It is interesting that today on college campuses, arenas that are normally thought of as bastions of freethinking individuals, freedom of expression is being consciously limited by so called "Speech Codes" ("Spotlight"). All over the U.S. according to a recent report by F.I.R.E. speech is being regulated in order to promote the illusion of multicultural ideals and tolerance ("Spotlight"). The idealistic notion that you can suppress a belief or "rubric of rejection" into oblivion, disregards the nature of humankind (Ellis 100). "Enforced conformity" does nothing but instill contempt for the institution it tries to shield (Kors 189). This idealistic view is an inherent threat to the underlying rights and privileges that the proponents of speech codes espouse (Ellis 99). Additionally, speech codes have a chilling effect on ideas and dissent, a fundamental principal of learning (Ellis 99). Colleges need not produce automatons spouting whatever political view holds sway on campus and the higher courts consistently strike down speech codes, which makes their usefulness moot. Colleges and Universities spend money defending untenable positions on speech codes when they could be promoting the ideals of tolerance and understanding they want to engender in their students ("Spotlight"). Lastly, "hate speech" or "fighting words" which proponents of speech codes say is their main target is already not protected under existing law ("Spotlight"). Proponents of speech codes would have us believe that any words of intolerance are bigoted and hateful no matter the intent. For these reasons I believe speech codes are an irrelevant, unnecessary and distracting influence on college campuses and should be done away with altogether.

Many human beings no longer understand their niche in the natural processes of life. The circle of life is a mystery to so many of them. Mother Earth cries out to Her lost children to remember their place in Nature because without that understanding they cannot hope to survive. I am the Great Winged One, he that rides on words of the Wind People. I will tell the tale of Mother Earth's reclamation of one of her lost children, my kindred human counterpart. My relation has amassed much knowledge yet he has little understanding of the nature of things. This I will teach him on his journey back to his Mother.

Every man's home is his castle or so the Solamnic saying goes. In this case though the home is a sewer and while the Palanthus sewers are perhaps a castle among sewers most men would not consider them so. But then Cormac isn't most men. In fact he's not even a man at all but a gully dwarf. No ordinary gully dwarf mind you, a Highbulb considered a King among gully dwarves, but a gully dwarf none the less.

Dear News Editor,

My Name is Clarisse McClellan and I'm writing to you about the article published in the May 10th, 2007 edition of "The Express" titled "Questioning the 'white cultural norm'" by Donna Lee. In the article several people discuss an abstract plan called the "Cultural Democracy Initiative" but seem rather vague on the details. I just have a few questions that I wanted you to answer, since my Uncle couldn't explain them to me.

As I ponder the statement by Bradbury in the Coda of "Fahrenheit 451" about "burn[ing] a book" and "lit matches", I wonder just where my own matches are (Bradbury 176)? Am I a cog in the wheel Fireman like Montag, a gatekeeper Fire Captain like Beatty, a scared Academic like Faber or an oblivious Citizen? Perhaps, I have a little of Granger or even inquisitive Clarisse, with bits and pieces of books tucked neatly away in my own little mind. Though written over fifty years ago the parallels with today's society and the world of Montag are staggering and somewhat alarming.