Page 4- The Behrend College Collegian Thursday, October 16,1997
The Behrend College Collegian
published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
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Ina Ashton
Features Editor
John Amorose
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Dylan Stewart
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Editorial
The word is getting out about
SGA's plans to investigate zoning
regulations along Station Road.
Monday night, Mike Zampetti,
the president of SGA, and SGA
vice president Tim Smith were
stopped by Channel 12 news who
were inquiring about their plans to
look into the possibilities
regarding bringing for businesses
to Station Road.
As a result of SGA's
investigation, they found that not
only is it a possibility to put a
video rental store on campus, but
there is a parcel of land available
on Station Road already zoned for
business.
As this project gains
momentum, the work of SGA
alone may not be enough to see it
to completion. Residents along
Station Road, who have the
distinct advantage over most
Behrend Students bf being
registered to vote in Harborcreek,
are a likely source of protest over
some of the conceived changes.
Students at Behrend do have
the opportunity to create a force
in the opposite direction of most
of the Harborcreek residents
around us. They also have the
opportunity to make it known that
they can be a voice and what that
by John Grolier
WWII editor
Tuesday, October 7, the Erie-
Western Pennsylvania Port
Authority stated they have plans to
build a SI million customs and
immigration center on Erie's
Sassafrass Street pier.
This move will be taken in hope
of attracting cruise ships to the
Erie area. Work is also being done
on the Viking 11, which has been
docked at the pier for a year.
Plans for renewed passenger
service between Erie and Port
Stanley, Ontario. by way of Viking
11, are in order, and expect to be
underway by next summer.
Prospective additions to the pier
include a hotel, parking facility,
and an aquarium-convention
center. Also, a hub-type dock
where passengers would have
shopping and recreational
opportunities would be added.
According to the plan, a
Editor in Chief
Andrea M. Zafruso
Managing Editor
Anne M. Rajotte
News Editor
John Grolkr
Sports Editor
Matt Plizga
Advertising Manager
Mike iliere
Layout Editor
Nathan Mitchell
Associate Editor
Brian Ashbaugh
Advisors
Alan Parker
Robert Speel
voice will say.
Politicians realize that college
students make up a minute
percentage of their voters. This
information will most likely make
a politician apathetic to students'
needs and demands because
politicians have nothing to gain
by pleasing students.
If students are serious about the
changes to our surrounding areas.
they have the right and the
obligation to become involved
with the inevitable politics that
will accompany it. The most
effective way to become involved
is to be a registered voter in the
township that you reside in for the
majority of the year. It is legal
for students to reigster to vote in
their campus residences.
Voter registration forms are
available in all public libraries.
Yov can register
renewing you drivers license.
Another, more aggressive,
course of action would be to write
letters to Behrend Dean John
Lilley and Penn State president
Graham Spanier, or to attend
local town government meetings.
The louder the collective voice of
the students is, the more
administrators and politicians will
be forced to listen.
e on
drawbridge or elevator system will
connect the Sassafras Street dock
with Dobbins Landing. enabling
visitors to enjoy the Bicentennial
tower, restaurants. and other
attractions.
The Columbus, a German cruise
ship which uses the pier. plans
three cruises this fall and five next
year, carrying 420 passengers, a
majority of whom will probably be
German. In order to accommodate
this German influx, a customs and
immigration center is also in the
plans. On October 17. the Ship
will stop in Erie on a tour to
promote its five year cruise of the
Great Lakes. This customs and
immigration center will also be
needed for the Viking when it is
once again functional. The pier
also has had an unsolicited
proposal from a company that
wants to operate a 500 passenger
high-speed ferry up to the Niagara
River for gambling.
Editorials
By Gregory P. Kane-(c) 1997,
The Baltimore Sun
I bought my issue of the Final
Call - the apocalyptically named
newspaper of the Nation of Islam
- in the usual place: the corner of
Northern Parkway and Wabash
Avenue in Ultimate. I slipped
the nattily attired young man a
buck and be handed me a paper.
