2002 12 03

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h t t p : / / d a i l y t i t a n . f u l l e r t o n . e d u T U E S D AY

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Students Could GetTax Break nFINANCE: Through various credit programs, people paying for college may be awarded a big return

By Anna Buss

Special to the Titan

NEWS: Iraq still has not responded to Bush’s Sunday deadline, which makes war more likely

D e ce m be r 3 , 2 0 0 2

Some parents or students can use one of the four new educational tax benefit programs, approved by Congress this year, to compensate for

part of higher educational costs.

Two are educational credit programs and two are loan interest and tuition and fee expenses deduction.

The Hope and Lifetime Learning Credits can be claimed and turned into tax credits and deductions that can add up to $3,500. The rules are not simple, and each student can only claim one of the credits for any year.

Therefore, not everyone may benefit from them, but they may be worth looking into for some students.

Only freshmen or sophomore college students can claim the Hope Credit, which is “100 percent of the first $1,000 spent [with qualified

tuition and related fees] and of 50 percent of second $1,000. The maximum credit is $1,500 per student per year,” said Gerald L. Fister, an income tax planner in Fullerton.

Students using the Hope Credit must also be enrolled at least part time. Qualified tuition and related fees do not include the cost of insurance, student health fee, room, transportation and other personal expenses.

Although junior and senior college students cannot use the Hope Credit, they may benefit with the Lifetime Learning Credit, which “is 20 percent of the first $10,000 spent for

[qualified] tuition and fees,” Fister said.

It can only be used per return (or per family of a parent and a child, or two children), and the maximum credit is $2,000.

The Lifetime Learning Credit, unlike the Hope Credit, is available for an unlimited number of years for any courses of post-secondary education and courses to improve job skills.

Students are only eligible for the Hope and Lifetime Learning Credits if, as a single person one

TAXES/ 8

Holiday Spirit in Fullerton nEVENT: The city’s downtown area is looking to boost Christmas sales with its Winterfest

By Olivia Maciel

Daily Titan Staff Writer

Back to the Daily Grind

With Christmas rapidly approaching and crazed shoppers looking for gifts, many major retailers are coming up with various strategies to bait customers.

But smaller retailers, like those in Downtown Fullerton, are using a different approach.

Winterfest, a holiday celebration held in Downtown Fullerton is the approach they hope will draw Fullerton residents and potential customers into their stores.

The annual event will be held Dec. 7 from noon to 6 p.m. in Downtown Fullerton on streets adjacent to Harbor Boulevard, such as Chapman, Wilshire and Commonwealth avenues.

The city plans to truck in 40 tons of snow for children to play in, hold a George Fullerton lookalike contest, schedule a classic car show, live entertainment and carriage rides.

For the past six years the Fullerton Downtown Business Association, Fullerton Chamber of Commerce and the City of Fullerton, have hosted this event to entertain the community and to keep sales within the city.

“This event gives families an opportunity to kick off the holiday season and to come together as a community,” said Michael Ritto, president of the association. “It’s also to show residents that this

Please see page 6

OPINION: Holiday shopping got you down? The magic of retail is just a mouse click away. Also, a “Diego and Rivera” cast member speaks Please see page 4

FESTIVAL/ 8

LISSETTE LEBRILLA/Daily Titan

It was back to business as usual in the Pollak Library and Cal State Fullerton on Monday, as the weeklong holiday break ended.

CSUFWorkers Keep Busy DuringThanksgiving Break SPORTS: The Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball team picked up an 18-point win over Morris Brown College on Monday night Please see page 10

TITAN

extras online n

Check out the Daily Titan online this year at http:// dailytitan.fullerton.edu.

New features and sections will be available this year!

u p co m i n g n

A new art exhibit utilizing paper will be in the library and more will be revealed.

Read about it in tomorrow’s Daily Titan

nCAMPUS: While the school took a vacation, many faculty and student assistants worked on campus

By Jill Daloria

Daily Titan Staff Writer Empty parking lots, wind blowing through a very sparse Quad and classrooms that were once filled with the hustle and bustle of students, were bare during the Thanksgiving break.

Could it be that space aliens have taken over Cal State Fullerton and annihilated the student body?

But wait ... some life forms have survived within the recesses and offices of the school, people who take their break time to keep the school running while others are at rest; they are the staff and student

assistants.

These workers spent their Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday doing office work and trying to catch up while other students were away.

“It’s not as hard as a lot of students make it seem,” said Shazia Peshimam, a worker for Freshman Programs. “I think our office is small and close-knit, different from large offices. Everyone who works wants to be here, and if you don’t want to work then you don’t have to be here.”

Working during the break for staff and student assistants was optional in most cases.

Aaron Salcido, a worker at the Academic Affairs Office, opted to work. “They asked me to come work so I was more than happy.

I can work full time this week because I don’t have classes.”

For student assistants like Salcido, the option to work during the break

WORK/ 8

Aaron Salcido worked in the Academic Affairs Office during Thanksgiving break.

TOYA BAKER/Daily Titan

CampusVolunteer Group GivesTime andTurkeys nSERVICE: CSUF students pack restaurant site to help make a difference in Orange County

By Margie Rivera

Daily Titan Staff Writer Dressed in white T-shirts emblazoned with orange and blue hand prints and the words “Lending a Helping Hand,” some of Cal

State Fullerton’s Human Services Student Association members met on Thanksgiving day to feed local underprivileged families.

The “We Give Thanks” event, sponsored by La Casa Garcia restaurant in Anaheim, was the last community service activity the association organized for the fall semester.

“Our primary goal is to link students to the community,” HSSA President Nicole Nanchy said. “We try to have fun events that concentrate in community involvement and student enrichment.”

The association’s 150 active mem-

bers hold about 20 campus and community events per semester, including activities such as meetings and fund-raisers.

Nanchy said 28 members including relatives and friends showed up at the restaurant parking lot on Chapman Avenue and Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton.

“The gratification is great as you see everybody getting together as a community,” she said.

Hundreds of volunteers from different organizations, schools, businesses and churches geared up early Thursday morning to set up the

annual banquet and serve free elaborate meals to thousands of needy residents.

The response to the event was so overwhelming that many of those were asked to return home.

“It’s about helping people even if it means just setting up trash cans,” said Mario Garcia, a junior human services major who is not related to the restaurant owner. “Volunteering gives you a satisfying feeling that you won’t know until you actually try it.”

Nanchy said these types of activities provide students with the oppor-

tunity to reach out, make friends, have fun and experience self-gratification.

Leigh Volker, the association community service coordinator, agreed.

“I encouraged our members to get involved because this is a good chance to give back to the community,” Volker said. “As future human services workers, we need to make a difference around us.”

The CSUF volunteers were assigned different tasks throughout the day.

VOLUNTEER/ 8

2 Tuesday, December 3, 2002

2

page a guide to what ’s happening

BRIEFS

Fullerton Police Chief Offers Holiday Safety Tips

The Fullerton Police Department is sending out warnings due to nationwide statistics that say that citizens are especially vulnerable to burglaries, robberies and other crimes during the holiday season.

The Police Department will step up patrols in local shopping centers throughout the season as well.

“Citizens and business owners need to concentrate on not making themselves an easy target for criminals,” said Chief Pat McKinley.

McKinley said citizens and business owners should always be aware of their surroundings during the holidays as well as all yearround.

McKinley also offered other suggestions to the public as well including: Women should shop in pairs, not alone. Do not carry large amounts of cash, and never flash money in public. When shopping, park as close to the stores as possible in a well-lit area. When going out for the evening, leave lights and a radio or television on in your home and lock all doors and windows when you leave.

Businesses are also at risk for criminal acts as well and McKinley also offered business owners some advice as well.

Keep all non-public doors locked. Keep parking lots lit.

Position cash registers so they are visible from the street.

“If a robber does confront you, never play hero,” McKinley said.

“Comply with his demands. When he leaves, immediately write down

everything you noticed about him - height, weight, eye and hair color, noticeable scars, clothing – and give it to the police.”

For more information, call the Fullerton Police Department at (714) 738-6836.

Air Museum Remembers Pearl Harbor The Air Museum “Planes of Fame” will host its monthly special event called “Pearl Harbor – Day of Infamy,” at the Chino Airport this Saturday at 10 a.m.

The event will feature Pearl Harbor veterans and will conclude with a flight demonstration of the “Planes of Fame” Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero fighter plane.

The fighter plane was among the Japanese aircrafts during the attack of Pearl Harbor and the plane’s quality shocked the United States and contributed greatly to Japan’s early success in the war.

Yet the Americans were able to overcome the Zero with their own new warplanes.

The Air Museum “Planes of Fame,” is a non-profit educational institution and is funded through donations, event admission fees and income from the use of its aircrafts for different events and productions.

The museum is open daily, except Christmas and Thanksgiving, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $8.95 for adults, $1.95 for youngsters 11 and under, and free for accompanied children under five.

For more information, call (909)

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Daily Titan CALENDAR OF EVENTS On Campus Dec. 3

It’s been awhile, but get your free billiards on in the TSU Underground from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

To go along with those free billiards try some breakdancing. That funky trip will be in the TSU Pub during the same time as the billiards. Wow, your lucky day, you freak. 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Dec. 4

Chambers from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. You might as well go to see if they really do any work.

