By Michael Cook
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 21, 1997

Recommended reading

Editor:

I'd like to respond to several recent opinion columns in the Wildcat and recommend some reading to the authors and to the entire student population.

As an education major and product of American schooling I am well aware of the problems in our system; but given Erin Kirsten Stein's recent articles on "New age" pseudo science and religion I was pleasantly surprised by her enlightened dialectical views espoused in the 11/13 article on education. I'd like to recommend Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World and Schooling in Capitalist America by Bowles and Gintis to her. Since she is interested in journalism she should read my next recommendation that goes out to Jennifer McKean for her article on the media (11/10). It is Manufacturing Consent by Herman and Chomsky; it is also available on video. In this meticulously researched tome the authors undeniably demonstrate that what passes for free press in this country is actually propaganda that "serves to mobilize support for the special interests that dominate the state and private activity." Please read the book or watch the video before you whine about how lucky we are here; I'm well aware of how lucky we are.

Other people who are ruining this country and the world don't want you to read are: Take the Rich Off Welfare by Zepezauer and Naiman; The CIA's Greatest Hits by Zepezauer; and The Heat is On by Gelbspan. The last item covers the threat of global destruction presented by the green house effect and the fossil fuel industries' multi-million dollar propaganda effort to discredit the science of climate change.

If you care about this country, and the rest of the world that we share this planet with, you should educate yourself and get active. It would be unwise to expect someone else to do it for you.

Michael Cook
English/Education senior