In times of war, level heads must prevail or we are no better than the terrorists

As a public service to all, The Commonwealth Times staff has followed in the steps of Congress to show our patriotism and as a helpful guide, we have compiled a mostly comprehensive list of all things renamed Freedom.

Freedom fries, Freedom toast, Freedom Poodles, The Freedom Film Festival (going on at the Byrd Theater), Freedom Wine, Freedom braids, “The Freedom Connection,” “3rd Rock from the Sun” star, Freedom Stewart, Freedom kissing, Freedom curls, Freedom Not, Tour du Freedom, Freedom and Indian War, Freedom Revolution, Freedom horn, Freedom dressing, Freedom doors, Freedom Canadian, Freedom chalk, Freedom monkey (just kidding), Freedom bulldog, Freedom cuff, Freedom community, Freedom pastry, Freedom maid, Freedom seam, Freedom twist, Freedom West Indies, Freedom windows, Freedom Guinea, Freedom Guiana, Freedom Alps, Freedom India, Freedom leave, Freedom polish, Freedom telephone, Freedom union, Freedom West Africa, Freedom Army, Freedom woman, Freedom man, The Freedom Quarter, Freedom Culinary Institute, Freedom Riviera, Samuel Freedom, Freedom Embassy, Freedom Open and last but not least, we will now study Freedom as a foreign language.

Think before you act!

In the wake of the Sept. 11 attack, there was a backlash against Arabs and Muslims. In the wake of fear and the uneasiness, there were a lot of things that should never have happened.

Please do not allow this to repeat. Please think before you act. Just because someone next to you in class does not look like you or share your views, do not hate them just because of their looks.

History teaches us to respect the views of others and overall peace will prevail. It is only when hatred, racism and ignorance take over do we have genocide and killings.

It saddened me when I heard of people on campus being the victims of slurs and shouting from passing cars. It angered me when I heard of people getting physically assaulted just because of their looks.

If you wish to channel your anger, channel it in a healthy way. Exercise, write, dance, take a nap, do whatever calms you down. If nothing else, count to 10 or until you have calmed.

Do not allow the acts of few to speak for an entire culture. Do not judge people because of other people. If we were all naked in a dark room, we would be equal. The only thing to keep us apart is our own knowledge, views and actions.

Do not lower yourselves. We should act like the strong, civilized people we are. There is no reason to take our anger out on our fellow students. Please, think before you act.

Putting things on hold due to war?

The aim of terrorism is terror. If we cancel events, curb our behavior and live in fear, then we have lost this round.

We must not live in terror. We must continue with our lives as we did before Sept. 11 and the coming war with Iraq. I am not saying we should all feel safe and ignore the threats, I am in fact saying that we need to act rationally and think about our actions.

The sporting events should go on, the entertainment awards and events should go on. We just need to keep in mind that we are still a target of terror, so no vacations to Iraq.

We are no longer untouchable and out of the reach of terror. We also do not live with the daily reality of suicide bombings, chemical attack and other such things.

We just need to look at the reactions our actions will cause. All actions have an equal and opposite reaction, and this is true in all things.