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Show Views&Opinion Monday, Sept. 14, 2009 Page 10 Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com OurView T AboutUs Editor in Chief Patrick Oden Joys of service oday marks the start of Service Week at USU. The word “service” can be daunting. At its mention, images immediately fly of planting trees, reading to kids at an elementary school and knitting bandages for third world countries. These are all great things. Hats off to those who are ambitious with their charity work. But service doesn’t have to be big. Service can be done through small things and just by simply becoming conscious of surroundings. Holding a door open for someone is a small way to serve someone. So is showing a professor you are interested in the subject and paying attention in class. Service doesn’t have to talk a lot of effort, either. After eating a Scotsman dog at the tables in The Hub, chuck the wrapper in the garbage. It takes barely any time, but it saves someone else from having to clean up the table and they’ll be grateful. Service doesn’t have to take much time. Your attitude in general can be a service to those around you. Smiling, saying, Hey, good to see you, or even acknowledging someone with a wave of the hand as you pass can be a service. It’s so cliche, but you never know when someone could use that extra boost. It’s just like that Volkswagen commercial where a girl starts a chain reaction with her attitude. She greets a shopkeeper who opens the door for a girl who, because of that, picks up a piece of fruit that has fallen on the ground, and the good deeds continue. It’s contagious. So, where to begin? The Service Fair can give the service-minded a good start. Running Sept. 14 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Taggart Student Center International Lounge, the fair gives students information and ideas for how to start helping. Students can sign up for clubs, enter a raffle and participate in some on-site service projects. It’s a quick way to grab some feel-goods that come from serving others. Ill communications T he combined addictive qualities of cocaine, liquor, gambling, sex, organized religion, Facebook and chocolate doesn’t come close to the enslaving power that cell phones have on American society. There is a joke that the comedian Steven Wright told 20 years ago that I find quite profound. Wright said, “I bought an answering machine for my car phone. The message says, ‘I am home right now. Leave a message and I will call you when I go out.’” Farce has become reality. For over a decade I resisted the urge to succumb to the pratfalls this addiction yokes on to most of you. Keeping Nancy Reagan’s crypt keeper voice in my head, I just said, no. I refused to chase the dragon. But, I am mortal after all, and this week, I finally broke down and bought an iPhone. Now, like most of you, I spend my days tethered to this aweinspiring gizmo. I am not suggesting that cell phones are altogether bad. There are many examples where being available through a cell phone has landed people jobs or other benefits that has improved their lives. The problem I speak of is that we as a society are so immersed with our phones that we are now losing our ability to converse with others face-to-face. That is the great irony. The ability to communicate anytime we want has stunted our ability to communicate. Think on this. How many times have you not answered your phone when someone Re-entry Thoughts calls you, but you return that same person’s text message within 30 seconds of reading it? How many times have you had a designated place and time to meet someone and call them to tell them you arrived there on time? When did you last call someone just to tell them you were leaving the store? When did you last bump into someone in a hallway because you were texting on your phone and not looking where you were going? And, finally, when did you last send a text message to someone that was within 10 feet of you? Don’t you find that bizarre? Face it. Many of us are diseased, and it’s spreading to pandemic levels. This disease also leads to a bigger problem of laziness. In my misbegotten youth, I would travel miles searching for a weekend party. It could be said that my friends and I resembled something out of National Geographic. Picture the scene if you can. A pack of young human males in the prime of mating season, using their keen sense of smell and hearing, walking by a row of houses, listening for music and the clang of beer bottles. And then, once we found a party, fighting the others males with no other tool but my intellect in an attempt to get a young human female to come outside and make out with me. It sounds primitive. Yet, I can emphatically state that there was an exhilaration in the conquest. Today, you young bucks just text a friend with a photo of a happening party and 10 dudes show up within a half hour. Unconvential Wisdom - See CELL PHONES, page 11 News Editor Rachel A. Christensen Assistant News Editor Catherine Meidell Features Editor Courtnie Packer Assistant Features Editor Greg Boyles Sports Editor Tim Olsen Assistant Sports Editor Graham Terry Copy Editor Mark Vuong Photo Editors Pete Smithsuth Tyler Larson Act like the United States I want my country back. The one where a message of personal responsibility and the value of a good education is celebrated, not denigrated with suspicion and hostility. The one where the opportunity to hear from the president of the United States is seen as a once-in-a-lifetime event, not decried as propagandistic indoctrination. The one where public debate is engaged by reasonable people concerned with solving common problems, not radical voices making stuff up to misinform, inflame and divide. This country is called the “United” States for a reason. It’s because once upon a time representatives of a motley collection of colonies considered it in their best interest – for the present and the future – to come together under a federal government that could serve their common needs while letting them have a degree of autonomy. We aren’t the “Secessionist” States, the irresponsible pandering of our opportunist Texas governor notwithstanding. And despite the color-coding labels used by pundits and others who find it clever, we aren’t even the “Red-or-Blue-Choose-OnlyOne” States. Maybe I’m deluded, but I believe that a majority of Americans still respect the office of the presidency and its occupant – whoever that might be – even if they consider some of his actions ill-conceived, disappointing or wrongheaded. A