Ben Kundman, Editorial Page Editor
behrcoll2 @aol. com
The Behrend Beacon
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ii Beacon
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The View From the Lighthouse
Never, never, never take American
hostages... And did we mention never?
As most are aware, kid
napped Wall Street Journal
reporter Danny Pearl was
murdered by his captives. By
all accounts Pearl was an
excellent journalist, an outgo
ing individual, and an all
around great guy with an
expectant wife.
His execution shows the type
of people with which we are
dealing. The organization that kidnapped Pearl was making
all sorts of demands, ranging from better treatment of the
Camp X-Ray prisoners to the handing over of sums of
money.
There are a few who believe that the U.S. should have
tried to cooperate with the terrorists and made an attempt
to barter for Pearl's safe release.
This sounds somewhat logical, but it would not have
worked. First, the terrorists probably would have just
made more demand. Second, more than likely they would
not have relesed Pearl anyhow, and third, if they did, every
terrorist organization would start to kidnap more Ameri
cans.
The way we need to answer these acts is to make it
known to the terrorists that the U.S. will strike back with
all due force upon anyone, any where, who kidnaps an
American and holds them for ransom.
If a state can not police its own citizens then Uncle Sam
should. To prevent another horrible Pearl-like tragedy, we
need to set an example and lay down some policies to let
the anti-American, anti-Israeli, anti-West people of the
world know that we will strike back, even for one Ameri
can. We must establish that an attack on one US national is
an attack on the entire U.S.
They won't be thinking about kidnapping any more
Americans when we are dragging them to Guantanomo
Bay. No one ever messed with the kid on the playground
who would hit back. Everyone always picked on the nerd
because they knew he’d take it. Well, America is no nerd.
We must let it be known that if you take down one of us we
are going to take down a lot of you.
To take away the kidnapping tool from the mechanics of
evil we must illustrate to them that we won't put up with
their hijinks; their barbaric and heartless acts. We should
not negotiate, give in, and so on, we should simply try to
rescue our citizen and if he/she is treated in the same
brutal, uncivilized, evil manner in which Danny Pearl was
then we should strike back, arrest the perpetrators,and take
them to one of our camps so they can stand trial for the
crimes they committed.
And to all those who say otherwise, America should step
into the real world, remove the pocket protector, and punch
the bully in the face.
Editor-In-Chief
Robert Wynne
Managing Editor
Rebecca Weindorf
Professional Publication Mgr.
Dave Richards
Advisor
Mr. John Kerwin
The Beacon encourages
letters to the editor. Letters
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standing, and major of the
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must be received no later than
5 p.m. Monday for inclusion in
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“Professionalism
with a Personality”
that week’s issue
EDITORIAL
Not an A-F girl
Unoriginality is so uninspiring.
Some of the things that irk me the most
are a) People who seemingly try to fol
low age-old stereotypes; b) People who
let others define who they are; and c)
People who buy into everything that is
mainstream American. One of the
greatest gifts humans possess is imagi
nation; why then, I ask, don’t more
people use it?
My initial viewing of the movie
“Animal House” occurred a few weeks
before I began college. I must say, this
movie definitely deserves a privileged
place in fine American cinema. How
ever, I feel that some have taken the
movie entirely too literally. It seems
to be understood by many that college
is a time to “get it all out of your sys
tem” and all too often I encounter “stu
dents” who seem to be making great
efforts to model their lives on the binge
drinking, sub 2.0 G.P.A. frat brothers
of Faber College. Don’t get me wrong;
I am always up for a good party. I just
do not think that the peak of one’s col
lege experience should be keg stands
and countless nights falling asleep in a
drunken stupor.
Another aspect of life that seriously
annoys me is whenever the current pop
princesses and boy-band members re
fer to themselves as artists. Not even
Madonna had the audacity to refer to
herself as an artist in her early years;
rather, she preferred the term enter
tainer. Besides the fact that these pop
icons do not write, produce, or play any
instruments, their images are pretty
much determined by some mogul in the
music business. One of the greatest
things about being a musician is being
From beer to Girl Scouts
in Ireland have crafted
a way to provide the
Ryan Anthony brisk taste of Guinness
; — draught in a bottle. The
cdi local columnist widget is a fine piece of
craftsmanship that Arthur Guinness
himself would be proud of. I hereby
nominate for the Nobel Prize the
engineer who developed a cylinder
of plastic with wings that releases a
controlled amount of carbonation
proportioned to the angle at which the
bottle is tilted towards the Guinness
gods in the sky. I raise a pint to you,
oh great engineer. Now hold on
while I fetch myself a draught to keep
me from becoming parched while I
write the rest of this article.
