THE BEHREND BEACON
A View from the Lighthouse
A decision to sleep on
Some students and even some
faculty members here on Behrend
campus may not be all too familiar
with the city of Erie. Sure, you
probably know the hot spots -
where to dance, where to get a
drink, and where to shop. You may
have noticed, however, that despite
the number of unique things Erie
boasts, a good convention center
isn't one of them. True, we have
that beautiful lake, a nice size
shopping mall, plenty of cool
restaurants, but what do we do
when we want to see a concert or
car show? We have to jump in the
car and drive to the nearest "big
city" in order to attend an event.
Sure, we have the Tullio
Convention Center, more casually
called the "Erie Civic Center," but
for a growing city, we will soon he
too big for what the Civic Center
can offer.
What if we said that there might
be a solution in the works for all of
this? Well, there is. It's a bit
complicated, but the end result
could be a new convention center
on the hayfront. Oh, for those of
you who are not familiar with the
hayfront, it is a term applied to the
road and all of the buildings that
are located right by the lake. The
Blasco Library is "on the hayfront."
The deal here is two-fold. First,
the major isssue that is faced by the
Erie County Council is whether or
not to impose a 5c4 hotel room tax,
which would help to defray the
debts incurred by the new
convention center. There are a
number of people against this tax,
namely the hotel owners of the area
who are worried it may interfere
with business. Manx of the owners
seem to agree that a new
convention center is not needed
right now. and if indeed it was built,
they don't want to have their
customers pay for it.
Erie County Council is divided
on the issue. Some are supporters
of the room tax, and some are not.
The second issue that arises is the
convention center's expenses. If it
were built, it would cost
somewhere around $500,000 a year
to run. Council also is faced with
the dilemma of restructuring
"authorities" for the buildings.
Currently, the Eric Civic Center
authority maintains the Jerry Uht
Ballpark downtown, as well as the
Tullio Convention Center and
Warner Theatre. As you can see,
there are many avenues that have
THE BEHREND BEACON
published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
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to he looked at before the group can
make a decision
We at the Beacon, however, have
made our decision. We want to see
that new convention center go up,
so we're definitely in favor of the
5 e/c hotel tax. We believe that Erie
is truly growing, and to help support
the needs of the community, a
convention center wouldn't be a bad
idea. Many events could take place
more expos, perhaps some car
shows, and as one of our editors put
it. "we might actually get a decent
concert around here for once."
(What's wrong with 98 Degrees and
LFO?)
We know that you know that Erie
can he dreary (take that, Dr. Seuss).
Winters here are not a whole lot of
fun, and we can only use our beach
for a few months out of the year.
There have been areas of
compensation, though. Junior's Last
Laugh comedy club, as well as
places like Forward Hall, have
appealed greatly to the younger
masses. And that's another issue to
look at as well. There are many,
many young people in the city of
Erie, many of whom will soon have
families. We see the building of this
convention center as an
improvement to the city, and
improvement is always good.
While the County Council and
hotel owners look deep into the
fiscal aspects of imposing a tax and
building a convention center, we
would like to encourage you to look
at the benefits that it could bring to
this city's morale. Imagine it ladies,
a Tupperware show bigger than
ever; and for the guys. how about a
motorcycle show for once? Maybe
a concert or two, how about
community sporting events? It all
could happen...
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Mutt Mole!
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EDITORIAL
And In This
Get the truck outta my way
It's always a lot of fun commuting
to Behrend. After 20 minutes on the
highway, I reach school and I am
forced to boost my adrenaline level
to keep up with the rest of the traffic.
More than likely someone is going
to pull out in front of me, more than
likely someone is going to walk out
in front of me, and more than likely
I'm going to have to dodge cars in
the parking lot as I try to make it to
class. But that's not the end of it.
I used to figure if I made it into
my first class in one piece, then I was
safe for that day. I figured wrong.
