I Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010 L.... r 1 o The Daily Collegian Elizabeth Murphy Editor in Chief Kelsey Thompson Business Manager About the Collegian: The Daily Collegian and The Weekly Collegian are pub lished by Collegian Inc., an independent, nonprofit cor poration with a board of directors composed of stu dents, faculty and profes sionals. Pennsylvania State University students write and edit both papers and solicit advertising for them. During the fall and spring semes ters as well as the second six-week summer session, The Daily Collegian publish es Monday through Friday. Issues are distributed by mail to other Penn State campuses and subscribers. Complaints: News and edi torial complaints should be presented to the editor. Business and advertising complaints should be pre sented to the business man ager. Who we are Hie Dally Collegian's edito rial opinion is determined by its Board of Opinion, with the editor holding final responsibility. The letters and columns expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of The Daily Collegian or Collegian Inc. Collegian Inc., publish ers of The Daily Collegian and related publications, is a separate corporate institu tion from Penn State. Members are: Lexi Bel culfine, Caitlin Burnham, Paul Casella, Kevin Cirilli, Beth Ann Downey, Amanda Elser, Zachary Feldman, Ashley Gold, Stephen Hennessey, Allison Jackovitz, Kevin Kline. Samantha Kramer, Bill Landis, Andrew Metcalf, Nate Mink, Elizabeth Murphy, Laura Nichols, Michael Oplinger. Edgar Ramirez. Heather Schmelzlen. Caitlin Sellers, Laurie Stern, Katie Sullivan, Jessica Uzar, Aubrey Whelan, Alex Weisler, Somer Wiggins. Steph Witt and Chris Zook. Letters We want to hear your com ments on our coverage, editorial decisions and the Penn State community. ■ E-mail collegianletters@psu.edu ■ Online www.psucollegian.com ■ Postal mail/ln person 123 S. Burrowes St. University Park, PA 16801 Letters should be about 200 words. Student letters should include class year, major and campus. Letters from alumni should include year of graduation. All writers should provide their address and phone number for verification. Letters should be signed by no more than two peo ple. Members of organiza tions must include their titles if the topic they write about is connected with the aim of their groups. The Collegian reserves the right to edit letters. The Collegian cannot guaran tee publication of all let ters it receives. Letters chosen also run on The Daily Collegian Online and may be selected for publi cation in The Weekly Colle gian. All letters become property of Collegian Inc. Secrecy, tiffs cloud credibility This past weekend was We feel that this never the first canning weekend ending battle between of the season for the greeks and THON is IFC/Panhellenic Dance something that both par- Marathon. While thou- ties must work to end. sands of students set out While perhaps uninten to raise money for chil- tional, releasing a press dren with cancer, it was release about the material not without continued change and not address controversy between the ing the fact that the IFC THON Overall Committee and Panhellenic name and other THON groups, was removed from the The THON Overall com- signs was a sneaky move mittee changed the look of by the THON Overalls, canning materials, and Their promise for more left out the Interfraternity transparency after other Council/Panhellenic Coun- changes were made earli cil namesake, without er this year was obviously telling or consulting any- not upheld through recent one. actions. This angered some greeks and greek leaders because they were not informed about the name change beforehand. Tea Party is scarier than a nightmare By Michael Oplinger This Saturday Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will host the most anticipat- jM/KSL ed non-political political rally jpwtl since Glenn I <3J| I Beck’s ?■ “Restoring , tmr* Honor” rally two months ago MY OPINION And Colbert will host the most anticipated rally to keep fear alive since, well, Glenn Beck’s two months ago. But the Tea Party movement has outdone both of them in spreading panic throughout the country. Since 2009, the Tea Partiers have been obsessing over a per ceived fundamental change in the democratic system. The wealth was being redis tributed right before their eyes. But they were the only ones who noticed it. Taxes were increasing at an astronomical level while some how also being reduced for 95 percent of the countiy Constitutional rights were being infringed. Their voices were being drowned out despite being given huge media cover age. The horror! But, with Halloween approaching, visions of the Tea Party in power are far more frightening than anything you’ll see this weekend. Imagine it’s 2015 and Christine O’Donnell is in the third year of her term as presi dent after beating out Sarah Palin in the 2012 election. Despite polls that show Tea Partiers tend to be wealthier and more educated than the general population, they contin ue to struggle to nominate intel ligent candidates, making We want to remind all sides of what this philan thropy is really for chil dren with cancer. THON should not be trying to O'Donnell the obvious choice. Palin did remain in the admin istration. securing the Secretary of State job for her extensive for eign policy experience gained dealing with Russia when gover nor of Alaska. Armed with a majority in Congress. O'Donnell was able to implement her most important policies in order to attain true freedom and liberty for all. The obviously socialist health care reform bill was instanta- neously repealed, ensuring those who can't afford coverage deservedly won't be gi access to satisfactory It's simple political I)r The federal income became a thing of the because it was so damn uncon stitutional. despite its establish ment in the Kith Amendment of the Constitution. Taxes across the board were then slashed significantly. Unemployment benefits? Gone. President O'Donnell wants you to get a job and stop being a free-riding leech on soci ety Social security'.’ No chance. People can’t be truly free if they rely on the government for sup port. no matter their age or dis ability. With limited funds, the gov ernment let true democracy take its course. Private busi nesses scooped up the old gov ernment functions. Roads crumbled and bridges fell, except in areas where "true Tea Party patriots" could afford to pay the private contractors to repair them. Crime rates were on the rise because people should be truly free without the pesky interfer ence of law enforcement. Without money to fund them, local governments eliminated police departments, forcing citi zens to hire private security for protection. Houses burned down at his- shut out the greeks and the greeks should not be starting controversy that is not related to the kids or the total. Both parties should only be doing what’s necessary to make THON the best it can be, not giving it a bad name with secrecy and petty arguments. As we said before, it doesn’t matter what the change communication is key. We know that this con troversy did not affect the canners out this weekend, but we worry that if there is a constant tug and pull between people in power that it may cause a ripple of consequences that will negatively affect the entire THON community. torically high rates as public fire stations ceased to exist. Anyone who wanted the privatized fire department to extinguish a fire better have already paid the cor poration running the station. Because President O'Donnell wanted no poor person to be smarter than her, public schools shut down and were replaced by fancy, high-priced private acade mies. Under the new system. people truly have freedom of education and a choice in where they go to school. In order to control the free flow of dissenting opinions, pub lic libraries have been replaced by privately owned book rental stores. Each town features its own "Rupert Murdoch Books for Loan." which carries only books by Bill O'Reilly. Glenn Beck and Ann Goulter. treatmcnt arwinism. After gaining power, the Tea Partiers decided to downsize the government, logically eliminat ing their own jobs. By ridding the government of such pointless bureaus like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Tea Party ensured that air and water flowed freely and toxicallv into our homes. And. as mandated by the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, a weekly rally is held in Washington, D.C., to reinforce the message with the popula tion. Citizens are required to dress up in 18th century cloth ing to properly channel the orig inal message of the country’s first Tea Party patriots. The policies seemed so logical when explained in the folksy, down-to-earth style of President O'Donnell. Wait, President O’Donnell? That’s scarier than any other witch you’ll see this Halloween. Michael Oplinger is a senior majoring in media studies and political science and is The Daily Collegian's Tuesday columnist. His e-mail is mjoso7l@psu.edu. The Daily Collegian Protestors provide wrong fact Some people were offended by the large posters of the abortion display this week and last week. I, however, was more offended by the group’s lack of intellectual honesty. One of their posters displayed the severed head of a fetus. In the copy, it says that this was done without anesthesia. This proce dure, called an IDX abortion, is often per formed when the fetus is already dead inside the mother. In cases when it is not, a syringe of a chemical to stop the heart is given before the procedure. Either way, the reason why there is no anesthesia is because the fetus is already dead. IDX is also illegal in the United States. In addition, this group repeatedly claimed that a fetus has consciousness at 40 days, even when I showed them textbooks to the contrary. The abortion debate is complicat ed enough with just the real facts. We shouldn’t have to worry about the accuracy of the information presented. Gift should honor Lt. Murphy The memorial plaza for Lt. Michael Murphy has my vote for senior class gift all the way. It's time we had something named after a student, and an actual hero, rather than another governor or former president of Penn State. Nick Bell junior-security and risk analysis Stadium could hold concerts I propose that the athletic department begin to aggressively market the most under utilized asset on campus for the pur pose of outdoor concerts and professional sports events Beaver Stadium. Back in the mid 80s. the former Undergraduate Student Government petitioned the univer sity to open up the stadium for non-football events: however, Coach Paterno put a “thumbs down" on the idea over concerns of turf damage. That concern is no longer valid today as universities all over America are raising additional revenue from stadium concerts and protecting their turf by using a state-of-the-art technology called Terraplas. I am not a season ticket holder, but I find it saddening that long-time, loyal fans, who have sat in the same seat for generations, will be given the boot next season because of cost. The typical fan doesn't have a money tree growing in their backyard. Attending a game is now going to be out of reach for a lot of loyal fans. The time is perfect to start using the stadium for concerts and roll back the STEP contribution. Lions need white out support Like many of the PSU faithful. I've found this football season to be a little tough to watch. How quickly, though. I forget about the three losing seasons we had when I was a student, and I should probably remind myself that we've been to two BCS bowl games in the last four seasons. With that in mind. I propose we put the first half of the season behind us and make the second half one to remember. What bet ter way to start it off than by having a white out? Though it's a rebuilding year, we don't have the right to give up on the team. If I can be there in the good times. I can be there in the bad. I think the school owes it to itself to show Michigan, the team, and the PSU nation what we're made of. A packed Beaver Stadium of 110,000 screaming fans adorned in white should prove that quite nicely, and you never know, we just might surprise our selves. « * £ Gift search part of process Almost eight weeks in Washington has started to take a toll on me. I am exhausted, but I knew I would be when I accepted the offer to study and work here. The Penn State Washington Program is able to sell its participants as worthwhile interns to companies in D.C. by offering us as available to work at least four full davs a week. The tactic works, though. The caliber of internships some of us have is truly impressive. They range from USA Today, NBC's "Meet the Press" and the Attorney General's office. At WTOP Radio, I've grown to enjoy and appreciate my internship even more. I worried at first about settling for a radio station because what I really want to work in is TV someday. But I did n't know just how successful a station WTOP is until working here for awhile. What I've learned is that WTOP was the second largest revenue-generating sta tion in the country in 2009. It’s also a 2010 triple-Murrow Award winner. Fox reporter John Henrehan told me he thinks it’s arguably the most successful radio station in the country. Needless to say, I no longer feel like I settled. The variety of experience Tm getting is incredible. I have shadowed and assisted reporters, conducted “Man on Street’’ interviews and interviews by phone, published four articles to WTOPcom, and earned the trust and responsibility to update the website weekly by myself... Read more of The Daily Collegian's blogs at psucolieglan.com/blogs. Valerie Lute senior-English Dave Swiderski Class of 2010 David Lane Class of 2004 Erica Brecher Small World blogger
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