Opinions: Letters to the editor

 published on Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Much left to do

(In response to Tuesday's editorial titled "Faithless")

I would like to answer the question appearing in the last sentence of the editorial. After all, I had a year in immigration detention to think about it. What is supposed to be feared is the fatal illusion that the battle for social justice has ended, and we have achieved Uncle Sam's utopia. What is supposed to be feared is the embarrassment of causing the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Americans for the sake of the "spreading democracy" when we cant even secure a respectable election process in our largest research universities. What is supposed to be feared is the pathetic lack of ability to face our own self in the mirror and truly admit that we are light years away from reaching our goals at home and abroad. What is supposed to be feared is believing our own fairy tales about multiculturalism and political correctness.

It's a long to-do list, and we are far from crossing any items out.

Yaser Alamoodi
Former president, USG


Election afterthoughts

(In response to The State Press' ongoing coverage of the Undergraduate Student Government elections)

I have been at ASU for three years and in every one of them the USG presidential elections have had problems with people not following the code. I realize that rules often have their purpose and they need to be followed, but can't something be done to change the system?

A lot of controversy comes from people who, although they are trying to get votes, are still campaigning in a way that raises awareness of the election in the first place. Why is it so bad to e-mail people or knock on doors? As long as they aren't threatening, bribing or otherwise harassing the voters, what's the harm?

And I don't know how much responsibility the candidates should take for any person who does campaign for them, whether officially or as a friend.

I think whichever president takes office next year, he should revisit the election code and see if there is anything to be done to lessen these tensions in future elections. Because if only having about 3000 people of the entire campus vote isn't pathetic enough, disqualifying more than half of them is just sad. And it's going to be hard to encourage voting if the results just come down to default.

Steven Cheshko
Undergraduate


In response to your article about the USG elections, I just want to say how delightfully surprising it is to see honesty win — it truly is the best policy. As a student who applies a healthy dose of skepticism to any issue pertaining to USG, it's particularly refreshing to see that there are good leaders out there and that even the toughest criticism of our student government members hasn't tarnished their ability to uphold their integrity and that of the student body. It's unfortunate to see that some people will do anything to win.

While I always admire the drive to succeed, there's definitely a line that should not be crossed. The Appleton ticket has renewed my faith in the democratic process. I'm looking forward to seeing them take this veracity that fueled their campaign and apply it to their efforts next year to lead ASU students into a new era of positive change.

I'll still be a skeptic, but now at least I'll trust that our USG leaders actually care what I and other students think of them.

Julia Martin
Undergraduate