FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2000 For hire: common sense, discipline, and morality "This is the right way to tie your shoe, Robbie... This is how you are supposed to feed the dog, Robbie... This is how you wash your clothes..." are some of the earliest instructions I remember receiving from Mom and Dad. Growing up, I was fortunate enough to have a homemaker mom, one who stayed home all day while dad brought home the bacon. Mom washed dishes, vacuumed carpets, mopped floors, and kept my brothers and myself out of trouble. Granted, most of the time we would all be watching Nickelodeon for half the day, but whenever Mom needed it, we would give her a hand...unwillingly, of course! "Why do we have to make the beds, we're just going to sleep in them anyway?" would be something that would we as the genius grade schoolers would ask our mom. Of course, morn would return with a smackdown of verbal threats. "Do you want to live like a pig? Do you want to have dirty dishes stacked up to the ceiling? Do you want to have clean clothes to wear to school?" Mom was always good at giving us the simplest answer. We would ask, "Why do we always have to say please and thank you?" Mom's reply usually was, "Because someday you're going to be out on a date with a girl, and she's going to think you're rude." Of course, at the ages of 10, 7, and 4, my brothers and I knew better than to accept that for an answer, because everyone knew that girls had cooties. But now, sometimes I wonder if parents are stressing some of these values to their children. To say please and thank-you, and even how to tie their shoes. Working in a grocery store, I see family after family who have kids that are just the foulest little pieces of snot. Kids that swear back to their parents, kids that cry and moan, and my favorite, the little filths that try to tell me how to pack groceries. The parent sees nothing but a little angel. And I can't help but laugh every time I hear on the news how strong our economy is and how much better off we are than everyone else in the world. Thanks to our excellent economy, many families have two working parents just to meet bare minimums. So who's watching the kids? Day care and preschool facilities have to assume the roles of mommy and daddy, but in a lighter sense. For some reason, Americans believe today that children shouldn't be disciplined. If any teacher says so much as "Boo!" to a student anymore, the teacher is seen as a heartless and cruel villain who is out to ruin the lives of innocent youngsters. It seems to me that school administrations today are more concerned with expelling a student that has fingernail clippers in their possession, rather than concerning themselves with what morals they are instilling in the student. The truth of the matter is that morality and discipline, two virtues that were seemingly the most important characteristics a person could possess earlier in our country's history, have suffered corporate cutbacks and for the present, are unemployed. They have been replaced by greed and laziness, who both work for less pay. Working in the store from day to day, I don't see a lot of happy people, and I don't see a lot of people that stop and say "hi.' Ido hear a vast majority complaining, and I see many who treat their children like rodents. There are also children who have their parents on a leash and can get away with calling their elders every name in the book. It's all a matter of common sense. A few manners go a long way, just like a swift kick in the rear does too. Why are some kids so rude? Because they don't listen to their mothers. At least, that's my mom's theory. WVrint' ef.iliffnii will titypeal eroy titre: on This Wynne i( 3. ~: .. .~ ~ an be like flowing a big of instructions Broke after four weeks? So how many of you out there are already broke? No money, no parents coming through either? Well it seems to be a common trend throughout campus and not just for students either. I am involved with several organizations on campus and friends who are involved with several other groups also. Each time a meeting is held for one of these organizations, it seems as if everyone has really great ideas for programs and activities in order to promote the organization to new students. The problem arises when these activities need money to be held, and there is absolutely no money to be found! Granted some organizations I am in volved in are sponsored by outside forces such as the Alumni Association or private investment. However, most campus organizations rely heavily on the allocations of the Student Activity Fee. The Student Activity Fee is the money that every student pays with each semester bill. This money then goes into a large pot and can mainly be used to fund such events that sponsor activities beneficial to all students, not just engineers, Republicans, tour guides or on campus students. So how is it possible to run an organiza tion without any money? Well you must think of some creative ways to raise money for an organization. Fundraising on campus either is a huge flop or does really well. So what would it take to raise enough money to The battle of the beats If you haven't heard yet, there is currently a war going on between several music conglomerates and several intemet music startup companies. These intemet