Homeless need to get out of library

It occurred to me while reading the debate on whether "bums" should use the library that if they have so much time to spend in the library, then obviously they have enough time to get a job. If Celia Reynolds loves homeless people so much then she should bring them over to her house and spend some time with them. These people don't deserve the right to use the library, they are abusive, drunken, obnoxious, and yes, like drunk loud students, they should be evicted from this place of higher learning, the Main Library. The truth of the matter is that given the amount of scholarships available at the UA if the bums wanted to enroll and therefore use the library they probably could do it for free and keep up the tradition they have set of living off state money and taxpayer assistance. There is nothing compassionate about homeless people. They have thousands of people in Tucson working on their behalf at the local churches, during Operation Deep Freeze and in 50 other places looking out for them. The UA doesn't need to donate its precious workers' time to cleaning up after them too.

Seth J. Frantzman
alumnus

Don't rip UAPD for issuing MIPs

This letter is in response to Rob Monteleone's letter, "UAPD cares only about MIPs, marijuana."

To start, he writes that he can not remember the last time he read at the end of police beat,"Police have no suspects or witnesses." In order for the police to have a suspect they must a witness to give the police a suspect description in a crime. How is that the police officer's fault?

And yes, the majority of the reports in the police beat are of minors in possession of either liquor or marijuana, but could that be a correlation to the type of jurisdiction UAPD has? And if UAPD does not enforce those laws and someone gets raped or killed while under the influence, who will be the first to blame?

Gabriel Bustamante
family studies junior

Spring fling shouldn't just benefit elite clubs

I would like to address the comment featured in Monday's Wildcat by Spring Fling's club relations Director Nathan Postillion. He said, "The point of the carnival is to generate money for clubs on campus." While that may be true for a select "elite" group of clubs on campus, I would like to bring to attention the rude treatment the Baby Cats club received when they tried to raise money for their UA-recognized club.

Many of us belonging to this club are parents struggling to finish school, some of us still managed to find the time to volunteer to do face painting at the Kid's Kingdom at Spring Fling. Many of us got out of school Friday, picked our children up from day care and came back to campus for an arranged meeting with the Spring Fling promotions director to discuss the details. This person did not show up, call or e-mail. Being this close to the start of Spring Fling leaves our club with no option but to pull out of a great opportunity to raise money and increase our visibility as a new group. Maybe the organizers of Spring Fling could afford the same attention and courtesy to all UA-recognized groups next time.

Jennifer Tumonis
chemistry senior

Don't generalize bicyclists

I'm writing this as a response to Dan Parmalee's "'Hazardous' bicyclists do dangerous maneuvers."

Dan, I'm sorry but bicycles or any other moving "vehicles" are technically dangerous. It only depends on the person who operates the bicycle, the skateboard or moped. Cyclists will stop at stop signs, stop at a red light, ride with a lamp and always keep an eye on others' actions - it just depends on the cyclist.

I'd support TPD's crackdown on bicycle and pedestrian laws if they did more than ticket us - passing out lamps and horns or bells helps avoid painful accidents.

Annie Domme
theatre arts sophomore

Longboarders deserve respect

Being a longboarder on campus I just want to say the "Boarders are people too" section of Kylee Dawson's article "Land surfing: Longboarders invade the UA," is, as Peter Griffin would say, "freakin' awesome." I am that guy. You know the one who is never on campus without his longboard? Literally, I do not remember the last time I attended class via any means but my longboard. It's about time that society stopped seeing skateboards, long or short, as causing chaos and just general problems. And Dawson's article contributes to this cause. The days of the "skate or die" era have died. The skateboarding culture has shifted from the '80s punk hooligan to mostly coastal and suburban kids. I was once actually swung at by someone when rolling by. Too bad I was three of his arm lengths away. Although if I was closer than that, I could possibly see that he might have been startled. I mean this would be an uncomfortable distance away from even bikes! I think it's amazing that people would rather have someone actually sitting down on a machine passing them rather to a guy rolling on a piece of wood. Longboarders have a much broader range of options as to avoid someone stepping out in front of them. Plus, I would much rather have a guy bump into me than a handlebar jab me in my kidney (hey, it's happened before). You may have noticed how I classify longboarders into just longboarders, and real longboarders. In other words, posers plague the UA. I ask those of you that ride to stay true, just started or not. You're too old for a fad now anyway. A veteran longboarder is not a 6-week-old newbie, but rather a person who has been boarding for years. And you got to love the representation of the shortboarders through a picture of some guy with his board shooting out from under him in an attempt to pull a backside boardslide. Yes, skateboarders are friendly and sarcastic. No, skateboarders are not evil.

