I know so many people already, but I don't feel as that I have made that many close friends. I spent a lot of time deciding whether or not to join a fraternity, and ultimatley decided not to, and now I wonder if this was the right idea. I tried to think of both all the positive advantages and negative disadvantages of joining a frat, and came to the conclusion that it would be too time consuming. But now I see a lot of my peers invloved with Greek organizations, and they seem to be having a lot of fun. All of my room/suitemates are in frats, so they talk about it and go to their activites all the time. I do not know if I made the right decision, but there is nothing I can do now because the pledge period has already started. I will have to make the best of my situation, but I am confident and hoping that it will work out. I have some very close friends fromm my hometown of Fort Worth who are not in fraternities, so I plan on hanging out with them a lot this semseter. To find worthwhile activites, I plan on joining some student organizations and Jewish groups. I am excited about all the people here at UT, and sometimes feel intimdated about everything that is going on (especially since at my dorm, Univeristy Towers, a majority of the residents go Greek and they are always doing something). I am an optomistic person though, and I will do anythign and everything I can to have a successful and enjoyable year in school and in Austin. I am worried about a growing threat of religious fundamentalism in the world, and not only in the United States. This month, an Islamic ultranationalist group bombed two U. S. embassies in Africa. This same group has vowed to destroy the State of Israel, which is very scary to me and for all Jewish people throughout the world. Osama Bin-Laden, leader of the terrorist group, supports and financially funds Hamas, a Palestinian terror organization and Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist group as well, and has the support of many Muslims in the Middle East. He is very popular, and will do whatever it takes to achieve his goal- the immeidate "Liberation of Palestine from Zionist aggression" as he calls it, or "total annihilation and massacrre of the free people in the secular, democratic, peace-loving State of Israel" as I see it. He sees Israel as a hostile nation which should be removed from the world map. As all intelligent people know, Israel is a peace seeking country that respects the rights and liberites of all its inhabitants, regardless of religion. Bin-Laden has growing support of his movement from his radical fundamentalist supporters, and they are the ones responsible for commiting these terrorist acts throughout the world. For instance, this week he was probably behind a nail bomb which expoded in Tel Aviv, injuring and killing many. Also, Pakistani radicals this week announced plans to overthrow the secular government and instill a new parliament based on Islamic religious law. In poor Middle East countries, where starvation and poverty are extremely high, people having nothing positive to look forward to, so they turn to fundamentalsim. The same movement is happening right here in the United States. Some religious fundamentalist leaders, like Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed, are calling for mandatory school prayer and the inclusion of religion into public instituition. It is their intention to make the United States a Christian nation by passing legislation in favor of the religious right, which happens to be WRONG. The founders of our country included a seperation of church and state clause into the Constitution for a purpose, and that was to keep America a secular nation. The radical right wing is trying to change this very core of our country. Learning fundamentals might be good in athletics, but preaching religious fundamenalism is a dangerous threat to all of society. I commend freedom seeking nations like the United States and Israel for doing their part to combat this worldwide problem, which if not stopped will affect everyone in a very horrific manner.