PAGE 6 — THE DECREE — NOVEMBER 3, 1995 Intramurals, SGA also prompt letters (Continued from Page 5) working with the yearbook. The time 1 have devoted to the pro duction of the Dissenter was prompted only by my commu nity spirit and by my wiUingness to show my support for all the students on our campus. At no time was there ever any desire to degrade or disparage any person or group. If you were affronted by my error, please accept this public apology as my personal apology to you. Dr. Vivienne Anderson Intramural coordinator extends his goodbyes Dear Editor; I would like to thank you all for making the intramural pro gram what it is today: without the students there is no success. Now 1 would like to say good bye to all of you. It has been a pleasure working for and with all of you. I would like to particularly thank all the team captains, offi cials, and supervisors for all of their hard work and dedication, and I am truly going to miss you. 1 would like to also thank all of the RA’s for a job well done. The Resident Assistants perform a tre mendous service to Wesleyan. Last of all I would like to thank the 1995-96 North Hall Council for their great leadership and sup port within the North Hall. For those of you who don’t know about my wife, I will tell you —■ she is pregnant. Our baby is due May 29, 1996. I am very happy about Shannon and I hav ing a baby and starting a family. For any of you wondering whether I want a boy or girl — I will tell you that it does not mat ter a^s long as it is a healthy baby! 1 will say again to the students here at Wesleyan that 1 have en joyed working for and with you and wish everyone much success in the future. Goodbye. Tommy and Shannon Perkins Article on amendment by SGA was misleading Dear Editor: 1 am writing in response to the article written about my amend ment in the last Decree. The article does not address my amendment; instead, my re quirements were in question for meeting SQA standards. The ar ticle, even though it talks about another issue that had originally been told to me, still has mislead ing and implied quotes that were not intended, but first I would like to get a few things cleared up. I was not interviewed for the article, because I was approached a few hours before the deadline to be interviewed, but I could not due to class, and when I could the interviewer had class. So in fear of not being heard at all 1 was forced to write my opinions down and hand them to the interviewer. I was not told any of the other comments or quotes from others interviewed and no general ques tions to follow. I assumed that my quotes would have been placed into the article responsi bly, but were not in my opinion. Now that I know what was said, I can respond to those comments, but first, what is the issue about? I was told that the article was about my amendment, but it was not; it was about my dismissal and whether or not I should hold a position due to my situation. Also other comments were made about to how low do I want to lower the GPA standards of SGA, and the fact is I do not wish to lower them at all. I’m only ask ing that a person who falls below this point be allowed the chance to remain on the Senate, while meeting a few requirements. The amendment reads: “Any current member of SGA who falls under a 2.00 can be allowed to remain on SGA if he or she can produce two character references, must obtain permission from the Executive Board, must obtain a majority vote from the Senate, must prove to the Senate that he or she is going to be a vital mem ber of the SGA, and finjilly must meet the 2.00 GPA requirement for next semester.” I feel that this is fair and in no way demeans the position. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses, and these should be taken into consideration. There are several comments that I would like to respond to. The first of those is one made by Andre Clanton, regarding the pur pose of coming to college. I agree that education is why we came to college, but isn’t it also to teach us to be leaders of tomorrow? Some students may not be gifted in the arts of education, but may be gifted in something else, such as in music, theater, or politics. A second comment I would like to comment on is one made by the author of the article, which reads: “A very unsatisfied Kelly Cameron banded with as many people as possible to petition the SGA executive board with hopes of ‘making an exception.’” This statement is very untrue, I joined forces with several students to help pass an amendment that in our opinion should be a part of our constitution. Later in the article, Andre Clanton made another comment saying, “SGA has those standards and if the representatives cannot live up to those standards, how can we expect other students to live up to them?” I was elected to the position, and when my fellow classmates found out about my situation they were willing to still keep me on, but because I was forced off by the Executive Board my position had to be filled. Another comment, this time said by myself, is of a quote I had written down. Yes I said this, but By ALAN P. FELTON As the 1996 election season begins to kick into high gear, mil lions of