All Entries in the "Opinion" Category

Make education your priority

By D.J. Ochoa

Summer is over. As students at Pima Community College, we all know what that means: a new semester is upon us, bringing glorious hours of late-night study sessions and stressing over exams.

With a clean sheet for a new semester, why not start on the right track? Make education the top priority in your life instead of putting it on the back burner.

It might be difficult at first, but trust me: when you finally start taking your education seriously, the semester will fly by and your transcript will be filled with good grades.

I myself had a hard time making school one of my top priorities. I was always a slacker when it came to my education. To this day, I kind of still am — waiting until the last minute to turn in assignments, worrying about studying for a big test and not working to my full potential.

I’ve received good grades in all my classes, never lower than a C. But, there was always a voice in the back of my head that said, “If you had studied harder, you could have gotten a better grade” or “Yeah, a B is all right but an A is better.”

This semester, I am determined to quiet that voice in the back of my head once and for all, and make this semester at Pima better than the rest.

You should do the same. We pay an enormous amount of money to attend this school, so we might as well work hard to see our money go to a good cause.

When there are no more exams to stress over and you walk across that stage to receive your college diploma, you’ll finally know it was all worth it.

Proposition 8 limits equality for all

By April George

Recently, a federal judge overturned Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage. In the weeks that have followed, I’ve seen an enormous amount of hate and backlash on the Internet.

For those of you who are unaware, California voters approved a proposition about a year ago that bans same-sex marriages. On Aug. 4, Judge Vaughn Walker overturned the decision, stating it was “unconstitutional.” Opponents have struck back, claiming that Walker’s ruling violates American democracy.

Hey now. What? Sure, democracy is defined as the majority vote, but how is it democracy to allow bigoted people who are worried about the “sanctity of marriage” to decide who can and cannot get married? If the situation were reversed, and a majority had approved a ban on straight marriage, would that be fair?

Now I know exactly why everyone is worried. Opponents of the ruling are afraid that once one state allows gay marriage, all other states will be quick to follow. But would that be such a bad thing?

I certainly don’t think churches should be required to perform same-sex unions. I understand the religious opposition, but our nation is supposed to have a separation of church and state. The law cannot dictate what religious organizations must do, and religion has no basis to influence the law.

I also understand that secular officials may not believe in same-sex marriage. However, people who decide to become a justice of the peace agree to put personal beliefs aside to uphold the ideals of justice, one of which is equality.

Same-sex couples simply seek the right to call themselves married, and to share benefits that a straight couple takes for granted, such as spousal insurance benefits and the right to be in the hospital at their loved one’s side.

We’ve come a long way as a nation, so it saddens me to see that we’ve decided to backpedal on the right to be free. It seems church and state are closer than the founding fathers had hoped, because the main arguments I’ve heard cite religious opposition.

The United States is known as a nation of equality and freedom. I don’t deny that we are free, but are we equal? Until same-sex couples have the same rights as opposite-sex couples, we are not. America is the land of equality, but is it truly equality for all? Or is it just equality for some?

NYC mosque a slap in the face

By Jordan Condra

Nine years ago, on Sept. 11, a disgusting and tragic act of terror was launched on American soil.

You, your friends, your family and every innocent American was targeted that day. We still mourn the 3,000 deaths of those who were abruptly murdered before our eyes as we watched it all unfold on television.

As each year comes and goes just as quickly as the towers fell, we as a nation grow disconnected and desensitized to the simple fact that Muslim extremists were responsible for this act of terror and will continue in their quest to destroy this country and all it holds sacred.

Now, just two blocks away from Ground Zero, a flag of victory is ready to be raised in the form of a mosque. You might ask yourself, why is this a big deal? The ‘why’ itself is the big deal. Why there?

Why do people insist on building a mosque on what most Americans consider to be sacred ground? There are more than 100 mosques in New York City alone – so why there? Ground Zero isn’t even in a residential area, so the trek to this mosque would be an inconvenience to anyone who wished to visit it – so why there?

What will building a mosque on Ground Zero accomplish? And why do those who insist on the construction of this mosque continue to fight the 67 percent of Americans who oppose it?

