Change in China

“”China will never have a Western-style democracy,”” touts Li Dongsheng, the spokesman for the 17th Congress of the Communist Party.

Considering that the congress meets only once every five years, Dongsheng’s vow carries heavy and long-term implications. Does this statement imply continued human rights abuses for Chinese workers? Or that freedom of speech will continue to be suppressed? In our pluralistic society, we learn to respect others’ opinions and practices, often with the stipulation that these differences shouldn’t inflict great harm on others.

Likewise, the citizens of every country should be able to choose their own path of governance. Swedes may want to run their country differently from the Japanese, and as long as neither country’s citizens want to command and conquer the other, both nations are willing to recognize mutual sovereignty. We should thus recognize and respect the decisions made by the citizens of China.

-Stanford University’s Stanford Daily

Gov’t, don’t protect us from credit cards

College students, as the common line of thought goes, can’t be trusted with anything. Small wonder, then, that two congressmen have sponsored a bill that would limit lines of credit available to full-time students and forbid banks from issuing more than one credit card to students with no income.

We wouldn’t question that the legislation, proposed by Reps. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Tenn., and Louise M. Slaughter, D-N.Y., means well. We know it does. But it is also an unnecessary instance of government paternalism that we find discomforting. It arises thanks to a few individuals – the exception rather than the rule – who, before charging thousands of dollars to their shiny new credit cards, neglect to ask themselves one important question: Where does this money come from?

Let us not interfere with the freedom of responsible student spenders to buy as they please. Eateries and retail outlets strategically placed around college campuses across the country will thank a non-intrusive government for the extra income.

-New York University’s Washington Square News

Islamo-Fascist follies

Starting today, a coalition of conservative organizations will be holding “”Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week”” at college campuses across the country. Organized by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, the event will include demonstrations, petitions, distribution of political materials and speeches by figures such as Horowitz, Ann Coulter and U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, who will all confront “”the two Big Lies of the political left: that George Bush created the war on terror and that Global Warming is a greater danger to Americans than the terrorist threat.”” Islamo-Fascism Week’s protests are directed against the “”academic left,”” who, the organizers claim, serve as apologists for radical Islamist terrorism and work to undermine the U.S. government’s efforts against it.

And herein lies our problem with Islamo-Fascism Week: It’s less about educating students about radical Islamist terrorism than it is about bashing liberals. Groups like al-Qaeda do murder innocent civilians in order to intimidate populations into surrendering to their despotic rule. They wish to force women to become subservient, second-class citizens; to execute gays, non-Muslims and anyone who doesn’t abide by their cultural rules. But instead of focusing on this genuine threat, Islamo-Fascism Week’s organizers would rather invent one – namely left-leaning professors. “”Never mind those with the bombs,”” they seem to think. “”It’s academics who criticize U.S. foreign policy and society, who are reticent about military force, who keep repeating that the vast majority of the world’s Muslims aren’t terrorists and that Westerners need to better understand their cultures, and who fret about global warming who are the real enemy.”” This is a load of rubbish.

-Indiana University’s Indiana Daily Student