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Show 4 Thursday, June 7,2007 OPINION www.dailyutahchronicle.com In Wikipedia we trust 've found myself with about off. six extra hours a week where I Thus began a long saga of Wikihave nothing to do. pedia, geeks with laptops and Michael Jordan. I, and every friend I After a long season—poshad, began changing the line to "... sibly longer than it should have and as Jordan been—the Jazz pushed off." went out like a lamb in the Heated NBA Western debates began Conference NICHOLAS in the discusFinals. Tony sion section. Parker clipped PAPPAS A new link the overwas formed achievers and called "The made a wool 1998 NBA coat for Eva. Finals ControElectrifying? Sure. The problem versy—which the Wikipedians later destroyed. A few of us were with sports is everyone loses but blocked forever, and more than a one. It's the problem with a lot of things. History was written by the year later, the line has changed for good. winners—until recently. For the first time, history is beIt's a little thing, really. There ing written by just about anyone is far more to worry about in the who can press an enter key. world—John Edwards' hair, for example, or just how black Barack. Do a Google search—for anyObama is. Yet if this were any thing. I bet Wikipedia will be in other site, any other resource, the topfivesearch results. It has we would have had to accept the become the newest, best source writing on the screen. This is the for information anywhere. I mean it. Twenty years ago, I had to prop greatness of Wikipedia. open an encyclopedia to plagiaSocrates believed that the rize my school reports. I imagine nation should be run by philososeven year olds doing the same phers. They would be paid little thing with Wikipedia today. They and would rule only for the goodcould do a lot worse. ness and the joy of ruling. I didn't always feel this way. Socrates is dead. Today's politiWhen I first learned exactly what cians are far from philosophers, Wikipedia was—an online encyand everyone knows the rulers of clopedia that anyone can edit at this nation are the corporations. his or her own discretion—I was The parent company of Newsweek appalled. What did the average joe owns numerous cable stations and or jane know about anything? His- writes an article called "Why TV tory would almost certainly fall is good for kids." TIME magazine, apart. Planes would start falling owned by AOL Time Warner, from the sky, the Holocaust would shamelessly writes articles in thencease to be real, Dubya's approval best interest. rating would soar. I began looking at a list of evIt wasn't so, though. erything AOL Time Warner owns Somewhere in the imaginary and had to stop halfway. I was world of the Internet, creatures , worried I would eventually see mycalled "Wikipedians" are literally own name. working around the clock to keep In the end, whom should we the world in order. trust for information? Newsweek, Which brings us back to the TIME, or a non-profit organization Jazz. I thought I would read a called the Wikimedia? If I had to bit about God on Wikipedia and choose, it would be the one webpulled up the page on Michael site where a few geeks can take on Jordan. One line glared: "and as a God. Russell slipped, Jordan released So, before you begin spoutingi 1. a shot that would be rebroadcast off on how terrible Wikipedia is as innumerable times in years to a source, ask yourself one quescome." tion: Who owns you? ^iM'.w.r.i .'H Every Jazz fan knows for a fact letters@ Russell didn't slip. Jordan pushed chronicle.utah.edu I THE CHRONICLE'S VIEW The task at hand F ollowing the "Virginia idea, how safe can we really Tech shootings and a lost feel when the people determinlegal battle over campus ing how we should respond to gun control, U President Mi-f certain events are not safety ; chael K. Young has assembled specialists? a 12-person task force to assess Though the task force will campus safety. • have a variety of campus voices '; The Task Force on Campus represented, it should involve ••Security consists of professors, at least one of the safety offiadministrators and one student cials who will be implementing ; from the Associated Students recommendations. j of the University of Utah who The task force—whose will look at campus safety isfirst meeting is set for tosues ranging from potential for day—has no set agenda- None. ; disturbances, instruction for Everything's "on the table" for . students on what to do in the discussion, but as for a list of presence of a weapon and a priorities, it has nothing. . ^ campus-wide alert system. When discussing campus ': vi One would think that a task safety—whether it's how to c^ force whose goal it is to ensure respond to a campus shooting campus safety by determining or teaching students the im-how to respond to campus vio- -portance of locking their doors r lence and emergencies would in the Residence Halls—pri; . have at least one campus police oritizing would seem like an ' officer—but not the U's task important thing to do. Without force. a set agenda, this task force is ' While we acknowledge that in danger of appearing to U \ . starting a task force to deal students like yet another use;• • with these issues is a great v ^, : \^ ." •: .less committee. •People across campus need to feel like their task force is doing something—anything—to make them safer. For all we know, this committee is going to come up with something brilliant, but without a set agenda, students can't put their confidence in it. Though it may be taken for granted at times, the safety of everyone on campus should be taken seriously. Students might not be walking around scared for their lives, but we were all made aware of the potential for campus violence by the events at Virginia Tech. As a result, we want assurances that the U is taking every precaution necessary to prevent something similar from happening here. Such assurances involve qualified people sitting on the task force, as well as a plan that our campus can count on. The task force is going to be a benefit to our campus—as long as it starts off on the right foot. Unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of The Daily Utah Chronicle Editorial Board. Signed editorials, editorial columns and letters to the editor are strictly the opinions of the author. The forum created on the Opinion Page