This is not about freedom of religion or property rights. This is a political statement to the American people, a slap in the face. It is evident we have become a people of ever-growing tolerance with an uncanny ability to forget.

This mosque is not important to those who want it because they are in dire need of a place to pray and worship. This mosque is important only because it is a symbol.

Allowing the mosque would show the entire world that not only was America blindsided and defeated on that dreadful day, but nine years later, we willingly stood by, watched and allowed another defeat.

Thanks, it’s been a great ride

By Daniel Gaona

Incredibly amazing is an understatement to describe my time working on the Aztec Press.

It was for four semesters, which amounted to 32 issues. During those 64 weeks of newsroom and field labor, I took more than 10,000 photos and wrote about 150 stories. My math isn’t the best, hence I am a writer.

Whatever the actual numbers might be, the experience was just remarkable. But, like anything else, it eventually comes to an end.

However, it is just my time as editor in chief for Aztec Press that is coming to a close. I hope my journalism career is merely beginning.

I could not have asked for a better conclusion to my tenure at Pima Community College. My remarkable faculty adviser, Cynthia Lancaster, and I traveled to San Francisco to accept two Mark of Excellence awards from the Society of Professional Journalists.

We didn’t find out until the awards luncheon that we won first-place awards in both categories. Aztec Press was named the region’s best two-year college newspaper and my colleague Liza Porter won for her feature series on non-traditional students, “Going Back, Moving Forward.”

Then, on May 4, we learned we were national finalists in both categories. Of 12 regional first-place winners, we were in the top three.

Since I joined the staff in Fall 2008, the Aztec has completely changed, in a good way. That’s even more evident with the awards we just won, and being a part of it all is great.

I never thought I’d be editor in chief and never imagined we would have a Web site, especially a high-quality one like we created. Both of those achievements seem surreal.

Ultimately, I was only responsible for a portion of the success in the past couple of years. It was truly a team effort that got the newspaper to where it is now and teamwork will be essential in maintaining that perfection.

The staff has been great and will continue to be great. I feel this is the prime time for me to take the next step in my career because the senior staffers can continue to produce excellent content and continue winning awards.

Plus, I know Lancaster is going to continue improving the newspaper because even at its best, it can always get better.

While I will move on, I still plan to contribute to the Aztec Press. It is something I can’t just leave completely behind. If you had staffers like mine, you wouldn’t want to leave them either.

I will miss the late production nights, designing pages and scrambling to get everything done. At times I stared at the screen and went blind. The memories are splendid.

My last thanks go to all our readers: it’s been a great ride. But my cohort D.J. Ochoa holds the torch as next year’s editor in chief.

Install traffic light at dangerous intersection

By Narciso Villarreal

Death. We are informed about it every day whether it’s by watching the news, reading about it on the Internet or in the newspaper, or hearing about it from a friend.

A dangerous intersection on the south side of the city just awaits a future victim. It is the intersection of South Calle Santa Cruz and West Drexel Road. Pima Community College’s Desert Vista Campus is on the southeast corner of the intersection.

This intersection is especially dangerous for drivers trying to make a left turn from Drexel Road to go south on Calle Santa Cruz.

I have gotten stuck trying to make this left turn on a few occasions. I have had to take risks when turning because southbound and northbound traffic on Calle Santa Cruz just kept on coming.

Drivers trying to turn east onto Drexel Road from Calle Santa Cruz also make the intersection dangerous for drivers traveling south from Drexel Road.

Maybe it’s just me, but my parents agree that something needs to be done at the location. My best friend disagrees and says nothing needs to change.

It seems simple to me, though. The city should install a traffic light or stop signs at the intersection to avoid a serious vehicle accident or a fatality.

But I’m afraid the city will do nothing until a fatality does occur. Maybe two or more. It’s ridiculous that drivers’ lives have to be put on the line just because the city won’t spend a small amount of money to make the intersection safe.

Pima Community College should also step in to ensure that students headed to its Desert Vista Campus from Drexel Road are safe by building an entrance on the north side of campus. This would let students avoid the intersection altogether.