majority believes that it doesn’t promote the general welfare to demonize our national leaders as socialist or fascist, evil conspirators, lawbreakers or liars. A majority believes that no individual, political party or interest group has a monopoly on good ideas, and that we don’t progress by living in bubbles where we listen only to those who look and think like us. A majority believes that extremists on the airwaves, the Internet and elsewhere do not contribute to domestic tranquility by stirring fear, spreading malice and reaffirming our worst biases. If our leaders are misleading us, acting above the law, abusing their office or otherwise breaking their commitment to those who elected them, then of course they should be called out and voted out. But seeing sinister conspiracy behind every Web head is using free speech as a cudgel, not a tool for enlightenment. The vitriol aimed at President Barack Obama’s back-to-school address is emblematic of mindless opposition. Culture conservatives are adamant about wanting public schools to teach kids values such as respect, hard work, personal responsibility and patriotism. But heaven forbid the president of the United States should talk to students about hard work, personal responsibility and dedication to their goals and to their country. That somehow smacks of indoctrination. Sheesh! Because President George W. Bush took the country into war on false pretenses, disregarded the law on wiretapping and treatment of detainees, and damaged the Justice Department’s reputation for fairness, his most vociferous critics wrongly insisted that he could do no right. Because President Obama hasn’t righted the economy, has called for health-care reform that could carry a mind-boggling price tag and advocates some ideas that challenge right-wing ideology, a relentless minority stubbornly _ and wrongly _ works to caricature him as a menace to America. Loyal opposition this isn’t, because loyal opposition isn’t bent on destruction. It’s dedicated to constructive criticism that leads to better laws, better policies, a better future. Four years ago, I wrote about mainstream Americans worried about staying afloat during repeated downsizings, about paying for their health care, about whether their kids would find a decent job. I believe mainstream Americans want solutions to a very real health-care crisis, not knock-down drag-outs at town hall meetings. They want rational discussion about improving the economy, putting people to work, making college affordable, reducing the federal deficit, and enabling people to provide for their own and their families’ physical and emotional security. They’re worried about problems that we can work with our government to fix. Now, if only cooler heads would prevail and stop getting sidetracked by phony controversies fanned by extreme voices who don’t speak for the majority of Americans. Linda P. Campbell is a columnist and editorial writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Mrs. Campbell can be contacted via e-mail at lcampbell@star-telegram.com Why we have to leave ... unless it’s better to stay My head hurts. At first I thought it was a sinus thing, or perhaps the start of a head cold. But it’s actually the pain of thinking about Afghanistan. After much deliberation, I have finally come up with a rock-solid stance that I can support 100 percent. It’s nuts for us to stay, and it’s nuts for us to go. It’s nuts for us to send more troops, and it’s nuts for us to phase them out. Granted, I have now violated the first rule of contemporary punditry, which requires that, in all circumstances, we shall declare ourselves inflexibly pro or con. Guilty as charged. But I invite you to ponder Afghanistan, to weigh the factual against the counterfactual, and see how it feels. I’d bet that Barack Obama’s team is already raiding the medicine cabinet. As a domestic political headache, Afghanistan has the potential to be far worse than the current flap over health-care reform. For instance, consider what could happen if we stay if, as expected, Obama says yes to the U.S. military’s reportedly imminent request for more troops, perhaps by upping the current 68,000 to roughly 100,000. The Afghan people might begin to view us as occupiers. The violent extremists could exploit that as a propaganda tool, stoking anti-Western sentiment in neighboring Pakistan and that doesn’t seem like an attractive scenario, given the fact that Pakistan has nukes. But think about what might happen if we go. The jihadists in Pakistan could exploit our pullout as a propaganda opportunity to paint us as weak. They’d likely feel emboldened to wreak more havoc and that doesn’t seem like an attractive scenario, given the fact that Pakistan has nukes. So maybe we should stay, and indeed double down on our presence. But the problem is that we’re risking soldiers’ lives to shore up a rampantly corrupt, legitimacy-challenged regime that may well have stolen the August election. President Hamid Karzai’s running mate is an accused drug dealer, for Pete’s sake. We’re launching a nation-building project in a tribal backwater that has confounded empires for centuries; in terms of civic - See STAY, page 11 Web Editor Karlie Brand About letters • Letters should be limited to 400 words. • All letters may be shortened, edited or rejected for reasons of good taste, redundancy or volume of similar letters. • Letters must be topic oriented. They may not be directed toward individuals. Any letter directed to a specific individual may be edited or not printed. • No anonymous letters will be published. Writers must sign all letters and include a phone number or email address as well as a student identification number (none of which is published). Letters will not be printed without this verification. • Letters representing groups – or more than one individual – must have a singular representative clearly stated, with all necessary identification information. • Writers must wait 21 days before submitting successive letters – no exceptions. • Letters can be hand delivered or mailed to The Statesman in the TSC, Room 105, or can be e-mailed to statesman@aggiemail. usu.edu, or click on www.aggietownsquare.com for more letter guidelines and a box to submit letters. (Link: About Us.) Online poll With new football coach Gary Anderson taking the helm, The Utah Statesman wants to know, how many games do you think the Aggies will win this season? • Three or less. • Between four and six. • Between seven and nine. • Ten or more. Visit us on the Web at www.aggietownsquare. com to cast your vote. |