Viewpoint
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TECHNICIAN
{OUR VIEW}
Demonstration needs to be more focused THE ISSUE:
Bail Out the People Movement marched in downtown Raleigh Friday and was not as organized as it could have been.
OUR OPINION:
The group should have used this opportunity to invoke change, but it flopped.
THE SOLUTION:
The group must advertise better and be more organized to attract more people to fight for students.
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CAMPUS FORUM
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EDITOR’S NOTE Letters to the editor are the individual opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Technician staff or N.C. State University. All writers must include their full names and, if applicable, their affiliations, including years and majors for students and professional titles for University employees. For verification purposes, the writers must also include their phone numbers, which will not be published.
Playboy did not deserve so much coverage I am embarrassed to say that I go to a school that focuses more on a Playboy photo shoot than topics of actual importance. I am also outraged that this article (spanning an entire page and a half in a paper that is only eight pages) was so one sided. Who are you to tell women what they can and cannot do? You focused so much on female empowerment, yet you are telling us what we should be doing instead of letting us decide for ourselves. Although I myself would not pose for Playboy, I support any female who feels comfortable enough in her own skin to do so. The interview was NOT held on campus nor did it directly harm anyone. Participation was obviously voluntary, and those who chose not to take part should mind their own business. Also, your undercover article was a failed attempt at being humorous. While I’m sure the writer thought she was being very clever, she only made herself sound ridiculous. Focus on what’s important, even the Daily Tar Heel can do that. Reema Patel senior, biochemistry
Playboy impedes female sexual liberation Playboy completely undermines female sexual liberation which Hugh Hefner as well as others including Ricci Kearney (in his March 27 campus forum letter) claim it promotes. Women who appear in Playboy will never be seen as themselves. Instead, they will be merely viewed as sexual objects that are to be consumed by men. If women were truly liberated, wouldn’t it be possible for us to feel sexy without being commodified? Sexuality is inherent and we should all be able to define it for ourselves. However, female sexuality is defined in terms of the mainstream male sexuality and is promoted through magazines such as Playboy. Frankly, I find this sexuality which is confined by silicon breasts and airbrushed bodies to be quite boring — not liberating. Kearney obviously is also ignorant of the fact that although some people felt Playboy aided in female sexual liberation, the majority of those involved in the feminist movement opposed Playboy from the very beginning. Kearney’s claim that “Playboy was an instrumental part of ... the Female Civil Rights Movement” is utterly farcical. In fact, in 1963, the renown feminist Gloria Steinem wrote “A Bunny’s Tale” which revealed the misogynistic and exploitative industry of Playboy. Playboy is not an “artful expression”
A
group of high school and college students from several schools across the state marched in downtown Raleigh to the Bank of America building, the Wachovia building and the State Legislative building Friday afternoon. The purpose of the march was to protest bank bailouts and “demand a real jobs program that can provide work for young people, no education cuts and no tuition hikes,” according to a press release from the group Bail Out the People Movement. If the group wants to have the change it wants to see, then it should have advertised better. The group did have flyers, but the time posted on the Facebook event was one hour earlier
The unsigned editorial is the opinion of the members of Technician’s editorial board excluding the news department and is the responsibility of the editor-in-chief.
than the flyer. Also, the rally started 30 minutes late from the latest time posted. On top of that, only 31 people showed up out of 75 people who signed up to march. The marchers failed to catch the attention of local news outlets, such as the News and Observer which has its headquarters in downtown Raleigh. The group decided to march on the 41st anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last speech. If the groups wishes to emulate the change King made, then it must be willing to have continuity and advertise in different
forms of media. Besides the lack of organization, the demands of the group are impossible to meet. It would have been taken more seriously if those who participated in the march asked for lower student loan interest rates, but asking banks to cancel all student debt is not possible. Also, the group should have asked the Legislature to cut less from education, not none at all because it is more realistic. The group plans on having a bigger march May 1, and if it wants to see real change, then it must have more reasonable ambitions and have better organi-
zation. A demonstration from a different chapter of the same group marched on Wall Street also Friday and gathered hundreds of people. There is no reason why North Carolina could not gather more people than that for its next march. Though it is commendable for the demonstrators to advocate for education, their specific goals are far-fetched. They should rethink their philosophy, because if they do, it could have a positive impact on N.C.’s education system. If the groups organizes the demonstration well May 1, then it may be the push education advocacy needs.
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of female sexuality as Kearney claims, but rather, it defies the core values of feminism. Hefner, himself, is a sexual opportunist but demands that ‘his bunnies’ remain loyal to him by refusing dates and having a bridled sexuality unlike his own. This double standard sounds more like sexual control than sexual liberation to me. Because our society has been affected by the feminist movement, everything we do is believed to be imbued with its agenda. However, if this is true, shouldn’t the salacious world of Playboy reflect how far we all have come? Or, Mr. Kearney, does the normalization of sexual objectification and exploitation of women as well as the delusive belief of female sexual liberation reflect how far we have yet to go? Haley M. Raimondi senior, French
BY RENEE BAKER
Red Hat, a member of the Center for Embedded Systems research, is speculated to be a target for takeover.
