April 25, 2007

OPINION
Providing insight, analysis and perspective since 1960

Titan Editorial

Do You Enjoy Hunting Polar Bears? Russia Welcomes You

BY MELISSA FITZGERALD
Daily Titan Sta Writer
opinion@dailytitan.com

Imagine

at Piggy Bank
reasonable. Not to say that just showing up merits a raise, but one can only purchase so many private jets and private estates on Lake Como. While were not eager to eradicate capitalism entirely, a majority of wealth in the hands of a minority resembles the ill-fated communist regimes of the soviet bloc. e concept of a salary-cap is, granted, sacrilegious in a capitalist nation but there comes a point when greed supersedes necessity. Unless you have sired a small African nation, half a billion dollars is more than enough to live on. With the many problems our society is facing budget cuts to education, social services and health care one would assume that there was less than enough to go around. But we all know that is certainly not the case. So what is to be done? Share the wealth. Mr. Bush could certainly use your patriotic support. After all, we do have a war to fund.

Last year, the top 25 highest earners on Wall Street made over $540 million each, with the top three earning over one billion, according to a study released yesterday by the Service Employees International Union. While corporate America complains about the inated employment costs of the minimum-wage raise, the top dogs cry wolf and wipe their tears with $100 bills. Apparently the economic crises that has resulted in mass layos, the elimination of health care packages and the extinction of the paid lunch break have certainly helped cut costs and cushioned certain individuals retirement funds. Were not criticizing any individuals right to work and earn a decent living. However, the massively disproportionate compensation between the millions of individuals whose daily drudgery keeps the corporations not only functioning, but ourishing, and the CEOs whose positions only exist so long as the boat stays aoat, is hardly

Legalizing the hunting of polar bears is intended to stop poaching, bad idea

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Any feedback, positive or negative, is encouraged, as we strive to keep an open dialogue with our readership. e Daily Titan reserves the right to edit letters for length, grammar and spelling. Direct all comments, questions or concerns, along with your full name and major, to executive editor Adam Levy at alevy@dailytitan.com.

Polar bears have a shrinking habitat but Russia recently decided to further handicap the bears by legalizing hunting. Russia has made the rash and careless decision to lift the 50-year-old ban on poaching polar bears because of recent attacks and the increase of sightings in villages. Ironically, the release of the ban comes right after the announcement that the Bush administration is considering naming polar bears as an endangered species. But killing the polar bears within a cap is a good idea when Bush even thinks they may become extinct. e objective behind the ban lift is that poachers, who mainly kill the bears whose meat is considered a delicacy, will be capped on how many polar bears they can kill, but in reality it will just make killing the bears much, much easier. e removal of the ban will theoretically stop poachers from killing more than what the Russian government deems to be an excessive amount. Russia also hopes that the legal hunting of the bears will prevent attacks, but the problem with that logic is that bears will attack, regardless of some of their counterparts being killed, and putting a cap on how many bears can be killed is near impossible. How can Russia expect to have a tally of how many bears have been hunted and killed when most hunters probably will not acknowledge what they have hunted? Putting a cap on how many polar bears die will still mean that these animals are damn-near-close to being unprotected. A cap is not enough to protect the polar bear

from becoming extinct, which is the likely direction that scientists have pointed to. e ice caps that the polar bears have hunted on for years have shrunk considerably, which is the reason for the increase in sightings in villages. e new environment has stolen the food out of the mouth of the polar bear because without the ice caps it becomes harder for them to hunt seals. So not only are the environmental odds stacked against them but now guns will be pointed in their direction much more often. How well the cap will work, if at all, is hard to say, but if it works as well as the age restriction on alcohol does in the U.S. than the days that polar bears will roam the earth are numbered. ough there has been an age restriction on alcohol and cigarettes in the U.S. the fact remains that both are still easy enough for underage minors to get a hold of. e restriction may alleviate some silly accidents or accidental alcohol poisonings but, for the most part, if an underage person wants to smoke or drink they are going to do it regardless. Russia believes that allowing bears to be killed within limits will save more from being killed but thats like the U.S. putting age restrictions on alcohol to prevent alcoholism. e poachers at least would have been anxious illegally killing bears when the ban was policy, whereas now they may just receive a slap on the wrist if they kill too many bears. e polar bears were killed when the ban existed but now that it is lifted more bears will die because of how hard it will be to regulate it. Polar bears are by no means plentiful and to give free range to poachers is a step in the direction of forever losing the bears to extinction. I hope one day soon Russia will realize that putting a cap on killing still allows for a decrease in an already declining population. I also hope it wont be too late.

The Advocate
BY Robert Leadership
As the semester nears its end, I nd myself gearing up for the future. Final exams are coming up, then summer school and nally next school year. I nd myself looking back at the lessons I have learned. e rst, and perhaps the most important, is that advocacy is leadership. I have learned in this process what it means to be a leader. It means making choices you do not always want to make, choices that are dicult, especially when they involve your friends. A leader is someone who listens to what other people have to say, while retaining his or her own opinions and implementing the best course of action, even if not everyone agrees. Because in the end, it is not personal, it is about what is best for the group. I nd myself wondering what is best not only for me, but for this newspaper that I have come to love. I realize now why I chose to study journalism. I have this insatiable curiosity about the way the world works and why things happen. For me it is important to know the what, but perhaps of even greater importance is the why. Every day I wear two hats. When I am walking through campus I wear the reporter hat and see everything as a story, but when I am in the newsroom I wear the editors hat and share what I have learned with others. Fairness and accuracy are

Moran

things that I believe in strongly and they are tantamount to good journalism. A leader is someone who does not keep his or her eyes and ears shut, a leader is someone that acknowledges that others might have the answers. I did not realize until recently that as the assistant news editor for this newspaper, I have been given a great opportunity: to set an example. As a leader, setting an example for those around us is perhaps the most important aspect of the position. Yet it is extremely important to be knowledgeable about how things are run in a group. e third denition of leadership is one who has the courage to adapt and try new things. Still, as I have grown and changed, the future looms close. Nearly two weeks ago, I submitted my application for executive editor of this newspaper, not only because I want to set an example for what I believe to be the core of journalism but for those disabled people who believe they would never be much of anything. If I believed that, I would not have become the assistant news editor. In many ways, my coworkers and employers are the ones that have taught me all these lessons, and I have to thank them for that. No matter what the future holds, I am appreciative for the opportunity to attempt to be better than what I was.

E-mail Robert at opinion@dailytitan.com