CHANGE We Can - Buzzsaw Magazine

BUZZSAW
Not just a river in Egypt
DECEMBER 2008
CHANGE We Can
Believe In?
Election poses
questions about
extent of “change”
Harmful to
Your Health
How the stigma
of mental illness
restricts its discussion
Should the
Simpsons END?
Don’t have a cow,
we’re not saying yes.
Image by Steven Gorgos
BUZZSAW
Buzzsaw presents...
EDITORS’ COMMENT
The Denial Issue
he United States is like a teenager’s Facebook
account. All of the information presented is the
best parts of themselves; the photos are only
images that show them having fun, in exotic
locations, with many friends or just of a good
hair day; the number of friends show popularity—a techno-savvy form of name-dropping; and the education and work sections allow them to brag about their
academic accomplishments. It is a projection of the “cool”
self, but is at odds with reality, since it sweeps many of the
negative attributes one may have under the rug.
The U.S. Facebook page probably will include how “green”
the country is becoming. It will make much of the election
of Barack Obama, accompanied with photos of blacks and
whites embracing. And, without a doubt, it will boast about
how democratic the country is, emphasizing the constitutional liberties citizens are given.
However, it will omit photos of decimated mountains
and the racial backlash of Obama’s election. The prevalence of disenfranchised voters and other infringements
of one’s freedoms will remain ignored. The façade of the
U.S. Facebook page will always be at odds with what
lies underneath.
It’s not that we’re claiming the U.S. is a bad place to live.
But pretending to live in a nation free of inequity causes
two huge problems. First, we stop recognizing these problems as problems. Second, and more importantly, we stop
trying to change them.
The Denial Issue attempts to highlight some of the discrepancies in the way our society discusses problems versus the
reality of the situations. Because only once we acknowledge
discrepancies exist will we ever really be able to “change.”
-The Editors
T
Correction From Education Issue’s Buzzcuts:
BUZZSAW
Civilian Casualties in Modern Wars
10%
50% 70% 90%
World War I World War II Vietnam War Conflict in Iraq
-War Made Easy (documentary)
News & Views
Upfront
Ministry of Cool
Prose & Cons
Sawdust
Layout
Art
Marketing
Web site
Production
Adviser
Founders
Karin Fleming
Jenna Scatena
Carly Willsie
Jake Forney
Harrison Flatau
Jennifer Konerman
Josh Elmer
Jennifer Konerman
Bryan Cipolla
Ashley Rae Fischer
Drea Kasianchuk
Adam Polaski
Julissa Treviño
Jackie Simone
Chris Giblin
Andy Casler
Jeff Cohen
Abby Bertumen
Kelly Burdick
Bryan Chambala
Sam Costello
Cole Louison
James Sigman
Buzzsaw is funded by the Ithaca College
Student Government Association, the Park
School of Communications and a generous
grant from Campus Progress.
Visit them at www.campusprogress.org.
Our Press is our press. (Binghamton, NY)
Buzzsaw uses student-generated art and
photography and royalty-free images.
Views expressed in this magazine are not
necessarily those of the editorial staff or of
Ithaca College. Feedback and contributions
should be sent to
[email protected].
Front & Back covers by Jake Forney
Center spread by Bryan Cipolla
Upfront divider by Steven Gorgos
Ministry of Cool divider by Josh Elmer
Prose & Cons divider by Steven Gorgos
Sawdust divider by Bryan Cipolla
Image by Bryan Cipolla
WRITE US
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and feedback are all a part
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Table of Contents
News & Views ............................... 4
Current events, local news & quasi-educated opinions.
Upfront .........................................13
Selected dis-education of the month.
Ministry.of.Cool ......................... 28
Arts, entertainment and other things cooler than us.
Prose & Cons .............................. 39
Short fiction, personal essay and other assorted lies.
Sawdust ...................................... 43
Threatening the magazine’s credibility since 1856.
BUZZSAW
check us out at:
WWW.BUZZSAWMAG.ORG
buzzcuts
Compiled by Karin Fleming
Quotes
“I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn’t torture.
And I’m gonna make sure that we don’t torture. Those are part and parcel
of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world.”
-President-elect Barack Obama during a 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft Nov. 17.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who
joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will
never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the
number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that
torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me—unless you don’t count
American soldiers as Americans.”
-Excerpt from an op-ed published in the Washington Post Nov. 30, 2008. The author,
who wrote under the pseudonym Matthew Alexander for security purposes, led an
interrogations team assigned to a Special Operations task force in Iraq in 2006. He
also is the author of How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used
Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq.
“I’d like to be a president [known] as somebody
who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve
peace.”
-President Bush in an interview conducted by his sister, Dorothy Bush
Koch, for the oral-history organization StoryCorps for the American Folklife
Center at the Library of Congress. He was referring to his legacy: he wishes to be remembered as a liberator of the Iraqi people. (ABC News)
BUZZSAW
Did you know...
The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses released a report in November that concluded the longterm illnesses many Gulf War veterans face was a result of the
use of pills, which were given to the soldiers by the military to
protect them from the effects of chemical weaponized nerve
agents, and from the military’s use of pesticides.
‘Gulf War syndrome,’ which is the combination of chronic
headaches, cognitive difficulties, widespread pain, unexplained
fatigue, chronic diarrhea, skin rashes, respiratory problems, and
other abnormalities, was previously said to be a result of posttraumatic stress disorders or other mental ailments.
Gulf War illness affects at least one in four of the 647,000 Gulf
War veterans. Paul Sullivan, the executive director of Veterans For
Common Sense, said of the report: “The facts now show that top
Pentagon officials failed to assist Gulf War veterans by clinging to
the myth that Gulf War illnesses was related to stress.”
Stats
A 2007 study by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission
found that
prescription
drugs kill
300% more Americans
than
illegal ones.
-t r u t h o u t
100,000:
the number of children who
went hungry at some point in
An
2007
increase 50%
of
from last year
-Department of Agriculture
According to researchers at
Harvard University, people who
health insurance are
lack
20x more likely
to donate an organ
than receive one.
-Common Dreams
200:
the number of
hate-related
incidents that have occurred
after Obama was
elected.
-Huffington Post
Obama’s Potential Cabinet
Below are the prospective nominees for the “big four” in the
Cabinet. Each must be presented to the Senate for confirmation or rejection. Obama has been criticized for selecting people
who represent old Washington policies—from both the Bush
and Clinton administrations—rather than policies that reflect his
pledges for change.
Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton
Job description: While the president
ultimately determines U.S. foreign policy, the Secretary of State is the president’s chief foreign policy adviser. The
responsibilities include: conducting negotiations with foreign representatives;
advising the president on the appointment of U.S. ambassadors, ministers,
consuls and other diplomats; instructing U.S. embassies and consulates abroad.
Experience: The primary topic of discussion regarding Hillary Clinton’s appointment to Secretary of State has been her
rivalry with Obama during the presidential campaign. Her
hawkish record, especially regarding the conflict in Iraq and
the current tensions with Iran, has often been overlooked.
Clinton was one of the leading supporters of the Iraq war, going farther than many Democrats in wrongly linking Iraq to al
Qaeda and, during her presidential campaign, to “totally obliterate them” if Iran attacked Israel. She also was a committed supporter of former President Clinton’s decision to bomb
Yugoslavia, as well as his economic and military war on Iraq
through the 1990s. Her selection suggests the continuation of
the status quo: a very militarized foreign policy.
Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates
Job Description: The Secretary
of Defense is a key member of the
president’s national security team and
is responsible for the formulation of
general defense policy. This includes
overseeing the direction of military
operations, managing defense resources and maintaining the readiness of forces.
Experience: Robert Gates was sworn in as Secretary of Defense in December 2006 after the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld. He also spent decades in the CIA as a hawkish Soviet
specialist and served as C.I.A. director from 1991 to 1993. He
also has been criticized for his involvement in the Iran-Contra
scandal. Gates has been outspoken about his opposition to a
withdrawal timetable in Iraq and was a proponent of the troop
escalation known as the “surge.” Many think keeping Gates
shows that Democrats are willing to be bipartisan, while others think it raises doubts about whether Democrats are about
serious policy change.
Attorney General
Eric Holder
Job Description: The Attorney
General gives advice to the president
and heads of executive departments
regarding legal matters. He or she
is responsible for enforcing federal
laws, interpreting laws by which other executive departments are bound,
supervising federal penal institutions,
investigating violations of federal
laws and providing legal counsel in federal cases.
Experience: Eric Holder is a veteran Washington lawyer who
served as a federal prosecutor—which gained him a reputation for being tough on public corruption—and as the U.S. attorney for the D.C. Holder also was the deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration. Much of the criticism of
his appointment has been about his role in Clinton’s controversial pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich. What is rarely
discussed is the role Holder played in defending the Chiquita
fruit company, which was accused of funneling money and
weapons to a Columbian paramilitary organization on the U.S.
State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. The company was also accused of human rights abuses including the
massacres of peasants throughout the Colombian countryside and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands
of poor Colombians. Through the deal that Holder brokered,
not one Chiquita official had to serve time.
Secretary of the Treasury
Timothy Geithner
Job Description: The Secretary of
the Treasury is the economic adviser
to the president and, in times of economic crisis, is a key power position.
He/she is responsible for managing
the finances of the government, overseeing the banking system and working with the Federal Reserve.
Experience: Timothy F. Geithner is
the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York. He was a key player in containing the Asian financial
crisis of 1997-1998. He has worked in the Treasury in three
administrations dating back to 1988. Geithner has also been
on the front lines of the current economic crisis by helping
the current Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, manage the
bailout. He has received criticism for his part in both the
rescue of Bear Stearns and American International Group
and the government’s decision to allow Lehman Brothers to
fail. But while Geithner knows the bailout plan better then
perhaps anyone, it’s unclear whether that is a positive or
negative attribute.
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Prop. 8 bans gay marriage, contradicts calls for change
By Julia Pergolini
n June 16, 2008 dozens of
people gathered on the Beverly Hills Courthouse steps
to witness history in the
making: The first legalized
gay marriage in the state of California. Protestors hovered, holding banners and yelling hateful and discriminatory slurs. But the guests, most of
whom wept tears of joy, paid no mind.
Equality was granted, and that’s all
that mattered.
The couple who originally sued L.A.
county for equal marriage rights, Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, were wed
at the very place they tried to tie the
knot every year since 2001.
“We had chosen the courthouse because it was Ground Zero in the case
that eventually won lesbians and gay
men not just the right to marry, but
all of the legal protections of marriage in the state of California,” said
Tyler in her June 22 Huffington Post
blog post.
“It was there that we had announced
our lawsuit.”
But as soon as the California Supreme Court made the decision to legalize same-sex marriage, a constitutional amendment was drafted, known
as Proposition 8, which was placed on
Nov. 4 ballots. If passed, it would limit
marriage to one man and one woman,
although there still has been no official decision as to whether it
would null those marriages
that already existed.
This all started on Feb. 12,
2008. That’s when Robin Tyler filed suit against Los Angeles County for equal marriage
rights for gays and lesbians.
With the help of her lawyer,
Gloria Allred, and her partner
Diane Olson by her side, she
eventually convinced the Supreme Court of California that
the ban on gay marriage was
unconstitutional. On May 15,
gay marriage was officially legalized, and the couple wed a
BUZZSAW
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month later.
“The court actually ruled that the
right to marry is a fundamental civil
right, which cannot be denied to lesbian and gay couples,” said Tyler in her
blog. “The ruling opened up the existing institution of marriage; it did not
create a new and separate institution
called same-sex or gay marriage.”
For four months, gay and lesbian
couples sprinted to city and town
courthouses, eager to practice the
same rights as their heterosexual
counterparts for the first time. There
is no federal law that protects homosexuals from blatant discrimination,
so the cheers that resounded up and
down city streets were not just the
roars of victory, but also the cries of
unity, justice and long-awaited equality. And in one ballot vote on Nov. 4,
in one long day of counting and recounting all across California, it came
to a crashing halt.
By a 52-48 percent vote, Prop. 8
had passed. Total spending on both
sides reached an incredible $74 million, making it the most expensive social issues campaign in U.S. history
and the most expensive campaign this
year, excluding the presidential race.
California had gone months with gay
marriage in effect. No one was harmed,
people weren’t magically stripped of
their morality and the world certainly
did not end. So why do people care so
much about retracting these basic civil
rights from their mind-their-own-business neighbor?
The “Yes on 8” group ran a flawless
campaign. They had an effective media strategy that made people look at
the situation from a variety of angles—
acknowledging the broader issues like
family values and children’s possible
new “sex education.” They remained
very sure of themselves, their values,
their morals and most importantly,
their religion.
The “No” campaign had just as
much money pouring in, with large
donations from the Hollywood community, The Human Rights Campaign, and even companies like Apple.
The Internet became a main vehicle
for both sides to voice their opinions,
in what basically became a battle of
the PSAs.
The “No” campaign also got a lot of
attention on major blogs, like Perez
Hilton, but their message was getting
lost in the shuffle of both liberals and
Generation Y-ers, who have a much
different take on sexuality than Generation X or baby boomers. This was
reflected in the overall results. Those
ages 18-29 voted 66 percent “No” and
34 percent “Yes;” ages 30-64 were
50-50; and senior citizens carried 57
percent of the “Yes” vote. Also, college
graduates opposed Prop. 8
by a 57 to 43 percent margin, and those without a degree favored it 53-47.
The “Yes” campaign had
the support of the Mormon
community, and it was their
definitive leadership that
“No” lacked.
The percentage of black
people who also sided
with the Mormons was 70
percent—a number that
the “No” campaign never expected and one that
changed the predicted re-
Images by Sally Russell. Photographs courtesy of Robin Tyler.
sults dramatically.
Many people have criticized the
“No” campaigns efforts, saying their
organizers hung on Obama’s coattails and felt safe that they would
take most, if not all, of his votes.
Perhaps relying on this factor
and all the celebrity endorsements
they had, the “No” campaign played
things a little too safe. They basically assumed everyone who voted
for Obama would also vote against
the proposition.
On the other side, newspapers
ran stories of very modest Mormon
families who poured half of their life
savings into the cause. In a San Diego stadium, thousands gathered
for an all-day prayer service in support of the ban. Some had traveled
across the country to be there.
Melissa Fultz is one of those people
who passionately supported the “Yes
on 8” campaign. A recent graduate of
Brigham Young University and a lifelong, active member of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she
feels that religion has everything to do
with marriage.
