In response to “Pros and cons of ASA lawsuit” (by Dan Desrochers, April 10):

While toggling between UA Confessions on Facebook and homework, students should be concerned. The Arizona State Legislature has spent 82 days in 2013 on one education issue: destroying a student group.

While walking from one class to another, students checking their Tinder accounts should be concerned. The Arizona State Constitution says that education should be “nearly as free as possible.” The Arizona Students’ Association agreed and decided to try to put more money into education. For following the spirit of Arizona’s Constitution, the Arizona Students’ Association has been under attack.

While wondering why tuition, fees, textbook costs, total cost of attendance has gone up and while wondering how working three jobs is somehow going to make it possible to make ends meet, students should be concerned. A student organization fighting for students will have a tougher time helping you.

And that’s the goal: The powers that be in the state of Arizona — the governor, the State Legislature and ABOR [the Arizona Board of Regents] — want to charge you more and take away your say in your education.

Attacking the Arizona Students’ Association is step one. POST THAT … then Tinder …

—Zachary Brooks
Graduate and Professional Student Council president

Dear Editor,

Across the campus a new T-shirt trend is alive. An overwhelming number of students are sporting the “Keep Calm and Carry On” shirt that originates from GB during WWII. Upon first seeing this, I could not help but be horrified as young people today should be anything but calm. The nation faces an enormous debt that we will have to pay. Couple this with the highrate of unemployment and the difficulty that students face finding jobs and one immediately wonders whether being calm and just “carrying on” is really appropriate. The destruction to the environment is reaching irreversible levels. We must change our way of living as humans in order to prevent destroying the planet. Furthermore, the U.S. educational system is in critical condition and falls well below that of other developed nations. The public school system has deteriorated; the charter school has only served to leave the poor behind. We live in a society where individuals are still targeted by the police based upon their race and ethnicity and where penalties for crime often depend on the color of your skin. We live in a society where sexual violence against women is infused in the culture. We live in a nation where a small-town thief is put behind bars while big banks commit fraud on mass levels and suffer no consequences. Our nation holds the highest incarceration rate in the world, spending more money on prisons than on schools. We live in a society where we are being sold pharmaceutical solutions for every problem of living while the sociopolitical factors that give rise to many of these problems are ignored. This list can go on and on but it seems very clear that there is nothing to be calm about. It is disappointing to see such a young and capable generation becoming complacent. What is needed right now is not calmness or relaxation. What we need is awareness of these issues, anger, dissatisfaction and a desire to implement change.

-JeanMarie Bianchi (UA graduate student)