Women’s basketball versus Air Force. The preseason game will start at 5 p.m. in Titan Gym. For more information, call (714) 278-CSUF. Men’s basketball versus Pepperdine. The preseason game will start at 7:05 p.m. in Titan Gym. For more information, call (714) 278-CSUF.

Dec. 5

The TSU Governing Board will meet in the TSU Legislative

Get your free bowling on in

Dan Taylor Erik Alden Ishmael Salleh Aubrey Alford Felicia Glade Allsion Smith Dan Karp Kevin Cook Lisa Otoide Tracy Beetler Tom Sullens

E-mail: dailytitanads@yahoo.com Advertising 278-3373 • Advertising Fax 278-2702

The Daily Titan is a student publication, printed every Tuesday through Friday. The Daily Titan operates independently of Associated Students, College of Communications, CSUF administration and the CSU system. The Daily Titan has functioned as a public forum since inception. Unless implied by the advertising party or otherwise stated, advertising in the Daily Titan is inserted by commercial activities or ventures identified in the advertisements themselves and not by the university. Such printing is not to be construed as written or implied sponsorship, endorsement or investigation of such commercial enterprises.

Copyright ©2002 Daily Titan

the TSU Underground, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Stop playing your game of Magic: The Gathering and join your fellow dateless wonders for this week’s free movie. This week the movie orcs will pleasure your fancy with the debauchery of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.”

In Titan Theatre at 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

Event of the Week Dec. 7

This is gold. And oddly

enough very beneficial to those who spent their high school years wondering if an elvish destroyer can beat an orcish army. Or those who spent every night memorizing lines from “The Simpsons.” Manny Stamatakis brings his swarthy self to the Learning Light Foundation in Anaheim to teach you how to create-a-mate. It only costs $75 and you might be able to form someone you kind of have a crush on into someone who you can marry.

The seminar runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (714) 533-2311.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS COP BLOTTER Monday, Nov. 18

Police were notified at 7:11 a.m. about vandalism that had occurred on the south Soccer Field. Someone had driven onto the field and spun “doughnuts” into the grass. Damage to the field is estimated at $500.

The car of an habitual parking offender was found at 12:23 p.m. in the South Campus Drive 30minute parking lot. The car was a blue Honda and the driver had amassed 10 tickets for $400.

At 3:24 p.m. a theft was reported from the Performing Arts Building. A woman was dying her clothes in the costume shop and left her purse unattended. When she returned to it, she found her wallet and other items missing.

Police were called to the fourth floor of University Hall.

A woman, believed to be in her 40s, collapsed. Her prior medical history was unknown.

She was transported to Kaiser Hospital in Anaheim.

Tuesday, Nov. 19

At 2:53 a.m., police were notified that there was an intoxicated student with a knife in Sycamore Hall. It was unknown if he was threatening suicide or harm to other students. He was described as 6 feet 1 inch tall, sandy blond hair without a shirt.

His wrists had tape on them. It was believed that his roommates had taped them. Police located the suspect and were interviewing him. He was held upon verification that he was not a threat to himself or to others. He was transported to the campus police station. No further information was available.

Police found a habitual parking offender at 9:54 a.m. who had six outstanding tickets and owed $280.

At 4:10 p.m., police were notified that there was a car in Lot E,

Row 35 that had its front window smashed out.

was brought back to the campus police station at 10:01 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 20

Friday, Nov. 22

At 8:17 a.m., it was reported that there was a vehicle parked in Lot F with a dog locked in it.

The dog was wearing a sweater and police deemed that it was too hot outside for the dog to be in the car safely. Police were unable to contact the owner of the car. A parking officer responded with a slim jim to get the dog out of the car.

A woman fell outside of the parking office at 11:02 a.m. Her injuries were unknown.

At 4:05 p.m., a woman called police and reported that a man wearing khaki shorts and a blue plaid shirt was following her around the sixth floor of the library and fondling himself. The man was described as 5 feet 10 inches tall and 160 pounds.

Police recieved a medical aid call on the east side of Humanities at 6:45 p.m. A woman had twisted her ankle and there was no further information available. Medics were dispatched at 6:55 p.m.

Thursday, Nov. 21

Police stopped a white Toyota pick-up truck in Lot D at 2:36 a.m. The driver was arrested for driving under the influence.

Police took the prisoner to the campus police station at 3:09 a.m. and Brookhurst Tow was dispatched at 3:13 a.m.

At 4:49, the car of an habitual parking offender was located parked next to the Titan House.

The car was a black Cadillac and the driver owed $200 on five tickets.

Police pulled over a brown Chevrolet at 9:04 p.m. It was found that the driver of the vehicle did not have a driver’s license. Fullerton Tow was dispatched at 9:35 and the driver

The vehicle of an habitual parking offender was located in the 30-minute zone of South Campus Drive. The driver owed $200 on five tickets. The car was booted at 8:40 a.m. The boot was then removed later at 9:58.

Someone called the police at 6:08 p.m. and reported a heavy fertilizer smell in University Hall.

Police advised that the odor was campus wide.

Saturday, Nov. 23

At 2:06 a.m., police pulled over a white Honda. The driver was operating the vehicle without a driver’s license. The driver was also found to be driving under the influence and was arrested and brought to the campus police station at 2:46 a.m.

Fullerton Tow was dispatched at 2:49 a.m.

Sunday, Nov. 24

Police pulled a red Honda over on Nutwood Avenue at 8:54 p.m. Police took the driver back to the campus police station where they were cited and released for possessing a false vehicle registration. Fullerton Tow was dispatched to get the car at 9:32 p.m.

Tuesday, Nov. 26

It was reported to police at 11:28 a.m. that there was a stray dog in the area of South Campus Drive. At one point, it jumped into a car that was on the road. Animal control was dispatched to pick it up.

Wednesday, Nov. 27

A petty theft was reported from the Performing Arts Building, Room 323. One week ago, items were taken off of the office door. It was unknown who the suspect may be. It was estimated the stolen items were worth $20.

At 2:30, police pulled over a tan Toyota traveling west on Chapman Avenue. The driver was under the influence of a controlled substance. No further information was available.

Thursday, Nov. 28

A report of vandalism at Sycamore Hall came into police at 11:38. Someone had damaged the front door of the dorm building.

Friday, Nov. 29

Police made a routine traffic stop on State College Boulevard at 9:54 a.m. The vehicle pulled over was a Ford Ranger. No further information was available.

Saturday, Nov. 30

At 1:59 a.m., a person called police and reported a possible burglary in progress. The person saw several males around the student housing area putting a computer monitor out of a dorm room window. The suspect vehicle was a gold GMC Suburban. Two suspects were seen running across Yorba Linda Boulevard towards the Mobil gas station across from the baseball stadium. One of the men was wearing dark clothes and a baseball cap. The other was wearing dark clothes and a dark bandanna on his head. Police apprehended six suspects and took them to the campus police station. No further information was available.

Sunday, Dec. 1

A white Chevrolet Cavalier was pulled over on the 57 Freeway at 10:35 a.m. The driver was operating the vehicle without a license.

No further information was available.

At 5:48 p.m., a gray Oldsmobile was pulled over on State College Boulevard. The driver was found to be in possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. The driver was cited

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Tuesday, December 3, 2002

Fullerton Student Has Come a‘Longway’ nPROFILE: Loni Cutler has gone from a small town to the big time, after Watermark Press published her

By Odeen Domingo

Daily Titan Staff Writer Her father’s words are not only written in every birthday card she receives from her family, they come out of her sisters’ lips almost every time they say goodbye, they are etched in her mind and sealed in her heart.

Her father’s words have taken her here.

Cal State Fullerton print journalism major Loni Cutler sits at a table outside Carl’s Jr., munching on an egg breakfast and talking about her life.

It’s a Tuesday morning, cold with a slight wind, but her long, curly brown hair stays perfectly still atop a face worthy to be on the cover of magazines.

She sits up straight, no slouching detected, as she proudly talks about her life, like a mother would if her child earned honors at the local elementary school.

She talks about how she had her first book published, a romantic poetry collection titled “From the Beginning to the End,” in April 2001.

She talks about her first book signing a month after when more than 500 people showed up to meet her.

She talks about how her pieces are featured in nine other books and several other magazines since 1997.

She talks about how she is only 27.

She talks and talks and talks and talks, one wouldn’t think she ever wrote.

But don’t misjudge her. She doesn’t talk the way she does because of self-adulation or of narcissistic bias.

To understand Loni Cutler, is to understand where she is from.

You must understand her past and why it is so significant to all her success and who she is today.

You must understand her father’s words.

Cutler said she spent her early years on the flat “fruited plains” of a remote “little house on the prairie” town called Agate, Colo.

Population, 56.

Agate had no sheriff, traffic lights, paved roads or grocery stores. Not even a mini mall. But it did have two gas stations.

There were no drugs and the only crime was not saying “hi” to passing neighbors.

And she said her single biggest thrill was going to a New Kids On The Block concert in Denver, the big city three hours away.

She’s the middle child of a family of nine — three more than her

graduating class at Agate High in 1993.

Cutler’s older sister, Siam Rimmer, said every Sunday their father would sit all his seven children in one room and tell them to be proud of being a Cutler and that their options in life are limitless.

And even though they were raised in a small town where the only goal was either to be a farmer or to marry one, they could be anyone or do anything they want to do when they grow up.

