UA needs to respect all students

While I am pleased at the Wildcat's fair and unbiased coverage of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues and events on campus, I am offended by the wording of this morning's headline, "Awareness Week highlights sexual-preference issues."

As the director of this organization, I know firsthand how important a turn of phrase can be to helping eradicate homophobia. The implication that being homosexual is a preference like one prefers chocolate ice cream to strawberry ice cream is misleading and does not give us enough credit.

With all of the trouble that comes along with coming out, like being thrown out of your house, beat up, or at the worst, killed in a hate crime or driven to suicide, people don't choose to be gay. Either they are or they are not.

Students face many issues on campus, particularly when they are trying to fit into a campus community that has so many people, yet can feel like the loneliest place in the world. Add coming out and trying to find students that understand your struggles, harassment by your dorm mates or fraternity brothers, fear of being bashed or of not being treated equally by a professor, and you have a population of students at serious risk for drop-out or suicide.

As a community, UA needs to recognize and respect all of our fellow students. Period. A major step toward this goal is trying to get to know one another and trying to learn what issues affect the rest of this campus.

That is the goal of Awareness Week.

Jonna Lopez
ASUA Pride Alliance director
sociology senior

No Sugar Ray protest

This is just to inform the UA campus and its surrounding community that KAMP Radio will not be sponsoring nor is associated with a protest against the Sugar Ray concert at Centennial Hall. One of our resident deejays had declared one "on behalf of KAMP" several weeks ago. This particular deejay does not speak for our entire organization nor does he represent KAMP entirely. His opinions and actions are his alone.

KAMP Radio is a diverse student-run organization that provides a service to our community through a diverse programming of underground and college music, as well as news and sports commentaries.

I hope I have clarified any confusion on this matter.

Caroline Diep
general manager
KAMP Student Radio

No apology from Psycho Dave

It has recently come to my attention that the people who are in charge of putting on the Sugar Ray concert have asked for a letter of apology. I will not apologize for my opinions on this matter. Instead, I want a letter of apology from them! How dare they bring this talent-less band of pretty boys to campus? How dare they harbor to the corporate world, which only cares about making money and nothing for talent or artistic expression? These trend people simply don't care about music that doesn't fit into the predetermined perimeters of "cool" which is decided by such groups like MTV and giant record companies.

I am sick and tired of being told what is cool and what isn't. I got an earful of that crap in high school and I'm sick of hearing about it in college.

This protest is to shout at the people who are forcing this b.s. down our throats. We are sick and tired of it and we are not going to take it anymore. On a final note, I hope Mark McGrath dies in a dark alley with his hand down Carson Daly's pants.

David Roberts (a.k.a. Psycho Dave)
journalism senior & KAMP dj

War is being treated right way

This letter is in response to Caitlin Hall's Feb. 6th commentary "The War on What?" First of all, I am completely Democratic, and don't agree with anything Republicans have to say. But like most Americans, I completely support the efforts that President Bush and his administration are doing with the War on Terrorism. President Bush clearly stated that this war will not be against one person, one government, or even one country, but against terrorism as a whole. This is a worldwide war in stopping the terrorists and the countries who harbor them. Yes, North Korea has opened its gates for weapons inspectors to visit, but it doesn't mean that they are innocent of terrorist activity. They make missile casings for countries who are attempting to create weapons of mass destruction, such as Iraq. Just because they are not physically making the weapons does not mean that they are not helping those who are. And next comes Iran. You make the point that Bush would not have even mentioned them if it was not for the Karine A.

If Iran is sending tons of weapons to Palestinian terrorists, how can Iran not be held responsible for its actions? True, they are not supporting terrorists against Americans, but terrorism against Israelis is just as bad.

Bush also clearly stated that countries are "With us, or against us." If Iran is giving weapons to terrorists of other countries, then they are obviously against us. With the Middle East in its current state of war, and the U.S. trying to help bring peace, giving weapons to Palestinian terrorists completely undermines the efforts of our government attempting to make peace. It only takes one act to harbor terrorism, whether big or little. Saying that North Korea and Iran were unfairly labeled is like saying that John Walker Lindh was confused when he joined the Taliban. They are all adults who make conscious decisions for supporting evil. Publicly labeling Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as the "Axis of Evil" was the best thing President Bush could do in reaffirming the nation's doubts on the war.

This is a war on terrorism, and should be treated that way. We should not hide behind technicalities as to why these countries are "not so bad." These countries are responsible for their actions, and should in turn feel the wrath of the American-led forces all around the world. The world should know that no matter who you are, where you are from, or who you know, you will not be able to run from the repercussions of America, its forces, and its people.

Mike Rosenthal
undeclared sophomore

Drug war - a "glaring hypocrisy"

My compliments to Caitlin Hall for a thoughtful, eloquent, and succinct indictment of the government's absurd War on (Some) Drugs in her Feb. 13th commentary.

It is interesting to note that the National Institute on Drug Abuse, on their website (http://www.nida.nih.gov), estimates that "the total economic cost of alcohol and drug abuse to be $245.7 billion for 1992. Of this cost, 97.7 billion dollars was due to drug abuse." That means that alcohol accounted for 60 percent of the "costs to society" (healthcare, reduced productivity, crime, etc.) of drugs of abuse. (By the way... nicotine was conveniently left out of this analysis.)

There is no rationale for the current policy of prohibiting some drugs while allowing two of the most deadly (alcohol and nicotine) to not only be used, but to provide a constant stream of government revenue in the form of taxes. To those that would challenge drug legalization on moral grounds, I ask you this: Is it moral for the government to profit from the sale of drugs whose health risks are virtually indisputable?

I am not advocating the prohibition of alcohol or any other drug. History has shown us that it doesn't work. Current drug policy in this country is neither fair nor effective; it is time for people to see beyond the propaganda and recognize this glaring hypocrisy for what it is.

Brian Hawkins
neuroscience graduate student

Control building temp - save money

I'd like to propose a moratorium on the university bitching about the tax cuts and budget shortfalls we, as university students, have to stomach as a result of the ineptitude of our elected representatives. The reason for this moratorium is that I, a humble student, have an instant money saving scheme that we, together, can use. You see, Arizona is a state of extreme contrast, and this can be seen no better than in the weather. In order to help respect and live within this contrast, and our budgetary means, we need to stop elevating classroom temperatures to 80 degrees in the winter and lowering them to 60 in the summer. Each day of my 6 years here (don't laugh, they weren't all undergrad) I've seen people bundled up like Nebraskans in the winter come into class and strip down into their spaghetti straps (not that I'm complaining) so they don't suffer heat exposure; the converse is true in the summer, when we walk to school in tank tops and bust sweaters out of our backpacks to keep our teeth from chattering, thereby interrupting the professor.

Let nature do the work, at least we'll be dressed appropriately for the class temperature on occasion. And as an aside to L. Tiscione, if you're going to bite Adam Sandler's work (chlorophyll - boreophyll) at least give the guy credit, he had to work at it, so should you.

Brent Harris
College of Law
School of Public Administration & Policy