The Collegian Wednesday, September 27, 1989
Opinion
Letters to the editor
Reader finds Rob's columns
and outlook objectionable
Dear editor,
Regarding the column in your
paper entitled "Love Rob," I
must air my feelings of pure
disgust. I am a transfer student,
new to Behrend this semester, and
I have read all three editions of
your paper so far. All three
editions interested, eddcated, and
entertained me. However, every
time I read the "Love Rob"
column, disgust was the only
emotion that registered.
First of all, was Mr. Prindle
ever a freshman, or was he
always this cool? I am currently
in my second year of college, yet
I remember what it was like
being a freshman during that first
week or two of college. I wonder
if Mr. Prindle would remember
parking in all the spaces that
were supposed to be for seniors,
not unlike himself. Would he
recall walking around campus
with his buddy "Butch" thinking
they were the coolest guys
around? Wouldn't it be nice to be
as perfect as Mr. Prindle?
Second, I have - lived in Erie
for all of my 20 years and I know
what Erie has to offer. Erie is not
that great. Erie, as well as many
other cities, stands in great need
of improvement. As you drive
along the city streets, your eye
encompasses only closed factories
with broken windows and
dilapidated houses with
overgrown shrubs in the yard.
The Peninsula is a great place
if you don't mind stepping on
gravel instead of sand and water
Let them carry cap guns
Dear editor,
In the September 20 edition of
the Collegian, the subject of
armed police was brought up. On
the Edinboro and Slippery Rock
campuses, no shots have ever
been fired by the armed police.
Let the Behrcnd police carry
Letter applauds editorial;
respects flag's symbolism
Dear editor,
I would like to applaud your
fine editorial on the flag burning
issue. Not because you asked for
responses, but because I agree
with you and wish other students
(our future leaders) would tell our
present leaders, the Congress,
what they think also. I think
the Congress needs our help.
Over two hundred years ago, our
founding fathers wrote The
Constitution of the United States
of America, and within its
whose bacteria count increases
daily. As far as the dining aspect
of Erie is considered, there are a
handful of fine eating
establishments, yet most are
private din
Regardless of what your
suffocated sense of the finer
things in life may say, chicken
wings and cheap beer are not
"good food and drink."
Third and last, no one in their
right mind could honestly believe
that the legalization of drugs in
the United States could cure this
country of perhaps it's most
severe illness. Mr. Prindle may
not mind boarding a plane whose
pilot just received his daily fix of
heroin but I certainly would. Can
anyone fathom the state this
country's people would be in?
Imagine yourself needing
emergency surgery and your
doctor just smoked a joint and
snorted a few lines! Mr. Prindle
says the tax dollars spent on
fighting drug trafficking could be
spent on - research to find a
harmless yet effective drug for all
drug users. Tell me Mr. Prindle,
why should we, the taxpayers,
cater to a group hell-bent on
destroying their lives and the
lives of those around them?
Perhaps Mr. Prindle should
take a step back and evaaluate his
ideas before he so quickly puts
them down on paper. It's a shame
to see such underdeveloped
thought take up r so much space in
your otherwise respectable paper.
Christine Spanos
guns in sight, but haVe them
really be cap guns. The sight of
them, police and guns, will deter
crime. The police will be able to
play cops and robbers, and it
would make me feel safer around
the police.
Frank Lopez
wording they set the grounds for
a country that has won two
World Wars, survived a
depression, survived attacks and
abuses from other major
countries, and given financial
support to a great number of us
so we could attend college and
write letters like this one.
Do you understand that we are
allowing men and women who
can't balance the American
(continued on page 4)
LOVE ROB
Nukes in the neighborhood
Editor's note: Rob Prindle is taking a few
weeks off from his regular column to
work on a special project for The
Collegian. Until he resumes writing,
we'll be running some of Rob's favorite
Love Robs of the past two years. This
column first appeared in spring of 1988.
by Rob Prindle
Spring Break is over. That's the bad news.
The good news is that now you get to hear about
what I did. I bet that a lot of you went to Florida
or to big cities to do exciting things. Well,
bobbing for' bikinis might have its merits but it
probably doesn't compare to a nuclear reactor.
Yeah, while some of you were sunning your
buns or visiting mama, the rest of us here in Erie
were living practically in the shadow of a nuclear
reactor. I'm talking about nuclear energy boys
and girls, but keep reading anyway.
Perry, Ohio, is a quaint little hamlet only 60
miles from Penn State-Behrend's front door. It's a
small town whose main industries are growing
shrubs and splitting atoms, but to say that it is
an energetic little town would be an
understatement. The night life isn't anything to
talk about though. Just a few stores and one bar
called Joe's Nuclear Lounge.
But let me start at the beginning. One day
during break I decided to drive to Cleveland to see
if anything was going on. The sky was clear as
far as I could see except for one strange-looking
cloud. It was about 300 feet high and 50 feet
wide. It didn't move, it didn't change shape, it
just sort of hovered.
As I drove closer it became hard to ignore so I
decided to take the next exit and get a closer look.
Of course, eventually I got close enough to see
the source of the cloud: A Three Mile Island
look-alike cooling tower. Wow. I had heard about
the Perry Nuclear Power Plant being built but I
didn't know that it was already fired up.
I sensed a photo opportunity. I drove
dangerously close, practically risking my life to
fulfill my type A personality's desire for danger. I
parked just outside of the gate and read the sign.
It basically said that if the radiation didn't kill
me, a guard would if I tried to sneak in. Luckily,
I had a zoom lens and I wasn't afraid to use it.
So there I was, busy taking pictures, when
Jasper drove up. Jasper wasn't his real name, but
it should have been. He had a red neck, a big
truck and a gun, and oh yeah, he also had a
badge. Apparently Jasper was a guard. He said
COLLEGIAN SPY PHOTO
that I better get moving because I wasn't allowed
to take no pictures. I would have corrected him
on the double negative he used, but I would have
hated to see that neck turn any redder.
I'm not happy knowing that a nuclear plant is
so close but I do feel a little safer knowing that
Jasper is there to protect it from 35mm cameras.
I do have to wonder, though, why there aren't
guards circling the Penelec plant here in Erie.
Isn't our coal-burning plant important enough to
save from photography? Or is it because coal
doesn't melt down and blow a hole in the world if
something goes wrong? I bet that when my
friend Jasper got off work and headed to Joe's
Nuclear Lounge for a cold one the regulars got a
good laugh when he told them about the crazy,
college-boy-type troublemaker that tried to shoot
the place full of pictures.
I like Perry. It's clean, cozy, you can buy a
house real cheap and the cooling towers provide
plenty of shade. Maybe I'll move to Perry in a
few,,years . . maybe we'll all even be here in a
few years.
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