Du :Icon Friday, December 7, 2007 ongressiona candidate Foust campaigns at B ehrend By Rachel Reeves copy editor who had served for six years previous. During that term. he re-established the Human Relations Commission for Erie, and stabilized the county library system. Foust says that one of his top priorities was to "attend two meetings of every principality and borough I represent. - This is something that he is completing for his term on Council, and plans to carry into his next political position. Foust supported the smoking ban, which prevents people from smoking cigarettes in public buildings. As a former smoker, he believes that while people have the right to smoke they also have the right to refrain from smoking. and he protected from sec ond-hand smoke. He is against the potential tire plant in Erie. which would burn tires to recycle them. Foust says that "the plant would burn 80(X)0 tires per day. and would need to keep a four-or five-day supply on site. This would mean somewhere around 400,0(X) tires. - He is also against pollutants that would he released into the air from the Concerning major national issues, one of Foust's priorities is to bring the troops in from Iraq as soon as possible, preferably within the year. Also, he would like to see universal healthcare, which could he funded by money currently spent on the War in Iraq and on Bush's tax cuts to the wealthy. He supports the HR6 hill, which would mandate a gas mileage of 35 mph and rollback tax cuts. Having studied education for his bach elors degree, he advocates the No Child Left Behind but would like to see some major changes, like more funding (the program is currently $3O million underfunded), accom modate the learning levels for various stu dents, and make the evaluation process more in-depth for the students. As far as higher education is concerned, he does not believe that America is ready for universal collegiate education. However, he does want to focus on making two-year degrees more accessible to potential stu dents, he sees it as a good way for someone to learn a new skill and add to the work force. He is running against Phil English, a Republican. Other candidates running for the position are Democrats Kathy Dahlkemper, Tom Myers. Mike Waltner , and Independent Steve Porter. 1. 4 ()!Itcl1A6 News.... Opinion Humor.. Entertainment.. Student Life Sports Fuller joined the Army National Guard Alpha Company Infantry when he was 25 years old. He said he mainly joined the Guard to pay for school, but some nudging from his friend got him to go through with it. After signing up, Fuller volunteered to take his first tour of Iraq in December 2004. He said that he chose to go now rather than later so that it wouldn't stop his progress in E-mail: cslsoos@psu.edu I school. i '‘k Newsroom 898-6488 Fax: 898-6019 www.thebehrendbeacon.com Our offices are located downstairs in the Reed Union Building. Behrend blacked out... again By Lenny Smith nett's editor 1r550460 psu.edu A power outage left Penn State Behrend in the dark for the second time in three weeks after high winds took down two electricity poles on Dec. 3. At approximately 1:40 p.m. students were surprised when dorm rooms. classrooms and cafeterias went black. This most recent power outage again forced campus administrators to cancel classes. The PSUTXT system alerted students at 2:25 p.m., informing them that classes would be canceled until 6 As with the power outage on Nov. 13. Penelec's estimate as to when the power would be restored was incorrect and a new message was sent to students. This message said that campus was closed for the rest of the day, but would reopen again on Dec. 4. Although most students enjoyed their day off on Nov. 13. this time it was different. As dusk quickly came over the campus, students realized that they were forced to sit in their black rooms. Just War theory discussed at Iraq war forum The Iraq war tests the limits of the Just War theory daily. An explosion in Iraq is a threat to troops By Scott R. Muska student life editor srmsoB2o psu.edu There was a panel discussion held Wednesday night at the Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel concerning the justification of the war in Iraq. The members of the panel that spoke at the event to a number of students, faculty and members of the gen eral public were Penn State Behrend Distinguished Professor of Political Science and International Law, Dr. John Gamble; Behrend Assistant Professor of Philosophy. Joshua Shaw; and Mercyhurst Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Dr. Daniel McFee. The discussion opened with a lecture from Gamble, Behrend student prepares for second tour of duty By Brianne Lilly contributing writer belsWOOPpsu.edu While many Behrend students aren't even thinking about what they will be doing the next school year, Justin Fuller is trying not to think about going back to Iraq. Fuller, a 29-year-old Communications and Media Studies sophomore, will be serving his second tour in Iraq sometime in 2008. The tour will last 18 months, which includes six months of training before serving over seas for 12 months. ....7-8 ..9-10 Before going off to fight, Fuller had to go through six months of training, which consisted mostly of situations that their company could encounter. He also said that they went over lots of first aid tips because "that's big." His com pany was then shipped off to Tikrit, Iraq, located in the green zone of the A Penn State Behrend Student Publication country. Because of this, Fuller said, his company was "rarely in any engage ments." When he wasn't in the field, Fuller spent most of his time with his compa ny on the base. Bases to present day are more like cities and less like having to rough it out