ÎSmart' students would avoid paying Zona Zoo pass charge

The university has found another way to bamboozle students out of money. This is not the most elite university in the country, and the reason a majority of the students come here is for athletics, namely basketball. I am disgusted by the claim that the Zona Zoo pass has nothing to do with money. Those of you who were at the ticket fiasco this school year know that there was anywhere from 4-5,000 students trying to get a ticket for tickets.

Now let's just say all of these students go ahead and buy the Zona Zoo pass at $35 a pop. This would yield a grand total of $175,000. Why do we need all of this money if the athletics department is self-sufficient and this pass is used to get into sporting events that were once free? If all the students were smart we would not buy this pass and would save our cash for more useful things. But as usual the powers that be call the shots and I know I will more than likely be forced to buy the pass which bears the ridiculous name and try my luck with the other 5,000 suckers who will be trying for the 1,000 or so lower reserve section. First-come, first-served would work if prepared for properly, or even the points system is a great idea. I beg you to reconsider this moneymaking scheme and keep my fellow schoolmates and myself from being hoodwinked once again.

Lute-A-tic for life,

Luke Leifeld
civil engineering junior

Budget cuts, Zona Zoo plan, and comics whiners all Îsuck'

As the days Îtil graduation wind down, I thought that this would be as good time as any to say thank God I'm getting out of here now. The ass clowns in the Legislature led by Jake Flake couldn't find a good solution if it was staring them in the face. This brings me to the budget slashes. They are finally hitting the students hard and for those of you struggling for classes it sucks.

Next, this repulsive idea of the Zona Zoo is garbage. What is the purpose of this? There won't be a significant amount of money made and the quality of fans will decrease. This sounds like a conservative idea intended to make the students pay money to get lower level basketball seats. That way the real fans will be too far away to annoy the walking dead. All sports will suffer from a few stupid minds. To all you people whining about the comics, shut up. Leave censorship at the door; if you don't like it, don't read it, but stop trying to push your beliefs on to the rest of us. Last but not least, girls, don't try to pretend that you just got up and ran to class because your hair and makeup are perfect. If only I could harness that power on my drive to campus.

Barry Grossman
finance senior

A proposal for Likins: Cutting finals would ease budget crisis

This letter goes to President Pete Likins and offers a way to save some money. How about cutting finals? Dr. Likins, guess what? You could shut down the school a week early, and help to alleviate the pain, stress and headaches that all of us have to deal with the next month. Finals are not necessary and are a big waste of time. They provide an unfair advantage to those who are lucky enough to be able to go home a week and a half earlier than the rest of us because their individual teacher already canceled the final. Also, they do not prove how much you have learned; instead they prove how much you can cram into your head the day before. By not having finals, the university could save money on electricity and wages they have to pay employees. Also, all the students would not leave the campus hating school as they do every year. I bet we could save tons of money and add years to people's lives because their stress levels won't be so high. See, Dr. Likins, the longer your graduates live, the more money they can donate through the alumni association. So I say forget finals, and let's all start summer this Thursday.

Dmitry Rashnitsov
journalism freshman

Strippers' choice helps to objectify women in society

This letter is in response to Tuesday's story on UA student strippers. First of all, I'd like to say that this is not some random, unfounded, quasi-feminist rant. My points are clearly supported by your story and, in reality, I'd like to applaud Ms. Jessica Suarez for her introductory paragraph stating the negative reputation these people carry with them, which I'm sure is true more often than not. I noticed that she did not refute these allegations, but instead noted that those "jobs" pay well and are easy (just like the employees). Therefore, "Essence's"quote, "They know they're beautiful, they know they're smart, and they know how to talk to people" obviously has no bearing on the qualifications for such a "job." Ms. Suarez stated herself that it's easy, so it doesn't even require intelligence. So easy in fact that a monkey could be trained to do it. If these "women" are so smart, then they should have the intelligence to know that their self-respect should be worth more than $150-$400 a night. These people are a disgrace to the female species. They are the reason we get treated like objects, and I sincerely hope that when they do get treated like this, that they do not complain, because it is their doing.

As for their ability to talk to people, well, that was just a stupid statement. What does that have to do with dancing naked in front of people? I'm sure these people are not reciting Shakespeare while they're shaking their asses in people's faces. I'm also sure that their customers couldn't care less if they talk to them or not, unless it's dirty talk. As for their search for higher education, I think that's great, but the means in which they achieve it is inappropriate. There are plenty of people who work their way through college by working one or more respectable jobs. If these people can do it, and these strippers are so smart, then why can't they? It may be a little harder, but they wouldn't have to deal with the stigma of such a "job."

