Public deserves whole story on Model UN

On Tuesday, I was saddened to be reminded how “”destructive”” the kids from Model United Nations are. My reaction was brought on not so much by the actions taken by the club’s members, but rather at the Wildcat’s failure to perform their duty – to inform UA students of what is really going on.

As you may have seen (how could you miss it!), the Model UN house was vandalized by some of its members. The picture of a battered door, with the title, “”Not a Model House”” was emblazoned on the front page. This sensational news reporting is even more destructive.

This photograph and its accompanying article – tucked away on page 10 – portray the dedicated students of the Model UN unjustly. I am associated with many of the members and have a good understanding of the wonderful things they do for our university.

Every fall semester, Model UN members – students with jobs, schoolwork and social lives – spend many hours studying current events and practicing their debating skills in preparation to represent the UA at the international Model UN conference in Chicago. Every year, the club has an incredible impact at the conference and returns to Tucson with awards for the UA. However, when the article runs about the accolades achieved at the conference, it is relegated to a spot between ads for TD’s strip club and how to save money on your car insurance.

Come spring, the club attracts several hundred high school students from the Southwest and Mexico to participate in their annual Model UN high school conference that UA students plan and run. Aside from the free exposure for the UA, what about the knowledge and intercultural understanding these club members are promoting? A member told me that Model UN is the oldest club on campus and their high school conference is the only bilingual Model UN conference in the country. Where is that story?

The Wildcat perpetuates the idea that bad news is good news. I encourage its writers to avoid the sensationalizing ways of larger, advertisement-dependent newspapers, and tell students the whole story.

Daniel Rock
creative writing senior

Professor’s death deserved a front-page story

Friday, I received an e-mail that completely upset me … telling me my biology professor, Danny Brower, had passed away. I did not know how or when he died. I knew nothing except the fact that he was gone. Being a loyal reader of the Wildcat, I expected to see a full story on the front page Monday that would give me the answers I needed. After seeing nothing on Monday, I looked again on Tuesday.

Finding nothing, and getting confused, I called the Wildcat, who told me: “”We had a discussion about it and decided not to write about him because it didn’t happen in a public place and it didn’t affect enough students.””

Being a student that this did affect, I was extremely offended by this statement. I told others in my biology class about this and they, too, were mad. In the first week after Danny Brower’s death I have experienced first hand the many people affected by this tragedy. TAs, students from past years, parents, family, current students, and faculty are all affected deeply by this loss. I watched a grown man cry merely talking about Danny Brower’s death.

I find it completely disgusting that a man this respected and this brilliant did not get the slightest acknowledgment in the school newspaper simply because he was not stabbed in his sleep by a psycho roommate, or because he did not die in the middle of the union. I think it is only respectful that a tragedy such as this gets some sort of coverage in the paper. This was a man who shaped the university’s biology department, who cared so deeply about teaching, about his students, animals, and his family. Wildcat, I expected better from you than this.

Ashley Waggoner
biology freshman

Columbus Day response ‘white liberal gibberish’

Matt Rolland and Connor Mendenhall: In response to Wednesday’s Wildcard (“”Should we sink Columbus Day?””), I’m not sure which one of you is joking. Therefore, I will assume nothing. Do you think that Jews would be greatly offended and oppose Hitler’s Day if the United States decided to implement it? Look at what the No Relation cartoon sparked! How do you think we Native people feel about Columbus Day? You aren’t Native so of course you could care less and come up with white liberal gibberish about what democracy is all about. Not until you both realize the colonial legacy that commenced in 1492, then you will begin to deem Columbus, (who happened to be a slave trader in Europe) a racist mass murderer.

Columbus’ actions set the foundation for legal and social policies still used today in United States, Mexico, Canada, South America and in many countries around the world. These policies justify the theft and destruction of indigenous peoples’ lands and knowledge by corporate and government interests.

Media, films, judicial systems, educational systems and other political and social institutions support this continued assault on the natural resources of indigenous peoples. Native peoples today remain at the margins of technological society – struggling to overcome the destruction of land, culture and language. In many ways all peoples on this planet are impacted. These attacks on Native peoples and their land and knowledge contribute to the destruction of ecosystems and the erosion of human rights for all people. One more thing, Mr. Mendenhall, “”Dia de la Resistencia Indigena,”” means “”Day of Indigenous Resistance.”” In case you didn’t know. I’m just saying.

Jesus Jimenez
molecular and cellular biology senior

Where was the outrage earlier?

Before I begin, let me state a couple of facts. One: I find the majority of Joseph Topmiller’s comic strip additions to the Wildcat to be offensive, and Two: I found his recent addition to be anti-Semitic and in extremely poor taste. That all being said, I would like to express my disappointment with many of those who wrote opinions to the Mailbag to denounce the strip for its content. The question I have for all of you is this: where have you been this semester? Topmiller’s strip has been negatively stereotyping for weeks, and yet, looking through the archives of the Wildcat online, none of you have written a word of protest. I see this as a social double-standard, and it shames me that some of the top personalities at this institution operate under it. President Shelton, where were you when Topmiller’s strip lampooned some of the symptoms suffered by stroke victims? Hillel President Cordova, why didn’t you denounce Topmiller when he wrote about how Sen. Obama sounded like a terrorist? Prof. Wright, why didn’t you write an opinion when Topmiller drew a member of the KKK? Unfortunately, none of you can claim that you have, at least publicly, denounced Topmiller’s strip with the same vigor which you are now attacking it with. You, through your inaction, allowed it to continue until it slapped you in the face, and now you feel compelled to do something about it. Regretfully, I find your motives selfish and it causes me to view with skepticism any of your other activities or opinions.

Tom Ruane
history and political science senior