Lee's Înonsense' column lacks knowledge on global economy

The opinion expressed by Jessica Lee in Sept. 17's version of the Wildcat ("Canada Shows Human Colors") really amazed me. How someone can be so unbelievably aware of global politics, yet harvest such an uneducated viewpoint on globalization is beyond my comprehension. Expressing the viewpoint that we are all to be blamed for Sept. 11, from our excesses and ignorance as to who made our jeans and T-shirts is really just absurd. Making people feel guilty for simply taking part in a global economy is just an uneducated opinion. Understanding the wage market is crucial to this viewpoint. She expresses the ignorance of people who don't understand whether or not the person who made their clothes received a fair wage. Just exactly what is a fair wage, though? Wages are a function of productivity in the market for labor. Over time, "real wages" rise as people become more productive and new and superior technologies for production replace old ones. The perfect example is the assembly line, which multiplied wages by almost five times in the industrial revolution, because workers were producing more cars per hour than ever before. Cars became affordable and workers made more money. This type of economic development is what will raise Third World countries out of what we consider poverty, and playing a part in the global economy is crucial to these countries sustaining this economic development.

Back to the point, expressing that the United States deserved to be attacked because of our ignorance in global markets is just ridiculous. We should be praised for trading with the Third World, and people buying designer jeans should feel like humanitarians for allowing economic development to happen in the Third World. They certainly shouldn't feel guilty because idealistic and "save the world and just listen to me" college students like Jessica Lee express ludicrous opinions with absolutely zero knowledge of wage markets. There are certainly educated opinions regarding monetarist types of wage markets that can somehow affect long-term wages by means of government intervention. I don't happen to agree with them, but I respect their opinions from an academic point of view. However, not once in her argument did Jessica Lee even express something that could be called an academic point of view when regarding wages in the Third World.

Such nonsense should not printed in the Wildcat, and I hope people reading it realize what an extreme, ridiculous, dangerous and unbelievably uneducated viewpoint she harvests.

Kevin Durkin
marketing senior

Palestinian hatred of America, Israel result of Îbrainwashing'

I would like to take issue to Alaa Muqattash's comments in the Sept. 18 Wildcat. Alaa states that Israel has been occupying Palestinian land for more than 50 years. He should really be more exact with his words. Since Israel was founded in 1947, that means that he feels Jews have no right to be there in the first place. Let's not forget that when the British mandate ended in 1946, it was the Palestinian people who declared war (along with every other Arab nation in the area). But they lost the war and were driven back, Israel survived and preserved with it a place where Jews would be safe (an important concept in post-WWII times). So we are supposed to feel sorry for these Palestinians, who would have "driven the Jews into the sea" as the Palestine Liberation Organization (Arafat's party) position has always been. I certainly don't.

If it was just the West Bank that Alaa was referring to, then his math is a little off. 2002 ö 1967 = 35, not 50-plus. But it didn't need to be that long. Israel has a history of trading land for peace. If Palestine could show any ability to police its own people or put forth any effort to stop suicide bombings, there would be no occupation, and there would be a Palestinian state.

I counter your position, Mr. Muqattash. I assert that the hatred for America and Israel comes as a result of the brainwashing campaigns that people in these areas inflict on their own children. These people perpetuate hate, which perpetuates violence, which perpetuates hardship for themselves. They are the only ones with the ability to stop the cycle. For any peace plan to work, whether it be between Israel and Palestine, or the United States and Iraq, the perpetuation of hatred must stop.

Reuben Goodman
psychology senior

Labeling Judaism, Christianity as violent is just Îsimplistic'

This is in response to Diane Hain's Sept. 17 letter titled "Christianity and Judaism Guilty of Present-Day Violence." Ms. Hain discusses the actions of some abortion extremists from four years ago, from which she concludes that, "Christianity is defined by its rich history of violence, persecution." Defined? The definition of a Christian is a person who engages in violence and persecution? This surprises me; I apparently missed the passage where Jesus proclaims, "Be violent to thy neighbor." Every religion, like every political party and every university campus, has its wackos. A diverse and worldwide group of individuals is not "defined" by the actions of an abnormal few.

