Ethical candidates should be rewarded

I am a concerned student and, like most of the students on campus, I desire a just decision about the future of this year’s student government election and the fate of the dishonest candidates still being considered for office. There should be no advantage in doing what is wrong; instead we should praise what is right and just.

Those who are dishonest or violate the rules of the election should not be rewarded but sanctioned. These four candidates did wrong, and two of them, pending a decision from the Student Government Supreme Court, will have the opportunity to be rewarded for it.

If the student government or the Supreme Court takes this kind of action, it will be the wrong course of action to take, for the university and for the other members who ran and were defeated by tactics unbecoming of the kind of leadership the student body needs.

The four candidates involved should have permanent marks on their records that show they could not be trusted to conduct themselves ethically. The decision being rendered by the Supreme Court should not decide whether a deceitful party should receive the honor of representing this school, but the decision should rather be whether to put these people on probation or to expel them from the university.

The people who should represent the university are the candidates who ran honorable campaigns and, in the process, lost to a dishonorable group. The new student body president and vice president should be a pair that was defeated in the primary. I encourage the university to hold another election, a fair election, in which the candidates who were eliminated are allowed to run again for office.

They are the ones who should have the honor of representing our great university, because not only have they succeeded in running a fair and honest campaign, but they are the team most capable of leading the university through their involvement, dedication and morality.

Richard Hollister is a USF student.

War in Iraq is fought for ‘wrong reasons’

I am writing in response to Vicken Mouradian’s pro-war opinion published April 14. I am only pro-war because we are helping the Iraqi people to live better lives, but with the comment “we will also defend the rights of citizens around the world who are deprived of ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,'” you are blatantly showing what is wrong with our country.

The United States may be the sole major power today, but what we are trying to do is liberate Iraq for all the wrong reasons (above all, cheaper gas). It is not the business of the United States how a country is run and never should be unless lives are being taken by that country’s own ruler and, even then, we should not attempt to go to such extremes as Americanizing a country that is clearly anything but American. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence, and therefore, it is only the business of our government to ensure that those rights are provided for the people of our country and ours alone.

Kyle Simon is a freshman majoring in mass communications.

Cartoon gives wrong impression of group

I am tired of reading the opinions of all these liberal students here, so I decided to write my own letter to the editor. You won’t find any references to women’s rights, Dixie Chicks, President Bush, or any other topic you have read 500 times in The Oracle this month alone. My letter is to give people a flashlight to help them get out of the dark that Tuesday’s opinion cartoon created.

The cartoon in question has three Klansmen pouring jars of termites on a wooden cross. In the cartoon, one Klansman is stating, “Fire was a lot more fun!” Another one says, “Freedom of expression ain’t what it used to be!”

The message I received from this less-than-humorous cartoon is that the Klan will destroy a cross, fire or not. I know this cartoon has to do with the recent banning of “cross burning.” However, I said I would shine a flashlight on the subject.

First of all, the Ku Klux Klan does not condone the destruction of the cross. What ignorant people call “cross burning” is, in fact, a cross lighting. One of the purposes of the Cross Lighting Ceremony is to show that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. We all have had some literature class that has shown us the significance and symbolic meanings of light. Light drives out darkness so knowledge and truth can be seen.

I hope my little insight helped some of the readers out of the dark, and can shed light on this subject to others. Open your eyes to the truth behind the spoon-fed crap you are all so used to feasting upon.

Jason C. Argo is majoring in education.