Article on women's plaza displayed sexist bias

How ironic. The Wildcat shows its sexism in a story about honoring women in the Alumni Plaza. How is it that someone who is supposed to be a reporter got away with writing "the first woman to serve as an Arizona Supreme Court Justice, the first congresswoman from Arizona and the wife of UA President Peter Likins." Apparently these women aren't important enough to include their names in the article, just the fact that they are women. Whoever the editor is should get plenty of chastising for this as well. It is their responsibility to make sure the news is reported - not some vague reference to a position. It's also sad that Likins' wife is there, as if to imply, "Don't worry. Even if you don't do anything important, you can always marry someone who is."

As a side note, the Alumni Plaza looks like crap. Grass utilized by students has been replaced with a barren concrete wasteland. And whose genius idea was it to put more fountains in the middle of a desert anyway? I'd be offended if someone tried to honor me with such.

Mike Sousa
art education senior

BCS needs to be replaced by playoffs

This year there were four undefeated teams vying for a National Championship in college football, but only one of these teams sustained a loss by the end of the season. (In a blow out game that was absolutely absurd to watch.) I don't think the BCS is entirely wrong, as the polls must rank teams accordingly. However, why, after every year is there such a controversy around the national champion? I will tell you - because no one really knows who it is! There is a simple solution to this problem.

At the end of the regular season, those who are left undefeated are placed in an old-fashioned bracket-style playoff. The rankings would still be there, and if there were an odd number of undefeated teams, then the polls would still be able to find a team suitable to participate in the playoff. Even if the team with one loss wins the National Championship, there would be no controversy, as no team would finish the year undefeated. If we want to let some computer make the decisions for us, I would just as soon never watch a college football game ever again. How could I find entertainment, or feel ecstatic with a computer telling me who deserves it more?

Jacob Vollmer
undeclared freshman

Draft registration should be required for women

To secure the continuing existence of the United States democracy against intractable religious fanaticism, whose goal is nothing less than a Muslim theocracy for all of planet Earth, it is inevitable that general military conscription will again be implemented.

Yet, with the ongoing war on Islamic terrorism, the prosecution of which has required the deployment of hundreds of thousands of U.S. military personnel and stretched the National Guard and Reserve to its limit, absolutely no female in the United States is required to register. This clear fact of gender discrimination has not been focused upon in public discussions because an active draft has not been in effect since 1973.

Some questions arise as a result of these blatant facts of continuing gender discrimination:

1. Do equal civil rights for females obligate females to equal civil responsibilities? Should the absence of female civil responsibilities vis-à-vis military service commensurately diminish female civil rights?

2. Should female members of the Legislative and Executive branches of government be permitted to vote for war, i.e. to place only males into involuntary direct ground combat, while they and their daughters enjoy gender exemption from such civil responsibility?

3. Title IX demands that proportionately gender-equal funding be used for all school-based activities, including athletics, in schools that receive any federal funding. Should Title IX continue?

4. Gender-norming has been used to affirmatively place females ahead of males into civilian positions requiring physical strength and speed, such as firefighters, police, smoke jumpers and cadets in service academies. Why not use these same gender-normed standards, which are significantly less rigorous than those minimums required of males for the same occupations, to affirmatively qualify females for involuntary direct ground combat?

David Behrens
ex-U.S. Army specialist