Letters to the editor, 11/18

To the Editor,

Running Wild: My Slate for SGB

As I sat listening to each of the SGB slates… To the Editor,

Running Wild: My Slate for SGB

As I sat listening to each of the SGB slates for the third time in the past week, I decided to make better use of my time and design my own slate  — one that appeals to all the necessary groups to win an election and is totally infeasible.

Slate Appeal #1: The Greeks

•Erect a Tailgating Grove outside of Heinz Field, surrounded by a stone barrier so that only Pitt Students could enter  — meaning no Liquor Control Board ruining everyone’s fun. And while we’re at it, why don’t we have a real panther at all of our home games? If Georgia can have a bulldog, our endowment should allow us to afford a panther.

Slate Appeal #2: The Pragmatists

•Fix the escalators and put more outlets in Hillman. I have never witnessed a broken escalator anywhere else on earth, so why can’t Posvar Hall figure out how to stop the escalators from breaking down every day?

Slate Appeal #3: Allocations Nerds

•Allocate a significant amount of funds to buy the property that was formerly a Wendy’s, build a bar and use the yearly profits for allocated funds so that students don’t have to pay the activities fee. Then students get another bar and don’t have to choose between the collection of Yinzer bars and Vampire bars that define Oakland.

So vote Running Wild, for a better … you know what, never mind. I forgot to turn in my request for candidacy.

Pat Naples

School of Arts & Sciences

To the Editor,

I understand that The Pitt News works very hard at putting together a newspaper for students to read every day. However, at my three years thus far at Pitt, I’ve been very bothered by the lack of recognition given to other student organizations for their hard work. On the front cover of the Nov. 17 paper was a great picture of Andrew Jenks. The caption underneath it says nothing about the organization which worked for months preparing to bring him here.

Although the Pitt Program Council is given credit in the online article, it is the actual paper that most students see. Also, shouldn’t the lecture director of the Pitt Program Council who organized, planned and facilitated the whole evening get a shout out?

This lack of recognition has been an issue in the past and I hope that The Pitt News is more careful in the future and gives the proper credit to organizations that truly deserve it.

In the words of Jenks, “never take no for an answer.”

Shelbi Pellen

School of Arts & Sciences

To the Editor,

I am writing this letter in regard to Leah Trimble’s Nov. 15 opinions column, “Do we get more sexually adventurous as we age?”

I find this article to be a travesty to the spiritual health and well-being of our school, which is unfortunately endemic of our society as a whole. It promotes sexually degrading and perverse acts, and their tolerance as “mature.” Is this what we would like to see maturity represented by? Watching and participating in obscene pornographic behaviors born of nothing more then “plain ol’ boredom?”

We, as human beings with a divine soul, have a right to expect more of ourselves than this. We are capable of solving poverty, world hunger and even cancer and AIDS if we would but put our boredom and sexual energies into more productive use. Napoleon Hill, the author of “Think and Grow Rich,” talks a great deal about the sublimation of sexual energies and how the redirection of such powerful forces can accelerate a man, or woman, tremendously in his or her chosen field!

We live for more then cheap thrills in this lifetime, our souls desire more than these disgusting and disease-causing perversions that pass as entertainment. Instead of developing “kinks” in our relationships, would it not be more beneficial to develop love, compassion, patience or any other uplifting virtue? That I would regard as true maturity.

Thank you,

Michael Israel

School of Arts & Sciences