Didn’t come to college for the barkers
Oh my god. That’s how I feel about walking down the mall these days. Ever since the preacher came here in January, the man with the dog has been more invasive and preachy. It’s not just him, either: today there are two people holding signs and one person preaching very loudly near the library. I came to the university to learn about science and communication and how to be a responsible citizen of the world. I did not come here to be proselytized by people who always have the same, unwelcome messages. It is unfortunate that such a wonderful freedom of expression has such a downside. That said, I’d rather have the freedom than not. Alas.
Ray Flores
East Asian studies junior
Walk — or undie run — on the wild side
I’ve been told that the UA is one of the nation’s top party schools. But as I read Zack Sokolow’s article about the undie run I was convinced. We attracted Playboy magazine’s attention with our participating in a half naked, full fledged marathon through UA’s campus. When I walk around campus I would never expect these conservative, studious individuals to have this kind of wild side. I guess I shouldn’t judge the entire book by the cover. Go Wildcats!
Chanel Mathis
Pre-physiology freshman
Sweating the issue of sweat lodges
In response to the article posted Feb. 5 titled “”New Age ‘philosophy’ dangerous, deadly””: Sweat lodges aren’t “”new age.”” They’re the opposite: they’ve been a tradition of Native Americans for hundreds and hundreds of years. I know the modern young philosopher who reads Skeptic and watches Penn & Teller is so quick to label things new age and pseudoscience. The ironic part is that this article has the same problem that pseudoscience itself has, which is a misunderstanding or skewed perspective from square one. In my opinion, those people took their own risks in entering that sweat lodge and should have educated themselves on the risks of the tradition ahead of time. Now, I agree: It is a shame that people like (James Arthur) Ray charge thousands of dollars for it, semi-exploiting people and taking away from the legitimacy of the tradition by putting a price tag on it. But it might be even more of a shame that articles like this take hundreds-of-years-old sacred traditions, flip them around under the veil of some unfortunate accidental deaths and label it as “”new age philosophy.”” I know it’s really alternative-cool and funny to skewer spiritual things and call people who “”plague”” Sedona yuppies — and you can keep doing that. No, really, it’s really funny — but you could at least present the subject-at-hand accurately first.
David Neff
Media arts junior