Ahh, that’s refreshing. Now, to
continue. Have you ever heard of a
band called Radiohead? I know you
have; they sing that “Creep” song
everyone knows. Yeah, well they
sing a lot more than that. Check them
out. Once you start listening to their
stuff, anything else you hear on the
radio will sound like Ace of Base.
Radiohead’s artistry is far beyond
anybody else I have ever heard. No
wonder they are huge in England.
At this exact time in history, there
are a lot of things running through my
mind; they wouldn’t dare walk. I
don’t really care about much right
now, so for lack of anything else, I
share with you a sample of the
randomness that could be scattering
through my stream of consciousness
in any given moment.
Oh glorious Guinness Stout, the
nectar of the gods. 1 may usually
make fun of engineers in my
editorials, but I have found a reason
for their existence. After all those
classes talking about buying or selling
x number of widgets, it’s great to
finally know what professors have
been talking about. Some genius
engineer, most likely an Irish beer
guzzler, came up with a use for the
seemingly useless term, “widget.” It
is truly amazing that the fine laddies
I So you want to take a road
J familiar with
Undressed from Rumours
j j nightclub, we
trie neck lip don’t know much
else about the
| Becky Weindorf
I have this class, see. About 25
other people share this class with me
at 10 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays,
and Fridays, and all we talk about is
postcolonial literature. I mean, that’s
what the class is - studies of
postcolonial literature.
Anyway, what better time to sit
back and discuss Canadian
postcolonial literature? In light of the
Olympics, surprising gold medals,
and our upcoming spring break,
several students have been looking
towards the North and asking, “Where
the hell did they come from?”
Let’s admit it - even though most
19-20 year olds on campus are
Friday, March 1, 2002
able to project your unique self-image
and style to millions
Amanda Prisrhak of Today it
amanaa rnscnaK see ms that the goal is
t'difoiAi columnist' to a PP eal t 0 a l most
everyone; for instance, be
the Virgin Mary in interviews and wear
next to nothing on a magazine cover.
While it is important to have a large
fan base, when did it become neces
sary to sacrifice identity in order to
please everyone?
I was one of the few people who
weren’t happy when Abercrombie and
Fitch opened. I am glad Abercrombie
wearing-Erieites no longer have to
PAY to receive an Abercrombie cata
logue, but to me this company seems
to propagate an idea of what an Ameri
can youth should be. One only has to
look at Abercrombie’s entirely Cauca
sian crew of models, most with blonde
hair and excessively thin bodies, to un
derstand my point.
I am especially amused when
Abercrombie makes shirts with say
ings like “Rock Star” on them or when
they feature an indie artist in their cata
logue. As if the people at Abercrombie
listen to anything other than synthe-
sized pop.
I do believe however that
Abercrombie makes well designed
pants for those of us on the short side
and I do buy an occasional pair of kha
kis from them. I will never buy a shirt
with their logo splashed across the
front because I don’t appreciate the odd
conformist image they project.
Being an individual does not mean
you must dye your hair an unnatural
color or sporting piercings in unusual
body parts. Just don’t be so quick to
adopt what society and others deem as
“normal.” As a great musical artist
once said, simply “express yourself.”
Prischak’s column appears every
. ... the American
managing editor out|oot on Cana(la
“Why would we want to
visit America Jr.?”
(And let me clear that up, too.
Canada, like America, was first
colonized by the British. America is
also considered postcolonial, so
remember that before you refer to
Canada as another United State).
This year, for spring break, I took
the customary week off to figure out
where I wanted to go. The last two
years I had visited my aunt and uncle
in Maine and Maine’s legendary
Sunday River ski resort. Instead of
hitting up Mexico or Florida without
my usual summer tan, my ftancd and
I decided to head up north to Toronto,
Ontario.
three weeks.
Letters to the Editor
Beacon Staff and Beacon Readers,
According to the advertising supplement that appeared two weeks ago in the
beacon, life is full of surprises. We were quite surprised when we opened thp
seemingly benign advertisement and found it to be a pro-life flier. Our surprise
turned to anger. We’re surprised the Beacon would include an advertisement
advocating the repeal of legitimate legal rights of women, giving misinformation
that is speculative, biased, and inflammatory.
