Democrats also support right to life

In Mr. Post's column on Thursday, he railed on Republicans and President Bush for taking a special vote in Congress to save the life of Terri Schiavo. Unfortunately, Mr. Post fails to mention that Democrats also favored the bill, with 58 siding with the Republicans, while 47 opposed. All Mr. Post did throughout his piece was blame the political intervention on the Republicans, while many Democrats also support the government intervening. I guess when you don't do research your writing comes out very biased.

Daniel Casmer
civil engineering senior

UA administration makes no sense

President Likins and his team are to be congratulated for coming up with a plan to fix the financial mess at the UA; many of its elements make sense and would have been welcome in the past. What makes no sense, however, is the continuing lack of clear information about why we are in this mess. Our colleagues at ASU, facing many of the same constraints from the state and from unfunded mandates, apparently are not. References are made to the involvement in the planning process of SPBAC, and to working groups of the Finance Committee. But the former seems to have largely been consulted after the fact, and the latter working groups are not publicly identified to my knowledge. What working groups, and who was on them? Accountability please.

Most importantly, what makes absolutely no sense is that an administration stepping down in little more than one year inaugurates a three-year plan. Is the next president going to be bound by this plan? If so, with no latitude to change the financial plan, what kind of president do we imagine attracting? Much more likely is that a new president will demand the freedom to do as she or he wants. Indeed we might hope that a new president will be able to use the kind of leverage that attends his or her start to improve our situation.

The danger then, is that we will initiate various changes over the next few years, in the midst of which a new team will take over and probably start from square one again. It's hard for me to imagine that the president and his cabinet failed to consider these issues of timing and transition, but their financial bulletin laying out the changes made absolutely no reference to these critical concerns. If the changes they recommend make sense in a one to two year timeframe, whatever may come after, then a good argument can be made for them. If any of the changes depend upon a longer timeframe to be effective, then perhaps they make little sense - the incoming administration will not feel bound by them. If there is another logic to these proposals it needs to be explained.

It would be a breath of fresh air to have these kinds of issues, and the proposed changes, debated openly at the UA.

Lynn Nadel
professor of psychology

Pharmacists shouldn't choose for women

Arizona ladies, would you like to retain the option of emergency contraception? Would you enjoy having a pharmacist decide for him or herself whether or not you should use any contraceptive medication? There is a bill in the Arizona House that will empower pharmacists to choose for themselves if they want to dispense contraceptive medication over the authority of both your and your doctor's opinions. I find it difficult to comprehend why pharmacists want to move from simply giving us what we request to prescribing from their individual moral view. The Arizona ladies should speak out now and resist infringements upon their personal freedom. Tell your representatives to strike down HB 2541.

John E. McElligott
public health graduate student

Don't let people hand out Bibles

While being absolutely ridiculous is in their nature, the religious wackos on campus have taken it too far, and the administration needs to step in and do something about it. Wednesday I was bombarded six (yes, six) times by people trying to hand me out a Bible. The day before, I was asked twice to talk to someone about God. It got to the point where I had to just tell them that I don't join cults.

Indeed, I am not a fan of organized religion, which is the reason I stayed away from attending a religious private university. So why should I be treated like I attend one every time I walk on campus? Look, if people want to trick themselves into believing in an invisible man in the sky that probably doesn't exist that's fine, but do it on your own free time. It's rude for people to come up to me asking my beliefs in God and then get offended when I tell them no I don't believe in him, and you're an asshole for trying to convert me.

Do not get me wrong, I am a full proponent of freedom of speech. However, would we let the KKK go up to people trying to give them pamphlets, or allow their preachers to talk on our lawns? Some of you may think this is a far off comparison, but is it really? The KKK says that being white is superior, and the Christians believe that believing in God makes you superior (at the very least, in the afterlife). The KKK sometimes resorts to violence, and so do radical Christians. Most importantly, both these groups use the Bible to support their beliefs.

Where is the outrage, fellow students? Are we just going to sit here and let religious wackos take over our campus, or are we, regardless of faith, going to say that there is a time and place for religion, and it is not on a walk between your 2 and 3 o'clock class.

Josh Garber
economics junior

'U-Mart Confessionals' best if part of comics

The "U-Mart Confessionals" were awesome! Would you please replace all the comics (with the exception of "Optimal Stubble") for daily "U-Mart Confessionals?" I personally believe these revealing and wacky stories delve deeper into the character and culture of our beloved campus while providing a greater level of entertainment. Thanks!

