FEBRUARY 18 2000 THE BEHREND BEACON PAGE 9
EDITORIAL
Letter to the Editor
The Beacon needs some new dictionaries!
Dear Editor,
The February 11 edition of The
Beacon, like previous ones, disap
pointed me in the lack of proofread
ing on the part of the news staff. As
writers whose work is published for
a campus-wide audience, you should
pay attention to simple spelling, punc
tuation, and grammar errors mis
takes that often occur when a person
is writing to get the idea down on pa
per (or on disk) before its substance
escapes him. However, this does not
excuse the leniency on the part of the
writer who does not proof his work
before it goes to press.
Certainly, I am sure you all have
busy schedules. I know that my work
sometimes contains small errors be
cause I rush. But my audience in
cludes only myself and my professor.
You are reaching the entire student
body. And while many of them may
not care one way or the other, I grow
weary from trudging through glaring
errors that could have been so easily
avoided before publication. For in
stance, let us look at Mike Frawley's
article, "Smoke 'em if you got 'em!"
I counted at least seven punctuation
errors. Either the punctuation used
was incorrect ("...but does anyone
ever really think about the conse
quences of what they are doing..."
Editor's Note
I thank you for taking the time to fast academic advisor, pore over ev- layout night and experience this won
write me here at the newspaper office. ery word on every page before we der for yourself.
Makes me feel special! However, lam send it to print at 3 a.m. In closing, I feel that I should de
concerned about the context of your The process of proofreading is fend the newspaper further by point
letter addressed to me, the editor . something that we take very seriously ing out that perfect proofreading is
I feel that I need to let you in on here at the Beacon, and we were very easy...in theory. But take a look at
how the Beacon proofreads its pages. surprised that you found any errors. your letter again. You misspelled the
Every Thursday night a group of top- Of course, you and anyone else are word `mispell'. Not as easy as it looks,
notch students, along with our stead- invited to come down to the office on is it'?
Letter to the Editor
Lion Cash...lt Sucks
Have you ever had this happen to
you? You're sitting down in the laun
dry room with one load of clothes left
to do, and you only have $1.40 left
on Lion Cash. I have. So what do
you do now? If you live in the lower
three dorms (i.e. Niagara, Perry, and
Lawrence) you have two choices.
One is to try and squeeze your extra
load in with your other clothes or two
you walk down to Reed and put an
other $5 or $lO on your card. All of
Most NFL players belie thug stereotype by
giving generously of
by Whitt Flora
Knight-Ridder Tribune
PHOENIX -- America's parents have
every right to be horrified that two
NFL players have been charged with
murder -- criminals are terrible role
models for their kids.
So it's easy to forget that the NFL
has hundreds of stars who set good
examples by helping others, includ
ing at-risk youngsters.
The athletes work with thousands
of needy people, and their commit
ments run deep. Hall of Famers Doak
Walker and Tom Fears, who died re
cently, kept their charitable commit
ments right up to the end even though
they suffered severe paralysis and
Alzheimer's disease.
It's also worth noting that much of
the volunteer work is done by former
stars who already have all the fame
and money they could possibly use
and now concentrate on helping kids.
For example, there's Rayfield
Wright, the six-time Pro Bowl tackle
best known for his exploits with . the
Dallas Cowboys, who runs "Kids 4
Tomorrow" in the Phoenix suburb of
Scottsdale.
His organization is dedicated to
keeping school-age young people
from becoming addicted to drugs and
should end with a question mark,
since it is, after all, an interrogative
clause), or it was not used where it
should have been ("Now I'm not na
ive, I know that there are drugs on
campus, hell you can show up for any
class..." should have been split up by
using a period after "naive," and in
stead of a comma after "campus,"
there should have either been a hy
phen connecting it to the following
clause, or a period, and a new sen
tence begun). I could go on and on,
but my last comment for Mr.
Frawley's article regards his "seven
step program," in which he mispelled
[sic] McDonald's ("McDoanlds") in
Step 7.
As for Liz Hayes' article, "I see
your lips moving, but...", I will point
out the most glaring grammatical er
ror that I found. Here is the sentence
in question: "I can't begin to count
the number of times people have
come down to the Beacon office when
myself or some other poor, cornered
editor is sitting down here, full of righ
teous indignation over the latest edi
torial in the paper."
Who, exactly, is "...full of righ
teous indignation..."? Is it the
"people" that feel this way? Or is it
your staff? After reading this sentence
this for $O.lO
I don't get it, what is wrong with
letting students use good old quarters
to do their laundry? It didn't cost as
much to use quarters, $l.OO to wash
and dry. It may be free to dry your
clothes using this new system but it
costs $1.50 just to wash your clothes.
I may as well go to the laundromat
and wash my clothes there; it can't
cost that much more.
So what is the point of Lion Cash?
National Commentar
alcohol and encouraging them to stay
in school. Founded by Wright and
Andy Livingston (former Chicago
Bear and New Orleans Saint), this
highly successful program pairs re
tired athletes with at-risk children.