“As a Christian and a member of the
LDS Church, I know that marriage is
ordained by God,” she says. “The family—the most basic and fundamental
unit of society—was first started on
this earth by the marriage and consequent children of Adam and Eve… Its
roots are in religion, not law.”
This is where the views on marriage
divide between the two groups, but it
was crucial in the voting process. Out
of a total vote of 52 to 48, those who
went to church weekly voted 83 percent “Yes” and 17 percent opposed;
occasional church goers voted 40 to
60 and those who never go to church
voted 14-86 percent.
Without getting too involved in the
evolution debate, those on the “No”
campaign would argue that marriage
has absolutely very little to do with religion – and rightly so.
It is government, not religion, that
makes marriage legal and binding.
This is why you can choose to have
a religious ceremony in a traditional
white dress and ornate Church, or a
simple barefoot wedding in the woods
with just a couple of friends.
It is U.S. civil law, which is why the
left has fired back, calling this a basic
civil rights infringement.
Best-selling author and civil rights
activist, Patricia Nell Warren in her
recent article for the Bilerico Project,
“Where Is That ‘Traditional Marriage’
They Keep Talking About?” fine tunes
this point in a variety of ways.
There is no such thing as traditional marriage, she argues.
“What these religions are protecting
is their beliefs and teachings about
matrimony, which vary from religion
to religion,” she says. Protecting these
customs is important, but they are
not the law of the land.
“In other words,” she continues,
“conservative religionists are putting
enormous energy into protecting a
legal institution that isn’t even theirs
to protect.” This is why these thousands of gay couples have flocked to
city halls all over California.
But for religionists like Melissa
Fultz, faith comes first, and her
faith teaches that gender roles and
responsibilities are eternal and
unquestionable. And that way of
thought prevailed in this vote.
Since Nov. 4, protestors have
taken to the streets all across the
nation, staging sit-ins and rallies.
“Prop. 8—The Musical,”which was
written by Marc Shaiman, the Tonywinning composer of Hairspray and
features Margaret Cho, Neil Patrick
Harris, and Jack Black as Jesus,
instantly became a popular viral
video on FunnyOrDie.com.
Nonetheless, the Los Angeles community has made it clear that the
fight is not over on this issue.
“No one likes losing, I don’t like losing,” Tyler said. “But I never knew
that in losing, we started Stonewall II.
We started on the streets, and we’re
back on the streets.”
Stonewall refers to the riots that took
place in New York City, reacting to a
police raid which took place at Stonewall Inn, which is considered the start
of the modern gay rights movement.
It was the first time gays and lesbians
ever really fought back against the
persecution of homosexuals.
Three lawsuits have been filed with
the Supreme Court of California,
saying that under the equal protection law in the state’s Constitution, a
majority of voters are not allowed to
revoke equal rights intended for everyone. A majority cannot deny the
rights of a minority.
Julia Pergolini is a senior English
major. E-mail her at juliapergolini@
gmail.com.
News & Views
Image by Patricia Rodriguez
Taking a Stand Against Militarism
IC professor, students protest School of Americas
By Jackie Simone
atricia Rodriguez wasn’t
intimidated by the police
forces and helicopters that
surrounded the 19th annual School of the Americas
protest. She was not afraid that she
could be arrested while she called for
the closing of the notorious school on
Nov. 21-23. She was not scared that
her rights might be violated.
In 1973, she was scared. Although
she was a young child, she remembers
the constant nervous tension and fear
in her family in the wake of the brutal
coup in Chile that replaced President
Salvador Allende, a Socialist, with Augusto Pinochet, and she remembers
the ensuing brutality. Graduates of
the School of the Americas played a
significant role in overthrowing Allende and attacking innocent Chileans in
the chaos that followed—horrific stories of torture, rapes and indiscriminate killings. The political turmoil and
danger persuaded Rodriguez’s father
to move the family to Brazil. Decades
later, the School of the Americas is
still responsible for human rights violations in Latin America.
“It was very real at the protest that
this hasn’t stopped, that there’s still
this going on nowadays,” said Rodriguez, an assistant professor of politics
at IC. This year was her first time attending the protest, although she had
wanted to participate for years.
The school has undergone many
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name changes throughout the decades, but the core practices and
curriculum have remained largely
unchanged. The Latin American
Training Center—U.S. Ground Forces was the school’s first incarnation.
It was established in Panama in
1946 to protect American interests
in Latin America. Specifically, it was
intended to spread democracy and
prevent the spread of communism
during the early years of the Cold
War. Three years later, it expanded
and changed its name to the U.S.
Army Caribbean Training Center. In
1963, it again expanded and was renamed the U.S. Army School of the
Americas. The signing of the Panama Canal Treaty in 1984 necessitated its move to its current location,
Fort Benning, Ga. Jorge Illueca, the
Panamanian president at this time,
called the SOA the “biggest base for
destabilization in Latin America.”
The SOA was officially renamed
the Western Hemisphere Institute
for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) and brought under the U.S.
Department of Defense by Congress’
National Defense Authorization Act
in 2001. However, many people
still refer to the institution as SOA
since little has changed in the latest version of the school. Many of
the school’s critics refer to it as the
School of Assassins.
The SOA emphasizes counterinsur-
gency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military
intelligence and interrogation tactics. Most
courses are taught in Spanish, but the
school is now open for civilians and people
from outside Latin America. Approximately
1,000 to 1,300 students attend the SOA
every year. The SOA trained more than
61,000 Latin American soldiers and policemen between 1946 and 2001, among several of Pinochet’s officers, Bolivia’s former
dictator Hugo Banzer, Argentia’s former
dictator Leopoldo Galtieri, and Panama’s
former dictator Manuel Noriega.
Numerous SOA graduates have been
accused and convicted of human rights
abuses. As recently as Nov. 13, the Center for Justice and Accountability filed
a criminal case in Spain against former
Salvadoran President and Commander in
Chief of the Armed Forces Alfredo Cristiani Burkard as well as 14 other soldiers
from the Salvadoran Army for massacring
Jesuits on Nov. 16, 1989. Eight of the
soldiers accused of human rights abuses
in this massacre attended the SOA.
Thousands of protestors have called
for an end to the SOA since the advocacy
group School of the Americas Watch organized the first protest and vigil in 1990.
The official Web site of the SOA states
that it “provides professional education
and training for civilian, military and
law enforcement students from nations
throughout the Western Hemisphere.”
WHINSEC and its supporters deny
claims that the school encourages torture
The lack of knowledge about the SOA is particularly startling when considering that it is funded
through taxes. The WHINSEC budget for 2005 was $7.8 million.
techniques and other human rights
violations, asserting that currently all
students must receive at least eight
hours of instruction in human rights,
democratic principles, and due process. Furthermore, WHINSEC supporters argue that the school should not
be held accountable for the actions of
some of its former students.
Several Latin American countries
have recently ceased their relationship with the SOA as a result of criticisms related to human rights. Venezuela stopped sending soldiers to
be trained at WHINSEC in 2004, and
Argentina and Costa Rica followed
suit in 2006 and 2007, respectively.
On Feb. 18, 2008, Bolivian President
Evo Morales formally announced that
he would not send Bolivian military
or police officers to attend training at
WHINSEC. Meanwhile, other countries, such as Guatemala, continue
sending officials to be trained through
the SOA’s controversial curriculum.
