West promotes disease, corruption and genocide

The level of complete ignorance and disregard for factual historical accounts exhibited by opinions editor Shane Dale in his editorial, "Discover what's so great about America," is, put kindly, absolutely horrific. Perhaps he would have been better off promoting a "rah-rah, flag-waiving, feel-good book," instead of the completely biased and ill-researched piece of propaganda he chose to thrust upon the Arizona Daily Wildcat's unfortunate readers. At least the "rah-rah" pieces have the decency to ignore the past crimes of state as opposed to trying to justify them.

In every cited instance, not only is D'Souza's argument flawed, but "Captain Shane America's" is as well. Perhaps the systematic indoctrination of the Indian people and the practical annihilation of their culture was the cause for India to continue with the "better" Western influence thrust upon them by the British. And maybe the reason that sub-Saharan Africa would not be missed at all is that it lacks any profitability for Western (read: capitalist) societies. The "cocktail of disasters" was not created due to lack of Western influence, but rather due to interferences by Western influences.

Maybe the United States should stop bombing pharmaceutical companies in Sudan ÷ I'm sure a measles vaccination would cure significantly more Africans than a tomahawk suppository.

I won't even touch on Dale's slavery argument, as it's obviously racist beyond any reasonable doubt. It is rather sickening that the Wildcat editors would even allow such bigoted arguments to be printed by a representative staff member.

Even Dale's final argument is flawed. The alternative he speaks about is hardly an alternative at all, but rather an extension of the propaganda model used to mold all future politicians, such as Dale himself, into pawns to be used whenever they're in position to further maintain the status quo.

Perhaps Dale should modify his reading list to include "A People's History of the United States," by Howard Zinn. Afterwards, I'm sure he'd be able to flawlessly argue how African-Americans owe us (read: white, upper-middle class America) reparations and not the other way around. "Manufacturing Consent," by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky would also be a necessary addition to his list, seeing as how his argument would be greatly improved by learning how Western influences have helped numerous undeveloped nations become everything but a cesspool of corruption, disease and genocide.

Consider yourself lucky Shane, if at some point in your remaining college education you learn something of value.

Alan Garza
journalism freshman

Tax payers should not be afraid of Clean Elections Act

In another feeble attempt to discredit the Clean Elections Act, Jason Baran's commentary lacks real-world substance and any knowledge of the process that goes into the public finance system.

1. Baran: "removing private donations from campaigns"

Truth: For a statewide or legislative campaign, you have the option of running in a traditional fashion or under the clean elections system, so no one is removing private contributions.

2. Baran: "Public financing takes away the incentive for hard work · A candidate and his staff have to convince people that he's the right person for the job"

Truth: Have you seen these candidates who struggle to qualify for public funding? Local candidate for Secretary of State Sharon Collins barely qualified as a clean elections candidate after 12 months around the state because she had to "convince people that she's the right person for the job" before receiving their $5 contribution.

3. "During this difficult financial time Arizona is shackled with an election law that drains millions from the state's coffers."

Truth: If a person does not break any civil or criminal laws, does not contribute to the Clean Elections Fund or accept the Clean Elections Tax Rebate, then none of your tax payer dollars will be used for the public financing system!

Unfortunately, many people (most of them ill-informed college republicans supporting candidates running under the clean elections system) do not fully understand this public campaign system. They attempt to discredit a voter-approved initiative that they know nothing about in attempt to use scare tactics like "tax payer dollars!"

As long as person doesn't break the law (or take advantage of a tax break), they don't pay for the clean elections system. Unfortunately, "law-abiding citizens" doesn't always apply to our recent republican governors elected in Arizona.

Joe Ellison
UA Alumna, Class of 2001

Opinions Board Îout of touch' with students

The Wildcat Opinions Board sounds more and more out of touch with each passing editorial about on-campus issues. Their editorial on Monday, praising UA for the forced eviction of hundreds of students for no gain to the university, was surprisingly pro-administration ÷ even for an editorial page which recently praised the unpopular President Likins.

Last year, UA evicted hundreds of upper-classmen in the hopes that it would free up space in the dorms to be filled by incoming freshmen. UA was warned at the time by many of us in student leadership that the result could easily be empty dorm space, financial losses for the university and the tragic segregation of upperclassmen and underclassmen who had enjoyed integrated communities. Both Residence Hall Association, of which I was president at the time, and Associated Students of the University of Arizona voted to oppose the policy change, citing precisely such warnings. UA chose to ignore our warnings and now finds itself stuck in the situation we warned them about.

The policy change has resulted in empty dorm space that will lead to a financial loss for UA when the space could have been filled by upperclassmen who would have cherished the ability to give back to their community as mentors. The situation is tragically irreversible because these upperclassmen have now signed leases for the off-campus housing they moved into after being evicted. I am honestly puzzled that the Wildcat Opinions Board can find such a tragic situation to be "positive."

Benjamin Bush
former RHA president (Î01-Î02)
UA Alumnus, Class of 2002