Kids 4 Tomorrow is so successful
that a fledgling company that provides
international online business directo
ries for Internet users,
OnLineNow.com, recently gave the
program $1 million worth of Internet
advertising. "From our very first day,
one of our guiding principles was to
give something back to the commu
nities we served," said
OnLineNow.com founder Bracken
Cherry.
"The kind of work that Rayfield and
Andy are doing is not only inspiring;
it's absolutely vital to the future of our
country," he said. "We chose Kids 4
Tomorrow because the athletes get
down in the trenches and come into a
community and work one-on-one
with individual kids and their peers,"
Cherry added. "It is one thing to meet
a sports star, but another to actually
become friends with one ... it has the
potential to change a lot of lives in
the right direction."
In addition, the online company and
Kids 4 Tomorrow are developing a
program to use pictures of the athletes
over and over, I still have to ask these
questions. Therefore, there is a prob
lem with the syntax of the sentence.
I would continue with the remain
ing editorials on the SGA elections,
on commuting, and on Valentine's
Day but I think I have said enough.
I can only hope that someone takes
the tithe to consider my remarks and
make changes in the editing and
proofreading of articles that appear in
The Beacon. This applies not only to
staff writing, but also the editing and
proofreading done by a student on his
own work before he sends it to The
Beacon.
I have not herein addressed issues
of writer credibility, stereotyping, or
members of the staff describing them
selves as "...poor, cornered editors..."
or as "slave[s]" to the publishing of
the paper. Such issues must be dis
cussed in a separate letter. My rea
son for writing is my dissatisfaction
with proofreading, a part of the "edi
torial process" that, while essential to
any publication, has been sorely ne
glected by the Beacon staff.
Susan Rohde
06 ELISH - Lit
I don't know, maybe it's just another
way to complicate life on campus.
Hey if you ask me, Lion Cash sucks.
Due to technical difficulties the
Beacon was unable to obtain the
name of the author of this letter.
If you would like to resend the
letter with your name we will
reprint it in next week's issue.
time
and audio files to spread their mes
sage of hope and redemption on the
Web.
Meanwhile, more than 100 former
NFL stars, some with terminal condi
tions, have been working each day to
provide financial help to former team
mates who have fallen on hard times.
This effort started several years ago
when former San Diego Chargers
tackle Ron Mix learned that many of
his fellow members of the Pro Foot
ball Hall of Fame were trying to live
on not much more than Social Secu
rity and a modest NFL pension. For
some of the former stars, that means
a total family income near the pov
erty line.
Determined to help, Mix asked each
of the 130 members of the Hall of
Fame to sign 2,500 trading card spe
cially designed for them. The cards
would be sold in sets for $1,675 to
help the now-forgotten members of
the Hall.
More than 90 percent of the Hall
members agreed, including big names
such as Joe Namath, Tony Dorsett and
Dick Butkus. Those former stars, Mix
says, "saw it as a way to give back to
guys who loved the game as much as
they did. This wouldn't have worked
without those guys."
Mix shipped the card sets for sign-
Putting The
by Kelly Sullivan
Grove City College
As a college senior who chose to
attend a "conservative" school, I
always knew that most of academia
was, well, liberal. But I didn't realize
until recently just how hard it is to find
anyone to the right of Ted Kennedy
on an American campus.
This might sound odd, given the lip
service many professors pay to
"diversity." But consider the
evidence. In a recent issue of Policy
Review, a journal of the Heritage
Foundation, professor Paul Kengor
examines the political makeup of the
social science departments at some of
America's top colleges and
universities.
Stanford University, for example,
has 22 Democrats and just two
Republicans in its history department.
Cornell University has 29 Democrats
and no Republicans. But the most eye
opening figure is from the University
of Colorado in Boulder. Of the 190
professors polled in the social science
and humanities departments, 184 are
Democrats and only six are
Republicans.
A broader survey of 800 professors
from 40 universities taken in 1996
found that 37 percent considered
themselves liberal, 43 percent called
themselves moderate (perhaps some
timid liberals hiding here), and 17
percent called themselves
conservative. Still another survey
found that 88 percent of "public
affairs" faculty who train students
for careers in government
considered themselves liberal. The
other 12 percent called themselves
moderate.
The "hard" sciences do not appear
to have the imbalance of the social
Disney's 'Semi-Charmed Life'
by Adam Shiver
University of Central Florida
Well, Disney is doing it again.
Causing controversy that is.
I recently visited my friendly
neighborhood movie theater to catch
a film. I grabbed my snacks and
headed to my seat just in time for
previews, one of my favorite things
about the whole show. As the pre
views progressed, I noticed one for
Disney's recently released animated
film, "A Tigger Movie."
As the preview started, my ears
perked up at the sound of one of my
favorite bands playing background
music for this new Disney children's
movie. I immediately recognized the
catchy intro to Third Eye Blind's hit
single "Semi-Charmed Life."
