Jordan River Forum

Intersection of 13th and Walnut I am writing this letter in an effort to raise awareness regarding a true safety risk to IU students as well as Bloomington residents. Currently the intersection of E 13th Ave. and Walnut Grove behind McNutt is a two-way stop. I feel this is a major reason why many accidents have occurred there. It's a major risk to everyone in this community and sooner or later a serious accident could occur when it truly doesn't have to. Not only are drivers and passengers at risk, but also pedestrians. I have seen accidents at that intersection where one vehicle drives head on into another vehicle pushing it up the curb. If that ever occurs there could be an innocent bystander caught up in a terrible accident. I don't know where to go to address this issue so I am hoping to find someone who can help. I want to see a safer intersection and feel comforted knowing that when I travel down that road, I as well as others will be safe. Whether it's the responsibility of IU or Bloomington I ask that you please change the intersection into a four-way stop to hopefully prevent another accident and to hopefully save a life. Joe Reid
McNutt Quad President Why is reverse racism so overlooked at IU? We've all heard/thought of it, and maybe even said things in regards to it, but how often do we notice ourselves using reverse racism/stereotyping? How often have we looked at someone and said, 'they are trying to be black/white/etc., because of their actions/dress', or 'someone is better/worse at this because of their heritage/gender.' Growing up, 90 percent of my friends were minorities and I never looked at them as different but as equals/friends. When I came to IU, I tried to make friends/spend time with minorities and was labeled an outcast because of my skin color. My friends and I would constantly be asked what they were doing hanging out with a white boy. Also, I went to the Union wearing so called "Ghetto" clothes with a large flashy MTV style necklace (a gift from a minority friend) and minorities would harass me until I left or an argument occurred. Why, didn't they believe I should be wearing the outfit. The irony is that some of the same people would complain about racism on campus during discussions. I'm not the only one with this type of experience. A minority friend, who preferred clothes from the Gap or Eddie Bauer, etc., would always hear that he was trying to be white. My friend and I had conversations on how easy it is to judge someone based solely on his or her appearance. So many times around campus I will hear about racism but never reverse racism/stereotyping. I will hear friends talk about racism and then hear them make comments about people based on their appearance. It is time that IU understood that as a community we are a diverse group of heritages and cultures -- each with different experiences/likes/tastes/abilities. If we embrace our differences and learn, we will then grow in a spirit which will increase the fabric of our social experience. In the future when you start to make a comment about someone, imagine yourself in that person's place and ask how would it feel to be judged. Then ask, "Do I still want to make the comment?" Remember -- whether it is called reverse racism/stereotyping/racism, it is still racism and equally wrong. Paul Bryant
Sophomore Non-representative pictures I was disappointed in the photographs you chose to publish for your piece on the interfaith vigil Thursday at Dunn Meadow. Although I thought the photos were beautiful, I noticed that all of the vigil photos were exclusively of white women, with the exception of one male, my 4-year-old white son. These pictures do not represent the attendees of the vigil, nor the spirit of the interfaith vigil. From looking at your pictures, one could assume that no one attended except sorority girls. In the future I hope your paper makes conscientious choices of photographs which accurately depict the diversity of our community and of interfaith gatherings. I can't understand why no images of the many Muslims, Buddhist monks or even anyone who isn't white were included in your coverage. It would have more accurately shown the diverse ethnic and religious make up of the participants at the vigil than the homogeneous view your paper portrayed. Sarah Childers
Bloomington resident The truth is sure to stir I'm writing in pre-response to letters that are sure to come pouring into the IDS from people who are agitated at the recent column by Jack Silverstein: "America's True Enemy" (Friday). I wanted to compliment Jack in his efforts to direct light on the people in this country that forget what religion, love and democracy are all about. Anyone who read the whole column, comparing people who call all Middle Easterners terrorists to someone calling all Christians Klan members, will know that Silverstein's analogy was well thought out, reasonable and, to put it bluntly, right on the money. Hopefully the column will make at least a few people second-guess themselves when it comes to classifying a whole race of people together with a small number of radicals, because we've all seen that happen a bit too much in this country recently. And it was very timely, immediately after this year's anniversary of Sept. 11. Also, his recounting of Muhammad Ali's moving words was appropriate and necessary, as there indeed was a lesson there for all people to learn and live by. We should accept all people, regardless of race, religion, shoe size and otherwise. Mark Casey
