Editor,

As a former member of Student Senate (and former chairman of the Ethics Committee) and alumnus of Ohio University, I sometimes surf the web to check out The Post's web site to see what's going on in Athens. I recently saw the story entitled "Senators face ethics charges" and had to laugh to myself.

From what I understand from the article, Faith Dickerhoof and Melissa Wervey are concerned that the President and Vice President of Student Senate gave an unfair "advantage" to Lt. Gov. Nancy Hollister by "encouraging" her (whatever that means, I do not know) to speak before Senate, while leaving Strickland out in the cold. Even if these charges (I still don't understand them) are true (now, I have the opportunity to use the Spanish I learned while at OU), el bigo crapo.

Anybody can talk before Senate and Strickland knows this; he's done it before and will continue to do so. If my memory serves me correctly, Student Senate sponsored a program featuring Strickland before the 1996 election talking about issues (housing, school loans) facing students. It was pretty much an opportunity for Strickland to make a pitch for students to vote for him.

Nonetheless, this really is much ado about nothing. Let Student Senate do the job it was elected to do. Stop the negativity, the election is over.

Andrew Siracuse

asiracuse@hotmail.com

Thinking safely

Editor,

I am writing in regard to the article "Bike accident victim stable," in Thursday's paper. I was the driver in the accident, and I wanted to make a couple of comments on it. I feel that the article had the opportunity to do much more than simply report what had happened. I believe it could have helped prevent something like that from happening again. The student on the bike was cited because he was going down Jefferson Hill. It is a one-way street, and he was going the wrong way. He also had no control over his bike. He had built up so much speed coming down the hill that there was no way that he could stop. He would not have been able to stop for a pedestrian either.

Every day, I see reckless pedestrians - hell, I am one most of the time - and reckless bicyclists. I hope this unfortunate accident will serve as both a reminder and a warning. This was the second accident involving an automobile and a bike in the last week. I think that we should feel blessed that we did not lose a friend/colleague/peer.

Mike Nycz

Checking drivers

Editor,

I read with interest the recent letter to the editor from Thomas Oellerich, who expressed his sympathy for the driver of a car hit by a cyclist racing down Jefferson Hill. Oellerich made the excellent point that many cyclists ignore the fact that they must obey the same traffic laws cars do.

However, he failed to point out that cars must treat cyclists the same way they would treat a car unless the highway is closed to cyclists.

In my experience as a cyclist, inconsiderate drivers far outnumber unsafe cyclists. I have been passed illegally and unsafely even when my speed matched the speed limit on that particular road, not to mention being cut off, yelled at, honked at and nearly hit on multiple occasions. I would hope that it is not just cyclists who will re-evaluate their behavior on the road.

Mark Tomko

Correction

"Organization builds bridges for children," Sept. 25

To get involved with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, call Susan West or Shirley Bartone at 594-3395.