“The SOA is a very important issue
having to do with U.S.-Latin American
relations that has been under scrutiny
a long time,” Rodriguez said. “There’s
things that have been bettered, but
the school is still open, and I find that
there’s hardly any reason for it.”
Despite the continuation of violence
at the hands of SOA graduates, Rodriguez has found that many of her students have never heard of the school.
As a result, Rodriguez makes a point
to discuss the SOA in her classes. This
semester, she included the protest in
the syllabi for her two politics courses
as a voluntary activity.
While Rodriguez had been personally
impacted by the SOA and had wanted
to attend the protest for years, senior
politics major Mark Brett knew nothing about the school before he took Rodriguez’s Political Violence and Human
Rights in Latin America course. After
learning about the SOA, Brett felt compelled to participate in the protest.
“What business is it of the United
States to be training soldiers in Latin
America?” Brett said. “That’s its own
place, and America needs to stop trying to control everything.”
Brett believes that it is important for
citizens to be aware of the activities of
their government. The lack of knowledge about the SOA is particularly
startling when considering that it is
funded through taxes. The WHINSEC
budget for 2005 was $7.8 million.
Two other students from Rodriguez’s
Political Violence and Human Rights in
Latin America class attended the protest as observers. A group of students
from the Catholic community also
participated in the protest, which has
historically been linked to the Catholic Church. Major attention and criticism of the SOA largely resulted from
the assassination of El Salvadoran human rights advocate Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980 by SOA graduate
Roberto D’Aubuisson. School of the
Americas Watch, which organizes the
annual protest and vigil, was founded
by Father Roy Bourgeois in 1990. Since
then, Catholics have been instrumental in the call to close the SOA.
Brett was surprised at the level of
organization of the event. Protestors
could choose to participate to varying
degrees throughout the weekend. Rodriguez registered online to serve as a
Spanish-English translator during the
presentations. A large portion of the
weekend was dedicated to presentations by torture victims, workshops
and teach-ins at the nearby Columbus Convention Center. An estimated 12,000 protestors participated in
events on Saturday. Brett remarked
that the inclusion of topics that were
not directly correlated to the SOA, such
as gay rights, might have distracted
protestors from their original purpose.
In addition to presentations, the protest included symbolic elements meant
to draw attention to the unfairness of
U.S. intervention in Latin America.
For example, puppetistas proceeded
through the city to represent what the
SOA Watch Web site calls “a dancing
battle to bring down the massive puppet of U.S. imperialism.”
The culmination of the weekend is a
vigil on Sunday morning, in which people gather to honor those who have been
killed by SOA graduates. The names of
the victims, referred to by protestors
as martyrs, were each sung from the
stage as the crowd of approximately
20,000 protestors responded by saying
“¡Presente!” This follows the tradition
in Latin American justice movements
of honoring the memory of those who
lost their lives. Protestors held small
white crosses with the names and ages
of the dead, which they carried as they
marched in the funeral procession.
Many protestors placed the crosses
in the wire fence at the Fort Benning
property line. Brett and Rodriguez commented that the vigil was a powerful,
emotional experience. As protestors
stood together for two hours while the
names were sung, they gave a different
meaning to the WHINSEC motto “Libertad, Paz y Fraternidad,” or “Freedom,
Peace and Brotherhood.”
Rodriguez watched complete strangers embracing each other at the vigil and
contrasted it with the violence, largely
instigated by SOA graduates, that tainted the nation in which she was born.
“When I was at the protest, I felt a
tremendous sense of unity and a tremendous sense that this matters,” Rodriguez said. “It matters to be at that
protest in solidarity with people from
Latin America. It matters to participate
in these things so that policy can be
changed. It matters particularly now.”
_____________________________________
Jackie Simone is a sophomore journalism major. E-mail her at jsimone1@
ithaca.edu.
News & Views
Images by Mark Brett
Image by Laura Linda Gamari
Post-Obama America
As victory cheers fade the country’s left asking: Now what?
By Aaron King
hen the clock struck 11:00
p.m. on Nov. 4, a burst of
vigorous elation seemed to
emit from America’s youth.
College campuses roared late
into the night in a show of unified jubilee that has seldom been witnessed in
the past few decades. In Ithaca, N.Y.,
this joy was manifest in a symphony
of pots and pans and happy fools running naked through the streets. There
was a feeling that we had just done
something monumental.
President-elect
Barack
Obama
was swept into the White House by
the largest margin of victory in 20
years, and he did so with a message
of change. It was a message that appealed to our most visceral intuitions,
one that resonated to the core, especially for a generation of young people
who have largely come to their political consciousness under the reign of
George W. Bush.
“[Young people] have experienced
only a very conservative, sort of a Cold
War revival,” said Elizabeth Sanders,
a professor of government at Cornell
University. “That’s why there’s the
comparison to Kennedy, because of
the feeling that this could be something truly different.”
The notion that the people of this
country could be inspired by their leader
was not a reality this generation had very
well known. The prospect of an Obama
presidency instilled a disillusioned many
with this unfamiliar warmth.
For many young people, this in itself was evidence of change, and we
believed in it enough to come out in
large numbers for Obama. According to the Center for Information &
Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, youth voter turnout rose
to nearly 53 percent, an increase of
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10
five percent from 2004 and 11 percent
from 2000. In total, 68 percent of voters 29 and under preferred Obama,
even though only 45 percent were
self-identified Democrats. Indeed, the
youth vote arrived. The enthusiasm
was not a mirage or some trivial exhibition. We got what we wanted.
Right?
President-elect Obama will surely
change some things, but whether
he will create the progress so many
people, young people in particular,
desire is up to debate. To this point,
most have been satisfied that he’s not
George Bush. But as he makes more
decisions, people will take greater notice. There are indications of what the
world will look like once Obama takes
office. The young people who hit the
voting booths for him are looking to
the future with an uncertainty rooted
in the turbulence of these times.
Stephen Wayne, director of the
American Government master’s program at Georgetown University, warns
not to expect too much change.
“Obama is a pragmatist, and he
realizes that only 22 percent of the
country, according to the exit polls,
is liberal. So you can’t achieve liberal
change because there isn’t that environment,” he said. “That’s why he’s
got to govern from the middle.”
Obama’s Cabinet appointments
lend insight into the way he’ll make
decisions once in office. He has been
praised for assembling a diverse array
of individuals, friend and foe alike,
from all over the political spectrum.
Some, like Sanders, don’t see it that
way, and have been led some to surprising conclusions.
“I think there’s an over-eagerness to
please conservatives,” she said. “The
financial crisis made it possible to be
a Roosevelt and not a Clinton and to
bring in a very different policy that
relied on the Democratic principles.
But, he still hasn’t realized that.”
Nor does Sanders see Obama governing from the middle.
“If you look at the breakdown of Congressional voting, there’s really been
no center. It’s been polarization [between Democrats and Republicans]. I
think there’s no center to move to. I
think he’s moving to the right.”
Progressives and anti-war voters
have been critical of Obama for the
hawkish make-up of his foreign policy
team, most notably Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates and National Security
Adviser Gen. Jim Jones—all individuals who supported the Iraq War. His
reticence in discussing his proposal
to withdraw combat troops in Iraq
within 16 months and commitment to
elevating the number of troops in Afghanistan has given some on the left
pause as well. While Sanders, an expert on presidents and foreign policy
reform, believes there are reasons to
be disillusioned by some of Obama’s
choices, she said that the overall result of the Obama election will be a
new outlook on foreign relations.