I had scanned the front-page
headlines even before I bought
the paper. "How the IRS wrecks
lives." read one. Mother read.
"Activists struggle against
alcohol. tobacco ads." It sounded
like the stuff I could get in any
newspaper. Were my friends in
the Nation of Islam trying to go
mainstream on me?
The most interesting article was
inside, on Page 9, covering an
issue that should be of grave
concern to every American.
"Latinos battle for bilingual
education," it read. Rosalind
Muhammad, the West Coast
bureau chief of the Final Call,
presented both sides of the issue.
But it's the quotes of the pro
bilingual education folks that
warrant scrutiny. Here is an
excerpt from Muhammad's
article:
"Critics are up in arms over a
new statewide campaign to end
bilingual education in public
schools. Many of them charge
that the initiative, dubbed
Some
wrongly see
bilingual education
a "right"
'English for the Children,' is
racist and unfairly targets Latino
children."
Alt, there's that "r" word again -
racist. Well, we've had anyone
opposing affirmative action
labeled a racist, so why not
anyone opposing bilingual
education? Never mind that many
Hispanics oppose bilingual
education. Never mind that some
studies have shown that English
as-a-second-language (ESL)
curricula benefit Hispanic
students more than bilingual
education does. ESL courses
would result in Hispanic students
learning only English. And among
some Hispanic activists. that may
not be a desirable goal. It was a
chap named Hector Perez-
Pachenco who really got to the
meat of the matter in the Final
Call. Muhammad's article
continues:
"This is just an extenuation of
Proposition 187," said activist
Hector Perez-Pachenco. "They
see our numbers (population)
rising, that we're going to be the
majority in another 10 years. So
little by little, they are taking
away our rights."
So bilingual education is no
longer just a tool of dubious
effectiveness used to teach
immigrant children English. It is
now, according to Perez-
Pachenco, a "right." That must
immigrants
come as a shock to those
descendants of immigrants whose
forefathers didn't have the benefit
of bilingual education. It must
come as a shock to today's
immigrants - Hispanic. Asian,
Caribbean, Russian - who want
their children taught in English.
But look closely at Perez-
Pachenco's comment. It's clear
that among at least some
Hispanics - probably not a
majority, thank heavens - learning
English for the purpose of making
an easier transition to American
citizenship is clearly not the goal.
The goal is for Hispanics to
become a majority in California,
perhaps the entire Southwest.
What would follow then would be
some sort of at least
philosophical, if not physical.
reunion with Mexico. Think of it
as a Hispanic Anschluss.
That's not the worst of what we
must infer from Perez-Pachenco's
harangue. It's not an "anti
immigrant" frenzy sweeping the
nation that led to the passage of
Proposition 187, which denies
California education and health
benefits to illegal aliens. It's this
"gimme" attitude that some
liberal Americans want to
inculcate among immigrants both
legal and illegal.
It seems in rather poor form fa
an immigrant to come to the
United States and demand
bilingual education as a right.
Immigrants coming to the. United
States should think about what
they owe their adopted country,
not what their adopted country
owes them. They shouldn't come
here claiming rights not in
existence, especially when once
they land on these shores they
have the benefit of the Bill of
Rights, which extend to them
more liberties than they probably
had in their country of origin.
The only exceptions might be -
and this is a very strong might -
those immigrants from
Guatemala, Honduras, El
Salvador and Nicaragua,
countries where the United States
has in the past supported tyrants
dedicated to crushing democracy,
tyrants who have made conditions
worse for their people. It may well
be argued that immigrants fleeing
those countries for the United
States are escaping situations
pinheaded American politicians
made worse.
It's a distinction that probably
escaped Perez-Pachenco. It will
be interesting to see if, when the
Hispanic majority does indeed
come to California, that majority
still considers itself part of the
United States.