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The Behrend Beacon
The Behrend Beacon
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News Editor
Erin McCarty
Asst. News Editor
Kevin Fallon
Sports Editor
Mike Bello
Asst. Sports Editor
Kate Levdansky Petrikls
Editorial Page Editor
Ben Kundman
Features Editor
Karl Benacci
A&E Editor
Jeanine Noce
Wire Service Editor
Guy Reschenthaler
Staff Photographer
Jeff Hankey
Office Manager
Jason Alward
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Beacon
The Beacon is published
weekly by the students of
Penn State Erie,
the Behrend College;
First Floor, The J. Elmer
Reed Union Building, Station
Road, Erie, PA 16563.
| 11& OOOOUfI Udll oo loauiiwu uy
calling (814) 898-6488 or
(814) 898-6019 (FAX).
ISSN 1071-9288.
The View From the Lighthouse
Everybody gets a prize
In a move more reminiscent of a kindergarten sciei
fair than an international athletic competition, a
gold medal was awarded last week to the Canadi
pairs figure skaters.
Two weeks ago, in a decision which ma
professional boxing look clean in comparison, Russi
pairs figure skaters Yelena Berezhnaya and Antoi
Sikharulidze beat out Canadians David Pelletier
and Jamie Sale by a narrow 5-4 margin despite
the Canadians’ near-perfect performance. The Russians had a noticeable
mistake in their run but still took home the gold.
After the typical allegations of favoritism, bribery, and vote swapping,
a report concerning the admission of vote-swapping by the French judge
appeared on CNN. An uproar ensued as the long-standing controversial
judging of figure skating was finally proved corrupt.
In order to calm the furor surrounding the decision, the president of the
International Skating Union, Ottavio Cinquanta, proposed that the Canadian
team be given a co-gold medal. Within a few days the Canadians were
awarded the co-gold by the International Olympic Committee to much
fanfare. Naturally, the Russians attributed the awarding of the co-gold to
the media outcry in America and Canada.
When exactly did we as a people (when I say people, I mean people all
around the world) expand the kindergarten notion of “Everybody Gets a
Prize” to the most prestigious sporting event in the world? Awarding a
second-place team a gold medal in a judged event is merely a tactic by the
lOC to avoid confronting the history of corruption in figure skating.
Unfortunately, awarding a medal to both pairs is a move more akin to the
world of professional wrestling than that of the Olympics.
Had the lOC appointed a panel of unbiased, well-trained judges to review
the figure-skating match, then the medal could have been awarded to its
righteous winners. Without a true evaluation of the pairs performance,
awarding a gold medal to second placed athletes based on accusations of
corruption will only further undermine Olympic sports, particularly judged
sports such as figure skating.
What is next for the wide world of sports? The tenth place skier in Super
G gets a gold because he had as much fun as the first place finisher?
Awarding a co-gold medal only opens up future debate in other sports.
What if a penalty is not called in a hockey game, resulting in a game
winning goal, and a few witnesses claim to overhear the ref talking about
political pressure to throw the game or a bribe? Will we soon have gold
medals for the first, second, and third place teams or athletes, silver for
fourth through sixth, and bronze for everyone else, so long as they had a
good time?
Rampant corruption in many sports has resulted in a loss of interest by
the general public. If people wish to see an athletic event where the outcome
is decided hours, days or weeks before the event takes place, they will
simply turn on Smack Down on Sunday night.
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“Professionalism
that week’s issue
-jam
*- . ... ■‘■*K. ■■ ■ Wa^J *.
EDITORIAL
Friday, February 22, 2002
[Jews • FifZSX KITTEN IS CLOMgP
Internet porn discourages normal sexual
At a time when young adults are
trying to establish a healthy intimate
relationship, the media portrays
casual sex as the norm via
pornography, television, music, and
movies. This cannot possibly
provide the much needed guidance
for singles to form healthy
relationships. You would think in
today’s world of deadly sexual
dangers, casual sex would be
discouraged, but our culture instead
has become sexually obsessed.
People generally accept what they
are taught and act accbrdingly, but I
believe that change can occur if
awareness of our country’s sexual
corruption is spread.
Lookism is the evaluation of a
Why we are at war
There is one word that explains wreak unprecedented havoc and or- tims.
why we are at war: globalization, ganize in a manner never before ca- So a Fundamentalist sees this go-
To understand this war we must un- pable. But with globalization comes ing on. He/she thinks that America
derstand the forces of globalization, another attribute that has inflamed is trying to dominate the world. He/
But what is it? It is the new interna- Fundamentalists in the Middle East, she just does not realize that as the
tional system that replaced the Cold That attribute is Americanization. world globalizes, Americanism is go-
War system. Globalization is the in- As countries enter the global mar- ing to be seen by more and more
tegration of nations, their econo- people.
mies, and the technology which they Look, here’s how it is Antl most P eo P* e who s ® e
produce. 'n r MTV want to be Americans (I do
The Web offers the best and MjgW . .. . venture to say that we Americans
clearest example of globalization. KeSCfienHiaier have the most fun of anyone, so
The world after the three double News wire editor keep on partying to do you part in
u phenomena is connected like globalization),
never before. Individuals can So this fundamentalist denounces
trade stocks online, ket, they America as evil. Maybe they throw
online, chat online and so are Ameri- up a banner reading, “America is very
all over the whole world. n°hty,” bum effigies of our beloved
are all connected to one and other
like never before. You can get on a
Reed computer and play chess with
someone from Bangkok. You can
get on IM and chat with one of your
friends who is spending a semester
over-seas. Distance, simply put, has
been conquered by technology.
