Editors

The NorVa, the Boathouse, the Norfolk Admirals and the Norfolk Tides. What do all these things have in common? They are close to campus, and away from Wesleyan security and resident assistants. Not overly impressed by that? How about this. They are places you can go that don’t involve school and breaking something on campus and cost a whole lot less than a $60,000 statue. Let’s think about this for a second. Try as a community, to recall the last time VWC went two weeks in a row without something being stolen, broken, flooded or extinguished. If you are drawing a blank--so are we. Enough is enough.

Here we are at an institution of higher learning, a place where people are supposed to be treated like adults, but can’t seem to stay out of Honor Council, Community Relations Council or Community Arbatration Board meetings long enough to see if there is a mature bone in thier body. Oh, but it is not their fault. They were drunk; they were bored; they were just having fun. Excuses like these are for people who can’t take responsibility for their own actions. In the real world, excuses don’t cut it and they shouldn’t cut it here. Or is it that you pay $20,000 every year to attend a college and should never get bored? News flash: Your tuition goes to housing, feeding and educating yourself. It does not include keg parties, raves and concerts. We live in an area that is booming with young adult entertainment. Jillian’s, Cinema Cafe and the Virginia Beach Rock Gym are three more. Maybe by now, you have figured out that you can go to all these places without being 21, but if you feel you can’t have a good time without being drunk--here is Bill Brown’s number: 455-5730.

Don’t kid yourself. Drinking is a major cause of these ridiculous acts of vandalism. The point remains, since the day you arrived, the word "community" has be shoved down your throats, and right now that community is suffering. Our reputation is dwindling each and every time we are forced to print about vandalism striking our campus. However, new is news and it must be reported. The challenge is to reduce the amount of vandalism on campus and begin to restore our tarnished name if not for yourself, for the sake of the "community."

Turn on the news. Chances are you’ll see people throwing rocks at tanks. The army guarding these tanks will be firing AK-47s and tear gas at the "rock-slingers." This has become an all too familiar sight. I’ve been watching this massacre since birth, growing up in Saudi Arabia. The conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians has been in existence earlier than the formation of the Roman Empire. The Palestinians were then known as the Philistines and the Israelis were known as Jews in the Arab Kingdom. The Jews eventually formed a country. Jihad broke out. In the mid-20th century, Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan, Egypt and Syria. Israel broke the treaty and conquered the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, Jerusalem and a couple of other places. In 1993, Israel signed another treaty stating that by September of 2000, Israel was going to return all the conquered land to its original owners. So far, Egypt is the only country that has received their land. Syria and the Palestinians are still waiting.

So now, a people with no country, hence no army, fight tanks with rocks. This might sound pretty terrible, but what is more pitiful is that the United States supports Israel. Palestinians fight for their land and their freedom, and America supports the oppressor. Here’s a solution: give the land back. Maybe we could at least get the Israelis out of the Palestinians’ land. Pleas to the U.N. have failed. When Europeans came to America, they slaughtered the Native Americans. To compensate for their destruction, they forced the native people to live on reservations. This can be compared to the conflict in the Middle East. Israel is attempting to compensate for their errors by giving the Palestinians the ghettos of Israel to live in. I believe that everyone should be able to co-exist. Let the Palestinians have their land and their government. Israel shouldn’t infringe on other peoples’ rights just because they can. Hitler did that. The bottom line is this: Israel signed a contract to return the Palestinians’ land, but they will not follow through. The fighting will continue until the Israelis fulfill their agreement.

I did not know what to expect as I pulled my car into the Pembroke Elementary School parking lot on Election Day. I pulled myself together and arrived at the poles at 8:30 a.m., as bright and early as I deemed necessary on my only sleep-in day of the week. As I got out of my car, I saw a shining path, not the one people claim to see as they are dying, but a path similar to the yellow brick road a "blue hair" trail. I was happy to see so many older folks at the polls. I finally understood the power that we as a nation hold. The working stiff, the retired, the young, the old and everything in between were present at the elementary school to cast their votes. I narrowly made it into the school, after being attacked by last-minute political campaign representatives. I had to give these people credit. They believed enough in a candidate to campaign for that person in front of people that act as if they hate being assailed by the paper-waving representatives.

The cafeteria had been stripped clean of all the tables, except for two in the center of the room. The first was for names A-K, and the second was for L-Z. I was told to stand in line (L-Z) and have my I.D. ready for the ladies at the table. As I stood in line, I noticed that I was the only person under the age of 30 in the room, and I got a little upset. Why am I the only person under 30 here? Have my peers not gotten out to vote yet? Did everyone at school vote on the absentee ballot? And then a little ray of sunshine poked through the line. A handful of elementary students appeared on the side of the room and cast their "Kids Vote" ballot. "Yes!" I thought. "My peers! They have made me proud!" My number finally came up and I was handed my ballot and directed to a booth. I read the directions and went to line up the ballot, but it would not fit. Then I read the directions again and realized that I am a certifiable dope. I had not put the ballot in correctly. So I began again and achieved victory on the second try. I am a genius!

Time to vote. Whatever happened to those good, old-fashioned No. 2 pencils? I looked at the ballot pen, poker, whatever you want to call it, and chuckled. It looked like the magic pen that Bill Cosby had on that Saturday morning TV when I was a kid. Except my poker was defective and did not make a cool little noise when I made my candidate selection. After figuring out the ballot sheet and poking my way to success, I removed my ballot and sent it to its final destination: the scanner in the sky. I was sad to see it go, but proud that I had made my opinion known. I walked away feeling that I had made peace. I even had a sticker to prove it.

"I voted for Gore. I don’t believe in Bush’s ideas on abortion and gun control." --Trish Haskell, Freshman

"I didn’t vote because I’m registered in New Hampshire, and I didn’t really follow the candidates this year." --Joel Feid, Sophmore

"I voted for Bush, because I’m a military brat, plain and simple." --Sandra Williams, Junior

"I voted for Gore because I’m a Democrat. I wouldn’t vote for a Republican if I had to!" --Kelley Mawson, Senior