Letters to the Editor

2/26/09 6:00pm

Open's blanket tax unfairly dismissed

To the Editor:We were disappointed to see that the Thresher staff recommended that students "vote NO" on the Open Magazine blanket tax proposal. A blanket tax should not just be considered a "reward" for student organizations; it should rather be a show of support for a publication that has demonstrated that it is an important creative outlet for students, and one which deals with immediate concerns that no other student publication addresses.

Although our magazine may be distributed for free, publishing costs money - it requires campus-wide support of Open's staff for the work they put into this extracurricular project to ensure its continued presence and quality. We hope that the student body will decide to put the same kind of faith into Open Magazine as it has put into the Thresher and R2, especially if it's only one dollar.

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Rachel Solnick

Wiess College junior

Klara Wojtkowska

Brown College senior

Open Magazine staff

Best picture should be given to the best

To the Editor:

Moulin Rouge is most certainly not "best picture" material; it's an experimental drama that, to my mind, is occasionally entertaining and always visually stunning, but not really that good of a movie. I agree with you that Ellen Page was Oscar-worthy in Juno, but she is such an obviously great actress that there will be many, many, many opportunities for her to win the trophy over the coming decades.

The Academy Awards members are right to cast their votes not on what entertains people or features happy dancing, but on what is legitimately the best movie of the year. Sometimes they genuinely fail to choose the best picture - i.e., Crash in 2006 - but more often than not they get it right, as they likely will this year. Dancing aside, Slumdog Millionaire is legitimately the best movie of 2008 based solely on its artistic merit (with the possible exception of Doubt).

P.S. The idea of Field of Dreams or Princess Bride deserving Oscars is just silly, though Peter Falk could have gotten a supporting actor nod for the latter.

Brian Reinhart

Wiess College sophomore

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