However, a traffic light or stop signs at the Drexel-Santa Cruz intersection would still be necessary to make it safe for other drivers headed elsewhere.

We shouldn’t have to pay a big price because the city didn’t pay a small price first.


Please be kind to your server

By Eric Townsend

It’s time to get on my proverbial soap box and address a few frustrating issues that pertain not only to me, but to other students as well.

I have worked as a restaurant server throughout my academic career to pay for my schooling, bills and nearly non-existent social life. I would like to clarify a few guidelines on what I call “dining etiquette.”

Tipping: Always tip, no matter what! Even if the service was terrible, remember that tips account for more than 50 percent of a server’s hourly wage. Not tipping is a huge disservice. 

Tips usually range from 15-20 percent, but the recent rule of thumb is to leave 18 percent or more.

Patience: I know it can be irritating when you wait for what seems like an eternity for that much-needed drink, but try to understand. Servers may be occupied and are trying their very best to get to you as quickly and efficiently as possible. 

I understand you want service and want it quickly, but don’t take it out on your server. After all, you are not the only one dining out.

Please and thank you: Try your very best to use these simple phrases. They are much appreciated and show common courtesy. There’s no need to snap at your server with phrases like, “Can I get my check?” or “I need another drink.”

I don’t mean to preach at everyone reading this, but just inform and give you a perspective from the server’s point of view. Please do your part to make it less stressful on your server.

We must interest kids in the news

By Liza Porter

Kids do not seem to have a sense of the importance of news to their daily lives.
Without a free press, democracy is at risk. The importance of this must be instilled in our children. We must have ethical journalism if we want to retain our liberties.

The solution is in the classroom.

Being involved in newsgathering and writing teaches children to love the news and differentiate important news from gossip and entertainment.

Every class from preschool on up should have a newsletter and every school should have a newspaper of its own.

Children should write and/or illustrate articles for their class newsletter on a regular basis. This will instill a sense of the importance of what is going on around them—the news—as well as teach them to write.

These student newsletters/newspapers will also provide a way to communicate with the parents at home and draw them into the news gathering and writing process.

With all of today’s technology available to them, a good newspaper (with online components) can be produced at each school, with everyday news for the younger kids and more in-depth community news for the older.

Every high school should have its own newspaper and/or radio station, with several types of journalism classes so that teenagers can learn how to be “backpackers,” journalists who do it all—the writing, the videotaping and the photography.

An informal telephone survey of 14 area high schools shows that 10 have journalism classes and campus newspapers. One of the schools with no journalism classes this year will offer them again next year, as well as produce a campus newspaper once again.

Imagine that, a newspaper start-up!

Cynics might say it’s too late to recapture younger readers. They’re too addicted to their iPhones and iPods and iPads. They don’t care.

If that is the case, all the more reason to start at the beginning. Teach journalism from Day One. Start educating children from their first day in school that news is important and everyone can share in the gathering and reporting of it.

We must keep journalism alive in our schools.

Savagery growing among young adults

By William Brown

A young woman commits suicide after being unable to withstand any further abuse at the hands of tormentors.

Another young woman is brutally stomped with steel-toed boots.

A young man is forced to leave his school when he is harassed because he is gay.

Are these horrifying images from Nazi Germany?

No.

They are events from the last four months that happened right here in America.

While much of the public focuses on the turmoil in Washington over reform bills and how unruly politics has gotten, many ignore the fact that young people are turning on each other like rabid wolves.

Phoebe Prince, a new girl in a new school, reportedly drew displeasure because she was dating the wrong guy.

Josie Lou Ratley made a disparaging remark about someone’s deceased brother, and so was beaten into unconsciousness.

A young man known only as Jacob was considered offensive simply because he was gay.

The people deemed responsible for Prince’s suicide and the attack on Ratley have been arrested, and that is good.

Due to the treatment of Jacob, a school district in New York reached a settlement in which it pledged to do more to protect students from harassment. That is good as well.

But it isn’t enough.

In all three cases, while behavior may have occurred that wasn’t acceptable to some, the explosions of violence and ill-treatment were disproportionate.

Such narrow thinking is sadly not limited to young people.

