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Reflection
from page 1
democracy in the cradle of Islam
where we have upset not only so-
called “Islamic fundamentalists” (a
categorically tiny minority) but the
population at large who would,
regardless of creed, rather not have
to attend mosque, church or
an armed enclave of desert camo-
clad commandos. More should
also be spent on homeland
prosperity: our opportunistic
healthcare system, depraved
educational system, and laughable
income tax system being primary
concerns in this category. Itis time
that we stop allowing poverty-
stricken and “expensively” sick
individuals to fade into ailing
obscurity; stop enabling the
laziness and incompetence of both
student and teacher in our primary
and secondary education system;
and, if the U.S. is going to persist
in being one of the hardest (or
rather most frequently) working
and least playing nations, it is time
we stop returning so cheaply for
it. This nation has made it a habit
under the Bush administration to
concentrate so heavily on war in
all parts of the globe that it forgets
the struggling population that
desires peace and life within the
confines of American borders. How
is a nation like this supposed to
succeed when surrounded by
military juggernauts that are equally
as capable of sending the world into
apocalyptic conflagration as itself?
It isn’t—at least it won’t when
nations like China and Russia begin
cozying up to each other and
nations like Iran benefit from
altruistic Russian sales of nuclear
material.
As has already been
insinuated, the social decadence of
America is rampant as well.
Fundamentally, we are producing
the dumbest, poorest, and fattest
children in the history of the nation,
and we’ve no one to blame for our
immoral complacency but—you
guessed it—ourselves. Dumbest
because we’ve allowed our
education systems to degrade in a
bad way: most schools are pitifully
understaffed by poorly paid and
under-qualified individuals who
have no more desire to teach the
ABC’s than George Bush does to
buy a hybrid. Poorest because our
nation (a la one Reagan and two
Bushes) is and will be paying off
budget deficits—via taxes that are
unfairly distributed down the
income pyramid—that are
unprecedented in U.S. and maybe
even world history. Fattest because
we have allowed our society to
deteriorate to a daily diet of
McDonald’s, television, and torpid
lethargy consisting of no more
exercise than it takes to kick off
one’s shoes, perform the
occasional roll on the couch, and
push the channel changer with a
sausage-like digit. Along with our
tremendous rates of obesity come
chronic diseases unprecedented in
most of the developed world—and
almost unheard of in the
self-induced heart attack, stroke, or
bout of lung cancer emerges, we
find our hospitals choked with
traffic after allowing these chronic
sufferers to mingle with those who
have been genuinely and
spontaneously afflicted. And it
really doesn’t matter anyway
because if you’re lucky enough to
make it out alive you’ve probably
sold your soul to the devil for the
price of open-heart surgery or
radiation treatment. Is this making
you quite uncomfortable?
Good...and the more so the better.
I will conclude this article by
stating that I am perfectly patriotic
in the literal sense of the word but
sit on the other end of the
spectrum in the contemporary
connotation (adulteration?) of the
word. I am patriotic in the sense
that I see problems—Ilots—that I
would like to fix and am perfectly
willing were I to assemble any
substantial support. I should
probably be a presidential advisor,
if for no other reason than to
soberly remind the commander-in-
chief that he (or soon maybe she)
has over 300 million constituents
that happen to have some stake in
the decisions he (or she) may be
making at any given moment. Iam
unpatriotic in the sense that I will
not advocate some lobotomized,
enabling, submissive deference to
the “inner workings” of our
government. The fact that “there
are many things we will never
know” is no comfort to me. To
expand on the idea of a friend, our
president should be like our
neighbor. We don’t need to know
what’s going on his personal life,
but if ‘he sets off dynamite in his
yard and the shockwave breaks our
windows, we should probably go
say something to him about it. So
it goes with the current fractured
theory of government we now
entertain, and so it will go for years
to come if we don’t become
proactive, demand that we stop
playing cowboys and Indians (an
appropriate reference if you know
the history), and work on taking
care of living, breathing Americans,
rather than sending dozens out to
die on a monthly basis.
Editor-in-Chief......................... Sisripertrasniiansrenens i iiss tit hae etteeeeserregins Julia Ritchey Gers 121 psi edu)
Supervising Editor........... Sesetssirestitterrineasresss cisssesnerarrsecneneens tesvtsrsmenrinsrecraaes sreesssesesnnenineJUSHN Zickar (jmz5027@psu.edu)
News/Sports Editors............................. Corssestsunetsarnstertinuesssien an reine ..... Tony Amold (tja5022@psu.edu)
Fedtures Editor.......... tr rsssrresaesaencines ala reared seeresmnans iene GCE Reed (gir 1 37@psu.edu)
Editorial Division Editor. riesenns eben etter sararsiies eivinssariaers srerenes reeesene ......Jordan Martin (jkm241@psu.edu)
Layout Editor................. Sttsssrentacsiensinsessisnistutesst issn inners aesnrisarsbnacn trertaeatiestate testes ens ..Ashley Rowe (anr5065@psu.edu)
Staff Photographer....... an eresreir cesses sincera tenses eines reasnteniaririssnens ersicesistnenntinns Sey Rootes-Murdy (kar5231@psu.edu)
APHIS. cies — eertirensrsesrthctens ee irtirmeaneienes sZt Monty Gomi 0imon et)
Staff Writers:
: LE _ EdBrown Levi iSiyder
: (elbS Ip ei (Ids169@psu.edu)
- Andrew Lynn .
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