Top ten things overheard at Homecoming

Top ten things overheard at Homecoming

Editor:

10. "Homecoming 7500: UCLA built by ancient people with
future-oriented minds."

9. "What body part did you lose now, Josephine?"

8. "I’m Joe, this is Josephine and here’s our little one …
(Wait! I forgot! He can’t be publicized!) … Well, like I said,
here’s Juan, our friendly foreign exchange student from Spain."

7. "Before the Stanford game: Center for Bear Studies
rally."

6. "At other schools: start with construction, end with a
building. At UCLA: start with a building, end with
construction."

5. "The statue? He’s our great-great grandfather Joseph
Constructioneer!"

4. "Josephine lost her head again? Have her put on a pumpkin.
UCLA saves money and Josephine gets herself a spooky Halloween
costume."

3. "My bear instinct tells me he’s guilty."

2. "Talk about Operation ‘Rescue Football Season’: Have Joe
Bruin take out the opponent’s quarterback. Blame it on Joe Bruin
look-alike phony."

1. "Brewin’ beer through the years."

Arman Faraday

Third-year

Biology

Alien Nation

Editor:

Quite recently I wrote a letter to Bill Clinton and his INS
Commissioner urging that if the administration was so concerned
about the welfare of illegal immigrants currently residing in the
U.S., they should extend citizenship to those folks. Will they?
Likely no. Why not?

Immigration is not supposed to resemble the Oklahoma Land Rush
of 1889. There is a process devised to control the orderly flow of
immigrants into this country based on established limits. That
process is designed to be fair regardless of an alien’s geographic
distance from the United States. For those of you opposed to unfair
advantages (illegal immigrants need not apply) this allows the
modern likes of my immigrant ancestors, because they are from
Europe, not to be handicapped for having to cross an ocean
first.

In response to the claim that social welfare is not an incentive
to immigrants, I’ll reiterate what I said to Bill’s commissioner.
You cannot prove to me that illegal immigrants don’t use those
services, because they do. If this wasn’t an incentive, then
Proposition 187 would not be a concern, because they would be
losing nothing that they value. It is a concern, however, even if
it’s not the most prominent enticement to illegal aliens. They feel
entitled, but they are not.

If Servando Sandoval ("’Illegal’ reveals the reality of
immigrants," Oct. 27) is trying to paint himself as a
self-interested cheat or a petty criminal he is apt to do so by his
own admission. Otherwise, he is an example of nothing. He did not
come to the U.S. of his own volition. He was brought here by his
father who refused to work within the system of immigration like my
great-grandparents did.

Just a reminder ­ everyone, save for Native Americans, is
an immigrant or a descendant of an immigrant in these United
States. No one rates special status on that basis.

James Lebakken

Junior

English

Profiteering history

Editor:

In his article "’Living history’ lets those of past speak to us
still" (Oct. 26), Tom Momary makes some good points about
re-enacting history. According to him, the proposed Disney America
project in Virginia "would have been a better instructor than all
the teachers [he has] ever had combined." On paper, the theme park
seems like a good idea, but in actuality it would hurt more than it
would help.

The site for Disney America could not have been more poorly
chosen. Traffic problems already run rampant in the cities
surrounding the proposed site. Since Disney refuses to pay the cost
of widening and repairing these roads, it is the citizens of
Virginia who will have to foot the bill. This would also take away
from money reserved to fix more urgent traffic problems.

Furthermore, plenty of places to experience history already
exist in Virginia, among them: Colonial Williamsburg, Fort
Washington, Manassas, Yorktown and the rest of the state. You can’t
throw a stone in Virginia without hitting one. The state is
infested with history, and the people there do not need a Disney
theme park to teach it to them.

Ironically, Disney America was planned to be built on top of a
Civil War battlefield. Is this the sort of history that we want to
teach? History that is priced at no less then $30 per person,
surrounded by parking lots, hotels and restaurants? Americans
fought and died for this land and would not be honored by this
blatant profiteering.

Jon Ericson

Atmospheric Sciences

Third-year,

Nicole Stanley

Music

Third-year

Experiencing history actively

Editor:

I am writing in response to Tom Momary’s recent Viewpoint
article praising the "Disney America" project. (Actually, the
project is called "Disney’s America").

Momary failed to address what, for many of the historians he
derides, was the most distasteful aspect of the project: Disney’s
original site choice. Thanks to the efforts of a variety of people,
not all of them "self-proclaimed sentinels of history," the former
Civil war battlefields of Prince William County, Virginia will
remain pristine. They are and should be a quiet, simple place in
which to reflect and ponder and be grateful.

Concerning Momary’s assertion that "experiencing the past
remains the best way to learn its lessons," I respond that those
paying to enter Disney’s America will be experiencing the past in a
very selective, limited way. Disney will choose to re-create things
that are visually entertaining and relatively easy to understand,
and they will no doubt do quite a bit of simplifying.

Even if they aim for historical integrity ­ and put in the
hard work and money it might require ­ they will have to take
some liberties and guess as to how things really happened. That is
not wrong, per se. However, I doubt visitors will be aware of all
the many historical facts and details that are presently unknown,
unclear, or in dispute.

Disney may make attempts to actually involve visitors in
re-creations, but how authentic and careful can a re-creation be if
untrained strangers can participate in it? At Disney’s America,
visitors will mainly be "seeing history come to life" ­ that
is, experiencing it in a passive way.

The most satisfying way to experience history is to do so
actively, to research primary historical sources (writings, images,
artifacts, sites and people), to think about them with the help of
quality secondary sources and, perhaps, if one can, to participate
meaningfully in careful recreations. That takes effort, but the
greater the effort one makes, the more satisfied he will be. I am
sorry Momary’s history teachers have not inspired him, but if he is
looking to fill the void, he will not do so at Disney’s
America.

Disney’s "imagineers" are imagineers only in the respect that
they use their own imaginations. They create images for us. When an
animatronic Abraham Lincoln appears before us, moving and speaking,
we are not imagining him at all. Imagination is something we must
do for ourselves and, like serious learning, it takes effort. It is
also uniquely rewarding.

Several years ago, Disney aimed to create an educational theme
park in Orlando, Florida: EPCOT, the "Experimental Prototypical
Community of Tomorrow." I have been to EPCOT three times; it is a
lot of fun. There are exciting rides, great visual effects,
beautiful films, magnificent fountains, lots of good food and
things to buy. It is not, however, educational. It isn’t even a
prototypical community. It is just an elaborate theme park,
precisely what Disney’s America would be.

Andrew Robin

UCLA Extension