DISCOURSE
- Campus unites during tragedies Editorial
- Celebrate Earth Day all year long Editorial
- A message to ladies who hover Jenna Strom
- Road bikes: The new trend at UNF Bryan Hamlin
- Don't let the government redefine chocolate ingredients Sacramento Bee
- Letters to the Editor
Campus unites during tragedies
Editorial
The question no longer addresses where you were when JFK died, or Apollo exploded. Now people remember what they were doing when the twin towers fell and 9/11 unfolded. And soon, people will ask where you were when you heard that Seung-Hui Cho entered a Virginia Tech classroom April 16 and committed the deadliest shooting in modern American history.
Though we will not easily forget these tragedies, it is also important to remember the nationwide support systems that arose minutes after the shots were fired and 32 lives were taken in Blacksburg, Va.
Colleges across the country came together over the past week to remember the massacre victims. From coast to coast, colleges - some which might have never heard of Virginia Tech - organized memorial services.
President George Bush, along with thousands of students, staff and Blacksburg residents, offered prayers and condolences to the victims' families at a memorial service on the Virginia Tech campus one day after the shooting.
Students at the University of North Florida met together for a candlelight vigil April 18 and a concert dedicated to the victims April 20. Jacksonville residents joined in too, including close to 70 members of the Jacksonville Virginia Tech Alumni Association.
We offered our love and support as a nation, while holding candles and reflecting on the tragedy.
Americans should be proud of this act of love and honor. It's the same feeling that swept the country after Hurricane Katrina and Sept. 11, 2001. It's this love that undeniably makes the foundation of our country.
But it's a love that should be evident despite tragedy.
As the updated reports of the day came in, America jumped back in to its state of emergency.
Many UNF students received phone calls from their parents following the shooting just to say "I love you," because they were relieved their child was miles away from danger. Yet, many of the phone calls were from parents who had not called their children in days, even weeks.
Yes, it is a positive outcome that came from a horrible situation. The reality that students and families will soon go back to their daily routines makes it hard to remember the glimpse of the good that arose.
Reflecting on the shooting means nothing if the country goes back to its numb, sleep-like state of mind until another tragic event occurs.
Instead of walking to and from class, eyes focused on the ground with headphones in and iTunes blaring, students need to open their eyes and ears and take in the lives of the people around them.
Reaching out to people while they are still living is the ultimate display of unity that makes America. A simple "hello" and an occasional smile is all it really takes.
America will, and does, unite when tragedy strikes. But it needs
to be a continuous commitment
that isn't triggered solely by a
horrific event.
Celebrate Earth Day all year long
Editorial
If there is one holiday worth celebrating, it's Earth Day. The sad thing about some holidays, like Earth Day, is they are only practiced one day of the year - they should be practiced every day.
Take, for example, Mother's Day, Father's Day, or Valentine's Day. Should you really only treat your parents or significant other with nice gifts and an all-around great day once a year? No, you should do it every day because you love them and you should want to show that every day of the year.
The same holds true for the Earth. Whether you like the place you reside on, you should still love it. Earth provides the water you drink, the food you eat, the air you breathe, the beach you relax at, the ocean you surf in, the trees you climb, the forests you hike, and the mountains you climb. The Earth provides each of us with natural enjoyment in some form or another.
Shouldn't we, as citizens of this planet, try to give back? Unlike the aforementioned holidays, it isn't a terrible inconvenience. It doesn't necessarily mean spending vast amounts of money or looking for that perfect gift. It doesn't mean reservations at a fancy restaurant or a romantic evening together, it just means helping out and encouraging others to do the same.
Earth Day was enacted in 1970 and is now observed in 175 countries. According to the nonprofit Earth Day Network, which coordinates Earth Day, the holiday is now "celebrated by more than a half billion people every year, making it the largest holiday in the world."
Yet still it seems as if it comes and goes every year without much ado. Unlike Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and Valentine's Day, among others, there are no decorations in stores or products to buy.