If it were such a respectable "job," then why didn't "Keiko" and "Essence" give their real names? They're ashamed, and they wouldn't be hiding it if they didn't think it was wrong. I also think that they should not refer to themselves as "dancers," because they're not. They're strippers. Ballet dancers are dancers. Tap dancers are dancers. Modern dancers are dancers. Don't lower the quality of their profession by including people who work in nothing more than legalized whorehouses in their category.

Bottom line, thanks a lot girls for making my life as a woman harder than it has to be. I'm sure that you'll continue to shake your bottom line for that almighty buck!

Araceli Cons
journalism junior

A new, culturally sensitive projectile should be found

A horrible scourge has beset our hitherto peaceful campus. What is this dreadful plague? Tortilla throwing.

Seriously. In a recent e-mail to all graduates, President Likins stated "Speakers on the stage have been struck in the face by flying tortillas. More than being a safety issue, this behavior is disrespectful to many of our Hispanic and American Indian community members, who feel that throwing tortillas is offensive to their cultures." President Likins should know that an outright ban on food won't work; after all, as any entertainment executive will tell you, college students are just a bunch of Napster junkies with no respect for any rules whatsoever. Thus I propose a modest solution to our campus's dilemma: pancakes.

Pancakes, the Nerf version of tortillas, won't give anyone a nasty cut or put an eye out. Pancakes, as made by most Americans, originated in early England as a way of using up dairy products before starting Lent. (www.foodsiteoftheday.com/pancakef.htm). Thus, they can't offend any minorities, since their heritage lies with the majority.

Don't force graduates to resort to the lowly act of smuggling in those dangerous tortillas; instead, support the safe and politically correct pancake. Perhaps we could use pancakes to solve other national dilemmas as well; for instance, "One nation under pancakes" would finally keep the California Ninth Circuit from telling the Supreme Court how it should interpret the Constitution. Oh wait, the British would probably be offended by the use of pancakes. The Catholics might get annoyed due to the Lent connection and say it demeans the holiday. The atheists will definitely claim this is a governmental endorsement of religion. PETA will say it supports animal cruelty due to the dairy connection. IHOP might claim recipe infringement, and racial minority groups will say that it is Anglocentric and that we are marginalizing them. Maybe we should just cancel commencement, graduation, school, or life so no one ever gets offended.

Chad Hicks
optical sciences graduate student

Celebrating Israel's birth Îan insult' to Palestinians

I question why there are festivities on the Mall this week celebrating Israel's birthday. The establishment of the Jewish state of Israel was indeed a catastrophe for Palestinian Arabs who effectively became an oppressed minority in the state of Israel that continues to deny their existence as equal citizens to their Jewish compatriots. Although fervent Israel supporters and our campus pro-Israel students at UA are quick to proclaim that Israel is the "only democracy" in the Middle East, I think there are few things those celebrating on the mall today should consider.

When Israel was established in 1948, approximately 750,000 Arabs were forced to flee their homes. Most were never allowed to return. Those Arabs remaining inside Israel were treated to blatant discrimination as their homes were often confiscated to become homes for Jews; Arab areas were under military rule until 1966 requiring Arab Israelis to carry special identity cards and get permits to travel between villages. Although the harshest forms of discrimination no longer exist for Arabs living inside Israel (who call themselves Palestinians), it is true that they have always faced legal and societal discrimination inside the Jewish state whose very identity excludes them from equal participation.

Indeed, it is illegal for Arab Israelis to express themselves politically if they promote a secular and democratic state for all of Israel's citizens. A celebration of Israel's birthday is considered an insult to all Palestinians. Instead of blindly celebrating Israel's birthday, why not celebrate the hope that Israel will indeed one day become a democratic state for all of its citizens including Palestinians?

Carrie Brown
Near Eastern studies graduate student

Plant uprooting a sign of administrative carelessness

While walking to class, I always admire the lovely flowers planted in front of the new student union. On May 6 while walking home, I noticed that these same flowers were being torn out of the ground. Let me make it clear that these plants are not going to be relocated. They were destroyed when removed and tossed into a pile for disposal. This makes absolutely no sense to me. First, the flowers are in good health and beautify the campus. Second, it seems to be a horrible waste of university dollars. Are we not in the middle of a budget crisis? I can only think that this is only one incident of many careless expenditures made by the university. Many are having difficulties finding classes because of cuts, yet UA can afford to replace flower gardens for no reason at all. I am appalled and only hope that whoever is responsible for this carelessness is reminded of the university's financial predicament.

C. A. Warner
mathematics junior

Racism not Îa figment of the imagination' in U.S.

In light of the spate of letters that have been written to the local papers following my being stopped and terrorized by police, one point is unequivocally clear: There is a pervasive attempt to deny the reality of race and obscure issues of racial profiling. The problem redounds to the manner that the educational system has socialized most persons living in this society, particularly European Americans, into believing that racism is past history, does not exist, or is a figment of the imagination of many people of color. How would innocent white residents feel about being routinely stopped, terrorized at gunpoint and handcuffed, and receiving no apology after being found innocent? Would they be told that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, as one person wrote? Is it right to blame a victim of rape by saying that she invited being raped because she was inappropriately dressed? Would white administrators wrongly held at gunpoint by campus police be viewed as "aggravated professors," whining about being treated unfairly? Why is there a double standard when it comes to Black people and relations with the police?

