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Show OPINION Tuesday, October 10,2006 Page 6 EDITORIAL •:^- Enrollment is down because of good economy... Huh? How'd this slide get in? Let's skip a payment to the gas pump pimps S gas. Now, almost two -, months later, that excuse doesn't fly anymore. The public is being lied to and manipulated for financial gain. Gov. Huntsman , eloquently explained this : betray;'•• aland *> lack of "; honesty : to the * public :V, CurZUNDEL when '; rently, Utah he has the '. J stated, fourth"When a shot is fired in highest gas prices in the Lebanon, gas prices in : nation. Now, at roughly .' 40 cents per gallon above Utah go up overnight." It's a statement that's , the national average, the hard to refute when oil , : oil companies are the companies are posting newest group of bullies record-breaking profits dipping into students' alquarter after quarter—reready threadbare wallets. cord profits not just for Though they are pertheir company or even haps one of the most sethe oil industry, but verely impacted groups, record profits for all of' students aren't the only corporate America. ones hurting from the ll too often, it's easier to see gasoline squeeze. People Earlier in September, what others should do than it all around, the state are Gov. Huntsman's office is to see what work needs to shelling out their cash, appointed Francine Giani, be done in one's own backyard. ; throwing up their hands the Executive Director of When I was in Israel in August : in vain frustration and Commerce for Utah, to on a Campus Editors' Mission with ; twitching in agony as find out why the price of the Anti-Defamation League, our \ they drive away. gasoline is so high in the group had the opportunity to speak state. After being jerked with Mark Regev, spokesman for the Some of them aren't around by various sourcIsraeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. • going to stand for it any: Because it had been only one day es, companies and local more. since the cease-fire with Lebanon's gas stations for the better In response to the outHezbollah guerillas had gone into part of a month, Giani's rageously high prices, loeffect, questions about what it would conclusion is that Utahns cal KSL Radio talk show take to achieve peace with Israel's are getting gouged at the host Doug Wright has surrounding nations abounded. proposed a statewide gas pump. Regev's response seemed simple: boycott. On Friday, Oct. Even nationally re"The problem is extremism. In order 13, Wright is calling on . spected economist Jeff to achieve peace, moderate Muslims Utahns to abandon their Thredgold admits that, and Jews must unite against the local service stations. extremists." despite a few legitimate In addition to boycotconcerns on behalf of According to an article by The ting gas, Wright is asking the oil companies, those Associated Press, it appeared that Israel became one step closer to Utahns not to patronize companies are fleecing reaching Regev's goal two and a half service stations at all, not Utah and its residents. weeks ago. even for a pack of gum. In their search for Palestinian President Mahmoud His goal is to leave the answers, the governor's Abbas told the United Nations the local Chevrons, 7-Elevens office got hold of a local planned national unity government, and other stations "dmiretailer's financial re; to subsist alongside Israel, would not •. nously quiet" for the day. cords. only recognize Israel's right to exist, 1 It's possible many peobut would also renounce violence The records showed ple think a boycott may * and honor past agreements between be overreacting or—even that the retailer was makthe two states. ing between 25-29 cents worse—plain old whining Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni per gallon of gas. The from a bunch of spoiled responded by reiterating Israel's deusual profit margin is suburbanites, but even sire to reopen a serious dialogue and •. Gov. John Huntsman says between 1 and 3 cents. create a permanent channel "to purSo, on Friday the 13th, ;'"-something is rotten in sue ways to advance together," acgo support Wright's boycording to the article. the state of Utah. As a cott and stay out of your >; man who used to be in As the leader of the moderate local gas station. Don't Fatah faction, it's not surprising that :!•* the petrochemical business, Gov. Huntsman has even go in for a Coke or ; a cup of coffee. While insight into the way oil it's true that boycotts are; is bought and sold, and largely ineffective, they • he admits that he cannot do turn heads. , make sense of the current ; By bringing more and * situation.' 7 ' . . more attention to the * n a recent trip to my local .£;;. At the tail end of'the situation, local legislasupermarket, I was attacked . i summer, when gas prices tors are more likely to do by a parade of pink. Pink had ; began to plummet across something about the gas • infiltrated almost all my once-bland /•• the nation, local retailproblem at their upcomproducts. Pink was on my yogurt, my ers told Utahns that the ing session. cereal, my cosmetics and even my •Slack of relief at the pump TV dinners. Perhaps then students •:' was due to their storage During National Breast Canmight get just a little v' tanks still being full of cer Awareness month, many pink piece of the financial rethe older, more expensive lief they need so badly. products boast donations of "a percentage of the profits to increasing awareness," and initially, I felt an Unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of The Daily Utah overwhelming sense of philanthropy. Chronicle Editorial Board. Signed editorials, editorial columns . I thought to myself: "Simply by and letters to the editor are strictly the opinions of the author. shopping, I can donate to a serious The forum created on the Opinion Page is one based on vigorous cause? Shopping? Now that's somedebate, while at the same time demanding tolerance and respect. thing I can do." Material defamatory to an individual or group because of race, But after I got my array of pink ethnic background, religion, creed, gender, appearance or sexual products home and began to read orientation will be edited or will not be published. All letters to the fine print, I found out that my the editor will now be published online at www.dailyutahchronicle. consumer habits do not necessarily com. Letters that the editor deems best represent those received promote a humanitarian cause. will be printed in the newspaper as well as online .;'• • •-.:*;•For instance, while Yoplait yogurt assures customers that for each pink yogurt lid they send back between QoJiO£J?PJJ. October and December, Yoplait will : donate 10 cents to the Susan G. KoWhat's the biggest prdbld'M WrtW$^|ilss men Foundation. Even if I could eat 748: Total polled four containers of yogurt a day for the month of October—and I assure • 221: Availability 97:Homework you, I cannot—my donation would come to the grand total of $12.40 (not 174: Instruction including postage). 