‘This campus is for education’

As a student worker in Facilities Management, I work with a great group of people. I see how students treat my co-workers and how the UA administration treats them. I was not at all pleased to hear that my co-workers had to either move their vehicles or conclude their work by 3 p.m. to accommodate sports fans who usually trash the campus and create unnecessary work. My co-workers were forced to use vacation time or comp. time instead of given it free. After all the hard work these people put in to serve the UA, this is how they are treated. I agree with Jennifer Roper (“”Not cool, U of A. Not cool at all,”” Friday) – the higher-ups at the UA are not cool at all. This campus is for education; it is not an arena. But whatever brings in the almighty dollar is priority, I guess.

-Ajpaal Kalyanmasih
senior majoring in education and Judaic studies

Far-right ‘freak-fest’ ignorant of truth

Alex Hoogasian’s recent rant about his hatred for science and his denial of global warming (“”Being ‘green’ not that important,”” Wednesday) is further proof that the most fanatical elements of American society are slowly turning us into an Idiocracy.

I think it is hilarious how far-right lunatics have let their hatred of the truth and knowledge eat them up to the point where they fall for their own BS. A good example of this is the “”Students’ Bill of Rights”” that has been concocted by David Horowitz and other right-wing hacks like him. Example: Let’s say a professor is showing facts that support global warming. If a student disagrees, then under this bill they can sue their professor and file to have him/her fired. Basically, it is a slap in the face to everything education stands for.

The right-wing of America has become a “”howl at the moon”” freak-fest that now panders to the worst elements of American society. Whether it be NRA gun nuts who want to overturn assault weapons bans and allow kids to own handguns. Whether it be religious fundamentalists who want to launch a crusade on the Middle East in the name of Jesus (as if he supports them) and convert them to Christianity. Whether it be rednecks living in the 18th century who booed a former U.S. congressman off the stage of the Republican National Convention in 2000 because of his lifestyle. Or whether it be these Minutemen who wave Confederate flags and shoot at poor, hungry immigrants crossing the border.

The modern GOP has a lot of things to get in order or otherwise it will be forever doomed to minor-party status, pandering to fools and idiots who deny global warming and who think Jesus is a gun-toting, immigrant-hating, oil-loving, hate-crime-supporting warmonger.

The ONLY Republican who seems to “”get it”” is Ron Paul. While I am not supporting him, at least I can respect the fact that he’s a sane man who speaks the truth and gets booed at every time he says something right at a debate. When your party boos at factual knowledge, that is when you know it is time for a “”regime change”” in your own house.

-Joel Shooster
political science senior

It’s easy as A-B-C

For a long time an issue has bothered me, but as it was just a benign annoyance, I kept it to myself. However, the events of last Saturday night have forced me to bring it out into the open. Who taught the people at Blockbuster Video how to alphabetize?

Whoever had these kids in the first grade needs to be stripped of their teaching licenses. Explain to me why the shelf that SHOULD contain the movie “”An Inconvenient Truth”” has “”Kickin’ It Old School”” on the top and “”Idiocracy”” on the bottom. SOMEHOW this works for Blockbuster, even though the shelf to the left ends with “”Hostel”” and the shelf to the right begins with “”Knocked Up.”” Now, again, it’s just a weird thing Blockbuster does. Like jamming a whole section of Adam Sandler movies right in the middle of new releases, and it wouldn’t bother me but for the attitude of the employees. I, like a fool, took for granted that the movies might actually have some semblance of an order to them, and when I see a shelf that starts with “”K”” and ends with “”I,”” I think, “”OK … I don’t think my movie is in that shelf, as it follows ‘I’ alphabetically and precedes ‘K’ … .”” So I ask the guy who works there, who said “”Um, it’s right there … in the “”I’s?”” as if I’m the one who doesn’t know the alphabet. He then proceeds to pull my movie from the middle of the weird Twilight Zone shelf in which “”in”” comes after “”K”” and before “”id.”” Now, I know there is some ridiculous system involving which movies are newer and other such nonsense, but for the love of God, who can keep that straight!? If you’re going to pretend to use alphabetical order, USE THE ENGLISH ALPHABET – not some weird avant-garde version that you made up just so you could talk down to those of us who function in the real world.

-Katie Mann
English senior