Individual used false identity to slander

This week, an individual sent in a letter to the editor via The Oracle on-line feedback claiming to be me. In this letter, he claimed that I was very angry at the world because I was messed with in the Marines because I was gay, and I didn’t get to kill anyone.

He said that I now just wanted to kill anything I could, including little animals, people, whatever. He said I was “an old, impotent, angry redneck who was going to college for free.” He also said I was a “loser and a brainwashed, tortured soul.” You would really have had to see the letter to feel the real disgust he wrote claiming to be me.

The individual did this primarily because he does not like my pro-American, anti-terrorist stance in my writings to The Oracle. I imagine his goal was to intimidate and humiliate me, but I will have to tell you, I do not intimidate or humiliate very easily. I spent 30 years in the Marine Corps, and he is very mistaken if he thinks he can accomplish his goals in this way.

To disagree with me on my views about America or patriotism or countries out there that support terrorism is one thing. This is America, and it is your right to disagree with me, but to do what this individual did was ‘vicious and pure evil.’ This vile letter shows that this individual could not support his arguments and that he was reduced to a very personal attack on me.

I say this to all who disagree with my stances: Disagree with me, argue with me, debate me, get mad at me, but do not do what this individual did. He made a fool of himself, and he hurt the cause he is for.

I do not have to apologize to anyone about how I attend college or anything else about myself. I have paid my dues to society, and I will continue to do so. I am not asking anyone to like me or love me. I am asking you to respect me and my opinions. You do not have to agree with them. Hell, you can even say I am messed up and don’t know what I’m talking about. But I, nor anyone else, do not deserve what this sick individual did to me.

Gary Stanley is a senior majoring in secondary education.

Possible Genshaft raise unjustifiedAs a recently laid off employee from USF, I was shocked to hear of the exorbitant proposed salary package for President Genshaft.

I find it odd that because of budget cuts, I, as well as others, lost my job, and programs benefiting faculty, staff and students, like the leadership program I directed, were cut due to lack of money.

I was in the second wave of layoffs in the past year. Another one is threatened any time, while Genshaft might be offered a $100,000 signing bonus, a driver and car and a $1-million contract. How can she and the Board of Trustees look at themselves in the mirror?

Mary Poole is a former USF employee and alumnus.

Record companies crush innovations

Record companies are the black holes of the music industry. They suck in the light of new ideas, new technological advances and crush them until there is nothing left.

Instead of using technology as a platform to boost sales, they turn their backs and try to close the very same programs that could help them succeed. Just think back to how they ruthlessly crushed Napster. Peer to peer is described as an application in which users can use the Internet to exchange files with each other directly or through a mediating server.

The reason the recording companies are out to rid the world of this great technology is because they feel they are losing money, yet they only recorded a loss of 7 percent in the past two years.

The recording companies are not alone; other corporations have also been losing an equal amount of money due to a lower economy. The products provided by the recording companies are also lower in quality. On one CD, a consumer is expected to find 12 to 14 songs from their favorite band. Many of the songs are repetitions of each other and there are usually only two or three good songs per CD.

The price of the CD is on average $16-$20. Instead of lowering CD prices to compete with this new technology, they raised them higher than CDs have ever been before.

This plan backfired because buying music is a luxury that not everyone can afford. By raising the prices so drastically, it forces users to find other means of attaining music.

Artists around the world are mixed in their opinion of sharing music online. Metallica was one of the bands that took a heavy stand against peer to peer sharing. However, there was much backlash. Many people accused Metallica’s drummer, Lars Ulrich, of taking this stand just so the fading spotlight on Metallica would return again.

He accused Napster of reducing their sales record while many consumers stated that quality of the band had deteriorated. They claimed Metallica and the “new” music they released were merely rip offs or re-dos of what was done in the past and that is the real reason why Metallica’s records were not selling.

Many of the artists love their work so much that they want everyone to hear it via any means. Many new bands such as Burning Hope and Loves Desire are placing music themselves on these peer to peer programs to help promote themselves and to gain free publicity.

Even older bands, such as the Dave Matthews Band, are more then happy to have their music be shared.

Alley Chmura is a freshman majoring in business.