Wednesday, November 4, 1998
Thumbs up/thumbs down
Disabled kids can play at Griffith Park
Thumbs up to the Los Angeles City Council, which has agreed to
set aside two acres of Griffith Park for a playground designed with
the special needs of disabled children in mind  the first in
the state.
The playground, which will be 80 percent accessible to disabled
children, will enable children in wheelchairs to swing on large
platforms and play at waist-high sand tables.
This park not only makes recreational activities more
accessible, but it also addresses a broader issue: every person is
entitled to access.
Hopefully the actions of the city council are harbingers of
improvements to come.
Funding will support adult education
Thumbs up to the Kellogg Foundation for awarding Columbia
University a $750,000 grant to fund a three-year adult education
and job placement program.
The money will go to Community Impact, a student-based program
that provides education, social services and occupational training
to neighboring communities.
The Kellogg Foundation is giving money for a greater purpose
also ; the Community Impact program improves the standard of living
for many adults by empowering them through education and
training.
Additionally, the foundation gave money to an already existing
student program instead of to a large bureaucratic system.
It is indeed refreshing to see that charity and altruism are not
dead, even in corporate America.
Legislation protects immigrants
Thumbs up to President Clinton for signing legislation that
allows 20,000 immigrants to continue receiving supplemental
security income benefits.
This legislation reverses the measure in the 1996 welfare reform
law that kept supplemental security income rolls from non-U.S.
citizens. Clinton called these restrictions on legal immigrants
"unduly harsh." Legal immigrants contribute just as much to our
society as U.S. citizens; they pay taxes, so they deserve the same
benefits as everyone else.
Restricting legal immigrants from welfare benefits just because
they are not U.S. citizens would be harsh and xenophobic.
Abduction of tree shows true spirit
Thumbs up to the Phoenix Five, a group of UC Berkeley students
who stole the Stanford mascot from the Palo Alto campus last week.
The group, which plans to return the tree before the big game
against Stanford, said that it has no plans to harm or alter the
tree.
The Stanford student who wears the costume, Chris Henderson,
laments that the "functional value of the tree is worth millions,"
but the Phoenix Five"s actions promote school spirit on both
campuses in a non-violent manner. The mascot abduction is an
improvement from the 1996 incident, where a melee broke out and
Berkeley students attacked the Stanford mascot.
Thumbs up/Thumbs down represents the majority opinion of the
Daily Bruin Editorial Board. Send comments and suggestions to
viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.
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© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board[Home]