The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 7, Ed. 1 Friday, September 28, 2001 Page: 2 of 28
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THE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28,2001
the Rice Thresher
oaviD cnien
Leslie Liu, Robert Reichle
Editors in Chief
Esperanza: "Houston,
we have a problem."
Esperanza, the annual fall formal sponsored by the Rice Program
Council, will be held at the NASA's Space Center Houston this year (See
Story, Page 1). While the physical space may lend itself to a unique
experience, the problem is that NASA isn't actually in Houston — it's
almost 30 miles southeast of downtown in the Clear Lake area, easily a
40-minute drive from Rice.
In past years, RPC has organized chartered Rice shuttle buses to
transport students from the Sallyport to the formal dances. Last year,
the buses ran in a continuous loop. Even with locations as close as the
Museum District or the Texas Medical Center, there was a shortage of
seats at the end of the night.
Imagine wearing those great 3-inch heels or that sexy tux for six
hours straight, dancing all night and then having to wait in a long line
for a 40-minute, crowded bus ride home.
The round trip could take over two hours.
Hopefully, RPC will ensure that more buses are available to run in a
continuous loop between the Space Center and the Sallyport. Perhaps
funding that would usually go to buying food for the formal can pay for
part of this extra expense.
Which brings us to Esperanza's lack of food. While it's true that most
people go to dinner before formals, we contend that students do eat at
such functions. Esperanza is a fairly long event, and students aren't likely
to go all the way out to Clear Lake to stay for just an hour. And people will
get hungry.
As the situation stands, we'd recommend that students who don't have
a car beg for a ride. Even if it doesn't shorten the commute, at least you
can pick up some Taco Cabana on the way home.
While it's nice to have some variety from year to year, the coordina-
tors of RPC's formal events should keep in mind that many students'
only method of transportation to the events is by the chartered bus. As
such, the commute should be short and the night should be spent
enjoying the company of others and the formal itself, not the "party bus"
to and from the location.
Expressing your thoughts
on student seating
In the weeks that have passed since the Athletics Department
decided to rope off the first seven rows of student seating at home
football games, the situation has started brighten for students who like
their front-row seats.
Some progress has been made in meetings between Athletics Direc-
tor Bobby May, Rally Club President Sean McSherry and the college
presidents, and both sides say they expect to reach an agreement soon
(See Story, Page 1). *
According to McSherry, for Rally to make a more persuading argument,
the Athletics Department needs to see that regular students, not just Rally
and Sally members, care about getting their seats back. "It seems to me that
[May] does acknowledge that the Rally and Sally and people who do go to
football games want to be in the front rows," McSherry said. "What 1 would
do is encourage people to e-mail him. If he knows how many people care
about it, it just might mean that he can't just ignore it."
We agree. A flood of polite, articulate e-mails from a wide variety of
students would make a convincing argument for our ability to sit
responsibly in the front rows at sporting events.
As an advocate for students in university-wide discussions, Vice
President for Student Affairs Zenaido Camacho should also know what
students are thinking about this matter. Send e-mails to May at
bmay@rice. edu and to Camacho at vpsa@rice. edu explaining that you want
to support Rice athletics from as close to the sidelines as possible. With
any luck, those first seven rows will reopen sooner rather than later.
Giving you a space
to rant and rave
We hope and expect for the Thresher to be a forum for all members
of the Rice community. As the official undergraduate student paper, we
would like to encourage and facilitate the exchange of ideas through
letters to the editor and columns in the opinion section of our paper.
The deadline for submitting letters is 5 p.m. the Monday prior to a
Friday publication date. Letters should be about 250 words in length and
can be submitted via e-mail to thresher@rice.edu. We hope to hear from
you often.
\
... anp a voice fbok* a&ove sait>,
'thou shaut noT &efoul the first seven rows/
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Backpage not a
laughing matter
To the editor:
As a senior at Rice, I have seen
some funny Backpages in the
Thresher. Last year was exception-
ally humorous as the Backpage
poked fun at individuals and various
groups around campus. It was won-
derful entertainment, but I am sorely
disappointed in this year's showing,
specifically last issuers article regard-
ing the "lackluster" sport of soccer.
There are a few reasons this is
the stupidest thing I have ever read
in my life. First off, you aren't at all
funny. If you want to make fun of a
sport or a team or whatever, please
make it the slightest bit humorous.
Your amendments to the sport in
hopes of drawing larger crowds to
the game were not only void of any
humor, they were dumb. I was actu-
ally dumber after having read them.
