Mass ticketing in Westwood unfair The parking
situation around Westwood apartments has gotten out of control. A
few weeks ago, over 100 Westwood residents received parking tickets
for having their cars extend onto the sidewalk. On March 17, many
more Westwood residents received tickets. This time it was for
stack parking their cars. It was not my choice to have stacked
parking, as my apartment manager assigned the parking spots to my
roommate and me. We paid for these parking spots when we signed our
lease. I was not given a warning by my apartment manager to
“park at my own risk.” If the parking bureau does not
want us parking this way, then it should notify the apartment
owners who assign us the parking spots. If the bureau wants to
issue tickets for illegal parking, then it should ticket apartment
owners, not the residents.
Cara Hope Fourth-year, political science
MEChA a valuable organization I support MEChA
de UCLA. I recently spoke about immigration law to about 40 parents
at the annual Raza Youth/Parent conference at UCLA that MEChA
organized. I was impressed with the number of participants at the
conference and with the quality of the workshops. The conference
exemplifies the important contributions MEChA has made to our
community. The Bruin Republicans should cease its unwarranted smear
campaign against MEChA. MEChA is not a racist hate organization,
rather it is an important student service organization that has
opened the doors of educational opportunity to our community. The
fact that Bruin Republicans was able to take out full-page
advertisements in the Daily Bruin leads me to believe that the
group is simply the mouthpiece of a virulent conservative agenda.
When is the last time Bruin Republicans did any outreach and
recruitment to underrepresented communities? MEChA has a proud list
of alumni of lawyers, elected officials and college professors. I
am sure it will continue to produce more leaders.
Russell Jauregui Attorney at Law
Column’s analysis of war falls short
Garin Hovannisian’s column “Iraq war an act of
self-defense aimed at peace” (Mar. 17) offers an articulate
defense of the Iraq war which is quite typical of conservative
discourse today. But he washes over important ethical issues as
caveats and continues to support the unproven claim that Iraq is
intricately bound to the war on terror. While the arguments that
Iraq was ruled by an iniquitous, murderous dictator who should be
disposed are convincing, there are other issues worthy of further
exploration. Key among these is the right of our elected leaders to
sell a war to the American public based on half-truths and outright
lies. The ends-justify-the-means mentality, which conservatives are
now using to rationalize our actions in Iraq, should be scrutinized
with careful attention. The argument for this war was
“imminent danger” and the ties between Saddam Hussein
and Osama bin Laden. But bin Laden, this purported close ally, once
called Hussein a “socialist infidel,” and no supportive
evidence has been unearthed on either this relationship or the
weapons of mass destruction. We should also scrutinize the argument
that the war in Iraq has made us safer. Should we really be
surprised that there has not been another attack on American soil
since Sept. 11, when there were none before Sept. 11? The argument
that we could have better spent our time and resources focusing on
actual al-Qaeda supporters (like Saudi Arabia) and chasing bin
Laden and other real terrorists is more persuasive. And the rather
lax attention to some key defense issues at home (including nuclear
power, airport security and chemical plant regulations) should be
part of the administration’s record on terrorism. It seems
like the two main “successes” of the war in Iraq have
been to turn the widespread international goodwill toward the
United States into a collective condemnation, and to inspire
members of another generation of young Islamic men to engage in the
war on terrorism themselves. But the most important issue to look
at is the right of one country to attack another without
provocation in order to install a government more friendly to its
economic and political interests. What is a just war, and when do
we have the right to use power? Is the forced importation of
Western democracy as effective as facilitating reform or revolt
from within and respecting the agency and freedom of people to
choose their own destiny?
Rich van Heertum Graduate student, School of
Education