Students should be grateful they get to go to college
Instead of complaining about our “”burden,”” perhaps we should remember the real purpose of Thanksgiving, which is to be thankful for the privileges we’ve been awarded (“”Short academic breaks, high demands fuel unhappiness,”” Dec. 2, 2008). Millions of people around the world would love to have our problem of “”short academic breaks (and) high demands.”” No matter what your background is, or what you’ve had to do to work your way to and through this university, you are getting an opportunity that is not afforded to everyone. Appreciate it. Attitudes, rather than requirements, need to change.

Scott Rising
retailing and consumer sciences sophomore

Obama’s candidacy used shallow marketing tactics to appeal to young

We all know the hype that this past election created. If you were on campus, you more than likely saw the techniques candidates used gain support of young first-time voters like us. My question is not whether or not these campaign techniques worked, but if young voters chose a candidate due to their politics or if it was the hype created by consumer culture.

I for one am not attacking any of those who voted for President-elect Obama. I just truly believe that Obama’s campaign used a shallow technique to try to gain support from young voters. There is no doubt that our generation indulges in consumer culture. In a way, the way we dress and products we buy help define who we are, or just push us into a subculture.

Obama’s campaign used t-shirts, bags and other consumer products to attract young voters. These products quickly became popular among college students. I can remember one week prior to the election walking to classes and seeing at least 30 students walk by wearing Obama t-shirts. This made me begin to wonder how many young voters cast their ballot for Obama due to his politics, and how many voted for him due to the fad his campaign created.

Nonetheless, Obama is our president and I am not upset about that. What I am upset about, however, is that candidates believed that young voters could not make an intelligent political decision on their own so they created a consumer hype to gain votes. What upsets me even more is that it seems to have worked.

Sarah Allen
linguistics freshman

Abortion causes pain to unborn fetuses, despite online citation

I wanted to briefly respond to Wyatt Fournier’s letter (“”Government should not seek to deny citizens of abortion rights,”” Dec. 4, 2008). I was glad to see that he first admitted to not “”knowing everything about abortion”” because it makes it easier to make my point that one shouldn’t write in about something about which he does not know, or claim to have done research that yields information that is not even close to scientific fact. You do not know that a baby in utero does not feel pain; you read some biased Web site that told you so and you
believed it.

The physiological fact is this: A “”fetus”” at eight to 10 weeks responds with movement at being touched or having pressure applied to it. In my opinion, that would indicate that it does feel something. Similarly, that fetus will respond violently to stimuli that you and I find painful ð- needle injections, etc. Just because the thing can’t say aloud, “”Damnit, that hurt, you jerk!”” doesn’t mean it can’t feel and should be hurt. It is widely accepted that by 18 to 20 weeks the “”fetus”” is absolutely able to feel pain since all of the required sensory devices are fully developed and functioning just like yours and mine. Sickeningly enough, in most states abortion is still legal at this point and happens often.

The fact that cannot be argued is that abortion is ending human life, whether it’s painful or not. One cannot argue that those rapidly dividing fetal cells aren’t human or that they aren’t living; it’s scientifically absurd. If you decide to shoot someone in the back of the head when they are asleep, is that not considered murder because they didn’t feel it? Fournier, next time you “”do research,”” make sure it’s not off of some biased blog and pick up a textbook. We have gotten so caught up in what we can do by law that no one is stopping to think about whether or not we should.

Bethany Fourmy
microbiology senior