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‘ve taken most of Andrea Bailey‘s Ioolumns with either a bit of a grin or a bit of a groan. I‘ve accepted that the history of her hair colour calls for editorial space. I‘ve been in awe of the leap of logic that would have the airâ€"conditioners atop the Seagram Lofts causing the untimely deaths of the sleepâ€"deprived Euclid Street comâ€" muters. I‘ve even accepted that, for some people in the world, the meanâ€" ing of ghe phrase "You have nothing to fear but fear itself" might be made manifest in a faceâ€"off with an unleashed dog. Okay, okay But Ms. Bailey‘s most recent colâ€" umn ("A food hamper is not a perâ€" manent solution") is the straw to break my proverbial camel‘s back. 1 began reading the column and, at first, _ found _ myself â€" somewhat impressed that Ms. Bailey was attackâ€" ing such a serious issue for our comâ€" munity. Her willingness to undergo the food bank "experiment" should be applauded; any awareness that the media can bring to the terrible catchâ€" 22 of poverty is well worth the paper that it‘s printed on (and more}. Unfortunately, though, Pollyanna decided to rear her (whateverâ€" Most students are honest and hardworking My wife and I live in Waterloo, andâ€" students from the two universities live in the neighbourhood and walk by, to and from school and other activities. We know most of the students are honest, hardworking young adults, eager to fit into the community and concentrate on their studies. However, every late August the resâ€" idents of Waterlon notice another unwelcome arrival. With the return of students come the return of petty theft from our property. My elderly neighbour is afraid to place expensive lawn ornaments in her front yard. She has lost several over the years and cannot afford the expense or the heartache. A bicycle was taken from a retired couple, down the street, during the frosh week and the nonsense has struck our home. Twice, we have found the emblems pried from our You said it ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THE THREAT OF BIOâ€"TERRORISM? QUESTION coloured) head for much of the last half of the article. As a woman who â€" at one time in my life â€" supported my children while I attended university by collectâ€" ing welfare in order to supplement my partâ€"time waitress job, 1 have to balk at the ridiculousness of Ms. Bailey‘s record of her "struggles" to surviveher four days of poverty. It is a slap in the face of people who, like me, have fought to make a life inside of such a system (and have battled to find a life outside of it} to hear Ms. Bailey fret about her lack of nineâ€"dollar foundaâ€" tion and the possibility of missing her miniâ€"golf game. She may have been trying to give her readers a greater understanding of the reality of welfare livingâ€" what she succeeded in doing, however, was painting a picture of welfare recipients as people who can‘t afford Clinique and nights out on the Here‘s the flash. I didn‘t have to save up for a month for a haircut because, on welfare, there‘s nothing to save. I cut my own hair and got my mom to cut the kids‘. I didn‘t have to worry about where the miniâ€"golf money was â€" 1 worried about where automobiles, following a night of ineâ€" briated youths stumbling home and talking loudly as they pass our home. 1 purchased a large Canadian flag this early spring. It hung proudly from our porch all summer. We looked at it and felt patriotic. This is the flag of the country my father fought for. It is the flag of the country we proudly call This weekend it vanished. The thief walked onto our porch and removed it from its hooks. I have no doubt it now hangs over a window as a makeâ€"shift curtain or is draped on a wall. 1 know that anyone who would steal it, cannot appreciate it as we did. To us, it represented far more than an hour‘s wages for a coloured piece of cloth. May the person who removed our flag someday own a home and cherâ€" "Of course | am, because we live so close to the States. "I wouldn‘t say I‘m really worried. It‘s in the back of my mind, but 1 know that Canada doesn‘t really register the same way as the U.S. around the world." ) THE CHRONICU] Kristing Kucar COMMENT Sean Presley I give already the hydro money was... or the winter boot money... or the Kraft Dinner money. The eye shadow that I wore came from the dollar bin at the Biâ€"way or it came in the form of a birthday gift from my extended family. I didn‘t have to worry about my complexion because my ohâ€"soâ€"natural look became dark circles and a gothâ€"like pallor resulting from long nights of working at the bar and then doing homework till the wee hours of the morning. I‘m not telling you this because I‘m an unusual case. I‘m telling you this because there are a lot of people just like me who‘ve struggled, or are still struggling â€" either with the welfare merryâ€"goâ€"round or with lowâ€"income employment that barely keeps a roof over a family‘s head. And it‘s hard, Andrea. It‘s damn hard. It‘s a lot more hard than choosing to drive by that McDonalds on your way home from the House of Friendship. Lucky you had a car â€" if you‘d have been on foot, the temptation to stop for that Happy Meal might have been overwhelming. ished possessions of their own. I hope some day the same indignity