We apologize that you couldn’t read the text in the last State of the Union in the 11/25 issue of the Hurricane. If you’d like to read it, please visit all of Alex’s old comics and some new ones too at www.destinedfornothing.com.

As we enter the holiday season, thoughts of procrastination dancing through our heads, it might just be time to plan for a holiday trip – a holiday sabbatical as it were. For this column I have decided to discuss some very important items to keep in mind when traveling to Europe, in this case to the shores of jolly ol’ England (just what is an “Eng,” anyway?).

You leave our campus behind for what will surely be a thrilling and memorable trip to a foreign land. What fun and surprises await you there! Will it be as much fun and adventurous as the journey of discovery we went on to ascertain the secret treasures that lurk within the bowels of the convenience store? Will you find “a tasty meatball” there breathlessly awaiting your arrival? Sadly, no. But fret not, mystery awaits.

As you tour London you would do well to remember what Shaw said so long ago, that “England and America are two countries separated by a common language.” You probably won’t understand anything anyone says; I know, I saw it on “The Full Monty.” I’m still trying to find out who ‘Monty’ is. Maybe he’s French… ah, but I digress.

Back on your tour, it will be important to consider a few dining tips. Number one, Kidney Pie isn’t really made out of kidneys nor are there shepherds in Shepherd’s Pie. This may leave you with a completely new way of looking at Cottage Cheese, but that can’t be helped. And while you’re at it please find out how an English muffin becomes a Crumpet. Is it just the fact that the jam leaks out of the bottom of the Crumpet or is it that a Crumpet is just a rich, snooty muffin? Something to ponder on the flight over.

And so as we approach the end of my word limit, I wanted to take a moment to wish Sam Lockhart, opinion editor for the last year, a safe journey as he prepares to travel to England for a semester of study. It has been a very rewarding experience writing for the opinion section under your stewardship and while I expect the section to remain the vibrant arena of ideas it became under your leadership it will still not be quite the same in your absence. I hope your studies in England are every bit as prosperous as you hope, and I look forward to your return in the fall. Until then, hasta luego my friend.

Scott Wacholtz can be contacted at aramis1642@hotmail.com.

As a sixth-year senior about to graduate in December, I find myself becoming nostalgic about my time here at the University of Miami. I started UM in the fall of 1997 and have experienced many changes that have taken place here over the years.

As an incoming freshmen majoring in Marketing and living in Pearson I was ready to get the most out of my college experience. Now I live off campus and I’m majoring in Journalism, which is a lot more fun than the Business school and living in the shoeboxes they call dorm rooms. My freshmen year my roommate was so big he practically took up half of the room just being there.

Six years and 140 credits later I’m ready to get out of here and take on the real world. This last semester for me has been great; from going on the Category 5 trip to Tallahassee to watching the Canes beat Florida State in the pouring rain and having pitchers at the Rat, there’s always something going on.

When I started at UM the football team had a losing record, now the Hurricanes have a National Championship and respect across the country. The campus looked a lot different too; the School of Communications wasn’t built yet and the Wellness Center was brand new. Now the campus looks like a giant outdoor Starbucks with those green tables and chairs everywhere.

To those of you still in school I recommend that you enjoy it while you can. Your four years, or in my case six years, will go by fast and the more you accomplish by getting involved on campus the better you will feel at graduation. The University of Miami is a first-class institution that requires its students to get involved in campus life. Looking for jobs and working on resumes is something we all have to do so take the time while you are in school to find out what you like to do and where your strengths and weaknesses are.

I probably learned more outside of the classroom than inside and the life you build for yourself in college helps to determine the type of person you’ll be when you graduate.

I had to learn the hard way about taking education for granted. Some academic and financial problems meant that I had to withdraw from UM and attend F.I.U. for one semester. Being at F.I.U. really made appreciate the quality of education and on campus life that you have here at UM.

Fortunately I was able to be readmitted here to UM and finish my degree here. I would like to personally thank Catherine Long, my professors, and the School of Communication for their help and support. I encourage the rest of the student body to live long, party hard, and represent UM to the fullest. It’s been a fun ride!

Ben Enfield can be contacted at benjamin_enfield@hotmail.com.

