Sapper On The State Of The Union

I received e-mail today from a reporter with the campus fishwrap. Little did the reporter know it, but I am loathe to be interviewed by campus newspaper reporters—in person or by telephone—because the result in print never resembles what I said. So, because this reporter had taken the time to frame questions and put them in writing, I took the bait. In a way, I must resemble Wile E. Coyote. No matter how many times I have experienced disaster with the 4^th estate at the College, I keep running my big mouth. If this be (fair & balanced) pontification, so be it.

To: Professor Sapper: 01.27.04
From: Jana Beddow, Reporter—The (Amarillo College) Ranger

I ask you for seven to nine minutes of your time. My informality through email is due out of respect of your busy schedule, instructional time, and an opportunity to weigh out the response. I’ve been intrigued by comments made from students in classes you’ve taught; and also from faculty. You have the reputation of being zestful, persuasive and somewhat opinioned, all of this brings me to you, I need your mind!

I have been assigned to write a story regarding President Bush’s State of the Union address. I ask you to comment on any of the questions that follow. You are a slight figure in the political areas of Amarillo College and how perfect your response will be to work into the story!

If you choose to accept this mission, word length should be approximately 150-250. Please respond with what YOU want readers to think about regarding the speech. This is your forum.

Direct statement from Bush: “ Afghanistan has a new constitution as of this month, guaranteeing free elections and full participation by women. Businesses are opening and health care centers being established, and the boys and girls of Afghanistan are back in school. With the help of the new Afghan army, our coalition is leading aggressive raids against the surviving members of the Taliban in Alquada. The men and women of Afghanistan are building a nation that is free and proud and fighting terror, and American is proud to be their friend.”

With Americans rebuilding Afghanistan, what will be our gain by the investment, in two years? Our loss?

The situation in Afghanistan is not nearly as positive as the president portrayed it. The current government has marked a return to power of the regional warlords. Sporadic violence still occurs in Kabul – the capital – and the Taliban is in control of the area bordering Pakistan. We have not captured Osama bin Laden. I doubt that we will capture bin Laden as his trail grows colder and colder.

"I propose larger Pell grants for students who prepare for college with demanding courses in high school. I propose increasing our support for America’s fine community colleges. I do so so they can train workers for industries that are creating the most new jobs. By all these actions, we’ll help more and more Americans to join in the prosperity of our country…”

How does this affect the AC student? Pell Grants are not loans and this makes them the best form of financial aid for most students not eligible for merit awards for outstanding academic achievement.

Or

Should they care? Yes, they should care. Pell Grants affect them!

Please…one other question.

This belongs to you. Use any part of the speech to describe your reaction, comments or issues.

One area of question among students was the refugee proposal. Not many seem to understand what the President is suggesting.

There are many, many people who have entered the United States illegally. The Bush proposal would legitimize these people – if they came forward and identified themselves – as guest workers. The Bush proposal is controversial with those of his party who want to halt illegal immigration. The Bush proposal requires that a guest worker applicant must have an employer’s sponsorship. The critics of the Bush proposal argue that most employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants do not pay the minimum wage and do not pay federal payroll taxes (Social Security contributions). If those employers are breaking the law now, why on earth would they obey the law when the Bush proposal would go into effect? Illegal immigrants do the dirty, nasty work that U. S. workers will not do: roofing houses, bussing restaurant tables, washing dishes in restaurants, and the like. Wal-Mart stores were raided by federal agents because the cleaning crews were mostly illegal immigrants and they were not earning the minimum wage! That is why there is criticism of the Bush proposal.

What Would Theodore Roosevelt (Karl Rove's Favorite President, Other Than W) Think Of The Super Bowl?

What would TR think of the Super Bowl? He'd hardly be expected to say it delighted him! As a father he tried to discourage his sons from playing college football. As a public commentator he denounced professional sports, as he did in this essay published in the North American Review in 1890, a decade before he was elected to national office. Below are pertinent excerpts from TR's denunciation of professional sport.

[x North American Review]
"Professionalism" in Sports
by Theodore Roosevelt

In America the difference between amateurs and professionals is in one way almost the reverse of what it is in England, and accords better with the way of life of our democratic community. In England the average professional is a man who works for his living and the amateur is one who does not; whereas with us the amateur usually is and always ought to be, a man who like other American citizens, works hard at some regular calling--it matters not what, as long as it is respectable, while the professional is very apt to be a gentleman of more or less elegant leisure, aside from his special pursuit.

The mere statement of the difference is enough to show that the amateur and not the professional, is the desirable citizen, the man who should be encouraged. Our object is to get as many of our people as possible to take part in manly, healthy, vigorous pastimes, which will benefit the whole nation; it is not to produce a limited class of athletes who shall make it the business of their lives to do battle with one another for the popular amusement. Most masterful nations have shown a strong taste for manly sports. In the old days, when we ourselves were still a people of backwoodsmen, at every merrymaking there were sure to be trials and skill and strength, at running, wrestling and rifle-shooting, among the young men. We should encourage by every method the spirit which makes such trials popular; it is a very excellent revival of old-time American ways. But the existence of a caste of gladiators in the midst of a population which does not itself participate in any manly sports is usually, as it was at Rome, a symptom of national decadence.

The Romans who, when the stern and simple strength of Rome was departing, flocked to the gladiatorial shows, were influenced only by a ferocious craving for bloody excitement; not by any sympathy with men of stout heart and tough sinew. So it is, to a lesser extent to-day. In base-ball alone, the professional teams, from a number of causes, have preserved a fairly close connection with non-professional players, and have done good work in popularizing a most admirable and characteristic American game; but even here the outlook is now less favorable, and, aside from this one pastime, professionalism is the curse of many an athletic sport, and the chief obstacle to its healthy development. Professional rowing is under a dark cloud of suspicion because of the crooked practices which have disgraced it. Horse-racing is certainly not in an ideal condition. A prize fight is simply brutal and degrading. The people who attend it, and make hero of the prize-fighter, are,--excepting boys who go for fun and don't know any better--to a very great extent, men who hover on the border-line of criminality; and those who are not are speedily brutalized, and are never rendered more manly. They form as ignoble a body as do the kindred frequenters of rat-pit and cock-pit. The prize-fighter and his fellow professional athletes of the same ilk are, together with their patrons in every rank of life, the very worst foes with whom the cause of general athletic development has to contend.