Upcoming election should prompt student involvement
There are a number of issues and concerns that affect students on and off campus. These issues are felt widely and deeply and can be shaped and cast in many different lights. Perhaps you are of a mindset that there is relatively little that can be done about the problems we face on campus, but perhaps the right people haven’t yet had the opportunity to advocate for such priorities. Maybe you can be the change.
Elections for positions within the ASUO Executive, Student Senate and a variety of other committees are rapidly approaching. Your involvement in these areas will not only dramatically affect your personal and professional growth, but will also provide the stage upon which you can play out the action that you want to take to create a better community and university for students.
Additionally, there is an opportunity for you to involve yourself in a particular area of interest by petitioning your fellow students and placing measures and/or constitutional changes on the ballot. I urge you to consider seriously the changes that you want to see, or the positions that you want to take on the things that matter most to you and your fellow students. Step up to the plate and disown the belief that college students are apathetic. You are the only one who can be held responsible for action that you don’t take. Application materials are available in the ASUO office, EMU Suite 4.

Rachel Pilliod

ASUO president

Treasonous administration wages hypocritical imperial war
Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien spoke volumes when he asked, “If you start changing regimes, where do you stop? Who is next? Give me the list.”
According to the Sept. 2000 (pre-election) Project for the New American Century defense strategy blueprint — whose authors are now top administration officials — that list is long and includes China. Regime change in Iraq was a first step, and here we are.
Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov complains that America’s demand for regime change implies “a step aimed at democratic transformations in the Arab world.” Now consider defense policy adviser Richard Perle’s recent “Meet the Press” comment: “I don’t see what would be wrong with surrounding Israel with democracies; indeed, if the whole world were democratic, we’d live in a much safer international security system because democracies do not wage aggressive wars.”
Yet here we are, waging an aggressive war.
This isn’t just about oil. What most Americans don’t seem to grasp is that America is changing fundamentally, becoming an empire bullying the world. Wasn’t this the kind of arrogance that caused Sept. 11, 2001?
As far as the administration’s response to Sept. 11, 2001, goes, the word “reckless” comes to mind. As far as their vision for America, the word “treasonous” fits. Culturally and environmentally, their policies invite disaster, whether by nature or acts of revenge and despair from the oppressed.
A government that seeks to spread democracy by force, and against the will of its people, doesn’t know the meaning of the word.

Brian Bogart

first-year graduate student

peace studies