Tuesday
February 1, 2011
Proposition B unfairly targets Missouri’s dog breeders Greg Edwards Columnist
folks outside of the state of Missouri. The Humane Society of the United States and PETA both completely backed the proposition and threw ungodly amounts of money at it to make sure it passed. That is because these organizations, and many more like them, want to completely do away with dog breeding in the state of Missouri. Now, since they paid enough money to have Prop B pass without anyone knowing their real intentions, they are well on their way to having their goals become reality. HSUS and the other organizations pushed for the initiative to have very strict and meaningful wording. This is how they intend to oust legal, former law-abiding dog breeders in the state. Prop B sets a limit of 50 dogs per breeder. Even if there is a renowned breeder that provides hotel-quality care to his 51 dogs, that is too bad. He’ll still have to get rid of the one dog now. Even dogs would agree
that this doesn’t make a “lick” of sense. If someone wants to keep 51 dogs, or even 101 Dalmatians, and they have the necessary facilities to provide excellent care, then that is their own business. They shouldn’t be told they can only breed 50 dogs. If someone is hellbent on raising 51 adorable puppies, even if it is kind of weird to want to raise such a specific number, they should still be allowed to do so. The same way that is it possible for a person to be cruel to one dog, it is also possible to not be cruel to 101 dogs. The next thing animal activist groups don’t want you to know is that Prop B only specifically targets the dog breeders that are already licensed and in compliance with state laws. Yes, Missouri already has laws about animal welfare. The laws may need some serious tweaking, but they don’t need to be entirely overhauled. Don’t let the animal rights activists trick you. We already loved our sweet puppies before the big, out-of-state groups came in. Because it deals solely with the already lawabiding businesses, Prop B doesn’t do anything to stop unlicensed dog
breeders who may actually be treating their animals inhumanely. All it does is impede the progress of honest dog breeders who want to make an honest day’s living. This also does not make any sense. “Let’s target the good breeders and give them so many rules that they have to go out of business while not doing anything at all to stop the real illegal and cruel puppy mills. That makes perfect sense.” Not. The final thing those caring, innocent originators of Prop B don’t want you to know is that they’d be happy to see other forms of agriculture in Missouri go away too. One day, they may even try to regulate how many head of cattle Farmer Bill can keep. Killing countless dogbreeding jobs is just the beginning. Eventually, these out-of-state groups will have some new cockamamie proposition on the ballot to screw over more animal industries. So, let’s all make some phone calls to our state legislators. We can stop HSUS dead in their tracks. Tell them we love puppies, but Prop B needs to get repealed. It’s what Snoopy would want. Trust me.
Cartoon by Rachel Brown
Who doesn’t love puppies? Whenever you get home after a bad day, a puppy can easily make everything better. They can lick you, roll up in a ball beside you and even play fetch. That means Proposition B, a ballot initiative that is supposed to help dogs that barely squeaked by and passed last November, is a great idea, right? Not quite. It is actually a terrible idea and needs to be repealed as soon as possible. If you ask people who don’t know a whole lot about Prop B, they will talk about how amazing it is. Prop B will help stop animal cruelty. “Those big, bad puppy mills need something to keep them in line, and this is it. The only reason Prop B was put on the ballot was to put the terrible, puppyhating mills under the strictest scrutiny possible in regards to the number of dogs they can keep, amount of living space, cleanliness and other important issues. With Prop B, the puppies will be saved. Yay!” This may sound all peachy-keen and perfect, but like many other liberal ideas, it is leaving out a lot of vital information. Prop B was actually started by a bunch of
Students should be more aware of Wyrick proposals
The Student Government Association’s Wyrick Commission is meeting this week to further review Wyrick proposals. The Wyrick Commission is a capital improvement project intended to benefit the student body. The commission is paid for by a $3 per-student, per-semester fee, which creates a pool of money to be spent in the order of votes received until the fund is exhausted. At this time, the proposals are still in paper form and unavailable for student viewing. Kinsley Stocum, SGA director of communications, said the proposals will be posted on the organization’s website when the commission has finished the reviewing process. Stocum was unable to give a firm deadline for when the proposals would be available online but said she hopes it will be soon. In last year’s student body election, there were five Wyrick proposals. These proposals included wayfinding signage, current event marquees, light pole banners and fence painting to promote school spirit, a car-counting system for Bear Park South, and four-corner signage. An average of 1,421.2 students casted a “yes” or “no” vote toward each proposal while an average of 177.2 students abstained from voting. The students of this university spend thousands of dollars on campus projects that they may not support, such as the university Rec Center or JQH Arena. The Wyrick commission is students’ only opportunity to choose how their money is spent. There is no reason why such a small percentage of students should be casting votes toward the Wyrick proposals. SGA will soon make the proposals available for viewing on its website. Students should make themselves familiar with the proposals and cast an informed decision on the day of the student body election. It is irresponsible to show up to the polls on Election Day to vote for president and ignore the propositions on the ballot. The same rules apply to the student body election.
