By the time you read this, our nation will be at war. With this in mind, I've been sitting in front of my computer stymied for some time.
This letter is in response to two statements that really turned my stomach in Tuesday's edition of The State News.
After hearing the statements from President Bush on Monday I was appalled. How is Saddam Hussein a greater threat to the American people than Bush is to Iraqi people?
Carolyn 0'Laughlin and Rebecca Linz seem to have received rotten treatment by MSU in that 0'Laughlin must choose between her job and her personal life ("Hall director resigns over lack of same sex benefits," SN 3/18). If I were in this couple, I would run - not walk - to the nearest reputable civil rights attorney or organization and file a lawsuit as soon as possible.
At MSU, all students are treated equally, and each department within the university supports the diversity of its employees and students. Right?
Carolyn O'Laughlin is battling discrimination by MSU and the former Mason Hall assistant director is to be commended for not going quietly. O'Laughlin has been facing university discrimination because she is in a same-sex relationship with French graduate student Rebecca Linz.
On Tuesday, President Bush reminded Americans of the oath he took to uphold the Constitution and defend the great democratic experiment born nearly 227 years ago. But the commander in chief is dangerously close to faulting in his duties and destroying the American dream. If the president pre-emptively orders an invasion of Iraq and implements American military rule in that country for any period of time, he will have effectively helped the United States become everything it fought against for freedom more than two centuries ago.
What a farce. There is nothing that burns me more than misinformation, and The State News Opinion Page has been riddled with it lately.
My top 10 reasons not to invade Iraq: 1. According to the CIA World Factbook, the average male life expectancy is 66.31 years, and Saddam Hussein is 66 years old.
Somewhere in the middle of Missouri, Pvt. Andrew P. Johnson (Andy to me) spends his days learning how to prevent and respond to biological attacks. My 18-year-old friend from high school is training to be a chemical soldier - the first line of defense in the event of chemical warfare. He graduates from his training in May and was supposed to come home for a while before heading off to his first duty station. But all of that has changed now. My cell phone rang Sunday afternoon with an unfamiliar number on the screen and a strange voice on the other end. "Who is this?" I asked. "Andy." "ANDY!" I shouted. A co-worker agreed to fill in while I stepped away from my desk to talk to the voice I hadn't heard since Jan.
It seems that many people who are discussing the protests against The State News' publication of the campustruth.org advertisements are missing the point. The issue at hand is not one about free speech for a couple simple reasons. First, the State News' Code of Advertising Acceptability states the paper will not intentionally publish advertisements "attacking or criticizing directly or by implication, any race, sex, creed, religion, organization, institution, business or profession without firm justification and foundation." So, there is a precedent set that free speech will be suspended if it is hate speech. Second, David Horowitz once attempted to publish an advertisement in The State News presenting his argument against reparations for African Americans, which the paper heartily declined to publish claiming it would incite violence and racism. Therefore, this issue has nothing to do with free speech and instead has to do with a hypocrisy and bias within The State News against Arabs and especially Palestinians.
Anti-war demonstrators continue to make statements such as "Give peace a chance" and "No blood for oil." But I have serious problems with the logic surrounding both statements. First, those who say "give peace a chance" have no concept of what peace is or what it takes to achieve it; they are living in a fantasy world.
In the spirit of campuswide referendums, two groups within the MSU community are coming forward to ask for small additions to the taxes imposed on student tuition bills.
This letter is in response to the "War fears fuel protest" (SN 3/13). I can't believe that more than 30 people wasted their time by trying to build a human blockade at a local Shell gas station. How does buying Shell gasoline prevent a war?
I began to think of the many things that one could offer opinions on this week. I thought of trying to focus on the war with Iraq, the economy that is affecting MSU or the upsurge in vicious rhetoric that has seen racist comments on doors, ministers calling Mohammed a monster and innocent people being killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
On Wednesday, at about the same time when you've checked your e-mail for the ump-teenth time or during that period of the day when you are wasting your life away chatting on AOL Instant Messenger, take a few seconds to be a contributing member of society. Don't forget to vote in MSU's 2003 student referendum by logging onto www.studentelections.msu.edu.
Indeed it is March Madness as noted by The State News' special sports sections on Monday - "Courtside and Bracket Madness." Unfortunately, those sections failed to give the whole story of March Madness.
Feelings about the situation with Iraq are getting stronger and becoming increasingly more public. The recent protest at the Shell gas station in Frandor is just one example. In my hometown of Augusta, Mich., different people are reacting differently just as they are here in East Lansing. The voice for "no war" is a loud one wherever you go.
In this time of reduced appropriations and fear from wild rumors of tuition increasing 30 percent, some feel it's necessary to recommend tuition caps as a necessary tool to restrain tuition.
Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe isn't that much different from other dictators. He uses violence against members of his political opposition and those who try to run an independent media.