In Washington, death threats and epithets have been flying—largely in response to legislation most don’t understand and probably haven’t even read.

Americans, we need to take a long look at regulating our own conduct and the conduct of our children. As a nation of laws, we have measures we can take to settle things we don’t like without resorting to violence. We need everyone to remember that.

Aztec Press feedback

Thank you, softball team!

Recently, my family in Clifton went through a traumatic experience. My high school freshman daughter, Julia, was injured during a softball game. She was hospitalized at Tucson’s University Hospital with a punctured spleen and lacerated kidney after being cleated while sliding to third base during a high school softball game.

Her hospital stay was difficult. She was in constant pain and was constantly poked and prodded, not to mention being so far away from home, friends and family.

After the fourth grueling day of a five-day stay, a ray of sunshine came to her room in the form of three Pima Community College softball players and one amazing coach!

These four wonderful ladies took time out of their busy schedules to visit my daughter and bring her a signed team softball and team T-shirt. I don’t think they realize the effect this visit had on my daughter, and on us as well!

I would like to thank these awesome ladies for their selfless act of kindness to a teenager who really needed to believe that there are angels among us!

Rebekah Quiroz, Jordan Trujillo, Mercedes Garcia and Vanessa Arandules: Thank you from our whole hearts for taking the time to make our daughter’s day, and making her hospital stay a little less stressful.

There’s just one small problem. She and her older sister, who also plays softball, are in constant battle for the team T-shirt! LoL

Jesse, Janet and Julia Chavarria

Clifton, AZ (Home of the Fighting Trojans)

Another PCC tuition increase?

I read your article, “PCC eyes new round of cost-cutting steps” [Issue 3.] Another PCC tuition increase? When was the last time we had one, last year?

I’m a housewife with two children pursuing a degree in ECS, but this goal seems more out of my reach every day.

I’m considering quitting school altogether and just looking for a full-time job. A degree doesn’t seem worthy for a job and I can’t just work to pay school. It’s not like a few years ago. Too many cons to become a professional.

Financial aid is not of help for me. They want me to do full-time school, and I need to work, take care of the house, the kids and other activities.

I really hope we do not have another raise in tuition. Not everybody qualifies and gets financial aid for school studies.

Mary Spears

PCC student

Conservatives are out of control

By James Kelley

On Election Night 2008, CNN talking heads applauded the enormity of the event.

That November evening now seems so long ago and I don’t mean because President Obama has been a little slow in fulfilling campaign promises. We are still waiting on free community college.

No, it seems like ages ago because the commentators were marveling at how great the US of A is, that we can have a peaceful transition of power every four to eight years. My, how times have changed.

Not even a year and a half later, conservatives still can’t accept the presidential loss or the 2006 loss of both houses of Congress.

Now, just to be clear, I am most assuredly a moderate and I think Obama should have fixed the economy before touching health care, but the Right has really gone over the line.

OK, so maybe they feel the legally elected executive and legislative branches are overstepping authority, but their actions only support the notion that your average American Right-Winger is from a family tree with no branches.

It is one thing to yell “you lie” or “baby killer” in Congress. That’s childish and embarrassing, but if that’s the line then people like the Tea Baggers passed it long ago. That line no longer appears in the rear-view mirror of their pickup trucks.

It is one thing to brandish nonsensical signs at rallies. (Seriously, next time learn what a Nazi is or actually rent “The Dark Knight” before making signs of Obama as Hitler or the Joker. Maybe they meant he was Two Face? Clips of the rallies imply the average education of Tea Baggers is 5^th grade.)

For the record, even though Nazis were called National Socialists, they fiercely opposed Communist/Socialists. They were right-wing, racist and took power with violence. Try researching Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass.

It is quite another thing to literally attack Democrats.

Conservatives have moved beyond childish behavior. They’ve spit on congressmen, called them niggers and faggots and mailed them white powder. They’ve broken office windows, including those of Tucson representative Gabrielle Giffords. They’ve posted assassination threats.

On part-time politician Sarah Palin’s Facebook page, there was a map with crosshairs on Democrats and she tweeted, “don’t retreat, reload.” Remember, that’s not the Imperial Wizard’s Web site. It is a legit GOP candidate, even though I think voting for her is straight Palin, I mean retarded.

Lawmakers had to step up security at the House after more than 10 representatives were subjected to threats of snipers and cut gas lines. White trash has no qualms with making assassination threats against Obama. Republicans are hardly trying to stop it.

This is not how America works. This is not democracy. If your party loses, you can’t just go to war.

I never really thought democracy would stick in Afghanistan or Iraq because I think the countries are too culturally backward. Is this where the United States is headed? It is not hard to imagine Dixie suicide bombers.

Remember, the KKK used terrorism long before any extremist Muslim.

Where is the end game? What happens if the Democrats retain both Houses?

Will Red(neck) states secede and attack Real America? Will there be another Civil War because some residents of the country are sore losers?

Learn some manners, gamers!

By Mike Hawkins

Online gaming is fun. You get to blast fools without getting arrested, dominate real opposition on virtual playing fields and even make a new friend or two. At least in theory.

In reality you have a good time with the games, but you’ll nearly always be inundated by a sea of moronic behavior, potentially drowning your enjoyment.

I’m not going to complain about the rampant racism, homophobia and sexism that exists in online gaming. That’s just passe. Here, I plan to sound off against, and suggest some quality fixes for, a few of the more irritating acts propagated on XBOX Live and PlayStation Network.

First on my list is children, or everybody under 16 years old. I can’t stand their voices. One of them is bad enough but any more than that sounds like the front row of a Justin Bieber concert. And when they get mad their voices get even higher… I just want to choke them.

XBL and PSN should make separate rooms for teeny-boppers and regular people. There’s no reason we should have to put up with those scamps. Besides, they like each other anyway.

Next up are boosters, people who team up to beat each other so it looks like they’re excellent. For example, you and I join a game where we won’t be the only ones playing. We find a quiet corner, where you proceed to kill me repeatedly. Next game is my turn to be the killer.

Sounds pathetic, right? Of course it does. How sad does your life need to be that you’ll cheat to make yourself look better than you really are at a video game? What happens when you play someone good and it’s obvious that you suck?

Video games are meant to be fun. People who feel the need to ruin other people’s enjoyment shouldn’t be part of the group. I’m sure XBL and PSN can trace their specific game systems. They should ban the cheaters. Just that simple.

The final fetid gonads are folks who play music over their headphones. Do you play music over XBL or PSN? If you said “yes,” slap yourself. Hard. Don’t get me wrong. I love music, just not over the Internet off a video game microphone. It always sounds crappy and they never play a song you want to hear.

Just the other week I was playing “Modern Warfare 2” and two prepubescent scallywags thought they were auditioning for “American Idol” during the same game.

One kid was having a singalong to Owl City’s “Fireflies,” while the other little cretin played Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” But not even the whole song. He had it on a loop that just kept going, “Gaga, oh lala… roma oh rama…” You want to stab them just hearing about it.

XBL and PSN should rectify this situation by hiring music slappers. If you play music over your headphones, one of these fine employees will come to your house and slap the top four layers of skin off your face. It’s a very fair punishment.

It really shouldn’t even be an issue. All you have to do is not be an ass online. That and kick your little brother in the chest if you hear him screeching into the Internet.

Video games are meant to be fun. Don’t spoil other people’s experience.

Entertainment industry lacks innovation

By Austin Driscoll

Innovation is lost in today’s entertainment industry. While many are making strides to improve it, most fall way too short.

The movie industry has seen the worst of it. Filmmakers may be trying new things with technology but there are no innovative plots. The stories are recycled and reused stories that we have seen in about a hundred other movies.

Beautiful 3-D graphics are very nice but do nothing for me if I’ve already seen the same movie with different characters.

The video game industry has also been hit hard. Nintendo has a motion-controlled video game console but the company still releases Mario game after Mario game and most don’t even use the motion controls.

I’m not just picking on Nintendo. Many game developers and publishers are to blame because of overused sequels. It shows me that publishers are too afraid to step out of the box to make something completely new, so they just expand on what they already have.

