Where’s the Benefit for Nonathletes?

Dear Editor:

I, for one, am glad that the athletics fee referendum passed. I receive so many benefits from this. I get to see my money spent on something irrelevant to me or my education. I think it’s important that boys and girls who are induced by excess testosterone to indulge their brutish personalities in physical competition are able to do so at my expense. I should be paying for them to play games, for I’m sure they’d gladly foot the bill for activities I enjoy, such as shopping and concertgoing.

It’s great to see money go to people who have already shown great fiscal responsibility. Avoiding a deficit requires the ability to count, and who are we to demand that level of intelligence from university employees?

I’ve also enjoyed witnessing the athletes’ violations of campaign policy. I’ve enjoyed seeing the athletes trash campus, spewing flyers like confetti all over the ground around Geisel Library after being banned from campaigning. And after we heard Assistant Vice President of Athletic Relations Kari Gohd sum up the athletics department’s position on morality by coining the catchphrase “”An allegation of harassment is not in fact a bylaw violation,”” I, for one, was truly excited to be forced to give money to those both financially irresponsible and morally bankrupt.

The whole issue has warmed my heart up to UCSD athletes (so much that my blood nearly boils). The athletes are right. UCSD sports are very necessary for campus well-being – I don’t know how I’d be able to memorize the periodic table without volleyball.

-Jeremiah Stoddard

Earl Warren College Junior

America’s Time to Change War Policy

Dear Editor,

As recent papers read that security in Iraq and Afghanistan is deteriorating, Arabs are chanting, “”Death to Americans”” in the streets and President George W. Bush seeks to expand our military budget. But in the last six years, Bush has increased the war budget by 30 percent while cutting peaceful programs designed to help poor nations. Internal programs to help Americans and promote research for health and alternative energy were also cut. Now over half of tax dollars go toward war, a sum that is over half of the world’s military budget. Estimates are we’ve spent over a trillion dollars for destruction in illegal wars initiated by Bush.

So far, Bush’s military approach to international relations has created enmity and hatred abroad. If the equivalent tax funds had been spent to help, rather than to bomb others, just imagine how our image and American prestige would fare. Will Bush ever learn? Will Americans let our government know how important it is to drastically change a failed policy? Let’s hope so.

-Milton Saier Jr.

UCSD Biology Professor