I The Behrend Beacon Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. - The First Ammendment to the U.S. Constitution Behrend's computers work too slow Want to print out a cheat sheet between classes? Too had; it will take you 10 minutes to log in, open Word and print it out. That's ridiculous. When you click on "Word" in the start menu, the computer doesn't actu ally start Word. It starts a script to check the version of Word, and download it if nobody's used Word on that computer before. Last week's Ask ASCII explained how to get around that, but you shouldn't have to. The computers at Penn State U.P. don't take that long to start programs; the students there don't have to learn tricks if they want to get work done quickly. Why should we? Every Sunday, all the lab computers are updated remotely and then rebooted. Why can't we apply the new version of Word then? Why can't we install Word when we set up the computers for the first time? Then you don't need to wait if you're using a program eso teric enough that nobody's used it on your computer Journalism Journalism is a profession that is of immense signif icance in a democratic republic. The "fourth estate" has a responsibility to hold the government by the throat and demand integrity, transparency or both; and to protect the people from unjust attack by advo cating the cause of the defensible. In the evolution of media communications, readership now represents profit; the success of tactics which increase reader ship without fulfilling media responsibilities has led to a decline in the American people's capability for oversight. One appeal to readership is the manufacturing of conflict misrepresented as the presentation of alter nate opinions. In many cases to this point, the media has brought to light some of the most on-the-fringe and extremist contributors who may or may not have had substantial claims, and whose substantial claims have many times been ignored. Florida's Terry Schiavo case, a case of the rights of guardianship and the determination of the extent of life due to docu mented brain inactivity, became the caricature of debate when, despite the non-presence of most of that woman's brain, "experts" were propped up by the side in support of moral concern. Outright lies replaced debate in that case and also have in the case of poli tics in recent times. An outstanding event was the "gay marriage debate" presented not as a case of equal protection under the 14th amendment but instead as a terrible threat to the virtue of America and the daily life of Americans. A second appeal to readership has been the utiliza tion of sensationalism to draw the crowd from increasingly more extreme and unique fictions por- Quote of the Week "What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebel lion? What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resist ance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, par don and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." Letter to the Editor From now until February, you will hear people talking about THON. You will see THON signs around the cam pus asking for your help. What exactly is THON? THON is the Penn State University IFC/Panhellenic Dance MaraTHON. It is the largest student-run philanthropy in the world and a Penn State tradition. THON is a year round fundraising event benefiting The Four Diamonds Fund, Conquering Childhood Cancer at the Penn State Children's Hospital in Hershey, PA. After students raise money all year for kids with can cer and their families, that is when the real fun begins. The fundraising year ends with 700 dancers from all over the Penn State campuses and thousands of other support ers packed into Rec Hall at University Park for a 48-hour no sitting, no sleeping dance marathon. I was one of the four dancers from Behrend last year, and it was a very emotional and eye-opening experience. Now I have stayed up for 48 hours before, but having to be up and moving for those hours was the most diffi cult task I have ever performed. I couldn't even com plain about being sick, tired, in pain, or wanting to sit down and relax though because it just seemed so trivial SubmissioniGuidelines The Beacon welcomes readers to share their views on, this page. All submissions must include the writer's year in school, major Letters and commentary pieces can be submitted by email to opin- and name as The Beacon does not publish anonymous letters. ion@psu.edu or directly to the Beacon office, located in the Reed Deadline for any submission is 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon for inclu- Building. sion in the Friday issue. All submissions are considered, but because Letters should be limited to 350 words and commentaries should of space limitations, some may not be published. be limited to 700 words. The more concise the submission, the less All submissions must include consent to be edited before they can we will be forced to edit it for space concerns and the more likely we be edited for publication. By Logan Stack staff writer ASCll(q'psu.edu troubled but significant By John Bigus jtb244@psu.edu staff writer OPINION The wireless VPN