The act of treating others with respect and consideration is not that hard. However, many people on this campus seem incapable of such kindness. Whether someone fails to acknowledge another person during conversation, closes a door on someone or makes inappropriate public displays of affection, all instances portray a lack of common courtesy.

Beginning from when a child can comprehend language, the terms “please” and “thank you” are instilled in their mind. However, it seems that people feel these words are no long necessary with age. For example, when I am working, people come to the desk with a rude, demanding and demeaning attitude. Do they forget that we are people, too? How can they have the audacity to ask a favor in such a rude way? Sometimes I just want to stare at them blankly until they show some form of politeness. They might be surprised to know that they would receive better service if they attached a “please” to the beginning of their request, and a “thank you” after the request was satisfied.

Moreover, unlike most of the male population, I am a firm believer in chivalry. Traditionally, it is courteous to hold a door open for a woman. However, this applies to men and women. It is not right for anyone to knowingly close the door on someone. A man could hold the door open for a man and a woman could hold the door open for a man or a woman. Gender roles are insignificant. It is simply being courteous to everyone. Consequently, it is rude to allow the elevator doors to close when a person is obviously heading towards the elevator. It would be polite to thank the person for holding the door. A simple “thanks” may incline the person to act courteous again.

Finally, PDAs-and I am not talking about palm pilots. People should realize that certain public displays of affection are inappropriate for the entire public to see.

Personally, I would rather not see people “making out” right outside of class or in the UC. It is simply inappropriate and you should get a room. I am not one to suggest the prohibition of public displays of affection. Holding hands and hugging are perfectly appropriate. You just have to know the time and a place to do such things.

Ultimately, the world would be a better place if its inhabitants were simply nicer. The more courteous a person is, the more courteous another person will want to be.

Justin Diamond can be contacted at j.diamond2@umiami.edu.

Marriage has always been on our tongues-even when we were young. We’d run around the playground talking about how we’re going to marry our best friend and live in a big house and play outside everyday. Good times. But then Mrs. So-and-so sat the two of us down and told us that we couldn’t get married, that we’d have to marry someone of the opposite sex. Indoctrinate them while they’re still young, right? Meanwhile, we were heartbroken. Crushed. Why can’t I marry Brian Cameron?

Puberty helped answer that question for most of y’all reading this, and all of a sudden it was about getting with Shelly Harvey and Whitney Hunn. That’s fine for some, but I still wanted to marry Brian Cameron. Most girls thought about their white knight with a good heart, soft touch, fast horse and how pretty their dress would be. When I thought about my wedding day, a long, flowing, white dress wasn’t part of the picture.

I didn’t choose to be gay any more than Martin Luther King Jr. chose to be black, any more than Eleanor Roosevelt chose to be a woman. Why then is the Falwellian Coalition singling me and my people out for any reason? Leviticus hates your cotton/polyester blend shirt and the bacon at Chartwells just as much as what goes on in our bedrooms.

Marriage matters a great deal more than the picturesque scene of being on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean and sunrise and telling him and the world how much I love him. If he ever gets really sick, I want to be by his side in the hospital. I want to sit down late with coffee in April and do our taxes together. I want to leave the house to our oldest son. And God forbid, I want to be able to tell the doctor to pull the plug. I’m sorry if these wishes conflict with your interpretation of the King James version.

Civil unions are not good enough. When Howard Dean signed the bill in 1999, it was one of the most important things ever done for the GLBT community. But it was not good enough. “Sorry for making you sit in the back, Rosa. You may now sit in the middle of the bus.” If there is one important lesson to be learned from the civil rights struggle, it is that separate is never equal. I don’t care if the same water comes out of those fountains, it is not good enough.

Listening to these politicians proselytizing about protecting marriage by limiting it to my straight friends further inspires me to give all of myself to see them fail. We mustn’t be content to live in an America where legalized discrimination is the norm. We mustn’t be afraid to bleed, sweat or cry along the way because I’ll tell you this, I’ll be damned if I allow the legal status of my love to be defined by the likes of Tom DeLay. Straight, gay, bi or whatever, you should be too.

Chris Fisher can be contacted at c.fisher@umiami.edu.

The city commission of Coral Gables has stood in the way of UM projects on many occasions. Most notably it held up the University Village project for years, and limited the amount of stories that could be built on our much needed parking garages. Today we have the opportunity to exercise our displeasure over the commission’s continued battling with the University’s affairs.