58:Grading Clearly, with the American Cancer Society estimating that last year I 151: Class size 47:Subject alone more than 200,000 women ''were diagnosed with new cases of 1 invasive breast cancer and anThis week's question: What Whittingham's other 40,000 women died from the .performance as head coaj this season? disease, everyone can admit that in^—S^ Vote on\\nj^tfwww.dailyutahchix$ 1. com creasing awareness of breast cancer tudents are taken advantage of in a lot of ways. They pay through the nose for tuition, overpriced textbooks and parking. • At a commuter school, though, : students —— at the U, also buy a AARON lot of gas. 2004 Year Expenses $3,071.80 12 hour Tuition 2007 Year Expenses more than $3,928.44 12 hour Tuition + $1,190 Health Insurance = $5,118.44 40% Yearly Expense Increase! VERY GOOD ECONOMY!!! THOMAS MAYF1ZLX)/The Daily Utah Chronicle Neither friend nor foe Israel's treatment of Arab-Israelis at home makes it tougher to obtain Muslim allies abroad A DANYELLE WHITE Abbas would be trying to negotiate with the governing, militant (read: terrorist) faction, Hamas, to begin taking the steps necessary to creating peace in the Middle East. It's also not surprising that the very next day, Hamas leader and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh declared that he would not lead a Palestinian government that recognized the state of Israel. "We support establishing a Palestinian state in the land of 1967 at this stage, but in return for a ceasefire, not recognition," Haniyeh was reported as saying in an Associated Press article. What does surprise me is Israel's backward tactic in relating with the moderate Muslims in Israel and the rest of the Mideast. Doesn't it make more sense to form bonds with the moderate Muslims within your own country before you attempt to make allies beyond your borders? What I was perhaps most unprepared for about Israel is how segregated a nation it is. Jews, Christians and Muslims all have their separate quarters of town, and because doubts surround their allegiance to Israel, Arab-Israelis are treated with suspicion, like second-class citizens. Unfortunately, this mindset permeates the country. While we were having brunch with Gil Hoffmann, a political correspondent and columnist for The Jerusalem Post, he prefaced a statistic about Israelis supporting the conflict in Lebanon by saying, "Not counting the ArabIsraelis..." And why would he count them? Ali Yahya, the Israeli ambassador to Greece (the first-ever Arab-Israel ambassador) told us that Arab-Israelis do not serve in the Israeli army • (mandatory for all other citizens), live in poorer areas, often receive inferior educations and are under- _ represented in the government. In ; fact, he said that the 7 million Arabr Israelis residing in Israel (19 percent of the nation's population) can't vote for Parliament members. If the old saying about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer is true, Israel treats Arab-Israelis as neither friend nor foe. In my mind, the smarter thing for Israel to do would be to foster and strengthen a relationship with those who are already trying to be on their team. These people live, work, worship and raise their children in Israel, and they consider themselves to be Israeli citizens. Once Ajrab- -; Israeli/Israeli relations are strong,-; Israel can look to win over the moderate Muslims living in its neighboring countries. : After all, it's easier to fight a battle than it is to fight a war. letters® chronicle.utafhedu Think before you pink I BETH RANSCHAU is a good Cause. Increasing awareness, however, is no longer the issue. With people witnessing the effects of breast cancer on their friends and families, millions have donned pink ribbons in hopes of increasing awareness and education, evincing that breast cancer is no longer a secret. While other companies who proudly bare pink like Yoplait go further by donating profits to organizations such as the Susan G. Komen or the Breast Cancer Research Foundations, it is important that consumers be critical. Such criticism can be hard to find in the midst of pink this October. Thinkbeforeyoupink.org is one source of information providing consumers with facts to consider before purchasing pink products. The Web site is a project of Breast Cancer Action, a member organization that stresses the importance of consumer action and specifies important questions to ask—such as how much of your money is being donated, to which organizations and to what extent these corporations practice what they preach. , The Web site exposes companies that, despite their colorfully adver-: tised donations, do not display a larger devotion to the prevention of breast cancer through their practice es. For example, while Estee Laiider has agreed to donate up to $100,000 in proceeds from its Elizabeth in Pink lipstick, the cosmetic company has not signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics that would guarantee that their products do not contain chemicals known for causing cancer, Presently, as thinkbeforeyoupink. org points out, Estee Lauder uses a chemical class called parabens that is linked to breast cancer. Before you throw away your pink ribbons in protest of these devious. marketing techniques, remember that breast cancer is a disease that has affected all of us. Many have witnessed the ramifications of this disease among friends, grandmothers, mothers and sisters, and for many, the pink ribbons remind us of; that. It is because breast cancer is such a serious issue that we all need to consider how we choose to fighj: the fight. Instead of buying pink products this month, why not simply donate money directly to preventative and research organizations? Rather than being concerned with "awareness" or "the cure," we must begin to consider what we can do to prevent this disease from taking more lives. When it comes down to it, 10 percent of our time, energy and money is not enough. letters@chronicle.utah.edu |