The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 21, 1997 Page: 4 of 16
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His
I ' I' 1
iliiiliii
Till-: HK E I UK),SI IKK
Uu
ives new perspectivi
On Sept. Hi, my birthday, there
was a total eclipse of the moon that it
•at e process is fading fast as
s its way toward joining the
a part of everyday life.
America comes to a stanc
everyone in America missed, be casualty list. Everywhere one looks, wake of such events, the i
mens of thos^lfflsrael barely turns a if
I .«
cause it was only visible from this
side of the planet. It was very beau-
tiful, and I felt fortunate to
be able to see it on my
birthday, here in the holy
city of Jerusalem How-
ever, 1 found out later that
this eclipse may not have-
been so benevolent.
A good friend of mine
who lives in the Old City
toid me that the ancient
Jewish rabbis interpreted
an eclipse of the moon as a
bad omen, foretelling an
unlucky year for the Jew-
ish people. This kind old gentleman
proceeded to say that when the
eclipsed moon is red. it means war
and bloodshed will follow. My birth-
day eclipse was red. Putting two and
two together. I began to realize the
implications this might have on the
situation here in the Holy Luul,
1 have been studying in Jerusa-
lem lor a little over three months
now. and already much has hap-
pened here. There have been two
suit ide terror bombings, several
missile attacks from U'banon and
numerous riots and clashes. Many
people have been killed, both inno-
cent civilians and soldiers. The so-
il appears that tl
ancient wise i
veeks. a tragedy
lit ' .
t was very <
Israe
ings,
even
• not feel on
il iorareth^y
ing to come to my He- more?
brew class and learn the There is a cactus that can only be
words for terrorism, found in Israel called the Sabra. It is
bomb and dead. It has very sharp arid prickly on the out-
been interesting, how- side, but soft and sweet on the in-
ever. to see the Israeli re- side.The Israelis often consider this
sponse to terrorist attack, plant a symbol of their own nature.
which has consistently They may seem cold and stern on
been different from what I imagine the outside, but one should not think
the American reaction would be. for a minute that they do n
Things like this are obviously
very sad and painful to the Israelis,
but, at the same time, they don't
bring life to a halt. For them, life
must go on. Absent here are the
mass outpourings of grief and sor-
row, although everyone feels these
emotions. We still have classes and
tests at school, businesses remain
open, and life continues as normal.
Normal. This word, I think, points
to the heart of the issue. "Normal"
here is quite different from the rest
of the world. Terrorism, war and
senseless death have sadly become
for a minute that they ■
the inside.
In times such as these, the feel-
ing is often one of pain. But they are
a very stubborn and prideful people.
Unfortunately, so are those who
oppose them. As these sides con-
tinue to struggle against each other
in a battle of will, the ancient omen
of the eclipsed moon may prove to
be all too real.
John William Vest is a Will Rice
College junior studying abroad at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmammmmmmm
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
NfcA, from Paye 2
because I somehow secretly feel it is
a sell-congratulatory code that can
only be understood by my fellow
sophisticates. I also happen to write
pop tunes, and I'll tell you this —
relatively, they take very little effort
on mv part.
But I would rather work hard and
give an audience the very best effort
and work llial I can, utilizing my
skills as a craftsman of music, and
take their pennies, than serve them
up a pile of rubbish that didn't take
anv effort on my part — and charge
lliem S3.r> per ticket to boot! It is out
of respect for the audience that 1
believe this. Nobility is not vested in
numbers Let'sbearin mind that the
most crass form of "art" there is —
pornography —- survives and pros-
pers very well in Makse's market-
place
Robert dross
graduate student
Shepherd School of Music
International
Job Skills
New professional Mj\. in Inter-
national Affairs 1 ii Interamerican
Studies prepares you rapidly for
exi iting < areers.
"1 envtK (omental studies
Column skirts issue,
trivializes real threat
To the editor
The following is an attempt at
defining terms, made in light of the
fact that Joseph Blocher's jumbled
parody/editorial ("Hussein's latest
rampage calls for swift retribution,"
Nov. 14) makes no such attempt.
Rampage: "Threatening to shoot
down American U-2 surveillance
planes"; "Hiding of evidence (that)
arouses suspicion."
Retribution: "BIFF! SOCK!
POW!"
Iraq ui President Saddam
Hussein's recent actions are cause
for great concern. Calling them a
rampage seems premature and dan-
gerous. Even without its unquali-
fied warmongering, the piece glar-
ingly lacks any consideration of what
"choices" we have. ,Ci
I am interested in knowing what
the "BIFF! SOCK! POW!" option
would entail. Strategic bombing? A
naval blockade? Ground forces?