Not only do I have to dodge the cars
in the parking lot in the morning, I
have to avoid them in between
classes as well. I'm sure every single
one of us has had the experience of
being "followed" to class by
someone in a car, truck, or van.
What do we do in a situation like
this? One side of me feels that I
should stand my ground, strut right
ook At It This Wa
Smart guns, not so smart
The increasing mayhem surround
ing guns and children lately has been
a catalyst for increasing gun control
controversy. Efforts for gun control
legislation are being taken more se
riously lately by Congress and poli
ticians, due to incidents like the Col
umbine High School shootings, and
the shooting and killing of a six-year
old girl by her six-year-old classmate
in Michigan last month. The gun in
dustry is reacting to such tragedies
and to several lawsuits posed by big
cities that are pushing to recoup the
public health costs of gun violence.
Gun manufacturer Smith & Wes.;on
has responded to calls for gun con
trol with their recent adoption of
child safety locks. Other gun manu
facturers are also working on "smart
gun" technology using computer
chips to develop firearms that will
only allow their owners to fire them.
While some manufacturers are work
ing to improve the safety of their
guns, others are standing firm on
opposition.
John Velleco of the Gun Owners
of America expressed his feeling that
gun safety developments, such as
child safety locks, make guns less
safe for those who need to use them
efficiently. In an interview with
MSNBC last week, Velleco stated
h You Didn't Kno
Stop the stench!
I love the weekends at Penn State
Behrend. It's a great time for every
one to relax and have fun. However,
there's one aspect about the week
ends that I dislike. What is it? People
vomit. Yeah, that's right, they vomit.
It doesn't seem to matter where, ei
ther. I've seen vomit in the strangest
places. On sidewalks, in sinks, even
on couches! On the weekend, resi
dence halls look more like war zones,
with vomit splattered all over the toi
lets and floor.
Do people ever consider that some
one will have to clean up their dis
gusting mess? I feel absolutely aw
ful for the maintenance people who
have to clean it up. We're in college,
right? We want to be treated like
adults, right? Well, if we want to be
treated like adults then we need to
MARCH 24, 2000
down the middle of the pathway, and
show that person "what's up now?"
Another side of me feels compelled
to move over as far as possible so as
to not take any chances of being a
burden, because obviously this
person has a more important place
to go than I.
Last week I was on my way to the
Nick Building, and as I was walking
along the path, someone in a vehicle
coming from the opposite direction
decided to squeeze by me. Now take
that. "criminals in crack houses aren't
going to use safety locks." As the gun
industry continues to face turmoil and
as gun owners get increasingly con
cerned we should be expecting more
controversy to erupt over the issue,
especially as we move closer to fall
elections.
While politicians and the N.R.A
debate over the issue and as the gun
industry responds, America suffers
due to the self-defeating exploitation
of the issue. For many politicians the
debate is simply a battle of rhetoric, a
way for them to eloquently increase
their status. The N.R.A argues that
Congress should work on enforcing
existing laws and concentrate on re
turning to family traditions. But on the
other hand they support the produc
tion of firearms throughout America,
be responsible for what we do. If you
make a mess then clean it up! This
year's worst vomit experience hap
pened in December on the first floor
of the Reed Union Building. I
avoided getting my mail for a solid
month because it stunk like hell.
Thousands of students became nau
wi l
into consideration the fact that I was
walking in front of the Science
Building, a point where the main
pathway narrows. I was forced to
walk in the mud since the vehicle was
quite large, and since the driver
couldn't wait for me to walk through.
I don't pay to come to school to play
in the mud. I can do that for free in
my woods at home.
While discussing this topic with a
friend of mine at lunch one day, I
learned that we weren't the only ones
peeved about all of the cars. He
added, "Yeah, °lie time when I was
walking to class, a staff member
drove by and used their windshield
wipers. They got fluid all over the
girl I was walking with - she was
pretty mad." Now that's ignorance
at its best.
