Opinion

Mountaineer Escort
Ready to serve students
Guest Columnist
Jake Parker
Mountaineer Escort

It’s the middle of November, the college basketball season is about to fire up, Turkey Day is on the way, and everyone is getting stressed out about tests, papers, and those fun final exams.

So let’s take time out to relax. Close your eyes and think of a beautiful place. I’m thinking of Boone in the fall. Deep Carolina Blue skies with a couple of clouds overhead, a cool breeze, and the temperature is about 65 degrees.

Students are milling about campus, laughing and smiling without the threat of an exam or a paper. Sounds like a great place, right. Wake up! It’s time to come back to reality.

While we enjoy a "safe" campus here at Appalachian, we have been taking advantage of our apparent safety. Appalachian does have a safe campus when compared to larger universities in the state; however, like any other place in the world, Appalachian is not totally safe from crime.

We do have safety concerns on this campus, and many students who are concerned about their safety. Four hundred people turned out for a rally sponsored by NOW and over 1,500 to 2,000 walked the streets of Boone in the "Walk for Awareness." We can not afford to ignore crime on campus nor let the fear of crime stop us from living our everyday lives, so we must take steps to protect ourselves as a student body.

One of the easiest ways to avoid crime is to walk with a friend or better yet a group of friends. I call it herd safety. Elephants and antelope use it. Heck, even the dinosaurs moved in herds to protect each other.

Now, I’m not saying walk around in huge groups and act like animals, but if you could walk with three or four other people it would be a good step toward avoiding problems. The main point I’m trying to get across is DON’T WALK ALONE.

If you don’t feel like walking call the Mountaineer Escort. It will take you almost anywhere around Boone, but it will not take you to K-Mart or the grocery store. Basically, the Escort will take you from place to place on campus or nearby apartments. The number is 262-6438, the hours are from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., Sunday through Thursday, and the service is free.

All you have to do is dial a few numbers and say, "I need an escort." Give the dispatcher your name and location and the dispatcher will radio the Escort. The Escort van will then pick you up as quickly as possible. Keep in mind, when the escort service is called often, it does take the van some time to pick people up, but be patient and wait with a friend or herd.

The service is strictly voluntary and these volunteers don’t like to sit around waiting for calls (trust me it gets boring). So give these volunteers and Mountaineer Escort a chance. If you have any questions about Mountaineer Escort call 262-6253.

The SGA is currently working on installing audible alarms, at each of the "blue lights" around campus. If you are ever in a dangerous situation, look for them. There are 39 "blue lights" around campus. These "blue lights" are available to you around the clock and will notify the campus police of your location.

The SGA is also putting on a Forum about Security issues on Wednesday, November 13 at 8 p.m. in the I.G. Greer auditorium. This promises to be an informative session about our security situation at Appalachian. The SGA is concerned about student security, and encourages students to attend.

As a community we can help prevent crime on our campus. Don’t be naive and think that you can never be a victim of crime. Please walk with a friend, use Mountaineer Escort, take advantage of the "blue lights" if necessary, and attend the Security Forum.

We must take it upon ourselves to ensure a safe campus. We are all students here and this is our university. Now let’s open our eyes, be aware, be smart, and relax.

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Where were you while we were getting high?
My Turn
by Joy Stanley
Columnist

Weed. Grass. Hemp. Pot. Reefer. Anyway you put it, it is not tobacco. It is marijuana. Tobacco and marijuana are two different substances, and that’s the reason why marijuana should not be legalized.

It is bad enough there are people who smoke cigarettes. We already have laws banning cigarette smoking in most public places, individuals who spend hundreds of dollars trying to quit, and people dying from lung cancer and emphysema (which is a painful way to die).

Maybe a majority of the people don’t have a problem with marijuana, and they think it is as "harmless" as a cigarette, but they should think again. If pot was not harmful, then why did they make it illegal in the first place?

By now, most of you have probably heard of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (Yes, our friend THC) THC is the chemical in pot which gives the user the "high" they feel when they smoke it.

The high usually reaches a peak in an hour, and wears off in about two. It also gives the user a runny nose and bloodshot eyes. Okay, so maybe that doesn’t sound all that bad. Hey, but those are only the short term effects.

