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| Reader: Where is my money going? |
John Titus
Senior
Recreation Management Major
jt39775@appstate.edu |
To
The Editor:
I just tried to get tickets to the football game—$16. My parents,
who have been paying tuition for nine semesters, have to pay to
see the last home game of my college career.
Three cents a copy to print, parking fees for faculty and staff
(yes, they pay to work here). The biggest complaint: the recreation
management students who paid $796 a piece for internships didn’t
get site visits or professor feedback because of budget cuts. $796
and none of us were on campus?
Where did the money go? Can anyone own up to this? I might believe
all the budget hoopla if we hadn’t built the basketball stadium
before the library. Oh, and by the way, has anyone noticed any construction
slowdowns even though we’re short on paper and dry-erase markers?
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| Expansion is coming like it or not. |
Charles Haynes
Junior
Communication Major
ch36609@appstate.edu |
To
The Editor:
I enjoy watching ASU football very much. This year I have only missed
two games on the schedule, ETSU and GSU. I do not plan on missing
any more, including playoff games.
The proposed expansion is a must for Appalachian if we are to compete
at a high level in the Southern Conference. Wofford College, Georgia
Southern University and Furman University have all upgraded their
facilities, and we have fallen behind. The new field house would
help tremendously by bringing in recruits, not just for football,
but all sports.
I attended the Nov. 5 Student Government Association senate meeting.
Roachel J. Laney spoke for the first time on this matter to students,
and, understandably, many senators were upset about where the money
was going to come from. The most vocal opinions came from off-campus
senator Ian A. Mance. It seemed he shared the same sentiment as
many other senators. He felt the expansion was, in so many words,
absolutely unnecessary. In my opinion, some students need to have
a greater love for their university and its athletic teams. This
year, we have had the largest student support in years at football
games. I am very appreciative of that and I thank all those students
who are there every home game. They are the true Mountaineers.
To conclude, I am a very strong supporter of this school and will
have no problem paying a few more dollars now, and in the future,
for this expansion to happen. No doubt about it, it is going to
happen whether students like it or not. I just hope more of you
out there feel the same way I do.
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| Racial issues: The bigger picture |
Adam Gilbert
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
asgilber@hotmail.com |
To
The Editor:
Staff writer Josh Dernosek examined two incidents of racism on campus
toward African Americans (“Racial issues are everybody’s
responsibility,” Oct. 24). He asked: “Why did [African
Americans] receive so much attention … when many others …
deal with similar derogatory comments every day?”
It’s not African Americans that receive attention but the incidents.
They remind us (especially African Americans) of our history of
slavery and its result – a power imbalance between black America
and white America. Race problems must be assessed in light of this
bigger picture.
Slavery has made the black-white relationship different than other
race relationships in America. Any racism incident involving white
as aggressor against black causes memories of injustice to resurface,
drawing attention.
Many whites don’t realize slavery still impacts America by
dictating who has power. After the Civil War, black-white power
levels weren’t automatically rectified. It took time for black
America to recover (educate children, build healthy, unbroken families
etc.). This process is still underway.
Meanwhile, whites still have the power by controlling “the
system” (government, economy, educational/career opportunities
etc.). Most whites overlook this. If money is power, how then, is
“power” dispersed among blacks and whites? A 1995 survey
from “Black Wealth/White Wealth” says the net worth (all
assets minus all debts) of blacks is eight percent of that of whites
- $3,700 compared to $43,800. Clearly there’s still a power
imbalance.
Many whites feel these incidents are “beaten like a dead horse.”
If you don’t see the existing problems/inequalities it will
seem like “beating a dead horse”. You’ll have no
patience for the seemingly overemphasized incidents like the Delta
Chi situation. But once you see the current inequalities, this “extra
attention” becomes minute in comparison.
If American racial issues are ever going to die, whites need to
start acknowledging current inequalities and stop acting like the
field is level when it’s not.
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| U.S. not quite ready for an attack
on Iraq |
Elizabeth Laney
Senior
ASU Box 11001 |
To
The Editor:
I must agree with Mr. Forbes in his assessment that the United States
would be ill-advised to take on Iraq at this time (“War on
Iraq: Ill-advised from any perspective,” Nov. 5).
The United States is presently facing two great threats and neither
is Iraq. The threat from Al Qaeda is obvious - they are a worldwide
Islamic extremist group supporting a jihad against the United States
and ‘corrupt’ governments around the world. The more urgent
threat to the US; however, is us. This threat lies in the ignorance
of the American public and a lack of action on the part of our government
over the past decade.
The threat of Islamic extremist groups has been developing for over
a decade, and the American public only now is starting to realize
it.
The public’s ignorance is only part of the problem. For the
past decade our government has been turning what seems to be a blind
eye to the growth of this threat.
In 1991, preceding the outbreak of civil war in Tajikistan, the
US ignored calls for assistance from a fledgling democratic party
there. That party then turned to the only group that would support
them after the refusal of the US and the West - Al Qaeda forces
from Afghanistan. Today we continue to support Russian military
operations in Chechnya despite the flagrant human right abuses against
the Chechen people.
Iraq is only a small part of the problem. We must concentrate on
developing comprehensive solutions to our major threats, from Al-Qaeda
and from ourselves, before considering an attack on Iraq.
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| Iraqi incursion: Giving the go-ahead |
Sean Tolbert
Freshman
ACID411404@aol.com |
To
The Editor:
I disagree with Forbes (“War on Iraq: Ill-advised from any
perspective,” Nov. 5). As a part of the military force and
also being part of what would be the front-line force, I believe
my opinion is an optimum one. First, the reason that we are prepared
to wage war on Iraq is not only terrorism, but the fact that the
United Nations, which is full of U.S. allies, is having many problems
with Iraq and has wanted to do something about this situation since
our last encounter with Iraq and Saddam. Over and over Iraq has
been given a more than fair chance to become an ally, and each time
they lie, or if you would like to lie to yourself, mislead the world.
Each time Iraq agrees to let UN weapons inspectors into the country
they kick them out of the country.
Forbes makes it sound like this is going to be
a long, drawn-out war full of casualties on both sides. When you
look back our last encounter with these same people the battle was
all of 100 hours. And the only American deaths were, sadly enough,
from fratricide. This would be a short, sweet war. The goal is to
diffuse the situation, which involves dissolving the current government,
and helping the country restart. This is a UN mission on the most
part. The only thing that the American forces would take the initiative
on is the battle, and most likely we will be supported by troops
from other countries.
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