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Show 7 Thursday, June 14, 2007 OPINION www.dailyutahchronicle.com THE CHRONICLE'S VIEW Fans deserve their free speech A t the Real Salt Lake vs. the Chinese National Team game one week ago, a group of people was kicked out of Rice-Eccles Stadium for displaying : Tibetan and Taiwanese flags, as well as signs referring to the Chinese government's attack of protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. While the fans might have been earnestly protesting or merely heckling, they should never have been asked to leave the stadium. *• In an interview with the Deseret Morning News, Real Salt Lake representative Trey Fitz-gerald claimed the fans were kicked out because they were a disruption to the game and other fans in the stadium, and they "needed to be diplomatic." Fitz-gerald's reasoning doesn't cut it. Although it is acceptable to eject fans who are publicly intoxicated or pose a threat to the safety of others, it must be acknowledged that the fans kicked out of the Real game didn't fall into either of those categories. We know Real Salt Lake is struggling to stay afloat in a sea of people who don't really care to watch soccer, and it is important for the team to take advantage of every potential ticket-selling opportunity. However, favoring financial interests over First Amendment rights to cater to a team from a country where human rights are ignored is disgusting, and Real Salt Lake should be reprimanded. One of the ejected fans said he intends to contact the American Civil Liberties Union in response to what he felt was a violation of his First Amendment rights. Kudos to him, but we want to know where the U stands on this. When outside contractors rent U facilities, usually they must adhere to all U policies and procedures. That includes the right to free speech. It is truly a shameful day when people on our campus aren't free to express themselves. Campus facilities are here to serve the students. Officials should keep the educational goal of the university in mind while policing sponsored events. 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 onjine at www. dailyutahchronicle.com. Letters that the editor deems best represent those received will be printed in the newspaper. It's a gamer's paradise Trading guitars for "Guitar Hero " I n March of 1999, Verant Interactive released the first great massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The game was "Everquest." It was a fun, NICHOLAS adventure PAPPAS ous new way to be an addict—less physically damaging than crack and a bit more time consuming. Since then, the massive games have grown to massive proportions. The biggest and most addicting is "World ofWarcraft." There are currently 8.5 million subscribers, and an estimated 40 percent of them could be classified as addicted. Many players spend an average of 30 to 40 hours a week playing the game. At the website www.gamerwidows.com, wives—and husbands— rant about a spouse who, for all intents and purposes, is dead to them. They've gone to a better place to fight ores. It doesn't stop at "World of Warcraft." Video games in general have become the national pastime. Games such as "Guitar Hero," "Dance Dance Revolution," "Halo 2" and "Gears of War" have replaced unimportant activities such as going outside, spending time with your spouse or actually accomplishing something. Gayle Ruzicka and other narrow-minded conservatives are campaigning to ban video games based on violence, but the truth is that for every violent act by a gamer there are a million others staring at a screen doing nothing at all. It's worse than violence. Games make you lethargic. Games make you meaningless. It's easy to see the draw. Life is mundane. I could either be a level-70 night eh*" warrior and the leader of a guild, or I could be Nick the tech support guy with a weight problem. I could be Master Chief, the savior of a world and the best sniper on XBox Live or I could be Nick, the call-center monkey who eats TV dinners when he gets home. J What most of the gamers seem to forget, though, is that their online accomplishments are not real. They've devoted their lives to moving pixels and imaginary personas that could disappear if they stopped paying 'S15 a month. A recent study in.The New York Times reported that grade-school children, on average, actually decrease their daily amount of physical activity during summer vacation. It's tragic. I remember going outside in the summers and seeing Idds in every yard. Drive through the suburbs today and you'll find a few adults mowing their lawns and a few bikers disobeying traffic laws, but no one under 25. There was a day parents had to yell at their children to come inside. Today, they have to yell at them to go out. This is a direct result of gaming and the Internet. Yet, children are not the main consumers of "World of Warcraft." They are learning all about sloth from their parents. Most online gamers are adults with jobs, families and couldhave-been futures. They're usually quite smart, and the amount of time