page 4 - The Behrend College Beacon. Thursday, February 11, 1999
The Behrend College Beacon
published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
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A view from the lighthouse
What’s the deal
lack of participation?
There seems to be a total lack of
participation by the part of students
on campus. Activities, programs, and
extracurricular activities are held on
a continual basis throughout the cam
pus, and only a small proportion of
students attends these events.
$220,000 will be allocated for stu
dent activities for the 1999-2000
school year. This amounts to approxi
mately $75 per year that each student
is charged. Each student is charged
this fee whether they are involved or
not in activities in campus.
Students should get involved with
how their money is being spent and
should also join clubs that are being
funded by the student activity fee.
Without their input, decisions, as to
what the money should be spent on,
will be made by others. Students may
not concur with these decisions made,
however, they have no right to com
plain. It’s similar to the voting con
cept, if you do not get involved, you
have no right to bitch and complain
concerning the problems that arise
through the lack of input.
So, why are students displaying
such a lack of motivation? Maybe
their academic schedule is too time
Letter to the editor
My View
This country has been transfixed
by the Clinton-Lewinsky affair for
over a year now. We have been
flooded with literally thousands of
media-driven stories that have
quenched a thirst for more tabloid
journalism.
Our nation is governed by the ex
ecutive, the legislative, and the judi
ciary branches. These are maintained
by checks and balances preventing
the dominance of any single branch.
The system was not established to let
polling data, or powerful media mo
guls dictate our people’s sense of eth
ics.
President Clinton, in my estima
tion, has worked well in managing
our domestic affairs, and foreign af
fairs. I believe that he has received
the “lion’s share” of the credit for the
robust economy.
Like many presidential adminis
trations in the past, the president has
had his share of scandals. They in
clude slich names as Paula Jones,
Gennifer Flowers, and the Vince Fos
ter incident among others. In addition,
he lied to an army officer about en
tering Vietnam, by not following
through in the ROTC program.
President Clinton is one of our
most consummate politicians we
have had in the oval office. His char
acter, or lack of, is the focal point of
this issue. I remember in the 1992 and
1996 election, the major media, in
reference to Bill Clinton, said that
"character doesn’t count! Most
Americans believe it does. In the
President’s defense, I have thought of
several points that other “political
pundits” have not covered :
1. If Hillary and Bill had divorced
before this or been separated this
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Letter Policy: The Beacon
encourages letters to the editor.
Letters should include the address,
phone number, semester standing and
major of the writer. Writers can mail
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consuming. Maybe they are too busy
partying. Or maybe they just don’t
care.
Behrend has a lot of resources and
opportunities to offer. We were very
lucky to have such events as the Goo
Goo Dolls concert and the speech
given by Jerry Greenfield. The Blue
Bus, which may not be run next year
due to the lack of its usage, is also
funded by the student activity fee.
Campus activities enrich out of
classroom experiences. They raise the
awareness and knowledge of stu
dents. They are integral to our devel
opment as students. They are neces
sary for future career growth; em
ployers are looking for more than just
academics on a resume.
would have been a moot point.
2. If the President were not a prac
ticing Christian, apathetic about reli
gion agnostic or an atheist; or if his
personal convictions allowed this, he
could remain vigilant that he was be
ing true to himself.
3. If the President had committed
what the general public thought was
clearly out of bounds of legal or moral
decency, perhaps if had relations with
a minor child, a foreign national,
someone that could have "compro
mised” national security, this could
have had a different spin.
This whole incident will clearly,
in a historical context, taint whatever
the President has accomplished. I
believe, however, that the eroding
morality of this entire country in the
last generation cannot be pinned on
one man. As Americans, we must
look to unite, whatever color, creed,
or country of origin.
Accepting the behavior of the
President in such a cavalier fashion
has definitely “lowered the bar” tor
what is expected of any future Presi
dents or politicians. If my memory
does serve me well, Senator
Packwood was drummed out of the
Senate for harassment charges and
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Tho
mas was grilled and scrutinized for
his “supposed” joke telling and innu
endoes with Anita Hill.
