I Friday, Dec. 10, 2010 L-y r i FH ! o\l l \ Collegian Elizabeth Murphv laluoi- in Chief Kelsev 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 The Daily 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 Cinlli. Beth Ann Downey, Amanda Elser. Ash ley Goid, Stephen Hennessey. Allison Jackovftz. Andrew Met calf, 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 Chns 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. State College. 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. EDITORIAL; STATE Sustainability efforts commendable A Penn State professor helped edit a region-wide sustainability study that will be presented before the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection today, and was recently met with a call for other Centre Region Council of Governments municipalities to follow Centre County’s lead. Going green has been a devel oping trend for a while now, but since the adoption of Resolution 944, it seems as if State College is hopping on the bandwagon. The resolution included action 6uN\B' Getting involved makes PSU smaller By Steph Witt If you had asked the high school senior version of me if I thought I would ever graduate from Penn State. I j would have I laughed at you Penn State was at the bot tom of my list. My mother urged me to apply here, so I did, never MY OPINION giving any thought to the possi bility that I would actually end up in Happy Valley. But here I am. I came here not knowing anyone or anything about Penn State. FTCAP was like an awk ward blind date that my mother set me up on. But as much as I hated to admit it, it was love at first sight. Even at the worst times, from living in supplemental my freshman year to slipping on ice and getting a concussion at 4 a.m., I would not trade my time here for anything. If I had to give one piece of advice, it would be to get involved in something. elements for College, Ferguson, Halfmoon, Harris and Patton townships. But not all munici palities are excited about the resolution and are showing hesi tation when it comes to enforc ing "going green" initiatives. But we don't really see how greener laws could be perceived as a bad thing. We are proud of State College for taking the ini tiative. and we urge them to continue to lead by example and motivate other townships to fol low suit. If vou are hesitant to enforce AND FDKEY’S FA/llNl(3 OUT... Whether it's joining The Daily Collegia!] or greek life or even the Harry Potter dub, join something. I have been at the Collegian for six of my seven semesters at Penn State and have made some of the best friends I've ever had. I've also made some enemies along the way, but even they have taught me a lot about mvself. As hard as it is for people to believe, I used to be very quiet and shy. The Collegian and the people I've met here have given me the confidence to break out of that shell. College has its ups and downs, just like the rest of life. You will come to realize that college is a lot like high school, just with more drinking and less rigid schedules. People will talk about you behind your back and try to make your life miserable. The difference here is that there are 40.000 people at this over-sized high school. For every one person that tries to make vou feel bad. there is at least one other that will be there to sav "screw them" along side you. You have to go out and find GE GREEN" MODEL laws, than you should lead by example. By showing us that the government can act green, then maybe we will be motivated to as well. If you don’t want to enforce a law then provide us with a green education and offer us equal opportunities for going green. No government should go bankrupt for going green, but if it is at their disposal then they should make a conscious effort to do what they can to make a positive change in their commu nity. those people, and the best way to do that is get involved in everything this massive cam pus has to offer. Even if Penn State wasn't your first choice, it will change your life. For better or worse, the people here will change you. The ones who hate you will try to break you down, and the ones that love you will be there to build you back up. I have met the greatest peo ple here. Some have come and gone, and some I haven’t been sad to see go, but they have all helped me find myself. Graduating is bittersweet. While I’m not so sad that I will no longer be woken up at 2 a.m. by obnoxious neighbors, I will miss Penn State in general. Through the good times and the bad, there have always been people there for me. Make sure you find those people that will come running to help you at all hours of the morning. They are the people that will still be there in 10 years, no matter what life throws at you. Steph Witt is a senior majoring in journalism and is The Daily Colle gian's photo editor. Her e-mail is scwsos7@psu.edu. J/i /!/S' y www.caqiecartoons.com The Daily Collegian LETTERS Security should be a priority In response to Wednesday’s article, “Students hold candlelight vigil in support of legislation," I see how groups like the Penn State Latino Caucus and Penn State College Democrats would support the DREAM Act, but any recent poll will show that this goes against the beliefs of the majority of Americans. This bill insults the 68 percent of regis tered US voters who, according to a July 2010 Rasmussen poll, believe that securing the border is more important than legaliz ing illegal aliens already in the United States. This makes sense, given the crimi nal activity from Mexican drug lords in American border states and negative effects on American economy and the cost to American taxpayers. When discussing the topic of illegal immigration. Congress should first focus on the safety of Americans before alien amnesty' programs like the DREAM Act. So I'm glad there are student groups who understand the severity of the illegal immi gration issue, like the Latino Caucus, but there needs to be more focus on solving the problem at the source: securing American borders. After all, national security' is a right that our government is required to provide by the constitution, education is not. Meaning of Christmas is lost What’s the meaning of Christmas? Is it how many presents you can receive, which seems to be the most common idea of what Christmas really means, or does it mean something completely different'.’ Does it mean Santa is coming to bring gifts that people really do not need or does it mean something completely different as well 9 Let me ask you what you think. In your opinion, what's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the true meaning of Christmas 9 Well, the true meaning of Christmas has nothing to do with Santa Claus or even giv ing or receiving materialistic presents. The meaning of Christmas dates back over 2.000 years ago to a town called Bethlehem in the Middle East. Jesus Christ, the son of god was born in a manger. He wasn't born to live a long life, but instead was destined for death by crucifixion for mankind's sins. He was killed for us. ves. us. The Christmas holiday originated to cele brate the birth of the King, the holy one. the most influential and important person in history. However today we seem to feel that the gift giving is the true meaning of Christmas. People stomp and run over people to get the best deal or the new product craze. Christmas didn't come about so people could buy everyone they know a gift: it came about because of God's love for us The point of Christmas is to help a person in need, get together with family and cele brate the birth of Jesus and most impor- tantly love one another. Giving of gifts is a nice gesture to show your love and kindness towards someone, but wouldn't it seem more kind and loving if you helped someone out anyway you could, or invited them over for dinner? Materialistic gifts are nothing compared to showing people love, affection and just being there when they need someone. Let s do what God intended for us to do. celebrate Christmas for its true meaning, not the commercialized and merchandise stores idea. Corey Wilt junior agribusiness managment Gov. holds double standards I read with interest about the controver sy surrounding the Wikileaks dump of clas sified cables in the public domain. While some members of Congress are calling for the prosecution and or assassination of Wikileaks founder, other members are peti tioning the White House to pardon a con victed spy for transferring US classified documents to a foreign government. The double standards on this issue are quite breathtaking. Less than two weeks before Wikileaks made the cables public, 39 Democratic members of Congress, led by Congressmen Barney Frank. Steve Rothman and Anthony Weiner, petitioned the White House to pardon Jonathan Pollard who has been convicted and sen tenced to life in prison for passing along classified US secrets to Israel. The American public ought to be out raged. This is just one of the many double standards of policy towards Israel that has plagued both houses of Congress. As a matter of fact, according to the General Accounting Office, the research arm of Congress. Israel conducts the most aggres sive espionage operation against the United States of any U.S. ally. What benefit does the US gain in return to its special relationship with Israel? That, to me. is the most perplexing question. Post-grade games The Lady Lions moved to 8-2 with a 95-65 win against Army. Here's a break down of each player’s performance... Ryan Loy Women's basketball reporter Read more of The Daily Collegian's blogs at psucollegian.com/blogs. Dan Nysch junior-actuarial science Shad! Ghayrep graduate-engineering
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