Students should act on opinions

This is a quiz for all USF students. Please take a few minutes to respond before turning to the Ybor party page. You may use notes or Internet to research your answers. MTV or mainstream media will definitely not be of any help. It might be best to look into your heart as the song suggests.

You will get 10 points for every reasonable response. You may be eligible to win a grand prize.***

1. Where is Osama bin Laden? Why can he hide from all the U.S. intelligence agents? Why doesn’t Bush focus on finding him rather than on going to war with Iraq? Is bin Laden in Iraq? 2. Did you see the Marine recruiter at the Marshall Center this week? Did you sign up? If you support a war, why didn’t you sign up to fight? 3. Do you really think someone else will fight this war for you? Will those fighters include any members of the Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld families? Or any of the politicians’ relatives? 4. Are you willing to pay more for your gas or get a smaller car to avoid dying in a war? 5. What is the profile of the volunteer army? Are they the poor? Are there more minorities in the military than their numbers in the general population? Should they sacrifice their lives for you? Should they fight a war to defend “our way of life?” 6. What is the history of the Zionist movement? Did they raise money in the United States ? Did they use terror to take control of Palestine? How? 7. Why didn’t the British or Americans offer to create a Jewish state in Germany or Italy — the axis of evil responsible for 6 million deaths. Or why not a Jewish state in New York or Florida?

8. If you agree with the logic that people can reclaim a holy land inhabited by their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great… grandparents 2,000 years ago, then will you return your land to the Native American people of this hemisphere? (After all, they’ve only been scattered tribes for 500 years). 9. Did all those hours of video combat prepare you for the real thing? Did you practice killing innocent children? Did the game pause to allow you to put your brain or guts back in your body when you got hit? Are you ready to die at your young age?

Extra points: 11. When the bill to pay for this war comes in, how will you pay? The current economic problems may make it difficult for you to find a job and the student loans will come due, so will you then join the military to defend your way of life?

*** Or you may not, it depends on whether you survive this war-terror

Maura Barrios is a USF alumna.

Appreciate attempts to help America

I have been watching network news programs and reading daily newspapers, and I’m absolutely angered and appalled. The liberal propaganda and anti-American sentiment among this nation’s citizens is absolutely disgusting. I feel enraged and shameful when looking at many of my college classmates protesting my government for trying to protect its people. Often when reading The Oracle, I come across ignorant liberal letters to the editor of the newspaper. I am a proud American adult and support my country with pride. I cannot stand the liberalizing of American youth any longer by tree-hugging morons who have absolutely no idea of how politics and humanity work. They base their warped views on our foreign policy by blabbering left-wing politicians and other foreign nationals who are trying to push their own agendas on the weak-minded. Such examples are the recent commercials and speeches by absent-minded actors/”politicians.”Does Hollywood all of sudden think of itself as the world’s authority on politics and social issues? I think not.

I am also extremely angered by people who have immigrated to this great country, and then, at a time when our nation needs it the most, smack this land of opportunity in the face by protesting. A young college student the other day wrote a letter titled, “Al-Arian unjustly fired from position.” This article made me so angry that I nearly went berserk. I strongly agree and stand by our university president in the firing. Not only is Sami Al-Arian buried in evidence showing his guilt, but this young lady went on to say that America and Israel are the terrorists. Maybe she needs to go over to the Middle East to study, instead of here in a “terrorist country” that gave her freedom.

We, as citizens of this great country, have a responsibility to our military men and women to support the heroic task they have of protecting this country. I challenge this young woman and all the other liberals of this college to go up to one of your fellow ROTC or enlisted students and tell them that you don’t support them and their brethren. My response to her article and all liberals is, “If you don’t like or agree with this country, get out.”

I want this to be published to let those who feel the same know they’re not alone in the fight.

Steve Woodside is a junior majoring in professional and technical writing and computer information systems.