Freshman Why's Joe Upset? Graduate library science student Joe Troyer seems upset. Upset that President Bush has not leveled with him about the War in Iraq. Upset at the obviously loony 75 percent of Americans who believe we're a safer country now under President Bush's leadership (and yes -- even after implementation of that oh-so-evil "Patriot Act"). Joe just can't believe it. He wants evidence that the country is truly safer. After all, a Taliban official, anonymous no less, tells Joe that Osama is madder than ever. That's enough evidence for Joe to start quaking. (One can only imagine the lost sleep that Baghdad Bob must have deprived from poor Joe). I just don't know Joe. Two years after Sept. 11, and no subsequent terrorist attacks on the continental U.S. Two years after Sept. 11, and no definitive declarations by Bin Laden proving that he's still alive. Two years later and we're fighting the terrorists where they live, instead of where we live. Two years later, and extremists are so petrified about what a free and democratic Iraq might mean for the rest of the Middle East that they're marshalling all of their resources in a feeble attempt to resist democracy in Iraq. Two years after Sept. 11, George Bush has led us with conviction, and the facts (although, admittedly not anonymous Taliban sources -- sorry Joe) demonstrate that we are more secure today because of it. Scott Dillon
Alumnus GLBT's not a 'true minority' After reading in the IDS that the GLBT plans to brainstorm in response to Dr. Rasmusen's Web log, I had reached my pinnacle. Something in me clicked and I had to speak out. I find it ironic the ways in which the GLBT and others fight for freedom of speech and diversity and yet, the group tries to hinder anyone who expresses an opposite view. Frankly, Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgendered individuals are not a true minority. A true minority is an individual with an outer trait that cannot be changed. Race is a minority, gender is a minority and even age can be a minority. But as we can see with the example of Anne Heche, once homosexual does not always mean homosexual. Moreover, if you don't tell anyone you're a homosexual, how could they tell the difference? Most straight people don't publicly announce how they like it in bed. The Supreme Court just ruled basically that what you do, within law, in the privacy of your own home is your business, not ours. If sex between the same genders is legal, should polygamy be legal as well? Where and when will the United States draw the line? The values of this country have been degraded to the point that homosexuals are even representatives for God, now how hypocritical is that? In conclusion, don't try to silence me and others by labeling us as homophobic or people who are fighting homosexual urges. These are elementary tactics; now that we are benefiting from higher education we can use tactics befitting our status. Aaron Officer
Junior Moralistic hypocrisy at IU The IU community has recently seen fine examples of expedient morality within its administration. On September 3, the IDS reported that IU disciplined some students who starred in a pornographic film while others who appeared in Playboy were left alone. The rationale given for ignoring the Playboy models was that they were not on campus and did not use the IU logo. Playboy's article defined the models as students from "Indiana," which is in the "Big 10." Playboy's pictorial contains a photo with a notebook that says "Indiana University" (a trademarked name), and a model mentions "IU basketball" ("IU" is another trademark). Nobody is going to confuse Playboy's naked models with students from the religious university in Anderson, Indiana. On September 8, the IDS headline announced that a misleading and homophobic "Professor's Web Log [was] Back on IU Server." What's the connection? Bashing students, while forgetting the First-Amendment protected and lawyer-laden businesses who exploited them, is part of the game. IU gets extra points for disciplining a student who was filmed receiving oral sex while coincidentally garnering campus publicity through mainstream smut. Damning students who were filmed hurting nobody, while allowing a professor to keep his hateful and hurtful Web site denouncing people who don't engage in hetero-phallo-vaginal intercourse, is just another round. This hypocritical pattern in what kinds of expression IU allows would never withstand legal scrutiny. IU, as an academic institution, should be above constraining anybody's expression. I hope the maligned students receive pardons and apologies before they rightfully sue. Finally, as a heterosexual IU student with many homosexual friends and family, I hope that Eric Rasmusen finds that students are leaving his classes forever. The ultimate power of a teacher is in their students, and abandoned teachers are powerless. Just because we allow a person to speak doesn't mean we have to sit and listen. Joshua J. Wells
