The Bruin shouldn’t trust Hussein
The Daily Bruin’s notion that President Bush should base
his decision of when to attack Iraq on the beliefs of some clowns
that stand on street corners with anti-war signs is absurd.
In the Feb. 18 editorial, “Bush must take world protests
more seriously,” The Bruin wrote that “Bush should heed
protesters’ message and place human interests before his war
agenda.” The Bruin then went on to say
that “Bush has portrayed Hussein as a liar.”
Maybe it’s just me, but that implies that The Bruin trusts
Hussein, one of the most evil men in the last 100 years, over the
President of the United States.Â
The Bruin also states that if there is a war, “the United
Nations will once again be undermined as a meaningful authority for
maintaining world order.” The United Nations has already
undermined itself and lost all credibility in the world community
by failing to enforce its resolutions and portraying itself as a
world government with the authority to tell the United States
what to do.
Anthony Kohrs Second-year, business
economics
Submission presents one-sided statistics
While there are many good arguments for affirmative action
programs, Karen Salazar and Eric Lopez have done a great disservice
to their cause.
Any intelligent reader who read their submission
“Affirmative action integral in creating diverse
universities” (Viewpoint, Feb. 21) will notice a glaring
error in their statistical “evidence” for affirmative
action. While admissions data for Latino/Chicano, black, American
Indian and white students are presented and compared in their
arguments, Salazar and Lopez conveniently omitted any statistics on
Asian student admissions.
Conclusions based upon incomplete statistical data are always
inherently flawed. There are two reasons I can think of as to why
Salazar and Lopez would make such an obvious mistake. Either they
are ignorant as to how statistical evidence should be properly
interpreted or they felt that a presentation of the data in its
complete form would discredit their claims of a “white
privilege,” and thus knowingly presented misleading
evidence.
Being third year political science students (who are required to
take statistics courses), I doubt the reason was due to their
ignorance.
In purposely leaving out certain facts, Salazar and Lopez have
isolated a large portion of the student population, implying that
Asian students do not deserve consideration or somehow
“don’t matter” in the debate over pressing social
issues dealing with race and ethnicity. There is a word for these
kinds of beliefs and behaviors: prejudice.
Daniel Chang First-year, political science
Kasten owes Iranians, UCLA apology
I am writing in response to a Feb. 18 letter by Kathy Kasten,
who is the administrative assistant in the department of pathology
at UCLA. In her letter she states how she had been mistreated
at an Iranian celebration in prior years because she had been asked
to sit at another table and that nobody would talk to
her. From this she has gone as far as to make the conclusion
that she knows for a “fact” that “the majority of
the Iranians at the party hated Americans.” Moreover,
she has the audacity to call Iranians “people with two
faces.”
This letter is completely absurd and should not have even made
it into The Bruin. For an “educated” woman in an
administrative position to make such racist and unsupported claims
is an insult not only to the Iranian community but also to this
university.
Iranians are among some of the most educated and productive
members of this society and contribute a great deal to the United
States and its economy. Very few ethnic groups can claim to
have such a high percentage of post bachelor degrees among their
people. I believe that Kasten has fallen victim to the images shown
on television about Iran and the various flag burnings that are
supposed to represent the Iranian people.Â
It is obvious that the seeds of hatred have been planted in her
long before she went to any Iranian celebration. I would advise her
to go do her research before she has the audacity to write about
how Iranians hate Americans and how she knows this for a
“fact.” I believe that she owes a formal apology
not only to the Iranian community but also to this institution that
she is supposed to represent.
Roozbeh Gorgin Third-year, electrical
engineering