14 The Daily Collegian Wishful thinking The Daily Collegian Board of Opinion's hopes this semester It's back-to-school time, and all students have their own personal goals for the upcoming semester. Some students simply want to finish this semester and graduate. Others are hoping for that perfect 4.0 grade point average, and some just want to make it through. The Daily Collegian Board of Opinion has some wishes of its own for this semester to improve life for the University communi ty. We hope that: ■ The polls are right, and the football team becomes the nation al champion. ■ The students, especially those who will be paying more than their peers this semester, actually see the benefits of the recently implemented differential tuition. ■ The new faculty the Universi ty plans to hire, and the ones that are already in the classrooms, are utilized for their teaching ability as well as their research prowess. ■ We finally see some progress (and conclusion) to the ongoing saga of general education reform in a way that encourages students to get the most out their time here. ■ The University administra tion remembers this is a place to learn and extends the hours at Pattee so students have a place to study later in the evening. ■ The University administra tion, University Police Services and the State College Police ds;Collegian Thursday Aug. 28, 1997 ©1997 Collegian Inc. Editor in Chief Rachel Hogan Business Manager Christopher Taylor The Daily Collegian's editorial opinion is deter mined by its Board of Opinion, with the editor holding final responsibility. Opinions expressed on the editorial pages are not nec essarily those of The Daily Collegian, Colle gian Inc. or The Pennsylvania State University. Collegian Inc., publishers of The Daily Colle gian and related publications, is a separate corporate institution from Penn State. Board of Editors Managing Editor Julie M. Randall Opinion Editor Jennifer Strawser Campus Editor Bridgette Blair Assistant Campus Editor Amy Brosey Metro Editor Erin Horan Assistant Metro Editor Mark Parfitt News Editors Molly K. Fellin, Kerrylee Nadeau Copy/Wire Editors David Andrews, Carrie DeLeon Jenni Nejman, Kelly Ruoff, Holly Shick Weekly News Editor Patricia K. Cole Weekly Sports Editor Kate Blaschak Day Sports Editor Geoff Mosher Assistant Day Sports Editor Matt DiFebo Night Sports Editor Nick Zulovich Assistant Night Sports Editors Brian Costello Paula Knudsen, Jim lovino Arts Editor T.R. Deckman Cultivating diverse Forrest Gump had it all wrong. Life isn't like a box of choco lates. In this green thumb's mind, life is just like my backyard garden. It takes work, patience, and determination. Sometimes rain will fall on it. Sometimes it's full of manure. Parasites want to take what you worked so hard for. And when you harvest bushels of pro duce you can share it with others. Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, used gardens as a metaphor in an essay describing the relationship between mothers and daughters. Though the essay is one of my favorites, I hadn't really given much thought to gardens and their connection to life. A few weeks ago as the sun beat down upon me, I battled insects as they tried to stake claim to the green peppers I was picking from my family's garden. Department do their best to pro vide safe, well-lit walkways for students. We also hope students will become more aware of their personal safety and utilize the Penn State Escort Service and the well-lit walkways that will be pro vided to them when walking at night. ■ Students will remember the third part of the University's mis sion statement is service and out reach and use the new §emester as an opportunity to volunteer at any of the many organizations in town or on campus. ■ The University will re-read its nondiscrimination clause again and finally award same-sex part ner benefits to its faculty and staff. ■ The State College Borough Council, the University adminis tration and student leaders work together to ease the tensions between the two sides of College Avenue. ■ The Undergraduate Student Government work together and with other student organizations to keep its promises and best serve the student body. We know achieving our wish list will not be simple, but nothing worthwhile comes easily. If the students, administration and borough residents work together, not against each other, this semester can truly be a semester of change and improve ment in Happy Valley. Assistant Arts Editor James Reid Photo Editor Ilan Sherman Chief Photographer David S. Spence Graphics Editor A.J. Sedlak On-line News Editor Megan Donley On-line Sports Editor Krista Hawley Board of Managers Advertising Manager Maria E. Crespo Sales Managers Rachel Vavrick. Kurt Wolf Accounting Manager Amy Flaming Marketing Manager Michelle Brouse Office Manager Megan A. Hennigan Assistant Office Manager William Schwab Layout Manager Tressa Campbell Complaints: News and editorial complaints should be presented to the editor. Business and advertising complaints should be presented to the business manager. If a complaint is not satisfactorily resolved, some grievances may be filed with the Accuracy and Fair Play Committee of Collegian Inc. Information on filing grievances is available from Gerry Lynn Hamil ton, executive secretary, Collegian Inc. Letters Policy: The Daily Collegian encourages com ments on news coverage, editorial policy and Univer sity affairs. Letters must be typewritten, double spaced and no longer than 500 words. Forums must also be typewritten, double-spaced and no longer than three pages. Students' letters should include semester standing, major and campus of the writer. Letters from alumni should include the major and year of graduation of the writer. All writers should provide their address and phone number for verification of the letter. Let ters should be signed by no more than two people. Names may be withheld on request. The Collegian reserves the right to edit letters for length and to reject letters if they are libelous or do not conform to standards of good taste. gir..; , tz.gigp01em . ..z . 