Give up 'the almighty car'

Kudos to Mr. Cucher for coming up with the only decent solution when it comes to the parking problem in your Issue of the Week.

Well actually, it seems like he came up with the only solution; the rest of the opinions board just whined about the problem. They stated the obvious, while he proposed a logical solution.

Public transit is for our benefit. It is cheap and easy, which is far better then paying several hundred dollars for a parking spot.

Many other universities use mass transit to the highest of its potential, why shouldn't we? We save money, help the environment and there is no risk of getting a parking ticket.

I know, God forbid we give up the almighty car, but in the long run, you will have a few extra dollars for the bar or wherever you may go.

Joshua Brink
history senior

Parking and Transportation Catch-22

The fact that PTS would expend huge sums of money to expand parking at UA while simultaneously refusing to raise the price of a parking space is a prime example of why this university (and indeed, this state) is perpetually strapped for cash. While I appreciate PTS's intention to "be nice," their current course of action to that end is sorely misguided. If they really want to "be nice," they could start by modernizing their registration system (Where exactly am I supposed to park while waiting in line to get on the list to wait for a permit to park? It's like something out of "Catch-22").

I wholeheartedly agree with the assertions of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Cucher that not enough students take advantage of alternate forms of transportation.

This is especially true given that UA is surrounded by relatively affordable off-campus housing close to campus and in a climate that is conducive to biking or walking virtually year-round.

However, I take issue with Mr. Wilson that not raising rates is "a step in the right direction"; in fact, raising prices would almost certainly have the effect of reducing the demand for parking spaces.

Brian Hawkins
neuroscience graduate student

Coach Olson 'doesn't give a damn' about students

This is in response to Shane Dale's Tuesday column about Lute Olson. I think that Lute is an amazing coach. I think that Lute will go down as one of the top five coaches of college basketball, but I can't stand reading these columns praising a guy who doesn't give a damn about the students.

Lute Olson talks trash about the fans more than anything. Lute doesn't care about student sections because students don't pay him money like the rich old alumni. How many times has Lute made appearances anywhere to meet and greet students? I guarantee not as many times as Coach K from Duke.

Everybody prays to Lute like he is some sort of God, and in some basketball respects, he is.

It disgusts me as a student and sports fan that he cares more about money then the game. Every school with a big student section does well.

Lute doesn't give a damn about the students or the fans, yet we still praise him and name courts after him.

And Mr. Dale, every sports fan at this school is still pissed about the Duke loss last year in the championship.

Had it been a seven-game series, it would have come down to the last game. Don't make excuses about the refs.

They played harder than us, plain and simple.

Chad Schneider
marketing junior

Read up on dating violence

I don't know how many Wildcat readers bothered to look through the Spring Into Health supplement in yesterday's edition, but for those who did not, I suggest they find a copy and read the article on relationships by Diane Asch. It is well-written and full of important information, especially for college-age readers. Repeated research into dating violence has found that it occurs in as high as an astounding 44 percent of relationships! And that doesn't even touch other areas such as sexual and emotional abuse.

If your readers see their own relationships or that of someone they know in the descriptions, they should make use of the services listed there - especially the men. Even though the article opened with a scene in which a man was the culprit, research has also shown that women commit half the violence in both dating and domestic relationships, initiating as often as they receive.

Despite the fact that most men consider the abuse "no big deal," it is a big deal. Men are just as susceptible to the damaging emotional effects of abuse. So, if any of your male readers want more information or help, I urge them to contact the OASIS Center, especially Matt Sanders, at 626-2051, or contact me at sattvadmh@aol.com. Without intervention abusive relationships only get worse, and no amount of "manly pride" can overcome the effects.

Dave Heacock
UA security officer

Reparations will 'prolong hatred and prejudice'

Laura Winsky's column, "It's not charity; it's an outstanding debt" in the Monday Wildcat is utterly fallacious - hardly the "logical approach" she promises. "Our colonial-era economy was forged with cotton cultivated by the hands of free labor - quite a rewarding investment, and one which we continue to profit from today" is a false statement. The entire United States was not one giant cotton plantation, in fact only the South was. Nor did the South make a large profit from it. The south was impoverished and backwards, its industry and education far behind the North, with only a few aristocrats making any profits from slave labor, hardly any different from their aristocratic contemporaries in Europe making money from the serfs.

"The 'it's too late' argument, is not an acceptable answer, for there is a body of international precedents that makes an argument for it even after the passage of time" is a false statement. There can be no analogy between Germans compensating living Holocaust victims or living relatives of Holocaust victims, and slavery, which ended 150 years ago.

There are no living victims of slavery, and no living "profiteers" of slavery who have any share of guilt. If this principle were extended universally, that all descendants of victims require compensation from all descendants of offenders, where would the guilt end? Should the Egyptians compensate the Jews for their years of slavery? Should Mongolia repay China and Russia for their conquests? Should every descendant of a criminal be required to pay compensation to every descendant of the ancient victim? Not only is this idea impossible to realize, it goes against all morality, which makes each person responsible for his or her actions.

Most ridiculous of all is that most blacks are descendants of their very oppressors as well as the oppressed. Are we to demand compensation from themselves to themselves? What happened to Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision, where "people are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character?" How is demanding restitution from whites, simply because they are white, to blacks, simply because they are black, any different from the racism of the past?

We are each of us unique and special, to judge us by any arbitrary measure is prejudice. To punish us for being white, or male, or black, or female, or anything else is just as prejudiced as the past. True conciliation comes from justice for all. Harmony and goodwill comes from justice, where each is given their due, according to their actions. Speeches like these arming blacks against whites will only prolong the hatred and prejudice that MLK Jr. hoped to end.

Tommy Hensley
creative writing sophomore