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Page g • Thursday, March 13, 2003
Opinions
The Pendulum
The Pendulum
Established l.Oli
Are students being
empowered?
There has been a sweeping change in leadership style.
CEO’s and athletic coaches practice it. They lead under
the philosophy of empowerment. Essenlially, the style
implies that leaders can not only offer feedback to subor
dinates, but receive and thoughtfully consider it as well.
It seems the administration did not fully adhere to the
practice of empowerment when it came to the increase in
tuition that was announced Wednesday.
President Leo Lambert said Gerald Whittington, vice
president for business, finance and technology, did hold
open budget forums that were principally attended by
faculty and staff. But how open were the forums? We at
The Pendulum did not receive a word about the forums,
and perhaps had the forums been better publicized, they
would have drawn students with legitimate concerns.
It would stand to prove that informing students of
tuition plans and allowing an opportunity for feedback
would serve not only to placate students’ concerns, but
also to give the administration an idea of what students
are thinking.
Granted, the tuition hike for next semester is not dras
tic (it is the increased housing fees that have been sub
stantially raised relative to past years), but don’t Elon
students have the right to know what plans are being
made in regard to their future?
Obviously, the administration cannot be expected to
inform and grant dialogue on every' thing it does, but
larger matters, such as tuition, deserve input from Elon
students.
The Pendulum
Colin Donohue, Editor in-Chief
Katie Beaver, Managing Editor
Lindsay Porter, News Editor
Jessica Patchett, Assistant News
Editor
Eric Hall, Opinions Editor
Andl Petrlnl, A & E Editor
Kathleen Frey, Features Editor
Kristin Slmonettl, Sports Editor
Tim Rosner, Photography Editor
Mary-Hayden Britton and Ellis
Harman, Copy Editors
Annette Randall, Business
Manager
Matt Ford, Online Editor
Janna Anderson, Adviser
The Pendulum is published each Thursday of the academic year. The
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Broadway strike perfect example of
American camaraderie and freedom
Tim Rosner
Photo Editor
Within the past month we have
heard increasing talk of the
United States going to war with
Iraq. The United States has just
introduced a resolution in the
United Nations that would give
Iraq a deadline of March 17 to
disarm.
President George W. Bush has
made it clear that he is willing to
act unilaterally, should the United
Nations Security Council veto
any resolution for war. ‘
It is clear that the president
does not speak on the behalf of
the American public. Millions all
across the world have protested
against any war. Such a war
would be one of the biggest mis
takes that Bush could make.
Not only would thousands of
innocent civilians be killed, it
would increase the likelihood of
terrorism in the United States,
ruin the economy further and dis
credit any moral authority that
this country has left in the world.
Groups such as Human Rights
Watch, Global Exchange and
even the U.N. itself have made
realistic estimates that as many as
80,000 innocent Iraqis would die
in an invasion of Baghdad.
Such violent action would only
increase the strong dislike of the
United States that is already
prevalent in a region of the world
that contains some of the poorest
people on earth.
Terrorism is an act of despera
tion by the powerless against the
powerful. The United States is the
most powerful influence in the
Middle East as well as the great
est instigator of violence.
The United States has support
ed ruthless dictators (including
Saddam Hussein himselO, pro
moted state-sponsored terrorism,
created corrupt regimes, refused
to recognize the right of self
determination of the Palestinian
people and promoted oil-based
economics in many, if not all.
Middle Eastern countries.
If there is any country that can
cxpcct to be the target of violence
from the peoples of the Middle
Bush realizes that the first step to gaining the
support of the American people is to turn Hussein into
a monster, not worthy of life, much less to be the ruler
of a country. 99
East, it is the United States.
The theory is, that if the United
States goes to war, the economy
will improve, at least briefly, due
to the increased need of the mili
tary industrial complex. But we
have been at “war” in Afghanistan
for nearly a year, and our econo
my has continued to decline and
unemployment increase.
The military has all the fund
ing it needs to sustain a military
campaign for a considerable
amount of time before it will need
to call on the private sector to
increase production of war-relat-
ed materials. The cost of such a
war will only ruin our economy
further.
There have been protests
world-wide by millions of people
of all nationalities who oppose a
war with Iraq. In fact, the majori
ty of people in many of our
“allied” countries oppose any mil
itary action.
The United States has not pro
vided any real evidence for the
need of a conflict to remove
Hussein from power.
People have argued that
Hussein has murdered thousands
of his own people during the Iran-
Iraq war, with chemical weapons.
The truth is that many of the
innocent Iraqis that were killed
were actually gassed by Iran.
Tests have shown that the chemi
cal weapons used were not ones
that Iraq was know to have in its
possession.
We have heard that if Saddam
is not disarmed, he will use his
weapons against the United
States, or its allies. This is ridicu
lous.
Why would Saddam risk the
loss of not only his life, but the
destruction of his entire ctnintry
by attacking the worfd’s ‘greatest
nuclear power?
The argument that we are sim
ply enforcing United Nations res
olution 1441 is absurd. The
Security Council resolution does
not have any provisions for mili
tary action.
It simply states that, upon
receiving a report from the
inspectors, the Security Council
will decided the appropriate
actions to take. This is not a blank
check for the United States to
enter the country and kill thou
sands, if not millions, of people.
It is clear that the United States
has no case to justify entering
Iraq. Bush knows this, which is
why he has been so adamant in his
critique of Iraq and Hussein.
If you believe everything Bush
had said about Hussein, you
would probably think he wasn’t
even bom from a human mother.
Bush realizes the first step to
gaining the support of the
American people is to turn
Hussein into a monster, not wor
thy of life, much less to be the
ruler of a country.
As much as it may shock you,
Hussein is actually a human.
Make no mistake, there js no
justification for some of the acts
that Hussein has committed, but
he is not another species of being.
Saddam cannot be dealt with by
war. It will simply drag the world
closer and closer to a violent era
of destruction.
As a citizen of the world, it is
your duty to inform our president
that his course of action is wrong.
Inform our govemment that it
does not need to create more vio
lence and bloodshed in the world
to solve this problem.
Let us, as a nation, lash out not
in violence, but with the offering
of an olive branch. It is time to
turn the other cheek and move the
world closer to peace. It must start
now, and it must start with us.
This is the only hope for the
future of the world.
Contact Tim Rosner at pendu-
lum@elon.edu or 278-7247.