Name: Shaggy
Comments:
Hey, I am not one for politics. In fact I have no intrest in who is a donkey and who is a elephant and who is a monkey. I myself don't know what to think about this Iraq conflict. Both sides, Saddam and Bush, are doing their best to convince the world they are right. Who can you believe? Anyways, call me a what you want but all I want is one thing: My lower gas prices back.

Name: Nick
Comments:
Dogg, It is depressing to me that you think Bush has the score to settle with Iraq. This situation involves all America, not just Bush. As I said before, I too have friends that have chosen what they want to do for their country. Tehy made that choice, no matter what I want them to do. But this is not a selfish endevor for Bush. I agree that Iraq and Al Queda are not in league with one another, but they are both seperate issues. However, bin-laden has shown support for Iraq, so now we have one of the most ruthless dictators in the world, and the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world both ready to attack us, whether they are in league together or not. Personally, I don't wnat to sit around and be on the recieving end of the first shot fired...

Name: Dogg Himself
Major: ly hates politics!
Comments:
Mike, the only thing about the metaphor that doesn't hold up is our involvement. Everybody in the world is all ready for the United States to go in and do what they have to do. They'll just stand behind us and say "Go USA GO!" but besides that they won't do it themselves. The Ents were part of the solution. They were not "THE solution". The more times that the idiot in office, no matter what side he's on, decides to make us the solution the more times the world will look to us to do everything. That is just not smart.
Nick, Saddam Hussein is not in league with the Al Queda. That's what the government suggests (they never come out and say it) to make it easier to do what they want to do. Guys like Saddam are megalomaniacs, they do not have T-shirts that say "Plays well with others". Bin-Laden is the same way. The fact remains, we FAILED to avenge those people from 9/11 and so now Bush tries to distract us with this. They are two totally seperate issues, in this case conveniently located in the same part of the world. So the people in protest, we're not pussys (I'm not sure but I doubt there's an e in there) we just don't trust the government like so many people are blindly willing to do. I got friends that have been deployed and I don't want them dead because Bush has a score to settle with Saddam.