No more do national lines and
borders matter. Governments mat
ter less as well because with new
technology and communication ca
pabilities individuals are empow
ered. We are fighting such empow
ered people today. We are not fight
ing a nation but a ring of multi-na
tional, highly connected terrorists,
all of whose leaders have been su
per empowered by the new interna
tional system.
bin Ladin kept tabs with his ter
rorist associates with Jihad Online
or the acronym JOL if one prefers.
He would often use his computer to
monitor world events on CNN.
Even if in a cave, the terrorists leader
was always up to date and always
in communication with his follow
ers. He was (and maybe still is) an
angry man, super empowered by
globalization and technology.
But so what? What does that mat
ter? How did globalization cause the
war? The first answer is that with
globalization terrorists were able to
Letters to the Editor
person based solely on his/her
appearance. As in the past, today’s
society continues to define a girl’s
worth largely by her appearance.
Developing girls feel an
incredible pressure to be pretty
because of this tangible judgment
that they experience daily. To add
to the stress, the difference today
between the ideal and the real
female is larger than it has ever
been. “What is culturally accepted
as beautiful is achieved only with
great artifice - photo croppings,
camera angles and composite
bodies are necessary to get the
pictures we now see of beautiful
women” (Pipher 1994, p. 56). Most
girls and boys do not know this
canized.
To compete economically they have
to Westernize/Americanize their
economies by making their markets
free. With this freeing of the market,
a middle class soon flourishes. And
the middle class demands represen
tative government. So economically
and politically nations Americanize.
But they also Americanize their
culture, as well. They soon get a tele
vision. They turn on MTV and see
such things as half-naked American
college students dancing around in
Cancun Mexico over Spring Break.
Perhaps a McDonalds pops up in their
neighborhood and they can savor the
All-American Big Mac.
And before anyone knows it, the
youth of a nation are watching Ameri
can TV shows, dressing and acting
like Americans, and eating like
Americans. This may seem exagger
ated but it is happening as we speak.
Globalization is synonymous with
Americanization.
It was reported on Fox News, for
example, that 60 percent of the Iran
population is under the age of thirty.
As a whole this younger 60 percent
is politically opposed to their theo
cratic dictator and is pro American.
The empowered theocracy was out
raged when on 9/11 young adults
poured into the streets and lit candles
to moum and honor the American vie-
Ben Kundman, Editorial Page Editor
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though and so they are unaware that
the “ideal” standard of beauty is
unattainable. Problems start when
girls blame themselves for not
reaching their impossible goal.
These negative feelings can
manifest in the form of eating
disorders, depression, or some other
emotional pathology. Boys are
taught to look for this impossible
ideal of beauty which they find
idolized in pornography. Their later
relationships with women are
undoubtedly affected.
I have learned all of this
information at college, so 1 was
surprised to see two articles in The
Behrend Beacon promoting the use
of Internet pornography. I guess
Bush and Uncle Sam, and bum our
stars and stripes.
Perhaps the fundamentalists get
scared and worry about women hav
ing rights. Maybe they get nervous
because their followers start to ques
tion their way of life after seeing how
the democratic half lives.
And leaders of these nations also
worry. How can they hold onto their
tyrannical rule if the people have
more knowledge about the world
around them? They cannot control
the Internet like they can with the TV
(in example Iraq).
So to hold onto power and fight
progress they denounce the red white
and blue as imperialistic, as “the evil
snake,” and other such foolish rheto
ric. Often on TV you can see these
protest and the protester will be wear
ing blue jeans. Now how can one pro
test against America while wearing
blue jeans? It is ridiculous, like their
cause. They are just trying to hold
onto to history and to power as
progress rips them from their arms.
The Middle East is the hotbed of
these anti-American protests. This is
because they are at odds with global
ization and can afford to ignore the
American cultural influence more
than other areas. With their oil wealth
they can just say to the wind with glo
balization. They, or at least their top
behrcoll2 @aol. com
development
that some males in this school
choose to avoid all possible
rejection and stick with women who
can’t talk back. I failed to see the
humor in reducing women to body
parts.
Deeper though, what is going on
in a society that allows this sort of
promotion and finds this funny?
The fallout of American marriages
could be related to the lack of
encouragement for young males to
look beyond a girl’s appearance
when evaluating her. It is
discouraging to see further evidence
of this country’s backslide into
sleaze at my own college.
-April Hartman
elite, can sit back and sell their oil
for abundant wealth.
They feel that they can use some of
this wealth to fund some anti-Ameri
can, anti-Western terrorists rings.
So a bunch of them get together and
blow up some of our buildings and
kill our innocents. It is a pathetic, bar
baric, moronic attempt to stop us. But
when all is said and all is done they
will realize they are fighting on the
wrong side. They are fighting the
most powerful nation in the world
who can crush them. They are fight
ing globalization (free markets,
democratic regimes, and technology)
and will lose against this social force
as well.
Oppressive dictatorships and the
ocracies can never make their re
gimes more appealing than a demo
cratic republic and they can never
offer them anything better than what
a democracy delivers to an individual.
The Middle East sooner or later
will learn this and hitch its train to
Globalization. They are not the land
time left behind; they are the people
who left time go by. But they can
and will have to remedy this prob
lem. They can’t stay in the Stone Age
forever.
No matter how you look at it, they
are going to be defeated; no one can
stop an historical trend. No body ever
stopped the Industrial Revolution.
Look, here’s how it is: As our na
tion wages war, and rightfully so, we
must understand that globalization'
was the root cause of this war, or more
precisely, backlash to globalization
was the root cause of this war. To
stop the terrorists we must reform the
governments in the nations in which'
they are based. We need to set up
democratic regimes, show them the
wonders of capitalism, and give them'
all a TV and set the channel to MTV.
Reschenthaler’s column
appears every three week.
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