Our Perspective......

Is all the bond for students?

The future of the state's university system is at a crossroads. University leaders have repeatedly said the path the University of North Carolina System takes is contingent on a $3.1 billion capital construction bond that will appear on ballots Nov. 7.

To help push the bond, several UNC system institutions developed catchy slogans for their respective campaigns.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill officials opted to use "Bonds for Education," while "Yes. We Really Need It," was the theme of choice at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Appalachian State adopted the slogan "Bonds for Students" as the main theme of its local campaign.

However, analyzing the breakdown of $82.3 million Appalachian would receive reveals a slightly different picture and a slightly misleading slogan with the inclusion of B.B. Dougherty Administration Building and Founders Hall, two non-academic buildings. This takes some credibility from a slogan that was crafted to give voters the impression that Appalachian's $82.3 million share would be used exclusively for students. University public relations officials point to the fact that the combined monies planned for projects in B.B. Dougherty and Founders Hall equals just over $2 million, a small percentage of the total.

Those same officials further justify the inclusion of two non-academic buildings by saying that the dual $1 million sums are the "smallest investments" on the list.

If the projected bond is truly for students, why are an administration and an additional indirect-student-support building included?

While improvements may indeed be needed in both buildings, perhaps those funds should be used for projects that would directly influence students, as the slogan "Bonds for Students" suggests. Smallest investment or not, those $2,044,100 dollars should be used in classroom buildings that serve a direct student function.

The source of funding for the future renovation of Belk Library into a classroom facility when the new library complex is built has yet to be determined. The $2 million sum in question could easily be redirected toward that project.

According to the Appalachian State breakdown of building renovations with bond dollars, several academic buildings such as Sanford and I.G. Greer Halls will not receive an allotment. Why not?

Simple, because our administration saw it more important to spend $2 million on structures that serve only an indirect student support role rather than what our public slogan in support of the bond states.

With the vote a mere week-and-a-half away we have a suggestion for a new slogan: "Bonds for Students, except for a couple million weÕre going to keep down on our end of campus."

COMMENTARY

PlayStations, bands and tunnel painting

Ian Hutchinson

I'm pulling out the soapbox because I have a few things to say. After I'm done, I'll step down and hand it to the next willing person. What I have to say will range from the important to the trivial. Some issues might be more important to me than anyone else, but they all have a universal link; all of these issues concern respect.

Let's start with the trivial, shall we?

As you are reading this, people are rushing in droves to buy the PlayStation 2 at their local stores because today is the first day of the system's release. It is the day that more retail employees will call in sick than any other day in history, and the poor souls that are left to deal with the mobs will get big smiles and countless cold stares.

Having endured the terror of Beanie Babies at McDonald's or the latest crap boy band in music retail, I can honestly vouch for the video game retailers when I say that people can get irate for the most stupid of reasons.

If you go to Wal-Mart today and they have no new PlayStation 2s for you, don't take it out on the sales associates. Just take a deep breath and let it go. Life will go on, Earth will still turn on its axis and gravity will keep up us attached to the ground; the world will not end if you don't get a PlayStation 2 (PS2).

Sales associates, retailers and stock boys are all human and donÕt deserve to be harassed. You only have three things to blame if you miss getting a PS2: (1) Sony for cutting back on shipments of the system, (2) The economic law of supply and demand and (3) Yourself, for not pre-ordering the blasted thing.

Give the retailers the respect they deserve and leave them alone when they have run out of PS2s. Now, on to our next topic: Opening bands.

You may not have known this if you went to Legends last Friday, but two bands played that night and not just Weekend Excursion. There was also an excellent Celtic rock band, Jag Star, that performed that night and they blew me away. Apparently, I was the only one that felt that way.

Is there some sort of unwritten law that says the opening band must be ignored at a show? Can you show me where it is in the "How To Be Cool" handbook? Will a pair of thick, nerdy glasses sprout from your ears if you show a shred of respect for an opening band like Jag Star?