Earth Day is a holiday about giving, not receiving. That's why it poses an inconvenience to corporations. Earth Day inconveniences many stores because stores only exist to make profit. And the money-hungry stores like Wal-Mart, which usually makes huge profits from selling holiday merchandise, don't get anything out of Earth Day. So it doesn't receive the same amount of advertisement time and exposure as other holidays, nor is it celebrated as much as it should. In this day and age, with many people certain of a climate change epidemic, Earth Day is more than important.
Best of all, celebrating Earth Day is simple. You don't have to bake a cake or shop for presents. Do something simple and ordinary like plant a tree, pick up litter, or maybe just encourage others to do their part.
Many state parks in Florida have Earth Day events where you can
volunteer and do your part while learning more about helping Mother Nature.
But if you're only going to focus on celebrating the Earth one day a year and think you've missed your chance, you're in luck; it's not too late. April 27 is Arbor Day, which is a holiday that focuses on the planting and care of trees. It is celebrated every year on the final Friday in April, the same week as Earth Day, so you can get a double dose of helping out the Earth in your life.
The Earth has been giving since before your time. The least you can do is give a little in return.
A message to ladies who hover
Staff Opinion
Whoever said girls were made of sugar and spice has obviously never attempted to use the women's locker rooms in the fitness center of the University of North Florida. Not only does it prove girls can be slobs, but it also proves they sometimes have a harder time aiming for the can than boys.
That's right, guys: Osprey ladies might wear tight spandex and cute running tops, but they also sprinkle while they tinkle and they don't bother to wipe off the seats before they leave. And the liquid remnants discarded on the seats are not to be confused with the water that sprays up from the water pressure of a toilet flush - those spots are not crystal clear and are quite distinguishable from the other kind. There's no need to say more.
Toilet seats were invented for a reason - to be sat on. Fifty percent of American women won't make contact with toilet seats, according to Allison Janse, the author of "The Germ Freak's Guide to Outwitting Colds and Flu."
The female anatomy was not designed for hovering, and the university cannot afford to send a cleaning staff through the locker room several times a day. Those who don't feel comfortable sitting on the seat should either venture out into the nature trails or wipe up after themselves.
What many women don't realize is they've been hovering all their lives to avoid germs to no avail. People get germs from their hands, not from their backsides, according to Janse. Janse's co-author analyzed a bathroom in ABC's "20/20" studio with a germ meter and found the toilet seats were the cleanest surfaces measured. The sanitary napkin disposal unit had the most germs, the bathroom floor was the second dirtiest surface and the sinks ranked third.
Speaking of bathroom floors, Janse told "20/20" they found fecal bacteria on almost 30 percent of the bottom women's purses. There are hooks on the backs of most stall doors and shelves outsides stalls on campus
for a reason - bathroom floors are one
of the dirtiest places to lay books
and bags.
The good thing about other on-campus restrooms is there are usually toilet seat liners available to protect your skin from making contact with the toilet. But if you choose to use one, be sure to throw it away when you're done. Whoever cleans those bathrooms will probably make a better effort to do their job if you make an effort to do yours.
It's been a long year and everybody is tired. But those who take advantage of the gym should also take responsibility for cleaning up after themselves. Save the hovering for the squat machine and relax when you're behind closed doors - you've earned the extra rest.
Contact Jenna Strom at editor@unfspinnaker.com -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
Road bikes: The new trend at UNF
Student Opinion
Being a junior, I have seen the growth in popularity of road bikes at the University of North Florida in the past three years. I, too, have been one to catch on to this trend.
After months of slow going on my beach cruiser around town, I was finally convinced to get a road bike. A road bike is a bicycle used on paved roads for long distance and racing. They have drop handlebars, thin wheels and are as light as possible for optimum speed.
A less complicated version, the fixed gear, seems to be most in this season. A fixed gear bike has one gear and no brakes. This causes your feet to be continually spinning as long as the bike is in motion.
Why the sudden popularity in road bikes? They are most certainly economical - one can easily need only one tank of gas a month if a road bike is ridden as much as possible. I've noticed a lot of people driving to school with their bikes in the back of their cars, parking in lot 14 or 18, and then riding to school from there.
I'm calling you out - it takes little effort to ride from your houses. It shouldn't take much more than 20 minutes to ride from the beach to school, and most people don't live that much farther of a radius from school than that.
