Editorial
Winning candidates
deserve opportunity
Students for a Progressive Agenda (SPA) has again won
control of the ASUO governing agencies. SPA-backed can
didates won the ASUO presidency for the third time in four
years and hold six of seven seats on the Incidental Fee
Committee.
The only successful campaign by a non-SPA in a con
tested race for major student office was Ron Munion’s vic
tory in the 1FC runoff. SPA dominates the EMU Board and
Student Senate.
We supported the election of some non-SPA candidates,
but we offer congratulations to all winners.
We are all part of the University community. It is a small
community packed with differing ideas and opinions. Dur
ing election season these opinions are brandished most har
shly in public.
Winning candidates must now make the transition from
campaigning effectively with words to governing effectively
with deeds. This is not easy.
Some superb campaigners such as former ASUO Presi
dent Julie Davis never adjusted, spending the year flopping
distractedly from one avoidable problem to another.
We hope the new ASUO leaders work with both sup
porters and detractors to make the University a better place.
Conflict over ideas can be creative, exciting and produc
tive. It can also be sour, debilitating and destructive. Each
participant in the annual dialogue over student self
government must choose between going forward with the
positive or resurrecting the negative.
This choice must be made by winning and losing can
didates. by ballot measure supporters and opponents, by ad
ministrators and by newspapers. Bearing in mind honest dif
ferences of opinion and of role, all of these participants
should try to go forward.
Ideals, goals and methods may differ. There is nothing
unhealthy about straightforward conflict and disagreement
over issues of public concern. Student leaders in all
organizations should approach their duties, pleasant or
disagreeable, in as professional a manner as possible.
Effectively governing an enterprise as large, diverse, in
dependent and controversial as the ASUO programs is not
for the thin-skinned or impatient.
Effective governing means careful planning, com
promising when necessary, deciding in a timely manner
and, occasionally, snuffing sour projects before they eat peo
ple. time and money.
Successful governing means doing all this while
newspapers pick and choose between student successes and
t ilures and while administrators stall unpopular changes,
waiting for the next ASUO election.
We want the new ASUO officials to succeed in this tran
sition from candidacy to government. Those who opposed
the winning candidates need to give them the opportunity to
prove themselves for better or worse.
SPA does not win by accident. It wins because it is the
only year-round organized political party on campus. It re
tains this status because most of its activities are close to the
mainstream of student views.
Until the recent IFC runoff, students opposed to what
SPA does have not cared enough to mount a serious
challenge to SPA leadership. Noninvolvement points to a
certain level of satisfaction as well as a larger theme of
indifference.
SPA candidates won the election fairly and are entitled
to govern within the constraints of the ASUO Constitution.
We wish them well.
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Letters
Global stage
Bravo to all th« actors, dog on
chain included, who took time
from their schedules Wednes
day, April 23, to include
everyone in a celebration of
William Shakespeare’s
birthday.
Prepared monologues, a
sword fight and bawdy im
promptu aside. an hour of live
theatre in the EMU courtyard
was worth missing a biology
lecture. A large crowd gathered,
sometimes even joined in. A
good time was had by all,
it was a welcome break from
the usual demonstrations, the
status quo rhetoric concerning
political indignities. Such
issues are relevant — but so is
Shakespeare and other live
theatre happening at the
University Theatre.
Thank you to the theatre
students who shared their en
thusiasm with us on Wednes
day. You’ve shown, once again,
that all the world can really be a
stage.
Heidi Lutz
journalism
Remembrance
In our culture, we look (that
is, if we bother to look) with
shock, hqrror and disbelief at
the enormous cruelty „ and
brutality inflicted on fewisfi
people, on the elderly and-the
handicapped, and on many,
many others during the Nazi
regime in Germany.
The ruthless oppression en
dured by those living under
Marxist governments (or under
any totalitarian system) is im
possible for most of us to im
agine. (It is much easier to turn
to the television or to soma
other means of avoiding such,
unpleasantness.)
We live in a media-shaped
reality: television, movies,,
magazines, newspapers and
t looks all feed us someone else*?
world view and values (which
are often swallowed without
critical examination). We can
thus be blinded and never
recognize our blindness.
I wonder how future genera
tions will look hack at us. With
alt of the knowledge and
resources available to us. what
have we done? Have we simply
given lip-service to a few
fashionable causes? Have we
truly fought for what is right
and fair, simply because; it is
right and fair (and even if no
one noticed us doing it)? Is
there less injustice and suffer
ing around us because of our
choices?
I wonder if the following mot
to might not be appropriate in
the EMU:
“To those who were robbed
of life — the unborn, the weak,
the sick, the old — during the
dark ages of madness,
selfishness, lust and greed for
which the last decades of the
twentieth century are
remembered" (Inscription on
existing monument).
William Moore
Music School
, Only a fool
Marriage is much more than
what the Emerald recently labl
ed a. mere status " ('.hrisf
stated',, "From the beginning of
creation Cod made them male
andifemale. .-. And they shall be
one flesh.. . what Cm! hath
joined together, let not man put
asundnr"(Mark. chapter to)
The Bible clearly illustrates
the importance of marriage in
.Clod's .plan for mankind. Any
other relationship, in which sex
is involved j violates Cod s com
mandment that such relation
ships occur only in marriage.
Sure, some say it's old
fashioned to live by Cod's com
mandments. Even a few chur
ches professing Christianity
have degenerated into taking
lukewarm attitudes toward mar
riage. morality and family (they
should read Mathew 7:21-23).
There are some who enjoy
stacking religion and others
who think living according to
Biblical standards (abstinence
from sex until marriage and
then no relationships with
anyone but your lifelong mate)
is restricting. But only a fool
wouldn't endorse such moral
principles in light of the conse
quences of disobedience to
Cod's laws.
Because many have chosen
not to live according to Biblical
standards, our society is
plagued by a multitude of sex
ually transmitted diseases —
which can’t bo cured and often
cause death or sterility. We also
have epidemics of divorce,
abortion, child abuse, rape and
many other social ills.
To support the standards of
the Bible is to support life. The
"modern" admonition to "Do it
if it feels good ut the moment"
has proven to bring anything
but life and happiness.
I.ori I'arkman
Elmira
Monday, April 28, IHHtt