Disgruntled UA neighbors at fault for living near campus

For those people who complain about students being loud living near campus ("Neighbors: We're held captive by students"), just move. Tucson is powered by students, the money comes from all the students, and if you live near campus and are surprised that students may be loud then, well, you are dumb. There are two big employers in Tucson - the military and the college. If you want quiet move away from the college; otherwise, pipe down. The college kids bring a lot of cash to local businesses and keep the city running. It's your own fault for living near a college campus.

Rylund Rippe
UA alumnus

Pharmacists have professional duty to fill valid prescriptions

This is in response to Friday's article "Protesters decry pill refusal to rape victim." I applaud the protesters who demonstrated outside the Fry's store where a rape victim was refused emergency contraceptive. Surely I am not the only one who finds it absurd that a pharmacist can decline to fill a prescription based on their "individual moral, ethical or religious beliefs." In my opinion, they have a professional duty to fill every valid prescription for every customer who desires it filled, regardless of the medication. It's their job. They chose to become a pharmacist and so chose the duties entailed therein.

Allowing pharmacists to shirk their duty based on their beliefs - as long as they "arrange to assist the patient in finding another pharmacist or pharmacy that will (fill it)" - is ludicrous. It's as ridiculous as allowing a computer technician to refuse to remove computer viruses because she or he deems them a form of life (and directing the person to another shop on the other side of town that will), or allowing plumbers to refuse to cut PVC pipe because they believe PVC has feelings (but telling the customer that they can hire another plumber who can do it in a week).

We all must choose our professions carefully and accept the responsibilities they entail. If someone cannot perform necessary duties, they need to find another career. Pharmacists should be expected to fully perform their job, just like any other employee.

Still, laudable though the protest was, we need to be careful not to turn this into a gender war. The front page featured a protester with a sign stating, "If men got pregnant: Emergency Contraception would be a sacrament." Turning this into a "men vs. women" issue is not fair, nor will it help resolve the issue. Clearly, it is not so one-sided, as illustrated by Danielle Smith's support for the pharmacist's decision, and by the presence of men among the protesters.

Let's rally together to demand pharmacists be held to the same expectations as other professions, and avoid dividing ourselves through stereotyping and finger pointing.

Scott Baker
computer science graduate student

Wildcat should have covered anniversary of shootings

As a regular reader of the Arizona Daily Wildcat, I was surprised to find a rather large omission in Friday's paper. Friday marked the three-year anniversary of the tragic murder of three university professors in the College of Nursing. Reflecting upon the recent tragedy that has befallen the university, I am afraid the Wildcat let pass a perfect opportunity to draw attention to the horrors that can sometimes arise from stressful college life, as well as the opportunity to provide references to organizations on and off campus that can help students before they get to that critical breaking point. One must remember and reflect upon tragedies like this in order to learn how to prevent these events from happening again.

Katherine Taylor
political science junior

Pharmacists have legal right to deny prescription

As a Fry's pharmacy technician, I found the article regarding the emergency contraceptive protest omitted some critical details ("Protesters decry pill refusal to rape victim"). While everyone seems to be making this into a man vs. women issue, I would like to note that the pharmacist who offered to fill the prescription if the woman could get there in time was a man, while the one who denied it was a woman. People need to get their facts straight before they start making accusations about what a bunch of male chauvinists we women are subjected to.

Also, I want to comment that had the young woman called the Fry's store at 22nd Street and Alvernon Way, just three streets away, she would have found that the drug is always stocked, and the pharmacists on duty would have had no problems filling it. Furthermore, I would like to point out that while many people do not believe that pharmacists should be allowed to deny medications because of their own moral convictions, myself included, they are legally permitted to do so under our state's law.

The fact that I do not perhaps agree with a current law does not make it any more or less legal. The pharmacist on duty has that legal right, and if you do not agree with that right, take it up with your state legislature.

The last point I would like to make is that, as a technician, I have seen more than a few cases in which the emergency contraceptive pill has been abused by women, as well. It is becoming widely used as an alternative method of birth control, which does not fulfill its intended purpose as an emergency contraceptive pill. While I am by no means trying to imply that this was the case in this situation, I do feel that in such a case, it is in the parameters of the pharmacist's duty to deny the medication. The protesters do not know all of the details in the case and need to educate themselves further before making superfluous accusations.

Danielle Haller
senior majoring in molecular and cellular biology

American society not allowing children to be children

I enjoyed Ella Peterson's column "Targeting our children." I couldn't agree more. While we are teaching our children to be afraid and not trusting, we are also not allowing them to be children. I also find it interesting in a society where as adults we are held less and less accountable for our own actions (i.e. being able to sue McDonald's because you spilled hot coffee on yourself), we are asking our children to be accountable. Something is wrong with that picture.

John Lindert
UA alumnus

Refuse and Resist has the wrong message

In response to the full-page ad on the back of Monday's Wildcat, this group has the wrong idea. Refuse and Resist claims itself as the Neo-Communist Party of America and advocates violence over peaceful demonstration and resistance versus rationalism.

Let us remember this group has members advocating a black exodus back to Africa, supports terrorist actions against innocent Israeli civilians in the Middle East and supports handing over of U.S. states to their "rightful owners" (Arizona back to Mexico, etc.).

The way to achieve peace is not through spewing baseless facts and spreading fear of the "Bush regime" throughout the American public. Instead, we should be advocating the teaching of peace and understanding. Not blindness and ignorance. As one of my favorite bumper sticker reads, " Communism only killed 100 million people - Let's give it another chance!"

Drew Alyeshmerni
Judaic studies junior