Here’s a riddle for you. What happens when you get a bunch of freaks that know how to read and write? A pain in the neck for ignorant “journalists.” I’m a freshman, and to be truthful, until last Tuesday I never picked up the school newspaper. There are many reasons for this fact. For one thing the newspaper doesn’t contain anything aside from the sports section that interests the general body of this school. Whatever happened to movie and concert reviews? The other reason why I didn’t read it was confirmed on Tuesday when I actually decided to read it. The articles are poorly researched and in some cases are far from the truth, like the C-store article I unfortunately had to respond to on Friday.

Instead of writing about why some people on the paper are upset that they lost their jobs they should have written things that the students of the university actually care about. From the two newspapers that I have read, almost half the articles have offended someone along the way. Whether it’s trashing student government or calling the people at Ticketmaster freaks, they manage to put down someone. Being a pre-law student, I have learned about the constitution and I’m a firm believer of absolute freedom of speech (which is controversial in itself). However, when writing for a school newspaper, I would think you have the paper’s integrity to preserve.

As for the articles, it’s sad when the articles written in the opinion section by non-journalism majors have a higher caliber of writing then the actual writers of the paper. With run-on sentences, major grammatical errors, and articles printed twice under different names, what is the point of having an editor anyway? I’m not claiming to be a journalism expert (I mean I’m just a stupid freshman, majoring in business), but I am pretty sure that it is the editor’s job to check that sort of thing. In my opinion, an editor change may make this newspaper more enjoyable to read and it might also make it better than my high school’s paper.

Justin Diamond

We are appalled by the unabashedly biased coverage in the November 21, 2003 edition of the Miami Hurricane of a lecture recently given by a member of the International Solidarity Movement on campus. The misrepresentations of this event contained in both the official Hurricane editorial, “Standing up for the Palestinians,” and Pete Trombadore’s opinion piece, “International solidarity movement, supporter of terrorism, at UM,” can only be described as reckless journalism.
The intention of the presentation was not to provide a detailed history of the Arab-Palestinian conflict or to outline the essential points of recently proposed peace plans such as the quartet sponsored Road Map to Peace. Rather, the purpose was to illustrate the human rights violations being perpetrated by the building of a wall that separates Palestinian farmers from their land and the construction of roadblocks that block Palestinians from traveling within the West Bank.
The ISM speaker made a compelling case for why Israeli government claims that the construction of this wall is purely based on security needs should be viewed with skepticism. A wall solely intended on shielding the Israeli population from terrorist attacks originating in the Occupied Territories would be built along the internationally recognized borders of Israel, as specified in UN resolution 242, which marked the borders of the Israeli state prior to the 1967 war.
Instead, the speaker indicated, this wall cuts deep into Occupied Territory. The immediate effect is that some Palestinian farmers are separated from their land and thus their livelihood. The speaker speculated that the ultimate intention of the wall is to isolate Palestinian urban areas, preclude the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state and lead to a de-facto annexation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
One of the main criticisms of the speaker’s lecture was that it was “one-sided” because she did not touch upon the struggles of Israeli citizens. Such an argument is comparable to describing a discussion on the Trail of Tears and the systematic mistreatment of the Native Americans as “one-sided” because the discussion did not address the American struggle for independence and the perilous dangers faced in expanding the nation’s borders. The latter topic is included in popular discussion and required within school curricula; whereas the former is considered a marginal issue. It is only appropriate that students improve the intellectual discourse on our campus by providing an opportunity to learn about a side that would otherwise not be discussed.
A quick examination of the ISM’s Mission Statement from December 2002, found on their website,* will reveal that this is an organization focused on bringing international attention to the brutality of the Israeli Occupation through nonviolent means. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that ISM is in any way connected to terrorist organizations and Trombadore’s claim that this organization is “hell-bent on destroying the nation of Israel” is particularly inflammatory.
Trombadore inferred that the internationally recognized right of Palestinians to resist the occupying Israeli army through armed resistance includes the use of suicide bombings against civilian targets. The use of conventional or guerilla tactics to resist the illegal presence of the Israeli military in the Occupied Territories is not only sanctioned by ISM but also by international law; suicide bombings, on the contrary, have no justification under international law. Trombadore’s attempt to use the terms “terrorism” and “resistance to occupation” interchangeably is unacceptable and misleading.
We consider both the official Hurricane editorial and Trombadore’s opinion piece as an example of potentially damaging journalism. The continued existence of organizations such as the Islamic Society of UM, OASIS, and Amnesty International on campus is threatened by such articles and the negative stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs that they perpetuate. In a letter to Thomas Friedman, Nelson Mandela, the South African who led his people against apartheid wrote, “Palestinians are not struggling for a ‘state’ but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa.”** Every cause has its radical elements whose actions will serve to detract from the legitimacy of that cause. Yet, our job as students and journalists is to look beyond the surface and oppose injustice wherever it may be found.

