PROFESSORS DEBATE
technology a missile defense system, for
instance, would not have prevented the most
recent disaster. He said the U.S. should address
the discontent in the Middle East or new
terrorists will arise. "We need to address the roots
of the policy, not attack the results."
One long-term solution, he said, would be to
build up the humanities departments in colleges
so people have a greater understanding of other
cultures. He pointed to the lack of foreign
languages available at Behrend and the inability
of students to take foreign languages after the
third level. Also, there is a lack of faculty in
several key areas, including anthropology,
sociology, philosophy, and religious studies.
"We can't address evil without addressing
intolerance," Christofferson said. As an
example, he cited President Bush's words of
launching a "crusade" on terrorists as a lack of
understanding for Muslims. Christofferson said
those words would bring up unpleasant
memories of the Christian Crusades against the
Muslims in the Middle Ages.
After Christofferson, Gamble presented his
views on the situation. He reiterated Rossi's point
that the U.S. has a history of backing less than
democratic governments. He said the United
States supported Afghanistan during the Cold
War to prevent the spread of Soviet influence,
but then pulled out of the country once the threat
was gone.
Gamble also agreed with Christofferson that
the U.S. has an obligation to teach students the
beliefs of other countries and religions, but
questioned if part of the problem was that
students weren't taking those classes.
With his background in international law,
STRUCTURAL CHANGES
David E. Roth, associate professor of engineering, has been involved in structural
engineering since 1970. He offers several suggestions for improving the structural
integrity and design of skyscrapers that may prevent future devastation like that
seen last week.
r
4402 BUFFALO RD.
ERIE
P l- , z ‘ B " 814-899-2313
CALL US FOR DELIVERY
LARGE 1-TOPPING -;' T , I 2 LOGE 1-TOPPING PAN
PAN .PIZZA. '• lOR THIN ` N CRILieII,* IPIZZAS
i l 4. 14;ipt order of i t ,li tt pticks
al 4. - 2 titer of Coair
I
Carry-out oiNti 1,9„,,,,..„.„ ,
i,„,,......,./.,,..„„,
arte usw qr siripig a rr Alt &rim <ER> ' a imarat4" --"...."'
lidadoblossi ,stakv 1 nialt OK tall. ' 40W 11 0 ,
A
THE Bicli e NEW YORKER 1 Ts ii NEW YORKSTUFFie i
iIY p i
OR STUFFEDCRUST' a VihiliOir i÷
2 Litellt,O,oolollPClO o
COLA 1
„ .
$9.99, . s
s, .9 .
(one
tzpreert 52.01/01 41
,‘ ' 4 ler«jhUslorSOWiirol'ou, 4 ....74.7.!' ' -
1141 milli *Mb or* oilior AK amp= pow ammo
451" u= al towep., ui &Min -- I "Zar... ,
11" Vt42 4"6411"
damp.ah.m.L.wymus rw.tow,m., . eseeleb. am est, b.,.
411, OEM 7 =MI NM Sir, MEI , "1111 IMO MEP NM MN OW
I MEDIUM 3-TopPlner plum • uttotiair. 3 -TOPOIHNIVA N
, , s ...
OR THIN 4 N CRISPY IPIIZZA . ON THIN 'N CR*** I ZZA
$
57.99 .
~
-1. 9 ,,,11 4
<1 I At 1A,,, tftniuleilbt
<14:40 „
..,3r '41".". 1... 64111: 1. a sFerawy -
e p...,....6.
I up=sa2/31400
No jaw Wax wawa et walk'
I "1'
"wiltallieseigalorgaz bow aro
Unimpill sea law ik SI &Amy
drips 14 lir ailed, 1 hoe NIP% 61. L
FROM FRONT PAGE
Gamble introduced what the U.S. could legally
do in retaliation. United Nations regulations do
allow for individual response to such actions,
but there is a principle to be followed. He said
self-defensive actions should be in reasonable
proportion to those actions that provoked them.
In other words, if the U.S. were to attack a
country and hundreds of thousands of civilians
were killed, this would not be in proportion to
the supposed 5,000 civilians killed in last week's
attack.
Gamble said part of the problem is a result of
how Americans are perceived by foreigners.
"We need to be careful in proclaiming our
sainthood we aren't perfect, we do screw up,
we sometimes screw up in major ways, and we
are slow to admit it.
"We are perceived as arrogant by the rest of
the world," Gamble added. And while we may
not always be arrogant, it is still this perceived
arrogance that provokes dislike.
A silver lining, Gamble said, could be we are
now thinking about our appearance and can
consider ways to minimize this evident
arrogance.
Davies began by questioning whether it is
accurate in referring to September 11, 2001, as
the second day of infamy. He said the legitimate
Chilean government was overthrown on the
same day, an overthrow the U.S. supported. He
said it was already a marker of serious disaster
in history.
Since the Cold War, Davies said the world
has experienced what is called the clash of
civilizations. Many countries were unable to let
down their guards after the Cold War and were
easily drawn into new conflicts.
• 4 7 : iv:l
Friday, September 21, 2001
As the world "shrinks," diverse cultures come
into conflict with one another. This has been
called the "West versus the Rest," as the U.S.
has come into opposition with China and the
Middle East.
Another concept Davies introduced was the
idea of guilt by association, in which people are
assuming Islamic terrorists are representative of
all Islamic people. Davies credited the media
for consistently presenting the problem of
attacking Islamic Americans for the terrorists'
actions.
"But if we are doing this domestically, why
not internationally?" He pointed out that only a
small percentage of Afghans support the Taliban,
the current government controlling Afghanistan.
