University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, November 30, 2001 Page: 3 of 40
forty pages : ill. ; page 23 x 13 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
- Highlighting
- Highlighting On/Off
- Color:
- Adjust Image
- Rotate Left
- Rotate Right
- Brightness, Contrast, etc. (Experimental)
- Cropping Tool
- Download Sizes
- Preview all sizes/dimensions or...
- Download Thumbnail
- Download Small
- Download Medium
- Download Large
- High Resolution Files
- IIIF Image JSON
- IIIF Image URL
- Accessibility
- View Extracted Text
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
UPbditorial
University Press • Friday, November 30,2001 • Page |
University Press
Editor............................................................................Kasey Jordan
Managing Editor..............................................................Tara Smith
The opinions that appear in editorials are the official views of
the University Press student management as determined by the UP
Student Editorial Board. Opinions expressed elsewhere on this
page are the views of the writers only and are not necessarily those
of the University Press student management. Student opinions are
not necessarily those of the university administration.
Editorial
Don’t ‘freak out’
The ‘real world’
mav not be so bad
The “real world.” Sounds scary, huh?
Most kids who are just finishing up high
school and preparing to enter college think they
are about to embark on their journey into the
“real world.” But, come on guys, let’s really
think about it.
Most college students are somewhat sup-
ported by their parents straight out of high
school. I know, some of you guys are paying for
everything yourselves, but I’m talking about the
majority here.
Whether it is “just” the car insurance or the
car note, or “just” school tuition and nothing
more, or you are “just” living under their roof,
you still haven’t completely made it through to
the “real world.”
The “real world” means responsibility sole
responsibility. It means getting a “real” job with
“real” hours and “real” benefits like health
insurance.
And, it “really” is scary.
Here’s the point: Now is the time, while you
are still molding your future, to plan for your
leap in to the “real world.”
Now is the time to start getting involved in
leadership activities on campus, and now is the
time to think about what your GPA will be at
graduation. These things are so important in
reality, and they can determine whether or not
you get a really good job.
If you are prepared, the “real world” won’t
be so scary. You might even land a job making
enough money to pay your parents back for all
of that support they gave you during college.
Yeah, right.
University Press
©2001 University Press
News
Editor..........................................Kasey Jordan
Managing Editor...................... Tara Smith
Sports Editor..................................R.J. Enard
News Editor..............................Daniel Chand
Entertainment Editor..............Jenny Achilles
Features Editor.........................Dennis Kutac
Photo Editor................................Andy Taylor
Staff Writers.......................Catherine Wright,
Christopher Williams, Holly Westbrook,
Charisse Dengler,Jaime Espinosa,
Frank Giarratano, Greg Hayes,
Aleksandar Heckner,
David Holt, Mike Tobias
Photography
Photographers........Kevin Gilliam, Blair Roy,
Robert Alvarado, Patrick Patterson
Office Manager......................Allison Caillier
Advertising Assistant...........Chrisa Ponthieu
Director..........................................Howard Perkins
Assistant Director..........................Andy Coughlan
Advertising Manager.........................Linda Barrett
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Individuals who wish to speak out on issues should send
a letter fewer than 400 words in length to Letters to the
Editor, P.O. Box 10055, LU Station, Beaumont
77710, or drop letters off at our offices in 200 Setzer
Student Center. The writer’s name, address, telephone
number and social security number must accompany
each letter. Letters received without this information can-
not be printed. Letters may be edited for length, gram-
mar, style and possible libel. Opinions expressed in let-
ters are not necessarily those of the UP student manage-
ment. Letters by the same writer on the same subject will
not be published. Poetry, reprints, anonymous letters and
religious debates will not be published.
The art of absolutely nothing
It is yet another column about sani-
ty. Well, sort of.
You see, I think that a few of you did
not get the point of my last column.
How do I know this? Because I have
seen you on campus, or in the office, walk-
ing around, looking cross, confused and
fretting about everything under the sun.
As soon as my National Day of
Sanity was over, I too began walking in
circles and going a bit nuts because of all
the the work I have had to do since the
semester is ending.
So, once again, I plea that you keep
your wits about you.
How will we do this? I’ll tell you —
by doing absolutely nothing! Nothing is
what this column is all about. Nothing
has become one of my favorite things.
And I am not alone. Other people
want you to benefit from doing nothing
too.
John Lennon, otherwise known as
The Thinking Man’s Beatle, promoted
doing nothing with his song “I’m Only
Sleeping” on the Revolver album.
He sang, "Everybody seems to think
I am lazy. I don't mind, I think they're
crazy. Running everywhere at such a
speed. Until they find - there's no need.
Please, don't spoil my day. I’m miles
away. And after all I’m only sleeping.”
Another case in point — the TV
show “Seinfeld.”
What was that show really about? It
was, perhaps, about nothing. Nothing is
really hilarious, isn’t it?
How could this ,be? How could
artists promote such sloth, laziness and
nothingness?
Lennon and Seinfeld, by current
American and international measures,
are, or were, productive, highly success-
ful members of society.
While I am not sure about every-
thing it takes to make a piece of art or a
TV show work, I think I may know a lit-
tle part of the ingredient.
Lennon and Seinfeld, were success-
ful partly because their welcoming of
rest, reflection and musing simply for the
sake of musing.
Rest, inactivity, nothingness is the
cure for a world brimming with yang.
