The Oklahoma Daily | OUDaily.com
Friday, February 11, 2011 • 3
OPINION
THUMBS DOWN ›› Faculty, staff and students with children at Norman Public Schools forced to find alternative childcare (see page 2)
Jared Rader, opinion editor dailyopinion@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-3666
OUR VIEW
The truth about Egypt President David Boren issued a statement on the Egyptian protests Thursday, acknowledging the legitimacy of the Egyptian people’s demands for democracy and recommending that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak step down “immediately.” We are pleased that Boren recognizes the gravity of the situation in Egypt, especially at a time when the American media fails to portray an accurate account of foreign events and talking heads construe the protesters as unreasonable and violent. This was agreed upon at a panel discussion hosted by Students for a Democratic Society on Monday. Here is some much-needed clarification. Contrary to what cable personalities tell you, the antigovernment protesters have been overwhelmingly peaceful in their demands for democracy. Their cause is also not a religious one, though it is marked occasionally with worship ceremonies during which Muslims and Christians have protected one other. This is a fact that pundits like Glenn Beck avoid while characterizing the resistance as aggressive and criminal. On his show last week, Beck tried to rally his viewers against the protesters, painting them as fore bringers of a Muslim takeover of Western civilization. This is not accurate by any means. Crazies like Beck should be ignored when they portray the protesters as the villains. One could call the uprising a “revolution,” but what the Egyptians are demanding is hardly revolutionary. They are demanding free and fair elections, a rewriting of Egypt’s constitution and an end to 30 years of martial law. It has been mostly the pro-Mubarak protesters who use violence, and police brutality has been so bad that the army has, on occasion, had to put itself between the police and civilians to avoid fighting.
At least 300 Egyptians have died in the protests, according to the United Nations on Monday. In addition, many journalists have been detained by police, who torture their captives. There is no doubt that if the title of ‘villain’ must be used, it should refer to Mubarak and his underlings. Another misconception is that the Muslim Brotherhood is a sort of cult that desires an Islamic theocracy or dictator. Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin have shown their weakness in understanding foreign powers by sowing paranoia about their involvement. They should also be ignored. The Muslim Brotherhood, while touting Islamic tradition, is pursuing nothing less than Egyptian democracy. The Brotherhood disowned radicalism in the 1960s, committing itself to peaceful reform, denouncing violence, and now it puts great focus on human rights. U.S. leadership would be foolish to reject the Brotherhood’s potential to help usher in a more democratic era for Egypt. Students exposed to distortions of the Egyptian protests are at a disadvantage. The bias at work here is neither right nor left, but American. Egypt’s reputation as a strong ally of the U.S. has skewed how the media perceives one of the most exciting and significant foreign events in years. To avoid American bias, we recommend students get updates straight from the source. Watch Al Jazeera, the international news station based in Qatar, for coverage uninterrupted by American talking heads. Add some Egyptians on Twitter for a personal connection. And be skeptical of anyone who tries to portray the protesters as anything but demanding freedom.
›››› Sooner Sampler: After six snow days, do you feel academically prepared in your classes? “My students have a general chemistry exam tonight and haven’t had four lectures in two weeks.” — JESSIE PORTERFIELD, GENERAL CHEMISTRY T.A.
