Letters to the Editor

Daily disenfranchised many students

To the Daily:

I am writing the Daily today because of my abhorrence to its coverage of this year's general election. I fear the Daily has lost sight of its duty to be an objective reporter of local, state and national news as well as the opinions of the students it represents. The Daily's Editorial page has, throughout the last two months, been so overwhelmingly liberal, that any open-minded American must ask themselves if the Daily is accurately representing the students and the University whose names it bears. The Editorial page urged all its readers to vote for what is an essentially straight Democratic ticket ("Ready, set, vote!," 11/7/00). I have always had a firm belief that a newspaper has the duty to present both sides of an issue. But when this fundamental attribute is neglected, the publication loses it credibility and becomes nothing more than propaganda. Every morning when I pick up the Daily, I see the proud statement: "One hundred ten years of editorial freedom," but today I realized, that editorial freedom in the Daily only applies to the liberal writers and readers. The narrow-minded editors of the Daily have disenfranchised a great number of readers from their University newspaper because of a liberal political agenda.

John Simpson

Kinesiology sophomore

Racial discrimination still exists on campus

To the Daily:

Emily Achenbaum is a tad misguided with her apples to oranges comparison of smoking and racial self segregation ("Segregation: Where there's smoke, there's fire," 10/30/00). "Smoker segregation" exists not only because smokers share a common ground, but because many of us "nonies" would like to avoid risking our health by simply being in their presence (not to mention avoiding that repulsive stench). However, Achenbaum was quite correct in stating that she isn't "allowed" to chastise minorities for self-segregating. How dare she even suggest that because we have left the days of Jim Crow, that we (minorities) are to blame for the absence of total integration! Truth be told, affirmative action was not intended to be a formula for social utopia. The efforts are more directed at counteracting past and present injustices than at having black and white students join hands across America. And yes, I said present injustices. As much as some people would like to think so, racism is not a thing of the past. Discrimination is alive and well, and it can be found right on this campus.

Affirmative action is an attempt at unseating institutionalized discrimination - it is not to blame for the failure of individuals of varying ethnic backgrounds to socialize at the same lunch table. The real culprit? Making unfounded assumptions about an entire group's unwillingness to let go of prejudices (subconscious or otherwise) and "observing" their self-segregation, while remaining blissfully unaware that by doing so, one is guilty of the same behavior. The solution? Open your mouth and speak the next time you see that person you haven't bothered to get to know.

Rachel McDuffie

School of public health