Invisible fence should rope in mountain lions

Although they are stealth hunters and don't growl, screech or show themselves to their true prey, I tend to agree that the public may need protection from the Sabino Canyon mountain lions. The Arizona Game and Fish Department, however, has rejected every thoughtful recommendation for mountain lion control and insists on killing them instead. That 18th-century mentality will have to be changed sometime before we kill everything wild, so why not change now?

The invisible fence technology has been successfully used to control pets for 25 years. With some fine-tuning, it can be adapted to work on wild animals. We have been using radio collars on wild animals for almost that long. All we need to do is collar the cats with the invisible fence technology and make Sabino Canyon visitors rent a portable transmitter on their visits. I suspect the resulting shocks would re-instill the fear of man into the cats. This is not an off-the-shelf solution, but the technology is 99 percent available.

In the meantime, keep the canyon closed until the cats return to the mountains for which they are named. That may provide the ultimate solution if we don't burn them out again.

James Needham
Tucsonan

Israeli actions ignored by American news media

On the 11th of this month, there was an article published in the Mailbag section of the Wildcat declaring that the Associated Students of the University of Arizona is in support of the Israeli resolution to defend itself by any means necessary. The term "defense resolution" is a vague one that has been adopted largely as a justifying label for the construction of the barrier between Palestine and Israel. The really ironic thing is that the primary controversy over the wall has nothing to do with Israel's right to defend itself, but rather with its attempts to build the wall in such a way that it annexes pieces of land that are currently recognized as Palestinian territory. Furthermore, it is interesting that such a high priority is given to Israel's defense, despite the fact that Israeli groups have committed just as many acts of terrorism against Palestine, and indeed almost all of the Muslim countries with which they share a border, as Palestinian groups have against them. In most cases, the mainstream American press spins the scene such that any aggression against Israel was perpetrated by all of Palestine, while the few instances of Israeli terrorism that even make it onto the evening news here talk about extremist groups in Israel that are not representative of the population. Furthermore, the press here does a wonderful job of ignoring the acts of outright military aggression that Israel often adopts in preference to covert terrorism but which produce the same effects. And it's really amazing what a great job it does of overlooking the fact that Israel has been "unofficially" known to house nuclear weapons for decades, despite the fact that this violates the same U.N. resolutions that we used as our war cry against Iraq. Now I'm sure that this "ignorance" on the part of our press has nothing to do with the fact that the United States has provided much of the strength, capital and direction of the Israeli military over the past several decades. Undoubtedly that is just pure coincidence, but it's disturbing how such manufactured ignorance becomes apparent even in our student governing body, which would deign to offer its opinion on this matter of international politics with such a paltry and skewed understanding of the affair. The fact is that neither country can take responsibility for all or even most of the aggression and to expound such a view is dangerously misleading.

Ravi Arora
UA alumna

Bible supports Jewish manifest destiny

Mike Sousa in his letter of March 12 accuses the army of a sovereign democratic state, Israel, of terrorism. It's not like I haven't heard that unfounded accusation before. Prove it, Mr. Sousa.

Zionism is "just another version of Manifest Destiny?" Let's take a look at the Hebrew Bible and Amos 9, 13-15, which states: "'I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land which I have given them,' says the Lord your God."

Do I need to explain the history of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel and in cities such as Jerusalem, a history that predates the founding of the city of Rome? That predates the birth of Jesus, the birth of Muhammad, as well as the birth of the United States and with it the vague idea of Americans having a "Manifest Destiny" to conquer the North American continent? Thousands of years before we Americans started singing "From sea to shining sea," we Jews had "If I forget thee, or Jerusalem, let my right hand wither · " Thousands of years before Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark out on their famous expedition, Moses sent spies to explore the land of Israel and report back on what they found.

We have history, and God, to thank for Zionism. Americans only thought they had a Manifest Destiny for North America. We Jews know we have one for the Land of Israel · and we have it in writing, too.

Jeremy Slavin
political science senior

Ceramic department's relocation a poor idea

If the relocation of the ceramics department is going to save the school $3 million, why is it raising tuition?

Have any of the safety management or health people done any research into the chemicals used for glazing? Would you ask the chemistry department to move its lab outside? In the same way that contamination is an issue for chemists, it is an issue for ceramicists.

It is interesting to me how much grief the ceramics department is getting considering that one of the founders of the UA art department was a ceramic artist. One of the galleries is named after him. Considering the amount of money that goes into materials science at the UA, I would have expected as much money to go into the ceramics department, since the fields are closely related. Ceramics is everywhere today, and its uses are only growing in the day-to-day life of this country. My time at the ceramics department has led me away from my original studies in French and Italian, and I am now working on my master's in ceramic engineering and materials science.

I am sure that you have more access to the stats regarding funding for arts and music. It's interesting how all over people are seeing the drastic changes in students as a result of the loss of arts and music in high school. What will happen when we lose arts at the university level?

Joshua Kendrick
UA alumnus

Genetically modified organism column wrong

Would it really be that hard to ask your opinion writers to do their homework before letting the keyboard fly? Jennifer Kursman's piece on genetically modified organisms is simply horrible. She uses the "GMOs is good because the people who profit from them tell us so" argument. Fact is, there has been more testing on what livestock eats than the effect of GMOs on humans.

GMOs are usually bred to be resistant to herbicides and insects. So farmers will be using more chemical herbicides with these plants, which is bad for the environment. It has already been observed that these inserted genes migrate into other plants. So what do we do when the weeds become herbicide resistant? Insects become resistant to any pesticide at an amazingly fast rate. So pretty soon, the bugs will become resistant and we will still be eating pesticides.

Given these plants' artificial hardiness, it won't take them long to overrun natural crops in nearby fields. So instead of GMOs giving us more choices, they will literally choke out the competition. It's already happened with corn.

If GMOs are so great and good for us, how come the companies making them haven't been the ones pressing for labeling? You would think that if their product was so superior, they would take pride in it and use it to their marketing advantage. Instead, they hide it and try to blend in with the rest.

Freedom is synonymous with choice. Without the proper information, one is denied choice itself. So apparently these companies aren't too fond of freedom.

Mike Sousa
art education senior

Bush's campaign ads Îlie to us' about Kerry's plans

The Bush campaign has revealed its strategy for winning in 2004: Lie to us.

Bush's latest attack ad lies about Kerry's plan to fix Bush's unfair and out-of-control revenue giveaways to the wealthy and to disloyal corporations. The ads lie about Kerry's plan to reform the Patriot Act so that we can fight terror and preserve our own freedoms.

Bush also lies about his own record in office. During the Bush administration, we've lost 2.4 million jobs, and health care costs have shot up by almost 50 percent. Yet his ads imply that his policies grow jobs and contain health care cost.

The only thing that could be further from the truth than Bush's campaign ads are Bush's campaign promises. Uniter, not a divider? Bush is sponsoring a culture war on marriage, simply because the issue is divisive and can help him politically. Restore honor to the office of president? Our government is more mistrusted, feared and hated, both at home and abroad, than ever in our history. These famous lines were not just empty promises, it turns out, but more outright lies.

Michael Bryan
Tucsonan