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Patrons want more than just coffee
Bankruptcy, foreclosure, short sale, credit counseling, debt management, Dave Ramsey ... the economy is all we have heard about for the last three years. Save, save, save. Cut back unnecessary expenditures and live simply. Families are eating out less, downsizing the cable bill and carpooling to work every day. Students are going months without haircuts, wearing the same pair of jeans they’ve had since ninth grade and, in my case, going without hot food and sometimes hot water. Why, then, do many of us stuff our frugal hands into the quarter jar every morning to scrape a few dollars together for our daily Starbucks jaunt? Why can we not resist the Kaldi’s coffee counter when the sounds of steaming milk and dripping coffee reach
The Standard
Brittany Forell Columnist
our ears? The smell of cinnamon, the hiss of the espresso machine and the cheerfulness of the apronclad barista draw in our weary feet for a warm cup of brown bean water. I can’t help but question if it is really the product — the hot milk and espresso — that brightens our day. Do we really pay $5 for a latte when the very same month we cannot afford to pay our utility bill? As a retired barista of four years with an earned (and very real) title of “coffee master,” I have observed a few things in the sions are also welcome. The Standard reserves the right to edit all submissions for punctuation, spelling, length and good taste. Letters should be mailed to The Standard, 901 S. National Ave., Springfield, MO 65897 or e-mailed to Standard@Missouri State.edu.
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field. A regular coffee customer does not expect a grab-and-go kind of service. A “regular” knows the baristas by name. He knows every brew and every latte but orders the same size, same flavor and same pastry every time. A regular expects to know when one of the baristas gets married or if the manager got transferred to a new store. He expects new employees to memorize his usual drink quickly just as he will memorize their names quickly. The regular craves the routine, the familiarity, but mostly the connection. As B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore describe in their book “The Experience Economy,” coffee can be one of four things in business: a commodity, a good, a service or an experience. The last of these four is what allows compa-
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nies to charge $5 for a cup of coffee rather than 50 cents. It is these businesses who set the stage for an experience that gains loyal customers. Furthermore, it is these customers the business gains who allow the company to flourish. The often-taught Pareto Principle, also known as the “80/20 rule,” explains that 80 percent of sales come from 20 percent of your customers. The “vital few,” they call them. Experience is an economic offering, often confused but not to be mistaken with the idea of good service. “When a person buys a service, he purchases a set of intangible activities carried out on his behalf. But when he buys an experience, he pays to spend time enjoying a series of memorable events that a company
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stages — as in a theatrical play — to engage him in a personal way,” describes Pine. The Golden Circle, a model created by Simon Sinek, encourages entrepreneurs to reach success by engaging customers emotionally. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it,” he stresses. Starbucks captures our hearts because their baristas connect with you. The company selectively hires people who exude certain qualities: genuine, knowledgeable, considerate, involved. Their purpose is to brighten your day, and they are trained to make their primary goal a smile on your face when you walk out of their store. In fact, the first class you take as a new Starbucks’ barista is a seminar called “The Starbucks The Standard Physical address: Student Media Center 744 E. Cherry St. Postal address: 901 S. National Ave. Springfield, MO 65897
Experience” where they teach you such things as how Starbucks aims to create an experience of good coffee, good music, good people and good conversation. There are some things that are worth $5 a day. Some companies have it figured out, and they happen to be the businesses with loyal customers and happy futures. Others are still stacking discount inventory on plastic tables, offering commodities that are lacking in quality and experiences that are lacking in substance. Hopefully, they are the businesses that will eventually fade away. We have enough impersonal elements in our daily lives. It seems a little human connection every morning, along with a steaming cup of espresso, can be the daily cure.
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