University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 27, Ed. 1 Friday, February 7, 2003 Page: 3 of 6
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University Press Friday, February 7, 2003 Page 3
University Press
Editor............................................................Dennis Kutac
Managing Editor..............................................Julie Gipson
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.
Letters to the Editor
Student disagrees
with UP columnist
Editor:
This is in response to Patrick Gurski’s column
‘“Bush'whackedas printed on page 3 of the University Press
on Jan. 31,2003:
Patrick Gurski wrote, “Don’t be swayed by what the pres-
ident says because he’s the president. He wants two things for
Americans: To keep their kids away from war, and to make
them rich — oh, wait, that’s if you’re rich, white and
Republican.”
To systematically undermine the Office of the President
of the United States is reprehensible, regardless of who occu-
pies it.
There are many among us who do not like the current
president’s views. The right to voice dissension is one of the
things that make this country great!
However to accuse someone of being racist is very seri-
ous and should not be done simply to undermine one’s credi-
bility; some would call that slander!
“A tax cut means reducing taxes for the richest 1 per-
cent....” Is this 1 percent the same ones who have paid a high-
er percentage in taxes than the less wealthy? I have never
heard anyone complain about that being unfair (other than
the ones paying the higher rate).
Does the tax cut also mean no one else will receive a
break? It is incredulous that Mr. Gurski claims to know how
the proposed budget will work when the official copy was
released to congress on Feb. 3,2003. That was 3 days after his
defamatory article was published! How insightful can an opin-
ion be without due deliberation?
Opinions vary, especially when it comes to politics. To
voice an opinion is the right of every American, but be ready
to explain that opinion when it includes accusations as serious
as racism. No one deserves to be accused of a crime without
proof, regardless! There are those that do not want to go to
war, and there are some good reasons not to.
Consider this: a militant group takes control of the U.S.
and systematically deprives the citizens of freedom and
rations out plentiful doses of barbaric torture for dissidents.
Would you want the world to stand back and watch if you
were the oppressed? It is easy to pass a stranded motorist but
would you like to be passed if you were stranded? Is our
natiop perfect? It certainly is not.
No nation istwithout faults. I believe that The United
States of America is the greatest nation on earth. For those
who do not share this sentiment I ask: Why are you settling for
less than the best? Why not actively seek and obtain permis-
sion to become a citizen of any country you deem more suit-
able and move there!?!?
Randall Ruddick
Vidor
Letters to the Editor
Individuals who wish to speak out on 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 Setter Student Center. The writer’s name,
address, telephone number and social security number
must accompany each letter. Letters received without
this information cannot be printed. Letters may be
edited for length, grammar, style and possible libel.
Opinions 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 published.
Don’t lose sight of the stars
Mankind has always held a
fascination with the stars.
Before we even knew what
they were, we prayed to the
sun and danced in the light of
the moon. As our technology
advanced, however, we began
to lose some of our childlike
awe at the magnificence of the
universe. We became comfort-
able with the idea of sending
our most outstanding scientists
and teachers into the un-
known.
On its 28th flight into space
the Columbia, 22 years old and
carrying a diverse crew of
seven of the world’s great
minds, met with its fate. The
ship and its astronauts were 15
minutes from home and more
than 200,000 feet over Texas
when they were lost to a yet
undetermined cause.
With the crew and the ship
seemed to go much of the
world’s confidence in the space
shuttle program, although
some say that three losses in
more than 100 missions isn’t a
bad record, considering the
nature of the program. The
astronauts are propelled into
space by what is essentially a
massive load of dynamite, sent
flying out of the safehold of
gravity, and expected to glide
effortlessly back to Earth in a
machine that is made up of
more than 2 million parts. With
so much that could go wrong,
so much has really gone right.
But that is not a good
enough reason to continue to
put off the creation of a new
generation of spacecraft. As-
tronauts are still flying in the
same type of machines they
piloted into space 30 years ago.
Few people drive automobiles
that long.
Budget cuts to the space
program have left many won-
dering how NASA is going to
continue exploring space with-
out the funding that is so nec-
essary to ensure the safety of
the astronauts and parlay our
technological advances into an
updated craft.
There is no need to put off
the scientific research aspect of
the space program. Many of
the scientific experiments con-
ducted on board the space
shuttles could be done without
humans aboard to monitor
them. Until NASA can pro-
vide its astronauts with a safer
alternative to the outdated
shuttle they’ve been using, the
only spacecrafts lifting off
should be unmanned.