is one based on vigorous debate, while at the same time demanding tolerance and respect Material defamatory to an individual or group because of race, ethnic background, religion, 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.dai- • lyutahchronicle.com. Letters that the editor deems best represent those received will be printed in the newspaper as well as online. Was Jesus ever apathetic? Getting over the definition of Christianity judgmental, offensive and decidedly un-Christian by anybody's standards. But so what? arious Christian Groups: MorMost Christians—and I'm gomons aren't Christians. ing to go ahead and avoid defining Mormons: We are too! Are RUTHANNE "Christians" for the sake of a lack of too, are too, are too! argument—believe that Jesus comFROST Ah, the great debate of our time. manded his followers to build the It all comes down to whether you kingdom of God on earth. This prodefine "Christian" narrowly, thereby cess, whatever you believe it consists going so far as to exclude members of, is a human endeavor, and humans of religions who claim Jesus as their are inherently flawed creatures. all semantics anyway, unless, of personal savior, or very broadly, Therefore, even those with the best course, they get the bright idea of thereby including people who don't. of intentions—hell, even those with trying to copyright "Christian." "Christian" is apparently an a divine calling—will probably end I can see it now—Christian©. Or extremely flexible term. Read Ann maybe just ©hristian, for simplicity's up screwing the pooch on occasion. Coulter's Godless. She defines a sake. Heaven help all the non-©hrisMoses didn't make it to the Prom"Christian" as anyone who follows a tian Christians. ised Land; Jonah learned his lesson Judeo-Christian code of law—thereBut really, if other Christian sects in the belly of a great fish; Peter by including regular old Christians, want to define Christianity in such denied Christ; and the list goes on. as well as the Jews, which I imagine a way that excludes Mormons from As Christopher Moore wrote in his came as a bit of a surprise. their heavenly clubhouse, who are novel Lamb, "Hey, no one's perfect. So this brings us to the Mo's— we to complain? We've redefined Well, there was this one guy. But we Christian, or not? baptism, both for the living and the killed Him." Which brings us to the more imdead, which goes over like a turd in a • We all just do the best we can, portant question: Who even cares? punch bowl with some of our friends and then learn from the mistakes I was born and bred the Mormon of other faiths. So it's kinda sixes on we make. That's a fact of life that way, and sure, it can get tiresome that score. applies to all of us, regardless of the when people presume to explain my Let's just call this what it is—the religion—if any—that we subscribe fundamental belief system to me, most passive-aggressive missionto. The key is whether we can accept but I'm here to declare it for any ary strategy of all time. Instead of that imperfection in ourselves (and other Mormons who are sick of all engaging in dialogue (or, you know, others) and move on...or not. the fuss: Whatev. Just, whatev. I'm so just forgetting our differences and So to all you ©hristians out there, over it, I can't even bring myself to trying to make the world a better if you plan to "educate" me about say the last syllable. place—always an option, friends), all the "flaws" in my belief system I don't speak for The Church of some ©hristian had this bright idea: (which, for some reason, you assume Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "Hey, you know what will really win I am unaware of), you'd better be (obviously), but if people are really them over? Telling them they don't pretty perfect yourself, because othgoing to get bent out of shape about believe in Jesus right!" erwise I'm not going to be impressed little old me claiming the title of . Good plan, guys. with your supposedly superior ver"Christian," I guess I'll just give up. sion of Christ. Sure, Mormons believe some After all, you can't argue with people crazy stuff, and yeah, our history is Ya'll can have label brand Christiwho define the parameters of the checkered. I guarantee if you look anity—I'm okay with generic. argument. hard enough, you will find some letters@ So let them take "Christian"—it's Mormons who are mean-spirited, chronicle.utah.edu V I: On "Excessive heat prompts library closure" (Roxanne Vester, June 4, online version) Waahhhhh posted 6/05/07 @ 4:16 PM EST Did they shut the library down every summer in the first half of the century? Of course, there was no global warming then. On "Sharpton skirts Romney controversy" (Jared Branch, May 31) Bruce posted 5/31/07 @ 7:51 PM EST "Reverend" Al Sharpton should have his radio program torn from the airways in my opinion. He is the most racist of anyone [ • ) that portrays to be preachers. Imus made a silly and derogatory ; j remark, but should not have been fired. Sharpton made a silly and derogatory remark and "he should be removed." But then he doesn't have General Motors, Proctor and Gamble as sponsors. So no loss for any media conglomerates if he goes. So they leave him alone. I was educated about the Mormon religion by not only my parents, but by a friend who was a converted Mormon. It's in The Bible. Maybe Al Sharpton should be reading instead of talking. On "Forget Europe: Look south to1 Argentina for affordable new travel opportunities (Spencer Young, April 5) James posted 5/24/07 @ 2:54 AM EST Dear students of the University of Utah, Please do NOT come to Buenos Aires. Quite simply, we don't want you here. There are already too many Americans here and it is having a negative effect on the local culture. It has turned into an unwelcomed invasion. In the past, one could walk and mingle among the locals while barely coming into contact with other native English speakers. Today it is a disaster, especially for those of us who live and/or work down here and have made B.A. our home. Today we see too many college aged kids who want to do nothing more than take advantage of the exchange rate in order to have a cheap place to party. Stay in Utah. Whatever you do, please don't travel south of Brazil. For you college guys, you'll have a much easier time picking up Brazilian women compared to Argentine girls. Thank you. Regards, ' James |