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Show 1 Racial slur had no place in political public forum i Panorama By PAUL CHALLIS Short Fat Guys Road Race was held in Skaneateles, N.Y. The event is open only to persons whose waist sizes are 4 or more inches longer than their in seams. Finally, an event for the common man with a healthy appetite. According to race organizer Dick Perry, it's an event designed to showcase the overall talent, attractiveness attrac-tiveness and athletic ability of short, fat guys. The race, which last year drew about 50 participants, features seven shortcuts and a midpoint rest stop where the runners can rejuvenate re-juvenate themselves with drinks, Twinkics and other junk food. I am surprised only 50 participate in this event, I would imagine that there are more overweight people than marathon runners in this country. coun-try. The course contains some uphill sections but the organizers of the event don't require participants to run up them. Racers wind their way for (more or less) 3.1 miles through the Finger Lakes Village. This year, the racers were allowed to eat along the course to make it easier for them and to make sure they keep their calorie intake consistent. Brazilian police arrested a landlord after he tried to poison his tenants for not paying a high enough rent, the "Jomal do Brasil" newspaper has reported. After four years of fruitless court battles to evict the tenants, who pay about $17 a month for his two-bedroom two-bedroom house, owner Cesario Vieir da Cruz, lost patience. On Sunday night he crept onto the roof of the house in Sctc Lagoas, Minas Gerais state, and poured about two pounds of caustic soda into the water tank, the newspaper said. But the tenant's mother, outside chatting to a neighbor, saw Vieira on the roof and called police. Vieira now faces a charge of attempted murder. Renters, beware! Pay your rent on time and don't make your landlord unhappy or mad. Now that election day has come and gone and the winners have rejoiced re-joiced and the losers have dealt with defeat, one thing left a bitter taste in my mouth. I have only been a reporter at this newspaper for a couple of weeks, and one of my first assignments was to cover the "Meet the Candidates" night at South Davis Junior High School. The political rhetoric flowed among the candidates as expected, and the heated debate was interesting inter-esting with nothing unusual transpiring. What got my on my nerves was a comment made by one of the three candidates for U.S. Congress. Rev a Wadsworth, American Party Par-ty candidate, referred to Japanese people as "Japs." She really caught me by surprise. As I looked around the room, others in the audience were shocked by her racist remark. She blamed many of the U.S. problems prob-lems on the Japanese trying to take over the nation, which I don't take issue with, she is free to believe what she wants, that's what this country is all about. Moments later she said the same slang word again, and this time the other candidates (Brunsdale and Hansen's representative) sitting at the front of the gym smiled or seemed embarrassed by her or for her. This time there were snickers from the audience and many of the potential voters seemed offended. When she did it a third time, it was all I could do to not jump to my feet and ask her to please stop saying it. I was appalled that a candidate for Congress would make such an undesirable racial slur during a public pub-lic forum. If elected, she could have been representing Japanese-Americans Japanese-Americans (somewhere in the first district) that would be very offended by her lack of common courtesy and respect. She didn't seem to notice what was making people flinch or to even care. Last Sunday the eighth annual |