Letters to the editor

Send your letters to editor@themanitoban.com or drop them off at 105 University Centreforced

Oriola was right

Tope Oriola said it most aptly, students have clearly been bought by conservatism and the notion of a liberal student body has been thrown by the wayside, especially when columnists like Dylan Ferguson normalize discriminatory slang like “faggy European” in the local liberal student rag.

Graham Stinnet, Pre-M.A history

I wouldn’t call it anything other than justice

I am a second-year science student and after reading “Is this ‘justice?’“ (March 14) by Stephen McCreary, I was quite disappointed with the portrayal of the law. I understand that murder sentences may be too soft but I don’t believe that drinking and driving law should be softened. The woman he wrote about deserved all the discomfort she got. Her life may have been “turned upside down” but I bet she had not once stopped to think how much her life would have changed if she had severely hurt or even worse killed someone that night she chose to drink and drive.

Also, her decision to drink enough to be over the limit (even if it was only 0.01 over, and who knows how long she had been sleeping in her car to allow her blood alcohol level to decrease) and also leave the bar without any friends is a decision that no potential innocent victim would have forced her into. In the end, I would like McCreary to think about how he may feel about people dying because of drunk drivers. Would he consider this murder? The law is simply trying to stop manslaughter before it happens.

Meena Sidhu, second-year sciences

I guess ignorance is bliss

“Blame Oprah if your pants don’t fit?” I’m sorry but I feel no reason to blame a woman who works out eight times a week (everyday, twice on Sunday) and watches her diet, has her own personal trainer, and persistently hosts shows on healthy lifestyles. I’m sorry to say but there is a lack of research that went into the article “Dying To Be . . . Fat?” by Chelse McKee (March 14).

She evidently chose to avoid subjects such as change in lifestyle, increase in stress levels, and women entering the workforce. She forgot to mention Kirstie Alley or the new Dove campaign. These examples promote a healthy lifestyle with a fuller body. As much as obesity is eating at our health care, so is anorexia and bulimia. Also the reference to “people taking responsibility for the 12 extra pieces of deep-fried chicken they ordered with their dinner” is absolutely disgusting. Get real. People who may be bigger than the typical size 3-5 are not indulging in 12 extra pieces of deep-fried chicken. They usually eat similar sized portions to the rest of the population, it’s just their metabolism may not be as quick as the next person’s.

It’s articles like these that leave people emotionally disturbed and feeling hopeless. Finally, I would just like to comment that rarely will you hear a young woman comment on wanting a body like Queen Latifah or Sara Ramirez, and would rather have a body like Jennifer Aniston or Keira Knightley.

With the acceptance of a fuller body, girls will now know that a body like Nicole Richie’s is not typical and if they do gain a few extra pounds, it’s not the end of the world. Judgments are made easier by some, rather then just swallowing them and allowing themselves some time to think about how they really feel.

Meena Sidhu, second-year sciences

Students are not apathetic

Speaking of student levies, how much do students pay each year to the Manitoban? $6

each, or something like that. That must add up to about $160,000. And what about transparency on the part of the Manitoban? Are the Manitoban’s minutes online? Are Manitoban staff elected by students? Do they have a mandate to produce the nonsense they sling around? Do they stick to the principles of the Canadian University Press, the national student paper organization to which they belong? Do they represent students’

interests on campus? Nope.

The Manitoban’s sparse “About Us” web page states that the paper’s mandate is to report on important issues at the U of M and provide fair and objective coverage. Unfortunately, this has become meaningless as the Manitoban has become a rag for cranks and conspiracy theorists that seem to be obsessed with UMSU. After almost a full year of dragging UMSU and the Canadian Federation of Students through the mud, they’ve come up with nothing. There’s no smoking gun, no scandal, no nothing. Just a bunch of hard-working student union folks who are up against some big money interests in this province that smell blood in the legislature and don’t care if they have to take down the tuition fee freeze policy to make the kill.

Well, here’s the headline we probably won’t see in the student paper any time soon: “Just because students don’t have a major grievance with UMSU, just because most students support the idea of lobbying for education funding and lower tuition fees, doesn’t make us apathetic.”

People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. And the Manitoban’s glass house looks like it wasn’t made with safety glass, so maybe you should chill out and start covering some real news from now on. Otherwise maybe apathy will become a referendum on eliminating the Manitoban’s levy.

Amit Tuli..University 1