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Opinions: Letters to the editor
published on Friday, March 28, 2008
If it ain't broken, fix it anyway
(In response to Thursday's article by Allison Denny titled "Best Hall anything but for some residents")
I was glad to read your article about Best Hall C Wing in The State Press. It's about time somebody came forward with the problems that have been plaguing this building ever since I first became a resident here at the beginning of the year.
Here are the problems we have had with it at various points throughout the year:
- Broken elevator on many occasions
- No hot water and no cold water (at different times). As of now, on my floor, only one of the four showers has hot water. This has been a problem since the beginning of the semester, and no one does anything to fix it. As you can imagine, since everyone uses only one shower, the shower gets extremely disgusting very quickly.
- No working plumbing.
- Shoddy-looking conditions (it looks like this place hasn't been fixed up since it was built way back when).
What peeves me the most is the school's seemingly blasé approach to solving the problem, which is to do nothing. I don't expect this place to be the Ritz Carlton, but I think since I am paying money to live here, I should get my money's worth, which should at least mean facilities that work (and if they break, they should be fixed promptly and fully).
ASU needs to step up to the plate and fix this building.
R.C. Thornton
Undergraduate
Spellchecker
Nermally I didn't write to the stat press but I felt the knead to right this time around. I been appaled at the amoant of speling arrors in the stait pres lately. Is their know one over ther who pruf reeds the paipr befour its printed.
Personnallee I am exsited by the Olymics. China has been a greet opotrunity to show the wirld the things they can akomplish when they put there mined to it. But you're article is rife with spelling irrors and runon centences. Also the gramatiks leaf something to be desered.
Also It seams thrilling to thinc that the sun card is going to be terned into cars. How is this posible? The plastic is tiny. Cars ar knot.
I guess what I am triing to say is keep up the gud werk. Kep leting spel check do yur jobs. Remember spell check doesn't fix stupid and apparently neither does ASU.
Matt Broecker
Undergraduate
Gfailing on privacy
(In response to Thursday's article by Claudia Koerner titled "Gmail not spreading to other state schools")
While I am pleased the transition from EMMA to Gmail has gone smoothly, I am shocked that Ms. Koerner did not delve deeper into the reasons why more universities have not switched to Google's system or mention the one glaring negative of using it: Privacy.
Although Google has a company-wide informal policy of "Don't Be Evil," it is very disconcerting that a single global corporation has access to every single piece of information I ever send in an email. Or post on my personal Google Calendar. Or write in Google Docs. Google knows all this because it is impossible, and Google's CEO has admitted this, to ever remove anything off of Google's servers. The web interface just hides that deleted message from you.
While I am not declaring that we should get rid of everything Google right now, I hope we will be aware of the pitfalls of using this system. There is a reason ASU faculty have not been forced over to Gmail, and students should take note.
Collin Phillips
Undergraduate
Try it before you say it
(In response to Tuesday's column by Chris Ogino titled "Get jobs, homeless people")
I would like to thank Ogino for raising the issue of homelessness in his opinion column on Tuesday. While I appreciate that he let readers know that St. Joseph the Worker is one agency that can and does help homeless individuals get jobs, I would like to be perfectly clear in stating that we do NOT agree with the rest of the opinions he shared in his article.
I would challenge Ogino to gather some real information about homelessness before writing about it. I invite him to participate in a homeless immersion experience through the Human Services Campus in Phoenix.
For 48 hours, he could try out 'the easiest gig on the planet' including sleeping in a room with 400 other men, waiting in the hot sun for meals, with all of his belongings on his back and definitely no access to "Dance Dance Revolution." He could meet some of the other 95 percent of homeless individuals who do not beg for his coins — the hard-working men, women and children who struggle just to survive.
Ogino assumes that homeless individuals have chosen their predicament. I can assure you that this is not a chosen lifestyle for most. The average age of a homeless person in the U.S. is 9 years old. The fastest growing population of homeless people is families. Layoffs, unexpected illness, death of loved ones and domestic violence have contributed to the estimated 14,000 homeless individuals in Maricopa County.
As college-educated community members, I feel it is our duty to gain the knowledge to make informed opinions. I would encourage us all to learn more about homelessness in our community.
Blue Swadener
Employee, St. Joseph the Worker
Mere attendance means nothing
(In response to Wednesday's column by Garrett Cleverly titled "Church should not be an annoying obligation")
Perhaps it's these "Christers" who contribute much more to society than the so-called devout adherents. I don't know much about the church experience, and I don't want to put anyone down, but by proclaiming oneself a "regular churchgoer" is in essence proclaiming a higher understanding of the universe and violating the sin of pride.
In a society such as ours, based on strong religious convictions, it is definitely a sign of vanity if one tries to proclaim oneself, or one's spiritual beliefs, on a higher plane due to the frequency of services attended.
What's the point of gloating over how many times one has sat in the front row listening to a sermon? That now one has the aura of divinity smacking itself in front of everyone to see?
How much more civil would the world be if everyone went to church? By all means, let's ask those who contributed to the Spanish Inquisition and the Crusades. No one has to go to church to be a civil person. The precepts the Bible teaches were around before it was ever written, or dictated.
So just remember: "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of religion or practice thereof..."
A.J. Frost
Undergraduate
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