Marijuana contains the same cancer-producing chemicals as tobacco smoke, and since marijuana smokers tend to hold in the smoke longer, that makes one or two joints a day a lot worse than smoking a pack of cigarettes every day.

For those who wish to keep a high GPA, or at least the mind they have now, smoking pot is not going to help out too much. THC affects the short-term memory (which comes in handy for cramming), and it also lessens a person’s calculation skills, basic reasoning, reaction speed, vision, comprehension, and speech. The longer the person smokes, the worse it gets. A person’s memory could be impaired up to six weeks considering how much he/she smokes, or how powerful the joint is.

It is also known that pot can cause a drop in the levels of testosterone in males. (Men, you know you need it.) And it can also drop levels in two major hormones of females. Other long term effects are addiction, depression, and anxiety. Sometimes marijuana even starts a person on the road to more dangerous and stronger illegal drugs.

But one of the worse things about pot is that it is a "spectator drug." It causes the smoker to be passive. Whenever the smoker gets a chance, the only thing they will be looking forward to is getting a high. Who wants to be stoned or wasted all of the time? There are plenty of other things in life a person can do for entertainment other than smoking weed.

Imagine what would happen if we legalized marijuana. The money used on programs and campaigns against the drug would be wasted, and the generation after us would be a total waste; a generation of unproductive people. America doesn’t want a nation full of passive people. That is the image we are trying to get away from. Then we wonder why we are so much slower than all of the other countries. It is because our interest is in things that are the most damaging to us.

We want America to be a productive, active, intelligent and strong country. We also want to have an assurance that the future will be bright. So, why legalize a drug that is going to do the opposite and damage us? The government does not make up laws to keep us from having fun, but it makes them for our safety (and in this case, our health). Why go through all of the trouble for a little high?

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Helms v. Gantt
It's over!
Down Home with Bob Hutton
Columnist

I don’t take politics too seriously. I dig political statistics. I love to talk politics with friends, family and drunks (some of these falling into more than one category). I even picked political science as a minor. But still, I don’t see politics as a reliable means of solving problems.

Ergo, I don’t belong to a political party. In my home state of Virginia, we’re not required to submit a party when we register to vote and I think that’s great. I don’t want to be in a party. I suppose I wouldn’t mind joining up with an organization that shared my political ideologies and views, but the Huns have not been around for some time now.

So for me, aside from voting every year and blowing up the occasional ATF building, politics is strictly a spectator sport.

Of course spectators like spectacles and ya’ll’s recent senatorial race certainly filled that bill. Jesse Helms, the would-be commencement speaker at Appalachian business college graduation ceremony, our most conservative U.S. senator (arguably), and one of the most colorful and controversial public figures of our time was running against former stock car driver Harry Gant.

Wait, that’s not right. It wasn’t stock car driver Harry Gant, it was former Charlotte mayor and prominent slumlord Harvey Gantt. I’m always getting them mixed up. But that’s irrelevant.

The thing that was really interesting was seeing the election from a university. Universities are and, I suppose, have always been forums for radical or liberal dogma (I hate using empty, overused terms like "liberal" and "conservative" but that’s about all you people understand), and I bet that a lot of students perceive our school as a Gibraltar of rational thought in a sea of ignorant provincialism.

I bet there’s also a number of other Appalachian students who have at least one lick of sense. After all, as Brother Dave Gardner said, a liberal is just someone "educated beyond their capacity" (please, liberal readers, don’t take that as an insult, but rather as an affront to your intelligence).

Needless to say, after Helms’ victory last week, outrage was probably a rampant emotion among many campus groups like the College Democrats, NOW, B-GLAD, SAVE, and any of the other insipid activist groups you might care to name. On the other hand, the victory was probably celebrated by groups like the Young Republicans and, well, the Young Republicans.

All in all, I think that we can safely assume that if Appalachian State was Jesse Helms’ entire electorate (the thought gives me a nose bleed) he would have lost.

This being the case, I suppose the word that best sums up my reaction to Helms’ victory is glee. Glee is a funny little word that’s rarely used in contemporary conversation or literature, but I can think of no other word that better describes the feelings of childlike gaiety, merriment and verve (yes, verve) that I experience when I think about the disappointment and indignation felt by so many anti-Helms voters at ASU.

