April 26, 2007
opinion
A Desegregated Prom, 50 Years Too Late Georgia highschool offers first integrated prom, did they miss the memo? By aleksandra WoJtaleWiCz Daily Titan Staff Writer opinion@dailytitan.com
The girls’ sparkling dresses gleamed as they stood next to their prom dates in pressed tuxedos. Each couple posed for a picture with their friends, and all of the anxious students, black and white alike, lined up at the Turner County Civic Center in Ashburn, Ga. to attend their high school’s first integrated prom. Although it was just a school event, everyone was wondering what would happen when you integrate black and white students. Although this may seem like a scene from 1950s, when people were still getting used to the integration policies of Brown v. Board of Educa-
tion, this event took place in 2007 at Turner County High School. in a world where we are taught to be politically correct, that discrimination is wrong, it goes to show that there are still some parts of the country where these ideas have not reached. According to Cnn, the student’s reaction after prom was that of amazement and excitement. Yet the white students still had a separate prom for the sake of “tradition,” sponsored by their parents. This, i think, defeats the whole purpose of an integrated prom. Lewis Mumford said, “Traditionalists are pessimists about the future and optimists about the past.” in this instance, i think he is right. Well news flash people—it is 2007, and anti-segregation laws were passed because the ways of the past have not worked out too well. Yet the thought of wanting to have segregated proms astounds me.
What purpose do separate school dances serve? Tradition? Just because it is tradition, does not make it right. The reason they became “tradition” was because segregation laws were in place for years and people didn’t really have any other choice. But now, with those laws gone, there is no point in having separate proms. it is just a reflection of the deep rooted cultural prejudices, and that kind of attitude does not solve anything. What makes the “separate proms” issue even more hypocritical is according to Cnn, black students were invited to the white prom but chose not to attend. i think that if you are going to have a “white prom” then you shouldn’t invite another race for the sake of being politically correct, because what you are doing isn’t politically correct in the first place. And if one plans on inviting other races, then the idea of segregation does not apply. i also highly doubt that
white Susie Sunshine would waltz into an all black prom even if she received a personal invitation to the dance. one could argue that because the segregated proms were put on by the parents of the students, they are oK. But although school funds were not involved, these “traditional” proms were considered the “school” proms of Turner County High. A school event unites all students. These “traditional” school proms divided the school in half. i consider myself an old-fashioned girl whose cultural traditions are an important part of my life. Yet like with anything else, traditions should serve a purpose and be able to co-exist equally and be shared with other cultures, especially in this big melting pot we call America. As Joseph Addison said, “Tradition is an important help to history, but its statements should be carefully scrutinized before we rely on them.”
TiTAnS TALK BACK
“A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.” - Arthur Miller
EDiToR: The Daily Titan is a remarkable endeavor by CSUF students. Titans have quite a bit to be proud of about this publication. However, in the spirit of making something good ever better, i must express my misgivings about the paper’s opinion section. Currently, the authors of the articles in the paper are exclusively students enrolled in the Daily Titan class. The paper’s staff is comprised of the students enrolled in the class. The opinion section, however, should be handled differently. our school newspaper should have an opinion section where any student could get an opinion piece published, in the same way that it works for off-campus newspapers. it is understandable that Journalism students need to practice the skills they are learning. However, i don’t mean any disrespect when i say that some opinion pieces that are published on the paper demonstrate a disconcerting low quality of writing, together with very, very little depth. Don’t get me wrong, i don’t mean all articles must have content that delves deeply into issues of politics or things like that—especially since, after all, i understand this is a college paper. nevertheless, published articles should at least be better thought out. Writers should spend more time developing their pieces. The editor should have higher standards and expectations of quality. A piece that i read recently in the Daily Titan serves as an example within an upsetting trend. it was about the writer losing his virginity and then not being able to find anyone to have sex with. i am sorry to say that an opinion piece like
