THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2002
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4A
Yes, Mr. Borja, all animals enjoy being isolated from their herd, caged and beaten into submission.
I won't take the time to refute the other fallacies that litter this bit of commentary, as anyone who cares can easily research the facts for themselves and draw their own conclusions. I will only encourage anyone interested to do so rather than take this sorry piece at face value.
Jarrod Fobes Lawrence senior
Business school advising much simpler than J-School
It is advising time, and for the School of Journalism that means coming in at night and have some sign off on next semester's classes and get a dean's stamp. Since I am in the School of Business and taking the strategic communications curriculum, I have the chance to compare the advising process.
The process in the School of Business is extremely easy. They do not even
require a dean's stamp. The curriculum is very easy to follow. I mean, a third grader can figure out that you must take Accounting I before Accounting II. Also, you can take the core classes in any order. This makes scheduling a breeze.
Advising is available if needed, but not mandatory. They make the process student friendly. Professional schools must be able to trust the students to take the right classes. After all, they are juniors or seniors.If students cannot figure that out by then, how can they succeed in the real world?
Granted, figuring out the J-School's maze of classes and prerequisites is nightmarish, but that is of their own doing.
Russell Warren Lawrence senior
Patriot Act violates liberties
Steve Houpe wrote in his Oct. 24 letter to the editor ("Ignore anti-war rhetoric") that criticizing war protesters doesn't limit their freedoms. That makes sense.
He also said his freedoms weren't limited by war hysteria. That also makes sense. There is no discernible loss of freedom for Americans from the midwest who support the war and don't follow the news very closely.
Last October Attorney General Ashcroft rushed the Patriot Act through Congress, claiming imminent threats of terrorist violence. The act violates enough civil liberties to fill 30 ACLU briefing papers (www.aclu.org).
As just one example, Ashcroft can now secretly tap your phone or examine your e-mail, bank account, charge card bills or library borrowings, if he suspects you of aiding or abetting terrorists. Then, if he gets evidence of a completely unrelated crime he can arrest you.
Later, Ashcroft issued a statement that said criticizing the war aids terrorists. That unsubtle threat against war critics eliminates my freedom to criticize the war without fear of arbitrary arrest.
Even more frightening is Ashcroft's treatment of Muslims and Arabs. Ashcroft illegally arrested a thousand of them without showing probable cause, then held them incommunicado in secret locations
or solitary confinement or denied them attorneys, refused to say what they were charged with, and refused to grant fair trials. Many are still locked up. None have been charged with terrorist acts. We still don't know who they all were or why they were arrested, despite court orders to release that information.
David Burress
Research Economist, Policy Research Institute
National board representative, American Civil Liberties Union
Greens were not protesting
This is in response to the Face-off from Sept. 25 ("Protesters were right but ill-timed"). We in the KU Greens wish to make our motivations clear on the issue of the Sept. 11 memorial. We believe the events of Sept. 11, 2001 to be a great tragedy, and that the victims deserve to be memorialized.
We were not protesting, rather we could not forget the rest of the victims.
The victims of the 11th were neither the first nor the last victims of a long chain of violence. The terrorist attacks
did not happen in a vacuum. They were incited by the foreign policy of the United States.
Following Sept. 11, 2001, the United States embarked on a campaign against Afghanistan in which many more non-combatants were killed.
The "war against terrorism" was also instigated. This has led to an erosion of our civil rights and the Constitution.
We joined with members of Veterans for Peace, the Lawrence Peace Project and several unaffiliated concerned students. Together we mourned all that have died in the chain of violence, regardless of nationality.
We mourned the victims in the World Trade Center, victims in the Pentagon, the victims on Flight 93, the Afghan non-combatants, the victims of U.S.-sponsored physical and economic violence abroad, the loss of civil rights, the erosion of the Constitution and the death of "patriotism" as the idea you can love your country enough to criticize the government.
The members of KU Greens
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AT JAYHAWK BOOKSTORE SAVE
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