In closing, we, as a nation, cannot
expect our leaders to be as pure as
the driven snow, however there must
be a standard that must be met to
maintain the public trust in our
elected officials.
Michael Coursey
Senior Political Science Major
the
with
Live From Guyana
Love should be expressed everyday
Here we go again. It's only three
days from Valentine's day, and all
the hoopla has begun. Every year
around this time we are bombarded
with pictures and images of roses,
chocolates, and, of course, LOVE.
Valentine's day honors love and
those in love, yet the origin of this
holiday is the death of a saint.
Valentine's day is named alter a Ro
man priest. Valentine, who secretly
married young couples against an
emperor's decree. He was arrested
and beheaded on February 14 for de
fying the orders. After his death, Val-
The Lobster and the Music to the Dance of Life
How many planets do we have?
Every child in elementary school
learns that our solar system is made
up of a star and nine planets. Neptune,
Mercury, Venus, Earth. Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, and Flulo. However,
that number may be soon reduced by
The planet Pluto may be soon
downgraded to the status of minor
planet, in the same class as asteroids
and other large objects that orbit in
the solar system. The downgrading of
Pluto is causing quite a commotion
in astronomical circles, notably
among Americans, because Pluto is
the only "planet" discovered by an
American.
But why drop Pluto into a lower
classification .’ The reason is not too
difficult to understand. First, is its
si/.e; it is smaller in size than the
United States. Pluto's orbit is also not
Bribery may
By Leonard Pitts Jr.
Knight-Ridder Tribune
So, I’m working for a certain na
tionally syndicated radio show, where
one of my duties is to sift through the
hundreds of letters listeners send each
week asking us to dedicate songs to
their loved ones. And I open one of
those letters, and money falls out. It’s
not much money maybe a buck or
two. Just a little inducement to give
this letter special attention, I tack the
bills to the bulletin board, intending
to send them back to their owner.
Never get around to it, though. As
best 1 can remember, the money was
still on the board when 1 left that job
for this one, eight years ago.
The sender Was a young person,
which accounts for the modest size
of the attempted bribe. But I always
felt there was some minor insult im
plicit in the notion that our favor
could be bought for money, two
bucks or two hundred. 1 guess that
only goes to show that 1 have abso
lutely no future us a bellhop, a maitre
'd or a member of the International
Editorial
entine was made a saint. Whether
or not Valentine envisioned a holi
day full of Hallmark cards, mylar
balloons, and Godiva chocolates,
one will never know. Nevertheless,
that is what the holiday has become.
Alter the Christmas decorations
are taken down, hearts and cupids
are abundant everywhere. The up
coming weeks are filled with anxi
ety; how much do I spend on my
valentine, how do I let my secret
crush know' how I feel, and how
much is too much?
normal. Many people know that
Pluto and Neptune occasionally
switch places as the farthest planet
from the sun. No other planets have
orbits that cross each other, so this is
strange. Also, Pluto is inclined to the
other planets. That means that while
all the planets orbit on roughly the
same level, Pluto goes above and
below all the others. This further
separates it from the pack of normal
planets.
However, Pluto also has factors
that distinguish it as a full-fledged
planet. First, while it is small, it is
bigger than most minor planets. It has
a thin atmosphere, is spherical, and
has a large moon.
The Minor Planet Center, which
classifies and keeps track of all mi
nor planets, currently has 9,999 ob
jects classified. On March 2, they
be routine but I don’t have to like
Olympic Committee
If you had asked me six months
ago how the members of that com
mittee went about choosing host cit
ies for the Olympic Games, I’d have
assumed they weighed relevant fac
tors and made responsible decisions.
Silly me. Turns out that you get the
Olympics to come to your town by
plying the decision makers with lav
ish gifts, including scholarships for
their kids, fancy cowboy hats for
their heads, and hookers for their, urn
... stress. At least, that's the unmis
takable inference of the mushroom
ing scandal surrounding Salt Lake
City's winning bid to host the 2002
Winter Games.