Mansoor Omar, senior in communication
Reorganize thoughts for less stress
President Barack Obama overstepped his boundaries Did you know that President Barack Obama was the Chairman and CEO of General Motors? I didn’t until he announced that he had fired Rick Wagoner from his position at GM. With this action, the President has overstepped a boundary that must not be ignored. By reaching into the boardroom of GM he has set a radical precedent that ignores the rule of law and replaces it with the will of the government. Where in the constitution is the power to manage our private lives given to the government? To decide how much someone is paid? To decide what type of vehicles should be manufactured? To fire executives? I have searched and cannot find it. It seems like our lives are slipping to the control of the government and no one seems to care. Our government is using the same tactics that are used to recruit cult members with smart rhetoric and that “he makes me feel good” vibe. Our freedoms are under attack. These abuses of power must be brought to a halt, the rule of law must be reestablished, and the President must be impeached before we find our union in a state that cannot be undone. P.S. — Before you make your next big decision you may want to call the President at 202-456-1414 just to make sure it’s OK with him. Jonathan Callahan sophomore, business management
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Final exams are coming up, and I found myself in a bind and stressed out about school work and other engagements. I felt like a Duke student who had recently scored too low on a test a nd had to do some sort of ritua lized shame practice in front of a Jake Goldbas boa rd of Staff Columnist post-doctorate assistant-teacher’s assistants. Or worse — a UNC -Chapel Hill student who stresses about all the work he has to do when he really is just doing liberal arts (also known as YouTube). When YouTube got boring, however, I hit up WebMD and got some classic tips, just for you. Here’s what the doctor site said: Write. Let your feelings out. Do s ome t h i ng you enjoy. Focus on the present. Meditate. Use guided imagery. Ways to relax your body: Exercise. Try techniques to relax. Breathing exercises. Progressive muscle relaxation. The problem with these, however, is that they are all distractions from stress in-
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stead of stress-fighters. In a book by Dan Garrett about Baruch Spinoza, a philosopher, I read about how he got rid of stress from knocking out the passions. Garrett, said, “The constraint or removal of affects- including harmful ones – depends on the occurrence of opposite and stronger affects. An affect is ... more powerful if we imagine its object as possible rather than merely contingent.” Everybody is going “huh?” so let me put this a different way. Spinoza said we have to fight fire with fire, but not just any fire. He was talking about getting rid of a basic passion with a stronger passion. Spinoza would first have us realize that we are stressed. Then, he would make us think about our goals and our grades. Then he might have us think of our passion to be de-stressed. If it’s not harmful and crazy stress, then it might be good. But if it is bad, we can knock it out with our bigger passion to de-stress, or our bigger passion of studying. Some of us might already do this or have done this in the past. Besides the normal stressawareness tips, I’m using Spinoza to say this: when you realize that you are stressing, try to overcome it with a greater passion. How do you get your greater pas-
“... When you realize that you are stressing, try to overcome it with a greater passion.”
Features Editor
sion? Spinoza’s got the basic set up written above: it’s got to be opposite and stronger. The passion of studying can knock out a lot of stress about studying (stress here being lesser passions; like thinking about studying, worrying about tests, and procrastinating.) When people study, it’s impossible to worry about tests and think about what they’re studying at the same time. This is what Spinoza means by having something “present rather than past or future.” We should take “its object as being in the near” to think of how our tests are in the future, but the stress itself is now. The larger, nearer passion that we can use to cancel this one out is concentrating on studying. By focusing on the act of studying rather than the conflict between studying and not studying I think you can eliminate stress. But by studying alone, instead of thinking about the act of studying, you might get rid of even more stress. Ironically, when you do destress, you position yourself to get better grades, which would be the only point of stressing in the first place.
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Is it realistic for banks to cancel all student debt? Why or why not?
Brent Metcalf’s apology not accepted As an alumnus of the University, I proudly watched the 2009 NCAA Wrestling Championships with my family. Congratulations to Darrion Caldwell and University of Iowa for their individual and team championships respectively. To Brent Metcalf — apology not accepted. Thomas Duke alumnus, class of ‘74
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“I don’t think that would be fair to future students. That seems like a really temporary solution.” Emilea Burton sophomore, zoology
“Not at all. It’s not realistic. It’s just like any other debt and we should have to pay it back.” Kamrul Rokon junior, biochemistry
“No. You’ve got to pay for your education. That’s just how it works.” Matthew Kelly sophomore, architecture
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Technician (USPS 455-050) is the official student newspaper of N.C. State University and is published every Monday through Friday throughout the academic year from August through May except during holidays and examination periods. Opinions expressed in the columns, cartoons, photo illustrations and letters that appear on Technician’s pages are the views of the individual writers and cartoonists. As a public forum for student expression, the students determine the content of the publication without prior review. To receive permission for reproduction, please write the editor. Subscription cost is $100 per year. A single copy is free to all students, faculty, staff and visitors to campus. Additional copies are $0.25 each. Printed by The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C., Copyright 2008 by North Carolina State Student Media. All rights reserved.