And, frankly, this semester, I have
been yanged to near death! (That almost
sounds inappropriate).
There have been so many tests and-
projects that any moment of simplicity,
of just nothing, makes me ecstatic.
So, over the upcoming holidays, try
doing nothing.
That is what I plan on doing.
I don’t know if I will ever come out
with something like Lennon or Seinfeld,
but I guess I won’t know until I try.
..WNS WWRP4
TOeN5AKO£FICl005
R5CK4S& frUDltie
ywremug;...
Friendly warning from lover of liberty
NEW YORK CITY — Priests, burglars
and psychiatrists know the same truth
about human nature: Sometimes it
takes the eyes of an outsider to let us
know how much we have and how easi-
ly we can lose it.
Argentine journalist Horacio
Verbitsky (cq) offered such a valuable
outsider’s view last Tuesday night at the
annual Press Freedom Awards dinner
sponsored by the New York-based
Committee to Protect Journalists.
Sometimes called “el perro” (the
dog) for his terrier-like pursuit of cor-
ruption and other abuses of govern-
ment power, Verbitsky was one of four
journalists from around the world who
were honored for practicing excellent
journalism in spite of government
opposition.
He thanked the gathering of major
American media editors, executives,
anchors and reporters on behalf of the
casualties of Argentina’s so-called
“dirty war,” which lasted from 1976 to
1983. The victims included 100 journal-
ists who were kidnapped, tortured and
killed, and 30,000 other people who
were “disappeared.”
Then, he turned the tables a bit by-
offering some timely and memorable
advice to us, his American colleagues,
now getting a first-hand taste of the ter-
ror with which he and other independ-
ent Argentine voices have lived for
years.
“After the appalling Sept. 11 ter-
rorist attacks, the United States may be
tempted to erode its high standards of
free expression, to restrict its own liber-
ties and to ignore the suffering of other
people,” he said.
“We read in the American press
that due process is at stake and even
the possible use of torture is being
debated. We hear your president talk of
being either ‘for us or against us.’
“Worst of all, we see the huge pop-
ularity of this approach.
“In this context, Argentine experi-
ence can be useful, in spite of our obvi-
ously different political cultures and
Commentary
Clarence
Page
Tribune Media Syndicated Columnist
history.
“In our country, we learned that
sacrificing civil liberties and human
rights standards in the name of security
has devastating effects; that under
every circumstance the civilized values
cannot be protected by any means; that
our commitment as journalists must be
to the truth, not to any government;
that fights between absolute Good and
Evil, as theology teaches us, usually
lead to Apocalypse.”
Thank you, Horacio. Indeed, the
differences between the American and
Argentine experiences are “obvious,”
but the similarities are chilling.
Look around and you can see the
similarities gathering like a storm cloud
on the horizon as the executive branch
of our government takes unprecedent-
ed powers of arrest and trial unto itself.
Media, meanwhile, are encouraged
to stand back and accept the govern-
ment’s informational handouts in the
interest of a very narrowly defined
patriotism.
You can see the similarities to our
worst nightmares in the veil of silence
that surrounds the Justice
Department’s roundup of more than a
thousand immigrants, about half of
whom have been released, for question-
ing as possibly connected to terrorists.
At least the government has not started
rounding up citizens for such suspi-
cions. Yet.
Either way, it will be harder for
Americans to criticize “preventive
detention” by other countries after
practicing it in our own undeclared
state of emergency.
Now President Bush has author-
ized secret trials for terror suspects
before an American military tribunal.
That means there would be no
media coverage or jury of one’s peers.,
Past presidents waited before dis-
carding those cherished traditions until
war had been declared officially. The i
Bush administration has been mov-
ing swiftly to gather such powers in the
heat of fear and rage following the 9-11
terror attacks, often leaving Congress
out of the mix.
Congressional leaders aren’t quite
buying it. Senators Patrick Leahy, D~
Vt., and Orrin Hatch R-Utah, the
Democratic chairman and rankinjg
Republican on the Senate Judiciary
Committee, have criticized the reluc-
tance of their former Senate colleague,
Attorney General John Ashcroft, to
come before hearings to talk about his
newly broadened powers. He’s busy,
Ashcroft’s office tells them.
On the House side, conservative
Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., joined a group of
liberal Democrats before Thanksgiving
to call for hearings, as well. I wish them
well. Congress and the courts providfe
the most effective constitutional check
on executive power. So, in our less for-
mal way, do the media.
Verbitsky reminds us that power,
once extended, is not easy to retract,
especially when the “crisis” or “state of
emergency” is as broadly defined and
open-ended as a true “war against ter-
rorism” would be.
When Thomas Jefferson said the price
of liberty is eternal vigilance, he wasn’t
just talking about our vigilance toward
outsiders. He, too, saw how power had
been abused overseas. He did not want
to see such abuses repeated here.
Neither should we.
Should we automatically oppose every
increase in executive power? Hardly.
When confronted with a real enemy in
a time of real crisis, some increase in
executive power often is necessary.
But it should come with somebody’s
oversight, like that of Congress, the
courts and members of a truly inde-
pendent news media who are always
ready and willing to be watchdogs, not
lapdogs.
r
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Matching Search Results
View 31 places within this issue that match your search.Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Jordan, Kasey A. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, November 30, 2001, newspaper, November 30, 2001; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth500581/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.