Pencil inflation
Textbooks be damned! I know for a fact that the University Bookstore scams students buying even more basic items. On the ground floor, pencils cost 15 cents. On the main level, where students are expected to buy pencils, the prices are inflated to a quarter? What?

Terence Li

freshman

undeclared

Tune out, turn off, stop bitching
In response to your editorial on KUGN-AM being “the voice of the Ducks” (“Ducks should find their voice, demand end to KUGN contract,” ODE, Nov. 12) while at the same time airing such inflammatory social commentators such as Michael Medved and Michael Savage, I would just like to remind you that freedom of speech is a double-edged sword.
By no means do I agree with the views expressed on the talk shows in question. In fact, I find them both to be quite sheltered and ignorant. But at the same time, I listen to both because their idiocy is entertaining, and I believe they add valid viewpoints from time to time. With that said, I find it funny how the extreme left, at times, find it hard to live their own lives.
You preach tolerance and harmony, but once you hear something you don’t like, you can’t simply respect their freedom of speech. You feel the need to force them admit to their wrongness and change their ways. Pretty hypocritical if you ask me. KUGN has the right to do business how they see fit. Proclaiming themselves as the “voice of the Ducks” is in respect to the Athletic Department, not the University as a whole.
If you don’t like what’s being said on a certain radio station, you are more than free to turn your dial elsewhere. Instead of bitching about someone exercising the same freedom of expression you have, make a stronger statement by not tuning in at all.

Ben Lacy

senior

journalism

Campaigning lacked compassion
I have been wondering what the term “compassionate conservative” meant ever since President George W. Bush began calling himself one. I now have a better understanding of what a “compassionate conservative” is.
A compassionate conservative is a person who never fought in Vietnam because his father got him a place in the Texas Air National Guard, from which he then went AWOL for over a year, who then campaigns against a volunteer Vietnam war hero and veteran, Max Cleland, who lost both legs and his right arm serving his country.
A compassionate conservative is a person who campaigns against a widow, Jean Carnahan, whose husband and oldest son were tragically killed in a plane crash.
A compassionate conservative is a person who campaigns against a respected statesman and former vice president, Walter Mondale, who was picked to run for the seat held by a visionary U.S. senator, Paul Wellstone, who was killed in a plane crash just a few days before an election.
Bush singled out and vigorously attacked these sympathetic figures, and, as a result, these were the only incumbent Democratic seats which were lost in the Senate election.
That’s compassion? Sounds pretty mean to me.

Kevin Franken

second year

Law