happens to them. This may seem like an unfair judgement but as a long time resiâ€" dent, I would like to conclude by sayâ€" ing this to the students. Most of you are temporary guests in this town. You have arrived here fresh from under mom and dad‘s wing, This is your first big venture in the world as an indeâ€" pendent soul. Please, remember that you are an Ambassador for your uniâ€" versity and your generation. Dress as you wish and enjoy the freedoms and thrills of your youthful, student lives. Just don‘t lose the common sense and social conscience your parents hopeâ€" fully instilled in you. So nice to have you back in town. "I‘m not at all worried about it, but it is something that‘s in the back of my mind. But there‘s other stuff going on that I‘m more worried about." "No, I figure it‘s got nothing to do with us." Destiny Winkler Michele Kramer, Rob Welton ccording to George W. Bush, "You are either with us or with the A:enon'sls’fl The remarks were clearly designed to ensure not just diplomatic acquiescence of other countries to America‘s soâ€"called war against terrorism, but also to restrict the range of debate seen as acceptable in his own country. The chill has spread to Journalistic Linda McQuaig asks the all important question: "What exactly does ‘with us‘ mean? Does it mean a willingness to bring terrorists to justice, or does it mean something broader, like supporting U.S. interests in general? In the Cold War, the US. demonstrated it was capable of defining threats to its security very broadly, to include perceived threats to its economic interests. In case it isn‘t obvious, it should be pointed out that criticizing the U.S. government is not only permissible in a democracy but is absoluteâ€" ly vital, considering that the U.S. is the most powerful country on earth and its actions impact hugely on every part of the world. Surely if we want to understand what‘s going on in the world we must be willing to look critically at U.S. foreign." McQuaig is rightly worried that a wide range of American interests â€" economic, military and cultural â€" will now go unquestioned due to pressure to be on the side of the Americans. Paradoxically, freedom of thought and freedom of expression are supposed to be what the Americanâ€"led â€" _________________ coalition is going to battle to defend. e Bush and his chorus of supportes MIRBMWUOINSIUN {including the Chretien government) VI I‘ W argue that the terrorists despise western . society for our freedom. Saying that one : who _ doesn‘t _ support _ bombing f ine Afghanistan is "with the terrorists" is (MMRMR 0 ) hardly aimed at encouraging free discusâ€" #*" * sion. As Parker Barss Donham notes in 3 h ts the Halifax Daily News, "the right to disâ€" "C o. sent from the decisions of one‘s rulers .A ud lies at the heart of a free society. | 4 | Defending that core goal â€" our society‘s . | | freedom â€" is precisely the rationale for | undertaking the extreme step of a miliâ€" SCOTT tary assault on another society. To insist . | PIATKOWSKI on abandoning our core values as a necâ€" flmmc essary step in defending them is irrational. To cloak that insistence in the guise of support for our troops is a repulsive bit of intellectual dishonesty." We‘re going too far in restricting liberties Just ask Sunera Thobani about the price of exercising the right to hold dissenting views in the current political climate. Thobani was pilloried by politicians, journalists and others for arguing that American foreign policy is "soaked with blood" and that "today in the world, the United States is the most dangerous and the most powerful global force unleashing horrific levels of violence." The fact that Thobani provided numerous examples to prove her point and also stated, in the same speech, that she feels the pain of the Sept. 1 1 victims "every day" but that hasn‘t been reported (most people critâ€" icizing Thobani have only read the "abridged" version of her remarks in The National Post, a version that strips the context and meaning from her more controversial opinions}. Thobani has been forced to post a security guard outside her office at the University of British Columbia and been told repeatedâ€" ly that she doesn‘t belong in this country. The price for expressing unpopular opinions is magnified if the person expressing them has brown skin. Anyone else who might have been thinking of speaking out will surely think twice. The range of acceptable opinions has clearly been limited by the overâ€"reaction to Thobani‘s speech. This week, Ottawa has gone further. Under the cover of "antiâ€"terâ€" rorism legislation®, it is proposed that police have the right to make "preventative arrests" and that defendants will lose their constituâ€" tion right to remain silent. It‘s hard to disagree with much of the conâ€" tents of Bill Câ€"38, but civil libertarian Alan Borovoy cautions that "the legitimate war on terrorism doesn‘t require measures as broad as that." Simon Potter of the Canadian Bar Association warns that "it may be that people are going too far down the road in wanting to clamp on freedoms which we now take for granted." CBC News has reported that the wording of the bill is so broad that nurses engagâ€" ing in illegal job action could be arrested as "terrorists". ANOTHER / VIEW 1e *ALF "D y We | SCOTT |