Prayer can’t replace action

The students praying for campus (“”Students Pray Nonstop””) for 40 days are not directly harming or offending anybody, including me, an atheist. However, prayer can be dangerous and harmful when it takes the place of action.

If you think racism, discrimination, and bigotry is a problem on campus, then get involved through a club like Diversity Initiatives. If you think drinking is a problem on campus, then host some safe, alcohol-free events like a movie screening on big drinking days (such as Dead Day).

It’s all fine and well to pray if you are diagnosed with cancer, but you also get chemo. The same principle operates here: if you want to change campus prayer alone isn’t going to cut it, you need to take action as well.

Chris Bischof history senior

Purpose of ‘Monologues’ funding misconstrued

I’m writing in response to Henry Prestwick’s letter in Tuesday’s paper (“”‘Monologues’ uses women’s rights as cop-out””). Prestwick seems to have done about as much research on this subject as have all the people who say “”The Vagina Monologues”” is a play about periods and man-hating.

For a man who’s so interested in balanced ideas, you’d think he’d take the time to find out what the Vagina Warriors used their funding for. Not a single solitary penny of ASUA money was spent on chocolate vaginas. What was it spent on? Production costs for the show. I don’t know if Prestwick has ever produced a play himself, but I can assure him that venues are not free, programs do not print themselves and lighting is not a magically occurring event.

If Prestwick had seen the show, he’d know that the Vagina Warriors had to ask patrons to recycle their programs so they could be reused the next night. Had they received the funding they had in previous years, perhaps that would not have been necessary.

I also question Prestwick’s assertion that “”a large portion of the student body”” was made uncomfortable by chocolate. It seems Prestwick doesn’t understand that the show is meant to make you feel uncomfortable. I would be horrified to learn that anyone on our campus was “”comfortable”” with sexual assault, which is what the play is trying to highlight.

I’d also say, on average, more people were offended by the eight-foot mutilated fetus that no one could avoid seeing than the two-and-a-half-inch chocolate vagina, which was not forced on anyone who did not wish to purchase it. Contrary to Prestwick’s letter, the UA is a very vagina-friendly place. I love mine, and I’m sure that if Prestwick had exposure to real-life vaginas, he’d love ’em too!

Katie Mann junior majoring in English

A conservative manifesto

I would like to applaud optical sciences and engineering sophomore Antony Mills’ Feb. 14 letter (“”Bias? More Like Barista””). Not only does Mr. Mills bring to light the repulsive dissemination of liberal swill on college campuses, he also alleviates the plight of the poor, huddled masses of outnumbered conservatives by reassuring them that those indoctrinated by the liberal swine will soon, if not already, be serving him coffee at Starbucks.

It takes tremendous courage to stand up in the face of those dangerous professors who seek to undermine the greatness of this great land by falsely inflating the value of other liberal sissy bed-wetters like Hemingway, Tennyson and Melville. To add to your apt words, Mr. Mills, I declare now the time for all those studying worthwhile enterprises (regional development, business, weapons engineering) to quit offering undue respect to those who tread in the worthless endeavors of the arts.

Why respect people who know nothing of maximizing profit? These fools became educated only to educate other fools, and doing so for only a pittance of what they could have earned with a degree in Exploiting Developing Economies. Cowards.

Yes, Mr. Mills, while the worthwhile graduates set themselves upon the world to extract every dollar, those fools will still plot the liberal takeover of the college mind, deep from the bowels of that treacherous building they so snidely call Modern Languages, as if our language is not modern enough to suit their high standards.

Well I say let them sit in their offices and read their books and write their poetry, for we the worthy have more pressing matters on our mind: Outsourcing. And the definition of the word sophomoric. Mr. Mills, you’re a bit young to sound like such a bigot.

Noah Pollock creative writing senior

Liberals protect terrorists but not fetuses

It is a good thing the decision to deny funding for the Medical Students for Choice was overturned (“”ASUA shoots down board decision””). Those partisan clowns on the ASUA Appropriations Board just don’t hold dear the belief that we all share: The medical students at the UA should be the best in the world in the field of slaughtering innocent human life.

Seriously, I am disgusted by the hypocrisy of the American left. Why is it perfectly acceptable to prematurely extract a human being from a womb and jam forceps into its head, but we could not torture a terrorist to save our lives? Why is it so many liberals in this country eschew the death penalty for even the worst criminals and demonize Bush for allegedly ordering torture of terrorists while at the same time killing babies so just jolly Jim dandy? Is it just me or does anyone else feel this is a little bit hypocritical (or a lot).

Alex Hoogasian political science senior

‘Monologues’ helps end violence against women

This letter is in response to Henry Prestwick’s complaint (“”‘Monologues’ uses women’s rights as a cop-out””) about the organizers of the “”Vagina Monologues,”” ASUA and the Wildcat. Primarily, I’d like to address Prestwick’s rightful fear and disgust concerning the use of university funds to distribute “”chocolate covered vaginas”” on the Mall.

Regardless of who provides the money, any organization that feels it can further its ends by coating severed pieces of the human body in a confection and circulating them among college students deserves to face the strongest possible legal and criminal penalties, in addition to Prestwick’s ire. I shudder to even consider the origin of the “”various vagina-related material”” that Prestwick claims are to be distributed as well.

Whoever is behind this year’s ghoulish production of “”The Vagina Monologues”” should take a hint from the students that organized last year’s edition. I met some of them on the Mall last spring, when we chatted for a bit, and I left with some information about the times and dates of the production, as well as a tasty little candy vagina.

All of the proceeds from the production I attended went to organizations working to assist victims of rape and domestic violence, in stark opposition to Prestwick’s discovery of the dark irony fueling this year’s edition.

If it is true, as Prestwick writes, that ASUA may deny funding to organizations that make a majority of the student body “”uncomfortable,”” then we should stand hand in hand with him in opposing groups that casually promote violence against women and support “”The Vagina Monologues”” if, and only if, they capitulate to Prestwick’s clear desire to bring more attention and to the plight of victims of domestic violence.

Aaron Beyerlein insect science doctoral student

UA students help neighborhood cleanup

We recently had a neighborhood cleanup day in the West University neighborhood. Students from the Arizona Collegiate Leadership Conference (ACLC), Up with People and Phi Kappa Psi came out in full force on a Saturday to help with pruning, yard work, and trash pickup.

While there are too many people to thank in this letter, the day would not have been possible without the hard work and assistance from the ACLC, Office of Community Relations, the UA Visitor Center and Phi Kappa Psi. Their efforts helped to make the day a huge success.

It was a great opportunity for neighbors and students to experience positive interaction in a community setting. We look forward to many more positive experiences not only with the university, but with those students who also live in the neighborhood.

Lori Boston president, West University Neighborhood Association