Weekend demonstrations missed the point of protest

This weekend’s anti-war protests severely lacked any rally for Saddam Hussein to step down from office and yield power to the people of Iraq. On Saturday, no one remembered that the real problem Iraqis face is not an impending war or U.N. resolutions, but an authoritarian dictator whose police state makes sure every Iraqi knows the bloody cost of opposing his monopoly on power.

I challenge all those who actively seek peace and oppose war to protest the real problem: Saddam’s continued grip on power. Don’t waste time villanizing Bush. Believe it or not, the most hated man in Iraq is not Bush but Saddam Hussein. The world and all its protesters need to understand this reality and channel their energy toward a more righteous goal: Get rid of Saddam and get Iraq back to the oil exporting, economically and culturally bountiful country it was before Saddam messed it all up.

Julia Sorisho

Education senior

Improvements necessary for NU’s music buildings

I salute Northwestern for finally deciding to implement a security system at the beehive, the building next to the Music Administration Building, to keep out everyone but music students. But did the administration ever think about other students who love music and often went to the beehive just to enjoy relatively good sound?

Even living in Elder Hall, I used to walk all the way to the beehive. Sure, Elder has a nice piano. But when you press the middle “C,” you also hear “B” and “D.” The strings are so rusted I wonder how it even produces that faint sound. Of course, I made efforts not to let this deter my passion for music. I called people from other dorms to let me in so I could play their slightly better pianos.

I even went to MAB during midterms hoping to be let in without activating my WildCARD. The response I got from the music department: too bad. I would love to take music courses so I could use the beehive; however, I don’t have this privilege most quarters. I understand our school has no space to expand the music building. I also understand the need for a security system at the beehive — God knows I felt insecure when I used to practice there. But does that validate alienating all the other students who love music?

I have no doubts that, academically, our school is one of the best in the nation, if not the world. But I believe that many things still need improvement. Here’s a proposal: NU should allocate just a tiny bit of the enormous funding it received through Campaign Northwestern, perhaps a mere 0.001 percent, to improve music facilities throughout campus.

If this is not granted due to “budget problems,” then find a way to let us non-music majors enjoy some music, too. This would not only be a very wise choice, but also a choice that would make our school live up to the very high rankings that we receive in various magazines.

Young Chang

McCormick sophomore

U.S. generally unaware that Christians face persecution

In the Feb. 14 edition of The Daily, Heather Foster observed, “Racism exists and happens every day — these people decided to bring it to life … I thought we had worked to bring about that awareness already, but I guess more needs to be done.”

Foster is right: Racial and religious intolerance continue to hang over America and the world like a black cloud, and we would be naive to ignore that fact. A little-noticed fact in America is that one of the most harshly persecuted religious groups is Christians.

Open Doors, a Christian watch-dog on religious discrimination, estimates that 200 million Christians worldwide suffer persecution for their faith in Christ, with another 200 to 400 million facing discrimination for being Christian. Every day Christians in southern Sudan are routinely executed by government-backed militias, and Christians in Indonesia are hunted down and massacred while law-enforcement looks the other way. Christians in China and Vietnam are tortured and held in concentration camps simply for being Christians, Christian leaders in Pakistan are gunned down at the pulpit, and Christians in North Korea face almost certain death if discovered.

We should not tolerate religious persecution or discrimination anywhere in our world. Thanks to University President Henry Bienen for speaking out against the recent acts of racial and religious bigotry on campus.

Amanda Falk (Confirming)

research technician