Page 16
Opinions
March 15, 2001
Pendulum Editorial
When the Reno v. Ameri
can Civil Liberties Union deci
sion came, the nation felt a
bittersweet twinge in their stom
achs. The decision, made by
the Supreme Court, overturned
the previous Communications
Decency Act, which censored
certain Internet materials.
Reno V. ACLU freed the World
Wide Web and its surfers.
This week Elon was faced
with its own Internet moral di
lemma.
This dilemma leaves
many students and staff ques
tioning the place of the Internet
on a college campus and
throughout the world. Should we
question others’ Web page con
tent? Should we hold them re
sponsible and liable for material
that is disgusting, inappropriate
and demeaning to some? Or
should we laugh at and appreci
ate the attempt at humor?
The decision, the ques
tions and the Web itself will con
tinue to raise issues everywhere.
Solving the problem and ad
dressing the issues will not be
easy. Do we rely on people to be
respectful and tasteful? Do we
allow our students and staff
total freedom to express them
selves? Or do we find middle
ground? Do we create institu
tional laws and regulations?
Maybe the answer isn’t in the
legislation, but rather in the
people.
Maybe we should expect
more from our staff, our lead
ers and our peers. Self-cen
sorship, or rather self-realiza-
tion, may be the key to ending
the trivial and never-ending
Internet wars.
POES
THIS MEAN
Asking to re-instate Elon’s most
cherished television brotherhood
A dripping satire from
around the campfire
Teresa Bateman
Columnist
In high school, I would
desparately look forward to
Wednesday nights at 8p.m., be
cause my favorite show,
Dawson’s Creek was on. I would
even go so far as holding
Dawson’s Creek parties with my
friends, and 10 of us would or
der pizza and sit and watch the
Dawson’s Creek saga unfold.
In my senior year I man
aged to get my generally tough
father hooked on 7“’ Heaven. He
and I would watch the show to
gether while doing schoolwork.
Before coming to the won
derful world of Elon, I had never
missed an episode of Dawson’s
Creek. I would even make sure
to tape it when I had gymnastics
practice during its time.
The fourth season of
Dawson’s Creek was slated to
begin on Oct. 4, and I was ready
to host another year of parties
in my dorm room at Elon.
I had heard rumors that at
Elon, the Warner Brother’s
Channel was not shown. How
ever I couldn’t believe that such
a teen oriented channel would
not be broadcast.
On Oct 3, one day before
the big premiere day in which
viewers would find out about
Pacey and Joey’s summer ro
mance, my worst fears were con
firmed. While flipping through
all 103 of the channels on my
TV, I never once saw WB.
Instead I saw ECTV,
where my beloved network was
supposed to be. I was gravely
disappointed.
Now I am about to commit
blasphemy because I am a
broadcast communications ma
jor, but do we really need three
channels devoted to Elon Col
lege television?
One channel shows mov
ies on the weekends, and an
other scrolls through station
identification numbers, which
by the way can also be found on
the channel 22, the TV Guide
Channel. The third one, I am
guessing, is used for actual Elon
broadcast.
I have been at Elon since
August and I have seen very
few programs that are actually
broadcast. I saw the SGA presi
dential debates and that is about
all I have seen. Most of the other
time viewers see community an
nouncements accompanied by
WSOE (the radio station) broad
cast.
So why are three stations
taken up by Elon? What is the
harm in taking one of those away
and letting the WB network
broadcast?
I know several people who
are fans of Jack and Jill, 7“’
Heaven, Dawson’s Creek and
Roswell. Some even like to
watch the baseball that is shown
on the WB Network,
As it stands now, in order
to watch this network we have
to unhook the cable from our
televisions and hook up an an
tenna, now this isn’t much, but
I would just like to be able to
see my shows without too much
effort.
I am very out of the loop
when it comes to Dawson’s
Creek and 7“* Heaven, and yes I
have my parents fill me in on
the latest WB gossip. I hope in
the future that our school will
take into consideration having
just two Elon Channel’s and
giving us WB fans satisfaction
in seeing the love triangle of
Dawson, Joey, and Pacey un
fold for yet another season.
Rady Large
Assistant Opinions Editor
Every person on this Earth is a
butterfly of hope and happiness. We
have the ability to show the pattems
and colors within ourselves, to spread
our wings and float through life in a
happy bobbing that showcases our
talents and inner-person. Yet, within
the past few months, the safe, serene,
country club-like bubble that is Elon
has tumed into one of those gas-
polluted, grayish bubbles that you
encounter when some toxin has been
poured into a puddle.
No one here can truly have an
excuse for a frown here. Unless your
mind is tuned to the real world of
hunger, disease, smog and oppres
sion around our bubble, you have
absolutely no reason not to smile. I
walk past dozens of people here who
look healthy, yet miserable and un
happy simply because of a stupid
trivial mundane everyday crap. Look
around you. Everything is aUve and
YOU are alive. You have food, shel
ter and you are surrounded by people
that don’t want to hurt or surround
you. All over the world are young
students like us with snipers hunting
them down, or textile bosses beating
them for not stitching correctly. Here,
we work to prepare for, well.., work.
If you are not thinking about
others in that world of oppression
and corruption that so many battle
everyday, why not live in the now
and smile? When someone says hello
to you, reply and send that package
back to them. We are losing a sense
of community that was here when I
began school. Back then you could
wave without getting ignored or
glared at. Southemers call this the
effect of the “Yankee salting” of col
lege kids that come to school down
here. I don’t agree. There are com
munities that exist with intercultural
relationships all over the world. There
are chill communities all over the
world. All of them have one thing in
common - a true sense of commu
nity. They don’t let the bigwigs steal
from them, or slowly strangle their
budget.
Octagon is open from mom-
ihg until 1 a.m. At the beginning of
the year we were allowed to use our
meal plan. Well, as of four days ago,
the cafe offers a “late night program.”
That means that you can’t use the
meal plan from 12 to 1, only meal
dollars. Don’t be too surprised if next
semester you have a “Late Night”
option on your meal card. Those sly
snakes!
The point is, well, three things:
smile (you can at least help the vibe
on our campus); watch out for our
community being attacked by a
money driven institution (late
night.. .that’s all I am saying); and let
your beautiful butterflies get out and
play in this spring paradise (push
positive energy)! To quote a friend,
“there is mad sh*t around this fire.”