they've devoted proves they can be dedicated. It's funny. A gamer pushing a few buttons on "Guitar Hero" could take those two hours a day and actually learn to play a guitar. A gamer stomping the ground playing "Dance Dance Revolution" might actually go to a class and learn to dance. And a grown man spending 40 hours a week fighting to save an online world could devote his time to volunteering and actually make a difference in the real one. •It's a nice dream—but the real world just isn't that alluring. Perhaps someday I'll run into an ore mage wrapping presents for homeless children or a dwarf paladin protesting the war, but I won't hold my breath. Their hearts have all turned into plugs. KURT FRANCOM/HifteitfUichQaonide FDA approval doesn't make drugs safe Some medication can do more harm than good I had a professor, who was originally from France, make the distinction that Americans are into improving themselves, while the French think they're just fine the way they are. I found this very interesting, but I've never been to France and can't attest much to the French attitudeonly I've heard shaving isn't popular among its women. In America, the saturation of self-help books, low-fat foods, hair dye, Gold's Gyms and shrinks indicate that a lot of Ameri- " cans are bent on improving themselves, or at least attempting to. Some American habits are reasonable and effective, some take it to the extreme and some habits are dangerous—even if we are told they are safe. One form of self-improvement that is vastly popular are drugs. There are pills for just about anything that could be amiss in the body, not only for problems, but to enhance our lives—or so they say. •What's scary is that a lot of unsafe drugs are being distributed to the masses. Recalls have been implemented for weight-loss drugs, anti-depressants, hormone replacement therapy, cholesterol-lowering.drugs—and the list goes on. How much longer are we going to have to endure 15-second splices of attorney Keith Barton standing in front of a picture of a poured-out bottle of pills and laying out the hard facts of drug companies' mistakes? The Food and Drug Administra- deem fit to eat. For those who aren't doing that with their prescriptions or any other medications, it's time to start. With some drugs classified as FDA-approved and later confirmed to cause cancer, heart problems, birth defects and even death in an alarming number of patients—certainly enough for attorneys to pay for expensive advertising and to make _ a healthy profit from settlement fees—it seems wise to avoid medication at all, if possible. « Granted, there are many diseases and other health complications that demand prescriptions, but restless leg syndrome, losing five pounds by next week, sleeping aids or pills that are just supposed to boost our energy because we are tired all the time . don't seem worth the risk. Many minor problems, and even major ones, can be improved by eating right and exercising. Even our own thinking patterns have proven to have a direct correlation to our physical well-being. The placebo effect, where patients who are given sugar pills that they believe to be actual drugs are cured of their symptoms, indicates that the mind has the power to cure the body. My last resort to any illness is taking a pill, and before you think you're safe with your bottles of pills nestled in your medicine cabinet that haven't made it to the recall list, just beware—it can take a while before Keith Barton can dig up enough evidence to prove otherwise. JENNA ATKINSON tion is responsible for the regulation of these drugs. Its mission statement from fda.gov states that "the FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation." While this is a noble goal, knowing that a drug is FDA approved is as assuring to me as the Associated Students of the University of Utah's four-year graduation guarantee. It just isn't reliable. To its credit, the FDA has implemented a new drug-safety initiative, but it's geared toward making drugsafety information more easily accessible to its patients and putting the responsibility to make an informed decision back on the consumer. The issue of making drugs safe is a complicated one, and performing adequate studies to determine long-term effects of drugs are either not being done sufficiently, or just not being done at all. Many of us are selective in the things'we take into our body—reading food labels from top to bottom checking for preservatives, unhealthy amounts of fats and sugars, and anything else we don't letters@chronicle.utah.edu Get the picture ? Students on campus were asked to ; identify the person in this picture ; Name: Yulliana Novoa Year in school: Junior Major: Social Justice Education :..:;.;•• A n s w e r : B u s h Sr. •> letters@chronicle.utah.edu At,.. Name: Alliott Zgraggen Year: Senior , Major Information ••!•'*Systems Answer: Michael Young Name: Johnny Chen ; • Name: Don Dao Year: Sophomore Major: Biomedical Major: Political Science Engineering . ; Answer: A businessman Answer: A congressman or a politician Year: Senior - •;•••'/• |
