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opinion
Alex
Roman's personal attack misinformed
I was unhappy with
Alex Roman's April 9 column, both with his attitude toward
student government and with his personal attack on candidate
Oron Maher. I fully support Mr. Roman's First Amendment rights
but I disagree with his views. Student government, as infantile
as it may sometimes seem, can provide a training ground for
future local, state, and national candidates. As a student
at UC Berkeley during the free speech movement of the 1960s,
I learned that student action, inside and outside of government
channels, can have long-reaching effects.
I value cynicism
-- it is a necessity when evaluating most human behavior.
Apathy, on the other hand, has little to recommend it (other
than the fact that your apathy about voting allows my vote
to carry more weight). Participating in student government
elections can give practice in learning to listen to candidates
(skeptically and cynically, of course), studying their arguments
and promises, and assessing their potential ability to enact
their platforms and meaningfully represent their constituents.
Personal attacks
on candidates will always be with us, but their inevitability
does not make them any less distasteful. To fault a candidate
for taking his candidacy and the office for which he is running
too seriously is just silly. Candidacy is, if nothing else,
a learning process for the candidate, just as making an informed
choice is for the student voter.
Taking learning
seriously, no matter at what level it takes place, is always
OK. Declining to vote in campus elections is certainly Mr.
Roman's right, and apparently most of our fellow CSULB students
agree with him. Those of us who choose to vote are exercising
a right too. One that we feel is very important, no matter
how local the election.
-- C. McGowan
International Studies Program and anthropology graduate student
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