Chris Cagle
aerospace engineering sophomore

Patriot Act affects students

What do four state legislatures and the UA Faculty Senate have in common? They have all passed resolutions condemning the U.S. Patriot Act. Why? Because since October 2001 the FBI has the power to access your most private records, including medical records, library records and student records without your knowledge.

Although many defend the Patriot Act as vital to protecting national security, critics maintain that it erodes the very principles upon which this country was founded.

The Patriot Act has serious implications here at the UA. So serious in fact, that the faculty Senate deemed it necessary to join a growing number of universities nationwide in condemning the Patriot Act as violating the Constitution and impeding learning.

On Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the Harvill building, Room 150, Amnesty International will present a discussion on the Patriot Act featuring the director of the ACLU for the state of Arizona and James S. Todd of the political science department.

This is an especially crucial time to be talking about these issues because many of the Patriot Act's most controversial provisions are set to expire or sunset in December, and there is a movement to make some of the most problematic provisions permanent. Join Amnesty International in calling on Congress to enforce the sunset provisions, amend the act and to ensure that our civil liberties are protected.

Cassalyn David
interdisciplinary studies senior

Bums not using library to read

Celia Reynolds ("Homeless deserve or compassion, tolerance"), it must be nice to live in your world where homeless people go to public libraries to write loved ones e-mails and attempt to satisfy their thirst for knowledge among the thousands of books there. It's funny how liberals call everyone else ignorant, but they're the ones who believe that type of crap.

You really think that if they were that close with their families they'd be homeless?

When's the last time you walked by one of them in the library and saw them reading a book or perusing the want ads of www.monster.com?

They're there to panhandle, plain and simple.

If you love them so much, Celia, why not invite them over to your house, where they can use the Internet without having to put up with the dirty looks and scorn of people like me and Rene Lomeli?

You can post your address in the Wildcat, because I'm sure they read this after they write all their e-mails.

Rob Monteleone
media arts junior

Campus shows sense of humor

I would just like to commend all of you who do not have the common sense to understand humor or parody. I would think that at such an excellent university there wouldn't be so many students duped by an April Fools' Day joke. Today's mailbag proved me wrong, however. Seniors, along with freshmen and staff, were taken in by the Wildcat's annual spring ruse. By the way, kudos to the Wildcat staff for producing such a convincing piece of trickery. Here's to another year of fools.

Fernando Ascencio
political science senior

Liberals don't know how to behave, should grow up

Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan and William Kristol are all conservative speakers that have been assaulted with food while giving speeches on university campuses. These incidents highlight something conservatives have known for years: Liberals can't behave. If they feel they have lost an argument and don't know how to compensate, they assault their opponent. I cannot even count the number of times I have been to a conservative speech and one or more liberals felt it was appropriate to disrupt the event by shouting, rushing the stage or throwing something. There are forums for public debate and there are times when a person just needs to sit in the audience and politely listen. Although I do not speak representing any authority, this is likely the reason the student wearing the UAYD T-shirt was refused admission to the President's speech.

Thankfully the majority of the people in this country, regardless of political view, would not think of participating in any acts such as these. The immature few that are too dumb to understand that these acts are crimes and nothing else need to grow up and realize that politics is about facts, knowledge, and responsibility.

Jereme Bintz
political science senior