Criminals in America treated better, more humanely than Terri Schiavo

Terri Schiavo. Wow, I mean what the hell? Starvation, what a way to die. Why is she sentenced to die such a slow death? Why not just shoot her or give her lethal injections? I don't understand why we treat murderers and criminals more humanely. Even animals are treated better. The damn environmentalists and bleeding-heart liberals are never there when you need them. I think this idea of removing the feeding tube from a mentally incapacitated person is interesting. The court can't order her to be killed directly because that's illegal, but they can order her death indirectly via starvation and they will enforce their death sentence with the law enforcement agencies as their lackeys and accomplices to murder. How is this any different than eugenics? The media talks about how the issue of Terri Schiavo case as this phenomenon that has crossed all partisan lines where both Democrats and Republicans can agree that it was wrong for the president to try to step in and protect this women from the government, because that's what he tried to do. God, the NRA and other extremists like them will have a field day with this. When this is all over and the dust has settled, Terri Schiavo will be the new poster child for a campaign on how government is increasing its power over us and taking our freedoms away. And the government now decides who live or dies. People freak out about foreign terrorists being abused, but this woman is an American citizen, and her own government is torturing her to death right in front of our eyes. It's on TV every night, hypocritical bastards.

Paul Frawley
political science freshman

Being critical of basketball team doesn't make fans fair-weather

Irene Alvarez is mistaken in labeling those critical of Arizona's last nine minutes of play as fair-weathered fans. A true, knowledgeable fan doesn't accept everything their team gives them. Rather, they question moves made during the course of a game and attempt to hold people responsible. One who blindly accepts every move made by a coach is no true fan and in actuality is hurting their team by granting their coach immunity to criticism.

I hail from Jayhawk country and in the week following their embarrassing loss to Bucknell, people were calling for Bill Self's head (Keith Langford included). These true fans put no one, coach included, above their team. They aren't fair-weathered; they simply want what's best for their team no matter the cost.

Saturday night we witnessed perhaps the greatest choke job in NCAA history. Many people are to blame (or credit from an Illini perspective), yet I'm sure Lute would want all criticism directed at him. Personally, I think Radenovic deserves a great deal of the blame. He had a good game prior but his pass, which was intercepted and allowed Illinois to tie the game, was disgusting and unforgivable. Lute also deserves criticism for not putting the ball in Salim's hands, his best shooter and passer, with the game on the line. To blame no one and accept the season as a success even when we had a trip to the Final Four locked up is ridiculous.

Another note to Hot Sauce, stay one more year. You're not NBA-ready; sure you have ups and the defense, but you need to spend one more year developing a jumper.

Brian Danker
UA alumnus

Illini absolutely had home-court advantage

Regarding Kent Parrish's statement, Illinois didn't have a homecourt advantage is true enough if you take it in the literal sense. On the other hand, considering that all of the talking heads were calling it a virtual homecourt advantage from the day they announced the seedings, Parrish can hardly be serious for faulting Arizona fans for pointing that out. I feel pretty safe in saying that Arizona fans would get the implication of a homecourt advantage if the Wildcats ever happen to be seeded No. 1 in Tempe or Phoenix, for example, which are about the same distance from Tucson as Champaign is from Chicago.

Also, I'm not sure what he means when he contends that credit isn't being given to Illinois for the way they fought back and won. Everyone from Lute Olson, the players and the common fans have made reference to that and I, personally, wish you the best the rest of the way.

Ray Rafidi
UA alumnus

GOP should have passed rape bill

Leave it to Republicans in the state Legislature to kill a bill that would have made the punishment for spousal rape equivalent to that of regular rape. I would like to say Republicans are showing their true colors after November, but things like this have been going on within the GOP and at the state capitol for sometime now. Not only did four Republicans kill SB1040, but one of the culprits was Rep. Laura Knaperek, who represents District 17, the district which encompasses ASU. Why would anyone kill a bill that would have made the punishment for such a horrendous thing harsher? Do they think the current punishment is harsh enough? Tell me Republicans; does spousal rape deserve the same punishment as stealing cable, organizing a dog fight, not paying taxes on cigarettes or littering? It currently is, and you refused to change it! It is a shame to know that those who speak so often of the sanctity of marriage have failed to provide proper punishment for those who break it.

David Martinez III
secondary education sophomore

Ban Bibles and other forms of free speech

This letter is in response to Mr. Garber's incessant letters to the Wildcat in reference to the distribution of free Bibles on campus. I must say that while his letters were poorly thought out, rambling and a bit "yappy," I must say I agree. Get the people handing Bibles off the campus. Then let's get the "Vagina Warriors" off the Mall. After that, let's get rid of all forms of protest and club advertising out. Some of those people might be in the KKK. In fact, why have any entertainment at all? Why have anything anybody may disagree with? The library has books written in Russian, and Russians used Russian to purport communism. Burn all the books in the library. Then we can gather up the Christians and put them into work camps. It will be cheaper than illegals and their prices on labor.

Tom Deakin
industrial engineering sophomore

Cats looked a lot like NY Yankees

Dear Lute Olson and the UA basketball team,

There is no shame collapsing down the stretch to an inferior team during the playoffs in one of the absolute worst chokes in sports history.

Sincerely,

The 2004 New York Yankees

Frank Schissel
communications junior

UA shouldn't have tried to waste clock

It seemed to me Arizona faltered at the end of the game when playing Illinois. Instead of trying to win the game it seemed to me they were playing to try not to lose the game, which happens so many times in big games. When a team starts stalling to eat up the clock they lose sight that they get out of sink and don't function near as well. Just an opinion as a fan.

Bill Clifford
UA basketball fan

Christianity brought 'light upon the world'

Josh Garber's letter in yesterday's Wildcat where he claimed the world would be better off without Christianity misses the mark entirely. The occasions of Christian oppressions pale in comparison to the gifts and tools it has bequeathed to us. Without the Bible we would not have evolved the secular ideas of equality that today are the light upon the world. Without the homogeneity created by Christianity in Europe, we would not have had the likes of Darwin or Copernicus to revolutionize the way we think of evolution and the universe. We focus on the negatives of Christian doctrine, but we should focus on the fact the nations today inspired by Christian thought are the most free, most democratic and most welcoming to minorities. The other ideologies that existed before Christianity and today still exist are based on totalitarianism, absolutism and the destruction of culture. They involve the most barbaric traits of human sacrifice, stoning of adulterers and cannibalism. How do we know such things are wrong? We know because the Bible tells us they are. And today our law, despite what some would have us believe, is based on the Judeo-Christian ethics, ethics modeled on the message of Jesus: tolerance, love and even turning the old cheek from time to time. Garber should try his hand at visiting some non-Christian nations and see about those equal rights, women's rights and minority rights he holds so dear; they exist nowhere else.

Seth J. Frantzman
UA alumnus