2........,„:„.........;.;,.... : .... • ... ..... ' . . • in Vii..olllll I 0 n .•::,...:••• ....• • ......... .... •.• :**...*,..t.:!,,,,,, , ,,,ift.%.,,, , , , ,,, , 11,%., , , , ,,m..,:i::::. :.... .• . •. • ..........• • Gardening, though seemingly a strange hobby for a college stu dent, has been a part of my life since I was old enough to hold a watering can. Between planting, transplanting, hoeing, watering and harvesting my family was busy throughout the year. Serious gardeners are a tough breed, always desiring to spend countless hours working to pro duce something they could just as Respect key element when creating unity On the day before classes started I was fortunate to be one of the approximately 300 individuals who were invited to and attended Encampment '97. Encampment is a day-long opportunity to meet and interact with a diverse array of community leaders including University President Graham Spanier, various faculty and staff, undergraduate and graduate stu dents, teaching assistants, townspeople, leaders of student government and student organizations and many more. The theme of Encampment this year was respect. Respect for others. Respect for self. Respect for community. While dis cussing respect for community within small groups, a particular aspect struck me as very important: role modeling. I'm writing this letter to remind fellow upper classmen that you are the role models here. This is your town and your Universi ty. It is also mine. I'm proud of it and proud to be here. I hope you are as well. If you see someone spitting on a window, kicking a garbage can or throwing trash on the ground, let them know that it wasn't cool. Tell them what a cool town this is, and that it does not deserve being destroyed and disrespected. Tell them that this town has provided the best times of your life and will do the same for them. Tell them that the least they could do is leave it the way they found it. It's simple: Don't bite the hand that feeds you. At the end of our discussion, one individ ual mentioned,the need for us to take what we learned at Encampment and teach oth ers the same lessons. I said that I would engage that need and write this letter. To some of you this message may sound like wishful utopian dreaming. It is until you make it reality. When you do, you will have made this wonderful community, your community, better than you found it. For this, many will be grateful, and you will feel fulfilled and rewarded. Trust me, I've been there. This is only the tip of the iceberg from Encampment's discussions, but respect for our community, and the extremely impor tant sense of community that accompanies it, seems to be the foundation for another facet of respect respect for each other. If we respect windows, garbage cans and sidewalks, respecting people becomes sec ond nature. Darin A. Loccarini President of Students Reinforcing Adherence In General Heterosexual Tradi tion opinions easily have purchased in the store. My great grandfather gardened all his life and many of my fondest memories of him revolve around time my family spent helping him in the garden. At the end of the summer my mother and I would dig potatoes out of the garden as we complained that my father would always mys teriously disappear when potato digging time came. Every year I'd don gardening gloves to avoid itchy bean stalks, and I'd pick beans, pick beans and pick beans again. As I stood there in the garden I remembered another part of gar dening with even greater fondness, enjoying the product of our hard work and time. My family often enjoyed our hard work as the sugary juice of red-ripe tomatoes dripped down our chins or as we ate mashed pota toes made from potatoes which had in the garden of "I hope those of you who felt excluded from the opinions page will give us another chance, and step into our garden." just been in the ground only moments before. Growing your own food is one of those labors peo- ple talk about when they talk about finding the simple life or living of the Earth. To me gardening is not a part of a simple life, but its taught me many of life's simple truths principles which I will always cling to. ■ Though sometimes the harvest is poor because outside forces or your own mistakes kill what you were growing, you learn how to prevent that the next year. ■ In almost every garden lives a plant that will weather the worst Aid to Middle East must have conditions The violence and the terrorist acts have persisted challenging the sincere desire of the civilized world to shape peace in the Middle East. The shooting and bombing are senseless denial of a peaceful future for both Israel and the Arab states, and must be con demned in the strongest possible terms. For decades. the United States of Ameri