A story lasts only as long as the last person who remembers it. Six million innocent people were senselessly butchered at the whims of intolerance and hatred during World War II. We must ensure that this story rings in the minds of people until the end of time. We encourage all members of the TCU community to participate in remembering the victims of the Holocaust. By participating, you will help the world to never forget the crimes of ignorance and intolerance. This week, Uniting Campus Ministries, Hillel Jewish Student Organization and TCU Peace Action are sponsoring Holocaust Memorial Week. Events that will be taking place include a display in the Student Center Lounge, a candlelight service and a 12-hour prayer vigil. In order to remind people of the suffering and tragic deaths that resulted from the Holocaust, students around campus are wearing yellow stars. Maria Yabrudy, a sophomore economics major, said the stars serve as a reminder of the Holocaust. "With every star, a card is given out with information about that specific person," she said. "That way, it's not just that this tragedy happened to X amount of people but that each person had a life, a family and a story." The most important thing is to remember and to never forget. Remember the reasons why lives were lost and learn from the death and destruction. It was not so much human beings who destroyed 6 million lives as it was intolerance and hatred. Unfortunately, hatred still exists in this world. By learning from the mistakes of the past and through tolerance of all races and religions, we can prevent such a horror from ever occurring again.
Free speech should not cover porn Prostitution is said to be the world's oldest profession, but pornography is surely among the top three. We can try our best to rid society of porn, but it will continue to exist in some form or fashion as it always has - usually in "red-light districts" and in the shadows and corners of society. Now, however, pornography has become more "mainstream" by spreading into a new area that has been rapidly gaining popularity in recent years: the Internet. Rare are the key words that you can type in Internet searches that will not produce a link to some kind of porn. This increased access to porn has reintroduced the topic of the First Amendment rights of porn in our country. A classmate gave a report stating her opposition to porn as a First Amendment right. She brought in pictures of porn that she obtained off the Internet (thus demonstrating how easy it is to get), but - instead of bringing pictures of women, she brought in pictures of men. This was to illustrate to the men (the usual "customers") how ugly porn is and how it felt to have your sex portrayed pornographically. I couldn't have thought of a better way of illustrating both of those points. There are many people I know who thoroughly hate pornography, but - much to their reluctance - they acknowledge it as a First Amendment right. The right to free speech should rightly be difficult to obstruct, but it is not absolute (as demonstrated in the classic "yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater when there is no fire" scenario). I have always had difficulty calling porn a free speech issue, and my classmate's presentation helped to clarify that for me even more. Pornography serves no useful purpose, and worse, it does incalculable damage to society in how it portrays women. Men, too, are portrayed in porn, but women are still, by far, portrayed much more. The rise of Internet use and pornography comes when the contributions that women have made to society have been increasingly (and rightfully) acknowledged. The proliferation of pornography becomes "two steps back" for every step forward that women take. How can we as a society continue to accept pornography as an unhindered free speech issue when it helps retard the progress women have made in society? Art and science can portray a nude female without robbing her of her dignity and humanity, but pornographers must reduce women into tools of sexual satisfaction in order for women to suit their purposes. It is because of porn's need to dehumanize women that it should not be an unhindered free speech issue. While making porn illegal will be no more successful in eliminating it than Prohibition was in eliminating alcohol consumption, I still believe that we should not make it so easy for pornographers to peddle their wares. We should not give porn the extent of free speech protection that we give to someone who is trying to expose political corruption or civil rights abuses. Women deserve better than the efforts we have been putting out for them. Women do not deserve the in-your-face double standard of saying that we value their contributions to our society while we defend the portrayal of them as sex objects in pornography as a First Amendment right. We can, and we must, do better than that.
John P. Araujo is an MLA graduate student from Fort Worth. He can be reached at (j.araujo@tcu.edu).
In our classrooms, God is just a theory, sometimes a premise, often a concept. In our classrooms, we realize that we are too educated to believe. We have no data, and we can't test him. He doesn't fit into our Petri dishes or under our microscopes. And although day becomes night and night day, it is simply due to the turning of the earth. And though the sun and rain nourish the ground causing grass, weeds and beautiful flowers to grow, that's only photosynthesis and precipitation - all very logical, easily explained. In our classrooms, the Bible is just a poem, sometimes a story, often a myth. We'll study it but only as an allegory. We'll quote it but only to reveal its circular logic, because what we must understand is that it is only just another piece of literature. As the inerrant word of God, source of moral guidance or ethical voice of reason, the Bible fails because we really cannot prove who wrote it. What we do know is that the Bible is valuable as a source of subjects for paintings and that the plot makes for a good movie. But without a bibliography page, there is no way we should take it for fact, consult it daily or make it the basis of our personal or spiritual beliefs. In our classrooms, religion is just a taboo, sometimes a threat, often a joke. We know those radical "Bible beaters" are out to convert us - you know, the ones with the "What Would Jesus Do?" bracelets dangling so conspicuously from their wrists. It's obvious they're just waiting for the right moment to ask us to join their sect. We only tolerate them because we are all very accepting in our classrooms - no homosexual jokes, no racist jokes, no sexist jokes - but, of course, religious jokes are fine as long as they're truly funny. By the way, have you heard the one about the Methodist and the Baptist? It's a real knee-slapper. In our classrooms across the country, God is just a theory, the Bible a story, religion a joke. From grade school playgrounds to college coffeehouses, students are being educated. Students are learning that faith is useless. Students are understanding that God is not "cool." Students are being made aware of the fact that the Bible is not an authority. Students comprehend that churches are places filled with crazy fanatics and cult-like practices. Students are being enlightened by enlightened teachers who we've forbidden to speak about God or anything that resembles God. Students are being protected from the evils of God, and it must be a good thing. It must be a good thing that we are finally realizing that Jesus was not a scholar so his words are worthless. It must be a good thing that we know that the words in the Bible have been manipulated so many times that it is null and void. It must be a good thing that it has become clear to us that religion is an elitist club about money, brainwashing and exclusion. Meanwhile, students are carrying guns to class and shooting their enemies. Students are selling drugs in the hallways and doing drugs in the stairwells. Students as young as 13 are nursing their babies while doing their homework. Students are robbing stores and stealing cars to pay tuition and pay the rent. Students are sexually harassing their classmates in homeroom. Students are threatening their teachers and then carrying out those threats. Students are beating up other students because of their skin color or ethnicity. Students are making elaborate plans for death and destruction. And although we are dying, we know that there is no correlation between our denial of God in the classroom and our morality. We are learned people - people of science. We can make life from life in test tubes, and we can save lives. We are people of logic. We can design buildings that touch the heavens and vehicles that can traverse the seas. We are people of economics. Our faith is in the national budget and the stock market - things we can predict and control. Besides, blind faith breeds ignorance, ignorance breeds violence and you know the rest. And on this subject there is nothing more to say. Perhaps except, let us pray.
Shavahn Dorris is a junior English major from Joliet, Ill. She can be reached at (missvon21@aol.com).
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"I think the most important factor is the student's
high school record rather than the standardized tests."
"They should focus on extracurricular
activities because I think it puts the focus on the students' ambitions."
"Extracurricular activities are most important because
students must have that well-roundedness that makes them better prepared
for their future."
"They definitely should avoid SAT scores
because that is really just one test on one day. The most decisive factor
should be inolvement."
"A student's leadership ability should always be considered
because, like we always hear, colleges are trying to educate the future
leaders of America."
"The only way to judge a person's intelligence is through
actual personal interaction, so the interview is one of the most important
factors."
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