this one DoES noT deserve to be printed on our school paper. it was short from deplorable, as other students have agreed through letters to the editor. And i don’t mean from a moral perspective necessarily, but simply from a professional perspective. After reading that, it honestly hurt to know that i was reading it from my school paper. nonjournalism students who are willing to put in a lot of time into developing better opinion pieces should be offered a medium on campus to express themselves in print – and what better than the Daily Titan. it is a shame that their willingness to contribute to the paper, their efforts, their interest in the printed media, and their desire to train in these skills, are not being taken into consideration. And worse, awful pieces like that one are being printed instead. publishing opinion pieces from students with an expertise on subjects aside from journalism would contribute to the overall informative quality of the Daily Titan. Students could contribute on a variety of subjects of interest to the student body, with the added benefit of providing a different perspective on the topics, using their own, varied background. The selection criteria for publishing should be the quality of the writing and the overall contribution to public opinion that the piece offers. i mean no disrespect to the work of the Daily Titan. Many things about it are great, which is precisely the reason why we should not strive for less than the best which our student body can offer. This newspaper is letting a lot of Titan talent go unused and uncultivated. What is the additional cost of a page in the paper, compared with the ad-
ditional benefit it would bring? it is important to realize that, aside from serving journalism students as a practice medium, the paper is an important part of the student body and the university community as a whole. Alex D. Bowley Economics Major EDiToR: David Bruemmer seems to fancy himself a veritable Jackie Chan of the religious world; taking down dozens of bad guys, many with little more than a punch to the throat. When he threw a no-look punch at the Mormon faith in his last article, “Losing My Religion: Honey Get the Door, ”what he wasn’t looking at were the facts. i will not go into detail about all of the claims made in the article. That he quoted F.S. Spaulding, Archbishop of the Episcopal Church in Utah in the early 1900s on the question of the authenticity of Egyptian writings, however, is the intellectual equivalent of quoting David Spade about, say, organic biochemistry. The claim that the Book of Mormon (of which i can guarantee he has not read a word) is mostly “a plagiarism of the King James Bible, with stories that draw close parallels to Bible stories” actually lends credibility to the book and demonstrates the author’s fundamental lack of understanding what the Book of Mormon claims to be: scripture from God! Wouldn’t significant parity between the two scriptures be expected? Wouldn’t a lack thereof discredit the church? As far as the pseudo-archaeological claims regurgitated onto paper, i have a suggestion for you: make this guy include a bibliography to his articles from now on. otherwise it takes the whole paper down to Dan Rather level. All of those claims are outdated, one-sided, or simply not true. For example, he said that there were no horses on the
continent when Columbus came. Many believed this at the time the Book of Mormon was translated, which would have made Joseph Smith pretty stupid to print it if he were making it up, however, in the 20th century, many horse fossils were found in the asphalt mines at Rancho La Brea. Anybody who did any research would know that. i guess, in his words, rumors “led [him] to examine the claims” of the church. Apparently his definition of the word “examine” is “to search anti-Mormon Web sites for factoids because one is too lazy to research the truth.” if i want to know more about the Holocaust, should i tune in to Al-Jezeera and then quote them in a paper read mostly by people who know nothing about it? it’s simply irresponsible, and The Daily Titan would be irresponsible not to print this entire rebuttal in the opinion section for the whole school to read. if he put half as much blind faith in what Christians say as he did in those factoids he repeated, he’d be knocking on your door with a Bible in his hand faster than you can say “pass around the plate.” i found the last paragraph particularly interesting because it describes my feelings exactly: “if [Bruemmer] want[s] to seek me out with [his] claims and [his] stories, then [he] become[s] fair game for me to call [him] on [his] bull.” one more clarification: i was a Mormon missionary (if you couldn’t tell), and contrary to the Bruemmer’s implication, no missionary expects anybody to join the church because of the feelings in their heart, they simply invite people to study and pray and ask God for themselves if the church is true. What they do from there is up to them. Even if that means printing lies. Bruemmer must have open-mindedly stopped listening when the missionary told him that, though. Scott Keithly Accounting Major
Holocaust survivors need Better treatment From israel funded their projects with the reparations they received from their torture and loss. opinion@dailytitan.com This complete ignorance is a staFor some the adage “home is ple in the israeli government, who where the heart is” doesn’t carry as continues to desensitize themselves much truth as it does for others. of- with distractions, all while living histen we take our homes for granted, tory disappears into the overlooked not really being thoughtful as to streets of poverty. imagine being lucky enough to why or how we got there. However, for many of the 250,000 Jews who survive mass killings, gassings, starsurvived the Holocaust 62 years ago vation, the slaughter of your entire and who are spending the last years family and then only having debt to of their lives in israel, this idiom is show for your legacy. For most, an existence is depenmore of a cruel joke. With one-third, about 90,000, dent on what you have to show for of holocaust survivors living below yourself. For those unfortunate Jewthe poverty line in israel, it is fair to ish survivors who have suffered at the say that the israeli government has bottom of the list of priority by their own government, they have nothing failed in providto call their own. ing and supporting According to an its country’s