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Financial aid slash has upside – or not

I can’t believe people are getting mad about their financial aid being cut (“Financial aid may face reduction in allocations,” News, Jan. 28).

I, too, depend on grants and scholarships to attend school, but I place my utmost trust in our pro-business president to do what’s right and proper with our country’s money – like help sponsor billion-dollar rebates for companies like Enron, Boeing and United, or even give it back to hardworking Americans like CEO’s and U.S. vice-presidents through tax breaks.

I don’t know about everyone else, but when I think that my being unable to pay for college might help poor former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay add to his meager collection of Aspen houses, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Corey Chapman Third-year English and history

Basketball seating should be revised

I have never read a more poorly researched or poorly written opinion than Greg Schain’s “Only lunatics camp outside; there are other alternatives” (Sports, Jan. 28).

The first thing that needs to be stated is people who camp out do have lives: UCLA basketball. But we also work hard in school – gates 10 and 15 provide distraction-free studying environments.

It is apparent that Schain has never attended a UCLA basketball game in his life, or he’d realize that his ground-breaking lottery system is already in effect.

Despite what Schain misses, I do agree the seating system needs to change. I think if you want to sit in the lower section you should audition to show the following qualities: the stamina to jump and scream during every defensive stand, the common sense to wear blue (not white, not gray and definitely not red), the ability to sing our fight songs and the lungs to belt out the eight clap like no other.

Schain is also right about the alumni. They don’t cheer. So it is much more important for the proven-fan students to sit close to the players to make up for it. The new athletic director should give seats back to the real fans.

But as far as Schain’s claims are concerned, to be a part of the game, and do your part in helping our Bruins win games, you must be of a rare breed. It takes those people who are willing to sleep out in the cold for a few nights to do it.

Dean baluch Fourth-year Computer science and engineering

Spiegel rhetoric not convincing

David Horowitz is a lot of things, but to label him an apologist for slavery as Lital Spiegel does in Tuesday’s paper (“Intimidation efforts of Horowitz, D’Souza fail,” Viewpoint, Jan. 29) is not merely a lie, but also pure libel, akin to the “all blacks are criminals” kind of generalization.

Spiegel only writes in broad statements, spitting out the same old simplistic left-speak without a drop of proof to back it up: “The truth is America is a racist society for blacks and minorities to live in ... ” Is it? As a Jew, I don’t feel that way! (Of course, we all know Jews aren’t really minorities – we’re just like Asians, right?).

Spiegel also says: “U.S. imperialist military adventures are always accompanied by domestic repression, particularly targeting labor, blacks and immigrants.” Yes, since we know Israel, President Bush and the CIA orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks, I guess you could call the crushing of the Taliban an imperialistic war to pipe oil through Afghanistan. That, or you could say Spiegel resorts to easy answers and ready-made sound bites, complete with unoriginal rage and appeals to class uprising.

Jeffrey Abelson New York City

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