Would any of these approaches work
any better than increasing or de-
creasing what Blocher feels are in-
effective U.N. sanctions? Does not
President Hussein share much of
the blame for his people's suffering
in ignoring the "sell oil for food and
medicine" clause written into the
sanctions? Irresponsibly implying
that the United States is being forced
to take military action against Iraq
should not serve to substitute for
addressing these kinds of questions.
If Blocher feels that his audience
is sophisticated enough to think
through these matters on its own,
he should not have assumed that it
would be amused by his attempt to
draw them into the article using the
Caped Crusader. Comparisons to
Batman in the piece contain neither
irony nor wit and serve only to soften
the reality of the situation.
Out of respect to veterans and
members of the U.S. military, 1 would
call describing in the same article
what Batman does and what the
military does unwise. Flippant re-
ductions serve no one; this article
gives the reader few reasons with
which to judge President Hussein's
actions as a rampage and even fewer
to believe in the necessity of retribu
tion.
Uince Uyeda
Baker College sophomore
■21. 1W7
School vouchers ineff*
dangerous to public education
Hie debate on school vouch-
ers has been colored with misin-
formation from the beginning, so
let me first explain what the
vouchers would actu-
ally be.
School vouchers
are, or would be. cer-
tain amounts of public-
money given to stu-
dents enrolled in pub-
lic school in order to
allo>v them to attend the
private school of their
choice. The reasoning
behind this seems to be
that public schools are
becoming worse and
worse, and the only alternative is
to spirit away kids to private
schools, with public money,
There are three inherent flaws in
this reasoning.
First, the money offered to
students does not nearly amount
to a free pass to private schools
for children oflower-income fami-
lies. Proponents of vouchers like
to paint them as the perfect ve-
hicle for "school choice." As one
of the most recent voucher plans
debated in Congress shows, how-
ever, this is not even close to the
truth.
School vouchers are
a solution only far the
well-to-do, while they
exacerbate real
problems...
The plan I refer to was the
proposal to provide 2,000 chil-
dren in Washington, D.C., with
scholarships of "up to" $3,200.
According to the American Civil
Liberties Union, the median cost
of private school tuition for an
academic year is $10,300. The
plan would leave the children of
low-income families (supposedly
the program's main beneficiaries)
in a situation where they are still
quite far from able to pay the
entire tuition. In point of fact, the
only people who could possibly
benefit from such a program are
higher-income families, for whom
"school choice" vouchers would
act as discount coupons.
On the other hand, if the
money were increased to full tu-
ition, there would then not be
enough to go around to benefit
every student. For instance, if full-
tuition vouchers were only given
to children of low-in-
come families, then
middle class children
would be left out. Are
we toassnme that they
do not have as much of
a right to "school
choice" as children of
low-income families?
If we only gave
vouchers to children
who scored a certain
amount on standard-
ized tests, the discrimi-
nation would be against those
whom the state deems "unexcep-
tional." A random selection pro-
cess would hurt all involved, while
doing little for the work ethic of
those left out. And, all the while,
we would be taking money out of
our public school coffers and hin
dering the academic progress and
growth of those unlucky enough
to be left behind.
Finally, public money should
not go those private schools run
by religious organizations, be-
cause governmental support of
religion is prohibited by the Es-
tablishment Clause of the First
Amendment of the U.S. Constitu-
tion. Although, of course, not all
private schools are parochial,
those that are should not get pub-
lic money. Some courts have al-
ready ruled on the constitutional-
ity of parochial school vouchers
and, as in Ohio last April and in
Wisconsin last January, the,Es-
tablishment Clause was cited to
disallow vouchers for religious
schools.
In theend, we must recognize
that school vouchers are a solu-
tion only for the well-to-do, and
that they exacerbate real prob-
lems by siphoning money away
from the public schools.
In some cases, they are even
unconstitutional. Public schools
can be run well, and just because
some are not does not mean we
should throw our hands in the air
and abandon one of our nation's
highest ideals — the education
of every child in the United States.
Let us concentrate on fixing the
problems, rather than sweeping
them under a rug.
Peter I rot is a Sid Richardson Col-
lege sophomore writing on behalf
of the Rice Young Democrats.
< omplelr this intensive rut lit i
disciplinary degree in 12 to Is
months, while living in a last i
nating international city
her details
School of
international studies
Coral (tables I t 43124-5010
305 281-41?3; t ax 30V284-4406
www niiami.edu/sis
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Hardi, Joel & Siy, Angelique. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 21, 1997, newspaper, November 21, 1997; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246608/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.