startups are web sites where visitors can virtually down- load, share and trade music for free Two of these major internet start ups are MP3.com, and Napster.com. Both of these internet startups are currently facing several copyright infringement suits by recording companies looking to recoup their loss sales. Mp3.com faces up to $250 million dollars in damages for copyright infringement against Universal music group, while Napster awaits a federal court decision as to whether or not an anti- Napster injunction will go into effect. If the injunction does go into effect, it will stop Napster users from trading copy righted music. The controversy in both of these cases has raised much concern for the plight of online music. While record executives complain about the illegal distribution of their material, online music startups argue that they aren't illegally distributing music, but using computer technology as a means to virtually share music. While some artists see the online music business as a Tell Send a send all letters to: behrcoll2@aol.com THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT us whatyou thia! letter to the Editor Coffee Talk Kristin Rodgers 4 organization for an entire year? Probably nothing. I've been helping two organizations on-campus with fundraising for three years now, and each time the turnout has been unsuccessful, or hardly worth the effort. I mean come on, how many times can you sell T-shirts, have car washes, sell lottery tickets or guess how many Skittles are in a jar? The problem is this: you try to raise money on campus when the students themselves have no money to promote your fundraiser/organiza tion in the first place; they're broke too! So why is it not possible that money gets spread out evenly? I agree with the Student Activity Fee's guidelines that say the money must help all students and not just one group in particular, but why not examine exactly where the money is going and how is it benefiting the students. The Lion Entertainment Board (LEB) is a group of students dedicated to making social life on campus a more positive experience by offering movies, comedians, dances and bands in Brunos or the Reed Commons. From hearsay, I've heard this My Society Jermaine Hardy _ promotional tool, which can help them achieve more sales, others see it as a way of taking the money out of the pockets of record labels and artists. While taking sides in this war has lately been the popular thing to do for many music fans and interne users, this may not be the wisest thing to do. While we would all enjoy all the free music we want at the click of a mouse, we should all still be concerned about the justice of artists and record companies. Though it may not always sound like it, many of these artists work very hard to bless us with those jams we love to hear. Not rewarding them their due pay could reduce the artist's incentive to continue to create quality music. Then we would be left with no music at all. Just as well, at this point we cannot curb the demand for this new convenient interne music market. Thus the world would only be heading opposite the direction of the future to want to maintain the conventional system of music consum- ITORTA features cu-eAliio The Hot Debate of The Week' Watcha' doing with that racket? Shoeiltl 1 , , ,, :::1bri1,' player Roseteem, Blair h(GHt: .s ItAplz i I de(/' 14:. i 1 i .11 e Note to the naked tennis player: your skirt and top may get in the way of your back hand, but losing them won't improve your serve. Assuming that she is allowed to return to the sport, I feel it's safe to say that Blair needs to take a few lessons, not in tennis but in 'appropriate amount of clothing wearing, 101.' And also assuming that her family is 'normal', I can bet that they would rather cheer her on for her tennis abilities...not what she does with her racket in the off season. And while she may not have known the rules going into this, no one should feel bad that she had her tennis playing privileges taken away, and I'm glad that she did! She was dumb enough not to look into the NCAA rules, and now she has to face the consequences. Not only that, but her tennis scholarship that she was attending school on is no more. Why would anyone want to jeopardize their entire future...simply to take their clothes off for greasy, gross men to drool over? I guess beauty won out over brains this time. Every week, two editors from the staff will debate a topic that is hot. Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to email suggestions for the hot topic. Send ideas to behrcoll2@aol.com organization gets allocated something close to $lO,OOO because the activities they sponsor are more expensive; considering you must buy the rights to a film in order to show it in a public place this allocation makes sense, or does it? These activities are usually held on the weekends, yes the time of the week when everyone gets their favorite parking space, and why is that? fund an The-reason is because most students feel it is their only time to get off campus to party, shop, catch a new release or go home (which seems to be the favorite if you live close enough to do so). In fact, I walked into Brunos a few weekends ago and the event sponsored had one attendant, and she had to be there because she was the repre sentative from LEB! You