University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, September 26, 2003 Page: 3 of 4
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University Press
Editor..................... Patrick Gurski
Managing Editor .. ..... Holly Westbrook
The opinions that appear in editorials are the
official views of the University Press student man-
agement as determined by the UP Student Editorial
Board. Opinions expressed elsewhere on this page
are the views of the writers only and are not neces-
Umversity Press
Friday, September 26, 2003
P
AGE
sarily those of the University Press student manage-
ment. Student opinions are not necessarily those of
" the university administration.
—...........
California High School
Caucasian Club hasM right to form
UP Editorial
American
students
fall behind
Just as money can’t buy happi-
ness, it apparently can’t buy a qual-
ity education either. Not in this
country.
A new report issued last week
identifies an alarming fact: The
U.S. spends more public and pri-
vate money on education than any
other industrialized country; but,
overall, American students are
barely average in areas ranging
from high school graduation rates
to test scores in math, reading and
science.
According to an annual review
of 25 industrialized nations pro-
duced by the Paris-based
Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development,
the U.S. spent $10,240 per student
from elementary school through
college in 2000, well above the
average of $6,361 among more
than 25 nations.
The performance of 15-year-old
American students on tests was a
stunning under-achievement. In
math, U.S. students ranked 19th,
behind even the Czech Republic;
in reading, 15th; in science, 14th....
Education in the U.S. today
remains in a state of serious dis-
connect between money spent and
results achieved. But money does-
n’t seem to be the real problem.
Federal education spending has
grown by $11 billion since
President Bush took office.
Whether some like it or not, the
No Child Left Behind law should
be only a beginning.
Much more creative re-thinking
throughout the entire system is
essential if the next generation of
young people is to excel.
Otherwise, American students
will have fallen so far behind they
may never catch up.
The Meridian (Miss.) Star
Letters
to the Editor
Individuals who wish to speak out oh issues
should send a letter fewer than 600 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
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expressed in letters are not necessarily those
of the UP student management. Letters by
the same writer on the same subject will not
be published. Poetry, reprints, anonymous
letters and religious debates-will not be pub-
lished.
I was watching “Tough Crowd with Colin
Quinn” on Comedy Central recently when
the group of five comedians broached a tricky
topic: race.
The discussion was over a group of stu-
dents who wanted to form a Caucasian Club
at Freedom High School in Oakley, Calif., —
a club which would welcome all races.
Throughout the comics’ heated debate,
some of them compared the group to other
cultural organizations such as Vietnamese
and black associations. Others said that as
soon as the students get the OK to form the
group, they won’t care about it anymore.
I don’t understand why there is a debate
at all about whether the students should be
allowed to form this organization.
Race is a topic that Americans often tip-
toe around and wade carefully through,
preferably ignoring the subject altogether.
It is a fact of life in our country that we
have a wide mix of cultures. Our diversity is
one of America’s greatest strengths, along
with freedom of speech.
Blacks, Asians and Hispanics have con-
tributed many great accomplishments to our
society, but they are not the only ones.
This school group should be allowed to
discover and discuss what white culture is and
important social issues that go with it.
So, why not? I ask. Let the students have
their organization? The idea, conceived by 15-
year-old Lisa McClelland, is receiving nation-
by holly Westbrook
al media attention from shows such as “Tough
Crowd” to columns such as this. But will it
help? The principal has vetoed attempts to
start such a club in the past and it is still
unknown how he will rule.
Our society has all sorts of groups from
gay and lesbian to greeks to knitting, and
incorporating ethnicity, such as Irish-, Italian-
and Jewish-Americans.
If anyone wants to get together to discuss,
celebrate or have a particular kinship on a
particular topic, I say let them — as long as
they don’t make it into a KKK-like organiza-
tion.
Freedom High already has a Black
Student Union, a Latinos Unidos and an
ALOHA Club for Asian-Americans. So why
can’t McClelland, who is white, and some 20
other students, who have already signed up,
not all of whom are white, form a Caucasian
Club?
McClelland views the potential club as a
place where members can gather to discuss
racial dynamics. I don’t see this young lady as
one to form a dogmatic organization that
would offend others — she is also a member
of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance.
Opposition for the club has been stiff. The
National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People is among those who are
opposed to the club and its name.
Supporters have proposed new names for
the club, such as the White Heritage Club, to
try to resolve this issue; but these names will
still offend some.
Even some members of the Black
Student Union feel that if there is a black club
there should be a white club, too.
McClelland collected more than 300
names on a petition requesting permission to
form the club. The list included students and
adults of various races.