“Believe in your dreams and reach for your goals,” Cutler says, recalling her dad’s favorite line that would become the family motto.

Rimmer said, “Our dad would tell us to believe in ourselves, no matter what. If we did that, we would have everything we always wanted.”

Cutler soon will have everything she’s wanted.

She already holds the Colorado state record for most consecutive three-point shots (seven) in a girl’s high school game.

But in a very short and successful writing career, Cutler, a part-time nanny, already has her own publisher.

She said she is working on a series of 10 children’s books. And she intends to write 20 novels by the

Loni Cutler

Prime Internet 2*2

time she is 50. She is also scheduled to write three novels in the next four or five years, two romantic fictions and an autobiography of her life that will include her search for her Thai biological mother.

With a dazed look in her caramel eyes and a strong but heavy heart, Cutler said her biological mother left her Irish father, David, with three daughters about 24 years ago.

Her given name is Long-Waii, but she is known only as Loni. But she uses the Americanized spelling, “Longway.”

Cutler said she has forgiven her biological mother because of “unconditional love.”

She has always dreamt of meeting her and after a long, hurtful search, Cutler will “face the woman that left” her in two years.

“Even though I have no strength to accept it,” Rimmer said, “it’s beautiful that she never gave up her search for her biological mother.”

But Cutler said she thanks her mother, Mary (she doesn’t call her a stepmother), for developing her writing skills because Mary gave all her seven children journals to keep and encouraged them to write.

Cutler would write in her journal every single day.

“Ever since she was a little girl, she loved to rhyme,” Rimmer said.

“She wrote beautiful poems. There was nothing else to do on the farm.

But we didn’t know where she gets that great imagination from.”

But Cutler’s on-again, off-again relationship with ex-boyfriend Gerardo S. A. (she did not want

National Bartending 2*2

PROFILE/ 8

Hand-crafted Blankets Provide Joy to Ill Patients hours maximum and 12 to 14 hours minimum to make.

Some of the women take the blankets home and continue their crocheting from there.

“It feels good to give to the community,” Oliver said. “It gives us a chance to interact with people we do not normally see.”

All the blankets were handmade by the volunteers, who gave their time and effort to make each one

By Jill Daloria special.

Daily Titan Staff Writer “It’s something that we made, “Blankets of Love,” a volunteer we could have easily bought it at service program run by the Volunteer a store,” said Susan Cervantes, a and Service center, gets together worker for University Advancement. every Thursday to knit blankets for “After the blankets are done, we preemies and terminally ill patients give them to Yvonne. She washes of the Presbyterian Inter Community them and then brings them to the hospital.”

Hospital.

Some of the The group is comwomen joined posed of mostly staff because of their members who donate “It feels good personal experitheir time every Thursday ences with preeat noon. mies and termito give to The program was nally ill patients. started by Yvonne Felix “I’ve been who started crocheting as the commuworking on baby a hobby at home. blankets for “We started in nity.

It gives preemies,” said September and have croMiriam Dockery, cheted about 25 blankets,” us a chance to secretary for Felix said. the College of “Blankets of Love” and is composed of mostly interact with Business Management women staff members Department. “I who aim at helping the people we do have a friend community. whose baby was “It gives us a chance to bond,” said Patty Oliver, not normally born 28 weeks premature, so a volunteer for “Blankets I know what of Love.” “We get to talk see” they are going about things that we as through.” women talk about.”

Felix said Crocheting started as a that the women hobby at home for most of buy their own the women in the group. yarn, except “Most people who for the ones crochet work on a series of projects,” said Evelyn Lawrence, that are donated by the Volunteer a staff worker for the Center for and Service Center.

The program is still accepting Entertainment and Tourism. “It’s really nice to have crafts that can donations of soft yarn.

Volunteers are still needed to crobegin and end with a feeling of chet blankets, and there is no experiaccomplishment for something else rather than for my family. It takes it ence necessary.

The group meets every Thursday one step further.” at noon in McCarthy Hall Room The blankets take about 22 to 23

nCHARITY: Each Thursday, campus staff get together at the Volunteer Center to knit warm gifts for a local hospital

Trigger Happy Tattoo 2*2

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Daily Titan

6 Tuesday, December 3, 2002

Delay RisksWar, BushWarns Iraq nCONFLICT: The president’s Sunday deadline for Saddam lingers, with possibility for war more likely

By Diego Ibarguen

Knight Ridder Newspapers President Bush pointed yesterday to a looming Sunday deadline for Iraq to detail its illicit weapons programs and warned that stalling tactics to delay United Nations inspections would signal that Saddam Hussein has decided to risk war.

“Any act of delay, deception or defiance will prove that Saddam Hussein has not adopted the path of compliance and has rejected the path of peace,” Bush said at a Pentagon ceremony where he signed legislation authorizing $393 billion in military spending for fiscal 2003. “America will confront gathering dangers early, before our options become limited and desperate.”

Meanwhile, U.N. weapons inspectors paid a six-hour visit Monday to the heavily guarded Karama missile development plant in Baghdad. A subsequent U.N. report said that some equipment that had been tagged by previous inspection teams was missing from the site. According to the report, Iraqi officials said some of the missing items had been transported to other sites and that some of it had

United States will be making one been destroyed by U.S. air attacks.

Also Monday, Iraqi air defens- judgment: Has Saddam Hussein es fired on U.S. and British war- changed his behavior of the last 11 planes for a second consecutive day years? Has he decided to cooperate as they patrolled the “no-fly” zone willingly and comply completely, or over northern Iraq, U.S. officials has he not?” Bush said. said. The planes retali“So far the signs ated. U.S. and British are not encouragforces created “noing,” he said, referfly zones” following ring to Iraqi anti-air“Any act of the 1991 Persian Gulf craft attacks on allied War to protect Kurds planes and to Iraqi delay, decep- “letters filled with in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south protests and falsefrom Iraqi aggression. hoods.” tion or defiThe United States Bush said Iraq’s maintains that Iraqi ance will prove weapons declaraattacks on allied jets tion, which is due are a violation of the on Sunday, “must be that Saddam credible and comU.N. Security Council resolution passed last plete _ or the Iraqi Hussein has month. That measure, dictator will have passed unanimously by demonstrated to the the 15-nation council, world once again that not adopted gave inspectors a manhe has chosen not to date to search for weapchange his behavior.” the path of ons anywhere in Iraq at In a separate speech any time without any to Air National Guard compliance” interference. The resoleaders in Denver, lution presented Iraq Vice President Dick with a “final opportuCheney contended George W. nity” to comply with that confronting Iraq disarmament before it is essential to winfaces “serious consening the war on quences.” terror.

Bush used his com“There is also ments on Iraq, his first since inspec- a grave danger that al-Qaida or tions resumed last week, to lay out other terrorists will join with outcriteria for deciding how to deal with law regimes that have these weapons future Iraqi defiance. to attack their common enemy, the “In the inspections process, the United States of America. That is

why confronting the threat posed by Iraq is not a distraction from the war on terror. It is absolutely crucial to winning the war on terror. Saddam Hussein is harboring terrorists and the instruments of terror,” Cheney said, although he cited no hard evidence to back up those allegations, according to a transcript of his remarks provided by the White House.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, in London to meet with members of Iraqi opposition groups, said the only hope of “achieving the peaceful outcome is if we can confront the Iraqi regime with a credible threat of force behind our diplomacy.”

If Iraq does not cooperate with weapons inspections and “inspectors are forced to go back to the old cat-and-mouse game the world saw so often before, then the effort to resolve this problem peacefully will have failed,” Wolfowitz said in a speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush has made no decisions on how he might proceed with Iraq, but “Saddam Hussein will have to figure out how long the United States intends to go along until we find out what Saddam Hussein is really doing.

“The president is skeptical that Saddam Hussein will comply and it’s too soon to say. One week is not adequate time,” Fleischer said.

U.S. Sends ChristmasTrees Across Border

NEWS

Lecture Examines Theodore Roosevelt, Progressives’Beliefs

KYLE MONK/Special to theTitan

Bob Linn speaks at the Ruby Gerentology Center on Nov. 21.

nDISCUSSION: CSUF alumnus Bob Linn discussed the political movement that peaked from 1900 to 1914

By Paul Wright

By Bradley Meacham The Seattle Times

Feliz Navidad is taking on new meaning for Washington’s Christmas tree growers.

Rising personal income in Mexico and other parts of Latin America means a bigger market for many kinds of luxury items – including real Christmas trees.

It couldn’t come at a better time for growers, who are gradually losing the battle with fake trees for the American living room.

Trees have long been exported to American expatriates and military personnel abroad, as well as to markets such as Hong Kong and Japan.

But the trees will never be much more than a novelty niche in nonChristian cultures.

By contrast, demand for trees in Mexico, with a Roman Catholicdominated culture and a growing middle class, grew rapidly in the 1990s.

Mexico now accounts for 9 percent of Christmas trees harvested in the Northwest, according to the

Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association in Salem, Ore. This year growers will export about 1.2 million trees to Mexico, at wholesale prices ranging from $12 for Douglas fir, the most popular export species, to $30 for noble fir.

“The sky’s the limit,” said Bryan Ostlund, the association’s executive.

“Mexico City alone could keep us busy for years.”

Though precise export statistics are hard to come by because permits don’t provide specific totals and middlemen handle much of the shipping, growers say the volume is increasing.

Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Costco and Mexican chain stores are booming south of the border, making it easier for consumers to find Christmas trees.

The Mexican government is encouraging the Christmas tree trade.

The Mexican consulate in Seattle recently did a study of the Christmas tree industry for a Mexican maker of plastic tree bases and expects trade

to grow as ties strengthen.

Trees now are loaded into refrigerated containers to the border, where they are reloaded into Mexican trucks for transport to the retailers.

Though the North America Free Trade Agreement made trade economical, a tree shipment to Mexico City still takes at least a week.

The Bush administration last week announced plans to allow Mexican trucks throughout the U.S., potentially streamlining future shipments to south of the border.

“Export is definitely a bright avenue,” said Tom Taylor, a salesman for Noble Mountain Christmas trees in Chehalis, Wash.

“It’s outside our traditional market and any growth there helps at home.”

Most trees grown in Washington, the country’s fourth-largest producer, and Oregon, the biggest, are shipped to other states, with California alone accounting for 46 percent of trees harvested.

But unfortunately for growers, the domestic market is shrinking as busy consumers increasingly put up

low-maintenance artificial trees.

Real and fake trees each had about half the nationwide market in 1990.

But since then the number of fake trees has grown to 60.3 million, or 68 percent of the households with Christmas trees.

The total number of real trees sold dropped to 27.8 million in 2001 from 35.4 million in 1990, according to the National Christmas Tree Association in St. Louis.

New markets could help Washington tree farmers who say they’re struggling in the face of stricter environmental regulations and rising land prices.

“It’s definitely getting more difficult to run a business,” said Mark Steelhammer, owner of KLM Christmas Tree Farm in Rochester, Thurston County.

Obstacles in Washington include time-consuming permits, regulations on spraying, and water quality.

The pending increase in labor-andindustry taxes means labor becomes more expensive.

Daily Titan Staff Writer Bring up the subject of government regulation to a business owner and it’s likely you would get an angry tirade about everything from unfair tax laws to nonsensical environmental sanctions.-- ------And while it may seem like our government and businesses have always been at each other’s throats, prior to the “progressive movement” the two simply ignored each other.

Cal State Fullerton alumnus and former Sunny Hills High School history teacher Bob Linn talked about the progressives, particularly President Theodore Roosevelt, in his lecture

on Nov. 21 at the Ruby Gerontology Center’s Mackey Auditorium.

The progressives believed that business had seized an unhealthy amount of power because of industrialization, and sought to pass legislation that would shift the balance of power back in the direction of the government, Linn said.---------------The progressive movement peaked from about 1900 to 1914.- The progressive presidents were Roosevelt, William Taft and Woodrow Wilson.--------------------------- ------Linn said that the progressives had three main goals:- to restore control of government to the common people, correct abuses and injustices that accompanied industrialism and restore greater equality of opportunity in economic affairs.----------------- ------Linn said that the first attempts by government to regulate business in the United States came in the 1880s when state and local officials attempted to control certain aspects of the railroad business.

Railroad businessmen were not

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5

UCLA Professor Still Stalked by Islamic Fundamentalists nCONTROVERSY: Khaled Abou El Fadl still receives hate mail for his op-ed piece for the LA Times

By Vincent J. Schodolski Chicago Tribune

LOS ANGELES – The death threats have stopped and the white van no longer lingers ominously outside his San Fernando Valley home, but the uproar Khaled Abou El Fadl unleashed a year ago has not abated.

El Fadl, a professor of Islamic law at UCLA, has long been a moderate voice urging Muslims in the United States and elsewhere to speak out against radical elements of Islam.

So when he wrote an op-ed article published by the Los Angeles Times in the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he was expressing views

he had aired for years -usually to Muslim audiences.

At the time the article was published, many Muslims were speaking out against radical Islam, the kind personified by Osama bin Laden. So what was it about El Fadl’s views that provoked such a furious reaction?

“I am the biggest danger to their [version of] Islam, not to Islam, and they don’t make the distinction,” El Fadl said.

“They,” he said, were people who, for various reasons, support a version of Islam that has roots in Saudi Arabia and which, El Fadl suggests, has gained wide sway because of the willingness of the Saudi Arabian government to spend money to export its views.

More than a year later, he still receives numerous e-mails and letters on his views. He has people screen all his calls, and UCLA has taken steps to ensure his safety on campus.

The FBI and police are investi-

gating the threats and the vandalism of El Fadl’s car while it was parked outside a San Fernando Valley movie theater earlier this year. Although the windows were shattered, nothing was taken from the car.

Police tapped El Fadl’s telephone, but never were able to trace the source of the threatening calls.

At first he thought the threats were coming from non-Muslims angered by the terrorist attacks. But soon, El Fadl and authorities concluded that they were from Muslims angered by his criticism of those who failed to speak out against what he calls a “puritanical” form of Islam espoused by the Saudis.

That form of Islam, known as Wahhabism, is in some ways similar to fundamentalist views in

“I am the biggest danger to their [version of] Islam, not to Islam, and they don’t make the distinction” Khaled Abou El Fadl, UCLA professor

Christianity and Judaism.

Wa h h a b i s m , however, calls for a return to the Koranic interpretations that flourished in the decades that followed the death of Muhammad, the seventh-century prophet of Islam.

Those who espouse such interpretations disdain centuries of modernization and trends within Islam toward more pluralistic views.

El Fadl insists that the willingness of the Saudi government to under-

write fundamentalist Islamic scholarship and cultural and community centers around the world has stifled open debate about the role of Islam in modern society.

“The Koran says that if you are harsh and unkind, people will not come to you, so the Koran recognizes that decency has to be there,” he said. “If Wahhabism had dominated Islam, (it) would be a very small religion.”

According to El Fadl, funding by the Saudis is used not to stop Muslim leaders from speaking out against fanatics or terrorists, but rather to prevent people like him from speaking out against Wahhabism and its strict interpretation of Islam.

“And it (the money) is really so that the people don’t speak out against them,” he said of the Saudi ruling dynasty.

He said that any attempt to speak out against this fundamentalist view of Islam was seen by devotees as arrogance against God. El Fadl was born in Kuwait in

1963 and spent much of his youth in Egypt, where he was imprisoned briefly after he returned for a visit the summer after his junior year at Yale. He says Egyptian officials held him and tortured him because they were suspicious of his Western influences.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1986, then a law degree at the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in Islamic studies at Princeton. He has been on the UCLA Law School faculty since 1998.

El Fadl is critical not only of conservative Muslims, but also of moderates who fail to speak out.

He said the failure of moderates to openly oppose the dominance of fundamentalist clerics had contributed greatly to the misconceptions many Americans have about Islam.

He pointed to the recent protests

by Iranian students against religious leaders in that country as a sign that the tide may be turning.

President Bush and Sept. 11 Added to Quotation Reference Book nLITERARY: Since 1855, more than 25,000 quotes from more than 2,500 people have been printed

By Marja Mills

Chicago Tribune Shakespeare remains the leader, with 1,906 entries. But Bill Clinton is gaining ground, with six.

“Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations” has released its latest edition, the first update in 10 years. It adds quotations from _ among other things _ movies of the last decade, the aftermath of Sept. 11 and long-ago times and places that got added as chief editor Justin Kaplan saw fit.

(No easy job. Todd Beamer’s nowfamous “Let’s roll,” for example, didn’t make it in – this time. The volume was being proofread when Sept. 11 happened.)

A compulsively browsable compilation, spanning the ancient Egyptians through George W., “Bartlett’s” aims to capture both a bit of pop culture and the sweep of history.

“There’s a certain amount of balancing between something that is of the moment and something that will be familiar in years to come,” said Mary Tondorf-Dick, senior managing editor of Little, Brown and Co., which publishes the classic reference book.

Massachusetts bookseller John Bartlett first published his book of quotations in 1855 as a literary reference work. Shakespeare still leads everybody with 1,906 of the 25,000 quotes from more than 2,500 people in the 17th edition. The Bible is next with 1,642 entries. The book quotes about 100 new people, among them Mother Teresa and Maya Angelou, Alfred Hitchcock and Hillary Clinton, Jerry Seinfeld and J.K. Rowling, Katharine Graham and Princess Diana.

Kaplan said he has tried to make the book both timeless and timely.

Kaplan, who made unilateral decisions about the book’s contents, has pruned some of the dead poets and authors and added newer quotations from popular culture. He has included quotes from movies, television, advertising slogans, cartoons, street slang, politics and music.

“A lot of people think the book is anachronistic and irrelevant, slightly fusty, old-fashioned,” said Kaplan, the award-winning biographer of Mark Twain and Walt Whitman.

“But it’s really quite quirky and charming and fun to read.”

The newer quotations follow Kaplan’s first principle: “Look for the ones that illustrate turning points in history.” Sept. 11, 2001, was one of those moments, and the 17th edition of “Bartlett’s” gets to the point: President George W. Bush to Congress nine days after the terror attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center: “Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or

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bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.”

Rudolph Giuliani, then-mayor of New York: “Our hearts are broken, but they continue to beat, and the spirit of our city has never been stronger.”

And Kaplan includes a quotation from “Here Is New York,” a 1949 essay by E.B. White. The 53-yearold words, about life in New York in the nuclear age, show how the old can collide with the new. “It’s an eerie passage that gives you chills to read,” Kaplan said.

