Oct. 11,2001
Opinions
Page 3
What it means to be
‘Made in the USA’
Rady Large
Columnist
Made in Pakistan. Made in
China. Made in El Salvador.
Made in Mexico, These would
have been unspeakable words
when our grandparents were in
their 20s. Yet today, it is hard to
read the label of a T-shirt and not
learn the capital of another former
Soviet state.
I had a great geography lesson
just the other day. This lesson was
not taught by one of Elon’s finest
faculty, but by the campus shop.
I went in to buy an Elon hooded
sweatshirt for one of my friends
that goes to Appalachian State
University. What I found out was
that the good people of Hondu
ras know us very well.
Is all this neo-patriotism just
flag waving or is anybody going
to actually do something for his
or her country? The American
workingman and woman are cry
ing out for help. They cannot
stand alone in this time when
wealthy corporations can dismiss
the union and move their opera
tions outside the borders. The
blue collars of America need our
help against the sweatshop-driven
greed that has given them the pink
ticket. The business that puts
money in the hands of sweatshop
lords and takes food away from
the single mother of Idaho is an
evil business.
Buying American made prod
ucts that are made by American
citizens will help our country and
the world. It will generate jobs for
our economy that is in danger of
falling into recession. This simple
action will also assure that no
sweatshop labor was used in the
making of the clothing.
The only way for the third
world to advance is to totally dis
associate from American business
and build off their culture. Be
sides, it is better to feed an Ameri
can working person then put an
other diamond ring on the rich
elite of the third world.
Let us truly stand united as a
country and as a world commu
nity. Buy American! No more
sweatshops! Dear God, let peace
be near.
LETTERS
Parent agrees with
faculty on terrorist
issues; praises The
Pendulum
To the Editor:
Bravo to the faculty and staff
for reminding Bush that re
venge is not justice.
We, as a nation, must rise
above the terrorists and behave
with honor. There is no honor
in killing innocent people.
As an Elon parent, I appre
ciate The Pendulum. Keep up
the good work!
Sarah Nightingale
Elon Parent
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Proposed life penalty
for data theft too stiff
Yael Li-Ron
Knight Ridder Newspapers
A new bill being considered
in Congress calls for life in
prison without a possibility of
parole for people who engage in
computer trespass (also known
as hackers). Obviously, the
Anti-Terrorism Act is the direct
result of the Sept. 11 attacks,
but several organizations are
already crying foul over its im
plications.
Most noticeably, the Elec
tronic Frontier Foundation has
publicly condemned the bill,
saying the punishment is too
severe, potentially sending
“relatively harmless prank
sters” to prison for life. The bill
treats low-level computer intru
sion, already a crime under ex
isting laws, as an act of terror
ism.
Which means that a mis
guided teen-ager who engages
in breaking and entering into a
computer network somewhere
will be tantamount to commit
ting an act of terrorism and will
“What Would Jesus Do?” The definition of a true Christian
Ben Moore
Columnist
In the past decade, Christians
have striven to live by the ques
tion **What Would Jesus Do?”
Over the past few weeks,
many Conservative Christian
leaders have spoken out on what
America and the world should
do in response to terrorism. 1
think that these leaders have ig
nored the words and actions of
Jesus, Thus, they are not living
by “WWJD?”
I know that many people are
not Christian and that this may
seem uninteresting to them. I
also know that “WWJD?” is not
a slogan that everyone cares for.
This is what the religion comes
from though, so the question
must be asked.
These leaders have said that
violence is an acceptable re
sponse from the Christian stand
point. However, this does not jive
with anything Jesus said or did.
Nowhere in any of the four
Gospels does Josus ever condone
violence. In fact, Jesus speaks out
agamst the only form of violence
the,Law had previously con
doned. . ‘
. _ Jesus says in Matthew 5:38-39
“You have.heard that it was said
‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for
a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not
resist an evildoer. But if anyone
strikes you on the right cheek,
turn the other also,”
And in 43-44 he says, “You
have heard that it was said,’ You
shall love your neighbor and hate
your enemy.’ But I say to you,
love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you.”
Jesus did not say return vio
lence with violence. Instead, he
said love even your enemies.
These leaders argue that the
governments were ordained by
God to exact justice on the
wicked, Jeps does not seem to
have this take, however. -
In John 16:11 Jesus says, “the
rulers of this world have been
condemned.” It does not seem
like Jesus thinks that the rulers
were ordained by God. In fact,
the opposite is true, Jesus says
that the judgment of this world is
wrong because the rulers have
already been condemned.
This means that anyone who is
really trying to follow Christ must
be willing to disagree with the
government when it goes against
what Jesus has said.
When I became a Christian, I
declared that I would follow
Christ. Jesus told us to turn the
other cheekj and to give what
ever is asked and then more.
“What Would Jesus Do’' right
now?
I think Jesus would send the
largest aid package ever to the
people who have no food, drink
or shelter. I think that Jesus
would say that these people are
hurting and that is why they
have attacked.
If we are going to do what
Jesus would then we must be
charitable, even to our
enemies. The government will
act however it chooses to act but
Christians have been called to
protest these actions,
•Christian leaders have some
interesting ideas pertaining to
the recent attacks but that does
not make the ideas Christian.
To be a Christian means to
follow Christ.
go to prison forever. Murderers
often get less than that. Yet At
torney General John Ashcroft is
asking Congress to rush the
bill’s passage, which doesn’t
give us a whole lot of time to
let our elected officials know
how we feel about that bill.
The ATA also has far-reach
ing implications on privacy and
the Fourth Amendment by
clearing the way for wiretaps
without court orders.
In particular, your e-mail and
voicemail are not private any
more, nor are your Web brows
ing habits (the latter can be eas
ily tracked by inspecting the
contents of your cookies). And
the proposed bill doesn’t take
any chances-it applies retroac
tively, too.
The bill will no doubt hasten
the wide use of the controver
sial Carnivore snoop program
used by the FBI, which can
crack just about most any en
coded message posted to the
Web or e-mail. Sure, we need
to find and stop terrorists for
good, but if we give up our civil
liberties today, we’ll never get
them back.
The ACLU naturally joins
the fight against the direction
the ATA is taking, saying “We
need to ensure that actions by
our government uphold the
principles of a democratic so
ciety, accountable government
and international law, and that
all decisions are taken in a man
ner consistent with the Consti
tution.”
In a related story, FTC chair
man Timothy J. Muris an
nounced last week that his
agency won’t seek more aggres
sive online privacy laws, which
the Congress last year was set
to consider.
In fact, according to the
Electronic Privacy Information
Center (EPIC, www.epic.org),
another civil-liberties watch
dog, more than 200 new privacy
laws have been proposed in
Congress in the past year, and
not one of them ever made it to
a committee.