Page 6 The Behrend Beacon The Behrend Beacon i •.'//,/ H , , U\ b\ ill, Mini, Ills I'l I’, ill! Shi:, - / Ih , ih, u, hit lit! ( ' 'ill I 1 News Editor Erin McCarty Asst. News Editor Kevin Fallon Sports Editor Mike Bello Asst. Sports Editor Kate Levdansky Petrikls Editorial Page Editor Ben Kundman Features Editor Karl Benacci A&E Editor Jeanine Noce Wire Service Editor Guy Reschenthaler Staff Photographer Jeff Hankey Office Manager Jason Alward f\ mm widwh Beacon 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. | 11& OOOOUfI Udll oo loauiiwu uy calling (814) 898-6488 or (814) 898-6019 (FAX). ISSN 1071-9288. The View From the Lighthouse Everybody gets a prize In a move more reminiscent of a kindergarten sciei fair than an international athletic competition, a gold medal was awarded last week to the Canadi pairs figure skaters. Two weeks ago, in a decision which ma professional boxing look clean in comparison, Russi pairs figure skaters Yelena Berezhnaya and Antoi Sikharulidze beat out Canadians David Pelletier and Jamie Sale by a narrow 5-4 margin despite the Canadians’ near-perfect performance. The Russians had a noticeable mistake in their run but still took home the gold. After the typical allegations of favoritism, bribery, and vote swapping, a report concerning the admission of vote-swapping by the French judge appeared on CNN. An uproar ensued as the long-standing controversial judging of figure skating was finally proved corrupt. In order to calm the furor surrounding the decision, the president of the International Skating Union, Ottavio Cinquanta, proposed that the Canadian team be given a co-gold medal. Within a few days the Canadians were awarded the co-gold by the International Olympic Committee to much fanfare. Naturally, the Russians attributed the awarding of the co-gold to the media outcry in America and Canada. When exactly did we as a people (when I say people, I mean people all around the world) expand the kindergarten notion of “Everybody Gets a Prize” to the most prestigious sporting event in the world? Awarding a second-place team a gold medal in a judged event is merely a tactic by the lOC to avoid confronting the history of corruption in figure skating. Unfortunately, awarding a medal to both pairs is a move more akin to the world of professional wrestling than that of the Olympics. Had the lOC appointed a panel of unbiased, well-trained judges to review the figure-skating match, then the medal could have been awarded to its righteous winners. Without a true evaluation of the pairs performance, awarding a gold medal to second placed athletes based on accusations of corruption will only further undermine Olympic sports, particularly judged sports such as figure skating. What is next for the wide world of sports? The tenth place skier in Super G gets a gold because he had as much fun as the first place finisher? Awarding a co-gold medal only opens up future debate in other sports. What if a penalty is not called in a hockey game, resulting in a game winning goal, and a few witnesses claim to overhear the ref talking about political pressure to throw the game or a bribe? Will we soon have gold medals for the first, second, and third place teams or athletes, silver for fourth through sixth, and bronze for everyone else, so long as they had a good time? Rampant corruption in many sports has resulted in a loss of interest by the general public. If people wish to see an athletic event where the outcome is decided hours, days or weeks before the event takes place, they will simply turn on Smack Down on Sunday night. Editor-in-Chlef Robert Wynne Managing Editor Rebecca Weindorf Public Relations Manager Kelly Walsh Professional Publication Mgr. Dave Richards Advisor Mr. John Kerwin The Beacon encourages tellers to the editor. Letters should include the address, phone number, semester standing, and major of the writer. Writers can mail letters In hmhmnll9tß)anl nnm I «tt«rs must De received no laiet man 5 p.m. Monday for inclusion in ‘U ; Business Manager Paige Miles Advertising Managers Libbie Johnson Melissa Powell Angela Rush Distribution Manager Eric Kiser Calendar Page Editor Erinn Hansen Health Page Editor Sarah Orr Humor Page Editor Ben Kundman Associate Editor Jennie Ellison Technical Support Doug Butterworth “Professionalism that week’s issue -jam *- . ... ■‘■*K. ■■ ■ Wa^J *. EDITORIAL Friday, February 22, 2002 [Jews • FifZSX KITTEN IS CLOMgP Internet porn discourages normal sexual At a time when young adults are trying to establish a healthy intimate relationship, the media portrays casual sex as the norm via pornography, television, music, and movies. This cannot possibly provide the much needed guidance for singles to form healthy relationships. You would think in today’s world of deadly sexual dangers, casual sex would be discouraged, but our culture instead has become sexually obsessed. People generally accept what they are taught and act accbrdingly, but I believe that change can occur if awareness of our country’s sexual corruption is spread. Lookism is the evaluation of a Why we are at war There is one word that explains wreak unprecedented havoc and or- tims. why we are at war: globalization, ganize in a manner never before ca- So a Fundamentalist sees this go- To understand this war we must un- pable. But with globalization comes ing on. He/she thinks that America derstand the forces of globalization, another attribute that has inflamed is trying to dominate the world. He/ But what is it? It is the new interna- Fundamentalists in the Middle East, she just does not realize that as the tional system that replaced the Cold That attribute is Americanization. world globalizes, Americanism is go- War system. Globalization is the in- As countries enter the global mar- ing to be seen by more and more tegration of nations, their econo- people. mies, and the technology which they Look, here’s how it is Antl most P eo P* e who s ® e produce. 