ASUA could find better use of funds than paying for show

I am shocked and appalled after reading Friday's article regarding the "now" free ASUA comedy show and the reasons by which it was free. There are only two reasons for which I could see it being made free and neither is logical. The first would be that they wanted to make it a free event. If this is so, why wasn't it free from the beginning and why was it still $25 dollars for non-students? The second reason would be that, "· students got really excited about it ·" but I guess I was sick the day the rally cries of "We want Andy Dick!" were being chanted on the Mall. After doing some research, I found out that ASUA borrowed approximately $15,000 to put on the festival and, due to contracts and such, would have to spend approximately another $15,000 if they wanted to buy out only 1,000 seats to give away for free. Now $30,000 is a lot of money and I have heard some other demands for students that this money could be used for. Granted, seeing Andy Dick and Second City (a comedy troupe from Chicago that most people have never even heard of) is high on every student's list of demands, but I don't think this is something that was done in the students' best interest, as the article made it seem.

If ASUA was thinking in our best interest, maybe they would have paid for copies so teachers could use handouts, helped to build a parking lot so most of us didn't have to park a mile from campus and hike in the heat every day, or maybe even just donate it to a worthy cause so at least someone other than themselves would benefit from it. In my opinion, ASUA is nothing more than a group of over-ambitious children who attempted to build a model rocket, which predictably exploded in their faces. Now they are left to explain to their parents why their dismembered foot is stuck in their mouth, conveniently located on their head which is stuck way up their ASUA.

Matt Sanchez
media arts junior
Comedy Corner cast member

UA irresponsible in choice of projects and paying for them

Thanks for Monday's story explaining the link between tuition dollars and repaying the debt on campus construction projects. Evidently, we're paying nearly $21 million this year to "service the debt" on projects built 10, even 20 years ago.

As we suffer through tuition hikes, budget cuts, lay-offs and sapped campus morale (Lute's Wildcats thankfully offered a brief respite), it's reassuring that our administration has its priorities straight with its agenda of continued construction.

Have you visited the Commons of our much-touted ILC lately? Inhale, take a deep breath: the air is often putrid. Or visit the bathrooms downstairs: mosquitoes swarm the place! How about our newest landmark, the Student Union? Tap those white pillars in the hallways. They're fiberglass shells. It's reassuring to know that $21 million of our collective tuition this year is going to pay for such fine workmanship.

Stu Williams
accounting graduate student

Stories exemplify Îhow good student journalism can be'

Kudos to the Wildcat for two recent excellent pieces of investigative journalism:

Devin Simmons' "UA tied to war, defense funds" and Keren Raz's "Tuition pays off debts." The two stories highlight just how good student journalism can be and how relevant the Wildcat can be when it seeks out information that others would prefer be left under wraps. Thank you so much for your hard work and dedication. Hats off to you.

Rachel Wilson
UA infant speech perception lab

Individual who dumped soda on protester Îshowed his balls'

On Monday a letter by Malik Hawkins was published entitled, "Courageous students (referring to die-in protesters) treated unfairly by Union diners." In this letter, Mr. Hawkins condemns the responses of the diners, especially the one who poured soda on one of the die-in participants, as acts that trample the beliefs of the people of this nation, and thereby squash the freedoms that this country was built upon, and then congratulates the protesters for being courageous.

The fact of the matter is these protesters are no more courageous than the person behind the soda dumping. The protesters chose to put on a show representing the beliefs of the minority in America, and were met in the form of a soda-dumper with opposition representing the majority of America, a majority numbering close to 70 percent. Just as the protesters had the "balls to protest in the middle of lunch-hour traffic," the soda-dumper showed his balls by protesting the exact same way, right in the middle of lunch-hour traffic. So to that courageous soda-dumper where ever you are, I salute you and thank you for exercising those same freedoms bestowed upon both anti-war and pro-war enthusiasts alike, and for representing the view held by the majority of America.

Scott Patterson
international relations sophomore

Comparing Israel to apartheid-era S. Africa shows lack of understanding

This is in response to Brian Wilson's Monday letter about how we are now enlightened about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Mr. Wilson, maybe you should take your own advice and get the facts straight before you speak. If you watch the news or even read the paper, you would know that there is no apartheid in Israel. The fact that an Arab can bomb a bus or a university shows you that the apartheid situation in South Africa has no comparison to what you consider an apartheid in Israel. Different races were held completely separate from one another, and even treated differently because of living class standards

Your letter seems more of a personal attack. You are ripping Mr. Margolin apart by saying that his educational background is not up to par. Yet you are throwing together a bunch of statements that are loosely associated with juvenile language and catch phrases.

The billions and billions of dollars being given to Israel are not what is putting this country in debt. What is however, are Bush's war tactics. We are spending well over $75 billion on a pointless war. As Bush himself said, "What's the use of sending a $2 million missile into a $10 tent to hit a camel in the butt?"

Alyssa Fish
graphic design sophomore

Attack on letter-writer wrought with Îlogical fallacies' and bad grammar

In his zeal to excoriate Avi Margolin for his supposed dearth of logic, Brian Wilson himself commits egregious logical fallacies. Foremost among these is his derisive ad hominem assault upon Mr. Margolin that only serves to divert readers' attention from an examination of more relevant issues. I could, for example, compose a similar attack directed against Mr. Wilson's wholesale slaughter of the English language but I shall refrain from doing so as it would not further the purpose of intelligent, informed debate.

Secondly, Mr. Wilson resorts to inflammatory and transparent emotional appeals against Israel in his attempt to denounce Mr. Margolin's perspective. However, Mr. Wilson would do well to remember that an overabundance of sarcastic rhetoric does not an argument make. Perhaps Mr. Wilson should augment his factual knowledge pertaining to the conflict in Israel or in the future reserve his unproductive methods of discourse to his chosen field of economics.

Erin Flanigan
political science sophomore