OPINION/EDITORIAL
January 12,2000 • theSeahawk
9
Chris Register
“Salt and Limes”
The University of North Carolina at
Wilmington.. .an institution dedicated to landing
you a well paying job with growth potential, to
fattening your personal wallet, to providing you
with the tools you need to scoring that hot model,
red Ferrari, million-dollar dream home (along with
vacation home built next to some popular erod
ing beach) and your yearly six day vacation to
Italy where you spend most of your time inside
the hotel watching TV. I recently opened the Stu
dent Handbook and to my surprise this was not
on the inside cover! There must be an omission,
thought I, so I tumed to the Preamble of the Joint
Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students.
I diligently searched for something pertaining to
the right to a good job and money after college,
but I could find nothing! Instead I saw a passage
that read: “As members of the academic commu
nity, students should be encouraged to develop
the capacity for critical judgment and to engage
in a sustained and independent search for tmth.”
My eyebrows are still ftirrowed. I think that the
editor mistyped the word ‘truth’ instead of
‘money’. The reason I know I am right is be
cause my fellow college students are living testi
mony to what I thought was the point of college;
namely the pursuit of money or a job instead of
education for its own sake. What kind of hippie
would do such a thing as the later anyway? Then,
further adding to my dismay and confusion, I saw
this; “Academic institutions exist for the trans
mission of knowledge, the pursuit of truth, the
development of students and the general well
being of society.” I think this one was somehow
transfenned accidentally fix)m some university in
either Japan or Germany, where the combined
gross national product of the two is equal to that
of the US but the combined landmass is only about
that of Texas. I know that over there between
about 40 and 50% of the national budget is spent
on education, where as here in the US the major
ity goes to defense. I know many more college
students that chose their majors primarily for the
money making potential rather than some “gen
eral well-being of society” mumbo-jumbo. I
mean, the best way I know to make the world a
better place is to make my savings account a big
ger place! How many times have you
Evironmental science, education, and philosophy
majors out there been looked at sideways by an
experienced adult and asked “Is there any money
in that?’ They know that you guys (and many
others) are dodging the tnie reason for going to
college.. .must have beenfooledby the handb(X)k!
Now here’s an example of a student who has
her priorities straight. I overheard her and an
other intelligent young man talking about majors,
when she announced that she had changed ma
jors, biology was just too tough. She said that she
was going to move into child psychology instead.
The young man said to her “yea, you can bullshit
in that job” and went on to say something about
there being money in it too (all sarcasm aside, I
almost vomited when I heard this). She agreed
wholeheartedly. I wish I had asked her name, so
I could recommend her to aU of you if your chil
dren ever experience psychological problems.
Easy money, folks, it’s what college is all about.
Can you imagine an America where everyone
went to college with the idea of getting the most
education they could, and when they graduated
went on to further their own education as well as
that of others, spreading what they know with the
intent of helping all and bettering the quality of
life for everyone instead of just themselves? What
about one where people spent the minimal so
cially acceptable time working for financial gain,
labored towards bettering the world 40 hours a
week, sometimes even late into the evening, spent
15 minutes a day with the TV and 3 hours with
their family, and worried more about the utter
destmction of our beautifial coasts than the shop
ping cart dent in their SUV? I shudder, and choose
to leave those scenarios to science fiction.
And by the way, a note to the editors of the
Student Handbook: Please fix those mistakes!
Hugh Fisher
‘My Way’
The year 2000 is upon us. The new millen
nium has begun.
Nobody got blown up.
No cities were nuked.
God hasn’t made the entire population of
(Christians / Jews / Moslems / Jehovah’s Wit
nesses) disappear from the face of the Earth.
And a lot of people out across the world, espe
cially here in the gcxxl ol’ U. S. of A, have spent a
week or so looking aimlessly around, some from
atop stacks of ammunition or military rations, and
saying in hushed tones: “Where’s the Apocalypse?
I thought we were supposed to be at war by now!
Or at least fighting against soldiers dispatched by
newly-proclaimed Emperor Clinton in order to
assure our fimJom!”
Because the United States was where the big
gest portion of the ‘ Y2K’ prfienomenon originaled.
Around the world, there were only smatterings of
concern for computer systems that might fail, and
the possibility of someone getting a little wasted
and starting a fight somewhere. (Those feais were
put to rest when Boris Yeltsin resigned on Dec.
31.)
