7 | The Behrend Beacon
The Behrend Beacon
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|%THE BEHREND
Beacon
“Professionalism
with a personality”
Penn State Erie,
the Behrend College;
First Floor, The J. Elmer Reed Union Building,
Station Road, Erie, PA 16563.
Contact The Beacon at:
Telephone: (814) 898-6488
Fax: (814) 898-6019
ISSN 1071-9288.
Letter to the editor
Student leader endorses Sonney
Dear editor,
First of all let me preface this letter
with two disclaimers. First, this letter
represents my own opinion through my
personal experiences, and is not repre
sentative of the Student Government As
sociation at large. Second, I am in no
way affiliated with any campaign for
State Representative in Pennsylvania’s
4 th District.
That being said, it is imperative that
our student body not be blinded to local
politics in the midst of a major national
election. On Nov. 2, students who are
registered to vote on campus or in the
immediate surrounding area will elect
many offices, including State Represen
tative for Pennsylvania’s House of Rep
resentatives, 4 ,h District. The state Gen
eral Assembly has a profound impact on
students at Penn State. The legislature
influences tuition through raising and
lowering the state appropriation, allo
cates funds for the construction of some
new buildings at campuses, and over
sees other general functions of higher
education such as the Pennsylvania
Higher Education Assistance Agency.
The current State Representative for
Behrend is Tom Scrimenti, who is run
ning for re-election this year. Represen
tative Scrimenti has been very willing
to meet with concerned students, includ
ing myself, to discuss issues such as the
state appropriation to Penn State. My
concern is that while he has met with us
and talked to us, he has not taken action
on our concerns. I have met with Rep
resentative Scrimenti, and it is clear
that that the students of Behrend seem
Sen. KERRY WILL
LET TERRORISTS
NUKE U.S. CITIES.
HE’LL FORCE YOUR KIDS
TO MARRY SAME-SEX
POLYGAMOUS TRANS
VESTITES. AND
PERSONALLY RIP THE
STEM CELLS OUT
OF YOUR CAT.
Daniel J. Stasiewski, Editor in Chief
Amy Frizzell, Managing Editor
Courtney Kaplin, Advertising Manager
Alyssa Peconi, Public Relations Manager
Dr. Cathy Roan, Adviser
Student Life Editor
Lori DeFabio
News Editor
Brad Stewart
Assistant News Editor Calendar Page Editor
Dan Snedden Rob Frank
Sports Editors
Sam Cibula
S\ra Kamber
Opinion Page Editor Beacon Assistant
Andy McNeil Carolyn M. Tellers
to have a low priority on his agenda.
Representative Scrimenti is opposed
this year by Curt Sonney. Having met
with Sonney on campus earlier this
week, I have seen a clear concern for
the students of our campus. Sonney
believes that he would be elected to rep
resent all of the people of his district,
including our students. As a former
Behrend student, Sonney is closer in
touch with what it means to be a stu
dent at our campus, than any non-Penn
Stater could ever be. Sonney assured
me that if elected he will be vocal in
fighting for our students in Harrisburg,
even if not placed on a committee that
has a direct effect on the campus.
Sonney also sees higher education as a
necessity for a strong economy, and
understands the prestige of getting that
degree from Penn State.
These could all be empty campaign
promises, but campaign promises are
usually made to persuade the masses,
not in an informal discussion in a small
office. Sonney struck me as very genu
ine, and if I am wrong, there is another
election in two years. The students of
Penn State Erie, the Behrend College
deserve a Representative in Harrisburg
who would actively advocate for us. We
do not expect someone to focus all of
their time on us while in Harrisburg, but
we do warrant some attention from our
elected official.
Sincerely,
Scott Soltis
SGA President
HE'LL HAND IRAQ TO
KERRY WILL DESTROY OSAMA, AND GIVE THE
SOCIAL SECURITY AND NEW MASS-GRAVE
PUT YOUR GRANNY DIGGING CONTRACTS
OUT ON THE ICE. TO THE FRENCH.
Copy Editor
Lacy Buzard
Jenn Haight
OH. AND DID I
MENTION THAT HE'LL
SAY ANYTHING TO
GET ELECTED?....
QriNlvN
Mayhem, chaos consume campus
The Police and Safety weekly report is
one of my greatest sources of amusement
in the Beacon. If you don’t normally take
the time to stay up-to-date with Behrend’s
criminal activities, please, turn to page
two now and enlighten yourself.