Graduate Student Teacher programs should work together I found Vincent Carr's article ("Want to be a teacher?," IDS, Monday) to be interesting as I just finished my two-year commitment with TFA. I think he took a very complicated issue and reduced it too simply. I'm really sorry that he didn't realize he wanted to teach until later in his junior year. Why not talk to someone in the Office of Teacher Eduction about the Transition-to-Teach or other alternative licensing programs, available in Indiana and 40 other states? The challenge of teaching -- and particularly in some of America's most needy schools -- is that you have to be the one to find creative solutions to bureaucratic quagmires. It's not about being John Keating in "Dead Poets Society" -- after all, Keating did all the entertaining and thinking and inspiring. Great teachers inspire their students to take center-stage and be the thinker themselves. Teacher education programs have their benefits -- right now, can you find interactive ways to teach a child how to comprehend reading passages? What's your first step when a whole class looks at the textbook paragraph and just gives up because they read on a fourth grade level in the ninth grade? Teaching reading is one of the most difficult things in the world. Period. And I'm awed by teachers who do this flawlessly. The problem is that rural students and inner-city students need these amazing teachers too. The problem is the TFA'ers put their whole hearts into the community, but about 60 percent do leave after 2 years to pursue law school, or in my case graduate studies in educational policy, because we want to ensure greater change than we feel we can create in our one classroom or even our one school. We need dedicated teachers, who have the knowledge of how to TEACH complicated subjects like reading and writing and physics to every single child in this country. We shouldn't have a divide between Teach For America and teacher education programs; we should be working together and remembering the children in all the neighborhoods who need passionate, knowledgeable teachers. Christi Smith
Graduate Student Football tickets' prices are outrageous Big Ten football is all about tradition. It has tradition like no other conference in the nation. Big Ten football is about tailgating -- beer, ribs, throwing the football, painted faces, no shirts, wigs and 80,000 to 100,000 crazy fans packing their respective stadiums screaming and yelling, hoping and praying that their team can pull off a hard fought victory. It's about smash-mouth football and which team can outlast the other. So fine, IU isn't a football college; I can accept that. What is not acceptable is when the most red and white (or crimson and cream) have been in the stadium in the past three years is when Ohio State came to town in 2001 and the stadium was 80 percent full of Ohio State fans. They were doing their signature O-H-I-O chant across the entire stadium that day. If IU football is ever going to be a winning team, it is going to have to start by winning games at home. Schedule some weaker opponents for the out-of-conference schedule at home and hope to get a surprise win or two on the road. That way maybe one season we go 6-6, get a bowl appearance and get some national recognition so some top recruits at least might consider playing for IU. This brings me to the main problem. How is a single IU student football ticket ($20) more than a ticket for the basketball games ($11)? In order to have a home field advantage, you have got to have fans at the game. I would love to support our team, but I am not willing to pay $20 to see below-average football when I can sit at home and watch good football. Why can't the athletics department put together a package for students where it can be $5 to $7 per game or a $35 to $40 season ticket deal? Charging $20 a pop isn't going to fill the seats, especially when our team is losing to the likes of the UConn Huskies. How can the players for IU be excited to play at home when on an average gameday at Memorial Stadium might not fill up Assembly Hall? My advice to the athletics department -- get a clue. We are no good and it doesn't look like we're getting much better. However, there are fans out there that want to support our team no matter win or lose. We want to help our team have a home field advantage and make Memorial Stadium a feared place to play, but we aren't going to do that by charging students $20 a seat. Eric Edelsberg
Junior