The principal should not deny permission
when there are other clubs discussing social
and racial issues at the school.
If we have come so far along the road to
Martin Luther King’s dream society, why has
this topic become the center of a national
debate?
Maybe we haven’t come as far as we
would like.
And maybe that is exactly why this club is
even being proposed.
Reach this writer at
hmw4319@hal.lamar.edu
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Bush blurred line between Saddam, 9-11
WASHINGTON — One of my favorite
mayors of all time, the late great Harold
Washington of Chicago, used to talk about politi-
cians who "throw the rock, then hide their
hand."
That image vividly came to mind last week
as President Bush admitted, with all the wide-
eyed innocence of a kid caught with his hand in
a cookie jar and with crumbs on his Ups (" What?
Who? Me.?"),that, "We've had no evidence that
Saddam Hussein was involved with Sept. 11."
Yet, a poll conducted by The Washington
Post last month found that 69 percent of
Americans beheve Hussein probably was per-
sonally involved anyway.
So where do people get this zany idea that
Saddam and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were
connected?
Do seven out of 10 Americans think all
Arabs and Muslims look aUke?
Are Americans too geo-poHtically ilHterate
to know Iraq from a hard place?
Or, ah-ha, have our leaders misled us?
The White House has never definitively
declared a link between Iraq and Sept. 11. Yet,
Team Bush has chosen its words in ways that
expertly avoid declaring such a link even as they
strongly suggest one anyway.
"We know Iraq and the AI Qaeda terrorist
network share a common enemy: The United
States of America," Bush said in his televised
address in which he made his case for an inva-
sion of Iraq last October.
"The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on
terror that began on Sept. 11,2001 — and still
goes on," he said from the deck of an aircraft
carrier on May 1, in a speech in which he
declared an end to major combat in Iraq.
"With those attacks" on Sept. 11, Bush said,
"the terrorists and their supporters declared war
by clarence PAGE
on the United States. And war is what they got."
"We've learned that Iraq has trained Al
Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons
and deadly gases," the President said in his Oct.
7 speech in Cincinnati. "And we know that after
Sept. 11, Saddam Hussein's regime gleefully cel-
ebrated the terrorist attacks on America."
Vice President Cheney didn't let up last
Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," when he
said, "If we're successful in Iraq, then we will
have struck a major blow right at the heart of the
base, if you wiU, the geographic base of the ter-
rorists who have had us under assault now for
many years, but most especially on 9/11."
"Nine-eleven?" Wrong, Bush confirmed
three days later.
Still, while discarding the Saddam-Sept. 11
link, the President clung to his belief that
Hussein was linked to Al Qaeda, even though
the evidence to support that has been shaky
when it has not been completely discredited.
But some still will say, so what? The United
States deposed an "evil dictator," as Bush prom-
ised. True enough. But deposing evil dictator was
not the reason why most Americans thought
they were going to war.
Most apparently thought they were striking
at the core of what Bush was portraying as the
terrorist networks behind 9/11. In fact, we were
bombing the outskirts at best, while the central
battle to find bin Laden and break up Al Qaeda
was going on miles away in Pakistan and
Afghanistan.
Judging by the polls—and some of the mail
I have received — most Americans sent our
troops to war with the belief that the fighting
was connected to Sept. 11. Those of us who were
paying close attention might have made the
transition from Osama and Afghanistan to Iraq
and Hussein, but most of the public did not
make it with us.
And Team Bush, whipping up their anti-
Saddam frenzy, did what they could to blur the
distinctions.
Fewer people would care now were it not
for the way the war's other underpinnings have
fallen like dominoes. The Iraq Survey Group,
with 1,500 experts, has been busily looking for
weapons of mass destruction for five months,
without finding any. The results have convinced
Hans Blix, chief U.N. weapons inspector, that
Iraq destroyed all its unconventional weapons a
decade ago — but wouldn't admit it.
Right. That would be sort of like putting up
a "Danger Vicious Dog" sign to scare away bur-
glars when you don't really have a dog. It
appears that Bush did not have as much of a dog
in Iraq as he wanted us to believe, either.
Meanwhile, American troop casualties
mount and polls show most of the public oppos-
es spending the additional $87 billion Bush has
requested for Iraq and Afghanistan. They'd
rather spend it at home.
Maybe a simple apology to the American
people would help the president's case. People
forgive honest mistakes. They don't like to be
fooled.
Reach this writer at
cpage@tribune.com
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Gurski, Patrick. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, September 26, 2003, newspaper, September 26, 2003; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth500590/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.