Discontinuing our manned
space flights until we can cre-
ate a fleet of modern-day crafts
is a frightening thought for our
country because, for so long,
we’ve been at the forefront of
human exploration into space.
In order to continue to lead the
world into the “final frontier”
of space, however, we must be
able to show a little courage,
put aside our competitive spir-
its, and do what is right.
We must continue to inves-
tigate the wonders of space
because we are a country of
explorers.
Nothing great has ever
been achieved without sacri-
fice. Giving up on space travel
would be a travesty to the men
and women who died to fur-
ther our reach into space.
But changes must be made
before another crew can be
sent up.
Money, not women, is real Title IX issue
WASHINGTON — For one gold-
en moment during a recent meeting of
the president’s advisory commission
on Title IX, the 15-member panel on
gender equity in school sports actually
bumped into the central issue: money.
It was not whether female athletes
in high school and college deserve to
have as many athletic opportunities as
their male counterparts do, although
some hard-shelled troglodytes insist
that they don’t.
Nor is the core issue a question of
whether female athletes want to have
equal sports opportunities. Some Title
IX critics continue to belabor the gap
in male-female enthusiasm, but such
attitudes are largely based on stereo-
types with which most of us grow up.
Boys are supposed to be the play-
ers, you know, while girls are supposed
to be the cheerleaders.
But stereotypes change, however
slowly, along with our aspirations.
After the 1972 passage of Title IX,
which applies to all educational pro-
grams that receive federal funds, the
number of women in NCAA intercol-
legiate sports programs grew from
fewer than 30,000 to almost 151,000 by
2000.
At the high school level, female
athletes increased from 294,000 to
nearly 2.8 million during the same
period.
It appears, if I may paraphrase
“Field of Dreams,” that, if you open
the slots, they—the women—will
come.
No, the real issue that brought the
Title IX panel together is whether the
opening of opportunity in female
sports means that opportunities in
male sports must be closed.
In other words, the problem is not
women in sports; it’s how colleges
decide to spend sports money.
With remarkable unanimity, all 13
of the commission members who
attended last week’s meeting called on
educational institutions to “pursue all
other alternatives before cutting or
capping any team” in order to comply
with Title IX.
Left unwritten was the word that
almost certainly was on everyone’s
mind: “men’s.”
It is men’s teams who get cut and
capped to create opportunities for
women.
Or at least that’s what college offi-
cials tell shocked and disappointed
wrestlers, swimmers, lacrosse players
and others who find their program has
been cut.
Whether a Title IX “quota” was
truly at fault or not, it makes a handy
excuse, just as a nonexistent affirma-
tive action “quota” is a handy way for
a job interviewer to reject someone
who wasn’t going to get the job any-
way.
Just once I would like to hear an
NCAA Division I-A college athletic
program say something honest like,
“I’m sorry but we’ve got to cut the
wrestling program so we can keep our
football bench bloated with 85 scholar-
ships, even though the NFL somehow
gets along with 45 players.”
Instead, the coaches howl and
moan about how their bench is going
to be dangerously thin if they give up
any of their precious scholarships. In
fact, they said the same thing when
scholarships were cut from 105 to 95 in
1978 and again to 85 in the early ’90s.
But, then, to paraphrase ESPN’s
current ads, without sports, coaches
would find something else to gripe and
moan about.
So you could see trouble coming
when the Bush administration stacked
10 out of the 15 Title IX panel seats
with athletic directors from big foot-
ball schools, the worst perpetrators of
gender discrimination in sports.
Fortunately, the commission,
which makes recommendations to
Secretary of Education Rod Paige for
final action, decided not to rip the
innards out of Title IX as much as its
most ardent defenders feared. That’s
just as well. A recent USA Today poll
found that seven out of 10 Americans
believe the law should be strengthened
or left as it is. As much as some of its
critics want to call it social engineering,
Title IX has done much more good
than harm.
The bigger problem for women’s
sports is not that women don’t want to
play, but that not enough people want
to watch them play. Happily, their fan
base is growing, thanks to the legacy of
Title IX.
Mend it, Secretary Paige; Don’t
end it. Opening sports opportunities
for women does not have to mean
shutting the door unfairly on opportu-
nities for men.
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Kutac, Dennis. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 27, Ed. 1 Friday, February 7, 2003, newspaper, February 7, 2003; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth500923/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.