“Democrats have had more of a desire to avoid war, to use diplomacy, to
work cooperatively with other nations
to consider social ills and foreign aid.
I expect Obama to reach back into that
tradition. Overall, I think you’re just
going to get a smarter, more nuanced
foreign policy.”
While Sanders is worried about the
lack of a prominent progressive voice
in Obama’s administration, and especially the presence of “Hillary Clinton
and some of the more militaristic individuals,” she does see some of that
you graduate with one or two million more people who’ve been put
out of work, that’s going to be
tough, and you’re not going to be in
much of a bargaining position.”
The message may be stale by
now, but it is nevertheless true.
Ugly, disquieting, vile, but true—
it’s the economy, stupid.
“The economy comes first, and
that in the long run will have the
most effect on the most people. For
young people, jobs at the moment
are more important than the education reforms,” Wayne said.
Obama himself has stated, on
MTV no less, that young people are
among the hardest hit by the economy. “They’re the ones who are going to have the toughest time finding a job,” he said in an interview in
September. If Obama cannot get the
economy back on its feet, then credit
markets will remain a heartbeat
from collapse, banks won’t be able
to lend, businesses won’t be able to
invest in higher production and additions to payroll, and home and college loans will be more difficult to access. No jobs. No homes. No school.
We’ll wish for a return to the days
when piling up debt was easy.
And that’s just the beginning.
“You have to remember that a lot
of the poor people in this country are
young people,” Wayne said. “And they
are more dependant on government
aid and entitlement programs than
are the older people, who receive Social Security and Medicare. But they
vote, so those things are not going to
be changing very much.”
Fortunately, as is always the
case with a free market economy,
things can only stay so bad for so
long. With some well-informed direction, the slumping economy
could get back on solid ground a
little sooner. But some on the left
are anxious that Obama is depending too much on recycled names
and Wall Street insiders, namely
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner
who has received a lot of the blame
for letting Lehman Brothers fail,
to clean up the mess. Wayne recognizes this danger, particularly in
light of the message Obama used to
rise to power.
“He has appointed experienced
people who have good reputations.
Now, you might want to argue, that
Student Reactions
“I was ecstatic. We were watching the
coverage all day. Once the West Coast
was shown, our whole street began to
celebrate.” Joe Goodliffe
“Fuck yeah...We ran out screaming in
the terraces.” Joe Bagliere
“I woke up in the middle of the night
and heard screaming. I thought there
was a football game going on, then I
realized they were chanting “Obama.”
Liz Schloss
“Looking forward to it if he can keep
all his promises.” Kevin Madden
Images by Devan Johnson
Compiled by Bryant Francis
11
News & Views
patented Obama change on the horizon.
“I would hope that Obama has at
some point seen the rejoicing that
took place, people dancing in the
streets when he was elected. I hope
he realizes that he really is a candidate for the world and that people
have real hopes riding on a restoration of the better traditions of this
country—more
multinationalism,
more genuine cooperation, less subordination of every other interest
to finance and deregulation. I just
don’t see how that cannot happen.”
If Sanders is right that the rest of
the world is a little bit happier with
the new United States, then the
ramifications are huge for young
people. Having come of age during years in which the U.S. and its
policies were generally disdained in
much of the world, a goodwill president could mean a brand of 21st
century nationalism in which the
U.S. again serves as something of a
leader in world affairs.
“People had seen us as the root
of so many awful problems, and
Obama sort of gives a little bit back
of our reputation that we’d like to
have,” Sanders said.
Most convenient of all for young
people, the days of having to defend your country while studying
abroad or on vacation may be coming to an end.
Meanwhile, the projected picture of affairs on the homefront
is not quite as rosy. The economy
is in its death throes, now heaving up the “big three” automakers
onto the Congressional chopping
block. While the top executives of
General Motors, Ford and Chrysler
beg for forgiveness and a $25 billion loan, bailout weary representatives are willing to let them slide
acrimoniously into bankruptcy.
Even if given the check they ask
for, the “big three” are going to
have to make big layoffs. Wayne
sees the writing on the wall, and
the outlook is grim for young people fresh to the workforce.
“If [Obama] is able to prevent the
A-list auto manufacturers from going out of business and thereby
save what would amount to a million jobs, there’ll be a million more
jobs available for young people,” he
said. “Because, the fact is, when
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for a guy who ran on change, appointing people with experience is not going
to produce change as much as it’s going to produce incrementalism. Incrementalism is what Obama is about
—compromise, governing from the
middle, and explaining it as though it
were change.”
But before the disenfranchised
masses line up to shout and call
Obama a liar, Wayne urges people to
consider something: we don’t know
what the hell to do.
“The magnitude of this crisis is
such that we really don’t know the
best way to proceed. Clearly, we’re
in this big hole financially; the deficit for next year will exceed a trillion dollars,” he said. “So he’s got
to proceed slowly and carefully and
on the basis of a consensus which
he will then try to utilize to produce
more policy down the road.”
Just as the slump elsewhere in
domestic life developed from the
economy, so too does recovery.
Once the economy recovers, the
credit market will free up, jobs will
return, and we can start living in our
own homes again. Early indications
are that Obama has been able to “calm
the nation’s jittery nerves” to an extent with his statements and proposed
directed tax cuts for small business
owners. After that, he can really go to
work on his promises.
“What he’s going to do,” said Wayne,
he continued, “is use the economic
umbrella and this crisis that has been
generated, to get through some of his
other legislation, including healthcare,
perhaps something with respect to
student loans.
“Once the government can begin to
lend money directly thru Pell grants
to college students, and eliminate
the middle people and eliminate the
banks, that will help people.”
The most palpable change Obama
represents, though, has been through
no active effort of his own. It simply
regards his background. Beyond being the first African-American president of the United States, Obama will
be the first ethnic minority to lead
any Western country. Andrew GrantThomas is the deputy director of the
Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race
and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, and he sees this transcendent
moment as being one of particular
generational significance.
“Clearly, people who are 12 and
13, now that Obama is about to be
president, would be astonished, perhaps, by people like me who think it’s
astonishing that we’ve seen a black
president. So the sense of what’s possible and of the role that race plays
at that level is very, very different for
those young people.”
A phrase that has been popularized in the past few months in referring to Obama is “post-racial.” While
few have called this election the end
of racism, there is a sense that new
opportunities have been accrued by
minorities. After all, if a black man
President-elect Obama will
surely change some things,
but whether he will create the
progress so many people,
young people in particular, desire is up to debate.
of humble origin could become president, isn’t it safe to assume that the
same avenues will open for others?
Not so fast, Grant-Thomas warns.
“Have we entered a post-racial society? The answer is clearly no,” he
said. “Something significant happened in racial terms, and we should
recognize that. But what I think happened in the election was that, for the
first time, lots of people who had reservations about race were nonetheless
willing to override those reservations
due to a very particular and contingent set of circumstances.”
Grant-Thomas relayed a story he
heard that he felt perfectly captured
this dynamic.
“Someone who had done some
phone canvassing for Obama talked
about calling someone in Alabama.