Secondly, if you're going to mus-
ter up the balls to write something
that may offend people, don't put a
disclaimer at the bottom. A few sen-
tences trying to cover your ass
against the retaliation of the soccer
team don't cut it, especially when I
doubt its members would give you
the time of day anyway.
If the goal of the Backpage sec-
tion is to produce something worth
reading, 1 suggest you boys have a
meeting to get on track. If your goal
is just to fill space after a hard week
of writing other Thresher articles, 1
suggest you leave the space blank
rather than attempt to be the slight-
est bit entertaining.
Beth Williams
Hanszen senior
Dallal's column
misrepresents views
To the editor:
I must dissociate myself from the
words printed in my name on Page 3
of last week's Thresher ("War is the
logical outcome of social injustice,"
Sep. 21). The final column was rep-
resentative neither of my true opin-
ions nor of the care with which I
wrote the original.
In particular, the presentation
made me appear to endorse certain
critiques of America, many of which
I do not. The critiques were re-
arranged in an order that made them
appear less plausible than before.
And the headline was a thesis I
would never support. Unfortunately,
I do not have nearly enough space to
correct all the specific errors here.
Our university community de-
pends on you — and pays you.
through our blanket taxes — to pro-
vide a forum in which we may con-
duct a reasoned discussion of events
on campusand in the larger world. If
you cannot ensure that our words
appear in the Thresher in relatively
unmolested form, then your publi-
cation has ceased to perform that
function.
So while I too must accept partial
responsibility for the final outcome,
I request that you be more careful in
editing future submissions from
opinion writers. Anyone interested
in an accurate reflection of my views
on the Sept. 11 attacks may contact
me by e-mailing jdallal@rice.edu.
James Dallal
Lovett senior
America should
practice self-defense
To the editor:
I disagree strenuously with
James Dallal's anti-American com-
ments in his column, "War is the
logical outcome of social violence"
(Sept. 21). His is just one of many
despicable viewpoints that have di-
rectly or indirectly blamed the events
of Sept. 11 on U.S. foreign policy.
The easy responses to such
claims are to say Dallal and others
are mistaking motivation for causa-
tion. that killing civilians has no pos-
sible justification regardless of con-
text, and that no plausible foreign
policy could ever satisfy all terrorist
elements. But those arguments,
while undoubtedly true, do not ad-
dress the fundamental misunder-
standing Dallal has as to the mean-
ing of being a sovereign nation, as
America is.
History shows that war does not
occur between democratic coun-
tries. While America should en-
deavor to negotiate international
disputes with fellow democracies, it
has no responsibility to do so with
dictatorships, whose very currency
is violence itself. If anything, the use
of force has often been too timid
when American interests have con-
flicted with the stated desires of dic-
tatorial regimes.
Dallal's insistence on blaming
America for starvation in Iraq is a
very old red herring, but demon-
strates perfectly the problem with
these relativist attacks on America.
Iraq, it is now apparent, is part of
the conspiracy that brought about
last week's attacks. Undoubtedly,
Saddam Hussein is and has been a
major financial supporter of al-
Qaeda. Saddam Hussein could alle-
viate much of the suffering in his
country if he spent money on food
instead of funding terrorism. Yet, is
it America's fault we choose not to
trade with a regime that recognizes
neither capitalism nor democracy
and seizes the proceeds of trade to
fund terrorism against us?
America has no affirmative duty
to establish relations, diplomatic or
economic, with countries that do
not share its fundamental values. To
the contrary, we should do every-
thing in our power to isolate coun-
tries that not only reject our values,
but preach the value of death and
violence.
Strikes against countries that
harbor terrorists are acts of self-
defen se, not simply revenge. Threats
of further retaliation by those coun-
tries should not dissuade us from
striking; it simply makes our justifi-
cation stronger. So while the pros-
pect of continual wars of self-defense
may not be desirable, it is our only
rational choice when faced with re-
gimes whose only goal is our de-
struction.
Todd Makse
Sid '01
Research analyst, Jones Graduate
School of Management
Ideas should be
freely distributed
To the editor:
We wish to answer some com-
ments made about us in your article,
'Two men distribute fliers, interrupt
classes" (Sept. 21), and make a gen-
eral comment about free speech and
true academic freedom.
When we were on your campus
last week, we were neither drunknor
stoned (as charged by Philosophy
See IDEAS, Page 4
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Liu, Leslie & Reichle, Robert. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 7, Ed. 1 Friday, September 28, 2001, newspaper, September 28, 2001; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443118/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.