Name: anonymous
Comments:
I graduated from RU last spring, from the media studies department. Before leaving, I had a very interesting conversation with Mr. Kallahan, who used to be the advisor for student media. He told me lots of details as to why he was fired by Dr. Pomerantz, and also admitted he made some mistakes in the way he dealt with students and faculty. But Mr. K did nothing to justify his removal from office. The truth is that he was fired because of cowards: Sandra Kelley and her sister Debbie Brown, Chelsea Adams, Rachel Thomason and Shaggy Kinback. These five people all felt threatened by Mr. K, who is a very experienced professional and who has an assertive management style. And all five made unproven accusations behind Mr. K”s back. While Kelley and Adams, both faculty advisors, never bothered to approach Mr. K about misunderstandings, Thomason and Kinback simply stabbed him in the back. As for Debbie Brown, she is an assistant vice president who worked behind the scenes. She tried to get George Mendiola to change his mind about taking money away from ROC-TV. Brown also never approached Mr. K to discuss a single issue. She just took her sister Sandra”s word about matters and proceeded accordingly. Apparently, Brown and Pomerantz are good friends. Another way of putting this is that Pomerantz is controlled by Brown, who has been involved in other irregularities concerning people leaving this campus. For example, she fired Tammi Gardiner, the former director of alumni affairs, for no good reason. Both Pomerantz and Dean Michael Martis were hypcrites in the matter of Kallahan”s removal. One of the reasons he was hired was to Ðdeal¼ with the ROC-TV issue, which has hindered the media programs on this campus for some time. As a matter of fact, Martis suggested to Kallahan that ROC be eliminated as an organization on campus, as well as the steering committee for student media. But Mr. K said he wasn”t prepared to pursue such action. However, when Kelley and her band of whining egotists pushed for Kallahan”s removal, Norleen simply rolled over. So did Martis. And RU missed a golden opportunity to have an experienced and talented person improve the student media programs on campus. Kelley made much of a memo that Mr. K wrote about changing the steering committee. First, he wrote that memo as his own opinion and not the committee”s. Second, he did use the word Ðwe¼ one single time, when referring to the suggestion that faculty advisors should not sit on the committee because they represented a conflict of interest. Mr. K honestly believed that was how the committee felt. But Kelley used that single reference to Ðwe¼ to convince the student leaders that the whole memo was supposed to be their collective opinion. Kelley maliciously obscured the truth; rather than speaking to Mr. K for clarification, she decided to vilify him instead. Mr. K told me that not one single student media leader said goodbye to him at the end of the semester ˜ after everything he did for them and their programs. He did not deserve such treatment. Kelley was an instructor who is no longer on campus. Her journalistic abilities are nothing outstanding and her professional experience doesn”t go beyond Roanoke. As for Chelsea Adams, she is another instructor who is best known for apologizing about eating her lunch at committee meetings. One would think she would get tired of apologizing or start eating her lunch at some other time. How about some of the student media faculty? Mr. K helped Joe Flickinger out with the Radio Free Radford mess, cleaning it up for him. But did Joe ever visit Mr. K to let him know what Sandra Kelley was up to? No. And Dr. Kovarick, bless his heart, is a good man. But he moans and groans too much about freedom of expression for the students, when he should have supported Mr. K”s efforts to raise the level of professionalism at ROC-TV and keep the student media budget in order. As a whole, the media studies faculty is also partly responsible for Mr. K”s removal. They should have done more teaching and less politicking. They are also hypocritical because they really didn”t support an independent channel for ROC-TV. Yet they raised hell when Kallahan changed his mind on the matter. Yes, Mr. K is the one who first championed a new channel for ROC, despite the objections from Kelley, Adams and others. But he changed his mind when the budget crunch came, and saw how screwed up the ROC leadership was. Kallahan”s point of view was simple: cut through the petty politics and focus on what”s important ˜ a healthy budget, efficient operations, and improved professional values. For this attitude, he got canned by people whose egos were more important than anything else. For example, Rachel Thomason screamed about how Mr. K didn”t Ðconsult¼ her about taking $10,000 for a ROC channel and spending it on the production lab instead. Even after Mr. K reversed his decision and apologized for the action, she went ahead and sent a very nasty memo to half the campus. And she kept moaning about how she wasn”t Ðconsulted¼ to anyone who would listen. Get a clue, Thomason ˜ Mr. K didn”t have to consult you on budgetary matters! Rachel did a good job with Whim magazine, but she is also a very malicious and vindictive person who helped destroy Mr. K”s career here because of her own conceit. What lesson should this campus learn from Mr. K”s firing? It should learn that petty politics, mostly centered around ROC, continues to hinder the professional growth of student media programs at RU. We also should learn that Debbie Brown has a lot of authority on campus concerning personnel, and that Norleen Pomerantz is under her thumb. If I were writing for The Tartan, I would try to find out more about how Brown operates and why she has so much power as an assistant vice president. Rumor has it that she has so much Ðdirt¼ on other administrators that they are afraid to cross her path. You will have a hard time finding someone on campus who actually likes Debbie Brown! Even Dr. Covington and his assistant, Carrie McTeer, were hypocrite in this matter. Mr. K tried to arrange a taped interview with Covington for ROC”s doocumentary project. McTeer cancelled Covington”s scheduled interview four separate times before finally telling Mr. K that Covington Ðdoesn”t trust ROC-TV.¼ But where was the president when Brown and Kelley were calling for Kallahan”s removal? It is obvious that Brown doesn”t have to consult with the university president on matters of personnel. I wonder if he feels embarrassed by that situation. I work in the field of media and I can more than appreciate what Mr. K was trying to do for the student media programs. Yes, budgets do matter. Yes, productivity does matter. And, yes, professional attitudes do matter. ROC-TV is a joke and will continue to embarrass the campus. All you have to do is go down the road to Virginia Tech to see how a real student-operated television station works. Shaggy has his good points, but he is simply too immature and self-centered to lead ROC into a new era of responsibility and production work that is journalism and not misguided efforts by a group of ÐSaturday Night Live wannabes.¼ I hear that ROC is doing a movie these days. OMGá.I can hardly wait to miss it! I”m sure it will be a substandard effort, and I”m also sure it will embarrass RU. To everyone who played a role in getting Mr. K firedádo you feel like more decent people? You cowards waited for Kallahan to go on vacation to make your big push with lots of email and accusations. Mr. K never saw any of the email, the accusations were never specified to him, and he wasn”t even given a chance to defend himself. Kelley and her band of cowards put pressure on Pomerantz, Debbie Brown put pressure on Pomerantz, and Pomerantz caved in with Dean Martis there to help Ðjustify¼ her action. Mr, K deserved better. He had done a lot for student media during his short stay, and he would have done a lot more. But he needed support from the administration and he needed the faculty advisors to stop playing politics. This didn”t happen, and RU blew a real opportunity. Mr. K genuinely cared about the student media programs and did what he could to remove petty politics from the equation. Yes, he made some mistakes but nothing to justify his firing. In the end, he was dismissed because a small group of hateful cowards felt threatened by him. They need to ask themselves what motivated their actions. As for me, I will remain anonymous for obvious reasons. Working in the field of media, I can tell you that I behaved the way Kinback and Thomason behaved toward Mr. K, I would be fired immediately. Too bad Mr. K couldn”t have fired several student media leaders and faculty advisors for their conceit and ineptitude. Believe me, the university would have been much better off. Sincerely, The Anonymous Critic

