Coach Lute Olson deserves higher pay

There's something definitely wrong with what, collectively, the UA president, athletic director and the Arizona Board of Regents have done to Lute Olson. He is a nationally recognized (Hall of Fame) coach with a consistently ranked basketball team and is one of the best marketing personae for the UA - and he has consistently been underpaid compared to the last three football coaches. The UA has never even reached the level of ASU football by going to the Rose Bowl. Does football mean so much to the school and the state that Stoops can get so much money, salary and incentives included, be allowed to hire his brother and more? Why doesn't this school start demonstrating that Lute's achievements are important?

Good thing Lute likes Tucson, the UA and the kids, because he's donating himself almost free of charge. Shame on the UA and the Regents! By the way, just because I live in Tucson doesn't mean I favor the UA one way or another - both of my kids went to ASU.

Gail Dunlap
Raytheon Missile Systems manager

U.S. stance on Kyoto Protocol hurts future

Today, the BBC announced that Russia has decided to join the United States in its rejection of the Kyoto Protocol. These countries claim that the restrictions (specifically on emissions) will stifle their economies to a point that is unacceptable. I think that this is yet another example of our current governmental regime trying to undermine the best interests of its citizens in favor of big business handouts. It is obvious who is benefiting from this rejection: oil and automotive industries, as well as other big industries that are more concerned with the deepening of their own pockets than with the prosperity of the nation as a whole. People in many of the poorer neighborhoods in America are already suffering from our unwillingness to take a serious stand on pollution. Unbeknownst to many, industries that release harmful toxins into the environment are often zoned into low socioeconomic neighborhoods where the citizens generally don't have the resources or the clout to make a difference when traces of these toxins appear in their children's blood samples. Meanwhile the wealthier, and generally less concerned, citizens simply retreat farther and farther from the polluted inner cities, believing somehow that they can expand their suburbs indefinitely and that there will always be a nice pristine patch of forest that they can mow down and develop once their current area is congested with litter and smog from their SUVs.

The really sad thing is that many of these people who would side with the president in favor of the economy over the environment are also loving and devoted parents who will readily tell you that they would die for the welfare of their children. But while this generation and a few following may be able to simply flee the messes that we make, eventually it's going to catch up with us. If you care about your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, then realize that at some point the luxury to ignore the problems that we are currently creating is going to disappear. If we turn a blind eye to the problem, soon it may be too late to truly do anything effective.

America should be at the forefront of this resolution. We should be helping to put the pressure on other nations to follow our lead. We are a fully developed nation that can afford the minor economic setbacks that would be incurred (and which are the result of selfish and archaic business practices to begin with), and the benefits to our environment would be priceless. Don't forget that the environment isn't some national park in Wyoming: It's your home. Keeping it clean benefits you.

Ravi Arora
psychology senior

Stoops brings fresh attitude to football

Optimism: It's seeing the good in the bad. It is not an understatement to look at this past football season as one of the worst in Arizona's history.

Out of it comes something good. Never have I been more excited about a coaching pick than I am now that Stoops has been brought on board, complete with assistants from other winning programs like Miami and Kansas State. Since I was the last school mascot to go to a bowl game in 1998 and to live through the greatest football season in our school's history with a final 12-1 record, no one wants to see our program's pride restored more than I do. This weekend, we got our chance. Though it will be a long road back, we have a dynamic coach who can, and will, do the job.

Welcome Coach Stoops, and Bear Down.

Kirk Sibley
UA alumnus

Letter example of social commentary

I would like to extend my hearty thanks to Leslie Coffman for her insightful and witty letter to the Wildcat (see Monday's issue). I have never read "Suburban Rhythm," the comic discussed in the letter, but I can still appreciate Coffman's tasteful critique of the strip. She says that the strip "consistently spells words incorrectly," citing two examples to make the consistency of these errors more than obvious. She follows by saying, "I would expect that from someone at Pima, but defiantly not at the UA." Notice how she pretends to be condescending and insulting toward community college students in order to make a profound social commentary. I say "pretending" because I know Coffman has been "forced to take endless classes in general education" at the UA and has learned not to stereotype people or make rash suggestions about the relative intelligence of community college students. Also notice her clever use of irony - by using "defiantly" in place of "definitely," Ms. Coffman shows us just how annoying spelling mistakes can be. Again, I must assume this mistake is intentional because I would hate to think that a UA student with access to a spell-checker could make a typo. Again, thanks to Leslie for teaching me that spelling mistakes are not acceptable in the deathly serious world of comic strips. I think she should defiantly write again.

Robert Crandall
physics freshman