Amnesty International, Islamic Society of UM, and
OASIS

* http://www.palsolidarity.org
** http://www.bintjbeil.com/E/occupation/mandella.html

I am disgusted with Pete Trombadore’s article in the November 21, 2003 edition of the Miami Hurricane, which stated that OASIS, ISUM, and Amnesty International used funds to directly support terrorism. International Solidarity Movement, the organization that the speakers represented, is in no way supporting terrorist organizations nor is allied with them as Pete stated. ISM is, “working to raise awareness of the struggle for Palestinian freedom and an end to Israeli occupation. (They) utilize nonviolent, direct-action methods of resistance to confront and challenge illegal Israeli occupation forces and policies.”
After talking with Sara Renn, sophomore at the University of Louisville, she assured me that ISM was not connected with terrorist organizations. “My friend attended an ISM program last year. Her job was to visit with Palestinian children and escort them safely.”
ISM supports the UN resolutions that declared tha Palestinians can defend themselves in times of Israeli torture. So, to you, Pete, and anyone else who was swayed by his libel, I would repeat a phrase from the November 21 article “The goal of peace in the Middle East, the nations of Palestine and Israel living side by side in harmony and equality, does not stand commensurate with the messages of mass murder performed by the Israeli army, such as the 90 Palestinian children killed in the first three months of the Infitada.
I believe Pete’s remarks were racist, myopic, and unpatriotic to say the least. His article is a disgrace and embarrassment to our university, a diverse campus with many Muslim students. I am convinced that it is his bigoted words which endorse hate, profiling, and hostility towards peaceful Muslims and Arab-Americans. The total cessation of terrorism needs to be achieved, and that includes Israel’s terrorist tactics as well as suicide bombers.

Tanya Aquino

“We may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all-the apathy of human beings.” – Helen Keller
Enter the land of plenty in the land of plenty in the land of plenty: The University of Miami, in Miami, Florida, in the US of A. By modern standards, this place is more conducive to satisfying a young person’s needs than just about anywhere. Theoretically, we should be able to achieve self-actualization a lot easier than the average Joe – we’re in a well enough financial position to be able to enroll in a private university, which gives us a bonanza of other outlets for our intellectual, social, and physical needs. We’ve got support services out the wazoo, the facilities to compliment them, and the people to back them up.
But with comfort comes responsibility. The physical and even psychological supports that our lifestyles allow are not only privileges, but also obligations. Put quite simply: get off the couch.
Get out of the mall and into the UC. Get off of the beach and onto the Yearbook. Get away from your television and get onto an intramural team. Go Greek. Go pre-law. Volunteer. Work. Best of all, join our staff.
“Slums may well be breeding-grounds of crime, but middle-class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium.” – Cyril Connolly
Diverse though UM might be, a great many come from middle-class backgrounds, or higher socioeconomic status. It is the nature of a private university. And a great many students take advantage of the resources and opportunities that surround them here – certainly, not everyone is apathetic.
But too many are. The Hurricane is an excellent example. UM’s School of Communication enrolls 1000 students; there are sixty students on the staff of the school newspaper. How do these communication students expect to get a job in the real world? Writing experience is about as essential as a degree to get a job after college. It is certainly an asset for graduate or professional schools. Yet our staff reflects a mere six percent of the actual students who say they are interested in journalism. At the most recent editor-in-chief elections, which theoretically should be a highly contested race for a highly sought-after position, only two candidates even took initiative to run.
More than just journalism students should be writing, though. Do you have a love affair with our sports teams? Find events in the news interesting? Are completely obsessed with a particular kind of music or theater? Let the world know. Best yet, write about your gripes. Opinions mean nothing if nothing is done with them.
We’re not advocating anything near social isolation or communal conformity. But integrating your personal interests with extracurricular or scholarly objectives makes great things happen. If you don’t join the Hurricane, make sure you’re doing something. Give the school everything you’ve got. We promise the return will be greater.