Bush’s policies on environment are
harmful As a Democrat in Washington, D.C., I can decidedly
say that President Bush’s flawed environmental policies stand
on their own merit. (“Bush misrepresented as nature’s
foe,” Daily Bruin, Viewpoint, July 9). Bush’s policies
are not sensible policies unless you consider
“sensible” to be utter disregard for our natural
resources and blind faith in the ability of profit-oriented
corporations to regulate their pollution and environmental waste.
Mike Hansen makes the argument that providing only 1.5 million
acres of drilling territory is some sort of landmark policy to
protect the environment, while missing the larger point that
aimlessly sticking a drill into the earth like a needle into the
vein is environmentally cruel. Let’s not spin the
administration’s environmental record so much that we lose
sight of who and what it stands for. This is a president who, in
his first six months in office, has broken a campaign promise to
reduce the level of carbon dioxide emissions from business plants
and factories and devised an energy policy that puts faith in
finding more “efficient” ways of burning coal rather
than in developing alternative energy sources that are safe and can
be re-used. This is not an issue of the economy versus the
environment. The economy will survive, even thrive, if we stop
drilling for oil like prospectors in the Sierra foothills and
devote more money and energy to developing alternative energy
sources that are safe and replenishable. Remember, the most
prosperous economy in American history fell under the
administration of President Bill Clinton. Contrary to popular
belief, it is possible for corporate America to be successful, make
billions of dollars and not run rampant over the environment. Say
President Bush is pro-business. Say he doesn’t want the
federal government interfering in the corporate boardrooms, but
don’t say that the liberal media is creating this image of
Bush as environmental-vilifier. For that, you need look no further
than the Oval Office itself.
Scott J. Street Washington, D.C.
Early life crisis a reality for college
graduates I have been going through this
“quarterlife crisis” for the past few months now and it
is awful. (“”˜Quarterlife crisis’ frazzles
power-hungry youth,” Daily Bruin, Viewpoint, July 9) I wish
someone would have told me that a college diploma doesn’t
necessarily mean happiness and success. I am 24 years old and I
have no idea what my life will entail. Basically, at college I
learned to drink and be tolerant of others. An occasional fact or
work of art would stick, but for the most part I had fun and
didn’t learn anything that would help me in the real world.
And I hate it when college students say that they are in the real
world now. Um, no. Most likely, their tuition is paid for by mommy
and daddy or they’re receiving loans. I went to college
because I was under the impression that that’s just what you
do if you want to be successful. But I was just a little frazzled
when I found out that a college diploma doesn’t necessarily
come with a good job and a loving husband. I wasn’t really
that naïve, but in the back of my head, I was really hoping
that would come true for me. But now, I am unemployed in a city
that is basically new to me with no concrete skills that I can be
hired for. What happens to a 24-year-old woman who has some
interests and for the most part is intelligent, but has no real
direction? I think I could be something great, but what? I enjoy
writing, but it’s hard to count on making a living at it.
This “crossroads” if you will, has put a scare in me,
but it has also opened me up. Call me optimistic, but I don’t
think it’s too late. By some people’s standards it is,
but to some it’s not at all. I know many people who are now
40 or older who are trying to change careers because they took that
predictable road and are now miserable. I know the time is coming
where I might have to take a job that might not lead to big success
or lots of money, but so what? I am sure I can learn something from
it and it will pay my rent. For now, that’s OK I think. Not
knowing what life has creeping around the next corner is scary, but
it’s also great, right?
Emily Silver University of Arizona alumna
Racism is a fact of life for minority students
As I read the piece you published in the Daily Bruin (“Staff
Speaks,” Viewpoint, July 16), I know that a similar thing
happened to me at the dorms when I began school at UCLA. I felt mad
that someone thought I was a worker at Covel Commons ““ yet I
stopped myself. Why did I think this? I wondered whether it was
because I was ashamed of being called a Covel worker, or whether I
felt my status as a student deserved more respect. But then I
asked: had they been mistaken and fallen into stereotypes all
Chicanos face? I really felt that it was easy conforming to others
stereotypes, and that angered me. But on the other hand, I would be
proud to be that cook (or construction worker) that has to struggle
to pull it all together for their family. But it was the ignorance
of others I felt was an attack on my community and on other
communities of color. It is hard to be a Chicano student in this
explicitly and implicitly racist campus. But it is part of being
Chicano, because when we stop struggling with all of these
attitudes, misconceptions and attacks, we have to sit down and ask
ourselves what is going on. Eventually, I realized you have to
struggle in order to learn about yourself and in order to continue
serving your community in any way you see fit.
Fabian Renteria Third-year Chicana/o studies and
history