AUTHOR: Nathaniel Vos

  2003-10-24


The biology midterm is over and while I would have felt pretty confidant about it, I actually missed the last and eigth page. As one might imagine, this is not exactly a way to get a 90%. So I scambled to fill in some bull within the two minutes I had left. Whatever. Sheer stupidity in inevitable in high stress environments, and while I wish I was not one of the afflicted, I am. So, I hope I am ready for stats tomorrow, and it is a good thing it is tomorrow, and total apathy is dangerously close to overtaking my faculties. I was reading today that Miami is actually 62% immigrants. Now, I have absolutely no problems with latinos/latinas. Some of my better friends at the U of A are actually from Central America, but I do think that the US should begin to encourage the immigrant population to diffuse into the rest of the US, out of the urban areas in the southwest and Florida. America is a melting pot, or at least, it always was, so more should be done to encourage "mixing". While I doubt the US is going to become anything like Canada, with an official bilingual policy, I think they had better start encouraging the English language and better integration. Which brings me to another topic. I am a conservative Christian white male and a geek in University, and I find that I am in the minority. According to Statistics Canada, only 42% of the students in university are males, and this is only going down. Furthermore, it would seem that the conservative population around here is in the decline as well. Fine, I can deal with reality, what I have hard time dealing with are the comments made by some referring to people that are socially conservative as rednecks. Minorities have fought for special rights in Canada, and in many cases achieved them. It is no longer politically correct to direct epithets or slurs at homosexual individuals, and as such, I believe that the white male, who is now the minority in the University, should be given special status too. Language that offends them it to be avoided at all costs, while I see absolutely zero respect for the conservative minorities beliefs, like course language in something as public as the Gateway. While this University is cutting programs and staff due to lack of funding, and yet still directing funds at polarizing projects like the Women's Only Space, I think it is only fair to direct equal funds at the real minority in the university. Just my two cents. Hasta maƱana.