Editorial Note: Due to the overwhelming number of letters in response to last week's Campustruth.org ads, today will be the last day the Arizona Daily Wildcat will run letters regarding the ads. The Wildcat appreciates the time and effort readers took to write the letters.

Strip club ads not as bad as ones placed by "Campustruth.org"

I am dismayed to see that the Wildcat has such blatant disregard toward the content of the advertisements that it prints. I was completely sickened to come across an ad run in the paper a while ago by a group who call themselves "campustruth.org." I think that it is absolutely appalling that this group feels that they have to print such transparent anti-Palestinian propaganda. Perhaps they are aware that the world isn't as ignorant as they would like it to be about the issues facing both Palestine and Israel. The world knows who the real victims are of this conflict, and printing ads such as these will not sway the minds of those who are informed. It only strengthens our convictions that people like those behind "campustruth.org" are truly deplorable and shameless and intolerant.

Perhaps the Wildcat would be better suited by printing ads that actually contain facts such as: During the intifada, Israeli occupation forces and settlers have killed at least 2,016 Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories. The vast majority of these were unarmed civilians, while nearly 20 percent were children under age 18. In addition, some 22,000 Palestinians have been injured (as reported by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, April 2, 2003).

I must say, prior to seeing this ad I thought the pornographic ads featuring barely clad women for strip clubs placed in the Wildcat were bad, but the Wildcat has really reached an all-time low by printing these ads consisting of deliberate attacks against the Palestinian people.

Frankly, I'm shocked that money is so valuable to the Wildcat that morals have taken a backseat. For shame!

Fadyeh Barakat

psychology senior

Ad opponents wish to see UA press show Îanti-Semitic' voices

In yesterday's Wildcat we saw a barrage of letters from Arab and Muslim students claiming they were offended by the relatively benign ad by "campustruth.org." These letters were full of lies and hatred. For example; Shaban Barzanjy writes "when Islam was ruling and had a lot of power over the regions that it had under its control, Christians, Jews and Muslims were all living in peace." Under Islamic power Jews and Christians were suppressed and not allowed to hold government posts and had to wear distinctive clothes (reminiscent of the Nazis) and live in ghettos. This is what Islam means by peace; when everything that is not Islamic is persecuted. Under this peace, Jews and Christians were ritually cleansed from Saudi Arabia and other parts that they had been indigenous to. Travel to the Middle East and you will no longer find Christian or Jewish communities because they have been massacred and forced to flee.

Typical of these offended voices is a calling for the Wildcat to not print these types of ads. These students would rather the Wildcat only allow Muslim voices, only allow anti-Semitic voices. What these students want is a press at UA akin to the kind you would find in Egypt or Iran, where Jews and Christians are vilified and Islam is held to be a religion of love.

I wish for all the readers of the Wildcat to go to the "campustruth.org" Web site and see for yourselves if it is full of hate or full of facts. Be objective ÷ don't let these so-called "offended" students close your minds to learning the history behind the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Seth Frantzman
UA alumnus

Middle East violence will end with a stop to Îdehumanization'

I am writing in response to Charles Givre's letter last Friday in which he wrote that the campustruth.org ads "force us to remember the suffering of the Israeli people." Although he claims not to promote the ads, it is apparent that he agrees with their hateful sentiment. Advertisements that portray Palestinians as bloodthirsty and "terroristic" are not forcing anyone to sympathize with Israeli suffering. They are forcing people to harbor hatred for the Palestinians, who have experienced much more suffering than the Israelis ever have (for every one Israeli killed, countless Palestinians are killed). It is time for Israelis and Palestinians alike to end this vicious cycle of hatred and violence, and the only way to do so is to stop defending the dehumanization of the other side. When Mr. Givre writes that the only way to bring peace is to end terror, he is perpetuating the debasement of Palestinians by saying that they are solely responsible for the Arab-Israeli conflict. Palestinians and Israelis alike want the terror to end, but defending hateful and decontextualized advertising is not the answer.

Jessie Speer
philosophy junior

ÎGringos' in Mexico won't improve the economic situation

I'd like to address Wyman Darrell Nedd's lack of candor and enlightenment when it comes to discussing the Dream Act in his Tuesday letter. Born of legal U.S. immigrants, I was given the opportunity to excel, but not without trouble along the way. So I don't see how much easier it'll be for "non-documented" migrants. The Dream Act in the perspective of what Mr. Nedd calls "ethnic chauvinists" groups allows non-documented migrants, not specifically Mexicans, I might add, to achieve that goal of being productive and empowered members of the American society. Those that do come to do the jobs that you won't do, Mr. Nedd, now want and deserve the ability to pursue something greater so that maybe one day you will end up having to work for them. Ignorance is the key element to your argument. Your inability to see the light on the subject clearly causes me to question your not-so-bright future in the legal profession. It's clear to me that if any immigrant would like to receive the tools to be formally educated, it will keep people like you from complaining about them being a burden on our economy.

