OPINION
PAGE 6
on the
WORD WEB...
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2012
temple-news.com
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DON KARNS SAYS ON PROTEST MET WITH GATHERING OF STUDENTS ON STEPS OF PALEY LIBRARY ON SEPT. 20 AT 10:35 P.M. Thanks for a fair article. Would like to have had Christ mentioned since this was foundation for our visit, our message and our reason for living.
CLAIRE SAID ON SALAH: ABANDONED ANIMALS ARE STARVING FOR ATTENTION ON SEPT. 16 AT 10:31 P.M. I am in total agreement with you. It has become all too common in these tougher economic time for people to abandon their pet due to their inability to care for them. It is technically against the law to release animals like that and can result in a hefty fine if an animals previous owners are tracked down. What I find so distressing is that because of the great number of feral and abandoned animals, many are euthanized upon intake into county shelters. This goes particularly for kittens and puppies because it is unlikely there is a potential owner looking for them. The spay programs will hopefully make a difference in the long run, but we have yet to see any significant results. The best thing people can do if they find a stray animal that responds positively to human contact and can be easily trapped or leashed is to have them washed, frontlined, fixed, and fully vetted and then placed into a foster for forever home. In Philadelphia, all of this can be done for a cat for around $100 and between $100-200 for a dog. There are free clinics for pitbulls and pit mixes and often chihuahuas.
Students’ respect for neighbors at a low NEIGHBORS PAGE 5 As the number of students living nearby rises, it should make my block feel safer, quieter and cleaner. But it doesn’t. Rather than paying each other respect, living amongst peers has created a student mentality where everyone feels free to behave however they want, without worry of discipline from an authority figure. Each week, the sidewalk is littered with just as much trash as the week before, and private property continues
to be vandalized and destroyed. Now, we have no one to blame but ourselves. At a time when we invest so much effort into preparing for our futures and convincing others that we’re really adults, our actions should emulate our intentions – inside the classroom and out. Bri Bosak can be reached at bribosak@temple.edu or on Twitter @BriBosak.
Subway health claims debunked SUBWAY PAGE 5 nutritional value, but they’re not as different as people may think. While it is true that a Subway sandwich without the extras can be a better alternative than other fast food restaurants, it hardly constitutes as healthy. Everything added to the ingredients to make it look and taste fresh discredit its nutritional value. The high calories, lack of
vitamins and obscene amounts of sodium in the sandwiches make for a meal that can harm more than it helps. Being the better option in fast food does not in any way make it a good one. Hend Salah can be reached at hsalah@temple.edu.
Colleges shouldn’t be a commodity TEMPLE MADE PAGE 5 school pride can definitely be credited to Temple Made’s influence. After all, successful advertising can create a bond between the consumer and the company. Brand loyalty. “Building a brand, if you want to call it that, means working to ensure there are more successes than failures – and it can only be done by the academic and adminis trative staff working together, with good leadership,” Paul Temple wrote in “Branding Higher Education: Illusion or Reality?” in Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education. “Nobody else can do it. That is the reality: branding, as a route to success, is the illusion.” Temple Made has instilled brand loyalty. It is a facade. By no means is this campaign tangible. Actual academic success? That is tangible. The campaign has obviously tugged at the heartstrings of the student body
and it has been welcomed with open arms. Temple students, however, should keep in mind that Temple Made is a marketing campaign for a business that seeks to increase its profits, created by Neiman, which also works for Comcast Sportsnet and Dietz and Watson. When Sept. 27 rolls around, I imagine a mass congregation at the Bell Tower, the heart of Temple’s Main Campus. Excitement and wonder will fuel the crowd, just like at the launch of a new Apple product. But what, exactly, is the difference?
“After all,
successful advertising can create a bond between the consumer and the company. Brand loyalty.
”
Chelsea Colatriano can be reached at chelsea.colatriano@temple.edu.
Gender in football something to be tackled
E MICHELLE KAPUSTA
Kapusta argues that fans who protest the increasing role of women in sports are out of touch.
