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The House of Student Representatives' Elections and Regulations Committee has extended the application deadline for the office of student body secretary to noon today after the only candidate running withdrew from the race Monday. If no one submits an application by that time, the newly elected officers - who will be decided during primary elections Wednesday or during run-off elections Thursday - will appoint a new House secretary. Of the four other positions with candidates, two will go uncontested - vice president for programming and treasurer. If the office of secretary goes unfilled, only two of the five student body offices will actually offer students choices. That is pathetic. A lack of candidates not only limits choices but creates a sense of apathy among voters. Students may wonder why it is even important to vote if they have no real voice in their student government. Without choices, students have even less of a reason to turn out for elections. Of the 7,000-plus students on campus, only 1,181 voted in the runoffs for student government officers last fall. Of the five offices filled last year, only three of the five offices were contested. At the height of campaigning on campus, many candidates are making promises to end apathy and address the lack of communication on campus. We find that an end to apathy is difficult to believe when offices are still unfilled and students body elections offer students very few choices in the voice of their government.
Small feats for Mideast peace The photographs show smiling faces looming over outstretched arms that wave identification cards out taxi and bus windows to the checkpoint guards. The guards, in contrast, are serious and stone-faced, carefully checking the cards before waving the vehicles through. The exchange, though somewhat tense, is peaceful. The car accelerates as it leaves the checkpoint and speeds across Israel towards its destination, the West Bank. This may sound like an uneventful exchange, but it represents a new era in the Middle Eastern peace process. Israel finally opened a "safe passage" route Monday that allows Palestinians from the crowded, unstable Gaza Strip to travel across Israel to the larger West Bank, a place where more opportunities abound. Israelis carefully monitor the route, making sure no one strays from the road or takes too long to make the journey. This exchange has become a common sight over the last few days at the border between Gaza and Israel, as hundreds of predominantly young Palestinians began the trek across Israel toward an ideal of a better life. Israeli officials, though cautious, are allowing the groups through as a way of contributing to stabilization efforts in the region, efforts that are trying to reduce the constant animosity between the two peoples. Palestinian authorities hope the new passage will help to further unite its various "enclaves" of people and move closer to their goal of an independent state. The very fact that this has happened is a major boost to the Middle East region but still shows how far apart the two peoples are. If you're having a hard time envisioning this scene, imagine something like this here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Let's say, for example, that Fort Worth citizens and Dallas citizens are two completely different groups of people who each hold a specific ethnicity, religion and set of opinions about who is the rightful owner of the North Texas area. Dallas won't allow Fort Worth citizens to cross through Dallas to get to anyone else they know in East Texas. You are in Fort Worth without a job and desperately want to find a way to improve your life. Suddenly, Dallas opens up a single road that, with special permission, can be used to get to the people you love and to chances for a new job or a new life in the growing towns of East Texas. Wouldn't you want this opportunity? Many Palestinians do and have crossed over into the West Bank, and thousands more are expected to make the journey over the next few months. However, there are still groups in Israel who don't want this to happen. A report in the Los Angeles Times told of a group of ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva students protesting along the route, waving banners proclaiming the road an "open passage for terrorists." Fighting still went on Tuesday in Bethlehem as Israeli soldiers wounded at least 16 Palestinian youths rioting over the killing of a Palestinian by Israeli troops. The Israelis do have a right to be worried about the new route, as this opens up their country to people from a group that has long been viewed as a potential threat to Israels' hard-fought independence. If small compromises such as this cannot be reached, though, the threat of greater violence looms over the horizon. By making this move, Israel has shown that it is willing to take steps toward peace. The Palestinian authorities need to respect this by cracking down on so-called "right wing" groups that have been linked to terrorism and other mayhem in the region. By working together to build up a relationship of toleration a guarded trust can be reached, and the violence that has plagued this area ever since the wars that resulted in the creation of the modern state of Israel can be halted. Now, Israel must prepare itself to take further steps toward this process.
