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Isn't college supposed to be at least partially about preparing for the real world? If the Christian students who want to withhold their student fees would look up from their Bibles for a moment they would realize that they aren't going to be able to withhold their taxes until the Supreme Court finds anti-abortion laws constitutional. They won't be able to quit paying parking tickets because the mayor sleeps around. And they won't be able to keep little Johnny and Susie from hearing about evolution in schools just because they refuse to pay school taxes. Instead they will go to jail. There are thousands of Christian colleges situated throughout the U.S. that will spend these students' fees biblically. But if Christians want to attend public universities, they must realize that with government funding comes the responsibility to promote and support a wide range of beliefs and activities. Colleges must promote diversity and not bow down to lawsuits that threaten the way they fund their student activities. And Christian groups (and others who think they can bully school administrators by withholding funds) must realize that in a society based on equality and civility, they must sometimes pay fees (and taxes) that will be used in ways they cannot support. -- Tim Fogle
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In response to Janelle Brown's article about Amway on the Web, Brown obviously doesn't understand what it is we do. The bulk of Amway "salespeople" don't "hawk" products or pressure friends to do the same. It's about "royalties for loyalty." It's about teaming up with a multitude of companies that have made margins available for bringing "business volume" from today's in-store (retail) model to the non-store model that Amway uses. Starting Sept. 1 that model will be even more convenient via the Internet. Quixtar distributors will not start trolling chat rooms, gathering e-mails and spamming out "opportunity notes" to those they find there. According to the ADA board (the group in charge of maintaining Amway ethical standards and procedures) such practices will be punishable by two- to five-year distributorship "suspension" up to termination of the independent business owner's rights to ever do business via the new Quixtar business model. Amway's move to the Web wasn't a flippant decision just made last month. Amway has been restructuring the way it handles orders, makes deliveries and pays bonuses for more than five years so that when it completed this "back-of-the-house" restructuring it would be prepared to better handle the more one-to-one transactions that a large Web presence would bring. Only Amway, to my knowledge, has figured out how to use the technology available to handle sub-$100 orders and maintain a high profit level. Finally, I apologize that Brown obviously has had a bad experience with an unprofessional Amway independent business owner at sometime in her past. It's blatently obvious by her stab and smear article that she has an ax to grind. -- Will Stanton
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R E C E N T L Y+| URGE: RUB ME TENDER BY JON BOWEN
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