She was talking to a woman who answered the phone, and then suddenly, the woman’s husband came on the
phone obviously impatient and said,
‘Ma’am, we’re voting for the nigger.’”
While this story clearly represents
an exaggeration of the feelings most
Americans harbor, Grant-Thomas
points out that most people still carry hidden biases, “even if we’re consciously whole-heartedly egalitarian
in our attitude.” Obama’s election
could cloud the perspectives of young
people, who have no active memory of
the civil rights’ movement, and hide
the truth that race is still an issue. If
an African-American who was legitimately accused of being underqualified was elected president, how can
structural and institutional racism
still exist? Beyond telling us that we
were willing to elect a black man president under these circumstances, not
much, according to Grant-Thomas.
“I don’t think it tells us much else
because I know that attitudes about
black people on the whole haven’t
shifted. I know that there are a billion studies that document racial bias
in the housing market, in hiring
practices, and in education. And I
know all of that goes a long way to
explaining long-standing racial inequalities.”
There is clearly a lot of work left
to do, and there is a real risk that
the young people who were once
disenchanted by Bush will become
defeated if disappointed by Obama.
But there also hasn’t been a mobilization of the youth like Obama constructed since the 1960s, which provides a singular opportunity to affect
change, in the case that we don’t get
it from the top.
“I would say to students that the way
to influence
Barack Obama is
not to give
him five dollars,”
Sanderssaid,
“but it is in
forming movements.
There
has to be a mobilized force on the
left to pull him toward diplomacy,
humane values,
more concern for
the poor, and other
progressive ideals.
Without people like
that in his administration, who’s it going to come from? It’s
going to have to come
from social movements and from the
world at large.”
Aaron King is a senior
journalism major. E-mail
him at aking1@ithaca.
Image by Karen Chi
12
Upfront
13
The Elephant’s Still in the Room
After election assumptions about race still inaccurate
By Karin Fleming
ianca Fonseca woke up on
Nov. 5 with dried tears on
her cheeks. It was the day
after Barack Obama was
elected president; the day
after her and her friends sat on her
living room couch and cried when the
decision was announced.
“For us it means so much to have
someone like him,” says Bianca, a senior at Ithaca College.
By “us” Bianca is referring to people
of color. As a Puerto Rican-American, to see a black man elected into
the highest office in the country resonates with her differently in contrast
to white Americans. While whites celebrated a historical election and the
fall of the last racial barrier, people
of color were torn between feelings of
happiness and sadness.
“I cried when he won,” says Kyra
Hickman, an African-American senior
at IC. “I cried for a week… It’s because
I couldn’t believe he won and, in some
sense, I wasn’t ready for him to win.”
As soon as Obama became the first
biracial president-elect in U.S. history, the idea that the country transformed overnight into a post-racial
society was propagated everywhere.
The assertion is that Obama’s election proves that race is no longer an
issue in America.
But for Bianca, Kyra and many
people of color, race has—and will
continue to—influence nearly every
aspect of their lives. To them, the
idea that the last racial barrier has
fallen is is divorced from reality.
Bianca grew up in a predominantly
Italian-American community in the
Bronx. There also was the presence
of Hispanics, African-Americans and
Indians in the neighborhood. “Growing up I hadn’t realized the racial differences in my community,” says Bianca. “From before I came to college,
I was kind of in a bubble.”
Looking back, however, Bianca
reflects on the large a role race has
played in her life, particularly regard-
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14
ing her education. “I always was a
good student,” she says. “But for
some reason I was always put into
the worst class. And the best classes
in our elementary and middle schools
was always a class, I realize now,
that was predominantly white.”
While this may appear to be a
subjective analysis tainted by time,
the phenomenon Bianca is talking
about is a common occurrence. A
1998 study by the Applied Research
Center titled “Education and Race”
found that high school students of
color are more than twice as likely
to be placed in vocational classes
over academic classes, and have
less access to advanced classes or
programs in general. In addition, 40
percent of public schools in big cities are considered “intensely segregated,” meaning that more than 90
percent of the students are children
of color. So while state-sanctioned
segregation remains illegal, the re-
Image by Josh Elmer
ality is that the segregation between
white students and students of color
still occurs.
“Institutions continue to have seemingly race-neutral policies whose effects detrimentally affect communities of color,” says Paula Ioanide, a
professor in the Center for the Study
of Culture, Race & Ethnicity (CSCRE)
at Ithaca College. In a society that
views success as contingent on the
level of education one receives, these
statistics suggest that this assumption largely excludes the experiences
of minority students.
Bianca graduated high school at
the top of her class. However, without
having access to advanced courses,
such as calculus and physics, she
arrived at Ithaca College feeling her
experiences failed to prepare her for
continuing her education.
“From the beginning I was not set
up well for college,” says Bianca. “Yes,
I was the smartest kid in my school,
but here it was different. I had to
work extra hard because I didn’t
have the basic competencies needed
to survive here.”
The reality, that minorities have to
work harder than their white peers to
succeed, flies in the face of the rhetoric surrounding discussions of race.
By blaming minorities for their lack
of success—and thus ignoring the
structures that force them to remain
where they are—whites and other
privileged groups “continue to refuse
to see the ways they are complicit in
perpetuating inequalities on the basis of race and gender,” says Ioanide.
“In my case, I felt they already
trapped me into my future,” says Bianca of her middle and high school
experiences. “They already knew
what they wanted me to do. And I
missed out on a lot of opportunities
because of that.”
Now Bianca is about to enter her
final semester at IC. The last three
and a half years have tested her
strength and sense of identity in
Image by Josh Elmer
Obama and Biden through the post-racial lenses.
lowed, society began to view blacks and
whites as equals, which presumes the
reason minorities continue to be behind is due to their behavior.
“If you assume this level playing field
and ignore the intergenerational effects
of institutional racism,” says Ioanide,
“the cause of existing inequalities is
erroneously attributed to ‘inadequate’
individual behavior.”
The problem with this notion is that
it disregards the structural racial inequalities that persist in our country.
Bianca’s problems at her high school
were not just due to a lack of funding
and segregated districts. Discrepancies in education—as well as in housing, health care, wages, and the list
goes on—are much deeper than they
appear, especially with the prevalence
of this ‘blame the victim’ mentality. The
struggles faced by today’s minorities are
very much contingent on the struggles
of their parents’ and grandparents’ and
great-grandparents’ generations.
For Bianca, this is exemplified by
her interactions with her mother after coming home from high school.
Bianca is the first in her family to go
to college; neither her older sister nor
her mom finished high school. So she
found herself staying after school to
get extra help. “I had to try to do what-
Karin Fleming is a senior journalism major. E-mail her at kflemin3@
gmail.com.
15
Upfront
ways she wouldn’t have dreamed of
if she were still in New York City.
During this period, she’s faced racist
remarks and stereotypes from fellow
classmates, lost her mother to cancer, took in her 19-year-old sister
and 14-year-old brother and began
working two jobs in addition to being
a full-time student.
“In reality, a lot of people do not
understand the situations that we
have to go through,” says Bianca. “I
am poor and I am Hispanic and every day I have to face that. I’m in a
school that’s predominantly white;
a lot of them have their own stereotypes about me.”
Stereotypes manifest themselves
in many ways. Early in her college
career, her roommate would tell her
that Hispanics were “lazy” or “incompetent” and that is the reason people of color haven’t been able to pull
themselves out of poverty.
