Eileen Falkenberg, Editorial Page Editor
The Behrend Beacon
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News Editors
Courtney Straub
Justin Curry
Sports Editors
Kevin Fiorenzo
Amy Frizzell
Editorial Page Editor
Eileen Falkenberg
Features Editor
Erika Jarvis
Greek Life Editor
Eileen Falkenberg
Staff Photographers
Jeff Hankey
Heather Myers
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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.
Contact The Beacon at:
Telephone: (814) 898-6488
Fax: (814) 898-6019
ISSN 1071-9288.
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. Monday for inclusion in that week's issue. The
Beacon reserves the right to edit letters for length, content, libel,
spelling, and grammar.
Counting down to the beginnin
by Amy Wilczynski
calendar page editor
Six months until I graduate from col
lege and the fear of the unknown is re
ally beginning to set in. For the past
17 years, the main thing in my life has
been school. I have always had school
in my future. It was always, "well af
ter school" or "after I finish college."
So now what? The next step of my
life will no longer involve homework,
group projects and research papers.
Not that it's a bad thing, but reality is
looming around me and every other
graduating college student. It's scary.
Who's afraid of the real world? I am!
Who wants to be part of the real
world where lenders are sending bills
to finally start paying off all those hard
years of college? Who wants to get a
"real job?" Who wants to work Mon
day through Friday, 9 to 5?
As I see it, we have it easy as col
lege students, other than all the school
work that is involved. Who else can
close the local bars every week during
quarter drafts and still be able to func
tion the next morning with a hangover
at 8 a.m.? Only a college student can
do such a thing.
Within the next six months of my
college career, I will need to find a job
and figure out what to do with myself
after I graduate. Will I stay in Erie?
Will I move away? Will I even be able
to find a job in the struggling
Filibusters are the epitome of partisan sues until the issue is taken from the table lenced by this practice. When politicians
politics and need to stop. The elimina- and killed. are ignoring this voice, it shows the cor
tion of this practice would be a great step Almost always the filibusters are used ruption that is perceived as rampant
towards cleaning up two of the dirty by the party not in power (the minority) throughout politics.
words about politicians: partisanism and to stop the party in power (the majority) Ignoring what is best for the nation for
corruption. from passing legislation. This is the sake of your party or your own per-
For those of you unfamiliar with the partisanism in its ugliest form. sonal interests is wrong and gives the Sen
filibuster, it is a political tool found in Both parties are very guilty of doing this, ate a black eye. This clearly illustrates
the United States Senate. Filibusters ex- and so they are both wrong. Democrats where the average person can get the im
tend debate for an unlimited period of are filibustering President Bush's ideas pression that politicians are corrupt and
time and were intended to facilitate bet- just as Republicans when in the minority weasel-like.
ter conversation on issues. have filibustered Democratic president's The abolition of filibusters would be a
Instead, it has been perverted to be a and senators ideas. great step for democracy, and an image
means to not allow voting on sensitive Whatever party is in power has re- shift for politicians everywhere.
issues. Instead of voting on the issue, ceived a mandate from the people of this The Beacon's Editorial View is decided
Senators discuss borderline irrelevant is- nation, and the people's wishes are si- by majority view of the editorial staff
r
disagreeP disagreeP disagreeP disagreeP disagreeP disagreeP I
write your opinion to The B I
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is ow gm ... a
Editor in Chief
Lauren Packer
Managing Editor
Robert Wynne
Assistant Managing Editor
Scott Soitis
Calendar Page Editor
Amy Wilczynski
A&E Editor
Daniel J. Stasiewski
Healthy Living Editors
Courtney Straub
Erika Jarvis
THE BEHREND Adviser
Beacon Cathy L. Roan, Ph.D
Copy Editors
"A newspaper by the Carolyn M. Tellers
students for the students" Kristin Bowers
economy? Will I get married? Will I
have kids now or wait a few years?
I hear many stories about people
who go to college and never use their
education. Some people may work in
an opposite career than what they ma
jored in, while others become stay at
home moms.
After spending mega bucks on col
lege, I will definitely be using my edu
cation. I just wish I had the slightest
idea as to what I will be doing.
There are a lot of good things about
graduating, too. No more group
projects! We all know what a pain it is
getting everyone together at the same
time. No more all-nighters, either! I
might actually get my required eight
hours of sleep a night.
With the good inevitably comes the
bad, the sad and the disappointments.
No more going to class in our pajama
pants because we woke up too late to
shower and make ourselves look pre
sentable. It'll be business suits and un
comfortable shoes for the rest of our
lives! Ahhh! On the other hand, those
"costumes" we will have to wear each
day will earn us a salary.
