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Show ™ DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE O PINION 10 www.dailyutahchronicle.com Thursday, December 8, 2005 'Twas the night before finals outsource, and slash • Iwas the away first!" night before So up to the deskfinals, when top, the products they all through the house, flew, with links full of no electronics were toys and Spy-Nichostirring', not even a las, too. mouse. The paper was And then, in a stacked by the printer tinkling, I heard in the with care, in hopes drive, a whizzing and that an essay soon Eric Vogeler whirring as if it were would be there; alive. I drew up the cursor, started My roommates were nestled all clicking around, and down the main snug in their beds, while visions of menu Spy-Nicholas dropped with a ski-slopes danced in their heads; bound. And I in my PJs, with laptop in He was drawn all in pixels, every hand, had just settled down for a hair and each stitch, and his clothes long, one-night stand, were all customized by AbercromWhen right on the screen there bie and Fitch, arose such a clatter, I leapt from the His viruses—how they twinkled! couch to see what was the matter. His spyware—how merry! But back to the screen, my eyes With offers so sweet, I had to be dropped so fast, I clicked on the wary. The stump of a pipe he held browser and checked out the cache, tight in his teeth—and if clicked, it When what to my baggy, bloodthen promised "Free whiter teeth!" shot eyes should pop-up, but an ad He had a round face and a big, "Straight from Bill Gates"—too good round hiney that, with the "right to pass up! With a little old graphic, pills," would soon be just "tiny!" so lively and quick, I knew from the flash, it must be Spy-Nick. He was happy and plump, a right jolly old elf, so I cursed when I saw More mbps than a Pentium Eight, he Google'd, and Yahoo'd and linked him, in spite of myself; products by name: For with a wink of his ads and a twist of his links, I knew right away "Now iPod, on Xbox, now Kanye, this was going to stink! Madonna! Not designed to spread joy, he On Pfizer! On Civic! On King went straight to his work, and corKong and Narnia! rupted my files, then blinked with a To the top of the market! To the top of the Earth! Now downsize, and jerk, And laying his digit-hand on my start menu, with a horrible crash, my laptop began to reboot. JHLe was drawn all I sprang to the wireless connecin pixels, every hair tion to see If a copy of my essay there would and each stitch, and still be. But I heard Spy-Nick say, 'ere the his clothes were whole thing shut down, "Merry all customized by Christmas to you! Go buy an Apple Abercrombie and Fitch. right now!" letters@ chronicle.utah.edu During the holiday season, gifts will be lost, returned, kept, and destroyed 'Ti Lend a helping hand Keep giving all year by supporting a raise in minimum wage T he holidays mum-wage salaries. bring out the Today, the inflationbest in evadjusted value of the eryone. Charitable minimum wage is contributions always lowerthan it was in increase during the I957Christmas season as The purpose of the many people are reminimum wage is to minded of the "true" Jay Richards lift people out of povmeaning of Christerty through work, mas—helping the less fortunate. as opposed to through government In a recent Chronicle article, colhandouts. The current minimum umnist Ed Stevenson talked about wage is $5.15. In order to get millions the importance of charitable giving. of American citizens out of poverty, Indeed, such efforts to encourage we must raise the minimum wage people to give to the needy or those to $7.00. Statistics show that 13.8 in debt are important and needed. percent (125,000) of the work force makes more than $7.15 per hour. In the course of helping others Utah Issues, a local anti-poverty and exhorting our peers to do the group, says 19 percent of Utahns same, we must not start to think would be affected by a minimum that the giving must end at Christwage increase to $7 per hour. mas. Charities all over the country go A bill sponsored by Sen. Ed months with little help but receive Mayne, D-West Valley, would do tons of contributions come holiday just that this upcoming legislative time. The true spirit of Christmas session. If that fails, Mayne intends is not just about giving. To truly to take this issue to a public vote help those in need, or those in debt, next election year. A minimum we need permanent solutions, not wage increase is not likely to pass temporary fixes or once-a-year this legislative session. donations. However, if the issue is put to The true spirit of Christmas for the voters, it will be up to us. Many us in Utah should be to support a U students earn minimum wage bill coming up in the next legislaand would stand to gain from an tive session: increasing Utah's increase in wages. Other states, like minimum wage. All of Utah's major Washington, have done it and have newspapers have recently reported had success at reducing poverty. that Utah is ranked No. 5 in food Make this holiday about permainsecurity in the nation. The United nent solutions, not temporary handStates Census Bureau reported that outs. Let's help our state move away almost 11,000 Utahns live below the from what the band Operation Ivy poverty line. calls the "dollar-sign value system," If poverty in this state is to desist, where grabbing onto wealth is the only guarantee of freedom peace and we are to regain our equitable and health. heritage, strong policy measures must be sought and applied. Happy Holidays. A substantial number of the work letters@ force is employed at or near minichronicle.utah.edu Opinion Poll • When did you start studying for finals? I've been studying for a month! Ustweek, A few days ago. i_:•_,t > P STUDENT DEBT fI 5 o ...just remember, the card never forgets. .-s. - - - rr-. -1 •;>• --:•• •^^•""'•^^•THE CHRONICLE'S V I E W | ^ ^ •'•^vj^'SHf?? Students need flexibility in I t's fairly safe to say that students at the U lead fairly diverse lives compared with students at other campuses. The traditional college student—aged 18 to 22, living on or close to campus and receiving money from an independent source—is in the minority at the U. Students here commute, are married and have families and often work full- or parttime to put themselves through school. Because students here have so many different constraints on their time, they need to be accommodated by their university. Yet when it comes time to register for new classes, many students find themselves in a dilemma. Classes that they need for their majors are often only offered in a certain range of times—times that are.not , especially compatible with their already- "» '• packed schedules. There needs to be a ,: greater diversity in the time slots available for classes at the U. Obviously, with financial, scheduling and personnel constraints, • the U cannot simply increase the number of sections in every class. However, the U needs to make a sincere effort to create a broader range of time in which classes are made available. . . . Some people argue that early morn- • >yi ^ | * ing classes are not conducive to effective ~^g> learning—yet many classes are only: offered .?