In just a few seconds, the song's
lyrics really sank in. They're very fo
cused on sex and drugs. In the first
ing two years ago. But before Mix
sent Doak Walker's set, he discovered
that the Hall of Fame running back
had been paralyzed from the neck
down in a skiing accident.
Even with that disability, the former
star was still ready to help, Walker's
wife, Skeeter, assured Mix. With
Skeeter's help and using neck and
hand braces, Walker labored slowly
for hours every day to sign "Doak."
Before his death, Walker had signed
2,000 cards. "Signing was the high
light of his day," Skeeter remembers.
Fears, an All-Pro pass receiver with
the L.A. Rams also worked every day
to sign as many cards as possible be
fore he died. Fears, who suffered from
Alzheimer's, had the purpose of the
project explained to him each day by
his wife, Luella.
Then he took pen in hand. Fears
signed about 1,600 cards before his
death several weeks ago. "He made
the decision 50 different times to help
his fellow Hall members," says Mix.
"Imagine that."
The work done by Walker, Fears
and their colleagues is expected to
raise more than $16,000 each for the
needy NFL retirees. "For many, that's
more than annual salaries as a player
in the early days of pro football," Mix
observes.
`Liberal' In Liberal Arts
sciences and humanities. Professor
Lewis Feuer of the University of
Virginia has observed that most
campus opponents of Western culture
tend to come from "soft" academic
disciplines, such as journalism and
political science, which lack the
objective "reality checks" of subjects
such as mathematics. "What
emerges," he writes, "is a smug.
unexamined, and unchallenged
consensus that dismisses dissent as a
rude intrusion
Critics will say the imbalance of
political views among professors
doesn't prove anything -- and that
conservatives are paranoid when they
claim education has given way to
indoctrination.
Unfortunately, conservatives
appear to be right. Just look at a
sample of some current course
offerings. At Cornell, students can
enroll in "The Sexual Child, - whose
instructor, Ellis Hanson, told
Accuracy in Academia that the aim
of the course is "to undermine
preconceived notions about what a
child is, what sexuality is, and what it
means to love or desire a child."
Required reading includes such
classics as "How to Bring Your Kid
Up Gay" and "Child Loving." One
can only imagine the pride or
more likely horror in a mother's
eyes when her son or daughter brings
home an "A" in this course.
The list of politicized courses goes
on and on, including UCLA's "Gay
and Lesbian Perspectives in Pop
Music," Dartmouth's "Gender, Jocks
and Justice," and the University of
Connecticut's "White Racism" (so
much for promoting racial harmony).
Not to be outdone, Princeton
University has hired a "bioethics"
professor whose ideas on infanticide
verse alone lead singer Steven
Jenkins refers to oral sex and taking
drugs through the nose. The song
also alludes to crystal meth and how
to take it.
"They're very
focused on sex
and drugs."
While many of my college-age
friends and 1 love this band, there's
little doubt that this song in particu
lar is sorely inappropriate for a
children's movie or even a pre
view advertising one.
I'm not sure what Disney was
thinking when they picked this tune
are provocative, at the very least. Peter
Singer has actually said "newborn
infants, especially if unwanted, are not
yet full members of the moral
community, - and therefore_ it's
defensible to kill them.
Despite vehement protests
including one by former GOP
presidential candidate Steve Forbes,
a member of Princeton's Board of
Trustees --- Singer's appointment
was endorsed by Princeton's
administration, which referred to his
doctrines as "mainstream."
In fact, the American Association
of University Professors praises
politically correct courses as
expressions of academic freedom. In
truth, they are examples of academic
absurdity.
Bradford Wilson, executive director
of the National Association of
Scholars, believes such politicization
of higher education "erodes the
intellectual habit of openness to
differing points of view," because
administrators make clear by the
courses they offer exactly that only
certain views are acceptable. In the
name of diversity, they are actually
enforcing a rigid orthodoxy. As the
Singer example shows, students can
openly debate the merits of
infanticide, but question affirmative
action? Never.
A college education is supposed to
produce free-thinking people
equipped to form sound opinions,
something the Founding Fathers said
was essential to preserving
democracy. Instead, many'of today's
students are being programmed to
hold the views of their professors
which, in the current academic
environment, gives new meaning to
the "liberal" in Liberal Arts.
for a trailer, but one thing is certain:
they're only hanging themselves by
doing so. After all, people have al
ready gotten riled over some of their
last films. Rumors still abound that
that's a penis pictured on the cover
art of "The Little Mermaid" and that
animators spelled the word "sex" in
clouds swirling throughout "The
Lion King. - There have also been
plenty of people noticing just how
well endowed and shapely some of
Disney's leading animated, female
characters have been.
Does the company do this stuff on
purpose? You'd think they'd be more
careful given the questions that have
been raised in the not-so-recent past.
Then again, after hearing Third-Eye
Blind's music used to peddle a
children's film, maybe I'm giving
Disney too much credit for maintain
ing its high standards for family en
tertainment.