The campaign call

Once again, it is the glorious season of BYUSA elections - a most terrible time to be on campus. As we are bombarded by the political warfare of annoying fliers and campaign songs that get stuck in your head, many of us seek sanctuary by dodging around the corner. Let's not forget to mention the onslaught of slimy political deceit as the candidates pretend to be your new best friend, not even recognizing that they've formally been introduced to you five times earlier this semester because they don't recognize you as a fellow human being, only as a vote.

All this I can avoid and tolerate through swift maneuvers of avoidance - but calling me at my home at 11:30 p.m. to ask me to vote and tell my friends to vote for them is absolutely rude and uncalled for. These candidates don't care about you or I. They care about their résumé and the great addition being a BYUSA president would make to it. What proof do we have that they will even affect our lives here at BYU? Were any of the promises made by past candidates ever fulfilled? This entire election process is insulting and nauseating, and I would rather waste my time staring at a wall than going on line to vote for those who are not even courteous enough to call me at a decent hour.

Tabitha Mounteer

Alpine

BYUSA's special interests

As a coordinator with student leadership and adviser with BYUSA, I share my concerns about the BYUSA student body elections and the recent disqualification of candidates. Each year, a full-time employee takes a turn rewriting election regulations, then appoints a student to chair the elections committee that will ensure candidates' compliance.

Conflict of interest and anonymity can hamper the committee. The committee comprises 10 students who are anonymous to the student body but, through associations in BYUSA, generally have strong ties to one or more of the candidates or to a full-time employee. The committee meets every evening prior to and during elections to discuss reports of "infractions" - complaints filed by candidates against one another, often anonymously, in hopes of securing penalties for the opposing team.

It is a system that rewards collusion and exaggeration. In addressing alleged infractions, the committee's anonymous identities and confidential proceedings sometimes cloud judgment. Special interest, rather than actual student votes, may thus determine the BYUSA presidency.

It is important to scrutinize candidates during election week, but it is also important to scrutinize the methodologies of the election's sponsors. I encourage the campus community to work with next year's BYUSA president and Student Advisory Council to establish clear election criteria and procedures. The elections committee must be housed outside BYUSA so the election outcome will not be decided by student leadership, full-time staff and volunteers with special interests. Proceedings of the committee must be fully transparent and, with few exceptions, disclosed to the press. Decision makers must be held accountable before the student body, whose election this is.

Todd J. Hendricks

Coordinator, BYU Student Leadership

'Brokeback' depicts pain

Wednesday's editorial, "The Power of Hollywood" surprised me. The writer seemed to be suggesting that a film about bigotry, racism and violence deserved to win the Oscar because somehow it managed to be more moral than a movie about a homosexual love affair. I don't think that either was worthy of the award if the criteria were what the author of this editorial was suggesting.

Nevertheless, I wish that more people would actually go see "Brokeback Mountain" before simply denouncing it. Or, if you really don't want to see it, at least read the short story on which it was based. The reason why so many people are praising the movie, besides its technical artistry, is the fact that it does represent reality for some people in our population. It certainly doesn't show the "beauty of homosexual love" or that "extramarital affairs are exciting and acceptable." Instead, it accurately depicts the pain of those who grapple with very difficult questions about life and morality. In fact, there are plenty of people here on BYU campus who struggle with these same questions. There are BYU students who feel attracted to members of the same sex, and aren't sure how to deal with these feelings. To discount the pain and struggles of others because you are repulsed by their particular temptations is not the solution.

Jessie Christensen

Orem

Hinckley should see more movies

I'm writing in response to David Hinckley's opinion piece on Hollywood and Mormon film. I'm not here to debate the artistic virtues of "Brokeback Mountain" - I'm just a little confused. He writes that perhaps movie-makers will "do [the writers'] stories justice without adding sexual material just for good measure (such as, say, the weird bedroom scenes in 'The Return of the King')."

Say what? If that's his example of gratuitous sexual material, maybe he needs to watch the movie. Then maybe he can choose a different movie that actually contains said gratuitous sexual material. Or, if he's short on time, he can just ask me for some examples, because clearly I have seen more movies than he.

Julie Christensen

Rolla, Mo.

Discuss problems before marriage

In regards to Thursday's "Divorce rates rise among church members," Ben Irwin stated that the most common problems arise from money, sex, parenting, in-laws and communication. He later stated that couples thinking about marriage should discuss "potential points of conflict." I would add that in order to find those "potential points of conflict," engaged or seriously dating couples need to discuss Irwin's "big five" in detail before they get married and during marriage.

Curtis Wichern

Sun Prairie, Wis.

Uninformed or bad question?

The authors of the March 6 editorial, "Take time to be informed," conclude that Bush-supporting students must be uninformed since 52 percent of the students polled answered that they didn't know whether Bush is doing a better job this year compared to last year.

Well here's another possibility. If the only responses to that poll question were "yes," "no," and "I don't know," just maybe the question was horribly flawed. A "yes" response implies that Bush did a poor job last year. A "no" answer implies that Bush performs poorly overall. There was no allowance made for the informed belief that "Bush did a good job last year and is also doing well this year."

Cheryl Carpenter

Reston, Va.

Treasure was right

It was refreshing to read Ben Treasure's viewpoint, "Look Beyond Moral Rhetoric." Mr. Treasure brought to light some of the issues that have been concerning me during the past few years at home and abroad, and he did so in an unbiased way. As members of the LDS church, we must not blindly follow anything, let alone political parties that have made questionable moral decisions in the past, which both have. We are taught to be educated on social and political issues and choose the candidates that we think will do the best job in maintaining our great country. This process should take place with much thought and prayer, as with any big decision in life.

I agree that too many members of the church blindly vote for the Republican party without putting a lot of thought into issues that are non-religious (besides abortion and the sanctity of marriage). Where do we stand on free trade, or fiscal responsibility, or executive power, or education, or scientific research funding, just to name a few? All of these issues also need to be considered when choosing a candidate. I thank Mr. Treasure for pointing this out in a forum that usually doesn't consider this point of view - that even though the Republican party is right in everything, it doesn't always mean it is always correct.

Mike Zundel

Miami, Fla.

Needs a break

I have absolutely no motive right now to be on campus and learning new material in my classes. My falling test scores seem to matter less and less as the organic chemistry material seems to increase exponentially every day. In my self-pity while taking a shower, I thought to myself, "I need a break ... why don't we have a spring break soon?" Given that this is my third winter semester here at BYU, I overlooked the yearly internal argument in my mind of why we never have had a spring break. However, I was soon interrupted by the thought that our Christmas vacation was much longer than needed. Two weeks would have been plenty to enjoy the leisure of no studying and no tests, but instead we had three, which seemed to drag out quite a bit. I am all for shortening next year's Christmas break to two weeks and then giving us a mid-semester three to five day holiday for spring break, thereby not decreasing days of class, yet giving us students a much needed time of replenishing and sanity rebuilding.

Spencer Greer

Mesa, Ariz.



Copyright Brigham Young University 10 Mar 2006