Friday, October 8, 2004
The Behrend Beacon
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it Opinion Page Editor Calendar Page Editor
Andy McNeil Rob Frank
BEHREND
Beacon
‘ ‘Professionalism
with a personality”
Penn State Erie,
the Behrend College;
First Floor, The J. Elmer Reed Union Building,
Station Road, Erie, PA 16563.
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ISSN 1071-9288.
Stewart:
from Chavez
Dear Linda Chavez,
I am sorry I was unable to attend your
Thursday presentation several weeks
ago. I was glad to hear that you used
my article as a rhetorical tool from
which you could make your point.
1 cannot disagree with you that bin
Laden does want a world denomina
tion —if he had his way we would all
convert to his version of extremist Is
lam —just like if Christians had their
way we would all be Christian.
But if that is all bin Laden wants, then
why does he only attack the United
States? What about China or Russia or
France or Spain? How many followers
of Islam are in these countries?
Wouldn’t he be attacking them as well?
Wouldn’t it be easier for A 1 Qaeada to
blow up their buildings?
There must be very specific reasons
why bin Laden focuses all his energy
on the United States. There has to be
more to his acts of violence than a
simple desire for attention. Yes, the U.S.
is the largest symbol of capitalism and
materialism that bin Laden opposes, but
wouldn’t he get a lot more attention if
he attacked multiple targets in multiple
countries?
His personal vendetta with the US
does not stem from an aim for world de
nomination. His hatred stems from our
entrance into his holy land, our smoth
ering attitude of democracy for all, our
attitude of: They’re potentially a threat
Rub you the wrong way;
Daniel J. Staeiewski, Editor in Chief
Amy Frizzell, Managing Editor
Courtney Kaplin, Advertising Manager
Alyssa Peconi, Public Relations Manager
Dr. Cathy Roan, Adviser
News Editor
Brad Stewart
Sports Editors Copy Editor
Sam Cibula Lacy Buzard
Sara Kamber Jenn Haight
Beacon Assistant
Carolyn M. Tellers
presents
this vear
Brad Stewart
to us, lets get them before they get us
and ignore what other countries are say-
I agree that the U.S. cannot with
drawal all its troops from Israel and the
Middle East. I am not sure what poten
tial steps would best facilitate a lessen
ing of hatred towards the U .S. But I still
believe that if the U.S. tried to pay at
tention to why terrorists were so mad,
we could potentially avoid a lot of need
less deaths.
No one can truly believe that we can
extinguish the fire of terrorism. For ev
ery terrorist the U.S. kills, two more take
his/her place. If we spent more time im
proving the image of the U.S, maybe
fewer would have such an easy time
finding a reason to hate us.
Zach Mentz/BEHREND BEACON
Student Life Editor
Lori DeFabio
news editor
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Oil vs. ketchup: Vote for the
viscous fluid of your choice!
Just as there are as many ways to skin
a cat as there are cats, there are as many
perceptions of America as there are per
sons perceiving America. Being a nation
that values freedom of thought it is natu
ral that the three hundred and some odd
million of us Americans do not agree that
every aspect of our government is on the
up and up. Disagreement is inherent in
our national character; however compro
mise, which preserves our nation, is as
well. Presidents are important because
they shape America based on how they
see it and what they want it to become.
The importance of this coming elec
tion is often stressed in vague sound
bytes which do little to evidence why it
is of such great concern. 1 believe that
the factors determining this importance,
as they truly stand, are either too deli
cate or not sexy enough for the candi
dates and the media to leverage to their
respective political and financial advan
tages. This leaves us with the highly po
larized, idealized and, most importantly,
disfigured “talking points” around which
the party lines of this election have been
drawn.
What are these “true factors" which 1
Globalization: Our 20th century sta
tus as “big kid on the block” is fading
fast and we’re going to have to learn how
to play nice. With the wealth of the world
beginning to be spread more uniformly
it is only logical that less of it will reside
in America. We must act to retain the
wealth we need to survive and progress,
even if it means reducing corporate profit
by limiting outsourcing and other prac
tices, while building fair trade relations
with the coming economic superpowers
of China and the European Union that
will, in this century, match and likely
exceed our prosperity.
Terrorism: The threat of terrorism can
never be eliminated as long as there ex
ists an America to be threatened. No can
didate or military action can return that
blissful indifference to terrorism we en
joyed before Sept. 11th. We must take
responsible precautions, but terrorism is
simply something we must come to terms
If apathy were fuel, gas would be a quarter
MTV’s Rock The Vote was in Edinboro.
There was just a debate at Case Western.
Bush was here. Edwards was here.
Cheney plans to be in Meadville soon.
How many of you took the initiative to
go see what it was all about?
What’s that? You went to
Debate Watch? Congratulations, you got
your five points. Now how many of you
went because you wanted to hear about
the issues and have an intelligent conver
sation about the debate afterwards? How
many of you were active participants?
Now that 1 have you ashamed of your
selves, what are you going to do about it?
