Students First! committed to being a voice for the students
In “Students declare candidacy” (News, April 18), Sarah Jo writes about two presidential candidates in the upcoming USAC elections.
As thrilled as I am to discuss the candidacy of the Students First! candidate for president, Homaira Hosseini, there is also great excitement and energy for Students First! and their ability to better serve the UCLA campus.
Homaira will also be running with Students First! candidates Evan Shulman for internal vice president, James Birks and Gilberto Chacon for general representative, Jeremiah Garcia for Academic Affairs commissioner, George Chacon for Cultural Affairs commissioner, Galen Roth for Facilities commissioner and Elaine Reodica for Financial Supports commissioner.
Together they envision a university that is committed to maximizing the UCLA experience, and their collective and individual platforms will reflect this vision.
Students First! is eager and committed to sharing our ideas and engaging in dialogue with UCLA students and the campus community during the next couple of weeks. By coming together and amplifying our student voice, we can see the change we want to see in student government.
Gregory Cendana
Fourth-year, sociology and labor & workplace studies
Students First! campaign manager
Political student groups should promote humanitarian focus
I would like to thank the UCLA community for making a presence at the “Bring Light to Gaza” vigil and for the coverage it received in the Daily Bruin (“Vigil to illuminate plight of Gazans,” News, April 17).
It is disheartening to hear that figures in Bruins for Israel want to emphasize “that it’s not only because of Israeli policies that the Palestinian people are suffering.”
When Students for Justice in Palestine attended a vigil being held by BFI for the Israeli victims of a shooting in Jerusalem, everyone focused on the humanity of the individuals rather than their political backgrounds or affiliations. When a human life is lost, the humanity of the person should be apparent. Both groups do not have the time to debate politics when people are dying.
I sincerely ask that students get over the political debates and meet us halfway, just as we did on that tragic day when gunfire erupted in Jerusalem. Tragedies will continue to plague the region as long as people refuse to recognize and refuse to even participate, just as BFI decided to do.
The vigil was a nonpolitical event, and we hope to participate in future events such as Sultans of Satire later this quarter, in which Bruins for Israel also declined to participate even though one of the comedians is from a Jewish family.
How much further must we extend our arms to have groups on campus recognize a humanitarian crisis (deemed so by Human Rights Watch, the U.N. and several other entities)? Hesitancy to do so only reveals a lack of understanding for what it really means to be concerned for such matters, and it disqualifies groups from even claiming the stature to promote human rights.
You either believe in human rights and equality or you don’t. It begs that kind of consistency.
Norah Sarsour
Third-year, English and comparative literature
Muslim Student Association
People don’t always represent their government
I am a proud American. I loathe our current administration as well as many actions committed by our government in the past, not the least of which was the American Indian genocide.
But I am still proudly American. I daresay that many editors and many readers of the Daily Bruin feel much the same way. Thus it puzzles me that we do not allot this same courtesy to the residents of other countries, especially to that country which is the most populous in the entire world.
As the niece of one who literally starved to death under a Communist regime, I doubt that the authors of the articles mentioned below could be any more critical of the regime than I am. However, I remember the distinction between the people in the Chinese government and the people of China.
Meredith Pierce declared China “a country that brings suffering to millions” (Letters to the Editor, April 14) Truly? All 1.3 billion people of that country bring suffering to millions?
Then on April 16, the Daily Bruin Editorial Board asserted that “supporters of the Chinese government” disrupted a pro-Tibet demonstration. Really? All the counter-organizers were supporters of the Chinese Communist regime, and not one was simply a citizen with whom one might engage in rational dialogue about wanting to see the Olympics come to his country of residence?
If we Americans forget the dichotomy between the people and the government and demonize an entire nation, if we writers allow this distinction to be blurred in our quest for better-sounding synonyms, then we may as well forget our support of the Tibetan, Darfuri and Burmese people, and that the Chinese people must also be supported in their own domestic efforts toward democracy.
And if we forget this and continue to alienate the Chinese people, it will be us who create these “supporters of the Chinese government” by giving them no other allies, no other support system than their oppressive regime.
Connie Lo
Fourth-year, biochemistry