This week has an especially large list
of reported activities. I took it upon my
self to flip through past copies of the Bea
con and document the campus’ history of
crime. As the list of delinquency grew,
reciprocally did my faith in humanity
lessen.
Whether it is stolen blue jeans or an in
toxicated student urinating in front of the
campus apartments, Behrend appears to
be unable and unwilling to create a crime
free atmosphere. As the popular saying
goes, rules are meant to be broken, a state
ment in which I can sometimes agree. But
is it really necessary damage your fellow
student’s vehicle?
The majority of delinquent acts docu
mented on campus were those involving
students’ mode of transportation. CD’s
were stolen, cars were keyed, side-view
mirrors damaged, spoilers, mufflers and
hubcaps removed.
I’ll be the first to admit that I find some
spoilers and mufflers and hubcaps obnox-
Burnout Bush: Time to kick asphault
We’re down to the line folks - down to
the line. This isn’t the Democrats vs. the
Republicans; it’s not that the economy is
in the hole or that we’re in another war.
This is the line between imperialistic fas
cism and representative Democracy.
If you’re voting for Bush, not at all or
for a third party, you are electing to stand
by while a psychopath follows the Hitler
playbook in his measures to frighten the
population into cooperation and support
of his blitzkrieg across the middle east and
pursues his ultimate goal of world domi
nation. Don’t believe it? Read up on plans
current Bush cabinet members were mak
ing in the 90s at http://
www.newamericancentury.org/
RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf . This
is the modem “Mien Kaumpf ’ as penned
by current Deputy Secretary of Defense
Paul Wolfowitz. These boys were just
waiting around until something like Sep
tember ll' h gave them a blank check to
take over the world as is evidenced in the
aforementioned report in the passage
“...furthermore, the process of transfor
mation, even if it brings revolutionary
change, is likely to be a long one, absent
some catastrophic and catalyzing event -
like a new Pearl Harbor.”
If you’re voting for Bush, I can prob
ably figure why it is that you are.
Maybe you think Bush is likely to do a
better job in Iraq or with the economy.
Most likely, your family or a family mem
ber does or did favor Bush. You might be
against abortion, gay marriage, fair trade
or fair health care. You might love guns.
Lef s play on the see-saw, Senator Keriy
The presidential election is Tuesday.
There’s a newsflash, right? One thing
worried me about that though; most of
what I’ve seen and heard around campus
has been pro-Kerry. I’m all about fair
ness and balance (as well as being a bom
and bred republican), so I’m breaking out
of the mold (and maybe risking my fu
ture career on 60 Minutes with Dan
Rather) and giving us right-wingers a
voice.
George W. Bush may have made some
bad decisions, we all have, but at least he’s
made decisions and stuck to them.
Kerry’s position on so many issues has
changed to please the public ever since
the preliminaries. He was pro-Iraq until
his opponent for the democratic nomina
tion pulled ahead of him; he had to change
to stand out.
How many times during the debates,
even within the same debate, has he
changed his position? To a devout demo
crat, all of whom I respect, he seems to
have been steady, but I spent the entire
time looking for reasons not to like him.
(It’s just Cialdini’s consistency and ratio
nalization idea; everyone has to stick to
what they believe and tell themselves they
made the right decision.)
John Kerry said that he was for import
ing drugs from other countries to make
prescriptions more affordable for the eld
erly. But wait; wouldn’t that also be
outsourcing jobs? He’s against that. Of
course, Kerry could be like Dr. Steve Por-
Brad Stewart
new editor
ious and believe that “supping” up one’s
car is simply accessorizing a giant hunk
of metal and plastic (Police and Safety,
it wasn’t me) —but some people take ex
treme pleasure in beautifying their cars,
so who am I to judge? Who am I to rip
off their mufflers while they’re igno
rantly slumbering in their dorms?
The most disconcerting part in the
whole thieving story is that Behrend
ranks as an institute of higher learning —
a center for academe. We students are
the future of America and yet we can’t
Chris Hvizdak
editoral columnist
You might love Jesus an awful lot. You
know what? That’s all well and good -1
don’t necessarily agree with your opin
ions but do I respect your right to have
them. You know what I don’t respect? If
you happen to be a greedy ultra-capital
ist with the “yeah for me and to hell with
everyone else” attitude of which Bush is
the poster child, I’m not a big fan of
yours.
