Athletics department just can't seem to get it right\nStupid is as stupid does, or so it seems at the athletic department. Their new multi-million dollar plan (which is really just a modification of the one proposed two years ago) demonstrates the same level of stupidity that led to the department's record structural deficit, actual deficit and the implementation of the student athletics fee. \nThe new plan, which will use only private money, will spend $35 million to increase Memorial Stadium's capacity by 2,000 seats. Weren't we just told by the athletic director the official cause of the athletics deficits was declining football attendance? How does any sane person arrive at the conclusion to spend $35 million to increase capacity by 2,000 when the stadium is about 40 percent vacant at all home games over the last few years? \nHow does any department use up all its political favors to get a $1.1 million annual student fee passed, only to blow $35 million on a project that is so obviously unneeded? Thirty-five million dollars could go a long way to making every other sports program at IU the best and most heavily funded in the nation. Too bad stupid is as stupid does at the athletic department.\nJudd Arnold \nAlumnus\nNew York City
More people should be interested in IU football\nNow that I have reached the age of 65, having lived in Columbus, Ohio, and now Florida (where football is life), I have observed the following: lack of sincere interest in the entire state of Indiana for football, (particularly southern Indiana -- the current great Colts often cannot sell out) lack of a strong demand from IU alumni for winning football, and too much intra-state competition. I attended very important IU football games in the 1970s and 1980s with as many as 15,000 empty seats. Unless supporters of IU can make Saturday football a part of life, as other other Big Ten teams enjoy, winning or losing, the IU-Bloomington community will be better known for arts and crafts in Brown County and early preparation for basketball. I will attend at least four IU football games this year. Hope you can join me!\nGeorge Wolf\nAlumnus\nTampa, Fla.
Understanding, exercising criticism is healthy, patriotic\nIn his June 28 column, "When new worlds get old," JP Benitez laments that the current generations of Americans have "erased ... the god named Dream," and, rather than reaching for greatness, can only apologize for our past. Is it wrong, then, to question our gods? Our belief in ourselves, which Jimmy Carter tried to revive in his "infamous 'malaise' speech," had been damaged by our hubris and blind ignorance in Vietnam, deriving from belief in a "bright shining lie," the dark side of "the god named Dream."\nUnderstanding today that heroes are human after all is not apology, and doesn't detract from the respect we have for them, just as criticism is healthy and patriotic; while blind loyalty leads to hubris, and blind obedience leads to dictatorship. It is not in military and political success, but in criticism, in expression of frustration, in seeking truer definitions of our ideals, that the nation is renewed and the freedoms we hold are confirmed.\nBy the way, while Jimmy Carter did not succeed as president (though not for want of trying), he has gone on to become such a respected senior statesman (and Nobel Prize winner) that it is rather discourteous to refer to him merely as "an ex-politician."\nJohn Cash?\nGraduate student
Candidate Kerry flip-flops on VP choice\nAfter stating that he needed a vice president who could step in as president, John Kerry chose the one man he called too inexperienced to be president just months ago.\nJohn Kerry's selection of John Edwards is a flip-flop on the most important decision a candidate for the presidency can make in the course of a campaign. As Hoosiers, we should seek honest leadership. Come Nov. 2, I'll be casting my vote for George W. Bush. I know exactly what he stands for.\nAngel Rivera\nSenior\nPresident of the IU College Republicans
Value the chance to decide something for yourself\nI recently did something Rush Limbaugh said I should not; I saw "Fahrenheit 9/11." I didn't see much in the movie that Rush said I would. However, I did see some things he had not bothered to mention. But if I were you, I wouldn't take my word for it. Go see for yourself. That is the American way. \nWe the people have a long-held belief in the capacity of person to sort through fact and fiction, compare notes and decide for oneself. In colonial times, tyrannical King George III did not think our forebears had a right to do such a thing. Thus, in 1765 he promulgated the Stamp Act -- a repressive tax on newspapers that was intended to keep troublesome information out of the hands of the people. \nSome colonists, like my great-great-great-great-grandfather Benjamin Merrill, resisted and paid the ultimate price for so doing. Capt. Merrill of the North Carolina Regulars was captured by the Tories, tried and found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. He was publicly hanged, taken down while yet alive, castrated, gutted and his remains chopped into four pieces. \nSuch was the cost to some brave folks who struggled so valiantly to secure the blessings of liberty to their posterity. Today we now hear some shrill voices trying to discourage citizens from using the freedom that was so hard fought. \nSince those who sacrificed so much, like Merrill, cannot speak out on this from beyond the grave, I'll try to do it for them. To those so frightened that they would try to scare others from reading a newspaper, buying a book, or see nothing more than a movie, I repeat the words that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt uttered in some grave times past: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."\nSam Osborne\nWest Branch, Iowa