'n r MTV want to be Americans (I do The Web offers the best and MjgW . .. . venture to say that we Americans clearest example of globalization. KeSCfienHiaier have the most fun of anyone, so The world after the three double News wire editor keep on partying to do you part in u phenomena is connected like globalization), never before. Individuals can So this fundamentalist denounces trade stocks online, ket, they America as evil. Maybe they throw online, chat online and so are Ameri- up a banner reading, “America is very all over the whole world. n°hty,” bum effigies of our beloved are all connected to one and other like never before. You can get on a Reed computer and play chess with someone from Bangkok. You can get on IM and chat with one of your friends who is spending a semester over-seas. Distance, simply put, has been conquered by technology. No more do national lines and borders matter. Governments mat ter less as well because with new technology and communication ca pabilities individuals are empow ered. We are fighting such empow ered people today. We are not fight ing a nation but a ring of multi-na tional, highly connected terrorists, all of whose leaders have been su per empowered by the new interna tional system. bin Ladin kept tabs with his ter rorist associates with Jihad Online or the acronym JOL if one prefers. He would often use his computer to monitor world events on CNN. Even if in a cave, the terrorists leader was always up to date and always in communication with his follow ers. He was (and maybe still is) an angry man, super empowered by globalization and technology. But so what? What does that mat ter? How did globalization cause the war? The first answer is that with globalization terrorists were able to Letters to the Editor person based solely on his/her appearance. As in the past, today’s society continues to define a girl’s worth largely by her appearance. Developing girls feel an incredible pressure to be pretty because of this tangible judgment that they experience daily. To add to the stress, the difference today between the ideal and the real female is larger than it has ever been. “What is culturally accepted as beautiful is achieved only with great artifice - photo croppings, camera angles and composite bodies are necessary to get the pictures we now see of beautiful women” (Pipher 1994, p. 56). Most girls and boys do not know this canized. To compete economically they have to Westernize/Americanize their economies by making their markets free. With this freeing of the market, a middle class soon flourishes. And the middle class demands represen tative government. So economically and politically nations Americanize. But they also Americanize their culture, as well. They soon get a tele vision. They turn on MTV and see such things as half-naked American college students dancing around in Cancun Mexico over Spring Break. Perhaps a McDonalds pops up in their neighborhood and they can savor the All-American Big Mac. And before anyone knows it, the youth of a nation are watching Ameri can TV shows, dressing and acting like Americans, and eating like Americans. This may seem exagger ated but it is happening as we speak. Globalization is synonymous with Americanization. It was reported on Fox News, for example, that 60 percent of the Iran population is under the age of thirty. As a whole this younger 60 percent is politically opposed to their theo cratic dictator and is pro American. The empowered theocracy was out raged when on 9/11 young adults poured into the streets and lit candles to moum and honor the American vie- Ben Kundman, Editorial Page Editor '-M| TH6 J<e Got <roc^n J s J£eer <*>'<£" j^s** though and so they are unaware that the “ideal” standard of beauty is unattainable. Problems start when girls blame themselves for not reaching their impossible goal. These negative feelings can manifest in the form of eating disorders, depression, or some other emotional pathology. Boys are taught to look for this impossible ideal of beauty which they find idolized in pornography. Their later relationships with women are undoubtedly affected. I have learned all of this information at college, so 1 was surprised to see two articles in The Behrend Beacon promoting the use of Internet pornography. I guess Bush and Uncle Sam, and bum our stars and stripes. Perhaps the fundamentalists get scared and worry about women hav ing rights. Maybe they get nervous because their followers start to ques tion their way of life after seeing how the democratic half lives. And leaders of these nations also worry. How can they hold onto their tyrannical rule if the people have more knowledge about the world around them? They cannot control the Internet like they can with the TV (in example Iraq). So to hold onto power and fight progress they denounce the red white and blue as imperialistic, as “the evil snake,” and other such foolish rheto ric. Often on TV you can see these protest and the protester will be wear ing blue jeans. Now how can one pro test against America while wearing blue jeans? It is ridiculous, like their cause. They are just trying to hold onto to history and to power as progress rips them from their arms. The Middle East is the hotbed of these anti-American protests. This is because they are at odds with global ization and can afford to ignore the American cultural influence more than other areas. With their oil wealth they can just say to the wind with glo balization. They, or at least their top behrcoll2 @aol. com development that some males in this school choose to avoid all possible rejection and stick with women who can’t talk back. I failed to see the humor in reducing women to body parts. Deeper though, what is going on in a society that allows this sort of promotion and finds this funny? The fallout of American marriages could be related to the lack of encouragement for young males to look beyond a girl’s appearance when evaluating her. It is discouraging to see further evidence of this country’s backslide into sleaze at my own college. -April Hartman elite, can sit back and sell their oil for abundant wealth. They feel that they can use some of this wealth to fund some anti-Ameri can, anti-Western terrorists rings. So a bunch of them get together and blow up some of our buildings and kill our innocents. It is a pathetic, bar baric, moronic attempt to stop us. But when all is said and all is done they will realize they are fighting on the wrong side. They are fighting the most powerful nation in the world who can crush them. They are fight ing globalization (free markets, democratic regimes, and technology) and will lose against this social force as well. Oppressive dictatorships and the ocracies can never make their re gimes more appealing than a demo cratic republic and they can never offer them anything better than what a democracy delivers to an individual. The Middle East sooner or later will learn this and hitch its train to Globalization. They are not the land time left behind; they are the people who left time go by. But they can and will have to remedy this prob lem. They can’t stay in the Stone Age forever. No matter how you look at it, they are going to be defeated; no one can stop an historical trend. No body ever stopped the Industrial Revolution. Look, here’s how it is: As our na tion wages war, and rightfully so, we must understand that globalization' was the root cause of this war, or more precisely, backlash to globalization was the root cause of this war. To stop the terrorists we must reform the governments in the nations in which' they are based. We need to set up democratic regimes, show them the wonders of capitalism, and give them' all a TV and set the channel to MTV. Reschenthaler’s column appears every three week. [o{J^
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers