Top ten things overheard at Homecoming

Published: Monday, October 31, 1994

Editor:

10. "Homecoming 7500: UCLA built by ancient people with future-oriented minds."

9. "What body part did you lose now, Josephine?"

8. "I'm Joe, this is Josephine and here's our little one ... (Wait! I forgot! He can't be publicized!) ... Well, like I said, here's Juan, our friendly foreign exchange student from Spain."

7. "Before the Stanford game: Center for Bear Studies rally."

6. "At other schools: start with construction, end with a building. At UCLA: start with a building, end with construction."

5. "The statue? He's our great-great grandfather Joseph Constructioneer!"

4. "Josephine lost her head again? Have her put on a pumpkin. UCLA saves money and Josephine gets herself a spooky Halloween costume."

3. "My bear instinct tells me he's guilty."

2. "Talk about Operation 'Rescue Football Season': Have Joe Bruin take out the opponent's quarterback. Blame it on Joe Bruin look-alike phony."

1. "Brewin' beer through the years."

Arman Faraday

Third-year

Biology

Alien Nation

Editor:

Quite recently I wrote a letter to Bill Clinton and his INS Commissioner urging that if the administration was so concerned about the welfare of illegal immigrants currently residing in the U.S., they should extend citizenship to those folks. Will they? Likely no. Why not?

Immigration is not supposed to resemble the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. There is a process devised to control the orderly flow of immigrants into this country based on established limits. That process is designed to be fair regardless of an alien's geographic distance from the United States. For those of you opposed to unfair advantages (illegal immigrants need not apply) this allows the modern likes of my immigrant ancestors, because they are from Europe, not to be handicapped for having to cross an ocean first.

In response to the claim that social welfare is not an incentive to immigrants, I'll reiterate what I said to Bill's commissioner. You cannot prove to me that illegal immigrants don't use those services, because they do. If this wasn't an incentive, then Proposition 187 would not be a concern, because they would be losing nothing that they value. It is a concern, however, even if it's not the most prominent enticement to illegal aliens. They feel entitled, but they are not.

If Servando Sandoval ("'Illegal' reveals the reality of immigrants," Oct. 27) is trying to paint himself as a self-interested cheat or a petty criminal he is apt to do so by his own admission. Otherwise, he is an example of nothing. He did not come to the U.S. of his own volition. He was brought here by his father who refused to work within the system of immigration like my great-grandparents did.

Just a reminder everyone, save for Native Americans, is an immigrant or a descendant of an immigrant in these United States. No one rates special status on that basis.

James Lebakken

Junior

English

Profiteering history

Editor:

In his article "'Living history' lets those of past speak to us still" (Oct. 26), Tom Momary makes some good points about re-enacting history. According to him, the proposed Disney America project in Virginia "would have been a better instructor than all the teachers [he has] ever had combined." On paper, the theme park seems like a good idea, but in actuality it would hurt more than it would help.

The site for Disney America could not have been more poorly chosen. Traffic problems already run rampant in the cities surrounding the proposed site. Since Disney refuses to pay the cost of widening and repairing these roads, it is the citizens of Virginia who will have to foot the bill. This would also take away from money reserved to fix more urgent traffic problems.

Furthermore, plenty of places to experience history already exist in Virginia, among them: Colonial Williamsburg, Fort Washington, Manassas, Yorktown and the rest of the state. You can't throw a stone in Virginia without hitting one. The state is infested with history, and the people there do not need a Disney theme park to teach it to them.

Ironically, Disney America was planned to be built on top of a Civil War battlefield. Is this the sort of history that we want to teach? History that is priced at no less then $30 per person, surrounded by parking lots, hotels and restaurants? Americans fought and died for this land and would not be honored by this blatant profiteering.

Jon Ericson

Atmospheric Sciences

Third-year,

Nicole Stanley

Music

Third-year

Experiencing history actively

Editor:

I am writing in response to Tom Momary's recent Viewpoint article praising the "Disney America" project. (Actually, the project is called "Disney's America").

Momary failed to address what, for many of the historians he derides, was the most distasteful aspect of the project: Disney's original site choice. Thanks to the efforts of a variety of people, not all of them "self-proclaimed sentinels of history," the former Civil war battlefields of Prince William County, Virginia will remain pristine. They are and should be a quiet, simple place in which to reflect and ponder and be grateful.

Concerning Momary's assertion that "experiencing the past remains the best way to learn its lessons," I respond that those paying to enter Disney's America will be experiencing the past in a very selective, limited way. Disney will choose to re-create things that are visually entertaining and relatively easy to understand, and they will no doubt do quite a bit of simplifying.

Even if they aim for historical integrity and put in the hard work and money it might require they will have to take some liberties and guess as to how things really happened. That is not wrong, per se. However, I doubt visitors will be aware of all the many historical facts and details that are presently unknown, unclear, or in dispute.

Disney may make attempts to actually involve visitors in re-creations, but how authentic and careful can a re-creation be if untrained strangers can participate in it? At Disney's America, visitors will mainly be "seeing history come to life" that is, experiencing it in a passive way.

The most satisfying way to experience history is to do so actively, to research primary historical sources (writings, images, artifacts, sites and people), to think about them with the help of quality secondary sources and, perhaps, if one can, to participate meaningfully in careful recreations. That takes effort, but the greater the effort one makes, the more satisfied he will be. I am sorry Momary's history teachers have not inspired him, but if he is looking to fill the void, he will not do so at Disney's America.

Disney's "imagineers" are imagineers only in the respect that they use their own imaginations. They create images for us. When an animatronic Abraham Lincoln appears before us, moving and speaking, we are not imagining him at all. Imagination is something we must do for ourselves and, like serious learning, it takes effort. It is also uniquely rewarding.

Several years ago, Disney aimed to create an educational theme park in Orlando, Florida: EPCOT, the "Experimental Prototypical Community of Tomorrow." I have been to EPCOT three times; it is a lot of fun. There are exciting rides, great visual effects, beautiful films, magnificent fountains, lots of good food and things to buy. It is not, however, educational. It isn't even a prototypical community. It is just an elaborate theme park, precisely what Disney's America would be.

Andrew Robin

UCLA Extension