There are a ton of political events on cam
pus this semester. The College Republi
cans and the Young Democrats are more
active now than 1 ever remember them in
my entire college career.
Political events are popping up every
where off-campus, too. Remember that
Bush and Kerry aren’t the only ones run
ning for office this year. Granted local
politics aren’t quite as exciting or contro
versial as national politics, but you would
be at suprised how much local politics re
flects the national scene.
For example, there were two re-counts
in the Clarion County election for district
attorney over the summer. (Does Florida
ring a bell?) Guess which party insisted
on the re-count. It was the Democratic
Party.
Chris Hvizdak
editorial columnist
Oil: The gas is running out, there are
more people demanding it than ever and
the price is NEVER going to go back
down. An army moves on its stomach
as the United States moves on oil (as
well as natural gas and other fossil fu
els.) We're not going to be living “Mad
Max" by the end of the decade, but be
cause our economy is based on fossil
fuel energy, the price of everything will
continue to inflate more rapidly because
of the increased cost of fuel. There are
no magic solutions; everything is going
to cost more; we must learn to economi
cally cope with the situation.
Bearing these points in mind it is ob
vious that the means by which America
has survived over the last fifty years
have become unviable today and impos
sible tomorrow. The true choice in this
election is beyond the scope of one man
versus another or one party versus an
other, but rather the choice between per
ceptions of America.
The choice with which we are faced
is one between conservative extremism
and what I consider by comparison mod
erate politics. George Bush is focused
on conserving the questionable econom
ics of an America which no longer ex
ists and in terms of foreign relations and
domestic social issues building an
America which should never exist.
These observations are evident in his
economic policies which favor corpo
rations rather than people, his social ini
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Lacy Buzard
copy editor
The republican candidate won in the
original tally of the votes, but the oppos
ing candidate insisted that the count was
biased. The republican was still sworn
in by the governor, but the controversy
continued.
In the first re-co:int, the result ended
in a tie
In the last re-count, the republican
came out one vote ahead, but here’s
where it gets interesting. Just by chance,
there was one ballot that was not prop
erly filled out. The ballot was counted
as a vote for the republican candidate.
The voter had filled in the mark for the
democratic candidate and then crossed
it out and filled in the mark for the re
publican, much the same as when you
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The Behrend Beacon |
tiatives which limit stem cell research
to appease fundamentalist Christians
and his foreign policy which seeks to
rebuild the world in our image.
When taken in conjunction with his
my way or the highway “with us or
against us” rhetoric and his
administration’s combative attitude to
ward Republican lawmakers who pub
licly disagree with his positions, it is
obvious that George Bush is an inflex
ible extremist, incapable of developing
a new America for a new century.
I could simply beat the anti-Bush
drum and define George W. Bush as an
ignorant puppet for a cadre of impossi
bly rich, absolutely amoral, big busi
ness elites (i.e. George H.W. Bush, Ken
Lay of Enron, Dick Cheney) who hi
jacked the 2000 election through vile
tactics and has used the presidency for
no purpose other than to fuel his nihil
istic agenda of reelection and the ter
rorization of the vast majority of Ameri
cans who don not make millions of dol
lars a year
In so many words, I could say that
Bush is a tool, an investment even, for
the ultra-rich who have an unquench
able greed, but no value for human life.
That’s my perception of George Bush
and by my judgment and that of many,
many other Americans my perception
would be absolutely correct.
However I realize that I am unlikely
to get many people of moderate or right
wing political persuasion to agree on
my negative perception of those points.
I also recognize that it is my duty as an
American to work for the betterment of
all people while upholding the basic
freedoms our nation is built upon. 1 both
respect the right of those who disagree
with me to do so and welcome the op
portunity to pursue solutions which all
parties find satisfactory. 1 am willing
to compromise. If all Americans are to
survive and prosper under the condi
tions which we now find ourselves sub
ject, our leaders must be willing to do
so as well.
Let’s make sure that in 25 days we
pick the leaders willing to do so.
cross out an answer you made on a test
and fill in a different circle. At any rate,
this ballot was not counted in the end
and the race was once again head-to
head.
One last thing, the judge, who I be
lieve is a democrat, decided to take one
more vote away from the republican.
The Clarion News didn’t mention why
this vote was taken away, so we can just
make our own assumptions. Guess who
won? When I came back to Behrend in
August, the democratic candidate was
just waiting for the governor to swear
her in.
Of course this isn’t the way the na
tional election turned out in 2000. Luck
ily there is more than one judge on the
Supreme Court to make decisions about
the presidential elections. However, we
can still see just how much the two cir
cumstances resemble each other, even
in a county as small and seemingly in
significant as Clarion.
So here’s my point: If you want to
take an active role, but can’t make it to
tonight’s debate in St. Louis, look at
what’s going on in the local government.
There just happens to be a race for Con
gress going on in Erie right now, look
there for some coverage and maybe even
some first-hand experience. Go out and
get your questions answered!
THAT’S
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