Tuesday, January 14, 1997Wastes of money
If you pass by Sunset Village, take a look at the fresh,
beautiful and expensive patch of grass from the main entrance of
Courtside to Sunset Commons, where Sunset residents frequently
dine. You must find it fast, because it will be trampled away even
faster.
Never fear if you don’t find it in time; they’ll plant more.
This grass is repeatedly trampled away because the walkway next to
the grass, which should be used instead, looks more like a right
angle than a line. Moreover, it is not really pointed at Sunset at
all, but at Canyon Point, where they serve no food.
Why is the university spending all that money on sod and labor
to rebuild it weekly? I have a few suggestions, besides slapping
the wrists of the architect and head of maintenance.
Plant the stupid grass if you have to, but also lay down some
nice little stepping stones along the path if you absolutely refuse
to locate the walkway where God intended. Stop wasting our
money!
I’d like to mention Ackerman as well. The tales of what The
Bruin called "unplanned" expenses in its construction didn’t
surprise me one bit, but I hope there’s someone who can tell the
students if the builders plan to additionally screw the school over
by leaving the store’s facade as it is.
Generally, I like the inside of the building, but that butt-ugly
"unfinished concrete" look on the outside has got to go. Don’t tell
me for a second it’s "contemporary architecture."
P.S. Someone might also consider doing something about that poor
tree on Circle Drive downhill from Sunset Commons, which receives
daily head-butts from ignorant students who don’t know that while
walking the sidewalk on the way back from class, you’ve got to be
ready to duck trees.
Tom Schwartz
Fourth-year
Japanese
Fascism still alive
After the Bolshevik revolution, the United States and 14 other
capitalist nations invaded Russia, intent on destroying this threat
to global capitalism.
When Hitler came to power, American corporate investment in
Germany increased significantly and American corporate giants like
GM, Ford and DuPont had factories built there. Nazi Germany was
seen by American capitalists as a bulwark against the westward
expansion of Bolshevism from the Soviet Union.
After World War II, captured Nazi war criminals like Klaus
Barbie and others were used by the CIA in Bolivia and Argentina to
teach torture techniques to the police and military. As a result,
these horrors expanded to all of Latin America.
The atom bombs that were used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not
used to save American lives, but to intimidate the Russians and
show them the terrible destruction of nuclear weapons. General
Groves told the surprised atom scientists that the atom bomb was
for use against the Soviet Union  not Nazi Germany!
American billionaires like Joseph Coors and Bunker Hunt directly
funded the Contras in Nicaragua and the Renamo army in Mozambique.
Both armies committed absolutely appalling human rights violations,
burning public schools, medical clinics and farmers
co-operatives.
There is a common thread running through all these seemingly
separate events: the desire of the American ruling class to protect
its wealth and power and its willingness to resort to fascism and
horrible atrocities to do so.
There is complicity not only with the Nazi Holocaust, but with
subsequent slaughters in Guatemala, Indonesia, East Timor, Angola,
Mozambique and Indochina. Hardly a country on earth has remained
untouched by this desire to establish fascism to protect
capitalism.
In a real democracy, this theory and the pertinent evidence
would be the No. 1 topic for discussion in the media.
Unfortunately, reality must be ignored in deference to the rich and
powerful. However, ignoring reality has a price  we could go
the way of the dinosaur!
Gary Sudborough
Bellflower, CA