in the wilderness. During his time on the base, Fuller said he and the other members of his company could watch television, enjoy football games, surf the Internet, and use the provided telephone service to call loved ones back home. They also had full access to the same coverage of the war that we would see on the news. However, Fuller could tell what was shown and what wasn't. However, everything was not all fun and games while Fuller was in Iraq. A member of his company died, which to him was a big wake-up call. "You see someone that day," Fuller said, "and they don't come back. It's real." While his friend's death was a shock, Fuller said that death is something that you have to accept before one goes over because of the nature of what was going on. Fuller said, "I had accepted the fact that I wasn't coming back." By the end of his first tour in Iraq, Fuller knew that there was a good chance he would be making a return Continued on page 2. "When the power went out I decided it would be a good time to take a nap, - sophomore Michael Buesink said. "But then when I woke up it was terrible because my whole apartment was dark and I couldn't see any thing.- Buesink, who lives at University Gates, decided to leave U Gates and go to a friend's house that had elec tricity. Students found it particularly annoying that they could not even make use of their time to study. "It was ridiculous." sophomore Kim Maier said. "I had to go to Starhucks so I had the Internet so I could study for my exam that was scheduled for 8 a.m. on Tuesday. - More than academics were affected during the black out. The Behrend men's basketball team was forced to practice in the dark. Senior Dan Zeigler said. "We had to practice in the Junker renter] which was only lit by the emergency lights." The Lions generally only have two days between games. so a day off was out of the question. "Coach wanted us to nm a little bit and we went over some plays for our game against Hilbert, - Zeigler said. which detailed his beliefs and concerns about the War in Iraq. He began by saying that he was not going to talk about whether or not the war was wise. "That seems too easy. The answer seems to clear." Gamble said. "Instead, I'm going to try to explain whether or not the war is legal." Gamble said. "You can ask what right there is to enter a war, and then once you're in you can ask what is appropriate to conduct the war." He went on to explain several laws that had been put into place by the United Nations concerning the entrance into and conduct during war. He stressed a need for definite laws to be passed that can set the bar at a point where destruction and loss of life would Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Chris Brown/THE BEHREND BEACO A student walks along the snowy sidewalks Tuesday on her way to class. Vol. LIV No. XIV The power was restored to campus at about S:4O p.m., seven hours later. Maier thinks it took way too long. "There is no reason why it should have taken seven hours to get the power back." she said. "Penelec officials were immediately called." Director of Operations John Ream said. "They really responded. They needed to install two new poles and move the wires from the old to the new poles.- "It takes time and the weather conditions made it longer," Ream said. "They could only keep someone in the bucket for so long. - • Two extended power outages in less than a month worry both students and administrators. Behrend is powered by a single electrical feed, so when that feed is interrupted, the campus is left without power. "We've had discussions with Penelec to see if it is possible for them to provide another feed that we could switch over to while the primary feed is being repaired, - Ream said. "[However] it would require the installation of new lines.- Ream said that this is revisited every time there is a power outage. "Penelec has no good solution, - he said. warrant a legal entrance into a war, and that it needed to be concrete enough that countries would be unable to abuse it He closed by saying that, "The only way to prevent unjust wars is to make better use of international insti tutions.- Next to address the crowd was Shaw, who spoke about the Just War Theory, which he described as "how war and morality come together. It's a middle road between realism and pacifism." He was the only one of the three who vehemently stated his opposition to the war in the opening state ments. He spoke about how he wrote letters to the rep resentatives in his area stating his opposition at the beginning of the war, and he participated in numerous public protests against the war. "The reason I protested the war was that I felt there was an absence of proper authority," Shaw said. "What terrified me was that there was no public debate over whether or not we should go to war before we "It seemed as though the decision to go to war was made for us before we were allowed to make the deci sion for ourselves," he said. He made it very clear during his speech that his viewpoint on the war was not automatically correct and that the entire discussion could he controversial. He stated that arguments saying that the war was morally justified could he made, but he "finds them unconvincing." The last to open preliminary discussions was McFee. He approached the discussion from a reli gious Christian standpoint. He spoke about President Bush's willingness to have members of the Catholic Church (a number of bishops) brief him on whether or not the war was religiously justified, but did not men tion what conclusion they had reached. He said that the war could be justified if the American soldiers discriminated between combatants Continued on page 2
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