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Show itoria H di Editor in Chief: Tanna Barry Phone: 626-7121 VIEWPOINT AttiH Pilots association wants To apm Payors souse V- MAW. Layoffs affect campus It is time for the citizens of the United States to take back their country. The tragedy of Sept. 1 1 has had many consequences. By far the greatest sadness comes from the thousands of people who lost their lives and families and friends who were left behind. But this horrendous act against the United States is also costing the country its economic strength. Nationwide, businesses are suffering because of decreased sales and many companies are threatening layoffs. These threats have become real to 162 Weber State University students who lost their jobs Friday afternoon. These students were employees at the campus Delta Air Lines call center. Although these students will receive a severance package consisting of two weeks wages, they have lost security. These students no longer have a stable job that will help them pay for school. These students lost their jobs because people are altering their lifestyles. Economists warned that the already-shaky economy could become more unstable if people changed their spending habits and pulled their money out of banks and stocks. This has happened with the airline industry. In the three weeks following the terrorist attacks, airlines have cut their number of flights because fewer people are flying. It is understandable that people might be afraid to set foot on a plane, but this fear is threatening the economic stability of the country. The airline industries are laying people off. Two weeks ago, Delta announced that it would have to lay off up to 13,000 employees because of the decrease in flying. Already, the call center at WSU and at campuses in Atlanta and Cincinnati will be closed. This means that 322 students will lose their jobs. This shift in habits has already cost 1 62 local students their jobs. But how many more people in the campus community will be affected? As a commuter campus, the university could to be devastated by a plummeting economy. Most students work to support themselves and families while attaining a degree. How will it be possible to do so if more local companies lay more people off? The terrorist group who attacked the United States wanted to instill terror into the citizens of the United States. They wanted to make people avoid their daily routines so that would have a negative impact on the country. While their attacks have stirred patriotism in Americans, they have also instilled fear. But the citizens have to fight back and reclaim every aspect of their country: security, normalcy and economic well-being. By Tanna Barry editor in chief The Signpost oThe hi. r? Editor in Chief Tanna Barry 626-7121 Managing editor Jose Carvajal 626-7614 News editor Jill Halbasch 626-7655 Campus affairs editor Casey Cummings 626-7659 Sports editor Jarrod Hiatt 626-7983 Copy editor Leo Dirr 626-7507 Features editor Paul Garcia 626-6358 A&E editor Mike Mitchell 626-7105 Graphics editor Brian Hugo 626-7661 Photo editor Brandy Lee 626-6358 Advertising Manager Jeremy Dustin 626-6359 Online editor Mark Walker 626-7105 Secretary Georgia Edwards 626-7974 Advisor Allison Hess 626-6164 Publisher Ty Sanders 626-6558 Signpost fax 626-7401 The Signpost is published every Monday. Wednesday, and Friday during the semester. Subscription is S9 a semester. The Signpost is a student publication, written, edited and drafted by Weber State University students Student fees partially fund the printing of this publication. Opinions or positions voiced are not necessarily endorsed by the university. The Signpost welcomes letters to the editor Letters must include name, address, te epnone number and the writer's Signature Anonymous letters will not be printed The Signoost reserves the right to edit letters for reasons of space and libel and also reserves tne right to refuse to print any letter Letters should not exceed 350 words Bi'ig ieners to the editorial office m SUB 267. mail lo. The Signpost. Weber St?te Unvi-S: Ogsen. Utah 6-408-21 10. A"' Ta'v-; Bcii' v cr e-ma: MnM:vurv c mail wecer edu Columbus Day commemorates a holocaust By Ward Churchill KRT campus writer i On Oct. 12, 1492, a lost ship's captain stumbled upon a Caribbean isle, thereby revealing a whole "New World" to Europe. Christopher Columbus was half a world away from where he thought he was when he hit the beach on "Espanola." The "Great Navigator" reported to his employers in all seriousness that he'd located the biblical Garden "of Eden. One of Columbus's first misdeeds was to kidnap a hapless group of the island's native residents, carrying them off to Spain, thus beginning the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It was after his second voyage that things got really ugly. Returning to Espanola in 1493, Columbus was no longer the "simple seaman" his apologists present. He'd been named a Spanish viceroy, appointed governor of the island and held the military rank of admiral. In his official capacity, he quickly established the "encomiendo," a system of forced labor imposed on every "Indio" in his domain. The rule was that the Indians would be worked until they died, which they did in great numbers. No one really knows how many Indians perished during the years Columbus held sway. Bartolome de Las Casas, a priest who became the first European historian of the Americas, was on Espanola at the time. He estimated there were 3 million native people on the island when the Spanish arrived. More modern and scientific demographers have offered figures as high as 8 million. Either way, there were barely 100.000 survivors when Columbus departed in 1 500, and even those remnants were extinct a few years later. The record is also replete with accounts of Columbus presiding over the wholesale butchery of the native population. Sometimes the killing was undertaken to "enforce the law" or "send a message" about w ho was boss. Often, it was done for sport. Sometimes, religious motives were apparently involved, as in the practice of roasting alive 13.1ndians at a time - the number signifying Christ and the 12 disciples - on Easter Sunday. What's worse than Columbus' personal record is the precedent he set. In his wake came Hernando Cortes, Francisco Pizarro and all the other conquistadors, each of w hom perpetrated horrendous atrocities. Nor were the French, English and Dutch about to be outdone by their Iberian counterparts. Ultimately, the European invasion and the conquest and colonization of the New World consumed more than 90 percent of the land therein and. with it, well more than 90 percent of the population indigenous to it. That translates to upward of 100 million human beings. To say that a holocaust of such dimension is unparalleled in recorded history is to understate things dramatically. It is one thing to be the inadvertent beneficiary of Columbus' legacy. It is quite another to celebrate it. But this is exactly what happens on Columbus Day every Oct. 12. It's as if the Germans had been victorious in World War II and had decided to conduct triumphal parades each year to commemorate the "achievements" of Adolf Hitler or Heinrich Himmler. One can well imagine the reaction of the Jewish community. American' Indians view celebrations of Columbus in precisely the same light and for essentially the same reasons. Polemics about the First Amendment and how Euro-Americans are only displaying a "legitimate pride in their heritage" when engaging in such activities do nothing to redeem the situation. Nobody can undo history, of course. The past cannot be changed. Equally true, nonetheless, is that the past can be understood for what it was and that the resulting knowledge can be used to facilitate healing. In this regard, ending the celebration of genocide, which is Columbus Day. would seem an excellent place to start. f'.-?!-. Today in history 1871 Great Fire of Chicago begins At 9 p.m. on Sunday, the Great Fire of Chicago erupts altera cow reportedly kicks over a lantern in the bam of a resident named Mrs. O'Leary. Within hours, the conflagration, driven by a'slron- w ind out of the southwest, engulfed the center of the city and around midnight jumped the Chicago River, bummsi the southern portion of the city to the ground by daybreak. As thousands of panicked Chicagoans lied to the north, the lire pursued them, and by Monday the flames had reached Fullerton Avenue, then the northern-most limit of the city. 1919 First transcontinental air race The first transcontinental air race in the United States begins, with M planes competing in the round-trip aerial derby between Cahlornia and New York. As 15 planes departed the Presidio in San Francisco. Cahlornia. 48 planes lett Roosevelt Field on Long Island. New York. 1967 Che Guevara captured A Bolivian guerrilla force led by Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara is defeated in a skirmish with a specal detachment ol the Bolivian army. Guevara was wounded, captured, and executed the next day. |