Publicize plans

To the editor:

Well, I hate to admit it, but they were right. As a long-spoken critic of The Daily Cougar, it nearly breaks my heart to have to admit that they got it right. Monday's gray-box review of the current SA election (on Page 3) was right on the screws. One party not only represents business as usual -- they are counting on it to win. One group promises "change" but has no plan to implement it. Meanwhile, the Student Senate continues its usual self-serving modus operandi.

The current slate of political would-bes was elected by merely 1,200 students. That number suggests that elected student officials are not responsive to the needs of the average student. Everyday students either don't, or won't, care because of a failure to have their needs met.

I offer the following challenge to my fellow presidential candidates as a means of stepping out of the mold of politics as usual:

In the two weeks remaining, I propose three to four debates. Not one supposed forum, hidden behind closed doors, but out in the open, in front of the UC and the Satellite. Candidates should be prepared to answer questions from average students. Not just softball ones like "How do you feel about parking?" but "Where is your PLAN to solve the parking problem?"

The course of this election is at the fork in the road. It can either be about rhetoric and no action, or else it can be about ideas and bringing students back together and into the process.

Patrick Lalor

senior, speech communications

candidate for SA president

Get some ganas

To the editor:

I am writing to voice my opinion to one Russell Contreras. Seeing that he gets to voice his opinion weekly, I hope to voice mine.

Let me start off by saying Contreras is a disgrace to the Hispanic community that prides itself in working for everything they have. Working, not being given. All I read from Contreras is how this and that is unfair and that it's all someone else's fault.

He talks about the SA elections and how he has the ganas to make a difference, yet he wouldn't waste his time. He talks about fraternities with such disgust, and he doesn't know anything about them.

Well, hermano, my grandfather came from Mexico, and never once did I hear him complain about how unfair he was being treated. If things weren't going to his liking, he did something about it. He worked hard all his life and earned everything he possessed. He never accepted handouts. He never passed judgment on someone without knowing the facts. And guess what? People respected him for that.

So, Contreras, don't be pendejo. You would do our people better by not crying all the time.

Alfredo Castro

senior, HDCS

Publicize plans

To the editor:

Well, I hate to admit it, but they were right. As a long-spoken critic of The Daily Cougar, it nearly breaks my heart to have to admit that they got it right. Monday's gray-box review of the current SA election (on Page 3) was right on the screws. One party not only represents business as usual -- they are counting on it to win. One group promises "change" but has no plan to implement it. Meanwhile, the Student Senate continues its usual self-serving modus operandi.

The current slate of political would-bes was elected by merely 1,200 students. That number suggests that elected student officials are not responsive to the needs of the average student. Everyday students either don't, or won't, care because of a failure to have their needs met.

I offer the following challenge to my fellow presidential candidates as a means of stepping out of the mold of politics as usual:

In the two weeks remaining, I propose three to four debates. Not one supposed forum, hidden behind closed doors, but out in the open, in front of the UC and the Satellite. Candidates should be prepared to answer questions from average students. Not just softball ones like "How do you feel about parking?" but "Where is your PLAN to solve the parking problem?"

The course of this election is at the fork in the road. It can either be about rhetoric and no action, or else it can be about ideas and bringing students back together and into the process.

Patrick Lalor

senior, speech communications

candidate for SA president

Get some ganas

To the editor:

I am writing to voice my opinion to one Russell Contreras. Seeing that he gets to voice his opinion weekly, I hope to voice mine.

Let me start off by saying Contreras is a disgrace to the Hispanic community that prides itself in working for everything they have. Working, not being given. All I read from Contreras is how this and that is unfair and that it's all someone else's fault.

He talks about the SA elections and how he has the ganas to make a difference, yet he wouldn't waste his time. He talks about fraternities with such disgust, and he doesn't know anything about them.

Well, hermano, my grandfather came from Mexico, and never once did I hear him complain about how unfair he was being treated. If things weren't going to his liking, he did something about it. He worked hard all his life and earned everything he possessed. He never accepted handouts. He never passed judgment on someone without knowing the facts. And guess what? People respected him for that.

So, Contreras, don't be pendejo. You would do our people better by not crying all the time.

Alfredo Castro

senior, HDCS