Opinion

Letter: Nevada festival started in reaction to fear, pain

Editor, Societies diverge from their governments conspicuously often. One such example is this year's Burning Man festival in Nevada, where an estimated 25,000 people will create a virtual city inside the Black Rock Desert. The official Web site suggests that trying to explain Burning Man to someone who has never been is a bit like trying to explain what a particular color looks like to someone who is blind, so you have to go see it for yourself.

Letter: University lucky to have Panther activists teaching

Transparently self-contradictory letters are often disingenuous ones. Such was the case with the sadly illogical diatribe by L.H. Crum in Thursday's Daily Lobo against two distinguished faculty members at UNM, Finnie Coleman and David Hilliard.

Letter: For cooler planet, UNM should eliminate shuttles

The past year has been somewhat of a wake-up call for some of us. Highlights include President Bush admitting that our addiction to oil is a threat to our nation, Al Gore scaring us out of our wits with his documentary on global warming, and students howling in outrage at hikes in the cost of parking.

Letter: WebCT fees determined by instructors, publishers

I understand Emily Luna's concern about the price of textbooks and access codes. Students face many challenges, and it is important to make sure that education remains accessible.

Ed toons

Letter: UNM should not impose absurd fees on students

I would like to reinforce Luna's complaints in Friday's issue of the Daily Lobo about hidden class fees. I have been attending UNM for five years now, and I've noticed that much corruption has infiltrated UNM's economy. For instance, I paid nearly $300 for only two engineering books that I had to purchase. Furthermore, when I took Physics 161, I was forced to pay about $48 for a signaling device and an access code. But what truly caught my attention was a $15 fee for a direct deposit refund. Instead of paying this absurd fee, I waited for my check to arrive in the mail.

Letter: Rap music appropriate content for Panther class

I am writing in response to the letter by L.H. Crum in Thursday's issue of the Daily Lobo. I am enrolled in one of the two classes taught by David Hilliard, entitled "Black Panthers to Hip-Hop: Community Activism and Service Learning." I want to start by saying that this is my last semester at UNM, and I could not be luckier to have this opportunity to take a course with Hilliard.

Letter: Exceptional experience justifies hiring of teacher

I write in response to the letter by L.H. Crum published in Thursday's Daily Lobo. As associate director of African-American Studies, I helped Finnie Coleman in the hiring process. When Crum states that David Hilliard is "not qualified," he implies that Coleman, the dean, the University and I have done something illegal. This is not true. According to the faculty handbook, persons with no degree but with exceptional experience are qualified to join the faculty as lecturer II.

Letter: Peace activism prevents the destruction of lives

I am amazed at the over-simplified view some people can take on matters of life and death. To suggest that peace movements and activists promote war demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the fundamentals of war. War is the last bastion of the incompetent, and while occasionally necessary, it is always wrong.

Letter: Institute director acting according to job demands

Slinging mud without so much as a proper basis of facts is never conducive to a productive discussion of issues.

Letter: U.S. troops should protest their corrupt government

Of course we have to support the troops - the government is broke. I come from a military family. My brother-in-law just returned from Iraq. In 2002, we lost a very close friend in the war on terror, as Bush has called it. I wasn't trying to slag the troops. I was trying to slag these kids talking on their iPods.

Letter: Peace movements shown to perpetuate conflict

One of the many failings of our educational system is that it sends people out into the world who cannot tell rhetoric from reality.

Letter: Equal rights for women should include the draft

I just wanted to comment on the injustice that 50 percent of our population suffers from.

Letter: UNM Bookstore monopoly

My brother is a new freshman at UNM and is taking Psychology 105. The use of WebCT - or "Vista," as it is now called - is a requirement for this course in order to take online quizzes, which are part of the students' grades. The professor has made it mandatory that all students either purchase an access code at the UNM Bookstore - which costs about $60 - and buy the required book elsewhere or from the Bookstore, which costs about $111 after including the price of the access code.

Letter: Daily Lobo should expose UNM's war profiteering

I have a question for the Daily Lobo about articles like the one that appeared on Aug. 23 about Professor Mohamed El-Genk's research at UNM. How did the Lobo choose that article, and why did it not point out that his research is mainly funded by the military for new weapons, especially nuclear power for space weapons? This is well-known fact, yet the story helps make UNM appear uninvolved with war profiteering - a white wash of a very critical matter.

Letter: Lobo should question institute's absent director

I'm surprised at the lack of coverage the Daily Lobo has offered on the loss of two major grants by the Latin American and Iberian Institute. The emphasis of the coverage has been on the dollar amount the institute has lost under the new director, Cynthia Radding. But why not cover the prestige that not only the institute, but UNM as a whole has lost by losing its designation as an area studies center?

Ed toons

Letter: Black Panther co-founder not qualified to teach

I have read both the article in which appeared in the Aug. 21 Daily Lobo and the letter to the editor by Finnie Coleman that appeared Aug. 23, both about David Hilliard's appointment to UNM to teach two courses on the Black Panthers.

Letter: Most soldiers are noble, the rest are put in jail

This letter is in response to Brian Fejer's opinion, which appeared in the Aug. 23 issue of the Daily Lobo. The military has not lowered its standards. I don't know how Fejer even thought of it. I'm a private first class in the Army, and standards are higher than ever. People with past criminal history cannot be recruited. On top of that, any members who are convicted in military court of rape, any hate crime or murder will be breaking rocks the rest of their lives in jail.

Letter: Demographics of military mirror society as a whole

As a veteran, I found Brian Fejer's letter in the Aug. 23 Daily Lobo interesting to say the least, though it's obvious that he has never served in any of the U.S. armed forces. If he had, he would understand that the populations of these organizations have the same demographics as the population of the U.S. as a whole.