If the band wants votes, they should bring back chantsIn the last issue of the Daily Reveille, I was interested to read the article about the contest that the Tiger Band has entered.  It has always been my policy to support LSU in all competitive events, but I must say that this latest request for support came as a bit of a surprise.For the past two years, the student body and the Tiger Band have been at odds over the song “Tiger Rag” and over the “Oh we oh” chant.  The once beloved band has recently been met with contempt and resentment from the student body over this issue.  I have noticed that not only has the band stopped playing the songs altogether, but the band has also taken measures to quash attempts by the students to say the chant they love so well. From playing songs over our cheers to extending the fight song to take up the full time between plays, the Tiger Band has almost mastered the art of drowning us out completely.  I might add that the latest attempt at a drown-out (playing an extended version of the fight song after touchdowns) is especially insulting.So, here is my proposal in response to the request by Tiger Band for our support:  respect us, the students, with what we want, and we will help you with what you want.  Do not insult us week after week, ignore attempts by Student Government to remedy the situation, try to drown us out and then come and ask for our help.  I will not vote for you until you answer our requests to return “Tiger Rag” and “Oh we oh” to the song line up.  I am asking that my fellow students assume the same policy.  It is quite simple: if you want my vote, play the songs.Sarah Burrowspolitical science seniorElamawy takes stab at conservativesShirien Elamawy takes an aggressive stab at national politics and mud-slinging when she uses an incident against an Islamic mosque in Dayton, Ohio to generalize the behavior of all conservatives. Yes, I believe what happened there is sickening and that the perpetrators are filled with evil hatred.  By no means were the perpetrators responsible for this act of crime justified in physically and psychologically assaulting innocent children practicing their religion.  However, it should be noted that while any act of aggression toward a child—no matter of what religion—is considered heinous, the extent to which the crime was described by the opinion writer was slightly exaggerated. After reading an excerpt from a follow-up article on the story in the online version of the Dayton Daily News, I realized the sequence of events was actually much less severe and investigators are having a difficult time in classifying this act of violence a as hate-crime.  The local news in the town of the Islamic Center describes the story a 10-year-old girl, who appears to be the only direct victim, told authorities: “She saw two men standing outside a window. One of the men sprayed her through the open window…[and that] her face was burning and she felt nauseous;” and then the emergency response: “HAZMAT crews detected no known chemical irritants in the mosque or on the girl, but a can of pepper spray was found this week near the mosque, police said.” However, just because conservatives tend to have an aggressive standpoint toward Islamic extremists does not mean that we condone acts of physical aggression toward them, especially within the realm of the United States, where freedom of religion reigns. Conservatives have an opinion of Islamic extremists in foreign countries, primarily in the Middle East, because the extent of their extremism goes unrestrained and poses danger to its enemies—those who wish to restrain said extremism, including but not limited to, the Americans.  This conservative opinion does not involve execution, torture, or any physical means of restraining or hurting individuals of this network of religious zealots. In addition, I highly doubt the intent of the DVD was to empower others to seek out the injuring of American Muslims.  It is a documentary appealing to the prospect of restraining Islamic extremism by protecting our borders from religious radicals, confining external terrorists to their native region and reducing the impact of their actions. Nicole Karamichaelbiological sciences freshman—-Contact The Daily Reveille’s opinion staff at [email protected]