“The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions. The intimation of mortality is part of New York now: in the sound of jets overhead, in the black headlines of the next edition.”

Kaplan, who just turned 77, said

the 17th edition of “Bartlett’s” most likely is his last. But he’s already taking notes for the editor of the next edition, which will be published around 2012.

At the top of Kaplan’s list are two words that were made public too late to meet the deadline for the new book. The quote is from a passenger’s last phone call on Sept.

11 before he and other passengers aboard the aboard hijacked United Airlines flight 93 rushed the cockpit.

The plane, believed to have been on a terrorist mission to wipe out the White House, crashed instead into the Pennsylvania countryside, killing everyone on board.

Beamer’s last two words have become an icon for the war on terrorism: “Let’s roll.”

“Quotations are a form of capsule history,” Kaplan said, “a way of summing up in a few words an entire era of history.”

“Let’s roll,” he said, might be up there with “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” “With malice

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toward none, with charity for all,” “I have a dream,” “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” and “I’m not a crook.”

Crooked words, said with a straight face, can be funny sometimes, but sorry, folks, “yada, yada, yada” didn’t make the “Bartlett’s” cut.

Neither did Al Gore’s lockbox or any of President Bush’s malapropisms, such as “I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.”

“To include one of the Bushisms we all laugh at,” Kaplan said, “I thought would be too much of a cheap shot.”

Bill and Hillary Clinton, however, get the needle. He gets six entries.

She gets three. Him: “I experimented with marijuana a time or two. And I didn’t like it, and didn’t inhale, and never tried it again.” Her: “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas.”

Daily Titan

8 Tuesday, December 3,2002

LECTURE n from page 6

MARGIE RIVERA/Daily Titan

HSSA members volunteer their time on Thanksgiving at La Casa Garcia in Anaheim.

VOLUNTEER n from page 1 Some lifted heavy tables and re-arranged them before the Thanksgiving feast started. A few helped control the massive flow of men, women and children being served while others handed out apple pies and gelatins at the end of the long snake-lined tables.

Tram Ngo, a human services junior, volunteered at La Casa Garcia for the first time.

“It fulfills me to help out,” she said. “I’ll definitely be back next year.”

Restaurant owner Frank Garcia started the annual county tradition of feeding thousands of people from

WORK n from page 1 has always been offered.

“For all my experiences, the choice to work has always been optional,” Salcido said. “I could always take time off, I’m not sure how it goes in other offices.”

Although staff and student assistants worked three days during the week, they had Thursday off to enjoy the holiday.

“It’s not very long that we’ve had this type of Thanksgiving recess,” said Evelyn Lawrence, a worker

all walks of life more than 15 years ago.

“My parents were very poor,” said Frank Garcia, wearing his traditional white cook’s apron. “Thank God my family and I’ve always had shelter and a plate of food so I’m just trying to pass it along now.”

“Frank Garcia brings a taste of heaven to the community,” said Father Jaime Soto, who sang “Amazing Grace,” after blessing the food.

The display of generosity was palpable as corporations and individuals donated hundreds of golden turkeys, pounds of rice and mashed potatoes, Chinese food, pies, gelatins, cookies and other goodies and supplies.

Jessica Leon, a junior human services major, also donated her time.

“I’m just giving a little of my time to help unfortunate people in Thanksgiving,” Leon said. “It’s a great feeling.”

Fellow association member Noemi Medina said that something little usually contributes to something big.

“Every venue counts,” she said.

“Sometimes people live in a dark world and your actions can bring hope and light and impact their lives.”

Frank Garcia said about 1,200 volunteers lent him a hand one way or another once again this year.

“So many people are here that the organizers don’t even need all of us,” Mario Garcia said. “We’re making this event truly happen.”

for the center for Entertainment and Tourism office. “It’s not unusual because we’ve worked during Thanksgiving break before. What is unusual is the quiet.”

Some faculty even came to school to catch up on work.

“It’s actually nice,” said Cynthia King, an associate professor of communications. “You get time to get things done. I can get some of my other work done. [The] nice thing about having a professor’s job is that you have time flexibility.”

Many people came to work to earn extra money.

“Honestly, I don’t mind it at all, and sometimes I need the money,”

Joseph Gazmen, a freshman physics major, said. “As a student, we are paid on an hourly basis, so [the] more hours you put in, the more money you make.”

The choice to work during break is left up to each department to decide if work needs to be done.

“When holidays come around, campus is always open on given dates, implies that there is coverage hours from the normal business hours from eight to five,” Peshimam said. “In most cases, there is limited staffing coverage. There might be one person answering the phones, taking care of walk-ins and working on office projects.”

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pleased, and neither were other entrepreneurs who feared that the government might target them next.

Businessmen of the time subscribed to the socioeconomic ethical system of social Darwinism, in which financial success was just nature’s way of rewarding the most fit, Linn said.-- ------“Rockefeller (Standard Oil) said ‘God gave me my wealth,’” Linn said.-----------------------------------------------------------“The attitude was that it was just the nature of the universe for one man to try to drive the other out of business,” he said of the economic philosophy of the time.----------------------Roosevelt’s mission, Linn said, was to make government more powerful than business.

“Roosevelt believed that government really could represent the people,” Linn said.

And although his reputation as a “trust buster” might be slightly exag-

PROFILE n from page 3 to give his full name to save her “Argentinean Stallion” from embarrassment) was the main reason why she got published.

Cutler said her first published book, “From the Beginning to the End,” was a collection of poems she wrote while going through that rocky relationship.

It is a three-part book that chronicles how every relationship is.

“The first part is lovey-dovey,” she said. “The middle section is where I tell him all my insecurities and the end is where we break up and make up and vice versa.”

Her first two poems “The One” and “Scared,” which are also in the book, won her two poetry contests sponsored by the International Poetry Society and the Poetry Guild.

She said Watermark Press publishers were so impressed with her work that they offered her a contract to write books for them to publish.

“I try to inspire people with my rhymes,” Cutler said. “I only write

NEWS gerated, Roosevelt did indeed start the trend toward government intervention in business in the United States; a practice that remains very strong today, Linn said.---------------- ------“He believed in the power of the presidency,” Linn said.“And you’ll find that the greatest presidents felt that the president should be powerful.- Roosevelt believed that the president could do what he wanted as long as the Constitution did not specifically forbid it,” he said.-------Continued Learning Experience student Pat McAdams said that Linn’s lecture piqued her interest regarding the presidency of Roosevelt.- “I don’t know zip about him-and I’ve-got to learn,” she said.Another lecture attendee, Walt Cleary, said that all of United States history is important to him.“I came here today because the last chance I had to take history was my first year of college,” Cleary sai d.---------------------------------------------- ------Linn’s lecture was part of the Review of the Twentieth Century lecture series being held at Mackey Auditorium. something if I am emotionally attached to it.”

Those are the reasons why people are drawn by her writing.

“She only writes what she feels and what she knows,” Cutler’s best friend Nancy Maya said. “Her writing is heartfelt. It could feel good and bittersweet.”

Writing about her life experiences has made her own life a work of art.

“I admire the obstacles she’s been through and her ambition,” Maya said. “She knows what she wants and she won’t settle for less. She’s so young and she’s already been published.”

Rimmer said, “She had her own dream and she wanted to be her own person.

Like all of our family, she became successful even though we came from a small town. She made something of her life.”

It all started on the “fruited plains“ of a “little house on the prairie” town and nine simple words from her father’s mouth that would shape her life.

“My sisters and I always remind each other of it (my father’s motto).

And we still talk about it continu-

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FESTIVAL n from page 1 is an alternative place to do holiday shopping.”

The event will also include a treelighting ceremony, food and craft booths and the coronation of the winter festival queen and her court.

Free shuttle bus services will also be provided to take people to and from the businesses, Ritto said.

Judy Flowers, a business owner and coordinator for this year’s royal court, said she starts looking for her “queens” in late October or early November.

“The queens must be seniors in high school, residents of Fullerton, involved in the school community and enthusiastic,” Flowers said. “To be chosen, the girls must also say how they would change or improve Fullerton.”

This addition to the festival began about two years ago and was a way to involve young Fullerton residents in city activities.

The holiday event originated in the chamber of commerce and until three years ago, the Fullerton Downtown Business Association became the primary coordinator of the event.

“It makes more sense (that the association coordinates the event),” said Chris Lowe, executive director for the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce.

“Since business is their focal point and the event is also geared towards generating business in the area.”

Aside from creating a festive atmosphere for local residents and providing additional shopping options, the event also allows people to donate toys to less fortunate children.

Past events have included a “Spark of Love” parade, in which, firefighters have driven fire trucks from the Hard Rock Café in Newport Beach to Fullerton collecting toys, Lowe said.

TAXES n from page 1 has an income between $41,000 to $51,000, and as joint filers $82,000 to $102,000 a year. If married couples file incomes separately, they are not eligible to claim the credits (IRS publication 970).

“A single dependent student cannot use the education credits if someone else (i.e. their parents) claims them as a dependent on their return.

The credit would then be available to the parents on their return, but the availability of the credit is phased out at higher-income levels,” Fister said.

Fister also said “students should file separate returns from their parents only if they have over $7,700 of earned income and can take advantage of the education credits. If the parents’ income is too high to take the credits, it may be advantageous to let the student claim himself and take the credit.”

A tax credit is used to reduce the amount of income tax one has to pay.

