Resolution fails to represent council
Last week, the Undergraduate Students Association Council forced
through a resolution regarding the current conflict in the Middle
East (“USAC condemns violence,” News, July 31). The
main purpose of this resolution was to condemn Israel for the
violence in the region.
While many students are personally connected to the crisis,
condemning nations has no relevance to USAC’s mission.
UCLA students hold diverse viewpoints, and as councilmembers, we
are responsible for representing the entirety of UCLA’s
diverse student population. In passing the aforementioned
resolution, USAC’s commitment to campus diversity was
undermined. In taking political stances on non-student issues, we
can’t do much other than alienate students.
Neither I nor Facilities Commissioner P.C. Zai were present to
vote on this resolution, as we had left to participate in Unicamp
before we even knew the resolution was going to be on the
agenda.
The council table outcome would have been different had the
entirety of USAC been present, and I find it very underhanded that
such a controversial resolution was put forward when some of its
opponents were known to be unable to attend the meeting.
Joline Price
USAC general representative
L.A. doesn’t care about recycling
I am a resident of Northern California, born and raised in Palo
Alto and currently attending UC Berkeley. Although I love Los
Angeles (I am living here this summer), I’ve found that
Angelenos tend to care very little, if at all, about the
environment.
The city of Los Angeles doesn’t collect recycling at
apartment buildings. Because I shudder at the thought of throwing
away paper, glass, plastic, etc., I found that I could drop off my
recyclables at Santa Monica’s recycling center on Delaware
Avenue.
As a service to my community, I ordered a recycling bin from a
Web site and put it in my apartment complex’s trash
collection room. Within six hours of its installation, I found the
bin’s contents emptied down the garbage chute, the
bin’s lid thrown away, and the bin itself toppled on the
ground.
I was appalled. I was willing to collect the building’s
recyclables and haul them to Santa Monica, and it was totally
thrown back in my face.
Adrian Bellomo
UC Berkeley
Middle East coverage biased
I find it ironic that one of the most biased issues of the Daily
Bruin I’ve ever read has a column on this very topic
(“Biases skew Middle East news coverage,” July 31).
The Bruin seems to go out of its way to emphasize that Hezbollah
is a “political organization” and note on the cover
that an Israeli bombing of Beirut’s international airport
sparked the current violence.
The Bruin even put Hezbollah’s flag in a collage with the
national flags of Lebanon, Israel and Palestine (“A new means
of political discourse,” News, July 31).
The fact that Hezbollah is generally recognized by the
international community to have started the current conflict, is
not a national entity, and is designated by the United States as a
terrorist organization seems to get lost in the story.
Don’t be a part of the biased media problem.
Jason Kaminsky
UCLA Class of 2006