It was only when America (still the holder of
Letter To The Editor
Rumors of ‘YlKrisis ’ were greatly exaggerated
the New World Order belt for biggest, baddest
nation - no matter what the Serbs and Iraqis might
say) began to be concerned about the turning of
the year that the rest of the nations of the world
really began muttering expletives and throwing
themselves into ‘Y2K frenzy,’ which will surely
be a big, juicy chapter in some future sociologist’s
textbook.
Americans were the worst of all. You didn’t
see pictures of people in France hoarding bottled
water and generators, did you? No market own
ers in Italy had signs next to the batteries, wine,
and pepperoni exclaiming “ST(X!K UP NOW!
JUST IN CASE...” (Of course not! Because the
signs would have been in Italian.)
Britons? All they cared about were (A) get
ting a bit trashed and (B) getting a bit naughty
while the fireworics went off. However, a friend
of mine from the marvelous country of Wales did
make the observation that he really, really would
have liked to be a computer analyst in America
this past year.
“Anyl)ody would think the whole Y2K prob
lem was created by the people who got paid mil-
Uons to fix it,” he said. .‘Wo, that could n^er
I am writing in response to an article that I
read in the 1 December 1999 issue of The
Seahawk about the “Uncertainties loom as Y2K
approaches.” The story in question unwittingly
adds more misinformation about the National
Rifle Association and militias, which only serves
to further breed public ignorance.
The National Rifle Association is not a citi
zen militia It is an organization that has many
functions. Two Union war veterans. Colonel
William C. Church and General Geoige Wingate
founded the NRA in 1871 for they were appalled
by the lack of marksmanship of their troops at
that time. Their goal was to promote rifle shoot
ing on a scientific basis. The NRA then incorpo
rated safety and training programs. They offer
the hunting community, law enforcement and
America’s youth programs to safely educate and
train individuals in the art of firearm usage. The
NRA is also committed to preserving the Second
Amendment.
When our forefathers wrote the United States
Constitution to replace the Articles of Confedera
tion, they added the Second Amendment to the
Bill of Rights to preserve the power of the people
in lieu of a stronger federal government.
Today, misinformed individuals have shown
disdain towards the NRA. The NRA
lobbies the U. S. Congress on behalf of its mem
bers against gun control. It is a contentious issue
because many Americans believe that gun con
trol is the answer to crime, instead of criminal
control.
Since most early Americans were of European
decent, they had plenty of experience with totali
tarianism. During most of the middle ages to
around the 1500’s to 1600’s, the rich mling class
or Nobles had arms and there were professional
armies to fight any enemies. The King was the
legislator and the enforcer of state law, a dictator
The rest of society was full of “commoners” who
were for the most part disenfi^nchised from hav
ing any representation in government. When our
forefathers added the Second Amendment to the
Bill of Rights in the U. S. Constitution, this was
■
the ultimate insurance against any attempt to wrest
power away from the people. Therefore, it is an
elitist concept to not tmst common citizens with
firearms.
It is every citizen’s civic duty to leam how to
operate a firearm. This idea is in the U. S. Consti
tution, within the Second Amendment. A well
regulated Militia, being necessary to the security
of a free State, the right of the people to keep and
bear Arms, shall not be infringed. In the begin
ning of our republic, every able bodied male from
17 to 45 years of age had to bring their own fire
arm to form a citizen militia. The people brought
power to bear against an enemy, not the govern
ment.
“I am the NRA” and I target shoot paper tar
gets at a gun club with my father and many citi
zens from Hubert, North Carolina. We are all
typical God fearing, law-abiding, patriotic Ameri
can citizens. I guess I am part of a militia, but it
has nothing to do with either the gun club nor the
NRA.
Bryan Kalfin
mTEBSTOTHEEDITORPOUC^
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//
1
!
- -TT-
happen...”
But it’s true - Americans were going nuts!
Hoarding canned food. Spreading patently false
rumors about martial law and bank-account
fiieezes. Believing TV commercials that hyped
up the ‘danger’ of another tick on the calendar.
And fawning over their home computer systems
as if they were first-bom children about to be killed
in some sort of Old Testament plague.
And now... silence.
The fireworks are naught but bumt paper cas
ings and atmosf^eric particles... the empty cham
pagne bottles are either in dump or recycling bin...
the brightly-colored packages of Norton Utilities’
Y2K analysis software have probably been
marked down to 99 cents. All is calm, all is bright
- thanks to CP&L - so let’s all breathe a collective
sigh of relief.
However...welI, remember the scientists and
historically-accurate types who keep reminding
us that, mathematically speaking, the new mil
lennium doesn’t start until 2001, since there was
no ‘year zero’ ? Shouldn’t we be ready, ah... weU,
what if something, um...?
Never mind.