I understand Kernan Boulevard can be intimidating. Whoever constructed the bike lane from Beach Boulevard halfway to school must have thought bikers should either get hit by a girl on her cell phone while driving or just turn back around. J. Turner Butler Boulevard is another oddity in engineering. The road that would feel the safest is a restricted area for bikers. There is a huge lane to ride a bike, yet in Florida it is illegal to ride a bike on a road where the speed limit is marked as 60 or higher. The police will not be fazed to write a perpetrator a $500 ticket, leaving the dreaded Beach to be reckoned with.
Keep in mind that not only are bikers lazy, but all you car drivers are, too. Florida law states all motorists must keep a three-foot distance away from bikers, and bikers have all the same rights applicable to any driver.
Everyone who bikes knows - and everyone who is thinking about biking should know - there is a lot of animosity toward bikers on the roadways. I have been cursed at, threatened, ran off the road, had fireworks shot at me, and numerous weighted objects thrown in my direction.
Many motorists don't realize bikers have the same rights to the road as they do, but they need to. I find it hilarious being called obscenities I'm sure you're all very familiar with, and they're demeaning what I am doing as they sit sustained in the air conditioning, in an enclosed La-Z-Boy chair.
Contact Bryan Hamlin at uspinnak@unf.edu -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
Don't let the government redefine chocolate ingredients
The following is an editorial that appeared in the Sacramento Bee:
The federal Food and Drug Administration is proposing to redefine the very essence of chocolate and allow big manufacturers such as Hershey to sell a bar devoid of a key ingredient - cocoa butter. The butter's natural texture could be replaced with an array of inferior alternatives, such as vegetable fats. And the consumer would never know it.
Chocolate is under attack.
One of the opponents of this proposal, chocolatier Gary Guittard, said it best: "No one can afford to sit back and eat bonbons while America's great passion for chocolate is threatened."
For every defender of traditional chocolate like Guittard, there are powerful proponents who want to replace cocoa butter with vegetable oil: the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (what do they want to put in the chocolate?), the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Snack Food Association. These industry titans have filed a "citizens petition" to the FDA, as the Los Angeles Times recently reported, as if there were some groundswell in society
to water down chocolate, reducing costs and
potentially increasing profits throughout the
economic food chain.
At the moment, chocolate requires two basic ingredients - cocoa and cocoa butter. The cocoa provides much of the flavor; the butter, the texture. So if, say, Hershey wanted to make a chocolate bar without cocoa butter, it can under today's rules. All the manufacturer has to do is label the product as "chocolate flavored" (for it still has the cocoa in it) rather than trying to pass it off as chocolate. That gives the consumer the appropriate signal that something less than chocolate lies beneath the wrapping.
This page, following its tradition of promoting truth and wholesome ingredients in food (guacamole must contain avocados!), stands for chocolate as it has been made for generations. Yet for
the masses to rise up and beat down this proposal, many Internet surfers may find the FDA's Web site too incomprehensible to navigate. An easier way to defend chocolate is to visit the Web site dontmesswithourchocolate.com and learn how to submit feedback to the FDA. Spare no adjective. The
very future of chocolate as we know it hangs in
the balance.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
Letters to the Editor
Student finds vice president-elect's alleged behaviors troubling
Dear Editor,
The recent disqualification and subsequent re-qualification of Student Body Vice President A.J. Souto is troubling. Last time I checked, threatening to break a woman's neck posed serious
legal issues. The recent tragedy at Virginia Tech reminds us of the gravity of seemingly
idle threats.
If Vice President-elect Souto threatened to shoot a fellow senator, would the threat have been taken more seriously?
If threatening to murder someone, rather by neck breaking than shooting is not an offense that is grounds to remove someone from SG office, then it should at least be an offense worthy of student outrage.
The student body elected Souto to represent them and their university. Perhaps the University of North Florida student body stands for arrogance and violence, but I sincerely hope not. Vice President-elect Souto owes the student body a public, written apology for his behavior.
If Vice President-elect Souto does not apologize or gives us an excuse-riddled apology, I
suspect he will quickly become one of UNF's least liked and most disrespected SG officials
in memory.
Souto, we elected you; please don't make us regret it.
Joseph Clements
Senior, Public Relations