Hidden frame

In the story “Evening students fear for their safety after class,” in the March 6 Hornet, you included an anecdote about a student encounter with a homeless person. This anecdote made some assumptions that I found very disturbing. To illustrate what I found disturbing about the article, here is the same article with one word substituted:

“While waiting for her husband to pick her up near the Hornet Bookstore, a black man approached her and tried to make conversation. Brown Rivers tried to walk away, but the man followed her. Afraid for her safety, she ran to a campus phone and dialed 9-1-1.”

I think you would agree that if the article was written this way, it would have been clearly offensive because it would have implied that “black” was the only word necessary to explain why this person was frightening.

Not all homeless people conform to media stereotypes. Some of them look and act just like everyone else, save for the fact that they do not have a home. Some homeless people have full-time jobs, and some homeless people are full-time college students.I would suggest that in future articles you follow the writer?s axiom of “show, not tell” and describe the qualities that make a person frightening, instead of referring to an unverified judgment that the person does not have a home.

Brian St.Claire-King

Research needed

The March 6 article, “Union, CSU strike deal” was incorrect in a number of statements. Stating that “The agreement…excludes merit raises based on outside projects,” and that “Faculty Merit Increases, which reward faculty for outside research and writing,” incorrectly leave the reader with the impression that faculty should not engage in scholarly activity. Sacramento State is a university, not a community college or high school, and its mission should be to create and disseminate knowledge. Scholarly activity is a fundamental obligation of university faculty, benefiting students, faculty and the University as a whole.

Professors are scholars, not simply teachers. The research and creative activities undertaken by Sac State professors are in no way “outside work.”

Randy L. Phelps

Associate Professor

Physics and Astronomy

Keep it up (and on)

I just want to thank Samantha Hinrichs for her article, “Keep it on, Ladies.”It seems to me that the phenomenon of women on campus wearing too little is happening more often now days. There are a lot of good-looking females out here on campus, but none seem to care if they are showing off too much. It does cheapen the body and the person, if you ask me. “The more they take off, the less I become interested.”

Michael Malapaya

Junior

It’s a war!

I must have missed the point of Samantha Hinrichs? column, “Below the Bombs: the Real War in Afghanistan.” She seemed not to be taking issue with the war on terror itself, but rather with the fact that the United States is using such overwhelming firepower (specifically the thermobaric bomb) in conducting it. Perhaps she feels our planes should be dropping payloads of rotten eggs and rolls of toilet paper so that we can annoy the Taliban and express our displeasure without anyone getting hurt. The reason we are dropping bombs in the first place is to kill people and blow things up, if we have a new bomb that does a better job of this we should use it.

Not to sound callous, but as long as the cowards responsible for Sept. 11 continue to hide in caves and amongst their women and children, a certain number of civilian casualties are inevitable. We should do what we can to limit this, but not at the expense of our military objectives. To oppose the war in Afghanistan as a matter of principle may be unpopular, but to suggest that we put the lives of our service men and women at risk and not proceed to use the full destructive power of our military might shows a lack not only of patriotism, but common sense as well.

Matthew Brooks

Senior

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