A View From The Lighthouse Voting’s important! Well, mad props to all those who went out and rocked the vote this Tuesday. It certainly seemed like those Gen Xers were a bit more enthused about this year's election than they have been in the past. The Beacon witnessed a lot of student participation over the last few months, and we would like to take this opportunity to give a shout out to all those who made this election one of the most interesting in recent history. First and foremost, kudos to all those over at the College Republicans and College Democrats. Who knew - there really is some student involvement at Behrend! And just think, all it took was two guys whom none of us would want to hold a five minute conversation with if given the chance! But anyway, the efforts these two organizations made in getting students to register, and to actually get out there m the trenches and vote ucre above and beyond. Manning those registration booths, especially during that last week, was pretty dangerous. Many students tired of looking at literature and posters for unfavorable candidates were getting pretty feisty. And we all know how youth today reacts when somebody tries to suggest that they do something good for the country. Oh, the horror! So, getting several hundred of Behrend's population registered was a massive accomplishment. Also, the College Republicans and College Democrats provided easily accessible transportation to the polling booths on Tuesday for all those who couldn’t find a ride or didn’t know the way. Yes, those vans covered in campaign posters were there to take you to Brookside so that you could be a part of history. Hope you took advantage of it. Hopefully everyone out there realizes what this means. If you didn't get registered to vote, you really don’t have an excuse anymore - these organizations made it easy enough for Bush to understand (sorry, had to get that in). And if you were going to use the The Behrend Beacon published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College Editor-in-Chief Jason Snyder Managing Editor Mi< hael Frawley News Editor l.i: hhixes Editorial & Health Page Editor Katie Galley Features Editors Karl Renat ci Jermaine Hardy Arts & Entertainment Editor Deanna Svmoski Sports Editor Doug Smith Ahhy hmy (assistant) Wire Service Editor Rob W\-nne Photo Editors Jeff Miller Reeky Weindorf Associate Editor Christine Kleck Copy Editor Paige Mites Postal Information: The Beacon is published weekly by the students of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College; First Floor, The J. Elmer Reed Union Building, Station Road, Erie, PA 16563. The Beacon can be reached by calling (814) 898-6488 or (814) 898-6019 (FAX). ISSN 1071-9288. excuse that you couldn’t get to the polling booths, that excuse is gone too. Were you going to say you couldn’t afford to get there? Sorry, these two groups made sure that more than just the wealthiest one percent could go (that hopefully evens things up). And how about giving a round to those voters! Here’s to keeping the American Dream alive. For all those who like to say that your vote doesn’t count, you might want to think again. Just imagine how you would feel if you lived in Florida right now. You know there are dorm rooms, pool halls, and bars fdled with students just waking from the fallout and realizing that if they had voted, the course of history might have been recognizably altered. They are driving around, wishing they could jerk the wheel into the next bridge abutment because they screwed up. Hope that isn’t you! It must really suck to know that you are personally responsible for all that will go wrong with the country in the next four years. Regardless of who wins, it will be a bit of a relief to get it over with after the past few days of witnessing zombie-like candidates, news anchors, and diehard political science majors wander around, bumping into doors and such. But at least those of us who did take advantage of our rights can be sure that we can still show this world a thing or two, even if we did eat a few too many paint chips and spend a little too much time puking off of balconies. Remember - the only way to get people to listen to you is to speak! Money Page Editor Amortya Sinha Calendar Page Editor Dena DeCarolis Advertising Manager Kim Zuck Business Manager Kristine Harakal Public Relations Manager Ainslie Ulmer Secretary Melissa Proba Advisor Robert Speel 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 letters to behrcoll2@aol.com. Letters must be received no later than 5 p.m. Tuesday for inclusion in that week’s issue. Why the base cost at Behrend? Dear Editor, I recently received the meal plan prices, and was appalled at the increase in base fund At minimum, we are forced to pay an $B3O base fund. What is this money going to? Why the increase? On top of the $B3O base fund, we have to pay