The lack of innovation may be a direct result of the economic issues in today’s society. Most games and movies are on a tight budget and a strict deadline because of the lack of money funding them. It’s difficult to hire innovative people when you don’t have the money.

Luckily, the music industry hasn’t been affected quite as much or even at all. There are still many new artists experimenting with new instruments and technology. I just wish that every other entertainment outlet was willing to take bigger risks too.

Not all movies and video games suffer from lack of innovation. There are still many movies and games raising the bar. I just feel that no one else is able to reach that bar.

We all need to escape cultural ‘bubbles’

By Jerry H. Gill

To borrow and paraphrase a line from the Beatles, “we all live in a cultural bubble.”

This is quite natural and even necessary. We are born into a particular family and place at a specific time. As we begin to grow into full human persons, we are shaped by the factors making up our individual “bubble,” such as our family, close relatives, friends and teachers.

These factors serve as the loom on which our early life patterns are woven. They provide the context that gives our lives structure and also confine us. Thus it is important that we all learn how to continually move “beyond the bubble” in which we find ourselves.

As we grow toward maturity, we participate in a variety of sub-cultures and larger processes that shape, define and confine us.

Sixty years ago my generation, like all previous generations, grew up waiting for the day we could move into the adult world. Young people essentially had no world of their own. We danced to the same music as adults and looked forward to someday getting married, raising a family and finding work in an established job market. Some of us even followed the socio-political developments taking place across the country, as well as around the world. Nonetheless, we were living in a sub-culture created and maintained by adults.

Most of that changed with the coming of the 1960s, when young people began to have their own music, fashions and lifestyles. Today, young people are preparing for jobs that did not even exist a few years ago, let alone for previous generations.

Obviously, many young people find these changes liberating and challenging. However, they often do not realize they are still living and operating within the confines of a sub-culture created and manipulated by others.

Previous generations lived in anticipation of participating in the adult world. The current generation for the most part is oblivious to the fact that they live in a sub-culture created by other people who seek to manipulate young people for their own profit.

Three of the major factors comprising the sub-culture bubble that most young people live in are: (1) the pop culture of rock music and its stars, fantasy movies and novels, and the electronic world of cell phones, videos and the Internet, (2) the world of fashion, including clothes, body decorations and cars, and (3) the perpetual search for romance and sexual experience.

Within the last decade or so, young people have become virtually addicted to the world created by these influences. They have essentially shut out the larger world beyond the confines of their own immediate interests, including such things as world politics, economics, foreign cultures, the natural world and even spirituality.

As a teacher watching and interacting with today’s college students, I am astounded, both by the degree to which they are continuously tied to their cell phones or iPods and by the almost complete lack of any reference to the world outside of their immediate cultural bubble.

They seem unable to live without their phone messaging. When they do talk with each other, for the most part they are limited to the details of their personal lives or those of the current “American idols.”

They do not realize they are caught in a narcissistic bubble that is largely tangential to what really matters in the rest of the world. Even our classroom work often seems irrelevant to and disconnected from the lives of many, if not most, students.

What young people need to know in order to break out of this “youth culture” trap, in order to grow beyond the bubble that confines them to an extremely limiting quality of life, is that this essentially fantasy world is created and maintained by people who are driven by selfish profit motive.

They have been told that they are “unique,” “special” and “free” individuals by those who wish to sell them an unending supply of “cool” clothes, discs and foods, even as they are being fed and sold an ongoing stream of commodities that are essentially the same.

It becomes imperative for them to purchase the latest multi-tasking phone, line of “distinctive” clothes and hottest DVDs or videos, while their suppliers rake in the profits.

In “The Wall,” Pink Floyd gave us the line, “We don’t need no education, we don’t want no mind control.” If young people today want to avoid the sort of mind control their current cultural bubble imprisons them in, they had better get an education, and a good one at that.

This, of course, goes for those of us in the so-called “adult world” as well, since our lives too are also largely controlled by the designs of those running commercial enterprises at the highest levels, including the mass media and the professional lobbyists.

We all need continually to force ourselves beyond the imprisonment of our particular cultural bubbles and try to see the broader reality all around us.

