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Letters to the Editor 10-1-07
University Legal Clinic helps UWM Renters
Student’s who need help in recovering their security deposits can also come to the University Legal Clinic, a UWM student-run resource center. Every year we help students recover thousands of dollars in wrongly withheld security deposits and it is the main legal issue we deal with.
If you feel that you security deposit has been wrongly withheld, you should immediately come to the University Legal Clinic and open a case. Our staff attorney John Wartman is a landlord/tenant specialist and, best of all, our services are free for currently enrolled UWM students.
Also, on October 9 at 6pm in Union 191 we will be holding an open forum where our attorney will be addressing landlord/tenant issues and will be available to answer any other legal question students may have. If you are having problems with your landlord, or any other legal issues, stop by and see what we can do for you, or come to our office in Union 357.
Keith Kollmeyer
University Legal Clinic
Article misrepresents Evangelicals
I have not seen the film “Jesus Camp” so I cannot comment on that aspect of the article (“Parents’ day at Jesus Camp,” Sept. 24); however, from just a quick read I noticed a few inaccuracies and misconceptions about Evangelical Christians.
To start, Jesus always loves everybody. He does not love some people sometimes and not others. Can you honestly say that you are a “good person” using the standards given by God in the Bible? Everyone has sinned and needs a Savior. And by the way, doesn't it just make sense that if God exists that you would have to follow Him to get to heaven? It really is irrational to say, assuming God does exist, that you can completely ignore Him for you entire life and be a relatively good person and then go to heaven.
The other major error is saying that creationism has no scientific basis and implying that evolution does. Both theories have the exact same scientific evidence which is interpreted differently depending on your belief system. Evolution, literally at every step, requires something that is scientifically impossible and so mathematically improbable that it is impossible. For example, matter cannot arise from nothing, life cannot arise from non-life, information cannot come from no information, natural selection leads to a loss in genetic information, not a gain (which is the basis of evolution). Not to mention that no instance of a gain of genetic information has ever been observed in nature. If you are interested in seeing what creationists really believe visit the website
www.answersingenesis.org.
The article (the Post’s) also states that Evangelical Christians insist that creation should be taught in schools when very few do. Since most public school teachers believe in evolution they would teach creation poorly and push students away. Instead what most Evangelicals want is for the flaws in evolution to be told (by the way teachers have been fired for just showing inconsistencies and flaws in the theory of evolution).
Kevin Cohen
Response to AJ Piwarun’s “Censorship hypocritical”
I and other members of Students For a Democratic Society (SDS) have explained both situations Mr. Piwarun brings up in his letter and they deserve to be fleshed out here.
Firstly, no one in SDS knew that Mr. Piwarun or his friend are College Republicans (one of the original reasons mentioned by Mr. Piwarun for our supposed censorship, but omitted in his letter to the editor).
Secondly, his evidence for censorship goes back to a mid-summer SA meeting. The meeting was held in July to review a few of SAC’s large grant decisions. The groups reviewed were: Club Hockey ($22,900), Lady Panther’s Soccer ($19,445), Wrestling Club ($19,015), and Students For a Democratic Society ($6,792). SDS’ allocations were singled out by Tobin Huibregtse since some members of SDS opposed Huibregtse for his stance against the Black Student Union in the Spring. If the Senate’s actions truly were viewpoint neutral as the United States Supreme Court ruled they must be, why weren’t the thirteen other groups at $6,500+ reviewed? In fact, had our budget been cut in half as was proposed, it wouldn’t have saved students’ tuition: segregated fees would not have been returned to students. Instead they would have gone back into SAC’s budget.
Mr Piwarun’s questions were welcome as I’ve explained in private to him. They would have been preferable to the commentary (rather than questions) that filled the Q&A session. Ultimately Mr. Piwarun, like everyone else, is not entitled to ask his question(s). The only people consciously excluded from asking questions were our own members and a member of AISA since members sponsoring the event could wait to talk to Winona after the Q&A session.
Mr. Piwarun’s problems with Winona LaDuke’s positions are not a surprise and don’t need to be dealt with here. Students For a Democratic Society do not have a series of speakers or even one speaker discussing government censorship this semester. However, we do have Peter Phillips talking about self censorship in the media on Wednesday, 10/3 in the Union Ballroom at 7PM.
Brian Averill
UWM SDS
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