Now, to address your "idea" to allow "gringos" to come into Mexico to improve the social and economic situations: I hate to break it to you, but "gringos" are already knee deep in raping the Mexican state of the economy. A little thing called NAFTA allowed gringos and their companies to get their green cards to enter Mexico. Yet, all it's produced is the direct opposite: a horrible lack of workers' rights, continued lack of women's rights and racial inequality that's worse than when the Spaniards left 200 years ago! Your ideas lack insight and your comments are to be expected from bigots such as yourself.

Ricardo D. Hernandez
UA alumnus

Many people still see racism as Îeveryday struggle' in the U.S.

I don't doubt that racism is not an issue of the day for most white Americans ÷ white privilege shields you from the ramifications that are not even yours to deal with. Elitist campuses like UA appear to teem with this self-serving attitude of "Well, I sit next to the darkies in class, so how can this still be a racist society?"

Hey, just because we aren't getting our asses kicked, lynched, and spit at on a regular basis anymore doesn't mean that white people's attitudes have changed. This is still an everyday struggle for many people of color that upper class white folks will never understand ÷ so save your opinions concerning the prevalence of racism on this campus (or in the United States for that matter) for other ignorant people content to remain beneath the (false sense of) security blanket of white privilege.

Rainbow Jordan
Tucsonan

Changing a system cannot be based on flawed argumentation

Brian Ellexson's reasoning is as flawed as the death penalty justice system he criticizes in his Friday guest commentary. For instance, it is not mathematically logical to say that the death penalty is racist because "178 African-Americans have been put to death for the murder of a Caucasian, whereas only 12 Caucasians have been executed for the killing of an African-American." A more careful argument would compare the percentage of African-Americans who have been executed for killing Caucasians versus the percentage of Caucasians who have been executed for killing African-Americans.

If a larger percentage of African-Americans are executed, then it might be fair to say that the justice system unequally applies the death penalty with regard to the race of the victim. The justice system suffers from many flaws, but if we are to successfully reform the system, our arguments must be based on clear logic, not meaningless statistics.

Kirk McGettigan
Senior majoring in Spanish and molecular and cellular biology

Animal rights groups hypocritical

If animal rights groups were truly worried about the prevention of inhumane deaths of animals, which in testing are mostly mice, they would be boycotting and picketing against every major grocery chain in the country. According to a study done by Tew and Macdonald (1993) the wood mouse population density in cereal fields dropped from 25/hectacre pre-harvest to less than 5/hectacre post-harvest. This decrease was attributed to migration out of the field and to mortality. Therefore, it may be reasonable to estimate mortality of 10 animals/hectacre in conventional corn and soybean production. According to the USDA, in 2000 there were 120 million hectacres harvested in the United States. "That means that 10 multiplied by 120 million equals 1.2 billion mice ruthlessly shredded and/or slowly poisoned each year because we feel the need to use harvesting equipment and pesticides." Look at the numbers and explain why are you not complaining about grocery stores that sell machine harvested grains. Could it be because you just want the high profile attention that comes with protesting animal testing?

Get over yourselves and either protest all animal cruelty, or don't protest at all. (This was based on a paper done by S.L. Davis, Department of Animal Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331. posted at http://www.wildlifedamagecontrol.com/animalrights/leastharm.htm)

Matt Dieken
mechanical engineering senior

UA to benefit by renaming programs

In light of the recent renaming of the Maguire Entrepreneurship program, known formally as the Berger Entrepreneurship Program, the rest of the university could benefit by following suit. For example, the name Career Services should be more aptly titled the Southern Arizona Local Government Temp Agency. The ILC (Integrated Learning Center) would be appropriately named the LHVPEB (Low Hygiene Vagrant Porn Enthusiast Bastion). And lastly, I would like to see the Campaign Arizona Fundraising program renamed the Canvass Arizona program. Such ambiguous and cheery names, like SARS, which sounds like a STYX world reunion tour, provide zero insight, but in hindsight look great in the campus directory. By having the name of our academic programs and facilities more closely tied to the actual services performed, confusion will be erased, and freshmen retention may be drastically improved to, say, 7 percent.

Michael Beer
finance and entrepreneurship senior