I suppose that is the one thing I really admire about Jesse Helms: he makes a lot of people mad. He’s got audacity, and audacity has a permanent spot on my list of virtues right between contrariety and self-indulgence. Sen. Helms thrives on controversy and that’s a good thing to thrive on.

Nevertheless, please don’t misinterpret me. As I mentioned before, I have only an academic interest in this state’s senatorial election. I can’t even vote in this state. I have no affinity for Sen. Helms’ politics (actually I have no affinity for anyone’s politics except for my own).

To tell the truth, as a statesman, Jesse Helms stands poorly in comparison to his predecessor, Sam Ervin. (For those of you who are native North Carolinians and have never heard of Sam Ervin, perhaps you might consider foregoing that next "Friends" episode and try something weird like, I don’t know, reading. How did you get out of high school anyway?)

Despite these shortcomings, the reason his winning makes me so happy is the fact that so many of you, my dear readers, wanted him to lose. That’s right, just disagreeing with my fellow students is enough reason to take even the most unbelievable position. I don’t mind being outnumbered either. If I’m in the minority, that’s probably a pretty good indicator that I’m right, especially around here.

Now you may say that I’m skirting the issues here but it is my contention that the issues are not as important as they seem. Jesse Helms is just one member of the Senate. He only gets one vote just like everybody else.

But there is something else at work here. Helms has become a symbol to some people and, to many, beating him would have been a symbolic win against the stodgy conservativism that he stands for. I suppose North Carolinians should feel special that their senior senator has transcended the mortal coil and become an emblem for an entire way of thinking. That’s certainly a bigger job than Foreign Relations Committee chairman.

Unfortunately for many, the emblem could not be struck down. Deal with it.

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Our Opinion...
Flooded cars should be fixed at university expense

Last Thursday it rained. In fact, it rained so much that night that an area frequented by floods in the past, was indeed flooded once again. Ed Lackey Field, former home of the ASU baseball team, and its surrounding area were once again flooded by a surging Boone Creek.

To alleviate some of the continuous parking problems that this university suffers from, the tennis courts alongside the baseball field next to the Hardee's were turned into a parking lot for this school year.

Up until last Thursday these new spots were great. They provided extra room for "on-campus" parking and were a good place for commuters to leave their car for the day. However, there were also a lot of students who parked their car there all the time.

For those students, last Thursday was definitely not a good day. While Boone Creek surged late Thursday night and early Friday morning, many cars and trucks sat in the lot untouched by their owners, waiting for the water to rise.

Now its common knowledge that that area of campus lies on a floodplain. It is, after all, one of the lowest areas in Boone. However, when students signed up to park in this lot in the beginning of the year they were given no notice that the lot may flood periodically and that if it did the school was not responsible for any damage.

So basically, students paid one hundred dollars for the "privilege" of parking on-campus only to lose hundreds or thousands of dollars when their cars were filled with mud and water Friday.

For many students, the damage was much worse. Most of those who were parked in the lot that night are having their cars totaled since the damage to the cars costs more than the entire car itself. One woman's car actually floated across the lot! She has two sons attending this school who she has to worry about paying for plus she did not have car insurance.

For students who did have insurance, they might receive some money eventually, but probably not enough to pay for a new vehicle as good as their old one. And, no one will be paid for all the headaches and aggravation that will come to them from this.

Meanwhile, the school claims that they are not responsible and getting away with it because of some clever little clause they have written down somewhere.

All the University Police are doing is just filing reports on all the cars that were flooded so they can have it on record. Of course nothing will come of these reports that will help those who lost their only means of transportation to work and or home. No money will ever reach the hands of students who may now be out thousands of dollars, despite the fact that the school did NOT call students that night to warn them that their cars might be in danger.

Back in September, when a hurricane threatened to bring torrential rains to Boone, students were called the day before and advised to move their vehicles. The lot never flooded but at least the university did the right thing and erred on the side of caution.

This time no calls were made before, or even after the lot flooded so many students walked down to the lot that Friday in a good mood, ready to start their weekend only to find their cars ruined. This time the university screwed up big time and no amends will made to students who were victims in this flood, and that is just plain wrong.

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