Not all financial aid created equal at UA

Your article on student financial aid in yesterday's Wildcat ("Students receive more financial aid") fails to distinguish between student loans and grants. One category requires repayment, and the other doesn't. Since the UA administration consistently fails to break out these figures and couches everything simply as "financial aid," please do their dirty work and explain how aid is allocated between these two very different categories of paying for college. Americans are borrowing at record levels, and college tuition ÷ the inflation rate of which continues to far exceed every other sector of the economy, except maybe health care ÷ is surely contributing to these nationwide woes. UA hiked tuition 40 percent in one year! This is another reason why a line in the sand must be drawn on tuition hikes. If the administration fails to convince the Republican-led state Legislature to increase funding, why doesn't it make cuts in other nonessential services and construction activities?

Stu Williams
UA alumnus

Better drainage system sorely needed on campus

With the king's ransom that we have to pay for tuition, and the seemingly orgiastic need for new construction projects, is it too much to ask for a better drainage system around the university? Half an inch of rain turns the university into the staging area for "The Deluge, Part 2." I had to cross the Second Street River and the Cherry Avenue Canal Zone just to get to the bus stop. I say either the university fixes the flooding problem or SafeRide offers a gondola service.

Nick Smith
marketing and journalism junior

Criticism of Web site's contest unwarranted

First, let me make a few things clear in an effort to avoid the barrage of hate mail this letter is apt to produce if published. I don't believe that President Bush is comparable to Adolf Hitler in any reasonable way, shape or form. However, if asked to come up with something I like about Bush in his capacity as president, I'd come up with a blank.

That being said, Aaron Okin's column "The face of anti-Bush tactics" neglects to mention some important facts or acknowledge the duality of the "emotional manipulation" he writes about.

What Mr. Okin fails to mention about the ads equating Bush to Hitler was that there were only two of them out of more than 1,500 entered in the contest. Those two ads were quickly winnowed out of the contest and removed from the site. They were not produced or endorsed by MoveOn.org, and the only place you could find them after the contest was on the Republican National Committee's Web site. In fact, MoveOn.org didn't publicize the ads as Mr. Okin seems to imply; it was the RNC that did so.

I won't even touch on Mr. Okin's claims that the war in Iraq has increased national security or spread "true democracy." One is highly debatable and the other has yet to come to fruition.

What I would like to mention, however, is Mr. Okin's failure to acknowledge the efforts of Republicans to use "emotional manipulation" in their campaign ads. In the run up to the 2002 midterm elections, a Republican organization released a television ad morphing Osama Bin Laden's face onto that of the Democratic incumbent and former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland, a decorated veteran and multiple amputee of the Vietnam War. In this case, the Republican establishment said nothing.

As the above example aptly illustrates, "emotional manipulation" in political advertising is not a partisan issue; both sides do it.

Dan Brown
philosophy and political science senior

Clark the right choice in Democratic primary

I was reading the Wildcat and saw the article titled "Issue of the Week: Presidential Nominations" in the opinions section. I am glad to see that the newspaper is informing students about current politics, and as a Democrat, was also happy to see news about the Democratic primaries. However, I was amazed to see that Gen. Clark was not discussed in the article. Though Clark entered the race later than most other candidates, he has seen a very sudden and positive upsurge of support throughout the nation. Clark is leading in Arizona according to some polls and, according to others, is in a statistical tie with former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean in the state; so I was very surprised to see that there was no mention of Gen. Clark · a person who could very well be the next president of the United States.

Clark was a NATO Supreme Allied Commander and Commander in Chief of the United States European Command, and he led the combat action in Kosovo that saved the lives of 1.5 million Albanians (I think that might qualify him as a leader). His time in the military was spent

improving health care, education and housing for the military families under his care. Clark's new American patriotism is based on service, principled dissent (the idea that criticizing the government isn't unpatriotic, but one of the highest forms of patriotism), opportunity for all and responsible global leadership; he is pro-choice, pro-affirmative action, pro-environment, pro-health care and pro-labor.

Kevin Chandler
chemical engineering freshman

Republican Party just as guilty as online site

Aaron Okin feels the need to look at fringe Web sites to find examples of tactics used to criticize President Bush and his policies. He fails to notice the tactics used by the White House to strategically take away attention from the current Democratic primaries. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry wins the Iowa caucuses and doesn't get the press and media attention he deserves because Bush and, more importantly, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove feel the need to schedule the State of the Union address for the day after Kerry's impressive come-from-behind victory. This may be just part of the game, but Mr. Okin fails to recognize that the mainstream of the Democratic Party is criticizing Bush fairly and appropriately on his failed policies, both domestically and abroad.

Mr. Okin also fails to recognize that the Republican Party is instigating a culture of fear instead of participating in a healthy debate about the issues at hand. Bush can be heard espousing national security because he knows his domestic agenda has failed. Mr. Okin would not dare bring domestic issues like No Child Left Behind Act or Medicare into his arguments because he knows the first is underfunded by the current administration and the second is simply a re-election tool that will fail within the next six years. I am definitely looking forward to the debates when Bush can no longer hide behind his strategists. Mr. Okin, there's no need to reference the fringe and extreme media sources anymore. They exist on both sides of the aisle, so give us a break and please focus on the mainstream media. You would do yourself well to learn about the Jessica Lynch story and how the extreme conservative media changed and manipulated the story until the mainstream conservative media reported on it as fact. There are examples on both sides, and I hope you are aware of that fact. You and your readers, however few they may be, will gain more serious insight and intelligence on the world in which you live.

Niall O'Connor
UA alumna