TOPS students don’t owe anything
This is a response to the letter to the editor in yesterday’s paper that stated TOPS students should be required to serve in the Louisiana work force for a period of time after graduation. It was argued since Louisiana pays for an outstanding student’s tuition, he should be forced to remain in state and pay back what he “owes” to the state.
First of all, TOPS is a reward system; the whole premise is Louisiana giving students who work hard a reward for their outstanding achievements in high school. Students do not owe the state anything, especially since it is their parents’ taxes that pay for TOPS in the first place.
Secondly, the author of yesterday’s editorial mentioned if a person did not want to remain in Louisiana, he could opt not to take the TOPS scholarship. For many people, that is not an option. This scholarship is what enables them to attend a university of higher learning. Suppose a student went to LSU on TOPS and excelled in his field. Should this person be expected to remain in the confines of Louisiana just because he needed financial aid to attend school? Opportunities in Louisiana are limited in comparison to those found in the other 49 states. It is ridiculous to demand a student remain in Louisiana for the crucial few years after graduation. A student, upon receiving a college degree, should be able to examine all the broad opportunities that open up, NOT have to turn down a possible job offer in another state because his scholarship requires him to.
Marti Buckley
Freshman — Undecided
Bush speech coverage lacking
I was stunned when I saw the front page of the Reveille had no mention of the announcement given by President Bush. It only further proves college students are generally oblivious to the happenings outside of their community. Forgive me for the cliché, but tomorrow possibly could be one of those days that will be in history books for decades, maybe centuries, and it doesn’t even get front-page coverage. Perhaps it is comforting to some people they can submerge themselves in this community and disconnect from the rest of the world. However, I find it sort of disturbing, especially since there are people around the world who cannot possibly ignore war. Not to mention some of these people are our peers who are sacrificing themselves to defend our nation and our safety.
Adrienne Castille
Sophomore — Biological Sciences
Careless pedestrians make bad drivers
I am writing in response to Ms. Breaux’s article in Tuesday’s issue. I’d like to say that, for starters, I do not disagree with her notions that pedestrians should be more careful, or that the increase in cellular phone usage has been detrimental to the safety of our roadways. In fact, I agree with her wholeheartedly. However, I must add the greater problem is the overall driving habits of the population in general, both on this campus as well as off.
It is no longer startling to hear the sounds of sirens, see motorists weaving in and out of traffic or see flashing lights alongside several damaged vehicles. This is especially evident in the conditions of the vehicles as one walks through one of our parking lots — a dent here, a scratch there, a missing or damaged body part haphazardly attached with duct tape. I saw exhibit A of this aforementioned carelessness last week just north of campus on Dalrymple: A student nearly hit a pedestrian IN THE PEDESTRIAN LANE as she refused to merge properly. Or, a more familiar example: a little blonde in her Civic, FLYING through Hart lot, too good to drive in the aisles, but rather cutting through the empty parking spaces, ignoring all stop lines and coming to a screeching halt at the sight of a law-abiding student, who was driving the speed limit in the aisle.
Yes, I must agree that pedestrians must watch out for vehicles. However, the flip side is these very same careless pedestrians are often on their way to a parking lot, and getting behind the wheel.
Melanie E. Breaux
Senior — English
The serial killer could be anyone
My intent in this letter is to convey the main thing everyone needs to remember about the occurrences of late. The scary part about this serial killer nightmare is that this could be ANYONE. I want to stress to everyone on campus, especially the ladies, that this could be our dad, our professor, even our classmate. It is a person who blends in so well with his surroundings (provided that it IS a male) that he remains undetected even by a girl like Carrie, who KNEW about the killer and already was aware of the dangers of living alone.
We have nothing if we don’t have solidarity. I urge you all on campus to attend the monthly rallies in support of the families of the murder victims at the State Capitol. They are very disappointed at the low turnout, and it is imperative what we lose in time, we make up for in support. Carrie was a bright, beautiful girl who was successful in her graduate school courses. The countless other victims were all successful women in their own right, and now their hard work has been pointlessly erased from this world. The question isn’t what are we GOING to do about it … it’s what are doing about it right now, right this minute, to protect ourselves.
Danielle O’Banion
Junior — History/Pre-med
‘Freedom fries’ column was asinine
Eric Gremillion’s column “Freedom Fries and Patriotism” was quite possibly the most asinine thing I have read in the paper to date. First off, he contradicts his subtitle “Recent acts of ‘patriotism’ rally against free speech, dissent” in just the second paragraph. He refers to Representative Bob Ney as “embarrassing our nation” (that might be just a slight exaggeration) by changing French fries to Freedom fries. Uh, is he not using his right to free speech there?
Just a few paragraphs later, Gremillion says since Bush believes the French aren’t with us, they must be against us. Well, Mr. Columnist, you can’t make fun of President Bush if you make the same type of assumption two sentences later: “But the United States isn’t doing that (invading France), which means France is still our friend.”
Oh, and the fact that Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite is trying to have the bodies of fallen WWI and WWII soldiers reburied is “petty and sad?” Do you believe it is honestly just “to spite a nation?” No, it is because someone actually respects the sacrifice of American servicemen, and here’s a hint: it’s not the French. Look at how unkept the graves are; it is almost as if the French do not want to acknowledge we have to bail them out any time they are in a conflict.
Now, before you write such a leftist column, how about you read the facts. Iraq and France are business partners; France doesn’t want war because they are looking out for themselves and not anyone else, what else is new? They know Saddam will not use weapons of mass destruction on the French, so why should they be concerned? All they care about is their own derriere.
Alex Froman
Freshman — Mechanical Engineering
Partial-birth abortion ban good
I read the article on the Senate banning partial-birth abortions in Friday’s Reveille, and I was extremely glad to know our president stood up for the rights of the 2,200 innocent babies every year whose lives were taken so heinously from them 10 weeks or less from their due date. While I am happy for the future lives that will be saved, I wonder why this measure wasn’t taken before. Why did it take this long for this horrible act to be stopped? I can understand if the baby is threatening a mother’s life, but I do not understand how a woman can knowingly murder her child who has been living and moving around inside of her for the last six months. If women do not plan on having a child, they should practice safe sex, and if they do get pregnant, there are other alternatives, such as adoption. There are thousands of couples around the country who cannot have children on their own who would love to parent the child who was deemed so worthless by its own mother. (Of course, rape is a different subject altogether.) I am glad President Bush finally did something to stop this from going on.
Laura Begley
Sophomore — Mass Communication
Dixie Chick can say what she wants
Natalie Maines or the Dixie Chicks or Martin Sheen or little Joe-Schmo standing on some street corner have every right to say whatever they think about the president. Why? Well, it’s written down as law in some obviously little-read document called the Bill of Rights of the United States of America. If the president or some other governmental official asked Maines to perform a patriotic duty, then yes, in most cases, she owes her country and leaders respect in addressing the issue. But she has every right to say she is personally ashamed of Bushie, just like I have every right to call him that and voice my opinion about a president indifferent to much of his nation’s and the world’s opposing views.
Catherine Hensley
Junior — English
Come support author, LSU alumna
Olympia Vernon will be at the LSU Bookstore March 21 at 4 p.m. to sign copies of her book “Eden.” We have book signings all the time at the LSU Bookstore. What makes this one different? The author is a graduate of LSU, with a Masters of Fine Arts in 2002.
She wrote “Eden” while attending LSU as a creative writing student. She is the first student at LSU to sign with a publisher while still enrolled at LSU. Olympia’s book has gotten great reviews from esteemed publications, such as The New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, The Village Voice, The Times Picayune, The Baton Rouge Advocate, etc. Olympia gives a lot of credit to LSU for her success. If you read the February 24 article about her in The Reveille, you know she has only wonderful things to say about LSU. I hope the administration, faculty, staff and students of Louisiana State University show their support of Olympia by attending her book signing at the LSU Bookstore this Friday between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Please stop by to meet one of LSU’s finest.
Marta Bell
LSU Bookstore