“Due on a dollar-for-dollar basis, the student could use the education credits to reduce their tax liability to zero, but the credits are not refundable,” Fister said. “Students that do not have significant income would not even have a tax liability, so the credits may not benefit them at all.”

Therefore, unlike a deduction, which reduces the amount of income subject to tax, a credit reduces the tax itself.

Besides the credit programs, two other new changes were made to reduce taxes on higher education for returning students or parents who earn a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) between $50,000 to $65,000 for singles, or $100,000 to $130,000 for joint filers.

The student loan interest reduction allows students with high MAGI to deduct all student loan interest payments from the first 60 months that interest payments are required.

A student can also deduct qualified education expenses (IRS Publication 970).

“There is no limit to deduct it (loan interests) after five years, so the good news for returning students is that all interest payments are deductible,” said CSUF accounting professor Donald P. Cram.

The tuition and fees reduction can also reduce higher education costs of one’s income subject to tax by up to $3,000. These deductions benefit people with high income and therefore cannot take the other educational credits.

“The good news for CSUF students is that these programs may be extremely beneficial for most of them, since the proportion of students attending school and working here are greater than at any other school. These would lower costs of education,” Cram said.

But Cram also said that a lot of students are not aware of these new educational tax benefit programs, and therefore do not use them.

Students can access the IRS at www.irs.ustreas.gov and refer to Publication 970 to get more information about these four programs.

Daily Titan

NEWS

Tuesday,December 3, 2002

7

Supreme Court Enters Debate Over Affirmative Action nLAW: A decision was made as to whether universities can use race as a factor in admission

By Shannon McCaffrey

Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT) WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court set the stage Monday for what could be a landmark ruling on affirmative action, agreeing to decide whether universities can use race as a factor in admitting students.

The high court in recent years has chipped away at government affirmative-action programs dealing with such things as government contracts.

But it has not spoken on the use of racial preferences in higher education in more than two decades, which leaves legal experts wondering how it will rule.

At issue is whether the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and its law school violated the Constitution

by rejecting white applicants while accepting minority students with lower grades and test scores.

If the high court strikes down such public university programs, it would be a near-fatal blow to the use of affirmative action, which was conceived of as a remedy for discrimination. If it supports the university, it could provide a blueprint for how such programs should work.

James Cott, associate director of the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, called the pending challenges to affirmative action, both involving the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the “most important civil rights cases to come before this court in a quarter of a century.”

The high court’s rulings in the Michigan cases will apply directly only to public colleges and universities.

But experts say all schools, public or private, that use race-conscious admission policies are likely to take cues from the high court’s ruling.

“Whatever the court decides, it will have a profound impact on who goes to colleges and graduate schools in this country.

It will have a profound impact on

the face and complexion of higher education,” said Mark Rahdert, a constitutional law professor and associate dean at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia.

The white students who were turned away claim they were discriminated against in violation of federal civilrights laws that ban race-based bias, and the Constitution’s guarantee of equal legal protection.

The university says its intention was simply the enhanced educational benefit that comes when students of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds live and learn together.

The law school case involved Barbara Grutter, a businesswoman who was denied admission to the Michigan law school in 1996 when she was 43. She claims that minority applicants received preferential treatment, and she still wants to attend law school at Michigan.

In the second case, which involves undergraduates, Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher argue that they also were denied admission because of race.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled in favor

of the University of Michigan’s law school in a 5-4 decision handed down in May. The court heard arguments in the undergraduate case but has yet to rule. The high court’s decision to hear that undergraduate case before the lower federal court had ruled is unusual.

Attorneys for Grutter called on the Supreme Court to clear up confusion from its 1978 ruling on affirmative action.

In that case, Allan Bakke, a white man, was turned down for admission to medical school at the University of California at Davis while minorities with lower scores were admitted.

The school reserved 16 percent of its admission slots for minorities.

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that such racial quotas were impermissible.

But Justice Lewis Powell wrote in a separate opinion that schools could consider race as long as they did not use quotas.

Universities often have used the late justice’s opinion as a benchmark for affirmative action. It also has been criticized as vague.

Grutter’s attorneys said there was a “sharp and substantial disagreement in

the lower courts about the lawfulness of using race and ethnicity as a factor in admissions to achieve a ‘diverse’ student body.”

They noted decisions in the U.S. Court of Appeals’ 5th and 11th circuits that ruled against affirmative action plans at public universities.

University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman said overturning the Bakke ruling “could result in the immediate resegregation of our nation’s top universities, both public and private.”

“Now is not the time to turn back the clock,” she said.

University lawyers said Michigan did not have a quota but sought a “critical mass” of minority students.

“We want enough students so that there are differences of opinion,” the university said in court papers.

The university said that between 1992 and 2000, the proportion of minority students at the law school hovered between 13.5 percent and 20 percent.

If race were disallowed as an admission factor that number could shrink to 4 percent for an incoming class, they say.

Terry Pell, president of the

Washington-basedCenterforIndividual Rights, a conservative public-interest law institute that is representing the white applicants, acknowledged that minority enrollment dropped sharply at flagship public universities in Texas and California after race was eliminated as a factor in admission. But those numbers are rebounding, proof that racial preferences are not needed to secure minorities’ educational opportunities, Pell said.

The court is expected to rule by the end of June.

On Monday, an array of civil rights groups and activists, including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, promised to rally outside the Supreme Court building when it hears the case early next year.

The cases are Grutter vs. Bollinger and Gratz vs. Bollinger. Lee C. Bollinger was president of the university at the time the suits were filed.

For more about the pending cases, turn to these Web sites: University of Michigan lawsuit site: www.umich.edu/(tilde)urel/admissions/ Center for Individual Rights: http:// www.cir-usa.org/

ActivistsTurn to Computer Hacking in Information Age

By Karen Brandon Chicago Tribune (KRT)

LOS ANGELES _ A hybrid has arrived at the intersection of humanrights activism and the derring-do of computer hacking.

It is called hacktivism.

Across the globe, elite computer experts with some of the world’s most technically innovative minds are setting their sights on ways to help human-rights causes.

Armed with what may become one of the most important weapons in the struggle for human rights _ computer code _ the “hactivists” are trying to give activists electronic ways to circumvent government surveillance and information management.

The devices, the Information Age equivalent to assumed identities and messages strapped to a homing pigeon’s leg, are aimed at enabling human-rights workers to send and receive electronic messages free of government monitoring, to store computer data without fear

that authorities will confiscate the information and to find chinks in the barriers governments have erected to block access to Internet sites they find objectionable.

For example, when the Chinese government shut the door to the use of the search engine Google earlier this year, a hactivist devised a way to reopen it in less than a day.

“In the public perception, the term hacker equals criminal,” said one computer expert who wished to be referred to by his computer handle, Oxblood Ruffin.

Oxblood Ruffin three years ago founded Hactivismo.com, an organization of several dozen hackers who consider themselves a technological brain trust to further human rights.

“We are the most rabid pro-democracy activists in the world. We are much more interested in the hack part” of hacktivism, he said, “which is to say we are much more interested in the technology.

But we see that as the prime catalyst for change.”

This summer, the group introduced Camera/Shy software, available with-

out charge to democracy activists. The software gives users access to banned content by hiding digital messages in pictures. One budding project using the technology aims to make biblical passages available in Chinese.

And the group is waiting for federal approval to distribute Six/Four System, a computer protocol whose name is taken from the date of the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square massacre in China.

Six/Four would let activists to enter a private electronic suite or tunnel to use e-mail, chat and browse the Internet.

“We are essentially offering the same technology banks would have to democracy advocates,” Oxblood Ruffin said. Advocates are just beginning to tap the capacity of new technology. For instance, the Voice of America, whose radio broadcasts are jammed by China, now sends daily news report into the country through e-mail.

Though Beijing’s electronic firewall is notorious, a technology called Anonymizer.com disguises the identity of the Voice of America as the source of the e-mail, letting it slip through to mil-

lions of computers every day.

“There’s not much you can do to get around the radio jamming,” said Ken Berman, program manager for Internet anti-censorship efforts for the International Broadcasting Bureau, which administers and engineers the Voice of America.

On the Internet, by contrast, “It’s a catand-mouse game,” he said.

Using Freenet-China, software created this year, people in China have been able to get to banned sites and documents, including government documents on the Tiananmen Square massacre, and Web sites for the outlawed religious movement Falun Gong, according to Bill Xia, president and founder of Dynamic Internet Technology. Xia, a Chinese immigrant, said the company’s focus is developing software to get around Chinese government censorship.

In Guatemala, where human-rights activists have been alarmed by an epidemic of thefts of their computers and the data they hold, some organizations are learning encryption technology as protection.

“We have had to safeguard informa-

tion so even if it’s stolen, it’s of no use to anybody except us,” said Susie Kemp, external counsel for the Center for Human Rights Legal Action, which represents witnesses in 22 of the country’s indigenous communities who have accused eight high-ranking government officials, including former presidents and the head of the ruling political party, of genocide and war crimes.

Martus.org, a system named for the Greek word for witness, is being designed to serve as an electronic “human-rights bulletin system,” to help groups gather and collect data.

The “pseudo proxy,” the technical instrument that allowed Chinese access to Google despite the government’s blockade, was devised by members of Citizen Lab, a group of technology experts formed in June at the University of Toronto who are developing free software and computing tools for global civic activism.

