Opinion
 

Letters to the Editor

Discover humor

To the editor:

I don't normally write responses to letters in The Daily Cougar, but today's letters page filled me with dread. I too read Matthew Caster's column "New regime answers prayers" Wednesday, but I had a hard time finding much wrong with it. I believe I understand the actual point behind the column.

I have to take issue, however, with the letters published in Monday's paper. The writer of the first letter claimed that voicing one's opinions is American, and yet by the end all four letter writers are implying Caster's writings should be censored, as if the First Amendment applies only to people who agree with them.

I also find it ironic that the people writing are in a most obvious subsection of our UH demographics: those who have absolutely no sense of humor when it comes to themselves.

In 1729, Jonathan Swift published a most entertaining and tongue-in-cheek, though horrifying, proposal on helping the people in Ireland break out of famine. "A Modest Proposal" was based, for those who do not know, on the selling of children as food. Swift was never serious about this proposal, of course, but he used the shock value as a means of pointing out social problems.

I can't speak for Caster personally, but having read his columns previously, I assume he does have a sense of humor and that he intended the columnis extreme statements to be humorous and give others cause to think about how far they go in sabotaging the streets of America in supposed protest or labeling all Muslims based on cultural misperceptions based on horrific people like Saddam Hussein or radical Muslim leaders.

I ask all those who wrote similar letters: Can you re-read the column and fail to find some small similarity to Swift's work? In our society, we should not fear people who have humor, but those who lack it.

I am far more afraid of the Catholics who spend their time protesting the movie Dogma, the Jews who seethe over Mel Brooks' History of the World Part I and the Muslims who cling so tightly to their religion so as to blot out the possibility that life exists outside of it, than I shall ever be of someone who has found the truth in the age-old saying, "Laugh, and the world laughs with you."

Michael Ahlf,
alumnus, 2002, 
electrical engineering

All about oil

To the editor:

I would like to counter what Joel Roberts and Chris Sanford wrote about in their guest opinion column "We are after radicals, not oil" Friday. I'm fairly certain that every other level-headed student has similar arguments against it, but just because of the slight possibility that no one else may have gone to the effort to bring it to their attention, I figured I might as well write in about it.

I agree that Saddam Hussein is no angel, and the world will be a better place without him. And I'd readily welcome a world free from terrorism.

But to say this war is not about oil is to demonstrate a lack of energy-related foresight in epic proportions. With world oil production expected to peak in the next few decades, the thought of such a tyrant controlling a substantial amount of our precious liquid is very scary indeed.

The oil industry bigwigs who helped load Bush's political campaign coffers are now salivating and sharpening their knives.

Richard Bolduc,
graduate student, 
electrical engineering

Letters to the editor are welcome from all members of the UH community and should focus on issues, not personalities. Letters must be typed and must include the author's name, telephone number and affiliation with the University. Anonymous letters will not be published. Letters are subject to editing for clarity, language and space. Letters may be delivered in person to Room 151, Communication; e-mailed to dclettrs@mail.uh.edu ; or faxed to (713) 743-5384.Send comments to dccampus@mail.uh.edu