Bush can only exist as long as he’s got
susceptible voters to exploit and Capi
talism can only exist as long as it has re
sources to exploit. I’ve got news for you,
Bush doesn’t care one iota about what
you do, be it guns or be it Jesus. Ulti
mately, all Bush wants is your vote and
the fortune it can bring to him and his
buddies. Unless you happen to be CEO
of a Fortune 500, that equation probably
doesn’t include you.
Lacy Buzard
ter who flipped out at the very mention
of the connection between these two is
Are we just going to ship American
pharmacists overseas to make these
drugs? Somehow I doubt it. Biology
and chemistry majors watch out!
The Massachusetts senator doesn’t
support Iraq; we all know this. Even if
we are at war, whether he agrees with it
or not, we need to support the troops that
are over there. Kerry voted against pro
viding our soldiers the supplies they
needed overseas.
What does that mean to you? After
all, you don’t have a part in the war. Well
tell that to one of our engineering stu
dents who was fighting, abandoned with
a few of his buddies and running out of
ammunition. Luckily, he came back this
Friday, October 29, 2004
copy editor
keep our hands to ourselves. What do
these Police and Safety reports say about
us as critical thinkers?
Though, keeping an elevated moral
code in the twenty-first century becomes
increasingly difficult. Corporate scan
dals, defunct role models, television
shows that reward sex and violence
make it hard to follow the path of straight
and narrow. If Bill Clinton and Rever
end Jesse Jackson cheat on their wives
why shouldn’t I?
I think Martha Stewart’s conviction
was a sign that our country is headed in
a direction that will very much resemble
a Freudian takeover of the id. The su
perego seems to be continually squashed
and lost in the presence of sex and war.
I know you’re probably thinking, no
Brad, our society is headed to a happy
place —stealing items that don’t belong
to me is fine; urinating on lawns is OK;
destroying property isn’t that big of a
deal. And you’d be right; the world will
continue to turn. Who comes up with
those rules anyway? We should all be
able to do what we want.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that
way. There are rules for a reason. It’s
all fun and games until it happens to you.
Oh, and that Oil that modem capital
ism is built off? “That thar” black gold
is running out and will be so expensive
by the middle of this century that there
will not be any businesses, or an
economy for that matter, for you to mas
terfully administrate. The USA has been
quite adept at rigging an artificial paper
economy not backed by gold but beneath
it all the real currency is oil. And the
world has not as yet produced sufficient
technology to run its physical infrastruc
ture with the imaginary “undiscovered
oil” we’ll be left with as the cheap dis
covered oil continues to thin out.
Put plain and simple, Bush has us bar
reling head first into a war with China
over the last of the Oil and it is plain to
see that war with China ends in either a
nuclear holocaust or the USA getting its
foreign interests dismantled by the vast
red armies.
So go vote for Kerry. Do I like Kerry?
Do you like Kerry? Who cares? I sure
like him a lot more that I like Bush.
However I don’t care if I like the presi
dent of the United States, I don’t care if
he’s “someone who I could have a beer
with” or “someone who would sit next
to me in church” but I do care if he plans
on burning through the mid-east, stirring
up terrorists wherever he goes on his
hell-bent quest for oil with the ultimate
intent of world domination and/or “war
with the red Chinese” as his mantra.
Chris Hvizdak can be reached for com
ment at chrishvizdak@gmail.com
semester. Tell that to another of our stu
dents who is still over there. Tell that to
our ROTC students who are better able
than us to see the situation.
There is one more issue on which
Kerry is pathetically off-base: stem cell
research. Kerry said that he would not
let his religion (if he really has any) in
fluence the decisions he makes for the
nation. That is very noble of him to say
in a country that supposedly allows for
diversity.
Here’s the clincher; this issue has
nothing to do with religion. It has to do
with the fundamental concepts of “right”
and “wrong.” Stem cell research and
abortion both split the citizens of the
United States 50-50. Whoever is elected
president will have to alienate half of the
population: that’s the bottom line. I
would rather have a president who would
make the half that he represents happy
than a president who goes against his
half just to improve his image.
That is all John Kerry is, an image. It
changes much like advertisements
change to fit the current cultural norm,
but in Kerry’s case, it changes much
faster. I don’t want a Viagara spokes
man for my president; something better
will make that person obsolete in a few
months. Our president needs to make
up his own mind and be able to stick with
it for four whole years and obviously,
John Kerry is not able to be that presi
dent.