Rather than criticizing others' religions, promote peace, love

It seems that lately, every day I open the opinion page of this paper there is a letter from someone attacking one religion or another. I don't know what I find more disturbing: the ignorant people who send in biased, inaccurate letters or those who obviously have researched the topic in order to make the attack more potent. [Read article]

It seems the UA will be going through more reconstructive surgery in the future, and I'm not sure if it's for the better.

The face of this campus has been dramatically altered since I was a freshman, and after reading the Sept. 10 piece titled, "Likins: Time to redefine UA identity," it seems very likely that we might not even recognize the school in another four years.

In the article, the impending budget cuts have compelled the three presidents from NAU, ASU and UA to reevaluate what is important to each campus. NAU is on its way to becoming a cozy liberal arts college in the mountains and ASU is expanding rapidly into one of the ten largest universities in the United States. [Read article]

You can find more than just police officers patrolling the streets of many cities these days, including Phoenix. Groups of citizen volunteers have taken it upon themselves to start organizations called Copwatch, whose goal is to eliminate police brutality by videotaping officers performing routine duties.

According to Phoenix's Copwatch Web site, the organization is "a citizens group formed to combat abuse by the police in our community. We use a variety of means to fight abuse by the police including community patrols, videotaping, community education and protests. We do this because we believe that police brutality is widespread in our communities and that the only way to stop it is to confront it directly." [Read article]

Last week, Congress passes legislation allowing commercial pilots to carry handguns in the cockpit of airplanes. Is this a good idea?

Best defense a good offense

An event like the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, should be remembered and memorialized, but also examined closely. There can be some knowledge gained from studying the events of the airline hijackings to ensure that they never happen again. Terrorists using rudimentary weapons were able to take control of several airplanes and eventually crash them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It's worth asking, "Could the events of that tragic day have been changed by something as simple as pilots carrying handguns in the cockpit?" [Read article]