for the actual food! This is highway robbery!! The food on campus is normal food, salads, chicken wraps, cereal - it isn’t gourmet. So why are Defending of heritage Dear Editor, [This letter is addressed to Mike Frawley.] I read your column "Mike’s two cents worth” in which you mentioned that everybody is "Something - American (African American, Italian American, Mongolian American...) but no one is just American.” In case you haven’t noticed, this country contains more people of different ethnic groups than any other “developed" country in the world. Perhaps people identify themselves as "Something Ameri can" because most of us are not completely Americans ( 1 am hoping that the name Christopher Columbus rings a bell or shall I Here’s your presidency...just kidding! Man oh man, was Tuesday night insane! I was up until 4:30 in the morning watching the presidential election...or whatever you want to call it. I am not sure if ‘election’ is the right word because no one was actually elected on Tuesday. But that's ok, a great time was had by all. Especially me. This was the first presidential election that I was actually qualified to vote in. And I almost didn't get to because of the crazy absentee ballot system, (go 12th district), but in the end my vote counted...sort of. I am not going to go through and explain the electoral college in this newspaper again. We have had about four of those articles this semester. Just trust me when I say that even though A 1 Gore swept Pennsylvania in electoral votes, my vote for the ‘other guy’ (and I am not coming out and saying who that ‘other guy’ is, I have to keep you on your toes), counted. I swear that it did. And maybe the only reason that I was so willing to stay up and watch all that coverage instead of studying for Spanish, or even sleeping for that matter, was because I voted. I know that we have all heard the hokey, “Choose or Lose, Rock the Vote” crap. 1 was getting sick of it. Until this week that is. After I cast my vote, suddenly it all became important. Maybe it was the extremely tight electoral vote count or the “network giveth and the network taketh away” attitude of Tuesday night, I still don’t know. All I do know is that 1 was simply entranced in this whole process. And 1 had no idea what I was missing while 1 was sitting there, unregistered and uneducated about the government and ? 1 _ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR we paying these inflated prices? Had I a car and a place to park it (which is a whole other issue) I could drive down to McDonalds and for $2.10 get a chicken sandwich and a medium pop. Some math: $2.10X2 meals + s.2o(for gas) X 64 days = $281.60 a semester to eat with. Whereas, at Bruno’s we pay $2.35 for a chicken wrap (if you consider 3 strips of chicken a wrap) + $.79 for a small pop X 2 meals X 64 days = $401.92. Oh don’t forget the $B3O for base fee. say Kinta Kinte) or maybe because they don’t want to get lost in the crowd. It is quite unfortu nate that because you don’t address yourself as “something American,” you oppose to others doing so. I am a Nigerian American (Yes Mr. Frawley NIGERIAN AMERICAN). I am proud of both my heritages and I am not willing to let go of one for the other. I and many others will continue to showcase our heritage for as long as we can. If you have a problem with it, I’d advise you to deal with it or better yet move to Eu- rope !!! Matilda Akinyemi 06 810 politics. And I implore all the people reading this that are unregistered to get registered Why not? There is nothing to lose. And here are some of the great things about Tuesday night that you missed by not being ‘part of the club’. Loopy reporters: Between the crew at MSNBC and the crazy kids on NBC, it was a circus. As the night grew later and later and morning started creeping up, the crew got weirder and weirder. Katie Couric’s hair got more disheveled and birds nest like. And by the time that she left around 2:30a.m., she couldn’t even get out of her chair. She needed Tom Brockaw to help her get her microphone wire out from around her legs. The best part was when she arrived at the set of the Today Show a mere four hours later. As the race for electoral votes got tighter and tighter, so did Brockaw’s face. By the time I went to bed, his face was the size of a mango. His eyes were part of his forehead! Crazy late night antics: Tim Russert writing Florida-Florida-Florida over and over again on dry erase boards while causing the behind the scenes crew to laugh hysterically was one of the most surreal moments in government coverage televi sion. Or it might have been the set fire that occurred somewhere around sa.m. That is a race that’s ‘too close to call’... sorry, had to do it. My final vote goes to Forrest Saywer suggesting the Detours and Small Potatoes iM| FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10,2000 r^£b