’s Homecoming that passed by largely unnoticed is a prime example of that, and condensing Homecoming activities into one exciting week should draw more attention to the festivities.

However, many members of the Greek community have expressed their discontent with this new system. The Greek organizations have traditionally been the most involved in Homecoming; they thrive on competition, and rivalries exist among the different fraternities and sororities. By dividing organizations into two categories, fraternities and sororities will be inter-competing, which may result in less unity and fiercer animosity (men vs. women, anyone?). In addition, angry contests may result between Greeks and the more organized non-Greek groups like FederaciUn de Estudiantes Cubanos and Association of Commuter Students that typically participate in Homecoming. The last thing anyone wants to see is a bitter fight erupting between Greeks and non-Greeks.

Furthermore, the new rules may put some organizations at a disadvantage in certain events. In organized cheer, for examples, the chances of an all-male fraternity winning are slim, considering that the event consists of creating and performing an original choreographed dance.

Fortunately, organizations still will be joining forces for events like the parade, where at least two groups must get together to build a float. HEC should consider more joint events like this one in the future to help bridge the gap between Greek and non-Greek organizations.

HEC’s intentions in changing the Homecoming rules are noble and a step in the right direction. We’re skeptical, however, that they will result in the level of unity that all of us would like.