Page 2 February 26, 2010
Opinion
Staff Members Editor in Chief Racheal Price (rprice@rose.edu) Assistant Editor Samantha Maloy (smaloy@rose.edu) Features Editor Bryan Mangieri (bmangieri@rose.edu)
News Editor Miranda Liming (miranda-liming@stu. rose.edu)
Graphic Artist Brian Allen
Tech Support Scottie Seger (aseger@rose.edu)
Assignment Editor Adriana Valtinson
Volunteers Jonathan Dyer Danielle Finnegan
Secretary Sharon Motley (smotley@rose.edu)
Photographers Danetta Butler Jennifer Wimer
Circulation Manager Elexandria Murchinson
Coordinator of Student Publications Julie Lesko-Bishop (jlesko-bishop@rose.edu)
You don’t have to marry the smoker A word about the poll appearing in this week’s issue: Overwhelmingly the students and faculty surveyed said they would like to see a smoke-free campus. Keep in mind this was not a scientific poll. Care was given to make sure each student and faculty member who responded only got one vote, but the people who received the question were not chosen randomly. Instead, they were students and professors who were members of Phi Theta Kappa, the Honors Program, members of the Student Activities group, and various classes from two staff members of the last four semesters. Additionally to receive notice of the poll, a student or professor would have had to check D2L, and once receiving notice taken the time to send a response. A careful, precise count was not kept as to who received notice either. So you can see many students would have been excluded and others may have been in
two or more of the groups or classes listed previously. Also the professors were clearly in the minority of those questioned – of those who responded less than 1 percent were faculty. But the poll was intended as a bellwether and not anything to bind the school or be an administrative record of the feelings of students. What the informal survey does show is of those who responded this group would like to see the campus become smoke free. This isn’t a pipedream, and we believe most people accept that inevitably smoking in public will become a thing of the past. However that does not mean we should begin the process of banning smoking with impunity next year. We need to handle the elimination of smoking in public places with compassion and realize two important facts. First, smoking is an addiction. Second, tobacco is not illegal. As smoking is an addic-
tion, it needs to be treated as such. Congratulations to all those who have successfully quit smoking cold turkey, but for others, it isn’t going to be as easy. Cessation programs and medications, if you can afford them, are only just the tip of the iceberg. Quitting smoking is a lot like quitting alcohol or illegal drugs or even losing weight. It takes hard work and sometimes it is going to take years. It can take therapy to get to the root cause of why someone smokes. Telling smokers they can’t smoke on campus one day with no support is just like kicking the puppy. And you don’t want to be that guy. Smoking isn’t illegal – at least not yet. And since it is not an illegal drug, we shouldn’t regulate it like it is. If a person over the age of 18 wants to smoke, enjoys smoking, and is not rude to others while smoking this shouldn’t be an issue. And the majority of smokers on our campus are not only polite, but they
follow the rules regarding where they can smoke. Keep in mind it is becoming less socially acceptable to smoke in public. As the climate for smoking continues to deteriorate fewer people will start smoking. According to the Center for Disease Control, smoking has decreased steadily, with only a stall in the 1990s, since the surgeon general warned that smoking is dangerous. As of 2007, the most recent report, smoking was down to 19.8 percent of the adult population. When they started keeping track of the percentage in 1965, 42.4 percent of adults smoked. The lower numbers of smokers is largely due to better education, campaigns
to promote cessation, and according to some the decrease of smoking advertising. In other words, it is no longer cool to smoke. For some on the nonsmoking side, it doesn’t matter how far we have come and how well we really are doing. They wrap it up in public health forgetting what is most important about dealing with an addiction: compassion. We realize some people suffer lung disorders that make cigarette smoke dangerous or deadly. However, how do these
people handle going shopping or to dinner? The din of smoke is much heavier outside Cheddar’s on Friday than it is at the campus. It is unrealistic to expect everyone who smokes to stop because you have a problem. At the end of the day, you have to take care of yourself. That means being extra cautious or if you can’t do that, then following a compassionate route that will ultimately make smoking in public a thing of the past.
Aging calls for meaning of life check
By: Rich Wedemeyer Guest Columnist
Every year, about the time of my birthday, I am drawn to big questions; you know, ones about the significance of life, the meaning of it all. Maybe I’m getting older, or just a tad too neurotic, but I do like to consider what it means to be alive in this world. Here’s my list of questions that stir my mind and even my soul: 10. Are we alone in the universe? I hope we are not alone. I bet at some point we will confirm the existence of life elsewhere, in some form. That discovery may
at first shake us up a bit, but it might also generate humility. 9. Is there a purpose in suffering? The Buddhists say that once you realize that life is suffering mixed with moments of joy, then life can be ecstatic. 8. What are the things that make you smile? What tickles you? These may be your passions. 7. What are your core values, and how are you supporting them in your actions? I know one thing: behaving in ways that are consistent with your values improves your self-esteem. 6. Which are better, cats or dogs? There is an answer to this one: hands down, dogs. They may not keep themselves as clean, may not use a box to poop in, but they show love and affection in doses no cat can muster. 5. What happens after death? Will this always be a matter of faith, or will
tangible fact emerge? I hope we never decide this, because belief in the mysterious is always more compelling than belief in a fact. 4. Why am I here? What purposes can I serve? To whom will I offer my personhood? I love that the responses I give these questions constantly change. 3. Is the physical universe infinite? As we look further back in time with larger and more sophisticated instrumentation, this question may soon be answered by empirical evidence, but we may not believe what we see. 2. Are there absolute truths? Maybe. I am here. You are here. We can interact and can influence each other. We can choose what things we can accomplish. We are responsible for preserving each other’s dignity. 1. Why do we think about and worry about the meaning of life? Perhaps be-
cause we can. Our brains allow us, if not command us, to consider the meaning of past events and our possible futures. Likely other animals cannot do these things in the vast ways we are capable of we have a thick, juicy neocortex! I think life is a series of paradoxes that we are drawn to consider. Maybe life has no meaning. Maybe it’s inherently chaotic, random, and external. But life is also filled with significance – the meaning we give it and the place we have as a thread in nature’s immense fabric. Perhaps we can consider our futures without trepidation or inhibition. Maybe we can simply enjoy asking these questions even though no solid answers appear. Maybe all we need to do is look out for each other. How wonderful!
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