Newspapers shouldn't use race in hiring decisions

Rui Wang's opinion that journalism schools and newspapers must "racially" reflect the demographics of the community is the exact racist language that Martin Luther King Jr. opposed and should be opposed by everyone. The color of a person's skin does not determine their beliefs, their ability to write a news story or anything else. Skin color is meaningless and therefore should not be used as a benchmark to decide whether a newspaper is doing its jobs vis-à-vis the local community. Does the newspaper reflect the views of the community and report stories of importance? That should be the benchmark. When it comes to the visual media, it may very well be more important in a community for people to see members of their religion, race or group, but it is also important that people are exposed to members of other ethnicities. This is why the idea of structuring a newsroom along racial guidelines would simply be a return to the racist past where people where judged by the color of their skin, not the content of their character.

Seth J. Frantzman
alumnus

Traffic safety needs to be improved

Thanks to Dillon Fishman for his article addressing traffic safety issues surrounding the UA campus. I'd like to make the additional point that even when safety measures are enacted they tend to be poorly thought out. A case in point is the recent "improvement" to the corner of Sixth Street and Park Avenue. This intersection is very heavily used by pedestrians and bikers coming to and from campus. It formerly had a pedestrian crosswalk, but no traffic light. One would think that the recent addition of a stoplight would have improved the situation.

Instead, the newly remodeled intersection is an accident waiting to happen. Anyone hoping to cross Sixth Street is now expected to do so from an island in the middle of Park Avenue. Just getting to the island is a challenge - made worse by the low-angle turn lane that allows cars to turn north on Park Avenue without slowing down. Despite heavy bike traffic (the intersection is the natural conduit from the Aviation bikeway to campus), no allowance was made for cyclists to cross Sixth - making the intersection a chaotic mix of turning cars, confused bicyclists and traffic-dodging pedestrians.

Oh, and when it rains (even just a little), the intersection floods entirely and the whole system becomes utterly useless.

Jason Wilder
UA research associate

Don't generalize religious right

Damion LeeNatali's muddled screed, "Fallacies from the religious right," is little more than a thoughtless assemblage of informal fallacies. The author provides Peter, a crackpot proselytizer, preaching "the word of Jesus Christ," and "tapping the Bible" like a one-man revival on Alumni Plaza.

As a solid example of the fallacy of hasty generalizations, LeeNatali tells us that Peter "is not especially unique"; in fact, he is archetypal of "the religious right." The religious right, who number in the tens of millions, are one of the select groups that can be unreservedly condemned in college newspapers without fear of censure. It is equally safe to tar all religious people whose political convictions reside someplace right-of-center with the same large brush as LeeNatali does with artless glee.

Later, the author constructs, for audience edification, a crude straw man, which he attempts to hew with his mighty pen. He writes: "When asked why college students are not receptive to their message, Christian conservatives have a host of answers." But who asked these "Christian conservatives" the question? Seemingly, no one did. However, the author is not hindered from submitting an equally fallacious, phantom answer. Allegedly, LeeNatali's "Christian conservatives" toil under the "logical fallacy that to be religious is to accept a highly specific doctrine."

Evidently those doctrinaire zealots at Merriam-Webster's labor under similar misconceptions, as they brazenly define "religious" as: "of, relating to, or devoted to religious beliefs or observations." Inexplicably, they've defined religion as, among others, "a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith."

In the future when LeeNatali seeks to castigate entire groups of people and religious observances, he may consider actually speaking with more than one person and reading some of the group's literature. This act provides at least the veneer of judicious research and reasoned arguments.

Patrick McNamara
journalism senior