It was a typical Thursday night: bodies were sweating around me, liquid was flowing down my throat, music was playing in my ears. When she walked in, I assumed that she had gotten lost on her way to Stages. But, as the minutes ed, I realized she was there to stay. Then a few other girls came in. I thought that they might have taken a wrong turn on their way to Stages too, but they did not leave either.

A lot of us watch the winter Olympics, whether to avoid mid or to see how well Bode Miller can ski with a hangover. But with a few events that are exceptions, is our interest anything more than superficial?

In your Feb. 7 issue, a letter to the editor expressed the need for Queen’s to “buy local” food produce and in general to take a positive environmental stance. We would like to draw your attention to positive steps that many students have, and continue to make, in order to build a cleaner, more environmentally friendly and safer student living area.

I come from many places. I was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and grew up in Jeddah and Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, after which my family moved to Buckingham, England, and later, Toronto. So when I arrived in Kingston in my first year, I, like most Torontonians, was struck by the relative lack of diversity on campus.

I would hope (though I dare not expect) that the student leaders of the AMS recognize their own attitudes in the uproar over the Mohammed caricatures. As the Globe and Mail editorial stated on the subject: “The right to free expression is worth nothing unless it includes the right to offend. For dialogue and debate to flourish, citizens must be allowed the maximum freedom to say what is on their minds, even if it is provocative, insulting, inflammatory or, yes, blasphemous. The protesters betray a fundamental misunderstanding of how free societies work.” So do the leaders of the AMS, who have still not rescinded Motion 14, a censorship motion grounded on perceptions of offense. The leaders of the future? Let us all hope not.

Looking through the letters to the editors in the Feb. 3 edition, I found Cory Bloor had decided that he would write a hollow, rhetorical letter to take a shot at fair trade. Under the auspices of fairness (how ironic!), Bloor makes sweeping and unsubstantiated claims about the rights of Queen’s students. Confusion set in as it became obvious that Bloor had not done any research into the topic of fair trade, yet manages to decide that Queen’s students would be getting a raw deal. This lack of research seems to be the root cause of his skewing of the definition of “fairness.”

The other day I sat in class, ittedly uninterested in the spiel being delivered by a pair of wide-eyed candidates for the ASUS exec. The pair consisted of a guy and a girl. The former was running for vice-president and the latter for president. When this information was presented, a fellow classmate turned around to his buddy and made a whooshing sound like the cracking of a whip. Some people laughed, obviously disregarding the implications of that simple sound. That sound embodies something that has gone on in the past and still isn’t over: sexism.

After being involved with ASUS for two years, I was very disappointed to walk into Ontario Hall on Jan. 23 and find that a poster for the ASUS movie theatre’s show (placed two hours before) had been covered completely by two posters for Max Rubin and Lisa Jorgensen’s ASUS election campaign

I would like to express my disgust with the istration’s style of engagement in regard to last week’s forum on tuition and accessibility. When asked why the University’s budget is presented at a broad level in the annual report, Vice-Principal Andrew Simpson said the circulation of funds, a third of which come from students’ tuition, is too complicated and complex to present at a more local level. I find this rhetoric to be very insulting to the intelligence of the student body. We can decide for ourselves if such a budget is too “complicated and complex.”

I found it rather disappointing that of all the developments in student politics these days, the one thing you found it worthwhile to criticize was the eminently reasonable proposal to create an AMS sustainability coordinator. Not only does the creation of this position make sense, it is long overdue.

It’s January, and that means it’s time again for the annual AMS Executive vetting, where teams of candidates will try to sell you on their merits for the privilege of assuming the ninth through eleventh highest paying jobs in our student union.

I was impressed with the attention given to the environment and sustainability in your Jan. 17 issue of the Queen’s Journal. As a Queen’s alumnus (ArtSci ’85), a professional advisor on the “greening” of the new Queen’s Centre, and now a deputy leader of the Green party and candidate in Ottawa Centre, I am pleased to see these important issues being seriously researched and debated in the Journal and on campus generally.

On Jan. 14 my friend and I took time away from studying to brave snow, wind, and freezing temperatures to canvass part of the Ghetto for local NDP candidate Rob Hutchison. Several people we spoke to asked to have an NDP sign displayed on their frozen lawn. In total, we placed over a dozen signs over two streets in the heart of the Ghetto. The next day I was disappointed to see that many of the signs we installed were removed and/or vandalized—and even more upset that [it seemed] only NDP signs were affected. More tolerance and respect please.