|
Letters to the Editor
Our Money Is Being Wasted
Since I have been going to St. Cloud State I have noticed something. Our school spends a lot of money on things that I do not think we particularly need. While our tuition continues to increase, which in turn puts more pressure on us, money is wasted. Do we really need an addition to the Atwood Center? As far as I can tell the Atwood Center looks great and runs great. Adding an additional area will not significantly improve the lives of SCSU students. Also, when I do walk by the construction nothing seems to be getting done. I will see one guy with a shovel and the rest of the workers standing around, doing nothing. This is bad use of our tuition money as well as the hard earned money people pay their taxes with.
Another waste of money that I have seen recently is the sprinkler system. A good portion of the campus is dirt anyway. What grass or plants are they helping? The other major thing is that I am sure that the sprinkler system is on a timer. Maybe this isn't a good idea. Four times within the last two weeks the sprinklers were on while it was raining!!!! That doesn't make any sense.
I think we should take a serious look on what our money is being spent. These are just two examples of the myriad of things I have noticed. I want money for more teachers, smaller class sizes, and better technology resources. The students have power here at school. Let's try to use some of it.
John Ward
Sophomore
Secondary Education
A Revisionist Look at the American Dream
What is the American dream really? What follows is my best stab at it. It was taken from my journal and edited enough to make sense to other people and be suitable for public consumption. It was written very quickly and for my own enjoyment. It took all of about 30 minutes so obviously I was not writing with the sole goal to create a masterful essay.
One thing I have become sure of over the past couple months is the fact that money doesn't really mean anything. If you want to talk tangible things that do matter it is time (if time is tangible, it sort of is) that matters. Time is the one thing that cannot be earned back or regained in any way. Americans don't really appreciate time. They have it all wrong. They want stuff. SUVs, houses, expensive clothing, etc. It's all a lie and a joke to those with it enough sense to figure it out. Now there are things that actually are fun. Who can deny that? Things like motorcycles, a boat, or maybe a snowmobile are enjoyable (these are my favorites so feel free to insert your own item of choice). But these items are "time items." Buying time items can be expensive but the motive for buying them is different. Time items increase your enjoyment of "free time."
According to an article at the end of a Time magazine I was reading a while back, Europeans love time to live and treasure vacation time. It isn't the worthless stuff that matters, but time to enjoy life. And it makes sense. A great big house and a Lincoln Navigator will put pressure on you to work harder and have less time so you can pay for your treasured status symbols. Let's be realistic. It's not the house that most of you really enjoy. It's more the fact that it is in Walden Woods and is admired by people who are just as stupid and shallow as you are! Plus think of all the associated expense monetarily and time-wise. Insurance, property tax and all the utility bills for your mini-mansion. And then there is still all the time you spend maintaining your stuccoed god. You're reduced to little more than a prostitute, whoring yourself out to work and the pursuit of status items. "I'm enjoying life,"you say. "Why just ten minutes ago someone slowed down as they passed my perfectly manicured lawn." And as time passes you grow fatter along with your income, and oddly enough, your debts as well. For you see, another part of the American dream is the ability to live outside of one's means. Most of you systematically reject activities that will keep you healthy and fit and instead do things that will further your earthly kingdom. And it's all worth it when you can have all of your "friends" over and catch a different head on a chronically problematic, yet legal drug. This is the time for carefully bragging about all of your accomplishments and for displaying a freshly waxed Navigator out in the drive. The true American dream is displayed here in all of its naked glory - the desire to be noticed and admired by one's fellow man even if it means the loss of your real life.
That's why you killed the Native and systematically dehumanized people of color. All of it was done with a single goal in mind. It was done to make it easier to make more of your damned money and "better the land" by erecting more of your buildings and raping the earth and its people by growing tobacco and giving liquor to unknowing, simple people. And it lives on today in the influential white middle and upper class American ideology. All these people want is cash for their house, car, and of course sex. Who doesn't want that? It's been that way from the beginning.
What the founding fathers really meant when they said all men are created equal is that all white, property owning males had an equal say on how they were going to oppress non-white people and women for their own pleasure. That's the harsh truth of it folks. The keen observer can still see the same idea persisting today.
So serve your god America, for only in America we stamp our god "In God we trust" (taken from Scott Stapp's lyrics to "In America").
Scott Jansma
Sophomore
Biomedical Science
|
|
|
|
|
|