arlier this month, the National Football League officially kicked off its regular season. As fans across the country dusted off their jerseys, planned their tailgate parties and gathered around the TV, history was being cemented before their eyes. On Sept. 9, Shannon Eastin became the first female ever to officiate in an NFL regular-season game. She was a line judge in the St. Louis Rams-Detroit Lions game. Eastin is part of the league’s replacement referee crew, which will be officiating games this season while the Referee Association is involved in a labor dispute with the league owners. Never before has a woman donned an NFL referee uniform. To see Eastin and the NFL break such boundaries is truly inspiring. The message being sent is that there is no place for sexism in the league. After all, it is 2012, why shouldn’t females be given the same opportunities as their male counterparts? Coaches and players have
praised Eastin’s job and noted her place in history. “She was confident and in control,” Chargers coach Norv Turner told the media, after Eastin officiated a preseason matchup between his team and the Green Bay Packers. After the game, Turner told the media that he took a picture with Eastin to mark the moment in history. Some of the players shook hands with her to commemorate it. And the hat and whistle she used in the game are expected to be displayed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. However, not everyone appreciated that a woman was on the football field. Sexist comments flooded blogs and social media sites. Some male commenters on an ESPN blog agreed that they did not care if Eastin was on the field, as long as she could “make a good sandwich.” And on Twitter, someone tweeted that Eastin did not belong on the football field, but rather “in the kitchen.” I tend to think that most of these pig-headed comments
were from people who made a bad attempt at a joke. But I’m sure for some male commenters, it does reflect the way they feel about the opposite sex. Other fans refrained from ripping Eastin, but seemed curious about her resume and knowledge of the sport. The fact is that Eastin is a 16-year veteran of officiating games. She referees in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference of NCAA Division I’s Football Championship Subdivision. So I have to wonder does it really matter what gender is calling a team’s penalties? “You’ve never paid for an NFL ticket to watch someone officiate a game,” NFL Executive Vice President Ray Anderson has stated. On Sundays, I don’t care who referees the games as long as teams are getting fair calls. The whole issue of people disliking Eastin as a referee is ironic, especially since fans have been expressing their displeasure with all the blown calls by the replacement officials. The refs they are referring to almost
always happen to be males. Eastin’s gender is totally irrelevant to how she referees games. She should only be judged on her job performance. I can’t imagine what the uproar would have been like if she actually played in a game, but perhaps we are headed to that milestone much quicker than we think. Recently, ESPNW and the Ventura County Star ran stories highlighting females who play football on their high school teams. Erin DiMeglio plays third-string quarterback for South Plantation High in Florida and Hannah Greene is the backup kicker for Nordhoff in California. DiMeglio and Greene are not alone in their feats. More than 700 girls are currently playing football nationwide, according to Women’s Sports Foundation. If you’re still skeptical about women transitioning into professional “male” sports, just know that it has already been done. In fact, it’s history. In 1992, Manon Rheaume
became the first female goaltender for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League. Rheaume retired in 1997, and today she runs a foundation in which she uses her experience as the first female NHL hockey player to inspire young girls to reach for their dreams while overcoming obstacles. The recent attacks on Eastin show that sexism is still alive in the U.S. However, we could be close to a day when women actually suit up for an NFL game. Unless fans are willing to abandon their team, they’ll be cheering for the females making plays. Michelle Kapusta can be reached at michelle.kapusta@temple.edu.
Dangerous chemicals available in a store near you
A
LAURA ORDONEZ
Ordonez argues that consumers must be more aware of the things they buy.
can of SpaghettiOs is a must-have for long study sessions, inclement weather and visitors. It is delicious, cheap and easy to make. Everyone knows this. What is less known is that SpaghettiOs cans are made with Bisphenol A, an industrial chemical that has been linked to heart disease, cancer and diabetes in adults. This chemical is targeted at a specific type of consumer, the incautious one. But we, as consumers, need to stay aware and act to ensure our safety. The Breast Cancer Fund reports that “nearly 200 scientific studies show that exposures to low doses of BPA, particularly during prenatal development and early infancy, are associated with a wide range of adverse health effects in later life.” There are subtle threats to the human health that a critical consumer base, Temple students included, is capable of avoiding. This imperceptible – yet common – chemical is just one of
those threats. The studies cited by the Breast Cancer Fund define BPA as an endocrine disruptor. Simply put, it disrupts the hormones and glands that are in charge of our body growth, production of insulin, behavior and other vital functions. It’s a scary label considering the number of products made with this chemical. Other than in Campbell’s soups, BPA is also found on the linings of food and beverage cans, plastic wrappers, hard plastic bottles, ATM receipts and until recently, baby bottles and sippy cups. Throughout time, BPA leaches into the food and liquids that are contained in cans and plastic containers, especially when these containers are microwaved or cleaned in a dishwasher.
The production process behind BPA, largely the same as it was back in the 1960s when it was introduced to domestic products, is finally being questioned by the federal government. But what exactly is Capitol Hill doing about it? The Food and Drug Administration considered BPA to be safe up until 2008. It was not until July, and by request of the American Chemistry Council, that the FDA banned the use of BPA in the production of baby bottles and children’s drinking cups due to “some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children.” A bit too late for us grown-up Temple students. As for adults’ safety, the FDA has deemed the current
“We must
depend on informed decisions in order to avoid profits to be placed above our safety.
”
BPA levels in products to be safe. Yet there are multiple sources of exposure, and sometimes many of these products surpass the BPA limit set by the FDA. Progresso, Del Monte and Campbell canned foods have the highest BPA levels out of the 19 name-brand foods that were tested in an independent study conducted by Cosumer Reports in 2009. The aforementioned brands dominate the shelves at Fresh Grocer and 7-Eleven, and are certainly stacked high in college dorms and apartments. Still, the FDA is hesitant to banish all these BPA-containing products. Why is the FDA so stubborn? A plausible answer is the lobbying effort of big chemical companies to obstruct any advance toward strict regulation. Nothing new really, tobacco companies made similar efforts in the past. As doomed as all this sounds, we are in a position to induce rapid change. Luckily, there are a few ways to do so. I
suggest three. As consumers, we can boycott Campbell, Progresso and other companies that do not demonstrate rigorous safety regulations. As citizens, we can place this issue on the national agenda by supporting laws intended to protect our health. There is one so far, the Chemical Safety Act passed in late July by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. This law intends to regulate the safety of chemicals used in the production of everyday products. Lastly, we can opt for fresh food and reusable glass bottles and stainless steel containers. We must depend on informed decisions in order to avoid profits to be placed above our safety. Our parents did not, how could they? They didn’t know. But we have a chance to choose differently. Laura Ordonez can be reached at laura.ordonez@temple.edu.