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Letters to the Editor
Shuttle terrorism overhyped
Terrorist plot: these words have resonated throughout the nation countless times since the tragic events of Sept. 11. The past year and a half have been filled with more than a fair share of news stories relating to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.
Despite the real threat these groups pose and the level of awareness Americans should have about them, I felt that some of the news coverage surrounding the recent Columbia shuttle disaster was somewhat unnecessary in this regard.
Particularly, in the first few hours following the crash, the media constantly notified the public that "there is no evidence of terrorist involvement, but it has not been ruled out."
Only in this day and age would the American public jump to such conclusions when informed of such a disaster. I would find it even more ridiculous if I hadn't heard of the event through my co-worker, who said "the space shuttle blew up and they think it might be terrorists."
This may be partially due to a seed planted in the heads of listeners as radio commentators jumped to some irrational early conclusions following the initial news.
Terrorist involvement, when you think about it, was a pretty ludicrous notion, as no technology currently exists that could shoot down an object traveling at a velocity anywhere near the shuttle's. Likewise, sabotage would likely be designed to cause a disaster during takeoff, when the media was already trained on the event. And finally, terrorists could pick a far better target than the shuttle, one not surrounded by near-impenetrable security.
No, terrorists were not involved. This was a tragedy of the worst kind. One in which there are no "bad guys" to blame, only faulty heat tiles. As an American, I share in the sadness and frustration of being unable to seek retribution for the disaster as we did after Sept. 11. After all, that's human nature. But the sooner we can overcome this psychological handicap and stop jumping to ridiculous conclusions, the fewer people we will harm in the process.
Adam Johnson
Junior, Mass Communications
No reason for reparations
I don't think that it is feasible in the year 2003 to still be expecting the United States government to pay descendants of slaves reparations. First of all, only half of the country had slaves, so it wouldn't make sense to make people in the northern states pay for something that they didn't participate in and actually fought a war to stop. Second of all, there is no way that the few southern states that were around during the slave era could pay all of the money that would be required. Third of all, it would be a genealogical nightmare to try to trace all of the living descendants of people who were African slaves from the beginnings of the United States of America to 1865. Fourth of all, members of ruling African tribes sold other conquered Africans to slave traders as part of the spoils of war, so are their descendants going to have to pay reparations too? Slavery in America was a horrible thing and it should never have happened, but it is in the past. The best thing to do is to make today better for everyone and stop trying to make amends for things that can never truly be righted.
Sandra Johnson
Grad student, Criminal Justice
Book buyers have options
I would like to address Ms. Kropp's suggestion (Feb 3, 2003) that we all could rent books. The Minnesota university system used to have an even more inexpensive method of book distribution. Students used to check them out of the library. The problem with checking out and renting books are mainly storage space during non-use, current editions and how poorly the students treat the books if they do not actually pay for them.
If you want to save money, go to an online book broker or peer-to-peer selling service. Two of us purchased our books online fall semester for what it would have cost for one set of books. An example would be a chemistry book that used to cost $80 in a bookstore; it cost $16 online. The cover may have been falling off, but there were no marks or highlighting and the words inside were the same. You can even use what you save to purchase a portable flash drive.
Lane Wilcox
Senior, Biomedical Science
MGMs unpopular with all
Let's not lie to ourselves; it's not really about whether you're a liberal or a conservative or some odd concoction of the two. The truth is that none of us like MGMs. I'm sure that very few people come out of the class thinking to themselves, "Wow! That was a really enlightening period of my life, I'm sure looking forward to going to class next week."
In fact, most people I know talk about how they dread having to go at all. Having one class required isn't that bad, but the three that most of us have been required to take is a bit much. As if that wasn't enough, now the newbies have the esteemed privilege of taking four classes to become aware of the rich, white male dominating suppressor. Why call them MGMs when we could just call them Richwhitemaledominatingsuppressor-ism, hand out "I'm a victim" T-shirts, and stand in one big circle holding hands and singing "Heal the World." Heck, we can even make it a major and start handing out diplomas left and right. Wait... we already do that. This is beautiful. Somebody hand me a tissue.
Stephen Pederson
Pre-Optometry
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