1993_04 Insight April 1993

              PageA2
April 28,1993
o
Insight
pinion
Plenty of time?
Think again
So, you are sitting quietly eating a copious amounts of information and
large pastrami sandwich under a a friendly smile,
tree, in the center of a green field. Mother Earth, being the lover of
slurping down a soda. You get done irony that she is, decided to sprinkle
eating, and, being the environmen- her planet with loving droplets of
tally-minded person that you are, life-giving water. Of course, that
promptly deposit the plastic bag, sent all of those who had the desire
aluminum can, and ding-dong wrap- to learn more ofthe sphere back into
per under the nearest rock-so no their prefabricated caves so as not
one else will see where it will lay to dirty their smog machines or flat-
for the next millennia. ten their dippity-doo'ed hair.
Then, from out of the clouds flics Ecology ends at the hair.
an oval, translucent space flyer,
from which emerges a rather
undescribably figured creature.
He describes his ultimatum—
clean up the earth in less than an
earth year, or lose it to other universal beings who want to use it for an
intergalactic zoo and rest stop.
Immediately you run to all you
know and describe the situation.
Emotions rise, factions mobilize,
and somewhere in between millions of people join hands in an
attempt to join the planet's population with a single karmic bond.
Fund drives are organized, money
is raised, and you are elected the
leader of the Worldwide Last
Chance to Save the Earth Before
Imminent Destruction Coalition.
Nothing says seriousness like a long
title.
Someone suggests: "Hey guys, lets
organize a day to give citizens of
the Earth a way to gather knowledge of how to conserve, reserve,
and preserve. We'll call it 'Earth
Day.'
The gang agrees, and one of the
target areas is right in the center of
Fresno, so another committee is
formed to create the proper atmosphere.
Unfortunately, that person suffered the loss of one too many brain
cells while parked behind one of
the city's school buses, and scheduled the event to be held at a zoo,
where all of the beauty of the soon
to be ionized planet is for everyone
to see behind yards of hurricane
fence.
Booths held the enthusiastic environmentalists, surrounded by their
pamphlets and flyers, always at the
ready to deluge any passerby with
After this disastrous affair, you
return to the spot where you
munched that original pastrami
sandwich and met the aliens.
As promised, one year later to the
minute the aliens returned to the
scene, nets and plasma jars in hand.
They quickly began scooping up
humans left and right, choosing first
from the fastest and most intelligent. (They are higher life forms, so
they have mechanized intelligence
detectors-needless to say, they
stayed away from the California
public schools.)
You scream:
"Stop- can't wc have just a little
more time?"
"Hmmm, " said the alien, "sure,
time is something we have plenty
of. After all, it took us just under
300,000 zargeks to get here—I believe that is about 25 earth minutes.
But, we are contracted by the Intergalactic Constructuatory of
Hopshadash (Ich) and have to have
this annex completed in another 20
million zargeks."
"Well, that's great!" You say.
"When is that? Long after I die I
hope."
"Hmmm, translating through to
Earth time, that would be day after
tomorrow. We shall return then."
So, now there is 48 hours to save
the Earth, but what can you do? Get
ready to be looked at by throngs of
odd-looking creatures equipped
with image capturing paraphernalia, so they could take mementos
home to their families.
You might want to go down to the
zoo, study the gorillas, and decide
what you are going to wear for the
next 13 billion zargeks. What goes
with retention wire?
Guest Commentary
FBI was not at fault
Marilyn
'Chapman
The survivors of the Fire that consumed the
Branch Davidian complex, blamed the destruction on the FBI.
I don't believe the FBI was responsible for
the Fire. They did the right thing by deciding
to use the tear gas to force the cult members
OUL
David Koresh was not an idioL He knew he
was costing the United Slates thousands of
dollars because of the military tanks and other
equipment around ihe complex, in case it was
needed. He also received the attention he
wanted from the media because everyone in
the country wanted to know what his next
move would be.
There are many different issues that can be
discussed about the cult and many points of
view for each issue, I think Koresh planned
ahead for the fire. He knew the FBI and all of
the US were getting very impatient with him.
When the FBI began to us8 force, he would be
ready to cause his own destruction, blaming it
on the FBI, because he could do no wrong.
He probably also felt it would be out of
charactertokillhisownfollowers.sincehc
thought he was God. The FBI was the
perfect scapegoat.
However,contradictory to thai, believing
that he was God, he might have thought he
controlled everyone's fate. Therefore, letting them be consumed in the fire would
not be a big deal to him.
Whatever his reasons were, it is obvious
he brainwashed all of his followers, and
had no conscience. It is sad that children
lost their lives, but they would have grown
up to be followers just like their parents.
When the tanks began breaking walls so
the tear gas could go inside the complex,
Koresh had his men put the devices they
used tosiari the fire in the path of the tanks.
That way the FBI could easily be blamed.
If the FBI made any mistakes concerning
this whole Davidian ordeal, it was only in
waiting so long to use force.
The deaths of the cult members was a loss
for their surviving family members. But
the destruction of the cull and especially
Koresh was a gift to the United States.
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Looking down on the Earth
Lisa Driver
Imagine you arc standing on the surface of
the moon right now, looking down at the
earth spinning in the distance. What would
you see?
Probably lots of dark, gloomy clouds, also
known as smog. Maybe, if you were looking
through a hole in the ozone layer, you could
see huge pools of the murky liquid we call
ocean water.
Try to pinpoint Fresno State on the swirling mass below you. All you need to do is
look for the zillions of tiny, moving objects
spitting out black smoke that stings your
eyes, even way up there on the mooa Those
'objects' are all of your friends in their cars
trying to find parking spaces on or reasonably near campus, so ihey won't be late for
class.
It's amazing to see the pollution created
by 15,000 cars from such a vantage point as
you have at this moment. It puts things into
a new perspective.