I am really going to miss all my col
lege buddies. They may be the friends
we got drunk with for the first time in
our lives, or the friends that helped us
study our Spanish vocabulary so we
wouldn't have to spend another gru
eling semester trying to learn the lan
guage.
Before we know it, we will be liv-
Mki!lilLl!
Advertising Manager
Ryan Russell
Friday, November 14, 2003
Patriot Act assaults my freedoms
This past week Al Gore gave a
speech in which he accused the Bush
administration of taking advantage of
Americans' fear of terrorism and us
ing it for political gain. President Bush
has proven over and over again that he
will stop at nothing for his own politi
cal gain.
Take the war with Iraq for example.
He exploited Americans' fears of ter
rorism in much the same way for the
war as he did for the Patriot Act. In
both situations, American citizens lost
a great amount, while Bush gained
ground politically.
Shortly after the attacks on the twin
towers, the U.S. pushed a 342 page
Patriot Act through Congress on
Oct. 26, 2001. The Bush adminis-
tration bullied its way into having the
act passed. Now I, along with every
other citizen of America, am going to
pay the consequences for a panicked
government and hastily reached deci
sion by members of Congress, who
barely had time to read the bill, let
alone debate the bill before it was
passed into law.
The Patriot Act is made of many sec
tions. A very important section 215
serves to expand the ability of law en
forcement to even greater powers than
before. The FBI can tap into highly
personal medical and mental health
records, library records, conduct secret
searches, conduct wire to es, obtain fi-
ing on opposite sides of the country,
desperately trying to survive without
the comfort of knowing your best
friend lives right down the hall. We will
go to work in an office all day, come
home, cook dinner, watch the local
news, and go to bed. How boring that
sounds!
It's time for us to move on with our
lives. Some will go to graduate school
and become lawyers and doctors. Oth
ers will move to a big city and fight
their way into crowded elevators to get
to their job on the 27'h floor of a sky
scraper.
Others will stay right here in the
small town of Erie and work for a de
partment store for the rest of their lives.
Wherever we end up in the future, we
will all be proud to say we are gradu
ates from Penn State Erie-the Behrend
College.
As for me, I have no idea where my
future will take me. I want to get mar
ried, buy a house, start a family and do
all those other "grown up" things. But
for now, I still have a good six months
of being a Penn State college student.
At least I am prepared for all the un
certainty of the future. I don't have an
exact plan, but after I graduate I will
pack my bags, move where I have to
for work, and actually grow up. I can't
say I am ready to face reality yet, and
in six months I doubt that will change.
But I have to be strong, get up and
move on with my life. And that's what
I am going to do, I'm moving 0n...
nancial statements, and can even
probe into student records (yes, the
very records that Penn State holds on
all of us) without probable cause or a
search warrant. All law enforcement
officials have to say is that it is for
intelligencepurposes and bingo, they
~ :::
~ ` ~ ~~, -X
know, it's the one
that protects us
from unrea
• ?A sonable
"~ searches
and -
Lauren Packer
(071'01 -ht chief zures.
The government can't conduct a
search without showing probable
cause to believe the person has com
mitted a crime.
But hey, what's one amendment
anyway, right? Wrong. In total, there
are at least six amendments that are
being threatened by the Patriot Act.
Gag orders can be issued to prevent
those who were ordered to disclose in
formation from telling others about
the order. So we can now strike the
First Amendment, the one that guar
antees us the freedom of religion,
speech, assembly and press, from our
list.
And
o ahead and cross off the
I II 'II I' II I - I ; II
My name is Kevin Gillespie, and I was
born into a cross-cultural family. My
American father worked for the U.S Gov
ernment in Germany, and was lucky enough
to meet my German mother during this
time. Having a German mother and an
American father, I truly feel I was raised
cross-culturally. Cross-Culturalism in my
opinion is whenever we learn and possibly
adopt certain cultural values and traditions
from a given culture. This can be as simple
as respecting others' cultural differences.
I was raised speaking two languages; how
ever, I speak both with a slight accent. I
can easily adapt to the environment around
me; yet, I am either too German or too
American somehow. I carry two passports,
and get weird looks from airport security
at times.
Personally, I feel that international stu
dents tend to take on many things such as
language, slang, traditions etc. Perhaps na
tionals can be more sensitive to them, see
what cultural awareness can add into their
lives, and become part of the foreigners'
All she wants is to tell
the truth .8. for a price
It must be hard to be Jessica Lynch
these days. Forced into the public eye by
the military's propaganda ... er ... public
relations arm, Lynch and her woman-war
rior tale is exactly what the Army needed
to make the War in Iraq more digestible,
despite Lynch's objections.
