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Show Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011 Page 10 V • el 0 Pin I --Free Speech Zone Opinions on this page (columns, letters unless otherwise identified are not from Utah Statesman staff, but from a wide variety of members of the campus community who have strong opinions, just like you do! This is an open forum. Want to write something? Contact: statesman@aggiemail.usu.edu Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.utahstatesman.com OurVi ew Abo ut US Editor in Chief Platforms are more impressive than iPads Catherine Meidell Copy Editor D. Whitney Smith News Editor I n Tuesday night's ASUSU Executive Council meeting, a bill was discussed that will once again change an aspect of election week policies. This particular policy is one we've been waiting for. With the constant growth and convenience of technology, candidates spend a lot of their time chasing down potential voters with the voting website pulled up and ready to go on their handy computers, iPads and smartphones. With this new bill, candidates can have this equipment while campaigning, but cannot approach students with it in their hands. They cannot bribe voters to come to their computers. So electronics can be present, but not shoved down students' throats. Campaigning like leeches may be effective, but is it ethical? Maybe not. When a candidate hands a student a fancy piece of machinery they are automatically going to feel pressure to vote for that person without knowing their platforms. With a candidate standing right there, looking over a student's shoulder, it's too awkward to turn the candidate's plea down. Some voters will then ask candidates for advice on who else to vote for. ASUSU Executive Council and college senator candidates have the tendency to tell voters to vote for those they want to be in office with for the year. These people are usually their buddies. Another tactic is to go door to door with these electronic things in hand. They go into students' apartments, flirt a bit and get votes from entire apartments and dorms. In fact, two members of The Statesman staff ran for office in the past and said they feel not having direct access to this technology was a detriment to the outcome of their campaign. Unfortunately, campus elections tend to be about the flashy and impressive nature of candidates' campaigns. While yes, the elections committee sets rules about how much money can be spent, many candidates try to spend as little as possible. They are in fact still poor college students. Then come the ones who do have money. The $400 limit for campaigning seems minimal, and they go all out. The candidates giving out the best hot chocolate or the best coupons, or those forcing the technology down throats of voters, are the ones who win. Students don't often listen to what the candidates have to say or the goals they hope to accomplish while in office. It is all about the attention-grabbing effects, the free food and the persistence that makes us all want to avoid the strip of sidewalk plagued by eager candidates. Supposedly, this "no computers" policy was going to be enforced during last year's elections, but no one did anything about it, so they were used anyway. Hopefully, this year will be different, and may the best candidate win. Radio may as well censor entire songs Listening to the radio 414 4 • and hearing blanks suddenly appear in the middle of the lyrics is a vexing thing. Even though I know exactly what's being said — or at least I'm 90 percent sure — hearing the lyrics deleted or blurred draws much more attention to the expletive in question than if the song were allowed to play and I was allowed to listen. The Federal Communications Commission regulates nationwide radio play, but the line around what is and is not appropriate, and therefore edited, is difficult to draw. The FCC uses three rules when deciding what is appropriate: (1) An average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the material, as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; (2) The material must depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law; and (3) The material, taken as a whole, must lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. The thing that really bothers me about radio edits Lazen io Up LIZ EMERY See WORDS, Page 11 Rob Jepson Assistant News Editor Megan Allen Features Editor Kellyn Neumann Assistant Features Editor Allee Evensen Sports Editor Tavin Stucki Assistant Sports Editor Tyler Huskinson ForumLetters Toss out the knitted headbands To the editor: I notice a pattern of fashion sweep over USU's campus each year as winter fast approaches. The obvious are jeans replacing shorts, jackets and long sleeves that hide sun-browned shoulders, fewer flipflops are noticeable — except for you few brave souls who have the tenacity to show off your frostbitten toes to the rest of us — and last, but certainly not least, girls' heads become wrapped in giant, knitted head sweaters. Don't get me wrong, I'm assuming these "head sweaters" serve a sensible purpose, such as keeping one's ears warm. However, it's difficult to identify their use when all I notice are these things covering, not only ears, but entire faces, excluding a ponytail or two. And what's worse is that once inside, you girls refuse to take them off. This makes me question their use after all. Are they designed to keep ears warm or consume the entire upper-half of your body in the name of fashion? My purpose in writing this letter is to point out that I do not understand the purpose of the head sweater, and also to say "Girls, you look stupid." I mean that in the nicest way I could possibly put it. Maybe, the majority of us are nowhere near graduating and about to embark on journeys toward hard-earned careers, but we are college students, and we are responsible for looking professional and acting the part of what we're working toward. I'm positive you'll never wear a head sweater while teaching your seventh grade English class, preparing lab samples, giving immunizations, broadcasting a business proposal or simply sitting behind a desk configuring statistics — unless the figures represent a headsweater count, of sorts. In short, stop dressing like you're 12 years old and start representing the person you want to be. Head sweaters are a small representation of how sloppy we look as col- Photo Editor Ani Mirzakhanyan Letters to the editor • A public forum lege students. I could go on and on about how ridiculous it looks when we show up for class in sweats, slippers and giant fake flowers in our hair. The bottom line is everyone already knows this, and for some reason girls continue to persist. Dress for success. Ditch the head sweaters. Michel Funk There are multiple biological addictions Assistant Photo Editor Carl R. Wilson Web Editor Steve Kent Editorial Board Catherine Meidell Rob Jepson Kellyn Neumann Tavin Stucki Ani Mirzakhanyan D. Whitney Smith Steve Kent About letters • Letters should be limited to 400 • To the editor: While I am fully supportive of the righteous initiative the anti-pornography group Fight the New Drug is taking on campus, I would like to warn my fellow students about a more dangerous epidemic of addiction that all citizens must be educated about. I am so impressed by the zeal and positive messages of the anti-pornography club that I have a proposal for their leadership. I ask See LETTERS, Page 11 • • You may be liberal and not know it Mothers grab your kids and get them inside the house — I'm about to cause a stir. I'd like to clear the air about a few things, and I'll get straight to it. Just because you vote Republican and think you're perfect doesn't mean you're going to heaven. Somewhere along the line, folks got the idea that being a Mormon — or Christian of any kind — means their vote goes in one direction: to the right. Aside from the fact government is broken and politics have become some kind of masochistic way for the American public to make itself look bad to the rest of the world, I'd like to remind you that even if you're a conservative thinker, it doesn't mean you have to vote "conservative." Utah was a blue state up until a couple of decades ago. The LDS faith is not historically viewed as a conservative American institution. I'll remind you MhXg • all that the From the majority of soap box people think we Mormons h a v e extreme views — I know, being LDS myself, that isn't true — and our religion didn't get to where it is by supporting Republican leaders. Unfortunately, though, conservative LDS views started getting confused for Republican political ideologies. What makes it worse is we have all these politicians in Utah who would like us to think they do what they do because they have some kind of direct line with God. Well, they don't. The only direct line they're worried about is their See CHRISTIAN, Page 11 ingismVs •UsINEW DAILY eallei coact:Rs. coM I'LL HELP WITH NO\1R lvICRTZAQSZ, NOVIR CAR AND STUDENT LOAN% TM A."1-1A13D- OW PRESIDENT. www investors nom/cartoons • • • 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 e-mail 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.utahstatesman.com for more letter guidelines and a box to submit letters. |