Page 113 - Phoenix1998-99

COMMENTARY Thursday, February 18, 1999 - Page 5 Letters to the Editor Pulling your Who's to blame? by gunfire. their time to make posters, buy food, and own weight nations and of students who volunteered Anyone you ask will say thai all politi- I am writing in response to another ar- cians are corrupt, and there's nothing you spin records all helped to make this a suc- ticle on president Clinton which Idisagree can do about it. But there is. There's some- cessful event: we raised $611, which will Emily Stomathis compares the with. Mr. Decker complains about the gen- thing called an election which is held on really be worth twice that much under a eral apathy in the American people for the the first Thursday of every November. matching campaign by Heifer Project In- reliability of computers to the impeachment trial. America needs to start voting for people ternational (HPI). reliability of humans, with less- Personally, Idon't blame them. The Re- who they can trust, for people who have HPI is an organization that donates than-encouraging results publican Party, although starting out with the integrity to lead, not for people who small animals to needy families through- good intent, has resorted to the whining, promise government handouts to special out the world in order to provide them with I, as a student of the 90s, a Genera- name-calling, and niggling they felt Bill interests and go around pretending they're' way to feed themselves and become self- tion X'er - choose your label- am a slave Clinton had so egregiously done. great because they have a nice smile and a reliant. to technology. And proud of it. Bill Clinton is not worthy of the respect firm handshake. The devastation wrought by Hurricane Our elders sling the term around like of an elected office, but neither are many This country is in a political mess right Mitch was of biblical proportions. With some sort of scarlet letter. In the age of of his critics. Why should we listen to Re- now, but as far as I'm concerned it's not up to six feet of rain and winds of 180 the internet, computers have gone from publicans denounce Clinton for his immo- Bill Clinton, nor the House Managers, who m.p.h., the deluge caused massive flood- the whiz kid's toy to nothing more than a rality when many of them are guilty of the have caused this. It's our own damn fault. ing and mud slides throughout Central glorified telephone inthe eyes of our par- same? America. ents, but ask most of my friends, and This country does not believe Clinton Sincerely, The latest figures are that 9,000 were there's nothing hipper than being com- should be removed, not because they are Jeremy Kelt killed, 9,000 are still missing, more than puter literate. ignorant of his wrongs, but because they one million people were displaced, and Who wouldn't want to have all the view his accusers as immoral as he is. Not This letter is in response to Ben Decker's damage estimates range from $6-8 billion. latest information first, the world at their until Republicans clean up their own acts commentary, "Political Musings: Perjury Although Hurricane Mitch has disap- fingertips? Shopping around the globe will they see more public support for them and the President," in the February 4, peared from the headlines, the human need with a few simple keystrokes. A whole and their causes. J999, issue of the Phoenix. in countries like Honduras and Nicaragua circle of friends you can turn off like a Clinton has done many things which I is on-going. lightswitch when they get annoying. find downright dishonest, but when there Our donation to HPJ will go toward re- Which brings us to the issue of reli- are radical Republicans drumming up Hurricane Relief Dance plenishing herds of animals that were lost ability, which seems to me to be the only charges about Clinton raping women, or- in the destruction and help families get definite question mark in the manifesto dering murders, and killing little babies, it Dear Phoenix, back on their feet. of the internet-dependent. Sure, places the Republicans on the same level, I would like to express my appreciation Thank you for your support. www.yahoo.com seems to have all the in the public's eye, as the Democrats. In to all the members of the campus commu- answers andtakes far lesstime than look- fact, it's even lower because Republicans nity-students, faculty, and staff-who Sincerely, ing up a book in the library like the cave- appear to be hypocritical. supported the recent benefit dance for the Thomas Deveny, men usedto do, but God forbid the sewer And by the way, although there have victims of Hurricane Mitch. Chair, Dept. of Foreign Languages should go down, or even worse, there is been millions of abortions, very few come The Spanish Club, the Hispano-Latino a power outage. about by partial-birth, perhaps only I or Alliance, and the Dept. of Foreign Lan- For more information, contact Dr. Deveny Reading a book with a flashlight is 2%, and Clinton is no more at fault for guages co-sponsored this event, which was at extension x465. one thing, but it's quite a bit harder to those deaths than the authors of the Sec- held in the forum on Feb. 5th. boot your computer up by rubbing two ond Amendment are at fault for any death The generosity of those who gave do- sticks together. At the rate technology is advancing now, this problem could be Score One for Residence Life time will tell. solved in a year or it may never be. Only Our reliance on computers may be an issue unique to the late 20th century, but It's II :02 p.m. on a Tuesday night, Ron Mojica encourages Residence policy also caused some distress among the ability to rely on other members of and you just came back to your room ex- Life in their effort to resolve noise the college's inhabitants. Its total dis- our very own human race has been a ba- hausted after an arduous study session. regard for flexibility implied that stu- sic need since the beginning of time. It's time to relax, so you pop in your policiy problems. dents could not be reasoned with, which Unfortunately,we haven't worked out all favorite CD, sit back, and lull away into from several of the residence halls, the consequently caused some residents to the kinks in this respect either. musical escape. Then comes the knock. Residence Life Department was quick to question their rights, or lack thereof, Being in a position of power has as After a few movements of pen on pa- formulate a solution. when living on campus. per, you find yourself being told to turn Under the revamped guidelines, the On Wednesday, February 8, however, much to do with your own reliance on others as it has to do with delegating and your music down, although it didn't two established times are enforced more Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Scott giving orders. This is a lesson I learned, seem loud at all. The next day, you dis- strictly than in the past, making the Kane issued an apologetic memo about and fast, the moment I took on the posi- cover you were written up for- a noise policy a write-up tour de force in pur- the flaws of this effort to try to solve tion of Editor-In-Chief of The Phoenix. violation at the Residence Life Office. suit of any noise in any residence hall. the noise problem. Some might think that the staff of a Although hypothetical, situations There would be no warnings and the first Apparently, those who are respon- publication, or any group for that matter, such as this were not out of the ordinary infringement would mean an automatic sible for enforcing these new policies is nothing but a slave to the orders of the for the first two weeks of the new se- write up. had trouble differentiating between a person in charge, but in fact it isquite the mester. However, this will soon change. This is where the problems began. noise violation and normal, typical noise opposite. Along with some of the other changes Accounts of what students consider which resulted in the problems many The goal of any staff is to become an efficient team. This of course takes prac- [The policy's] total disregard for flexibility implied that students could not be tice, but if each member doesn't pull his or her own weight, the final product as a reasoned with, which consequently caused some residents to question their rights, whole will no doubt suffer. One person not doing their part is basically pulling or lack thereof, when living on campus. the plug on the entire production, mean- ing that in order to avoid a blackout, the that Residence Life imposed on Western unfair noise citations ran rampant residents were complaining about. rest of the team has to work until their Maryland College residents for the around campus. Some residents were Although the current policy will un- batteries are dead. Spring term, a stricter noise policy was apparently written up for merely-having dergo some examination, don't blare Hopefully by the end of our terms as one of the more unpopular, netting ob- the radio or television on or for just hav- those stereos past 9 p.m. quite yet. The Editorsof The Phoenix, Megan and J will jections from the residents and resident ing some boisterous conversations. rules are still in effect, with RAs con- have found a way to get around a reli- assistants alike. The RAs were supposed to write up tinuing to exercising the no-warning ability problem that has been plaguing Originally, the noise policy func- violators if noise from a certain room code for noise violations. tired students in the computer labs for tioned under two guidelines. One was a could be heard two doors down. To some, the response from the Resi- years, and the rest of the human race a 24-hour period of "courtesy hours," and With the change, however, students dence Life Department to appease the lot longer. another was "quiet hours" that began at felt that the RAs went to extremes be- concerns of the students might not be a There's nothing more respectable than 9 p.m. and ended at 10 a.m. the next day, cause write-ups were administered, monumental event. To others, however, dependability. Just something to think Sundays through Thursdays. On the without warning mind you, for noise it's just gratifying to be heard. about the next time you're waiting in line weekends, quiet hours were from I a.m. which could be heard right outside their Kudos to Assistant Dean Kane and to check your email. until iO a.m. doors. company. Due to some complaints about noise Complaints about the no-warning