And he questioned why Americans would be
willing to attack the Islamic citizens in
Afghanistan when they realize the folly of
attacking them in the United States.
Davies also discussed the U.S. training and
support many of the United States' current
enemies, including Osama bin Laden and
Saddam Hussein. This final concept Davies
called blowback, comparing it to someone firing
a weapon and being injured from its kickback.
In this way the United States provided potentially
dangerous individuals with the knowledge and
ability to injure the country.
After Davies finished his presentation, the
floor was opened for the audience. The first
question was whether the professors thought the
United States should leave the Middle East
unchecked and not interfere with its problems.
Davies said we do have responsibilities to other
countries, but that we should first reconsider our
policies and future repercussions. For instance,
architect who designed them.
"Without that flexibility, the buildings would
have broken like a pretzel," Roth said. "They
did withstand the direct hit of the airplane.
What no one anticipated was the jets being used
as flying missiles. The World Trade Center
could take the impact but not the intense heat."
The jet fuel from the nearly full tanks burned
at 1600 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature at
which steel begins to melt. As a result, the
buildings collapsed upon themselves. The
lower floors were unable to support the weight
of the upper floors, and this led to "pancaking,"
in which each level crashed down upon the
next.
"We can't design buildings for an explosion
like this," Roth says. "We can design them to
get people out." To do that, buildings will have
to go beyond the current fire and safety codes.
The World Trade Center had a four-hour rating
from the Underwriters Laboratory. That meant
that it could be evacuated in four hours. In
order to protect against something like this,
Roth said there must be measures in place to
allow evacuation within one hour.
These measures include having frequent fire
drills, placing fire marshals on each floor to
help disabled people get out in an emergency,
and finding a place to park the fire engines
where they will not risk being buried by rubble.
Structurally, buildings should be equipped with
more staircases. This is an implementation
which can be made to existing buildings by
replacing the elevators with stairs. Another
consideration would be having stairwells that
start on the lower levels to offset the traffic
from the upper levels during evacuation.
as? ,
New,
M are lli kile"Set
tt :
_SO
au5....,-1
Foil-size mimes
I in/ trim.
~ , , , 1211111.111111,11;•$$5119"
..._, a
di
' e — igillle 434-2058
SPRING BRE AK INSANIT Y!
WWW .INTER - CAMPUSC°M
O
AL
LOWEST PRICES!
A L 1-800-327-6013
GUARANTEED RC
S EXPERIENC .
YEARS E! El
WANTED:
FIFTEE L N L RE
A YOUR RE
SUM
AND
SUMO.
ORGANIZATIONS, BUILD EARN TOP sss,
he said the current regime in Iraq was the result
of our intervention. He added that the United
States should reconsider the idea of bombing
Afghanistan, saying "there is nothing to bomb
in Afghanistan except for people."
Next, Dr. Syed Saad Andaleeb, associate
professor of marketing, stood up and gave the
audience a quick lesson on the beliefs of Islam.
He said not all Muslims dislike or are attacking
the United States in fact, very few feel this
way.
He also said much of the dislike Muslims do
feel is the result of American cultural infiltration
in the Middle East and the trade policies our
country supports. He also said people in other
countries are resentful because though the United
States donates millions of dollars to others, much
of the money is not spent on what it is
appropriated for. The elite are only getting richer
and the rest of the citizens are living in poverty.
When asked what short-term solutions the
professors would suggest, a varied response was
given. Christofferson said changes in our
economy were necessary, but he doubted
President Bush has the courage to confront
international capitalism.
Davies said Americans can be incredibly
compassionate and used the mass donations at
blood banks as an example. He said we should
funnel some of that compassion to the
reorganization of our foreign policy.
Rossi recommended that our government
should provide as much hard evidence it has on
the perpetrators of the attacks. Without this
evidence, he said both Americans and foreign
countries will be less likely to support a U.S.
military attack.
Roth notes that structural engineers have
learned from the disasters of the past. Two of
the most devastating wake-up calls occurred
in San Francisco, where earthquakes wreaked
havoc in 1906 and 1989. Another was sounded
'We're going to have to
rethink the size, shape,
and fire safety of
buildings. If we're going
to rebuild stronger and
safer, as they say we will,
something has to
change."
associate professor of engineering
in 1940 when the suspension bridge in Tacoma,
Wash., collapsed after picking up the natural
frequency of wind and waves, causing it to
oscillate ever more erratically.
"We're going to have to rethink the size,
shape, and fire safety of buildings," Roth says.
"If we're going to rebuild stronger and safer,
as they say we will, something has to change.
"The most important lesson I've learned in
all this has nothing to do with engineering,"
says Roth. "It's a people lesson. Terrorism
has failed miserably. This event has brought
the country together more solidly than anything
I have ever seen. Those terrorists killed a lot
of people, but they didn't break our spirit."
QUESTION OF
THE WEEK
4 f I
V V ,
• • • • • • • • 0000000000
"If you had an incentive instead uj
being paid minimum wage you might
have more loyalty..
Andrew Hernandez
"Check people in better and hare better
David Roth
"Better background checks on etvloyee.s
and better training for security."
"Give security guards better training
••••••••• • • • • • • • • •
"Better check in policies before
getting on planes."
Casey Weed
The Behrend Beacon
International Business, 03
metal detectors
Jessica Sarver
Chemistry, 01
Giovanny Renner
International Business, 03
Holly Anderson
History, 05
Operations Management, 05
Page 3 A