Ioanide describes this trend as a direct result of the changes in the way
society views race after the civil rights
struggles of the ’60s and ’70s. Prior to
the civil rights movement, discrimination was overt—Jim Crow laws, segregation, cross burnings, racial killings,
etc. But after the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and the legal changes that fol-
ever I could because when I did come
home, [my mom] always felt bad she
couldn’t help,” says Bianca. “And I
had to learn a lot more so that I could
help my brother and my sister.”
Bianca’s story is unique, but it
echoes many of the racial challenges
people of color face. But in this “postracial” society, rather than recognizing these challenges, the majority of
society seems to instead prefer placing Obama’s accomplishments on the
entire African-American community.
This promotes the idea that there is
“no longer an excuse” for minorities
to fail.
This concept is ridiculous, especially since it denies Obama’s own
agency and his unique history—the
son of a white mother, who ultimately
earned her Ph.D., who was raised by
his white grandparents with little interaction with his African family.
“People, by not recognizing how invisible [Obama] had to make his race,
that’s why they’re not understanding
that we’re not in a post-racial—and
certainly not a post-racist—society,”
says Kyra Hickman.
So on Nov. 5 when Bianca woke up,
she, unlike much of America, was not
under the delusion that things would
be substantially different for her.
She’s still a 21-year-old full-time college student working two jobs while
simultaneously taking care of her siblings. She still wakes up at 6:30 in the
morning to see her brother and sister
off to school, attends classes through
the day, races home on breaks to make
dinner before running off to work until midnight. By the time Bianca does
her school work and goes to bed, it’s
already the next day. And it’s not long
after her head hits the pillow before
the cycle starts again.
“For me Obama’s election shows
a stepping stone,” says Bianca. “It’s
not something where I think that now
our troubles with race are completely eliminated. I don’t believe that. I
think even more so we’re more slaves
now then we were before. Because all
eyes are going to be on us; if he does
anything wrong it’s going to be ‘those
people’ who are all the same.”
The Great American Misconception
Why America isn’t a democracy
By Briana Kerensky
he 2008 presidential election had the highest voter
turnout since Jimmy Carter
was elected in 1976. Unfortunately, there were about
five million Americans who weren’t allowed to participate in this year’s historic event. Considering that President
George W. Bush won by a matter of a
few hundred votes in Florida during
the 2000 elections, 5.3 million votes
can certainly make a huge difference.
As a result of felony convictions,
millions of Americans have been temporarily or permanently disenfranchised. And if free and fair elections
are what it takes for a nation to be
a democracy, then the United States
certainly isn’t one.
Currently, there is no federal regulation for vot-
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ing rights for inmates and ex-offenders. According to the Web site Pop and
Politics, the fourteenth amendment to
the Constitution states that the voting rights of individuals found guilty
of “participation in rebellion or other
crimes” can be denied. Under current
law, the federal government may not
infringe on a state’s authority to grant
or rescind voting rights of prison inmates and former felons. Only two
states—Maine and Vermont—permit
inmates to vote.
In his 1997 article “The Rise of Illiberal Democracy,” Newsweek editor
Fareed Zakaria defines a democratic
nation as one that has free and fair
elections: “Elections, open, free and
fair, are the essence of democracy, the
inescapable sine qua non,” Zakaria
wrote. “Governments produced by
elections may be inefficient, corrupt,
shortsighted, irresponsible, dominated by special interests, and incapable
of adopting policies demanded by the
public good. These qualities make such
governments undesirable but they do
not make them undemocratic.”
If one applies Zakaria’s definition
of democracy to the United States,
is the United States really a
democracy? Being that our
electoral process excludes approximately
5.3
million
people, perhaps our nation is not the
absolute bastion of freedom we have
always been taught it was.
Melissa Packard is the director of
elections for the state of Maine, one of
the only states that allow inmates to
vote. According to her, Maine has always given people in prison this right,
and it is a very important part in making sure the state’s voting process is
non-discriminatory and fair.
“In Maine, any inmate can register
to vote in the town he or she lived in
prior to being incarcerated,” Packard said. “Inmates are only a small
percentage of the state... And those
people continue to have a voice in the
community. Then they are welcome to
vote by absentee ballot.”
Some states don’t allow people to
vote even after they leave prison. Of
the 50 states, 35 prohibit felons from
voting while they are on parole and
another 30 exclude felony probationers as well. Two states, Kentucky and
Virginia, don’t let any ex-offenders
vote,
even after they have
completed their
sentences.
Mark Mauer, the executive
Image by Andrea Bichan
16
from them and rehabilitated
themselves. In addition, some
ex-offenders that have lost their
right to vote were minors when
they committed their crimes.
“Many of these ex-offenders
are grown men who made mistakes as teenagers while joyriding in cars late at night. Some are
now 67 years old and have never
voted,” said Michelle Jawando,
the National Election Protection
Campaign Manager for the People
for the American Way Foundation
in a Pop and Politics article.
A recent article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review
shows that almost one-third of
all former prisoners end up back
in the system. According to Mauer, the disenfranchisement of exoffenders and inmates is a factor
in the high return rate of people
to prisons.
“Certainly the message that
comes across to ex-offenders
pretty clearly is that they are of
second-class citizenship. They
are told that you can live in the
community, work and pay taxes
but not vote. We can’t integrate
people back into the community
and help their transition back
from prison like this. Disenfranchisement is counter-productive
all across the board.”
In a true democracy, all men
are created equal. But when the
United States disenfranchises
millions of people, both current
prisoners and people who have
left the system and committed
themselves to new lives, is our
nation really what we say it is?
Zakaria said that the simplest
definition of a true democratic
nation is one that has free and
fair elections. But with millions
of people left without a fundamental right that comes with
being an American citizen, our
elections prove that our government still does not view all citizens as equal, and that our claim
to democracy is a false one.
Briana Kerensky is a junior
journalism major. E-mail her at
[email protected].
Upfront
director of the non-profit organization The Sentencing Project,
believes inmates and ex-offenders need the right to vote for the
sake of public safety and rehabilitation. The Sentencing Project, based out of Washington,
D.C., is dedicated to getting the
U.S. to use incarceration as a
means of punishment less often
and to create more proactive investments in communities and
public safety agenda instead.
“It doesn’t make any sense. It’s
bad to impose limitations on the
right to vote and really makes us
less than a full democracy.”
Preventing current inmates
and ex-offenders from voting is
a practice that extends all the
way back to when the U.S. was
planting its democratic roots.
The nation, newly born as an
independent entity courtesy the
Revolutionary War, was a political experiment.
“It was a very limited experiment,” Mauer said. “African
Americans, immigrants, women
and people with felony convictions
couldn’t vote. Of course, over 200
years we’ve gotten rid of other
ones, and the only block that still
can’t vote are felony convictions.”
What is it the U.S.’s electoral
process has to fear from inmates
and ex-offenders? Is the state
afraid of whom they are going to
vote for, or is the state punishing them further by taking away
a basic American right?
The clause in the Constitution’s fourteenth amendment
that allows states to prevent
prisoners and ex-offenders from
voting is because the Founding
Fathers saw these people as “below the system.”