most npR report, tens symbolic figures. While educating the of millions of dolEven with socialized Jewish youth of their lars are spent each medicine, most of the 70- to 80-year- traumatic past is im- year by the israeli olds who are depen- portant, caring for the government on new dent on the measly elderly in any situation memorials to honor the victims of the $500 allowance they receive month- should never get the holocaust. Howevly from the israeli dirty, soiled back seat. er, while its necessary and respectful government can’t to remember those afford the medical who unfairly perbills that collect as ished because of they grows older. it’s a shame that even after 60 years such foul acts, isn’t it almost more some Jews still can’t find a proper liv- disrespectful to build new memorials to remember those who were lost ing situation. Sure it’d be easy to point the finger than it is to take care of those you’re of this maltreatment at the Germans still responsible for? While educating the Jewish youth who inflicted this nightmare, but after more than 50 years and hundreds of their traumatic past is important, of millions spent in reparations, it caring for the elderly in any situation would be nice to know where the should never get the dirty, soiled money has gone. The answer: gravel back seat. Growing old is something that and concrete. in the ’50s and ’60s the israeli government used German everyone deserves a chance at doreparations to build roads, schools ing. However, being able to gracefully do it is something that only few and buildings. While every struggling country are lucky enough to experience. Alneeds a stabilized infrastructure, though we all expect to age with digthe israeli government should feel nity and respect, the impoverished obligated and in debt to those who Jewish survivors deserve it. By tom madden
Daily Titan Staff Writer
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EDiToR: Regarding article ... The Virginia Tech shootings were horrific and will reverberate in our minds and hearts for a very long time. i was an undergraduate at CSUF taking summer classes in July 1976 when Charles Allaway walked across campus carrying a .22 rifle, entered the library, shot nine people and then calmly walked back off campus, still carrying his rifle. only two survived. A recent TiTAn article about the efforts of CSUF students to provide support to Virginia Tech students was outstanding in its failure to mention the 1976 shootings on their very own campus. There was full press news coverage of this tragedy up to and including the trial. My co-worker lost her father that day. it is certainly forever etched in my mind, just as it was every time i walked onto the CSUF campus until the day i graduated. Have we already forgotten? Janet B. Miller (nee Boyd) Class of 1978
online resPonses: EDiToR: Regarding Dave Bruemmer’s “Losing My Religion,” i have been reading these articles and postings all semester. i have always considered myself a Christian, raised in a nazarine church but ended up Southern Baptist and more recently going to Calvary Chapel for the last eight years, although in the months leading up to Dave’s articles i have had questions and doubts on many occasions. Like the story about emporer’s new clothes that Dave mentioned priorly, i have always been reluctant to voice these thoughts out loud. i just went along with the majority. After a semester of reading, i believe that there are many like me out there who are teetering on the fence between belief and sensibility. it’s not that i don’t want to believe, i do. But Dave has really convinced me that the whole religious thing is a sham and a crutch put forth by other men as a way of coping. i have read the replies and attacks, and frankly i was really hoping that someone would really step up and say “okay, here’s where Dave is wrong, and here’s where it’s logical to believe in God”. instead i’ve been seeing the same old tired arguments that have
been on the circuit for years. i’ve been looking into a lot of this philosophy this semester, and i’m convinced that there has been nothing new offered by Dave’s opposers. So i have concluded that there must not be anything new out there. i’ve been thinking of myself lately as an agnostic because i wanted to keep the door open. Today, i am coming out as an ATHEiST. nothing has changed. i don’t need to shower or anything. But i feel somewhat liberated from the shackles of religion at the same time. it’s not for everyone to become an apostate, i.e. turning my back on my religion. Some people really need it and want it, regardless if they think it’s a real thing or not. To them i say “go for it.” Dave Bruemmer, thank you for all of your work. You are doing the Lord’s work (metaphorically speaking) and i can tell you that you have changed one life for what that’s worth. Keep fighting the good fight. Thank you Daily Titan for having the courage to be the mouthpiece for someone like Dave, for i know that you must have taken your share of criticism and opposition at every turn, knowing how persistent Christians can be. Thank you all! Stephen Graham posted 4/20/07
regarding “How many tragedies Until We Have real Gun Control? 4/19”: it’s kind of strange, i’ve had two guns in house for over 50 years, and neither one of them has ever climbed down off the wall and shot someone of their own accord. i guess they are pretty well controlled, eh? Robert H. Owen posted 4/19/07 “i can only dream about the future and hope that my children and grandchildren will not have to worry about students bringing guns to school. Hopefully they can go to school without being searched and scanned before entering a classroom.” Do you really think you can have one without the other? Terese Laubscher posted 4/20/07