The cover of this supplement contains a surprised woman dressed in typical
’so’s attire. Nowhere on the cover is the word “abortion” mentioned. There is
not hint at what the supplement actually contains. Manipulative advertising,
plain and simple. On the inside cover of the supplement there is a headline
claiming “We’re Not In The Fifties Anymore,” this suggesting that whatever
we’re about to read represents progress. The ’sos’s were a time of conservative
values and restrictive gender roles. Abortion was not legal until the ’7o’s with
the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. Pro-lifers want to make abortion illegal,
and by doing so, they advocate a return to the conservative values and politics
of the ’so’s.
Not everyone on this campus is pro-life. Coming from a publication said to
represent the University population, this supplement was preposterous. Why
was there not a pro-choice flier included? That way, readers could have been
exposed to both sides of the abortion debate. There is a growing and alarming
trend in the Beacon to represent only the ideas and beliefs of the Beacon staff.
Or
Please email !•«•«, l»th w»d negative to ttw
• editor! Typed lattetfe wHI no longer |»e acMptwi.
Now, one band that is not huge in
England, or anywhere else outside of
Philadelphia for that matter, is G Love
and Special Sauce. Damn, they make
some fun music. They’d be a lot
better concert this year than Sugar
Ray. I am sure you have heard
something by them before. Ever see
that MGD commercial that starts off
“Yo, could I get a cold beverage?”
Yeah, that’s them.
Girl Scout cookies just got here last
week. That leaves me three boxes of
dinner for the week.
Did any of you read that letter to
the editor last week about
pornography disrupting the minds of
youths? How ridiculous was that?
Internet pom is the savior to every
pimple-faced geek who is too
embarrassed to shell out the cash at
7-11 for his own magazines. It’s no
more damaging than MTV, FOX, and
half the other cable channels. Plus,
these kids are keeping their
“business” to themselves rather than
going out and getting busy. And you
can’t blame these girls because their
mothers are only 15 years older than
them. Internet pom is not that bad.
This in part was my fiance’s idea
so he could get me to walk on the
infamous glass floor in the CN Tower.
But really, can you miss Toronto
without hitting up the Eaton Centre,
which boasts more than 4 million
shoppers every week? Nah. And the
nightlife? To die for. Spencer (all
right, so 1 finally gave my mysterious
partner a name) learned a little French
in high school, too. So there you go.
We tackled the bilingual thing, no
problem.
In case you’re wondering, the best
place to book your hotel room is
online. Downtown, center Toronto,
$7O a night. You can’t get much
cheaper than that. And so what if it’s
cold? You’re in the Great White
North, for crying out loud! Where all
sorts of exotic animals, like buffalo
and moose, live! Find your fleece
lined clubbing clothes (as we should
all have in gray Erie) and pack ’em
up.
Here’s a little information on
Canada before you go: Do you know
The Behrend Beacon
Nicole Johns and Jaimi Bonczar
What is bad is young people having
unprotected sex so they can make
babies to be raised by 15-year-old
single mothers,
In my eyes, there are even 30-year
old women who are unfit to be
mothers. Anybody who has worked
in retail or any job interacting with
the public could tell you this. People
can be so utterly stupid, and it is the
stupidest of the stupid who are
pushing the strollers. If you plan to
have a kid, you better plan to have a
spouse to raise him or her with. A
child whose only influences during
the first and most impressionable
years of his or her life come from one
parent is probably going to be
screwed up in one way or another.
Get a man in there and teach the little
tyke how to play catch and load a
rifle.
Again, I am only half way through
my rant and I am out of space, so until
next time, Salainte!
Anthony's column appears every
three weeks.
trip, eh?
how much of a pain it is to purchase
things with American money and get
Canadian change back? Not to
mention that sorting through two
different currencies makes you look
like a tourist (Ok, so everyone knows
you’re a tourist, but the double
currencies make you a BLAZING
tourist).
There is absolutely no parking in
Toronto. I’m talking nowhere to put
your vehicle. You think Behrend is
bad? Ha. Try underground parking
lots. They can’t even fit them above
ground. At $2O per day per vehicle,
you better believe you’ll be paying
just to bring a car into the city. Either
way, our four-day weekend will cost
us about $7O extra just to park in the
underground lot at our hotel.
And only Rick Moranis and Dave
Thomas can get away with saying
“eh?” at the end of every sentence.
Weindorf’s column appears every
three weeks.
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