Readers' Forum Aug. 3, 2006

Airport inaccuracies

In the 02 August edition of the Daily Universe Emilee Erb reported that the Provo Airport would remain closed to all air traffic until power can be fully restored. That statement is partly incorrect. The reason that I say

'partly incorrect' is because YES it will be closed ONLY AT NIGHTS due in part that the runway lights are not operational - that is in part because there is still no power yet available on the west side of Provo including

the airport. The reason why it can still be operational during the day is in part, but not solely in part to that the air traffic control tower is operating on emergency generator power - though mainly any individual

(especially a pilot from within their respective aircraft) can normally see visually during the day one's surroundings. That is the main reason for why the airport is still in operation, yes even while the power may be out

to the remaining buildings and facilities that are there located on the airport premise.

Also I would like to throw in my appreciation for the great work that the city crews are doing in clearing up the mess from yesterday's storm. There are some who have put in long hours to get power up and running in other

parts of the city of Provo, as they are working around the clock to get things back to normal. I know that the power will be on shortly (perhaps that may mean within a couple of days or so) to the area affected around the

airport, but that is in part because the linemen have seen the need to get the power up and running to the majority of the residents within the city of Provo.

As I am a pilot who flies out of the Provo Airport multiple times a week, I just wish that the facts could be reported as true and accurate as possible.

So please before you publish your next story where thousands of students will be obtaining their (erroneous) information from - please do me a favor and do some simple investigating through the proper sources to get the facts as true and accurate as possible.

Interesting coincidence

I am not the first person to write in about Michael Barzee's sports writing. The quality of Barzee's writing is about the same as the picture he chose for his headshot (not good). However bad it has been, Barzee's writing

has at least appeared to be original. The same cannot be said for his July 28th 'Baseball Cards Bring Back Memories' column. This column seems to use all of

the ideas as a baseball card feature that ESPN.com ran that same week, using writers such as Skip Bayless, Kevin Jackson, and the amazing DJ Gallo.

While Barzee doesn't copy any excerpts from their columns word for word, he came out with a piece that says basically the same thing as their columns, only two days after they wrote it. Barzee is clearly a huge

fan of ESPN.com, because he lists it as his favorite website on his Facebook.com profile. I don't see how there is any way he did not commit intellectual plagiarism from ESPN when writing his column. If a BYU student writes a paper that contains the same ideas as another paper that they found online, they will fail the class for committing intellectual plagiarism. Shouldn't

the same thing happen to Barzee? Shouldn't a newspaper writer be held to the same standards with the paper as he would be held in the classroom?

If I am wrong, I apologize to Barzee, but I think the weight of the evidence is on him to come out and say if he did or did not take the idea for his column from ESPN. Here is my idea: instead of Barzee's

lame columns, how about every week the D.U. has a write-in contest for sports opinion writing, open to the whole student body. There are a lot of BYU students with interesting things to say about sports, why limit the

paper to one person writing sports opinion pieces, especially one that isn't any good? If Barzee really wants to steal ideas from ESPN, he should use 'You're with me, Leather.'

Cease fire

I believe the only solution to this crisis this time is an immediate cease fire. As a Jordanian, I thought Hezbollah shouldn't have provoked Israel. The Jordanian vision in the Middle East is peace and only peace and progress, and unfortunately a lot of the Arab states are ignoring that agenda... At the same time, Israel as always, takes it to the extreme. Instead of only trying to bomb Hezbollah guerrillas, they're bombing the Beautiful City of Beirut and its residents, all the way to Qana committing another war crime killing mostly children just like the one that happened 10 years ago in the exact same town! We all know that violence will only bring violence. I don't think Lebanon and its great people deserve this suffering again.

The U.N at this point is worthless. So who can apply enough pressure on the key players to end this crisis and stop the killing on both sides?

Oh wait, is the answer the United States?!

Hail to the plaque

The captioning beneath the picture of the Manavu Chapel plaque in the August 1st newspaper reads 'Since this plaque was placed on the Manavu Chapel....the church has come to be the second-fastest growing church in

America.' Hail to the Plaque. Every two years we have a complete turnover of 60,000 missionaries, when all it took was a plaque on the Manavu Chapel to spread the Gospel. We better place that in bulletproof glass before

somebody steals it and threatens the church.

Quiet, please

I have a cell phone. I have an ipod. I love the ease with which I am able to carry my music collection with me and with which I am able to communicate with people. These devices have been around for quite awhile, but around campus it is clear that people do not know how to use them. Using your phone in the library is not OK. Maybe in the stairwells away from other people, but please not in the areas where people are trying to study. I wish I would have counted how many times I have tried to find a nice spot to do some reading or write a

paper and have had to move from place to place because of somebody blasting some music at top levels or blabbing on their phones. In the library where it is quiet you don't need to blast your music to be able to hear it, and in computer labs where it is quiet, yes, everybody can hear you when you are having a conversation. Please, people, there are people trying to study on this campus!

LA Times poll

It would seem from Mr. Gunn's letters that he is committed to the idea that liberal LA Times subscribers skewed the results of a poll indicating that much of the American public doesn't like the idea of a Mormon

president.

However, the original article indicates that the poll was not conducted exclusively among liberals or LA Times subscribers. The explanation for their methodology is as follows:

'The Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll contacted 1,321 adults nationwide by telephone June 24 through 27. Telephone numbers were chosen from a list of all exchanges in the nation, and random-digit dialing techniques allowed listed and unlisted numbers to be contacted.'

I think it's also worth mentioning that many voters who would oppose a Mormon president probably aren't liberal at all. Many traditionally conservative religious people, including Evangelical Christians, may oppose a Mormon president on theological grounds, even though they may see eye to eye with Mitt Romney on numerous social issues.

The poll may or may not be accurate. I'm not in a position to decide that. But if there is an anti-Mormon sentiment in Southern California or in the nation as a whole, I think it's naive and misguided to attribute that

bias solely to the 'liberal and non-religious.' We should keep in mind that Mitt Romney was elected governor in a very liberal, Democratic state. If he wants to win the presidency, he may have to worry more about winning over certain groups of conservative voters than the 'liberal and non-religious' ones.

Defending NASCAR

The article on July 27, 2006 about NASCAR is filled with criticism and it even makes a despotic comment on people who speak with a different accent than the author.

The author missed many good points that could have been said about NASCAR and racing in general.

Racing (thanks to NASCAR) is one of the most popular professional sports in terms of television ratings in the United States and as a result Fortune 500 companies sponsor NASCAR as much as they do football. Thanks to corporate support the prices of tickets are kept reasonable enough.

Driving a car at high speeds requires an uncanny ability and those who understand it appreciate the sport and the drivers. Certainly we admire people who excel at something and this extends to football, baseball or any other sport. Racing, like other sports provides kids with good raw models.

Racing has pushed the ingenuity of mechanics and engineers to its limits and contributed to advances now available in everyday cars. Many new safety features are currently being tested at NASCAR. Oh, by the way: can you guess where your future tires are tested?

Racing also spurs economic development in the communities where the activity takes place and NASCAR products alone amount to $2 billion in annual sales.

The author suggests NASCAR could only be appealing to men. I would suggest reading ?NASCAR Women: At the Heart of Racing,? by Denise Wood. Those who can understand what goes behind certainly appreciate the sport.