One of the most difficult aspects of teaching young people today is trying to get them to think and speak sequentially. From “Sesame Street” on, young people have been presented with snips of images and sounds that are for the most disconnected from one another. Even the previews for films are so disjointed that one has little idea what the movie is actually about.

Many of my students are unable to write a coherent paragraph dealing with a single topic, let alone a three-page essay developing it. They often do not know how to ask about the presuppositions and implications of a given idea, or how to analyze its meaning.

Years ago, in a “Peanuts” cartoon, Linus comes home from kindergarden and exclaims that he had a grand day at school because they learned to place one block on top of another. He says: “I never would have thought to put one block on top of the other.”

I often share this with my students in order to explain what is meant by “sequential thinking.” One learns to place one block, or idea, on top of, or after, another so that the building process makes sense and holds together.

By learning how to actually think, we can all grow beyond our particular cultural bubbles.

Moreover, it should be clear that this sort of thinking involves both listening to and reflecting on the thoughts of those around us, no matter their age, gender or culture. Ultimately, we think best when we think together.

Jerry Gill is a Pima Community College adjunct instructor of humanities, philosophy and religion.

Texting while driving same as DUI

By Debbie Hadley

Driving while talking or texting is lethal. There are plenty of cases to prove that.

Last issue, an Aztec Press staffer suggested that cell phone use should be banned for every driver, period.

I have a bigger bone to pick: texting. Driving while talking is certainly not the best thing you can do while operating a motor vehicle, but texting while driving is a far worse crime.

Let me preface this by saying I have texted while driving. But after recently going cold turkey, let me provide important things you might be missing: brake lights, pedestrians, merging traffic. The list literally goes on.

For those of you who might be thinking, “that’s not me,” let me throw some numbers out to make you considerably less comfortable.

Research indicates that texting and driving is more dangerous than just talking on your cell phone.

Texting involves a meeting of “visual, manual and cognitive distractions,” according to distraction.gov. This means your eyes are off the road, your hands are off the wheel and you’re not paying attention to what you’re doing.

In fact, according to the University of Utah, texting while driving has the same effect as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent.

Let me be one of the many to inform you of this: you do not have the right to text and drive, and be a factor in a very possible car accident.

This month, the state Senate revived a bill on banning texting by drivers. If passed, there would be a $50 fee for being caught in the act or $200 if there was an accident.

These numbers may not mean much to young drivers, but the point is this: a life is not worth your 140 characters or less. Texting while driving is fast becoming the new DUI.

Nineteen states currently ban texting while driving. Arizona would be smart to do the same.

Keep your 3-D off my ‘Harry Potter’ films

By Gabi Piña

Over the last year, a three-dimensional craze has swept the movie world. Every other film released has some form of 3-D effect.

I’m an avid Harry Potter fan. I’ve followed the series since the first book was published and I’ve been impatiently waiting for the release of the last two movies.

Once the 3-D trend took over and once “Avatar” became the highest grossing movie ever, someone in Harry Potter land decided, “Oh, hey. Let’s make ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ 3-D!” No, no, no! This is not acceptable.

Some might argue that having those kinds of effects will only enhance their Harry Potter experience. It would give them the feeling of actually being there.

Let’s get real. I doubt that is why the behind-the-scenes Harry Potter crew is doing this. They heard “Avatar” made millions due to it being so awesome, so they think they can do the same.

I’m sorry to those who are in favor of this, but the films already make too many changes from the books. There’s just no need to add 3-D effects.

Harry Potter movies are filled with enough action and awesome scenes to hook people. The series has been going strong since the first movie was released and they’ve done it all without the help of three-dimensional scenes.

If people are looking for some “real” Harry Potter action, they can go to the “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” attraction opening this spring at Universal Studios in Florida. The experience there will make them feel as if they’re literally in Harry Potter’s world.

I know this rant won’t change David Yates’ mind on how he chooses to direct the final two films, but if by any chance he happens to read this, I want him to know that I kind of hate him for doing it.

The Harry Potter series should not be in danger of plummeting because of this! Leave the plummeting to the Twilight series. But, as we all know, that’s a whole different story.