If that's not bad enough, remember that
what you are focused on is only a small
portion of one city (Fresno).
Try to find LA, and you will likely die of
exhaustion from staring too hard through
your telescope's eyepiece. You can give up
the search early by saying you located the
densest cloud south of Fresno. I'll consider
that close enough.
Your next task is to identify one of the
earth's remaining rainforests. To do this,
you will need to use your computerized
precipitation analysis equipment. Find an
area with the highest concentration of acid
rain, and there is your rainforest.
Next you need an electron microscope to
view the tissue sample that represents the
last portion of the last tree from a former
forest on earth
After doing that, you can truthfully claim
to have seen what remains of the earth's
rainforests.
Your next assignment is...
Nevermind. It's too depressing to continue looking for things that were once
beautiful on earth.
But don't sit crying on the moon forever.
Go back where you came from, and do
something that will make a difference.
Letters to the Editor
Cultural artwork on campus
..   Dear Editor,
In regards to the letter by Daniel Zack (3/31/
93), I think the Hispanic students on campus
should have a mural of a Sun Stone or Aztec
Calendar. But only if they are willing to raise
the money and not expect the university to
fund it.
Mr. Zack is right in slating seventy-one
murals would be ridiculous. But why only
murals? Why not sculptures'or fountains?
Imagine how nice the campus and the city
would look if every cultural group would
create a major artwork to celebrate their culture.
Mr. Zack, your knowledge of our culture is
very limited if you think beer steins are the
only symbol representative of German culture. What about pretzels? Everyone knows
you cannot have beer without pretzels.
Seriously though, Mr. Zack, if you want a
major work of art representing German-Americans on campus you should form a group to
raise the money to create one. S ince we are the
biggest ethnic group in America you should be
able to raise the money for a grand piece of art
I doubt it would happen though if Mr. Zack is
all "bark" like most on campus.
Now if Mr. Zack or anyone else on campus
would like to form a group to take on such a
project I would be willing to help raise the
money. I will even donate two hundred dollars
toward the cost of building a major work of art
representing the German culture.
Sincerely,
Frank Daggett /
Third world atrocities
Dear Editor,
Regarding the recent U. N. Truth
Commission's report on atrocities in El Salvador, this is only the tip of a very large iceberg.
As horrible as was the murder of several
hundred men, women and children at El
Mozote by the U. S.-traincd Atlacad Battalion, ii pales in comparison to what has been
happening worldwide.
The Reagan and Bush administrations armed
and supplied both the Contras in Nicaragua
and Jonas Savimbi's army in Angola, who
committed similar terrorist acts against civil-
The South Africangovemment, the CIA and
very wealthy individuals in the United States
armed the Renamo rebels, who invaded
Mozambique committing unspeakable atrocities and laying waste the country.
Both Angola and Mozambique may become
the next Somalias, requiring massive food
shipments to prevent millions from starving.
Thent-ia_Latin America there are the thousands of disappeared students, union organizers, priests, land reformers and others who
were killed by death squads set up by the CIA.
In Guatemala police death squads torture and
kill homeless street children. The CIA set up
the series of fascist governments ruling Gua-
temala since 1954.
It is a massive war of the rich against the
poor. The: wealthy of this country want the
wealthy in power in other countries so
they can exploit the cheap labor and natural resources of those countries. If one
doubts this theory, think of all the American factories being translocated to Third
World nations. It is a system of exploitation just as was colonialism. It is called
imperialism and is a product of the vaunted,
much-praised capitalist system.
Sincerely,
Gary Sudborough
Democrat booth vandalized
Dear Editor,
Guess what? The University Democrat booth
was vandalized again. Hard to believe, isn't
it? It is quite a coincidence that the booth was
vandalized roughly a week after Democratic
candidate signs were put up. I believe a similar incident occurred last semester after signs
were put up. Can the same mindless people
still be on campus? I would have thought that
they would have returned to the elementary
school ihey belong to, by now.
This dirty deed may have just been a stupid
fraternity initiation or more than likely, it was
done by some of the ultra-conservative Republicans on campus. Maybe these same Republicans belong to a fraternity? Whoever
these vandals are, one thing is certain, they are
spineless cowards. These people can express
themselves in no other way except intimidation of people and destruction of property.
These are the same types of people in our
society who, as a group, pick on people they
perceive to be of less physical stature and
easily intimidated in areas away from public
view. These are the same type of people who
intimidate and sexually abuse women. These
are the same type of people who usually need
a drink to gel drunk in order to find their
courage. These are the same type of people
who promote continued racism. These are the
type of people wc must all stand up to if we are
to end some of our social ills.
Before someof you readersgetcarriedaway,
I am not stating that all Republicans are vandals or plagues on society. In the past, there
have been equally radical Democrats. The
cowards on both sides who play these mindless games should be held with the utmost
contempt as they do not represent ihe true
Republican or Democratic parties.
The way to handle these radicals is to not
give upor give in, because that is exactly what
they want. In fact, increase your efforts and let
them know that you or your group cannot be
intimidated. Most of us. Democrats, Republicans or whatever have the decency and ability
to express our views in a verbal, non -confron -
jational and civilized manner. We should take
pity on those who do not possess the same
Sincerely,
Todd Hobkins
Mail Stop 10, CSU Fresno
Fresno, CA 93740 (209) 278-2892
McKee Fisk, Rm. 240
CALIFORNIA STATE
UNIVERSITY, FRESNO
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Insight welcomes all reader
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Letters and commentary must
be signed by the author, and
may be edited for length. All
submissions will be published.
All unsigned editorials are the majority
opinion of the editorial board, and do
not represent the Department of
Journalism, CSUF adminisuation, or
the trustees of the CaUfomia State
University system.