There are two members of the city commission up for re-election, as well as the Mayor. The Mayor and commissioner Ralph Cabrera are running unopposed, but commissioner Maria Anderson is in a heated race with local businessman Felix Pardo. Commissioner Anderson’s term of office has been marked with utter irresponsibility to the city and University’s welfare time and time again.

Her decisions have at times been so liberal, she makes Barbara Boxer look like the patron saint of the Republican Party. Her desire to be a friend to everyone has too many times come at the direct expense of Coral Gables taxpayers, prime example the notorious vote to annex a disjointed section of residencies at a high cost to existing taxpayers. So today, go to the polls, and get rid of the drain on our community and University by voting for Felix Pardo.

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Speaking of crazy irresponsible liberal ideas: Anyone who thinks socialized medicine would be a good idea should take a trip to the DMV down the road on Ponce sometime. I waited over three hours just to get a new license there last week. The place was a monument to inefficiency and bureaucracy, none of the workers seemed at all concerned with the speed at which they worked or the fact that there was a waiting line that would rival opening night of the next Star Wars movie.

It’s one thing waiting for so long to get a new drivers license, but try going through a similar system at the E.R. when you have a dislocated shoulder and all you want is to be drugged and go to sleep to stop the pain.

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Cardinal Bernard Law was one of the central figures in the Catholic church’s celebration of the Pope’s life and the Papal Mass. For those of you who may have forgotten, Cardinal Law was the former Archbishop of Boston who knowingly shifted priests accused of sexual abuse around from church to church to quash the allegations.

If this is any indication of the judgment the powers of the Catholic church will use when selecting the next pope, I foresee many more columns being devoted to issues of the Catholic church.

Don Donelson can be contacted at d.donelson@umiami.edu

It’s hard to believe, but graduation is only one month from tomorrow. In honor of the past four (or in some cases, five) years, we have put together a list of thing to do before graduation. We all know that there are those things we always say we want to do, but never get around to it. Well, here’s your chance.

One month and counting…

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Get together with the friends that you’ve lost touch with. Whether it’s that gang from your floor freshman year, or the study group from that hellish class, get together to reminisce about the “good old times.” Go out to dinner and catch up. You may not have spoken as much as you should have recently, but you’re still friends.

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Get a camera and take pictures around campus. Use it as an opportunity to capture your favorite places and people just as you remember. In five years, it will be so great to look back on your time here and be able to actually see everything exactly as it was.

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Jump in one of the fountains. Whether you choose to do it naked or not is your choice, but we all know those fountains have been calling our names since we set foot on campus.

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Pass all your Spring semester courses. Seems like on obvious one, but if you don’t pass you don’t graduate. Remember, Cs get degrees.

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Get a boombox and some Chemical Brothers, and actually do some dancing in Club Richter. Make it live up to all the hype.

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Talk to that one person you’ve had a crush on since freshman year. You may never see them again, so what do you have to lose. Plus, imagine how flattered they’ll be.

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Rent a limo with your friends, pull up to a club like a baller, go VIP and pretend you do that kind of thing every night.

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Hug President Shalala. Or at least say thank you. Without her we’d have far less patios and green tables to sit at.

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Plan on buying flowers for your mother and maybe a card for your father because graduation is a big day for them, too.

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Find a job. Enough said.

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Write a letter to the people who are important to you letting them know how you feel. Thank them for their kindness and support. They may not realize how much they mean to you.

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Eat Chartwells one last time for memory’s sake.

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Close Moe’s.

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Watch the sunrise on South Beach. We all know that we’ve been eating our pizza as the sun was rising, but make a point of actually seeing it. You’ll miss it when you move back up North.

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Actually go to a baseball game. We take on FSU the weekend of April 22, so be sure to go out and watch the ‘Canes kick some Seminole butt.

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Sun tan in front of the library. How much better would the view be if you had a bunch of people in bikinis and board shorts?

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The next month will be filled with many lasts for graduating seniors. Don’t let that get you down, and don’t let it keep you from experiencing many firsts, either.

It’s sometimes hard to put it all in perspective, but Tom Petty put it best: “You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Work is for people with jobs. You’ll never remember class time, but you’ll remember time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So, stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don’t have. Drink ’til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does.”