Americans will soon choose who should be the next President of the United States. The field of candidates is crowded with 10 GOP candidates and a handful of prospective in dependents trying to prove their worth to the American people. Yet, as the drone of speeches and analysis continues, one candidate already clearly stands head and shoulders above the rest. This candidate is one who has, and will continue to, reduce taxes on middle class families. His poli cies have created over three mil lion private sector jobs since 1993 and reduced government to its smallest size in over five decades. This candidate is committed to ensuring an affordable college education to those who want one, and supports a variety of initia tives to provide health insurance to all Americans. This candidate has a strong record of supporting programs that benefit women in the work place and protect them from physical abuse at home. Also, this candidate has been an advocate for civil rights legisla tion throughout his entire politi cal career. Sound like anyone you might want to vote for? Good. I thought so. And just in case there is any confusion about who this candi date is, let me clear up the mys tery. The candidate I have just described is Bill Clinton. Many of you might want to only half of the quote was pub lished, and I feel that if both parts had been published, it would have made better sense. The quote in the paper reads: “I feel that those who are elected to the Executive Board should be responsible enough to carry out their duties or step down and allow someone who wants to help govern the school to take over.” Before this quote I had said, “It had been expressed to me that several of the members of the Ex ecutive Board did not want, and did not feel that they had the time to deal with an amendment.” and this is why the above comment was made. The last comment I would like Notes from the Bunker change your mind now that a name has been attached to the record, but there is good reason Americans should reelect Presi dent Clinton. He is the best can didate and has proved it in his first term as President. In addition to the record stated above, Clinton has moved to bal ance the federal budget by respon sible means. He has taken a strong stand in favor of abortion rights and affirmative action programs. Clinton has guided into law the Brady Bill, a piece of legislation that has removed thousands of guns from the streets of America while also leading to the appre hension of over 200 escaped fel ons. On the international scene, the Clinton White House has returned democracy to Haiti, defused a se rious nuclear crisis with North Korea, strengthened ties with our new ally Russia, presided over two peace agreements in the Middle East, and is now on the brink of bringing peace to war ravaged Bosnia. In just about anybody’s book, those accom plishments would be the mark of a successful Presidency. Yet, many will tell you that Bill Clinton is a failure and has done nothing as President. Clearly the record disputes this claim, but still the charge lingers. Critics say to respond to is one made by a fellow supporter of my amend ment, (expressed through her sig nature of the amendment) Courtney Rubes. She had said, “You can be recognized as a leader by your peers, by your per formances in the classroom be ing number one as well as your efforts to make a change on cam pus.” I agree with her, but as I said before, some people do not have that gift of being an acade mician as others do; instead they have that gift of something else, such as that of representing oth ers. Thank you for your time, and having an open mind about things. Kelly M. Cameron that Clinton is weak because “only” 47 percent of Americans approve of his job performance. They ignore the fact that his ap proval rating is the highest among all the presidential candidates. Naysayers claim Clinton pan ders to public opinion by trying to see two sides of an issue and reach an appropriate compromise. Yet, when Colin Powell attempts to form a position by doing the same thing, the general is hailed as a leader with great vision. Many of Clinton’s opponent’s claim he lacks the honesty and integrity to be a good President. These mudslingers quickly for get that Bill Clinton has had to submit to more scrutiny of his private life and been much more honest about his past than any other presidential candidate in re cent memory. In the Oct. 24 issue of Newsweek, columnist Joe Klein accused Clinton of practicing a “creative cynicism” in which the President “has traded activism for passivism.” This may be the popular view, but it is wrong. Clinton is waging a grand fight against Republican initiatives in Congress that he thinks are ill con ceived and attempting to compro mise with the GOP in areas where there is common ground. Bill Clinton is an active, prin cipled leader with an agenda that is leading America along the right path. He deserves another term in office. If Americans can move beyond the misrepresentations and lies about President Clinton, he will get just what he deserves. President Clinton’s record shows merit for re-election

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view