6 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2012 EDITOR STACY THOMAS lewpoints Dupe. THIS (6 60 IOcroBER Si, 1.34 Pe ae oe B.C. hooked on cigarettes feel bad for smokers. Having been Je for over half of my adult life, I know what I’m talking about. It’a tough to quit, and it’s tough being a smoker these days—it’s just not cool anymore. With more and more regulations limiting where and when a person can light up, society has largely taken the fun out of it. Back when you could sit in a restaurant (gasp!) at your table (gasp!) and enjoy a nice relaxing cigarette with your beer, it was much easier to pretend that smoking was adding something to your life. Now, banished like outcasts to designated areas six metres from 4 any door or OPINION opening, standing §TAey THOMAS in the rain, cold, it’s hard to imagine that smoking is anything other than what it is: an addiction. Gone is the glamour. With what we now know about smoking, it just isn’t as accepted as it once was. Smokers are a dying breed (pun intended). It’s not their fault though. It’s the government’s policies: continue to sell tobacco for the precious tax revenues, but regulate it to death. The message this sends is contradictory at best: “We care about your health! But not that much!” Until the government can cut the tobacco-tax umbilical cord and put the smokers out of their misery once and for all, we’re all going to have to continue to hold our breaths for the 10 seconds it takes to walk past them. Because really, they’re the ones getting the short end of the (cancer) stick. LSU Is secretive and paranoid re you wondering what the Langara Students’ Union has been up to this year? Here are some highlights. 1. They’re rewriting the bylaws, and it’s going to affect you. The union is talking about requiring potential candidates to submit a resumé in order to run for office, giving the LSU the power to weed out candidates, defeating the whole purpose of voting. We made it to college. We’re smart enough to decide whom we want in office. 2. The LSU runs almost every meeting in camera. If Stephen Harper did that, Canadians would be livid. LSU bylaws state board meetings are open to all members of the union, as long as the board is “permitted to move in camera in extraordinary circumstances.” Right now the LSU is even classifying a routine vote on a new deputy media liaison as an extraordinary event. 3. An LSU employee was paid to watch me look at public documents. We sat alone, in a boardroom. The resource co-ordinator for the LSU, Saadia Rai, has her master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, and she’s making sure your lowly reporter doesn’t take notes while looking through public budgets and old meeting minutes. 4. Better yet, I was handed the budgets the next morning and told to keep them. I got to look at the meeting minutes, except they were just glorified worksheets that the committee filled out at leisure in point form. They weren’t real minutes. 5. It took The Voice two weeks to get in touch with the media liaison, Gurbax Leelh. But we expect things to be busy if staff paid by the LSU are tied up watching reporters look at public documents. 6. When we finally had an interview with Leelh, we were told that the LSU doesn’t want to talk to The Voice because we hurt some of their executives’ feelings. Leelh said that if The Voice continues to hurt board members’ feelings, the union will consult its lawyer. 7. The treasurer in charge of the LSU’s money goes to UBC. But he used to go to Langara, so it’s OK. The Voice takes pride in keeping its readers well-informed. But the LSU doesn’t make it easy. OPINION JULES KNOX LETTER to the editor Dear Voice: I saw your recent article on the HPV vaccine in which our work is quoted and wanted to tell you that my col- leagues and I think you did an excellent job of presenting the various opinions on this controversial subject. Balanced journalism is sometimes hard to achieve in any area, but when the subject is vaccines and vaccine safety it can become a truly daunting task. I want to congratulate you and your colleagues for taking on this chal- lenging assignment and doing it so well. With best wishes, (signed) Christopher A. Shaw, Ph.D Professor Department of Ophthalmology University of British Columbia Get sick! note taped above the door Pisce of Langara Health Services says, “1,692 people have touched this spot.” It’s a clever reminder that a campus is a perfect storm for contracting the flu virus: thousands of stressed-out, sleep deprived students touching the same germy items all day long. A few weeks back I was sick and guzzling down some caffeine. In mid-glug a classmate said to me, “Um, I think that’s my coffee you’re drinking.” Guilt-stricken, I con- fessed, “I have a cold, I’m sorry!” We traded cups and he drank up, rationalizing seasonal sickness is inevitable. My sentiments exactly. Flu shots are only 35 per cent effective in adults. Why willingly expose yourself to toxins when there are plenty of natural ways to boost the immune system? Getting enough sleep, water, exercise and vitamins has got to provide at least 35 per cent protec- tion against the flu virus. Avoiding white sugar helps too. One teaspoon of sugar will shut down your immune cells for up to eight hours. Is it always bad to get sick? No. Like anti-bacterial soap, avoiding sickness actually creates more problems than it solves. By eradicat- ing bacteria and viruses, we become an antiseptic society and do our immune systems a disservice. Overcoming illness is the original and natural way in which our immune systems are kept strong, not by avoiding it, as proponents of the flu vaccine would have us believe. So go ahead and drink someone else’s coffee, you’re doing their immune system a favour. OPINION JANA MINOR Fil fay ce) The Voice is published by Langara College's journalism department. Editorial opinions are those of the staff and are independent of views of the student government and administration. We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must be signed. They may be edited for brevity. Names may be withheld in special cases, but your letter must include your name and phone number. HOW TO REACH US PHONE 604-323-5396 FAX 604-323-5398 E-MAIL thevoice@langara.be.ca DROP-IN Room A226 Langara College There is a mailbox at the entrance to the journalism rooms. SNAIL MAIL The Voice 100 West 49th Ave. Vancouver, B.C. VSY 226 WEBSITE wwwilangaravoice.com EDITORIAL STAFF THIS ISSUE: MANAGING EDITOR/ PAGE 6 Stacy Thomas PAGE EDITORS PAGE 1 Clayton Paterson PAGE 2 Jeremy Sally PAGE 3 Omar Shariff PAGE 4 Carly Smith PAGE 5 Ross Armour PAGE 7 Carissa Thorpe PAGE 8 Ashley Viens WEB EDITORS Dennis Page Jake Hewer Ley Doctor REPORTERS Jules Knox Jana Minor Tanya Hill Simone Pfeiffer Bronwyn Scott Judy Chem Katja De Bock Richard Hodges Annie Ellison Jennifer Thuncher Steven Chua Gillian Hames Kevin Hampson Brandon Kostinuk Michael Letendre Samuel Reynolds Ryan Banagan Contact us: Online at langaravoice.com Twitter at @langaraVoice