Alan Melson is a senior broadcast journalism major from Richardson, Texas. He can be reached at (mamelson@delta.is.tcu.edu). Athleticism hard to revisit I had a rough week. Two midterms, a lost credit card, no money and a rumor that Metallica broke up all contributed to a fairly dismal week. When I have a rough week, I go to the pool because the water is more my element. It relaxes me. Thus, I went to the pool during cocoon time, when all the old people are there being fit and active seniors. "Ho ho," laughed I, "look at Don Ameche float! Out of my lane, Mr. Pension Plan!" When I finished sneering, I dove in and swam for a whopping 200 yards before I was decidedly wiped out. Next to me, Wilford Brimley steamed his way into a turn like a big hoary manatee. At this point I acknowledged I was more out of shape than I had ever been, all because I gave up on aquatic sports. I used to be a distance swimmer, and in water polo, I played two-meter guard, both of which are stamina-intensive. Unfortunately, due to slothfulness, generous libations, an unhealthy diet and overall unathleticism, I have turned into that which I formerly ridiculed. Upon entering college, I chose to give up aquatics, for they had become a chore. I no longer felt the spark when I dove in or picked up a ball. I felt as though I had changed, and so I moved on and closed that chapter in my life. This decision was one of the biggest mistakes of my college career. I gave up something that was difficult but ultimately rewarding. When I was down, the water was always there for me. She gave me a chance to prove myself. Everything I put into the water she returned ten-fold. Rain or shine, happy or sad, the rippled blue of a pool was ready to take me into her arms and comfort me; if I needed to be pushed, she challenged me. The water and the sports I played helped keep me fit, both mentally and physically, yet still I abandoned her because I assumed that she would always be there if I changed my mind. Of course, the water is still there, and she always will be, except that now she is not so forgiving. Since we have been estranged, I have had a difficult time swimming. When I listen to the water, she says nothing, as if she were snubbing me the way I rejected her. I miss her, and I would love for her to take me back, but I know our relationship won't be possible for months, maybe years, unless I make a concerted and dedicated effort to mend the broken bond. I gave up the water because I thought the spark was gone. I moved on because I felt that maintaining the relationship was too much work, but that she would be there if I really needed her. I think she wants to forgive me and take me back, but she cannot allow me to hurt her again. Until I commit, until I mature, until I realize what I had in the water, she cannot be a part of my life. So for those of you who have given something up because you feel as though you have closed that chapter in your life or outgrown a particular interest, re-examine your motives and look at the future, because some things don't come back so easily, if they do at all.
Steve Steward is a senior political science major and a flabby, retired aquajock. He can be reached at (Haoledubstyle@hotmail.com). Dangerous sex education Hugh Downs of "20/20" said it best a few weeks ago on his last episode of the show. Without much of the world noticing, the longtime host of the hour-long news program retired. As he was sitting across from his co-host Barbara Walters, who was interviewing him for the first time, she asked him what he thought the most overrated virtue was. Without hesitation, Downs replied, "Chastity." It was an answer that deserved much more attention than it got from Walters, who simply smiled and moved on to the next question. Saying that chastity is the most overrated virtue is a bold statement considering that right now, all over the country as part of Republican welfare-reform, high school students are being enrolled in sex-education programs that essentially teach only abstinence. These programs, which use numerous scare tactics to convince teenagers that sex is a bad thing that somehow becomes OK only after marriage, are perhaps the dumbest education plans to come along since Ebonics. Not only do they encourage the damn near-impossible goal of waiting until marriage to enjoy the opposite sex, but they also deny students access to important life-saving knowledge. Two years ago, Republicans set aside $50 million to be distributed over the next five years to states that encourage students to save sex until marriage. Five states that have received the funds have even gone far enough to mandate abstinence-only education programs in their schools. One of these states is Texas. According to Time magazine, in McLennan County, Texas, an abstinence-only program is already in place. The county is being watched very closely by other states and counties considering incorporating the program into their public school systems. The way the program works is that rather than learning about the joys of sex and the beauty of sharing yourself with one person (or several, depending on what you're into), and methods of protection, students are taught only the negative effects of premarital intercourse and are basically scared into never wanting to do it. For example, federal funds require that students are taught only the harmful psychological and physical effects of premarital sex. If contraceptives are used, they must be cast as useless in preventing pregnancy and disease. Students in McLennan County even get to view a uterus before and after the onset of pelvic inflammatory disease. But the worst thing about these programs is that they only encourage students to control their adrenaline flow rather than telling them what to do in the very likely instance that they are unable to. All of this is an attempt to promote chastity in the public school system. The Time article goes on to say there is no evidence that the abstinence message is working. Since 1990, there has been a 17 percent decrease in teen pregnancies nationwide and even though abstinence-only program advocates have tried to take credit for this trend, there is no evidence to support the claim. No current study of any of the programs already in place have found that they are helpful in delaying the onset of sexual activity. So rather than learning about condoms for both males and females, students in the abstinence-only education programs are being told to not worry about such things, because when they feel the urge they should simply ignore it. But what proponents do not seem to understand is that sex is an inevitable part of being human and growing up. It may not happen when students are in their teens and for many it may actually not happen until they are married. Regardless of when one chooses to partake in the pleasures of the flesh, legislators should at least be willing to see to it that when young people are ready, they are equipped with the knowledge of how to protect themselves in the process. Encouraging chastity rather than protection against the imminent seems likely to contribute to the main problem Republicans are attempting to counteract.
SheriAnn R. Spicer is a senior radio-TV-film major from Fort Worth. She can be reached at (srspicer@delta.is.tcu.edu). |
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