But even more simplistic is Ms. Hain's attack on Judaism. She claims that Judaism is also inherently violent, and uses the Book of Joshua and today's Mid-East situation as examples. This is extraordinarily typical: A number of people make the assumption that Judaism's philosophy is based entirely ÷ and only ÷ on the Old Testament, choosing a single and relatively unimportant passage (like Joshua) to prove some point about the religion. This is incorrect. Unlike the New Testament, the Old Testament is not a manual for understanding modern Jewish theology; it is a collection of writings by 6th-century B.C.E. priests on the folklore and cultural heritage of 6th-century B.C.E. Israelites. This may dismay even some Jews, but historians agree that the Israelites of sixth-century Canaan did not even practice the same religion as modern Judaism. More important to today's practicing Jews is the Talmud, a philosophical and spiritual work compiled over centuries by numerous rabbis, focused on the espousal of love and understanding.

Further, nowhere in Jewish philosophy is violence against humans anything but condemned. In fact, Orthodox Jews are entirely pacifistic; as a result, they are exempt from serving in the Israeli military. The citizens of Israel are themselves only just over 80 percent Jewish, anyway! So does this make Judaism as a religion answerable for the political actions of a state military, in which the soldiers themselves are not all Jewish in the first place?

America is mostly Protestant; it is also mostly English-speaking. According to Hain's logic, this must means that Protestantism is defined by its use of the English language. Israel is a state under constant attack from within and without, simply because it attempts to exist. Do its attempts to defend itself suddenly make its majority religion a violent one?

Nicole Eggers
German studies senior

Wildcat has the right to publish all "legal" ads

This letter is in response to the letter to the editor titled, "Ad for Bunny Ranch inappropriate and distasteful" which appeared in the September 17th edition of the Wildcat. We found the letter written by Karen Gutierrez one of the most unintelligent things we have ever read.

To attack the Wildcat and the right to free enterprise of the Bunny Ranch makes no sense. The Wildcat is a student-run newspaper that is preparing students for a real world career in journalism. In the real world, for newspapers to stay in business, they must sell advertising. Therefore they will not censor anything that is legal. In advertising for the Bunny Ranch, the Wildcat is in no way advertising anything that is illegal in any way.

If these students are trying to further their careers in the journalism field, they should not be held back and forced to run a newspaper with sanctions placed on it by administrators. Also, the age restriction for the Bunny Ranch is 18. Is the Wildcat targeted towards anyone under 18? Obviously not. Why then should the Bunny Ranch not get the chance to tap into an audience of over 35,000 students and staff that are over the age of 18?

Ms. Gutierrez says, "Putting an ad reduces the newspaper to the same level as those little flyers in boxes on street corners." Some of the nation's most prized journalistic works such as the New York Times and Washington Post are sold in those same little boxes on street corners across the country and would contain ads similar to the Bunny Ranch one without any hesitation. The main fact is that the Bunny Ranch paid money to have the advertisement placed in the newspaper, and because of this, they should be able to decide what goes in the newspaper as long as it's not illegal.

Ms. Gutierrez also goes along to say that this type of ad should appear in the Tucson Weekly. Is the Tucson Weekly not an example of a newspaper the Wildcat strives to be like? We are no longer in high school where our freedoms were limited; we are all adults by law, and we can make choices for ourselves on whether to frequent a business or not.

Finally, If Ms. Gutierrez is so unhappy with the current advertisements that appear in the Wildcat, then maybe she could contribute by paying for advertising space.

Brody Burns
undeclared freshman
Dmitry Rashnitsov
journalism freshman

Thanks to Wildcat and Ms. Gutierrez for "stimulated"

You know, I would like to commend the Wildcat. For the stimulation of my problem solving skills, I am given a daily crossword puzzle. To stimulate my mood I am given daily comics. My opinions and emotions are stimulated by editorials and letters to the editor. My trivia reserves are stimulated by Fast Facts and whatnot. My appreciation for peace officers is stimulated by the Police Beat section. Yet after all this stimulation, and I still have five or six minutes to kill between classes and an empty bathroom, the ad Ms. Gutierrez objected to in her letter on the 17th was that final bit of stimulation I needed to have fulfilled. Utterly fulfilled, rather.

Hence, I commend yet again the Wildcat for stimulating me completely. After all, how is that ad for community service Karen suggests going to help in those desperate five or six minutes to reach that achievement of absolute stimulation? Ads with young children needing instruction ÷ wait a minute, maybe she is onto something there.

Seth Davis

mechanical engineering sophomore