1997_09 The Daily Collegian September 1997

              THE DAILY
COLLEGIAN
Friday, September 12, 1997
Opinion
Telephone: (209) 278-5732
Technology
over humanity
By Hakim Allen
We continue to exist here in a
world on the brink of a technologi¬
cal nightmare. W'e live in a country
were technocratic advancements
are ihe embodiment of progress
With ihe next millennium drum¬
ming its footsteps loudly in the
background, will we continue to
ignore the bas.c problems of human
suffering'
If for a moment we could all
stop, take a step back, and look al
ourselves and (hose around"us. what
would we see? Apopuladon strug¬
gling lo find some sense of itself,
some sense of identity. W'e struggle
in this world, of have and have
noi's. lo fill (he icon of (he have a
I Kile more than nol W'e never fly
to far from the nest in fear of being
lost and we never express what we
truly feel, for fear of being-shunned.
Thus we limit ourselves, not al¬
lowing ourselves lo grow fr.d be¬
come anything more than an icon
The quest for individuality is lost
in the ehh and flow of a sea ol ac¬
ceptance \s we wade into this sea.
wetting our feel and lasting jjsCom¬
fort, we are sacrificing what ought
to^natter most to lis. ourselves
Vol it we are lo matter mos;. and
it our identities are lo be (ruly pre¬
cious to us. (hen what makes il so
difficult lo attain. As we sit in from
our televisions watching icons tran¬
scend themselves, we begin (o
mimic (hem. W'e begin lo desire
who (hey are and we subcon¬
sciously become them.'
Never understanding what il
may be like to actualize ones self
identity, we no longer desire to be
ourselves and instead we desire to
be an icon of some mainstream idle.
Instead o\ creating new and never
before discovered ways oj' living
and expressing oneself, we settle for
follow ing those around us in an ef¬
fort to ensure acceptance and guar¬
antee mediocrity.
The desire for excellence is
quelled by fear of failure. If for a
moment one could forget about the
desire to til in. If for a moment one
could live and operate out of pure
creative emotion and for .thai same
moment forget about the fear that
usually grounds him or herself. If
they could for a momcni actualize
(he self, what would they become?
What is certain, is thai the world,
would change. Il would cease lo be
a place were we search for a bound¬
ary of division and instead il would
become a place were division is a
characteristic o\ individuality. A
world full oi pure individuals be¬
comes a world of harmony because
ihe individual has no choice but to
respect the autonomy of otherness
because ihe individual desires thai
saipe_;iulonoiny.
Thus as the momentum ol the
twentieth century propels us into
the twenty iirst century one should
desire lo become the embodiment
ol their creative emotion W ith this
the) ma) actualize their personal
identity and Iree themselves from
the slavery and torture ol main .
stream, mediocrity.
If we slopped and thought about
what truly mattered lo us. what
would those (lung be'.'     ,
Why '
Hakim Allen is a philosophy
major.
Keep The  Daily Collegian an
open forum for all student
voices:
Write us  and give your opinion
Leave racial issues alone
By Larry Farnsworth
I can't believe (his world Every¬
day, babies from all over are born
w ith a skeletal sv stem dial prov ides
them with the ability to hold their
head high.
Those same babies are horn w itli
a set o( lungs thai help them breath
the air we all share
Those same babies are born with
a heart thai pumps red blood
through their bodies
Tins may be an over-anal)/ed
example, but what is my• point.'
The point is. we are all the same
inside W'e. as a campus community,
need lo realize this in our time of
mourning the tragedy o\ Malcolm
Boyd, the implementation of the
California Civil Rights Initiative
(Proposition 209) and ihe budget
bailies that are flanking our own As¬
sociated Students, Inc.
Yet, we as a society cannot get
away from racial discrimination.
Why 1 Because everyday, our gov¬
ernment forces-us to judge people
by the color of their skin.
Whether it is in job employment
or college admission, people are
forced to make a decision against
someone because of their ethnicity.
Affirmative Action is as big a det¬
riment to society as it is .t helping
hand and it is being used in a
counter 'productive way Foi in
stance, il I were art employer. 1
could rcaliKlicall) hue a person be¬
cause I need someone in inv corn
panv who has «i certain skin color
or ancestry
The sail thin- is. H would then
m those circumstances be accept¬
able lo |udgc someone hv the color
ol their skin
However, it I were lo nol hire a
person or even terminate someone
because ol their cthnicHy or skin
cOlor, thai would be morally unac¬
ceptable.
There is a double standard here
lhat is making society open lo a rac¬
ist interpretation.
I do realize there are sick and
perverted people in this world, like
the one man who struck Malcolm
Boyd in the head.
It is up lo educated people like
us to light against racism in our
society by promoting integrity
through activism, not militant ide¬
als through separatism.
However, did we have lo go to
"extremes and hold .1 1
Vigil lor Boyd |Ust because    I h
skin color?
liven though I attended
lor Howl and subsequently
feel welcomed by other
dance. I could not help h
iwo thoughts
Iirst   how come there w
vigil lor Debbie Dorian .it!
w.is slain last summer in hei
apartment'.'
Second, there seems/to I
gotten man in the Boyd aiiack  l.i
son Bechara. a Lebanese man
Martin Luther King. Jr said ihai
he hoped his children "will nol K
judged by the color ol iheir skin bul
bv the content of their character
He also said we must nol "salisfv
our thirst for freedom bv drinking
from the cup of bitterness and Iij
tred."
We must make every attempt lo
ensure our society is indeed color
blind.
So my point is, wake up and st. >p
judging books by their cover
Larry Farnsworth is a political
science major.
Daily Collegian
California State University, Fresno
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Staff Writers:
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Timothy Bragg. Jeff Criesi,
Nakisha Dickens, Cheric Arambel
Sports Writers:
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Kyoko Hoshino. Yvonne Martinez
Columnists:
Hakim Allen.
Manuel Annear.
Joel Lanes.
Larry Farnsworth
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Circulation:
Sam Robles
The Daily Collegian is pub¬
lished five times a week for and
by the students of California Stale-
University, Fresno.
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Collegian are not necessarily
those of the entire Daily Colle¬
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