here is severely lacking as well. At U.P. campus, the VPN works. Here, it disconnects everyone every 15 minutes. When you're disconnect ed, all downloads stop, streaming music fizzles, and your AIM messages get redirected hack to your other sign -on location (like hack at the dorm.) The dorm connections, at least in Ohio, are poor too. My testing showed more than a one percent down time - about 15 minutes a day. That could he accept able, except that it's at random intervals in the middle of the day, not scheduled outages for a 3 a.m. network upgrade. The network problems may not he an easy fix. Tracking down a failing component can he hard. The slow programs on lab computers are easy to fix. It could even he done with the weekly upgrade. The computer center should do it next week, so that they can have extra techs stay through the upgrade to make sure everything is working. Bring us up to par with the other big campus of Penn State. trayed in television and print. The most obvious evi dence of this is the delivery of immense volumes of "fluff" such as articles relating to interesting sights in the local area, totally irrelevant in their uniquity and having no effect on the reader. The second proof is the heart-wrenching, the gut-twisting, and the non- representative extremist stories presented as "major" during the slowest news periods and as filler across the board. The kidnapping stories, which tend to appear all over major cable news during late summer, are a disgusting example of misrepresentation and a bid at gaining viewership: the most recent extensive Justice Department study stated,"in the year 1999, an estimated 797,500 children were reported missing; 58,200 children were abducted by nonfamily mem bers; 115 children were the victims of the most seri ous, long-term nonfamily abductions called 'stereo typical kidnappings': and 203,900 children were the victims of family abductions." While these are tragic, reporting on tragedy. family experiences and the lives of a handful of children is not the hardcore journalism might be represented by an unbelievable number of other stories: statistical facts, actions toward justice nationwide, and what can be done to improve the sys tem, among other things. Books can and have been written about sensationalism. Terry Schiavo was not a case of advoEacy in its lack of connection to the rights of citizens; gay marriage did not present insight into the actions a corrupt judi cial system: fire trucks on Saltzman Road do not affect the lives of students here at Behrend, despite being constructed in 1964 by GM, having a house built on the hack, and being run in parades every few years. Journalism is an invaluable tool of the citizens of a democratic republic and the media as the avatar of the people has responsibilities to uphold. compared to what these kids are going through. When I was six, I was thinking about what I was going to do at recess and when my parents were going to take me to Toys `R Us. At six, these kids are thinking about their next chemotherapy treatment and wonder why they can't do things like the "normal kids." And when they are on the floor with you and the parents are crying because their child is happy and laughing for once, the pain turns into the best feeling in the world knowing that you are making a difference in a child's life. Last year, after 48 hours of dancing was over, the total was revealed. After students from all over spent hours in the freezing cold with cans on the street, after going door to door in every neighborhood, after millions of donation letters, and after 48 hours of dancing, we broke the record. $4,122,486.85 for the kids in the 2004-2005 school year. THON is a big piece of my heart, and I encourage each and every one of you reading this to let it be a part of yours. You won't regret it. —Thomas Jefferson For the kids, Deanna (Dee) Sieberkrob ZACK MENT, . . Beacon Thumbs Up dikl I 4 1 / 4 . 61 . LOlll, Geri - Bruno's casher extrordinare - Journey to a Hate Free Millenium. The "Million Dollar Elevator" being on the same level of your arrival. • Beacon Thumbs Down - 0 VP' `MI6 - Loud roommate keystrokes in wee hours. - Classroom clocks not adjusted for daylight savings. Lack of a crosswalk between the library and the Junker Center. The Behrend Beacon 1111 I\N, I.lv by tl I II I Annie Sevin, Editor in Chief Rob Frank, Managing Editor Courtney Kaplin, Advertising Manager Randy Martell, Public Relations Manager Kim Young, Adviser THEBEHREND Beacon Assistant News Editor Patrick Webster Penn State Erie, The Behrend College Contact the Beacon at: First Floor, The J. Elmer Reed Telephone: (814) 898-6488 Union Building Fax: (814) 898-6019 Station Road, Erie, PA 16563 Friday, November 4, 2005 -E241 0 1 k apP "ft 1 News Editor Jennifer Haight Sports Editor Chris LaFuria Opinion Editor Chris Hvizdak Cartoonist Zack Mentz Photography Editor Michelle Vera Suroviec Op 4, IP" 'Nab i NP Student Life Editor KJ Margraff Jr. Calendar Editor Siobhan Conway Humor Editor Jerry Pohl Copy Editors Kate Kelecseny Rachael Conway Allison Gray Tracie Kendziora Justin Plansinis
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers