1991_11 The Daily Collegian November 1991

              •   •
Opinion
The Daily Collegian • November 1,1991     A
The Dally Collegian
1   Editor in Chief
Jam Ballinger
Managing Editor
Shannon Wentioorth
News Editor
KristaLemos
Copy Editor
Debbie Richards
Graphics Editor
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Sports Editor
LoriAsh
Staff Writers
Laurie Armstrong, Heidi
Burkhardt, Stacey Dennehy,
Manny Fernandez, Aimee
Fisher, Tricia Geringer, Yu
Ting Huang, Michelle Martin,
Rente Ruelas, J. Scott Walker,
Kimberly Wright, Syed Zaheer
Sports Writers
Chris Cocoles, Dave Donnelly,
Dan tvans, Richard James
Staff Photographer
Angel de Jesus, KyndraGean
News Aide
Rente Ruelas
Columnists
Frank Aviles, Bruce Brenna,
Michael S. Handorf
-  Contributors
Catherine figuet-figlaire, Hu
Sin, Erin Yasuda
ArtSpeak Editor
Jason Terada
Business Manager
Khalid Rashid
Advertising Manager
Brenda Marie Whitla
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Manager
Lance Jackson
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Unsigned editorials are the
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or its students.
Learn to park or don't drive
By Michelle Martin
Park this.
During a recent scientific
analysis of Daily Collegian news
contenjUhigh ranking newspaper
officials discovered that,
contrary to the urban campus
myth about perennial parking
stories, no stories on that subject
have been written in an entire
year?
Naturally the wheels were set
in motion to rectify this egre¬
gious circumstance.
Actually this isn't a story, but
thafsokay.
What do YOU think of when
someone says parking?
I think of that little street one
block south of Shaw. When I
turn onto that street in the
morning and see compact cars
slowly moving in both direc¬
tions, I think of a word that I
cannot print here.
Next I think of my days of
innocence (when I paid my fees)
when J thought, No! No $54
parking permit. I'll park off
campus and exercise while I
walk to class. Now, halfway into
this semester and $45 into my
bank account to pay the three
tickets I have received so far, I
am thinking of more words that I
really wish I could print here but
cannot
You know what I hate? Those
people that SIT in their cars right
by the meters, waiting for
someone to leave. That is so
unspeakably lame, not to
mention bad for the atmosphere.
You know what else is a
terrible thing?
When you kind of snake
someone else's spot because
they're turning around or
something and you know they
intended to park there but you
take it anyway because of tha t
little gray area about whether or
not they would fit into it, then
you get out really fast and go to
class and sit there thinking about
if that person is flattening your
tire or keying your car or
something.
I hate that.
Then there's when you get
lucky and a beautiful spot just
opens up as if by magic and you
park there and float to class on a
cloud of satisfaction, then an
hour later you leave, and
someone else who doesn't
deserve it gets to share the
feeling. That sucks.
What else?
How about the FOOLS who
leave inappropriately large
spaces betweerftheir cars and
everyone else's cars? I never do
that and I always condemn
those who do, right to their faces
if they're in their cars.
The worst is when you have a
secret parking method that
works for quite awhile, and you
- totally take it for granted, then
one day you get to your car and
there's a ticket on it, and you
have to come up with a new plan
immediately, as well as pay a
fine.
Theteare no words for that
feeling; when it happened to me
last week I was severely taken
aback, and I thought of the usual
unprintable words, but that
failed to convey to my mind the
seriousness of my disappoint¬
ment with my situation. In fact
I'm getting a little riled up just
remembering it.
Whenever I pay a parking
ticket I mail it on the day if s due
(the day it "doublesjf not paid")
and I figure that the parking ;
ticket cash-takers should be glad
I'm paying at all, since so many
people don't.
In fact I had a friend who
was quite intelligent and drove
an orange Porsche and could
afford to pay her tickets, but
never did.
Sometimes she put old tickets
on her windshield when she
parked so that the cops would
think she just got one and
wouldn't give her another one,
but after awhile that stopped
working. I'm talking about
dozens of tickets — unpaid. She
moved. »
So what should we do? I have
no idea, sorry. Wait I had an
idea. Ride a bike.
Ms. Martin is a staff writer for The
Daily Collegian.
Letters to the Editor
Racism disguised as political correctness'
GO HOME WH1TEY? I am home.
I'm not from Europe, I'm from the
United States. Of course this was not
meant to be taken literally, but to tell
the particular color of people who,
right or wrong, have established and
controlled the political and economic
systems of this country for the last
200 yean, to go home is just dumb.
Lef s look at the word "W hitey." Is
there a double standard here? If a
group of white people had been pro¬
testing, however unlikely, and used
the words "Blackey" or "Browney,"
they would have been called racists
and it would have been violent But
if you say "Whitey," you're not
racist you're politically correct. Call
me a dumb white boy, but I don't see
difference. Anyone who savs 'GO
HOME WHITEY" and complains of
racial discrimination against non
whites is a hypocrite. You're
building up the barriers between the
races while yelling to tear them
down.
It was written in the "We're here
for you, Whitey" column in the Oct.
29 issue of The Daily Collegian, that
poor whites and female whites
choose to not be white if they
renounce the present political
system. Would this type of reasoning
mean that all of the non-white
people who do support the present
political and economic systems are
really white? It seems color is being
confused with politics. To be white
refers to a color of skin and ancestral
background, thars all.
The complaint that non-whites
and women were excluded from a
part in the approval of the Declara¬
tion of Independence and
Constitution is irrelevant. No one
alive today had any part in approv¬
ing those documents. Most of the
white people in this country aren't
even decedents of those who
approved them. Let's not forget that
our government is much different
from the one formed 200 years ago
and it will continue to change.
As far as being threatened by
other races acknowledging their
culture and heritage, I don't think so.
There is nothing stopping me from
putting up green shamrocks and
little leprechauns on St Patrick's
Day, I just don't get into it I am not
saying there is anything wrong with
it at all but don't think it makes you
a better person because you do. I'm
neither proud nor ashamed to be
white. My personal identity and self
esteem go beyond the color of my
skin or where my ancestors were
living at certain point in history.
To hold responsible the white
people who are alive today for the
exploitation that happened 500 years
ago (1492) is silly. If s racism
disguised as political correctness. We
are all individuals and should be
judged as such. We can leam from
the past but we can only change the
future. You are here in 1991, deal
with it. Here's another news flash:
WHITEY GO HOMEIr
Zane Griggs
Letters to the editor are edited
for space, content and timeli-