Now before some of you get fired
up about this editorial, please know
that I am not advocating "No Driving
Between Buildings." I think we all
the same America that is rapidly los
ing youth to these guns. And while
politicians argue for gun legislation
they make very little social effort to
decrease gun violence, or violence
period, amongst youth. So, how much
do they really care?
With gun regulations and techno
logical improvements the gun contro
versy is being further exploited. The
controversy resulted in an increased
membership for the N.R.A., showing
that the exploitation is only helping
the problem to persist. Throughout
history such controversy exploitation
has had negative influences, espe
cially for youth. When America said,
"Say no to drugs," kids further in
dulged in them, when they gave out
condoms in schools, kids had more
irresponsible sex, and when they aired
increasing suicide rates on television,
more kids killed themselves. And
now they are bombarding us with gun
safety innovations. Hmmm I wonder
if those bomb building, interne savvy
kids know how to take those child
safety locks off their parents' guns?
America is avoiding the real prob
lem and thus creating a bigger one.
Instead of working on improving the
violent mentalities of today's youth,
we are making room for more bad
behavior. The more we exploit the
seous because one person vomited
there. It still haunts me to this day.
In all likelihood, the person vom
ited because he/she was drunk. I'm
not hinting for students to stop drink
ing, if I proposed that I'd probably
be beaten by a mob. As a matter of
fact, there's nothing wrong with
drinking (in my opinion) as long as
it doesn't negatively affect other
people. I am, however, asking for
people to clean up their mess and not
let it sit until someone else cleans it
up. I say this because the first floor
incident in the Reed Union Building
proved that the only thing that lasts
longer than the Energizer Bunny is
the smell of puke. Hopefully you get
my point.
So what can be done about this
problem? Vomit bags? No. Gas
are pleased during the winter when
the snow plows have most of the
walkways clear, and yes, there is mail
to be delivered around campus.
However, there is a time and place
for everything. In-between classes
is not one of those times.
I have a class 9-9:50a.m. in
Hammermill, and one 10-10:50a.m.
in the Academic Building. I can
make it across the campus in 5-7
minutes. That means that any able
bodied person should be able to as
well.
Just let us walking folk have that
10 minutes between classes. Heaven
forbid we make a staff member teach
all their classes in the same building,
that might lessen the traffic a little.
Behrend is a beautiful campus if you
take the time to walk through it. m
just not too fond of a "drive-by."
notion of responsible gun use (which
can be considered an oxymoron) the
more we promote the use of guns.
This will not help in cultivating bet
ter behavior in America's children.
What is it for society to say "we're
gonna put safety locks on guns now,
so you kids can start using knives the
old fashioned way. O.K."'?
Besides the fact that the controversy
is driven by rhetoric, it doesn't ad
dress the majority of youth involved
in gun violence who are getting weap
ons regardless of the laws. I do sup
port gun legislation but this isn't
where the problem with gun violence
lies. The problem lies within the care
less behavior of our youth. It would
be more powerful to actually teach
non-violence than to just restrict some
of the means of violence, because
people will always find the means.
We need to work on instilling differ
ent goals and hence different means
shall follow. We have to teach chil
dren to deal with themselves and their
world nonviolently. Otherwise we
might as well forget gun policies be
cause violence will explode with or
without gun regulations. We have to
erase the garbage from our kids' heads
and replace it with knowledge and
discipline.
masks for everyone? No. Hidden
cameras? No. The only solution for
this problem is for the wrongdoers
to stop regurgitating on everything.
It's as easy as that. I can hear the
guilty people now. They're saying,
"I'm not a drunk, that's just an ugly
rumor started by people I've thrown
up on." I feel no remorse for you
people. I'm hoping that a toilet re
turns the favor by spewing cold wa
ter across your face. Maybe that
would help you sober up. You're
making this campus look (and smell)
bad. So please, throw out your throw
up problem. Penn State Behrend is a
great college and we should treat it
that way!
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