let ters to the editor
4 october 5, 2 011
I
opinion@ da ilyor a nge.com
Despite wins, SU football continues to be underwelming
n a recent article in The Daily Orange football section, Sports Editor Michael Cohen criticized Syracuse fans for not showing support, as evidenced by thin attendance in the Carrier Dome against Toledo. He questions fans for not supporting a team “on the rise,” citing the team’s winning record and high-scoring overtime thrillers. Lastly, he described the first three home games as “scintillating.” The simple truth is that this season Syracuse football has been a disappointment to many of its fans. There is nothing scintillating about
your team struggling for three quarters, at home, to scratch out fourth-quarter and overtime victories over below-average to average opponents you are favored to beat. Coming off a controversial bowl game win last year; struggling at home to beat Wake Forest University, University of Rhode Island and University of Toledo, who have a combined record of 27-44 the last two years; getting beat down against the only major Bowl Championship Series contender in University of Southern California; and winning games with extra points that shouldn’t even count are nothing to be excited
about. I won’t even mention the double-overtime debacle that occurred Saturday against Rutgers University, picked by most to finish last in the Big East. Sure, the games are exciting for the players. I played football all four years in high school, and there is no better feeling than your team having a comeback win in overtime. However, speaking as a fan now, the simple truth is we Syracuse football fans have a short attention span for a program that has just recently had any type of success. It is no easy task, but if Syracuse wants to get
its fans and especially students back in the Dome, the program needs to start scheduling bigger name opponents at home and at least competing with them. In the future, the move to the ACC should help with this. In the meantime, if there are to be any more “swarms” of students in the Dome, the university should expand on its most recent gift to its students and make the rest of the home games free. Go Orange.
Spencer Herbst
Sophomore in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management
College Democrats endorse Bey for Common Council
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yracuse University emphasizes the importance of students stepping off campus and becoming involved within the Syracuse community. The upcoming November election for the Syracuse Common Council’s District 4 seat, which encompasses the SU campus, presents a great opportunity for students to do so. Our organization wants to stay involved within Syracuse beyond November. In this
light, and after careful consideration of both candidates for the District 4 race, we feel the best person for the job is Khalid Bey. We believe in Khalid Bey’s determination to bolster the downtown business area and empower the traditionally underserved neighborhoods bordering our campus. His vision for Syracuse’s District 4 is dedicated to making the city a better place to live and work in. Khalid wants to expand employment opportunities for
students after graduation, and his platform also promises to fight hard for our neighbors who have lived here for years. The College Democrats at SU plan to step off campus and into the Syracuse community, helping Khalid move our city forward. You can lend a hand by registering to vote prior to Oct.14 and getting to the polls Nov. 8.
Amy Snider
President, College Democrats at Syracuse Universit y
Christian faith means more than list of do’s, don’ts
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n Saturday, Sept. 24, Campus Crusade, a nondenominational Christian ministry on campus, had a party at 719 Euclid Ave. The party seemed just like every other campus party — good music, lots of people and drinks. The only difference was the drinks were nonalcoholic. So you can imagine the surprise of party hoppers when they came into the house and found no signs of drunks or alcoholic beverages. Let me mention that alcohol was not forbidden and there certainly was alcohol at the party, though nobody involved in Cru provided nor consumed it. At some point during the night, a girl who had been coming back from further up Euclid and was disappointed with our lack of alcohol gave me the idea for this letter. “They don’t believe in beer!” she yelled
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to her friends, trying to arrogantly imply that we were freaks. At that moment, I used all the grace that God has given me to restrain from addressing her. I don’t believe in beer? Is that what people truly think my faith is about? The fact that I don’t believe in beer? Really? Let me just for a second implore you to consider that my faith is the furthest thing from a list of do’s and don’ts. Those of you thinking that I consider myself a Christian because I go to church, don’t drink and don’t have sex, think again. These things aren’t the cause of my faith; rather, they are the result of my faith I wasn’t always a Christian, and I have done some things that I am very ashamed of. But I’ve become a new person, not because I wanted to, but because when I let Christ take control of my life he changed me. And he showed me that only he could provide me with a complete satisfaction I could never have imagined before. He’ll never let me down. Your parents will let you down, so will your
friends and your boyfriends or girlfriends — so will booze. But He’ll never let you down. Besides, how pathetic is it that we don’t know how to have a fun time without booze? If you truly don’t know how to have fun without booze, then I’m tempted to think you might be enslaved to booze, though I’ll let you figure that one out on your own. So I’m going to finish my little ramble by saying this: I love Jesus. He’s not a part of my life; he is my life. He doesn’t define a part of me; he defines all of me. I can’t even think straight without relying on him. The fact that I don’t drink beer — did I mention I have Celiac disease — doesn’t define me. And I hope that you wouldn’t make the assumption, like the girl who inspired this rant, that my faith has no substance to it but is just a bunch of moral standards. My faith is all about an unfailing relationship between a chump, myself and Jesus, the God of all things.
Pavle Bujanovic
Senior in the L.C. Smith School of Engineering and Computer Science