John Wienert
English literature senior

Wildcat shows bias in professor piece

Why didn't you find a supportive opinion to the president's plan? You only provided professors that disagreed with the president's plan. Do you wonder why "the media" has the reputation that they do? It is because everyone can see through the crap and agendas and get to the actual motive for reporting a story, the reporter just reporting their bias, and not delivering news.

Jason Allen
UA alumnus

Death penalty not cruel or unusual

In reply to judgement day ... I find the idea of eliminating the death penalty without logic. When Scott Peterson murdered his wife and child, or for example, in the Missouri case of Christopher Simmons when he bound and gagged a woman and then threw her off a bridge to drown, where were the rights of their victims? The truth is, the murderer was afforded the right of a trail by his peers before being found guilty and sentenced to the death penalty. Cruel and unusual punishment? I think not.

Christian Payne
journalism sophomore

U.N. influence, policy a storied history

The preconceptions surrounding the United Nations' policy of helping Third World countries is astonishing. The United Nations has had its claws in these developing countries since its inception.

A riot in Congo in 1959 led to nominal independence for these tribal peoples from their Belgian occupiers. However, provisions in the Congo's new constitution allowed for Belgian intervention whenever the latter felt compelled to do so (see the United States' Platt Amendment).

Within days, nationalist Patrice Lumumba was chosen in free elections. Belgian forces then occupied the province of Katanga, preserving this area of influence containing a majority of the country's cobalt, diamond, gold, copper and silver resources, and supported its secession.

Lumumba appealed to the United Nations, the United States and Canada for help, receiving none, which prompted welcome assistance from the Soviets. Soon thereafter, displeasure from the Soviets and countries in the Afro-Asia bloc prompted the United Nations to replace Belgian forces with its own.

The problem was Dag Hammarsköld, U.N. secretary general, was closely allied with both Belgian and U.S. top administrators. The officials who led the U.N. forces were American, and vastly anti-Lumumba. Meanwhile, the CIA was aiding Joseph Mobutu, a military strongman, and after failing to oust Lumumba through the legislature, it turned to Mobutu and his army, which instituted a coup.

Lumumba fled to his home, where Mobutu's forces quickly followed. The same U.N. forces refused to intervene in the Lumumba hunt, save a battalion of Ghanaian troops fighting the Mobutu forces and holding their ground to save the prime minister. This forced the United Nations to support the salvation of Lumumba, until he left his home. CIA officials alerted Mobutu's army about Lumumba's whereabouts and captured him promptly. He was killed either by Belgian or U.S. forces a few months later. This is just one example of developing countries that have been "helped" by the United Nations.

Bryan McIntosh
political science senior

No third direction for men's basketball

For my entire life, I have lived in the one-hit-wonder town of Tucson, the UA itself practically being my backyard; hence, I have lived and breathed the colors of red and blue my entire life. Truth be told, my first words were "bear down."

I'll never forget the time I met Lute Olson at Ernie's, a bar and grille which sadly closed and is now the cliché restaurant Pastiche.

I have been to many Wildcat games, and like most Tucsonans, I have a story or two of how I ran into many Wildcat greats. As a kid, I went to the Sean Elliot basketball camp at his old high school, La Cholla. I have dined with Damon Soudamire, and laughed aloud seeing Khalid Reeves try to shoot a 3-pointer in a wheelchair at the infamous Lame for a Game.

At the age of 12, I cried with my mother when the UA successfully defeated three No. 1 spots to claim the national championship back in 1997.

Now I am a Wildcat, struggling through my second year in the business realm of Eller College, and if it were possible, I have become more enthralled in Wildcat basketball, and it pains me to see my beloved Wildcats walk slowly to their doom.

I didn't even watch the game against Oklahoma State, I knew that no matter how good Stoudamire's accuracy was, or how merciless Channing Frye's defense could get, I knew that they would never pass the Sweet 16.

But over the years I have accepted the Wildcats are either an incredible team or choke artists. They will either shock the office pools and reach the Final Four, or they'd be butchered in the first rounds by teams you didn't know existed. (Miami, Ohio, ring a bell?)

There is no third direction with this basketball team, ladies and gentlemen, and I for one am very thankful for that, because if there were, they wouldn't be so exciting to watch. All I can hope for now, is that Lute Olson, God bless him, will stay just a few more years.

Will Butler
business sophomore