Name: Shaun
Year: Grad
Major: English
Comments:
Greg, I'm pretty sure 9/11 would've happened even if Gore had been elected instead of Dubya. The amount of time needed to plan such an operation probably streches back way before election 2000.

Name: Greg
Comments:
No, I'm sure Gore wouldn't be handing cookies to Iraq, but I wonder, if Gore was in office would 9/11 have really happened?

Name: Nick
Comments:
You guys are right, I can't wait to die and lose my family in terrorist attacks because we are all going to be a bunch of pusseys and hide behind our stupid protest signs when we should be defending our nation. No one seems to be looking at the big picture here. Everyone is only thinking about the US. Completely selfish!

Name: William Wallace
Year: 725
Major: War
Comments:
aye Mike, you make a good point there. But remember, every man dies, but not every man really lives. I hate war, especially against those god forsaken english. But be weary Mike, war is not always the answer. I mean, look at what God had to say below.

Name: God
Year: 00
Major: Godology
Comments:
Very good Mike, You have made me proud today. Keep up the good work. And remember, war is not always the answer.

Name: Nick
Comments:
By the way, good luck on tomorrows POSC 130 quiz, thoise things are killing me. There is always one that just slips my mind.

Name: Nick
Comments:
Wonderful article Mike. First of all, I think getting into the whole Bush vs GOre thing might be a bad idea, but that is what Vent is all about, and I might just have a special something up my sleeve for the next weeks section (you'll all have to wait and see). In the meantime, I really wander what Gore would be doing right now. I think he would be putting on a smiley face and trying to share cookies with Iraq while terrorists blew up more of our national symbols and killed our wives and children, but hey, that is just me. I think we need to not stand around like ents. We have seen the terror that we face, we have seen it just like the ents did. Now let's take back our country, for Christ's sake. I would rather die in war than live in fear of losing more of our nation's loved ones. Fuck Terrorism, that's what I say!

Name: Greg Woodruff
Comments:
Interesting metaphor. Bush barely was elected and only because of Floridian ruckus. He barely won, so really, the country's opinion was split (although by popular vote, Gore won). As I stated in a previous article, those of us opposed to war are propbably idealists. We don't want to fight a war (and strongly refuse to) and we don't want to see innocent people die.