Granted, Jag Star doesn't exactly have Weekend's level of exposure in Boone, but even when Weekend's very own Sam Fisher joined them on-stage, there was no response from the audience.

If you truly consider yourself a college student and claim to be open to new experiences, then give a band you've never heard of a chance. You might actually like them.

And now, for my final topic: Greeks and tunnel painting.

I bring up this point not to knock on fraternities, but to say this: If you want to get respect, you must give respect.

Sigma Phi Epsilon staked out a tunnel for a whole two days to prove they were oblivious to this concept. As you may know, many different student organization and street artists use the tunnels to both inform the public and to make statements.

Two student groups, Appalachian Popular Programming Society (A.P.P.S.), and the National Pan-Hellenic Council had painted the same tunnel last week to promote their upcoming step show at Legends that Saturday. Sigma Phi Epsilon chose to paint over it on Friday.

If they had just started painting the tunnel all at once, you could say their ignorance was bliss. However, when you have a guy stake out a tunnel for two days, I have to assume that he knew what was on the walls, and so the ignorance, in this case, was not bliss but blatant.

I can't say this is a Greek-exclusive problem; there are plenty of groups that can be found guilty of this as well. Please keep in mind that your student organization is not the only one on the planet and that people have the right to know about all the events taking place on campus. If you see information in the tunnels advertising an event that has yet to take place, leave it alone.

If you are posting flyers, show the same amount of respect for other student advertising. People aren't perfect, and we canÕt all be headlining bands or magically keeping video game systems in stock, but we all deserve respect. Not all heroes can be handsome nor all of our mascots tall. I remember a recent shallow, yet optimistic column, stating that Yosef should be tall. This was about as smart as yelling at a sales clerk or painting over someone else's advertisement.

It was like telling an opening band, "Who the hell do you think you are?" It was a dumb thing to say and I admit that. The truth is that, when the position for being the Mountaineer Mascot was open, only one person applied to fill YosefÕs boots at the football games.

Since that was really the case, my opinion was not a fair one. It should not matter and it does not matter that sometimes Yosef is short; all that should matter is that the person in the costume is willing to give their all to support our teams and our university.

That is something I can and that I do respect. Well, I've hogged the soapbox long enough, IÕll hand it over to the next willing speaker.

Ian Hutchinson is an Entertainment Beat reporter. He can be reached at: theapp@appstate.edu.

COMMENTARY

Time has come for U.S. to own up to wrongs of slavery

Malcom Smith - SGA Beat

As America gets prepared for a new president to take office and propel us into the 21st century, there is one issue that has not received a lot of debate by either Governor George W. Bush or Vice President Al Gore. Is America ready to repay African descendants for slavery?

The yielding of payments to African-Americans would not be new to America. The United States has granted reparations to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II and the Native-Americans were granted back a small portion of their land (back) for the robbery of their native soil. So I am left to wonder, why has America not deemed it inhumane not to repay the descendants of one of the greatest wrongs committed on our planet?

I know I never received a wound from a slave ownerÕs whip. I have never been forced to sit in the back of the bus or never been refused service because of the color of my skin. But, I see and feel the effects of racism everyday. We as a country are not that far removed from slavery as some may think.

Police brutality is alive and swinging like an overseerÕs (oops...sorry!) officerÕs billy club. The New York Police Department gunned down African immigrant Amadou Diallo 19 times (while still missing him 22 times) as he was reaching for his wallet. Earlier this year in a neighborhood as close as Charlotte racial slurs were spray painted on the home of an African-American family in a predominately white community.

The federal penitentiaries are overflowing with black inmates who serve longer sentences than their white counterparts. Evidence has been discovered that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) introduced crack cocaine into African-American communities using profits to fund the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contra army in the early 1980Õs. Believe me when I say the list can go on and on...

Are these crimes against the black nation not worthy of some federal aid? It should be considered emergency aid because the African-American community is in a state of economic crisis linked directly to the Middle Passage.

There has been a huge disparity in wealth between African-Americans and whites ever since America participated in the slave trade. A trade it was not if you consider the capital African descendants has produced for this country.