“I didn’t like the snow days. I feel behind in my classes.” — JENNIFER BRADLEY, ADVERTISING SOPHOMORE
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COLUMN
Oklahoma isn’t most corrupt A former judge is being charged with misspending the state’s money she received to STAFF COLUMN N take care of the foster children she was housing (as well as “giving [them] away;” and by Armella “them,” I do in fact mean the foster chilGottschalk dren), according to a Feb. 6 article in The Oklahoman. Also, a current state representative and former state senator are being charged with bribing the state medical examiner to not run for re-election. These types of scandals cause Oklahoma’s citizens to question how truly corrupt our state’s government is, and if this is affecting us at all. Well, the article doesn’t state whether or not we are being directly affected by the corruption, but it’s safe to say the judge’s foster kids were, and that’s enough to rile up concern over the issue. The U.S. Department of Justice statistically calculated how many corruption scandals there had been in any given state between 1998 and 2007; Oklahoma has had 107 convictions of public officials for varied offenses. This may seem like a grandiose number, but in comparison to other states, Oklahoma only ranks 25th in corruption amongst state officials. Considering state capita, not including Washington, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the top three most corrupt states are as follows: North Dakota, Alaska and Louisiana. All things considered, it’s easy to see why these states are at the top of the list. North Dakota’s 2008 population was surprisingly lower than Alaska’s (approximately 686,293) at 641,481. With large geographical areas and small populations, what’s a state official to do? Corruption not only seems convenient to get away with, but also exciting! As for Louisiana,
coming in with a 2008 population of 4,410,796, maybe the stigma of being a part of the “Dirty South” has encouraged those state officials to engage in unclean activity. Regardless of any state official’s reasons for engaging in criminal activity, corruption is not alright and should not be tolerated by state citizens — I don’t want to give the impression that I’m endorsing deception of the law, I’m just speculating on why state officials may engage in corruption. As quoted by Harry Holloway, former OU professor of psychiatry and neuroscience, “Too many people were willing to wink and let things go on.” Although this is discouraging, reassuringly, former U.S. Attorney Bill Price said, “If a state is really, really corrupt, nobody talks, and nobody gets prosecuted.” Albeit many Oklahoma state officials have been caught one way or another for some criminal offense, it’s encouraging to know that somehow they were found out, regardless of who was aware and condoning the behavior. This in itself shows that Oklahoma is not the most corrupt state. The real villain here is most of the legislation passed (or not passed) in Oklahoma. Restrictive abortion laws, the failure to pass legislation that would end discrimination based on sexual orientation and attempts to break down the separation of church and state are much more pressing issues. — Armella Gottschalk, sociology senior
“I feel less prepared than I should be, as in I probably haven’t worked as hard as I should have over the break.” — AMEN HOLMAN, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING SENIOR
“Seventy-five percent. I didn’t use my snow days to their full potential. I did more playing in the snow than homework.” — GAIZKA LASA, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE FRESHMAN
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
“I feel very prepared, but I don’t think the university had anything to do with that.”
Credit card article doesn’t tell whole story Editor’s note: This letter is in response to Nicholas Harrison’s news article “OU cashes in with credit cards” that was published Tuesday. Dear Editor, The article in Tuesday’s Oklahoma Daily regarding student use of credit cards and financial education at the university does not tell the whole story. In fact, the university provides financial education to students in a variety of ways, including extensive educational programs and counseling to help prevent credit card abuse and poor money management and to assist students in managing their money and credit wisely. For example: 1 . T h e u n i v e r s i t y ’s
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Financial Education & Counseling Center provides students with free information about managing their finances, including a comprehensive credit card education program. 2. The university promotes CashCourse through the Financial Education and Counseling Center, a program that offers a variety of financial education sessions, including Dealing with Debit & Credit Cards. 3. More than half of incoming freshman students are enrolled in a 2-hour forcredit course called Gateway to College Learning where instructors teach students a unit on financial issues faced by college students, including information on financial success and the use of credit cards.
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In fact, the university’s agreement with Bank of America and Mid-First Bank demonstrate that the university cares deeply about the financial concerns of students. These agreements provide critical revenue to the University that would otherwise require increases in tuition and fees. The Daily article also omitted information provided to The Daily highlighting that almost all our credit cards and the associated outstanding balances are held by OU alumni and friends, not students. The bulk of the associated revenue stems from alumni, not students. As we all know, consumers often choose a credit card provider in order to express “affinity” for an
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institution, cause or other affiliation. One of our greatest strengths as a university is the size, breadth and wonderful support of our alumni. In this case, we have many alumni who have chosen to express their strong support of OU in their selection of a credit card provider. The editor’s note introducing the article is informative. However, The Daily should further reveal the extent to which the columnist who wrote this article was also involved in the writing of the opinion piece with substantially similar content, viewpoints and omission of important facts provided.
— THOMAS CARLISLE, ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING JUNIOR
“Actually, I feel a lot more caught up. I had more time to read.” — DERRICK CARSLON, ENGLISH AND FRENCH JUNIOR
— Rennie Cook, OU Alumni Association executive director
The Oklahoma Daily is a public forum and OU’s independent student voice.
Guest columns are accepted and printed at the editor’s discretion.
Letters should concentrate on issues, not personalities, and should be fewer than 250 words, typed, double spaced and signed by the author(s). Letters will be edited for space. Students must list their major and classification. Submit letters Sunday through Thursday in 160 Copeland Hall. Letters also can be e-mailed to dailyopinion@ou.edu.
Our View is the voice of The Oklahoma Daily Editorial Board, which consists of the editorial staff. The board meets at 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday in 160 Copeland Hall. Columnists’ and cartoonists’ opinions are not necessarily the opinions of The Daily Editorial Board.