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To the editor:
I'm here for one purpose: to question the ideology behind some of our "ethnic activists" opposing Frontier Fiesta.
Question: How many countries do you know that were erected from the kindness of another land, saying, "Hey! Here's one-half of our land. Take it and start your own civilization?"
Answer: Few, if any (that would also be the approximate number of brain cells some of the Frontier Fiesta opposition have and/or use). And, if there is such a place, would you please get the hell out of America and go there? You can cry all day about it, saying, "Hey, I'm allowed to be here. It's a free country!"
If that's your view, there's only one major flaw with your stance: There would be no "land of the free, home of the brave" without bloodshed and the conquest of America.
For all we know, there would just be some desolate land owned and neglected by Mexico. And wait - if Mexico does such a great job running itself, then how come immigrants (legal or illegal) flood into America instead of staying in Mexico?
Please stop your whining, and return to where your ethnic roots begin, even if that's Mexico, South America, Canada or Mars.
Judson Simmons
freshman, RTV
To the editor:
I have an idea - why don't we change the name and theme of Frontier Fiesta to Latin-America Days? Let's take look at what some of the booths won't be: a human-rights forum taught by members of the Peruvian, Mexican, Guatemalan and El Salvadoran police; a display of the world's most successful economies; a job recruiting fair; lectures on how to maintain a liberal democratic tradition or attain world prominence; and lectures on how to treat your indigenous peoples well, to be taught by Mexican, Guatemalan or Brazilian officials.
More likely we would have: a political prisoner dunking booth; a human rights activist shooting gallery; a "who can guess the number of people living in poverty" panel; a "fly the drugs past customs" booth; the "bribe this cop for as little as possible" booth; and, my favorite, the Aztec you-sacrifice-the-virgin-in-one-cut booth.
Maybe there would even be guest lecturers on how the Native Americans, Aztecs and other indigenous peoples practised acts of genocide, conquest and "land theft" on each other just as much as whites. Or how Latino Texans and blacks helped conquer the frontier just as much as whites. Or even about Hispanic slave owners and the 10,000 Hispanics who served in the Confederate Army.
As far as sexism during the days of the frontier is concerned, frontier women, due to the harsh nature of the environment, were afforded as much respect as, if not more than, men.
They owned businesses and land, drove wagons, hunted and helped tame America on a much more equal footing with their men than their Eastern or European counterparts. The first great American feminist heroes such as Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley, as well as many
others, were born in this era.
Does this offend you? Tough - it's the truth. No culture can take the moral high ground against others. There isn't any. Everyone has a checkered past and present.
People today have a tendency to romanticize the past and minorities to make them look like sacrificial lambs when they're just not that innocent. If you truly seek relief from oppression, you cannot attain it by utilizing the same mechanisms of hate used against you. It seriously undermines your cause and credibility.
Furthermore, it's nice to be able to sit in a state school in the state of Texas in 1997 and bitch about the way the benefits you now enjoy were provided.
Frontier Fiesta is not a celebration of racism. It is a celebration of the popular culture surrounding the Old West and one of the events this university has that makes it resemble something besides a commuter college.
Lighten up. You people with chips on your shoulders need to just have a beer and relax. If it bothers you that much, dress up like Santa Anna and pretend you're at the Alamo.
Quentin T. Williams
first year, law
To the editor:
It's great to know that Tera Roberson has wonderful parents who always fed her and worked very hard to feed her, but that's what parents are supposed to do. Not all parents do that, whether they are welfare recipients living in run-down, inner-city neighborhoods or middle-class suburbia living in neat, clean, pretty places.
Tera, your accusations of welfare mothers selling their Lone Star cards to buy drugs is mere speculating - biased, selfish and cruel. A lot of these welfare mothers are juggling one or more jobs to put food on the table. A lot of these women work more than 12 hours a day, even on weekends, at very hard, tedious jobs that pay minimum wage.
I am surprised you have such a narrow-minded view of welfare mothers in spite of your going to the University of Houston, where some of these welfare mothers are trying to get an education and working at more than one job per week to feed their kids.
It's great that you have realized not to take your meals for granted and that you wrote this column about those two hungry kids, but that's not enough. If you really want to ensure a meal for these kids, get involved. Set up a program in that apartment complex where these kids can eat on weekends. Fight back against the cutting of the school lunch program, rather than just wondering what will happen to those kids when the program is cut off.
Sagira Voga
sophomore, biology
To the editor:
There was a notable error in the article "Summer sessions see few language classes": "In case you're wondering, the absence of 1000- and 2000-level foreign language courses is not a misprint in the Summer/Fall 97 schedule."
A cursory look at the Summer schedule will reveal a number of 2000-level language classes. This is where a good deal of the funding went: so that students can complete their language requirement during the summer, especially those procrastinating seniors. There are also cultural heritage courses in Spanish and classics for the same reason.
Julian Olivares
Modern and Classical Languages
Editor's note: We never said there was a total absence of those classes.