In 1867, Congress did meet to discuss a Reparation Bill, but that bill was ultimately denied by good ole' Stonewall Jackson. Thanks Andy.

The slave trade would go on to produce several cottage industries from textiles to insurance companies that some historians say made even poor whites rich.

Affirmative action was good in concept until the conservative white male (of all groups) screamed; "RACISM" louder than Al Sharpton on a soap box.

There have been a number of scraps America has tossed African descendants. All would eventually be shot down or funding decreased. The time has come for African-Americans to stop begging for America's scraps and demand the butcher shop!

First, there should be a sincere apology for slavery and the racism slavery has produced in an international forum. If America has the habit of aiding other countries like Israel, Bosnia and Germany, then America should set an example to the world and express sympathy for its own holocaust.

The payment for the stealing, raping, kidnapping, and other horrible crimes America committed could be used to put the African-American community on an equal economic playing field as white America.

Interest-free loans should be approved so black entrepreneurs are able to use money earned to reciprocate money back into the black community. The community could serve and operate itself and not have all the monies go into the hands of someone who doesnÕt live or care about the community.

A better effort should be emphasized in the curriculum in regards to Africa. The accomplishments and contributions of African-Americans should be required learning in this country. The school systems should install accurate accounts of Africa, its people, and her descendants.

A federally funded museum should be constructed exhibiting the contributions African-Americans paid in America.

Scholarships should be awarded to every African-American that feels inclined to further his or her education. Descendants should receive the education that our forefathers never had the opportunity to pursue.

Reparations may not erase the racism that persists in America, but reparations could be used by African-Americans to help ourselves. Many a nation have gone to war for less crimes committed by America to the descendants of slaves. These payments should not be viewed as a hand-out or some form of welfare. Plain and simple, reparations are something that is owed to the black community in America.

Malcom Smith is an SGA Beat reporter. He can be reached at: theapp@appstate.edu.

Open communication: the root to healthy and happy lives

Elizabeth Frye

Several events that occurred in the past week of my life have reinforced to me the importance of good communication, especially when emotions are involved. I have always been surrounded by many people who prefer to ignore problems rather than addressing them, but I was raised in a home where all issues were discussed as soon as they arose.

I admit that open communication is not effective for all people; in fact, I recently got out of a relationship in which I would have preferred a lot less talking and a lot more space. However for those of us who can control our tempers and converse like rational people (at least most of the time), talking through ordeals usually makes life much simpler rather than allowing anger, frustration, and pain to brew.

Rejection is nothing new to me; I am very aware of the fact that I am not a perfect person, and that not everyone is going to like who I am or be compatible with me. One of my pet peeves is when people in my life decide that ignoring me is the best way to get rid of me. I lose respect for people when they cut me out of their lives with no explanation, because I feel that they are taking the easy way out and not considering how their actions are going to affect me. I do my best to be honest with people, and not informing them of problems in our relationship is deceptive.

Open communication should naturally be used in moderation in the sense that minor annoyances should be overlooked and people should not dwell on petty issues. Fights should not be picked simply because a person is in a bad mood. The main purpose of good communication in relationships is to protect the feelings of the people involved. Hurt feelings cannot always be avoided, but I personally would rather know what is wrong and be hurt than sit around oblivious to the problem or wonder why tension is suddenly present with another person in my life.

Discussing problems obviously is not easy to do, particularly when one is trying to avoid causing another person pain. However, in the long run, dealing with initial pain is much better than having unresolved emotions. Knowing something is wrong but not being able to get the person or people involved to talk is one of the worst feelings in the world to me, especially when I have no idea why our relationship(s) has changed.

I have learned through my relationships with other people that when problems are ignored, bigger problems usually later result. My theories about relationships, of course, do not apply to everyone, because people have their own ways of handling their lives, but I do know what I have found to work best for me and I hope the people in my life will take open communication into consideration when dealing with me.

Elizabeth Frye is a Multicultural Beat reporter. She can be reached at: theapp@appstate.edu.