Knowledge of history is essential in developing an informed understanding of issues of racism in the U.S. and the world. The invasion and the colonization of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and the enslavement of kidnapped African peoples provided the basis for emergence of capital accumulation and racist ideology, recounted painstakingly for instance in Chinweizu's book, "The West and the Rest of Us," which all persons interested in comprehending the foundations of racism need to read.

Few realize that the legacy of slavery lives on in the institutions of our society, including law enforcement. The scholar W. E. B. Du Bois, in his classic, "The Souls of Black Folk," recalls that "the police system of the South was primarily designed to control slaves · to keep track of all Negroes, not simply of criminals; and when the Negroes were freed and the whole South was convinced of the impossibility of free Negro labor, the first and almost universal device was to use the courts as a means of re-enslaving the blacks · it was not then a question of crime, but rather one of color, that settled a man's conviction on almost any charge." Jerome Miller in his book, "Search and Destroy: African American Males in the Criminal Justice System," notes that in 1918, while Black people constituted 11 percent of the population, they were 21.9 percent of those jailed and 56 percent of those held for "grave homicide." In 1991, the incarceration rate for white males was 352 per 100,000, and for Black males, it was a staggering 6,301 per 100,000. In Columbus, Ohio, though African Americans were 11 percent of the population, they comprised 90 percent of the drug arrests and were arrested at 18 times the rate of whites. In Minneapolis, though Black people are 7 percent of the population, they "were arrested at a ratio of approximately 20:1 to white males." In 1992, of the 14 million arrests nationally, most of which were for minor offenses and which resulted in jail or a lockup, about five million were African American males. In Tucson, it was reported that "police · were selectively stopping motorists to apply a piece of adhesive tape under their noses" to determine whether there were traces of cocaine. Of the 63 individuals subjected to nose-taping, 60 were Latino, a clear-cut case of racial profiling.

The solution is not to engage in persistent denials of racial profiling and racism in practice of law enforcement, but to acknowledge that policies and practices that constitute standard procedures are often themselves racially flawed and biased, to recognize that the system is broken and needs serious revamping and repair so that we can all live under an administration of justice.

Julian Kunnie
professor and director of Africana Studies

Driving an SUV does not make someone Îcareless'

I do not drive an SUV. Some of my friends do and some of them do not. Does that make them bad people if they do? Just because someone in a fraternity drives an SUV is he or she spoiled and careless about the world that he or she resides in? I don't think so. Actually, I think quite the opposite. You see, I have some very dear friends that are in a fraternity, some of the best friends that I have ever had.

As a girl, I can say that they are gentlemen for the most part and that they can be quite charming and well-mannered. Some of these wonderful people are graduating and leaving this establishment to further their learning and better their lives; it is to these people that I would like to say congratulations. I would like to thank them for being such good friends, to me and to many others. Congratulations guys ÷ you are very much loved, and you will be missed.

Katie Delich
media arts freshman

Japanese vehicles aren't as great as hype suggests

This is in response to Jason Belnap's letter regarding the fuel efficiency of foreign vehicles. If he were comparing the efficiency of advertising, then Toyota and Honda would win. You don't hear about the 14 mpg Toyota Sequoia. If he were actually comparing fuel efficiency and emissions, domestic manufacturers would win.

In several model years, every GM vehicle will have a feature called Displacement on Demand that effectively shuts off half of the engine to save fuel and reduce emissions. And by this fall, over a dozen vehicles by GM will be offered with hybrid motors. How many hybrids does Honda offer? Two. Toyota? Two. According to MSN, "GM says it is poised to become the first automaker to sell one million such vehicles." GM also has plans to market hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered vehicles.

What about Honda and their fuel cell cars? According to their own Web site, http://world.honda.com/fuelcell, "Honda plans to lease about 30 fuel cell cars in California and Japan during the next two to three years. The company currently has no plans, however, for mass-market sales of fuel cell vehicles or sales to individuals."

Andrew Tuohy
political science junior

Starbucks' aggressiveness targets small-town Canada

I've just run across a Web site about how the Starbucks Corporation is taking to court a small indigenous cafe in northwest Canada (it's not even open year-round). The reason being is the name of the cafe is "HaidaBucks" cafe. Starbucks is claiming the word "Bucks" is an infringement on their trademark.

Although I know it's not relevant to the university, thousands of students frequent the Starbucks on University Boulevard. I just thought other students might want to know about this (www.haidabuckscafe.com).

Linn Tsosie
political science senior