*£. early in the morning. ? "<••' • s - - ^ . •*& While students need to take responkibij-'"- -;l. ity for the classes they choose, it is unfpr- ^ | ! tunate that students must make a decisiqn v /;|| ; between their educational advancement, eyfjfa and a necessity like night-shift employment ,y#> or even a typical college social experience. -W"o Furthermore, many students who work .. . ^ ' complain about classes that are only of- / ' fered in the afternoons. Such classes are obviously not feasible for students who 'z work or students who have children at • O^^M • home. Would it really be so hard to have a! ^ class offered once in a morning slot, once in the afternoon andonce aj: night? :i• commodated all the time—but it seems that sometimes departments disregard students' needs at this university. ,. The fact that the U is not the typical COIT lege campus is not adequately reflected in its class scheduling. Students are spending rJ'£ their time and money to get an education here—and more effort needs to be macietp help them achieve their educational gbate/ - . ! f . • . S Unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of The Daily Utah Chronicle Editorial Board. Editorial columns and letters to. the edi- : { tor are strictly the opinions of the author. The forum created on the Opinion Page is one based on vigorous debate, while at the same, H j time demanding tolerance and respect. Material defamatory to an individual or group because of race, ethnic background,.religion.'-r, • creed, gender, appearance or sexual orientation will be edited or will not be published. All letters' to the editor will now be published.'^ . ^^ '/ online at www.dailyutahclironicte.com. Letters that the editor deems best,represeat those received will be printed in the newspaper'/? If ''^ ^ : V ' ^ ' \ as well as online. . .;; . • ' . ; ^" ' . ' r J-.'' .,";•-, V' 'I We need to do more to help stop AIDS Editor: Dec. 1 was World AIDS Day. It reminds us of the daunting number of people who are infected with HIV/AIDS: 40 million. It reminds us of the deplorable number of people who have died from AIDS worldwide: 20 million. These numbers are difficult to comprehend, and many times we are left feeling overwhelmed and helpless. What can I do? But there are solutions. In 2002, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria was established to defeat these diseases that together kill 6 million people a year. The GFATM is a public-private partnership, which, in only three years, has funded 350 grants to health projects around the world. It is projected that in 2007,1.8 million HIV/AIDS patients will be reached with antiretroviral medicines. This is six-fold the amount of people that are being reached today. Our government has pledged to donate a third of the needed budget to fund these lifesaving health projects—but we are falling short of our promise. I urge our Utah delegation and the Congress to fully fund the GFATM. This is not only a moral ' question, but it is also a question of economic prosperity. A healthy global population begets a healthy ' global economy. We have a great responsibility and a great opportunity before us. But millions of people will die if we refuse to act. Leah Vinton Senior, Political Science/Spanish Political correctness inspires dialogue Editor: While I respect Tony Poulson as a fraternal brother and political artist, I must disagree with the comic on Dec. 6 that depicted Christmas being ruined by the ACLU. The issue at hand is one of equality, which I believe to be at the heart of most actions labeled "politically correct." Many significant religious holidays fall in the period of time set aside by government administration and educational institutions as Winter Break. Use of Christmas alone by public institutions is inappropriate to the extent that it gives special recognition to a specific set of religious beliefs. That is not to say that individuals or private institutions (e.g., BYU) are not hi a position to continue the use of Christmas-related labels. In this case, I think the ACLU is working hard for our ability to operate on an equal playing field in daily public life, which I don't believe stems from any anti-Christian desires. Further, I would argue that, if nothing else, acts of political correctness, like calling it "Winter Break" instead of Christmas, or spelling Woman "Womyn," opens up dialogue and requires individuals to think in a way that might be new and uncomfortable—something we can always use more of, especially in establishments of higher education. Kim M. Bowman Jr. Senior, Gender Studies/Political Science Aaron Allen needs a lesson in fashion 8 percent, 9 votes 7 percent, 8 votes Uh, any day now. Finals...? Oh, crap. Wherfs the last day to apply for a retroactive W? To vote ; visit dailyutahchronicle.com Editor: I have to take issue with Aaron Allen's faux fashion comparison '"Aeon Flux,' by Calvin Klein/' Dec. 6. First of all, "Aeon Flux" is not a runway movie—if it were, it would by no means be the world's first runway movie, nor is it even America's first runway movie ("Gia"). "Aeon Flux" isn't even the first fashionable/stylistic take on the future ("Gattaca"). Second of all, characterizing "Aeon Flux" as Calvin Klein-esque could not be further than the actual style of this movie. Anyone with an ounce of fashion sense would know that Beatrix Pasztor drew inspiration for the costumes from such fashion-forward designers, as John Galliano and Alexander McQueen. Allen is going to have to learn his fashion and movies before making comparisons between the two. I'll give Allen his first lesson: European runway models don't strut with "joy," Brazilian models do. The author doesn't even speak to the fact that the set design, makeup and costumes were specifically chosen to represent the original Aeon Flux cartoon, but that really isn't important for a movie based on an anime, now is it? On a final note, the "Revlon facade" Allen speaks about was actually MAC. Marc K. Stillman Junior, Political Science l |
