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| Bohle’s commentary lacking
research |
Sara Castellano
Junior
SC50923 |
To
the Editor:
After reading Chris Bohle’s commentary on
Title IX (Sept. 24), I was nearly speechless. He’ll have to
work harder next time. Bohle’s research is lacking: Title IX
is only in small part about sports. It’s the Equity in Education
Act, which means what it says. By the way, according to the US Department
of Education: since Title IX, female participation in high school
athletics has increased 84 percent. I’m a little fuzzy on the
lack of demand Bohle mentioned.
If research had been done past the sports page, Bohle would know
how far there is to go before we achieve gender equity in education.
He would also know that most sports programs rely heavily on donations.
Wrestling and other sports get cut because people don’t care
enough to give them money. Get over it or go after the football
and basketball programs (male, of course) that were pointed out
before attacking under-funded women’s programs.
And what a fantastic idea to add a clause to Title IX that doesn’t
require colleges to create teams for women without demand; I can’t
imagine anyone abusing that! While were at it, most of us don’t
support slavery, murder, or prostitution these days, so let’s
repeal the laws banning them. They waste space, right?
Bohle shouldn’t lose sleep over that commission. It’s
chaired by an ex-WNBA star so that it looks good, but it’s
stacked with reps from NCAA Division I schools largely still not
in compliance with Title IX. |
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| Smokers: Not morally obligated to
anyone |
Clarence Alston
Senior, Computer Science
262-0716
|
To
the Editor:
In a letter to the editor, David Niehoff (Sept.
24), sounds off on the environmental atrocities, specifically, smoking,
being committed everyday on our campus. According to Niehoff, smokers
“directly affect the health and well-being” of every non-smoker.
Although I doubt second-hand smoke affects the broad range of one’s
well being, I agree it is harmful to one’s health. However,
claiming that every smoker has a moral obligation to protect the
health of non-smokers is ridiculous. In fact, such actions would
be super derogatory on the part of the smoker. Instead, every non-smoker
concerned with preserving whatever little health is lost from inhaling
minute quantities of second-hand smoke, should seek the “clear-air
path” around the smokers. Certainly, those who seek such a
result, that is, obtaining clean air, should perform the positive
action.
Quantitatively, the amount of smoke generated by all smokers in
front of Whitener is little when compared with the amount of “clean
air” surrounding the “poison”. Cigarette smoke is
certainly harmful, but declaring that smokers have a moral obligation
to protect others’ health takes a lot of spin.
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| Confusion about Jewish community |
Sheldon Hanft,
Ph.D.
Advisor, Jewish Students
Association
hanfts@appstate.edu |
To
the Editor:
Your article about religious stereotyping obstacles
on campus (“Students work to counter Jewish stereotypes,”
Sept. 17) is misleading. It ignores the generosity and openness
of many local churches that have graciously shared their facilities
with the local Jewish community and joined in interfaith activities.
We greatly appreciate the local faith community’s support and
cooperative spirit.
The Boone Jewish Community, which has provided generous financial
and spiritual support to the ASU Student Association for the past
25 years, does have regular Jewish services using the prayer book
of the leading Reformed Jewish organization. It also has two Torah
scrolls, one of which is a “Holocaust Torah,” rescued
from Nazis genocide.
Both the Boone and campus Jewish groups are well represented and
active in both communities. We belong to the United Campus Ministries
at ASU and a variety of local interfaith groups and projects. Both
provide social services, charity and people-power for diverse town
and campus welfare and interfaith projects. ASU Jewish students
have joined with Boone Jewish Community members collecting food
for the Hunger Coalition, maintaining the “City Gardens,”
volunteering at Hospitality House, Watauga Medical Center and the
Watauga Youth Network.
While students have encountered religious proselytizing, and the
BJC lacks a building, the preponderance of our experiences shows
the local faith community to be warm, supportive and welcoming.
It enables us to have a role and impact far in excess of that accorded
our small size. We hope the support we have found in Boone and on
campus has been reciprocated by the vast majority of our Jewish
students and residents, even if a few remain unsatisfied, like those
in the article.
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| Support for artistic efforts of
cartoonist |
Sara Castellano
Junior
SC50923 |
To
the Editor:
I want to express my support for your cartoonist
in regards to the Sept. 12 Walk for Awareness cartoon. A newspaper
cartoonist’s job is to illustrate a situation that needs to
be addressed and dealt with. The intent behind a political cartoon
is for people to think and talk about issues; the cartoon in question
did that among the organizations with which I am involved.
For a cartoon to prove a point in one frame, it is usually necessary
to portray some sort of stereotype. I find it disturbing that some
people I have discussed this issue with find this cartoon offensive,
but don’t seem to have any complaints about cartoons that might
insult other groups. If feminists want equality, why is it unimportant
when others are caricatured but different for us? For the record,
I consider myself an ultra-liberal feminist - sometimes even a militant
one. We should avoid being reactionary, and think about an issue
from many perspectives before sealing opinions.
Many at ASU and in the world at large view “feminist”
as a dirty word.
The cartoon was effective, because it depicted the image a lot of
people conjure up when they hear that horrible f-word. The cartoonist
is not the problem: how can he get his point across if he doesn’t
draw something people relate to? I challenge feminists on our campus
to stop attacking the messenger, and instead go after the source.
Let’s stop complaining, name-calling, and being hyper-sensitive.
Let’s work on redefining feminism here. |
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| Anti-Whining manifesto for all |
Nathan Hannan
Senior
compstar35@hotmail.com
|
To
the Editor:
Reading the campus newspaper has become very interesting
and fun for me over the past couple of years. The number of people
who write in to whine about ridiculous topics and futile causes
has increased greatly. And now with the influx of heightened political
and social involvement, campus construction, and a storm of other
situations and issues that may weigh on the mind of a college student,
the whiners are crawling everywhere.
First off, the parking in this town, let alone on campus, has been
a nightmare since Boone hit the map. As long as the town continues
to grow, and the university along with it, there will always be
a traffic/parking issue to frustrate the citizens and students.
If you want to do something about the situation... then walk to
class/work/etc
Second, what state do we live in? Am I still in North Carolina?
Welcome to the great state of tobacco! If you don’t want to
smell cigarette smoke then move to the Serengeti. A little cigarette
smoke won’t kill you in 5 minutes or even 5 years.
And finally, the feminists, whose causes are in most cases justified,
need to simmer down about cartoons printed in a newspaper on a campus
in the middle of no where, North Carolina. A cartoon is meant to
be funny or satirical, and a caricature is a visual exaggeration
or representation of something or someone that is blown out of proportion
to reality.
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