Tuesday September 4, 2001

Abortion ad inappropriate

Why do we have to be hit in the face with abortion advertising every time we go to the Daily Wildcat online site? We're talking about a procedure that kills a baby in a mother's womb. Why would you even permit such advertising? The fact that killing these babies is "legal" is meaningless. It was once legal to own and kill black people, and it was once legal to kill Jewish people under Hitler's reign, but these social policies can never be justified just because they were legal. They were wrong. Just like abortion. It is wrong to offer a mother in a desperate situation (or whatever the situation might be) the death of her baby as a solution.

Are you permitting abortion advertising because perhaps maybe more men than women will visit this site? If so, then it leads one to believe that you are aware that many women will decide to get an abortion based on the father's response to the baby. For many women, if the father wants the baby killed she will acquiesce. Legalized abortion has and never will "help" women.

Physical, emotional and spiritual trauma pervades the lives of so many women who have had abortions. There are even ongoing studies linking abortion to a certain type of breast cancer (which has become an epidemic). I wish I could afford to advertise crisis pregnancy centers on your site. I checked out the rates - I can't.

Maureen Coath

Villanova, Pa.

Escort service needed to combat sexual assault

At the UA, it seems like the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. On Friday, The Daily Wildcat ran an editorial by UAPD Chief Daykin expressing the UAPD's commitment to fighting sexual assault. Regarding the topics that the UAPD is educating students about, he wrote, "None of these topics is more important than the crime of sexual assault." This is an excellent sentiment.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be shared by everyone in power at our University. The same week that Daykin's editorial ran, the ASUA Senate voted to cut funding for the UA Escort Service by at least $7,000 because, in the words of one senator, "I would love to see the escort service expanded, but not if it will hurt other areas." This at a school where on-campus lighting is terrible at night, and a party culture exists, among other problems, which all contribute to a climate that allows sexual assaults and other crimes to happen.

No one should blame ASUA for being careful with its budget. In fact we should praise that. However, there are some things where adequate funding should not be a question, and student safety is first among them. When an ASUA senator says, "The important thing ... is that clubs are getting the funding that they need. We can always provide more money to the escort service later on," then we have a big problem.

Jesse Kirchner

linguistics junior

Martin column uneducated, crass

I am writing in regards to the article written by a person named Chris Martin ("Little Unit needs to go home," August 31). I would like to say (he is a) gentleman, but the honor of such a title , he does not warrant.

How is it that you allow such an article as that to be published? It would seem that he has very little respect for himself or his parents, as his language is that of a person that thinks he is cool, wise or "macho" because he has to use profanity to make a point. All it does is show ignorance.

I am not one to criticize, I believe that every one has there right to an opinion .It is however a matter of taste and etiquette on how we express that view. This individual should take a look at the writers he is trying to emulate, and he will find the use of profane language non-existent. I would hope that you would agree, enough said.

The fact the writer (and I use that term loosely) doesn't care about Little League Baseball should realize that there are a whole lot of people that do.. that is most likely why everywhere he looked there were articles about the age of this youngster. The point is that we as sports fans of all ages want things to be as fair as possible, and as this turns out to be was not.

This is an example of what bad parenting can bring about.. and that, my friends, is what the story is about.

Lawrence Mackel

Tucsonan

Zeckets' column, sense of humor on point

Hurray for Nick Zeckets and his absolutely hilarious send-up of campus mores ("Fashion Faux Pas", Friday, August 31)! Reading the Wildcat is usually a dreary, tedious affair. Let's face it: the Arizona Daily Wildcat is just too darn issues-oriented. I have had it up to here with all the campus politics and stuff. Why can't the Wildcat be a little more like USA Today or Reader's Digest (by the way, Mr. Zecket's column reminded me of the many hilarious anecdotes to be found in the Campus Comedy section of the aforementioned magazine!) and a little less like the New York Times.

I mean really, sometimes we, as hardworking students at the Harvard of the southwest, just need to blow off some steam. Well I didn't even have to write a letter expressing this sentiment, because Nick Zeckets had already realized just that. And blow off some steam he most surely does, leaving practically no-one unscathed by his rapier-like wit.

This man is a true talent! Just two words from his Friday column, the inventions of his own unique genius I suspect, should serve to illustrate the uniqueness of this comic treasure of a man: "Stoopid" and "Stanky". As I went through my day Friday the mere recall of these words was enough to bring tears of laughter mixed with joy to my eyes. After Nick's hilarious article I, for one, won't be cramming my "ghetto booty into the latest hoochie wear", and rightly so. That stuff is just laughable! Furthermore, thanks to Nick's helpful advice that "muscles push the booty button big time", I will be spending a lot more time in the Rec Center, and a lot less time in the library!

From now on stuffy deans, uptight professors and all manner of undergraduates had better look out! There is a zany new gun (a gun of hilarity!) in town who is not afraid to tell it like he sees it and will then procede to do

so in a deliriously whimsical manner. Indeed, I couldn't believe what I was reading. At once witty, outrageous, and inspiring, Mr. Zeckets could teach all of the Wildcat's writers a thing or two. Doubtless, there will be those, probably victims of the same fashion mis-steps that our fine Mr.Zeckets has skewered so thoroughly, who will say that his zany column is a glaringly misogynist and perversely consumerist piece of doggerel. Such Depressing Davids and Uptight Ursulas might even suggest that its treatment of women as objects, and its eagerness to judge people by their clothing are despicable. Well who cares about that?! Not me; I am far too busy waiting in eager anticipation of Mr. Zeckets' next column, which will, no doubt, in delightful fashion belittle some new group of people who have offended Mr. Zeckets' refined sensibilities.

Jesse Showalter

Classics graduate student