Of course, most people who don't want
the publicity won't take a $1 million book
deal.
Lynch has taken every opportunity to
contest the military's hyperbolic rescue
story, getting more network face time than
Martha Stewart on a bad day for the
Dow. But Lynch's stoi
engaging the American'
the military wanted and
posedly didn't.
The sales of her biogn
Am a Solider, Too,
haven't been anything to
celebrate, with Variety
reporting little interest
from the major
metropolitation retail
booksellers. And
Daniel J. Stasiewski
even "The Andy
Griffith Reunion"
managed to bring in
nearly 6 million more viewers than
Lynch's Tuesday interview with Diane
Sawyer on ABC.
The saddest point in her post rescue
grasp at celebrity, still remains the "un
authorized" telefilm, "Saving Jessica
Lynch," which dramatizes the events sur
rounding her rescue from the perspective
of the Iraqi doctor-savior. It did well in
the ratings, but not well enough to beat
the Elizabeth Smart's harrowing tail of
kidnap and rescue.
Selling your kidnapping story for cash
so that other people can be entertained
by your suffering is sleazy, but remem-
So that strikes the
Fourth Amendment
from my list of
freedoms. You
The Behrend Beacon
Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth
amendments from your list of rights.
Those all are being threatened by the
Patriot Act. Perhaps our government
is right.. Why our government
feels that we shouldn't be afforded
rights such as free speech, freedom
from unreasonable searches and sei
zures, due process of the law, a right
to a speedy trial, a right to be informed
of the facts of an accusation and have
the assistance of counsel, the right to
be free from unreasonable bail or un
usual punishments, or that all people
in our country, citizens and non-citi
zens, should be entitled to due process
and equal protection of our rights, is
beyond me.
To top things off, our government,
in an effort to be like Hollywood, is
providing us with a sequel. The Pa
triot Act 2 will soon hit theatres, er,
real life, if we don't do something
about this.
The Bush administration and the
supporters of the Patriot Act seem to
think that we would be safer without a
checks and balance system, or at least
that is they are implying with the pas
sage of the Patriot Act and its sequel.
It's too bad that our government feels
that in order to be safer from terrorists
we have to give up our own personal
freedoms. In the end, isn't that what
the terrorists want?
culturalization. This would be ideal as op
posed to the weird stares and mocking that
international students must often endure.
When I first came to the Behrend cam
pus this year I was glad to have found my
niche within the International Student Or
ganization. This club is for everyone. They
accepted me with open arms, and the mem
bers are revealing their cultural ideals to me
as I am to them. We really hope to have
more American friends soon, so don't hesi-
tate to stop on by.
Before ending, I would like to speak of
culture shock. That's when entering a new
country, you arrive, and say to yourself "oh
my gosh, what is wrong with these people"
but eventually you meet nice people who
help calm your woes, and allow you to par
take in their culture. Do British people drive
on the wrong side of the road? Or do they
merely drive on the other side of the road?
The days of mono-cultural ignorance are
dying.
ber, no one else died in the 14-year-old
Salt Lake City girl's rescue. Lynch had a
responsibility to the 12 members of 507th
Maintenance Company who died in their
ambush and their living families to tact
fully turn down interviews, at least for a
few years before profiting off a national
tragedy.
Instead, Pvt. Lynch is out getting her
picture taken with Britney Spears for
Glamour Magazine's Women of the Year
celebration. It's impossible to believe a
woman making a profit off her quasi-ac
tivism against military lies doesn't
ire than a chance to sim
her side of the story.
Lynch's take-the
and-run reaction to the
if cash thrown her way
iy greedier media execu
tives isn't only an slap
to the families of her
fallen comrades, but
an insult to the POWs
who fought for this
country and paid a
price with only a
medal in return.
And now
Lynch is crying because topless photos of
her before the Iraq incident have surfaced.
If her porno moment is published, it's only
her fault. Hey, if you want your face on
the cover of Time, then there's no reason
you shouldn't expect it on the cover of
Hustler.
I don't want to call an "American hero"
a media-whore, but she is. When the cir
cus around her story dies down, Lynch
won't be done. Nobody who can take $1
million in blood money ever is. It's only
a matter of time before Miss America ends
up on an installment of "Celebrity Survi
vor," or better yet, poses in Penthouse.
Page
Kevin Gillespie
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