“People don’t realize we’re exporting censorship,” said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil liberties group

in San Francisco.

The same kind of technology challenged in the hotly contested Napster case, involving distribution of copyrighted music, could benefit human-rights groups seeking to share data, Tien said.

These networks have been “demonized as instruments of copyright infringement in the public mind,” he said, but they have potential for free speech.

And the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, which the United States has signed but not yet ratified, authorizes government surveillance powers that easily could be used by totalitarian regimes seeking to monitor democracy advocates.

In Washington, policymakers are beginning to address the pivotal role the Internet may play in promoting human rights and democracy.

In October, California Reps.

Christopher Cox, R, and Tom Lantos, D, introduced legislation to develop policies to counter Internet blocking around the world.

http://dailytitan.fullerton.edu Azusa Pacific University 2*7

Thai Rama 2*3

“CA Needs You” 2*5.5

Planned Parenthood 2*3

STA Travel Get Hyped 2*5

Golden State Theater 2*3

Daily Titan

Tuesday, December 3, 2002

FullertonWins Big nMEN: Titans get solid team effort in trouncing of Morris Brown at home

By Ricardo Sanchez Jr.

Daily Titan Asst. Sports Editor It’s been a long time coming.

Well, only three games into the season, but Monday night’s 74-56 beating of the Morris Brown Wolverines was nothing short of first-aid relief for a Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball team that limped off to a 0-2 start.

Titans head coach Donny Daniels rubbed the back of his head and smiled outside the locker room after a game that saw the Titans win by the largest margin of victory (18) over any Div. I opponent in four years.

“We were waiting for this one,” he said.

They didn’t have to wait long.

From the opening tip-off, Anthony Bolton streaked from the right wing for an easy layup and the Titans never looked back.

“This is a real confidence booster for us,” said Ralphy Holmes, who finished with 20 points and nine rebounds.

Building a lead that reached as high as 22, the Titans used a defensivezone press that had the Wolverines confused for the majority of the first half.

The Titans defense forced 16 turnovers on the night, many of them off steals under the basket after the inbound pass, as the Wolverines struggled to get the ball across mid-court.

Junior forward Pape Sow finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, his first double double of the season, but the Titans seemed to have trouble at times feeding the ball into the post.

“We were being patient,” said Daniels, who was pleased his team didn’t try to force into the big guy.

Probably the most efficient player on the night was Bron Groomes, who scored 15 points in 16 minutes of play. He fouled out with 6:19 left in the game, but received a nice ovation from the 623 fans in attendance.

Daniels was content with the team’s performance and the fact that they were able to keep the defensive pressure on for most of the game.

“We sustained [the press], and that was the good thing, you have to remember we have five new guys trying to do it.” Daniels said.

Daniels started Amir Bar-Netzer at power-forward, saying he has earned it with his hustle and gutsy play. BarNetzer finished with five points and two assists, but he brings an unparalleled energy to the court that his teammates feed off.

But it was Holmes who continues to turn heads.

“I said it from the very beginning, Ralphy Holmes will lead this team in offensive rebounds,” Daniels said.

“He’s just that kind of player. He’s a high-octane guy.”

Holmes swiped the offensive

glass five times while gliding up and down the court with a fire not seen in Fullerton for quiet some time.

“I play with a lot of energy,” Holmes said. “Coach stresses energy.”

Will they be able to sustain this type of energy and pressure against Pepperdine on Wednesday?

“Yes, sir,” Holmes said.

Reshard Alonza was the Wolverines only real threat, scoring 18 points and grabbing nine rebounds.

Many of the Titans turnovers came after forcing the out-of-control Wolverines into offensive fouls.

Daniels was impressed that even Sow stepped in and drew one.

“He finally took a charge,” Daniels said. “And that is something we are going to have to do so that we can win some games.”

BY THE NUMBERS Morris Brown Cal State Fullerton Morris Brown Leaders Points: Alonza Rebounds: Alonza Assists: Alonza CSUF Leaders Points: Holmes Rebounds: Sow Assists: Bolton

26 30 56 40 34 18 9 3 20 10 5

JANEL WRIGHT/Special to the Titan

Forward Pape Sow battles for a rebound in the Titans’ 74-56 victory over Morris Brown on Monday.

TitansWin One, LoseTwo to Open Season

CSUF Salvages Season with BigWestVictory nVOLLEYBALL: For the first time in nearly three months, Titans win a match, beating Riverside in five sets

By Laura L. Gaghan

Daily Titan Staff Writer They finally did it.

The Cal State Fullerton women’s volleyball team won their first Big West Conference match of the season on Nov. 22 against their last opponent of the season, UC Riverside, (30-18, 30-18, 30-32, 2830, and 15-9).

The Titans had endured a 24match losing streak, with their last win Sept. 6 against Evansville, a non-conference opponent.

The win couldn’t have come at a better time. OK, maybe it could have, but the Titans are happy nonetheless.

“Better late than never,” Titan coach Carolyn Zimmerman said.

“I almost don’t have the words to express.”

The match clincher for the Titans (5-26 overall, 1-17 in Big West) came in the fifth game of the match.

Zimmerman felt going into game five that the team needed to calm down because they were tightening up in previous games.

“They just had to realize that no one point is more important than the

next, so treat every point the same,” Zimmerman said.

The Titans had some indications that a victory was possible.

“We’ve worked so hard and been so close,” freshman setter Lindsay Shondell said. “Before the match started, Anthony (Mirabal, the Titans’ volunteer assistant coach) set the scoreboard at 30-18, we won the first two games 30-18,” she said.

The Titans stayed positive in the week before their last meeting with UC Riverside (6-22 overall, 2-16 in Big West), who swept Fullerton in their first meeting on Sept. 21.

“We all thought, we’re going out winners,” sophomore outside hitter Lauren Goins said.

Junior libero Renee Vignery dreamt of their accomplishment the night before.

“Renee had a dream that we won in five,” Shondell said. “We won in five.”

Goins had 26 kills in the match, her highest total of the season.

Senior setter Kim Levey added to her CSUF record in assists by contributing 52 in her last collegiate match, running her career total to 3,621. She also had 13 digs.

The duo of Goins and Levey certainly did their part this season.

They earned honorable mention in the All-Big West Conference, but the Titans needed the unity of every member to win the match against the Highlanders.

“It was a total group effort,” Zimmerman said. “Everybody had

a hand in the win.”

Senior setter Krista Bebernes, along with Levey, will also be waving goodbye to their playing days at Fullerton. The long-awaited win was a nice touch to their careers at CSUF. “It’s been a long ride,” Bebernes said.

“I think I have learned more LAURA L. GAGHAN/Daily Titan from losing so A win over UCR gave CSUF reason to celmany games than anything. It was the best way to end “We’re going to miss them.”

The Titans will have to look to the season.”

The season wrap up has not yet new members to fill the void.

“We have a lot [of recruits] comsunk in for Levey.

“It doesn’t seem real that it’s ing in,” sophomore middle blocker over,” she said. “I think maybe in Carley Dial said. “We’ll find sometwo weeks it’ll be real, but now I am one.”

Only four days after the UC in denial about it.”

Other Titan players will have to Riverside match, Melanie Meister face the realization that they are an outside hitter for Valley High losing two of their most solid team- School in Des Moines, Iowa, signed a National Letter of Intent to play mates.

“It’s going to hurt,” Goins said, volleyball for the Titans.

The Titans will look to Meister, “[Levey’s] my mom. She keeps me grounded and it’s going to be a bum- who is considered the top high school hitter in Iowa, and those yet mer to lose her.”

The Titans understand the change, to join the team to keep the momentum going for Fullerton into next but they are emotional about it.

“It’s sad to see them go,” fresh- season.

“I’m excited for next year,” man outside hitter Amy Dixon said.

nBASKETBALL: Women defeat Centenary, but fall to New Mexico and Kansas at home last week

By Natalie San Roman Daily Titan Staff Writer

The Cal State Fullerton women’s basketball team started the season at home with a bang on Nov. 24, winning their first game against Centenary, 74-61.

Fullerton followed that performance, however, with two straight losses to New Mexico on Nov. 25, 80-55, and Kansas on Nov. 27, 66-56.

The combination of Audrey Taylor’s quickness and great ball-handling and Heather Hansen’s domination on the boards led CSUF to the win over Centenary. Catherine Holman came strong off the bench and hit two baskets in a row late in the game to keep the Titans ahead of Centenary.

“We felt good this game,” Titan head coach Barbara Ehardt said. “We had a lot of energy, emotion and enthusiasm during this game and performed well.”

The Titans had great defense, moved the ball well and were able to read each other so well that they had no trouble putting this game in the bag.

“We were all excited for our first game and have been practicing for weeks,” Titans forward Heather Hansen said.

“We had a lot of energy and enthusiasm and our defense was good.”

Hansen scored 20 points and hammered the boards to get seven rebounds.

Though she had a dominating performance, she maintained a humble attitude after the game.

“I can’t take a victory on my own,” Hansen said. “Everything was done as a team and I was successful because of

Volleyball Finally Ends Losing Streak,Which is a Shock to One‘Die-hard’Fan nCOMMENTARY: As the Titans put an end to a rough season, one person looks back and puts it in perspecBy Odeen Domingo

Daily Titan Staff Writer

LAURA L. GAGHAN/Daily Titan

Senior Krista Bebernes dives to dig a ball in Fullerton’s win over

Friday, Nov. 22, 2002.

