Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / Dec. 6, 2001, edition 1 / Page 2
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Page 2 Opinions Dec. 6, 2001 Editorial Editors offer thanks for an amazing year In the movie “The Breakfast Club” five students spend a Sat urday trapped in detention. Over the course of the day, stereo types were broken and friend ships formed. In the last year, we’ve seen our staff undergo the same process. One of us was high school homecoming queen. One of us isn’t afraid to have hair like Rainbow Bright. One of us is a model. One of us is Eggplant Man. One of us is the mother figure. One of us is a worry wart. One of us is the nerd. Individu ally we are unique, but together we make an incredible team. When we stopped being in timidated by appearances and personalities, we got to know each other beyond co-workers and journalists. We found out that we’re a lot more alike than we would have guessed. Just like it’s said in the movie, “You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, an athlete, and a basket case, a princess and a criminal.” We started last January with a crash course in campus journalism when we covered the death of a classmate. Each week since, we brought you the stories of the people and events that shape life at Elon. Thank you for your support this year as we’ve struggled to find our place on campus. Your letters, good and bad, fuel the fire because we know we’re serving a community that cares, it’s been an amazing year and we would be remissed if we didn’t tell you about our incred ible staff. They give 15 to 30 hours*a week to the paper for pennies. They care about their job and bringing you a great newspaper each week. Together they have made significant strides in journalism at Elon. We couldn’t have done our jobs without them. Today’s paper is the last we will complete as a staff. They will clean out their mailboxes and make room for the new lead ers. Tomorrow the new execu tive staff members will be an nounced. It will be time to start over again, but this year was the beginning of something great. The staff laid a foundation for The Pendulum’s role at Elon. We’ll be back in January, in spired by our past and encour aged by the future. Gratefully yours, Taresa and Jen New airport security measures may inconvenience a number of flyers Nick Rust Guest Columnist I recently had the privilege of fly ing for the first time since the trau matic events of September 11,2001 to go home to Maryland for the Thanksgiving holiday. It was a har rowing experience. I was able to see firsthand the result-of new legislation passed by George Dubya and Con gress. Imagine the scene: it’s 8:30 am, you woke up early to get ready and get to the airport, you arrive at the airport, you check in with your I.D. of course and proceed to your gate. On the way you of course have to go through security, customary, no big deal. Not so fast my friend, because at the end of the conveyor belt with the airport security members toting their magic wands that detect any metallic objects on you, that range from guns and knives to belt buck les, are two National Guard soldiers, equipped with standard issue M-16 assault rifles. I was a little unnerved upon site of this for the first time. But if you thought that was all, you’d be wrong. Imagine running late to your gate and being stopped at the security checkpoint for no par ticular reason or suspicion other than following the new laws. One in ev ery five people are stopped and ex tensively searched at the security conveyor belt and also at the actual gate. Every fifth person at the gate has his or her carry-on luggage searched. I understand the purpose of the new laws implemented to beef up airport security, to make travelers feel safe and to try and deter such hor rendous acts from occurring again. To this end, the new laws are well intentioned, but still just a quick re action to a bigger problem that needs to be better thought out. This is not the first time in American history that our government has tried to find quick solutions to bigger problems or national issues. For example, the Cold War was a time in American histoiy filled with paranoia and uptightness toward the 1 The views and ideas expressed in Opinions are not necessarily those of The Pendulum, its staff or Elon University. communist Soviet unions. The gov ernment went to extreme measures to weed out people of Communist ties, a practice that went against the “melting pot” view of the United States. The House Un-American Ac tivities Committee (HUAC) con vened in the 1940s and ‘50s. It was a Congressional committee headed by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Maybe if we form a committee to expel all people of Islamic faith we’ll elimi nate terrorism in the United States? Sure. Did members of Congress or the president ever stop and think about the actual intentions of terrorism in general on the United States and in this specific instance of Sept. 11. There are many people in the world outside of the United States who look down at America and what we stand for. What terrorists like Osama Bin Laden are aiming for is to change the American way. Terror ism is a means for these extreme ideologues to try and change the ev eryday lives of Americans, who seem materialistic and arrogant to the be- aRSi thiS! K£»tf !iolv»t!tS4y cbuRSt;( »(»!;» Taresa LaRock, Editor in Chief Jennifer Guarino, Managing Editor Elizabeth Sudduth, News Editor Josh Davis, Opinions Editor Jason Chick, A & E Editor Katie Bonebrake, Focus Editor Justin Mazzola, Sports Editor Emily Hudson, Photography Editor Amy Cowen, Asst. Photography Editor Jessica Vitak, Chief Copy Editor Lauren Vilis, Business Manager Kevin Burrows, Artist 7012 Campus Box Elon, NC 27244 Newsroom: 278-7247 Fax: 278-7246 E-mail: pendulum@elon.edu The Pendulum is published each Thursday of the academic year. The advertising and editorial copy dead line is 5 p.m. the Monday before pub lication. Letters to the editor and guest columns are welcome and should be typed, double-spaced, signed and include and telephone number for verification. Submissions are also accepted as Word docu ments on disk or by e-mail. The Pen dulum reserves the right to edit ob scene or potentially libelous material. Lengthy letters or columns may have to be trimmed to fit. All submissions become the property of The Pendu lum and will not be returned. liefs of foreigners. Terrorism is a fact of life, a negative one but one present all over the worid. The events of Sept. 11 magnified the fact that even the world’s sole remaining super-power is still not immune to the atrocities of terrorism. What if the goal of the terrorist organization responsible for the events of Sept. 11 was to change the American way of life and make us more paranoid and uptight? would they then achieve their intentions? I think assault weapons in airports are a change in daily American life. You cannot go to an airport anymore with out being left on edge due to the ter ror and carnage that was left after Sept. 11. In this new technological age, where weapons of mass destruction are prevalent and available in many forms, it is important to be cognizant of the effects and precautions against such weapons. W^th new technology comes greater risk of possible acts of terror. The reasons behind the events of Sept. 11 are world issues. Terrorism is a world issue and needs to be addressed by the world. What needs to happen is a cooperative ef-, fort and a meeting to sit down and talk about the future, how to prevent terrorism and to give all countries a voice. The world needs a stronger pact in place, like the Geneva Con vention regarding prisoners of war during World War II, concerning nuclear and biological warfare. Tech nology is so great these days that we can blow the Earth up a hundred times over, as well as infecting ev ery person with some horrible chemi cal disease. There needs to be a bet ter way to reassure this b>ecause com mon sense just isn’t working.
Elon University Student Newspaper
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Dec. 6, 2001, edition 1
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