Washington student requests info

Dear newspaper,

I am a fifth-grade student. I am doing a state report on Arizona. I am very excited because I love to study geography and different places around the world. I’m writing from Conway, Wash. It’s not really considered a town, it’s so small.

I’m writing hoping for a response. If someone was to respond, I would like to know any of these following things. What is it like there in the fall, winter, spring and summer? What are some common jobs there?

Has somebody famous ever lived there such as an actor or a president? My final question is: Has Arizona been a battleground?

Conway, where I live, is very small. We are a farming community. It’s normally in the mid-40s with wind and rain. I get tired of it sometimes. It’s all cold and rainy. There aren’t any gangsters or anything because this place is so small. So that’s a plus.

I am very thankful for you reading this. I’m looking forward to a response. Thank you for your time.

P.S. Please put this letter in the newspaper.

Petitioners don’t unfairly target students

This is in response to yesterday’s letter titled, “”Students unfairly targeted by unscrupulous petitioners.”” It is clear that the writer, an agriculture economics major, is only concerned about economics – not with the suffering of animals.ÿÿ

Currently on large, corporate-owned factory farms, pregnant pigs (sows) are kept for their entire pregnancy in barren gestation crates that are only 2 feet wide.ÿThey cannot turn around or extend their limbs when lying down.ÿThis causes all sorts of crippling joint disorders and lameness, soreness from rubbing against the bars, frustration, boredom and fright.ÿThey routinely exhibit neurotic, repetitive coping behaviors, such as bar biting, sham (air) chewing and head waving.ÿThe sow is removed from this crate and taken to a birthing crate shortly before delivering.ÿShortly after birth, the piglets are removed from their mother and the sow is re-impregnated and returned to the gestation crate. This is only done toÿmaximize profits for the owners. Veal calves are kept chained in a similar type of crate for their entire short lives.ÿMaybe the American Veterinary Medical Association finds this humane; however, most people I talk to do not find this humane or ethical.

Arizona has been selected for this initiative because, in addition to alleviating the suffering of approximately 16,000 pigs currently confined in gestation crates in Arizona, this measure will prevent mega hog factories from moving into Arizona as they have in North Carolina.ÿThere, the environment has been severely damaged, property values have gone down and the tourism industry has suffered.

Because students on campus are more empathetic than other populations as a group does not mean they are unfairly targeted nor does this make it unscrupulous.ÿAnyone, including students, is free to say no.ÿSignatures are not only being gathered on campuses but at locations and events all over Arizona.ÿAll registered Arizona voters, not just students, are being invited to sign.ÿFor more information on the initiative, go to www.yesforhumanefarms.org.

If this is considered radical, then we need more radicalism on campus!

Longboarders need to watch out

Honestly I am not one to write in to any newspaper, especially the Arizona Daily Wildcat. I rarely even read past the first page. However, I happened to flip through the Opinions section yesterday looking for the sports page when I noticed a letter describing the longboarders on campus. The letter was very comical and presented solutions such as giving these longboarders an elbow just for the inconvenience they cause to the walking students. I completely agree because I am sick of constantly ducking and dodging between longboarders on my way to class, even though it is hilarious when they fall. Longboarders, be warned! Stick to the bike path and away from the sidewalks, appropriately named for “”walking.””

Pedestrians should stop complaining

As I sat in class reading Brett Novick’s recent attack piece against longboarders, I couldn’t help but chuckle. I guess that we longboarders present such a crisis to the multitude of students out there that some sort of revolution is needed to stop us. Instead of using facts to back up his point, he rather decided that a plethora of revolutionary linguistics and witty little snipes was all that was needed to make his point. It was a ridiculous letter, and one that really only made our esteemed writer look bad, not to mention whiny. It’s obvious that the longboarder-to-pedestrian ratio on campus is no less than 50-to-1, yet he feels that this minuscule minority is causing havoc across our university like some roving band of bikers. So I simply suggest that next time he decides to rant about a community of people who really aren’t worth ranting over, he stay away from the useless, self-serving cut downs and instead stick to making a logical point or proposing a logical solution. Because I can assure him that if he decided to “”rise up”” and “”stick out a stiff elbow”” to me or any of my friends as we glided by, that his little revolution would come to a quick and painful end.

Bike lanes often clogged

I’d like to issue a response to the open letter issued by Brett Novick yesterday in

regard to the longboarding menace present on

campus, in that I’d like to bring some reasons for the presence of this “”misguided”” and “”goofy-looking”” phenomenon.

Firstly, I’d like to address the issues Novick apparently has with our image as a demographic of Abercrombie and Fitch models. Not all of us are obsessed with trying to look good. In fact, looks are very often not the case with the choice of longboarding as a method of both transportation and entertainment. Most of the time, riders of longboards can ride a shortboard deck just as well, but choose the longboard deck for the greater level of comfort present in the lengthened wheelbase and the greater control present in the modified trucks and wheels. So, no, it isn’t that we aren’t coordinated enough to ride shortboards, it’s just that it feels nicer to do it our way, and making such a generalization before fully researching it only serves to hurt the overall image of innocent participants of a legitimate method of traveling around campus.

Secondly, longboarders have a guaranteed much harder time dealing with pedestrians darting in front of them than they have with us “”decking”” them. You are right in the fact that sidewalks are meant for pedestrian traffic, but in turn, the bicycle (and consequently, longboard) throughways are frequently clogged with unnecessary walkers who don’t check fully before stepping out, leading us to often stop at peril to ourselves in an effort to avoid harming someone else. And, as an aside, if anyone took your obviously ill-conceived advice, not only would it harm the longboarder (as you obviously intended to) but it would also more than likely dislocate the shoulder of the elbower. This is yet another case in which advocating violence is unnecessary and probably would only serve to aggravate the situation further.

So, I’d like to present a contrasting opinion to Novick as to solve the “”longboard problem.”” Instead of assuming that we’re brainless, awkward or “”petroli-wearing”” (which, I can only assume, was an attempt by Novick to say “”patchouli”” instead of a component term for an Italian gasoline company), assume that we’re human beings who like to move around and get to class on time just like everyone else. And instead of turning to negative feelings and hatred, let’s all just look at little closer at what’s happening around us, and try to have a little compassion for our fellow students.