Mark it down.

Just when you thought it would never happen, when you turned and walked away, when you came, saw and poked your eyes out with frustration. Worry no more, my friend.

The Cal State Fullerton volleyball team finally won a match.

Yes, you read that right, you diehard Titan fan! They not only won one match set, they won three! Rejoice!

Be free and release the joy you haven’t felt since Sept. 6 – exactly 72 days since the team’s last victory.

Of course you weren’t there to see this last win, but who was? Of course it came after 24-straight losses, but who’s counting? Of course, it was the last match of the season, which means the team won’t lose anymore.

So get naked and run around your dorm in all your dangling greatness!

Drive on the other side of the road!

Mismatch your socks!

Toss a midget!

Neuter your pets!

Flip off a nun!

Bite a bat’s head off!

Make like a thug Lakers fan and tip over news vans, jump over fires, break store windows, get hit by the National Guard’s rubber bullets and inhale smoke from the tear gas! Rage against the machine! Riot on the streets of Fullerton!

Or not.

But what seemed to be the impossible became possible. Now anything is up for grabs.

Anna Kournikova will win an ATP singles event.

Phil Mickelson will win a Major.

The Boston Red Sox will win the World Series.

The Memphis Grizzlies would beat the Arizona Wildcats.

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks will sell out a game.

The Cincinnati Bengals will win two games.

The average American will learn the rules of soccer.

President George W. Bush will complete a sentence without mispronouncing a word.

But how, you ask yourself. How can it be possible? I mean a Cal State Fullerton volleyball victory? Isn’t that an oxymoron?

I could tell you it was great passing, timely hitting and a Rally Monkey.

But that’s old.

I could tell you it was Destiny and Aura. But they are both off tonight.

I could tell you it was dominant play and superior women’s volleyball talent. But this is Cal State Fullerton, not Cal State Long Beach.

http://dailytitan.fullerton.edu

my team.”

The next game for the Titans against New Mexico was a little different. In the first half both teams were neck-and-neck until 10 seconds left in the half. At that point, the Lobos made a shot to end the half, leading CSUF 34-31.

At the start of the second half, Allyson Alhadeff hit two quick baskets, but the Titans struggled to make their shots from that point on. With seven minutes left in the half, New Mexico pulled away from the Titans by a score of 64-51. The Lobos were getting good looks and hit their shots, which proved too much for CSUF. In the start of Fullerton’s third game against Kansas, there were a lot of fast breaks by both teams. Tamara Quinn shot well throughout the game scoring 15 points for the Titans and was 3-for-4 from the line. At the start of the second half, Quinn hit two three-point shots in the first five minutes of play. The intensity changed from high to low through the whole game and the Titans’ energy went back and forth. The Jayhawks started turning the ball over and Fullerton played harder defense to stay in the game. Andrea Adams stepped up and went 3-for-3 from the line and made two-three pointers in a row to try and keep the Fullerton in it, but by the end it was too late.

With their record 1-2 thus far, CSUF has come a long way in developing into the team they are now and want to continue to work hard as a team.

“We need to play as hard as we can,” Hansen said. “We need to lay everything

But I will tell you that it took every set allowed in a match for the Titans to win. A six-win UC Riverside team took Fullerton to the limit. Riverside must be the worst volleyball team this side of Fullerton Junior High.

Senior setter Kim Levey and sophomore outside hitter Lauren Goins, however, continued their solid play and finally got it done.

And what about next season? The team loses Levey and Krista Bebernes, the team’s second-string setter, to graduation. The setter is the quarterback of a volleyball team. Losing two senior setters on a five-win team doesn’t look good for the 2003 season.

But the Titans will get incoming freshman Melanie Meister next season, considered the best hitter in Iowa.

But Iowa? Iowa’s best sport is hogtying, not volleyball.

But let’s not engage into semantics, but dwell in the present.

The Titans won! The Titans won!

Somewhere a pig is flying.

Daily Titan

Tuesday, December 3, 2002

Letters to the Daily Titan . . .

Daily Titan Our Voice

Culture Clash

Shopping Alternatives Online The holidays are here, and the malls have reached capacity faster than an American Idol audition.

Are those jingling bells or cash registers? We can’t tell because we can’t get near the shopping centers.

The major North Orange County malls received more attention last weekend than Harry Potter. One of the only things that received minimal interest after Thanksgiving was Disney’s “Treasure Planet.”

The holidays are supposed to be about love, family and unity. Instead, we find ourselves sitting in traffic-laden parking lots, staring intently at pink bumper stickers proclaiming, “Daddy’s Little Princess.”

If you can even get stuck in the parking lot, you are considered lucky.

The majority of people in

Southern California should jump on the Internet bandwagon before the 57, 91, 22 and 5 freeways collapse under the weight of traffic.

The Web has become an easier, more practical source for purchasing holiday goodies, as long as you have a handy credit card at your side.

According to a Los Angeles Times article, ComScore Networks Inc. — a company that tracks online sales — estimated that “Internet shoppers spent $195.6 million on Friday.” This is a 30 percent increase over last year’s figures.

More people are switching over, so should you?

Are you still afraid of a lack of online security?

Download a firewall, and deck the halls.

Daily Titan

Op/Ed Letters to the Editor should be brief and are subject to editing. They should also include a signature and telephone number.

Editorials are the opinion of the editorial board, comprised of the Editor in Chief, Managing Editor and the Opinion Editor.

I was a bit frustrated to open up your paper to find the article on the Frida Kahlo exhibit sponsored by MEChA [Nov. 22]. Frustrated because last semester the Theater Department of this school put up a production of a play called "Rocky and Diego."

The play dealt with Frida's husband Diego Rivera, and his struggle with capitalism during the Rockefeller Center travesty.

One of the main characters in the show was Frida Kahlo. Much of the play centered around her and the tumultuous, yet love-filled relationship she had with him.

The only attention Frida got from MEChA at the time was the rumor of a staged walkout of the play because the two people cast as Rivera and Kahlo were white. I know because I was the man cast as Rivera.

Upon hearing this I called one of the heads of the organization on campus and had a dialogue with her about what was really being protested. In her defense, she told me that she had not heard of any such thing and we continued the discussion. I told her the reasons for the casting, and the main one was that we do not have a large population of Latinos in our department.

I will not apologize for my performance or for the performance given by the incredibly talented actress who played Kahlo.

We took the challenge given to us, and through months of research and dialect work, gave performances filled with truth, fire and integrity.

I invited MEChA to come to the show and stay for a dialogue between them and the cast and director after the show. The purpose was to possibly increase awareness in the school to get more ethnic blood into the theater department. The result of the discussion? No

MEChA, no protest.

Now that there is a film out about Frida, of which I will say, is visually stunning but lacks any sort of passion or fire between the two of them and is not completely historically correct.

Since the film there has been an explosion of Frida fans all over the world. That is wonderful. She and her husband were brilliant artists. She painted from her soul and the result is a thing of sheer beauty.

My question is this. Where was MEChA when Frida was a presence on this campus last year? Where were they when they were invited to the performance to activate more Latino involvement in something that is sorely lacking in it?

My only choice is to assume that there was no attention paid to the show because the actors playing them were not of Mexican descent.

While that may only be and assumption, it raises a question as to the integrity of the organization.

Brian Rickel

theater arts student

A Question of God On Tuesday, Nov. 19, the feature article of the Daily Titan discussed Curly Dalke.

Curly got a front page spread, was called an icon and had a big photo with the president of the university.

On Wednesday, Nov. 20, there was an intriguing question posed to the readers of the Daily Titan on the front page, left hand column [teasers]. "Do we need God?" Just ironic. Made me chuckle. A little.

I think the student body would agree that

the changes at the Daily Titan have been obvious and successful. I am neither writing to complain or argue. I merely found the irony of the placement of the two articles and their timing completely, you guessed it, ironic.

Curly suffers from a rare condition known as neurofibromatosis. His body is replete with large tumors in his muscle tissue. The tumor in his brain, behind his right eye, is only one of several.

Curly lost effective control of the left side of his body when these tumors applied too much pressure on his brain and he suffered a stroke.

Yet, he is as sharp as anyone could imagine, cognitively.

Curly refuses to stop coming to campus spreading his message of love.

He doesn't scream. He doesn't shout. He's not nearly as annoying as those guys passing out fliers for "Extra Income" or "Jimmy Joe's Beer Bust." He just quietly sits in his donated, motorized wheelchair calling out to any who will stop and afford him time.

The answer to the question in the Nov. 20 paper was a definite, "No." "No, we do not need God." Humanism was the suggested antidote for our perils and depravity. Interesting to me, immediately after reading the aforementioned article, was the thought of a humanist sitting for twenty years at the same corner, spreading a message of - what would it be?

Curly would say he needs God. And I'll stand with Curly. Or so I thought.

Just as I began to feel smug and justified in my righteous indignation, I realized I would never sit there as Curly has these twenty years.

Absorbing insult and indifference, his message has never waivered and to me he is truly a hero.

But that's not for me. I am far too talented, too good looking, too ambitious. Too ... humanistic.

Joel Traywick

E-Mail Your Feedback to Daily Titan Opinion dailytitan@@yahoo.com or call us at (714) 278-5463

Columns are the personal opinion of the writer.

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