ca has been providing aid for Israel and some of the Arab states. I strongly believe that U.S. aid to the Middle East must be conditioned. President Clinton . by his involvement with the peace process and $lOO million a year in U.S. aid in his control must demand immediate positive steps towards peace. The impasse in the Middle East peace process and sustained Palestinian rioting have pushed President Clinton into a cor ner, examining both his influence and his imagination. There is no question regarding the immediate need for a halt to violence and terrorism from both sides as condition for peace negotiation to resume. For terror ists, the justice should be served and move swiftly to fight violent beh?vior. The time has come for U.S. aid to be con ditioned. It must be used for construction not destruction. U.S. Aid must be condi tioned; or I am going to raise this question to the Free World and to the American tax payers: For how long will the United States of America be under moral obligation to provide aid for people who abuse it and use it for mass destruction? That is not the principle behind the phi losophy of U.S. aid and foreign aid in gen eral. Now, the time has come to ask this ques tion to the civilized world and the educa tional leaders: What are the strategies that can be implemented to change the mentali ty that uses violence and self-destructive acts to demonstrate anger? Before I answer this question, let us con sider the historical fact that the violent behavior among Israeli and Palestinians has been rooted and can be attributed mainly to years of wars and destruction in this region. Terrorists from both Israeli and Pales tinian sides have been born and raised since their childhood to observe and praise killing, shedding blood, fires etc. I do believe that the educational institu tional whether national or international have the power to achieve that goal. If one of the desired objectives is to pre- conditions, though it turns out look ing a little worse for wear in the end. Even the most damaged look ing tomatoes covered with scars and bruises can taste sweet. ■ The fruits of your labor are always shared with others and oth ers are always grateful to receive. ■ A good garden is filled with a variety of vegetables. I hope to see this on the opinions page this semester. In the past The Daily Collegian's opinions garden has been full of nearly all the same vegetables, all the same faces. To many people, the opinions expressed all looked the same, and the voices were not their own. Thursday, Aug. 28, 1997 pare children to believe and behave in such a manner that supports non-violent acts, we should structure the educational institutions as well as all the sources of informal education to encourage such behavior. Indeed, if formal education which is entrusted in school systems and all the sources of informal education had suffi cient moral awareness, courage and intelli gence, they would organize their curricula and methodologies around the importance of nonviolent attitude and behavior. It would be perverse if this mentality only emerges after witnessing more shoot ing and killing. As I mentioned in one of my previous articles, children all over the world are born innocent. Magdy M. Taha Facility manager for the Paul Robeson Cultural Center Upper class wages war on Americans The Marxist critique of capitalism is the best thing that has happened to social and economic thought and action in the last 150 years. Those who deny that are either ignorant or deliberate liars. The wealthy capitalist upper class, 5 percent of the total population, has waged a 200-year, silent and devious class war against the American people, and in viola tion of the spirit of the U.S. Constitution, should now apologize and pay reparations of over $25 trillion. The primary function of the U.S. presi dency, the government, the Republican and Democratic Parties and the mass media is to preserve and protect the wealth and power of the capitalist upper class. The interests of the parasitic upper class (capitalism) and the interests of the work ing class (democracy) are forever opposed to each other. Capitalists and workers are not partners. They're enemies! Capitalism breeds fascism and fascism bombs buildings. Help stop the spread of global fascistic capitalism. Abolish all college and univer sity schools of business. We can save the world by simply chang ing the United States into the world's first political and, economic democracy, a dou ble democracy, and the whole world will follow our lead! John Cassella New Union Party life is goal I hope those of you who felt excluded from the opinions page will give us another chance, and step into our garden. Our readers can learn a great deal from your experience and your growth so far, but they will not have that chance if you do not allow us to have a fresh start and become part of our garden. Each person has something they can share, stories of adversity, tales of triumph and things they've learned along the way. So I'm opening the garden's gate and asking you to pick up an appli cation to be a columnist or an edi torial cartoonist and write letters to the editor throughout the semes ter. I don't want to have a garden without you. Jennifer Strawser (jjs242@psu.edu) is a junior majoring in journalism and the Collegian's opinion editor. Collegian Graphic/Chris Kelleher
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