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.
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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