Naff that I am, I seem to be one
of the few people who's been taken
by suiprise here. A Time magazine
report indicates that this kind of thing
goes on all the time. The Miami Her
ald recently editorialized that any
suiprise over this affair belongs to
"a more-innocent era.” And a colum
nist for the Washington Post suggests
that vote-buying and bribery have
been staple features of the Olympics
Before we begin our shopping
sprees for the right cards and the per
fect gifts, let me ask a question. Is
Valentine’s day the only day we
think of expressing our love to those
we care for? Isn’t the love we share
supposed to be expressed every day
of the year and not just the fourteenth
of February ?
Love is the everyday things that
we do for each other, like calling a
friend when they’re down, giving a
word of encouragement, or even a
shoulder to cry on w hen needed.
There are three kinds of love; eros
(romantic love), philia (reciprocal
want to classify Pluto as number
10,000 in a large ceremony. When it
was announced that the Minor Planet
center wanted to list Pluto as number
10,000, there was an uproar. Imme
diately an anti-10,000 group was
founded to oppose the transition,
while the Minor Planet Center ap
pealed to amateur astronomers for
support. While temporarily the Sec
retariat of the International Astro
nomical Union has announced Pluto
will not be downgraded, the fight con
tinues on, and it raises an interesting
question.
Has national interest and pride be
come more important than scientific
truth and classification? If it has then
the future is grim, since science
should not be based on national in
fluence at all.
I feel that the decision to rename
for a hundred years.
OK, point taken. Here’s my prob
lem: I don’t want them to be right.
Oh, I accept that corruption happens.
What I’m having difficulty with is the
suggestion that I ought not be sur
prised when it does. I find it difficult
to be that jaded. Difficult not to won
der what I’ll next be called upon to
consider unremarkable. Maybe it'll
be the politician who belongs to the
corporate donor. Or the judge whose
ruling was purchased in chambers.
I don't want them to be right be
cause even if these things happen
every day and yeah, they do it
seems to me that we can’t afford to
regard them as expected and
unsuiprising. To do that is to cross a
line we don’t want to cross, to abro
gate the sense of outrage, which is
our best defense in the face of cor
ruption.
I don’t want them to be right ...
but maybe they are. Maybe surprise
is beyond us now. Maybe a sense of
outrage is like a sense of smell it
weakens if you use it too much.
You know how it is, after you sniff
AYODHI.fi JONHS
love), and agape (overflowing love
for all).
Love is not a robe from Victoria s
Secret or a pair of boxer shorts trom
the GAP. Let Valentine's day be a
celebration of the love that we
should celebrate every day ol the
year and not just February I4tii.
Axoileie Jones is the manaxiny editor oj the
Beaeon. Her enhnnn appears every three
MIKE PERKINS
Pluto should wait for awhile, until we
know more about the asteroid fields
that lay beyond Neptune’s orbit. We 1
know that there are many objects
similar to Pluto that orbit far out in
the solar system. But until we dis
cover if any of those are larger than
Pluto, have atmospheres, or a moon,
we should leave Pluto alone. How
ever, I do agree that this confronta
tion over Pluto’s future has forced as-
tronomers to come up with a more
concrete definition of what a "major”
planet is. Only then can we prevent
future conflicts over classifications
like this.
Mike Perkins is layout editor oj the Beacon
His column appears even three weeks
a few perfume samples in the store,
your nose loses the ability to distin
guish between them? Well, this ain’t
perfume we're smelling here. It’s
gamier, an odor of cynicism and pes
simism and the smug assurance that
the person who hasn’t yet been
bought is the one who has
nothing to sell.
I keep thinking of the kid whose
money I left tacked up on the bulle
tin board. We never used her lelter
it w'as disqualified on its merits. But
I remember wondering where on
earth she might have gotten the no
tion that cash could render those
merits irrelevant. Where did she get
the idea that this is the way the world
works?
Bui may he that's the wrong ques
tion. We routinely see judges, cops,
and politicians nabbed lor peddling
influence. We're learning now that
the Olympics have been sold to the
highest bidder.
Maybe the belter question is this:
Where could she have gotten the idea
that the world works any other way?