decide, is the money going in the right direction? I have to commend the efforts of the Student Activity Fee committee and advisor thus far. I believe some of the work they have done since the committee has been created has really been wonderful, but let's face it, I pay the money so that I can be part of the activities that fit my personality, but so far I'm not sure that any of these activi ties are seeing a good share of the amount that I pay each semester. I only welcome comments on how some organizations may be able to raise a good amount of money for the year. ti?tV( We have to begin to look at both ends of the spectrum and look for ways to utilize this emerging mp 3 technology legally and feasibly in everyone's best interest. We are soon to witness the record industry run with this online music phenomenon, making it more senseless for fans to take sides. Universal Music Group, for ex- ample, which happens to be the recording conglomerate in legal dispute with Mp3.com, is an investor in Music Bank, a company which is planning to start its own online distribution company much like Mp3.com. We can also be sure to see other record companies as well as artists use the Internet and mp. 3 technology as a means to promote and sell their music. Thus instead of taking sides in this war for "either or" we should be looking forward to the convergence of computer technol ogy and the music industry. It is this convergence that will make it possible for the needs of both demanding music fans and deserving recording companies and artists to be met. t dif(Mi? ti Oppi;tif 1 thn( ... ..,......-.. /.iir p(., 1 ....: i , :, 1.. ;',..!: I;4' Ai;' '.1.,.' Girl plays tennis, girl poses for Playboy, girl not allowed to play tennis anymore. Everybody follow? University of Alabama- Huntsville tennis player Roseleena Blair was kicked off of her college tennis team for posing for Playboy's "Sexy Girls in Sports" issue. Now I understand that the NCAA has a rule that says that you can't take money for anything involved with your sport. The rules were made to keep people such as agents and gamblers from having influence over players, but get real, posing in Playboy? Does Playboy really care about her playing abilities? She had a 1-11 record last year, does the NCAA think Playboy is going to get her to throw the one match she won? While many people may think that posing in Playboy is wrong, it shouldn't have any impact on a woman playing sports. Unless she starts playing her matches in the nude to promote Playboy, the NCAA should not have anything to say about it. With her record, maybe it would help her to win a few more matches next season Apologies for scheduling Dear editor, I should like to extend an apology to any of our students of the Jewish faith regarding the scheduling of Parents and Families Weekend during the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. We try to avoid such scheduling conflicts with religious holidays when possible and this was an oversight. We have implemented changes to our scheduling system, which should create a greater campus-wide awareness of potential religious holiday scheduling conflicts in the future. Sincerely, Chris Rizzo, Director of Student Activities God save the trees! To the Editor Yesterday I noticed that the weeping beech planted between the Academic Building and Reed had been vandalized, simply snapped off at the base, perhaps by someone who wanted to demonstrate superior strength. Anyway I am writing because I feel sad dened and, as Donne said better, 'diminished' by this death. Surely any sense of perspec tive speaks to the things that I don't write to the editor about—the Holocaust, Rwanda, hate crime, but this senseless destruction was a crime that most don't consider more than the destruction of property, but I think 'prop erty' doesn't quite encompass such a thing of beauty. The tree would have been here for so many generations with the remarkable quality different from other trees, it grows upside down!! One genetic change in the European Beech discovered in Switzerland a couple of hundred years ago became the `parent' of all 'weeping' beeches today. The oldest grow as remarkable natural objects, much broader than tall. Anyone who doubts this should see the weeping beech at about 50 years old next to the Old Main at the Uni versity Park Campus (apparently it survived there, but its kin could not here). Such young beeches are both rare and expensive. The point here is to plead for a respect for things of beauty that make our lives richer. I think of the vast number of trees that have died for the expansion of this campus, or the many over the years that allow me to indulge a newspaper habit! Still at least there was a purpose in these cases. I wish I could write something to make the person who destroyed this tree feel remorse, and to commit to a lite of greater mindfulness. There is a certain cos mic justice that warns against senseless violence. The poet Coleridge described this order in the 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' . In the poem one kills the Albatross only to discover, `And I had done a hellish thing And it would work 'em woe For all averred, I killed the bird That made the breeze to blow ' Zach Irwin Associate Professor of Political Science
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers