Stop the noise at noon
Finally! I'm in total agreement that the noise at noon needs to be stopped. Unfortunately, I can't find the number of the Senior Events Coordinator in the UA phone book. Can Cory Spiller point me in the right direction so that I can begin telling people to call them and tell them to turn it off?
Hubert Bartels
UA optical sciences programmer
Bear Down song for everyone
I couldn't disagree more with Cory Spiller's Feb. 7 column. Playing "Bear Down" helps build school spirit and exposes more students to the song. "Bear Down" is a fight song, but it doesn't belong just to the band and the athletic department; it belongs to each one of us as a Wildcat. If you think about it, that Bear Down spirit can and should apply to our approach to school at every stage. During finals, we all need to Bear Down. As I work on my research, I need to Bear Down. Playing intramural sports, studying, working, we need to Bear Down. We can all use a dose of Bear Down spirit. I will suggest that it might be a nice gesture to also play the alma mater, "All Hail Arizona" say, once a week, since my experience is that most students are totally unfamiliar with it. Bear Down!
Gordon Zaft
ECE grad student
Spiller column should start a movement
I'm glad someone's on to this. Thanks to Cory Spiller, I now know where to direct my complaint. It doesn't surprise me that Campaign Arizona is behind the noon tune, and it doesn't surprise me that they would appeal to the "school spirit" as defined by athletics. As you say, "we do not need a reminder that athletics is given the highest priority at the UA." It's all so pathetically 1950s (letter sweaters, absence of irony), with just a hint of totalitarianism. North Korea, anyone? I hope Spiller's column will start a movement.
Roger Bowen
UA English professor
Ads ought to be racially sensitive
Casey Ontiveros used a couple bad examples in his letter regarding the Pizza Hut ads. Especially if folks from Gothic descent will be offended by the ads of Capitol One. Most Americans in a sense don't relate themselves with knights of the dark ages. On the other hand it is a totally different case if people used Navajo or other American Indian dances and made fun of them - in that sense you are actually hurting a group directly. Remember the movie "The Program," which had a scene with drunk high school football players lying in the middle of the road with cars speeding in both directions? There were dozens of cases where teenagers died doing the same movie stunt. Or what about the Pepsi ad a few years ago when they showed a scene where a Goldfish jumped out of the bowl to drink Pepsi. Many groups around the nation gave an informational warning that fish cannot consume Pepsi, and if they do, they will die.
Although the argument against Pizza Hut is a bit far-fetched, and it probably will not cause a lot of problems, people should still be sensitive to the people to whom they are trying to advertise. Issues like domestic violence, eating disorders, cultural and ethnic issues must be considered before making an ad or a TV show.
The Anti-Arab movies and comedy shows built an artificial image among most Americans, and it was so easy for every goddamned TV station in this nation to condemn the Middle East in the Oklahoma City bombing- later we found it was Timothy McVeigh. There was not a single apology to the Arab and Muslim Community. Acts of violence were committed against Arab-Americans, and the U.S. Congress blindly passed the Law of Secret Evidence, which held hundreds of Arabs without charge, and trial in jail. Casey Ontiveros says, "I think it might be high-time someone pulls that stick out of their ass." Please, Casey should do that as well, along with the damn duct tape on his eyes. You don't need to be sensitive or anything, but just respect issues that affect the people around you.
Ahmad Saad Nasim
general business senior