Some defenders of prisoner
disenfranchisement claim that
when people commit a crime,
they are giving up their right to
participate in the nation’s affairs. But according to Pop and
Politics, when people are stripped
of their right to vote, the United
States is taking away the suffrage of millions of people who
made mistakes and later learned
17
Clean Coal: All Smoke & Mirrors?
Environmental effects of coal not as clean as advertised
By Brian Hotchkiss
ook north from Ithaca College’s campus and you’ll see
a small puff of white rising
on the horizon. Nestled in
the rolling green hills that
surround Cayuga Lake, the tall white
cloud seamlessly blends in with the
soft beauty of Tompkins County’s
panoramic landscape. It’s the kind of
innocent little cloud you might lie in a
field of grass, stare up at and say how
much it looks like a cotton ball, a fluffy
pillow or a bunny rabbit.
Look a little closer and you’ll see it’s
rising from a tall smokestack in nearby Lansing. The factory responsible for
creating Mr. Cottontail is the AES Cayuga coal plant–also known as Milliken
Station. For years the plant has touted
their facility as “clean,” saying most of
the floating whimsical wisps are just
steam. A 1999 report by the New York
State Electric and Gas (NYSEG) Company says scrubbers installed in the
stacks and efforts to green the plant
made Milliken “one of the top 20 most
efficient steam electric generating stations operating in the United States.”
Look even closer, this time at a
2006 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) toxic release report, and
you’ll see that “clean,” when it comes
to coal, is a relative term. According
to the report, in an average operating
year, the smoke rising over Cayuga
Lake hurls 2,310 pounds of ammonia, 16,517 pounds of sulfuric acid
and 71,597 pounds of hydrochloric
acid into the air–signature components in acid rain, eventually leading to ground water contamination.
Suddenly, those feathery tufts aren’t
quite as cute.
The reality is, no matter how loudly
or proudly NYSEG, ASE or any other
energy entity touts how environmentally friendly their plants are, “clean”
coal is a myth. Milliken Station’s tactics to condense and limit air pollutants, cutting edge as they may be, are
still far from leaving the small impact
they project themselves to be leaving
BUZZSAW
L
18
on the local ecology. Realistically, the
technologies needed to produce coal
energy that has limited or no harmful
pollutants are at least a decade away
from becoming widely used.
Kate Sheppard, Capitol Hill correspondent for the Seattle-based environmental Web site grist.org and former Buzzsaw editor, says coal can only
be considered clean when burned in
an Integrated Gasification Combined
Cycle (IGCC) plant. In a complex series of filtering and refining processes,
coal is manipulated into a form of synthetic gas, or syngas. When burned
and used to generate energy with a
steam turbine system, fewer impurities like mercury or sulfur dioxide are
released into the air.
Even in a plant using IGCC technology, there are still too many emissions released for the federal government to recognize it as authentically
“clean” coal. For all the pollutants not
removed in the first purification cycle,
there must be a functional carbon capture and storage (CCS) unit to collect
and trap the remaining greenhouse
gasses underground. While some CCS
In an average operating year, the
smoke rising over Cayuga Lake
hurls 2,310 pounds of ammonia,
16,517 pounds of sulfuric acid and
71,597 pounds of hydrochloric acid
into the air–signature components
in acid rain, eventually leading to
ground water contamination.
technologies have worked on a small
scale, leading scientists believe that
universal carbon sequestration is ten
years from being affordable.
“The reality is that there’s not a single home or business in America today
powered by clean coal,” says Brian
Hardwick, spokesman for the Reality
Coalition, a new organization created
to debunk popular clean coal myths.
“No matter how much [coal industry
leaders] say it in their advertising, coal
can’t truly be clean until the plants can
capture the global warming pollution.
With so much at stake, we can’t afford
to hang our hats on an illusion.”
For all of the damage wreaked on
the atmosphere from the burning of
coal, there is just as much harm being exercised on the ground from the
mining of coal. The most popular technique currently being used to extract
coal is Mountaintop Removal (MTR).
As its name suggests, industry miners
literally explode entire hills and crags,
pick out the pulverized coal from the
rubble, then dispose of what’s left behind. Far cheaper and safer to industry workers than traditional mining
techniques, MTR sites have increased
rapidly in the Appalachian Mountain
range over the past 25 years.
However cheaper the process may
be, the environmental affects of MTR
are staggering. In his Orion Magazine
article, “Moving Mountains,” environmental writer Erik Reece describes the
scene of “ecological violence” in West
Virginia: Once majestic peaks marveled at by settlers are now flattened,
fallow plateaus. Valleys once defined
by thick forests and babbling streams
are now treated as dumpsters for
whatever can’t be shipped out as fuel.
Children exposed to the airborne coal
dust in playgrounds are dying of Blue
Baby Syndrome while their parents
are afraid of developing the cancers
and organ failures that once plagued
their shaft-mining fathers.
A recent graduate of West Virginia
University, Alan Searles spent his entire collegiate career discussing MTR
in a classroom setting. In the state’s
northernmost city, Morgantown, he
was removed from the mines’ visual
impact on the landscape. After moving
south to the state’s capital, Charleston,
he found himself surrounded by the
industry’s stronghold over the area.
“It was pretty unbelievable, actually seeing entire mountains cut out of
the land,” Searles says. “Most people
here are furious about it, but coal
owners pretty much run the state,
employ a lot of people. They try to
justify it by building on top of the
mines but it doesn’t really make up
for all the destruction.”
Despite the protests of local citizens
and the work of coalitions like iLoveMountains.org, little is being done
to impede further MTR from entirely
destroying the spine of the Appalachians. According to the Dec. 3 New
York Times article titled “Coal Mining
Debris Rule is Approved,” a recent
decision by the White House Council
on Environmental Quality will loosen
restriction on where companies can
dump wastes. A West Virginia based
organization, The Friends of Coal, has
stressed more sound environmental
consciousness in the mining industry.
Still, they refuse to support efforts to
ban MTR and the environmental destruction their state faces.
In a statement recently released
on their Web site, they reacted to
criticisms of their stance on MTR:
“Coal operators must greatly reduce
the damage mountaintop removal
strip mining does to West Virginia’s
mountains, streams and coalfield
communities. [Still, we] don’t want
to abolish mountaintop removal…
Mining is the major economic force
in some southern counties.”
In the last eight months there has
been a tremendous surge in popularity backing clean coal as a solution to
America’s energy problem. Ignoring
every myth that surrounds it, Capitol
Hill politicians and the general population alike have rallied around it as a
national savior and the environmentally-friendly dream fuel. President-elect,
Barack Obama, has been an advocate
of clean coal, stressing it as a key component in weaning ourselves off our
foreign oil addiction and achieving his
campaign goal of “eliminat[ing] our
current imports from the Middle East
and Venezuela within 10 years.” At the
Democratic Convention in Kentucky
in May, a mailer was even distributed
stating: “Barack Obama believes in
clean Kentucky Coal.”
The key factor driving Obama and the
public’s sudden love affair with clean
coal is its connection to the promise of
energy independence. With the volatile
Middle East erupting with anti-American sentiments and the threat of a
nuclear arms race between unstable
nations, there is a popular sense that
America needs to cut its oil ties and
pipelines to foreign nations. If we can
utilize our own resources, we will rid
ourselves of any connection to wartorn areas of the world.
Tompkins County environmental
activist and Ithaca College history
professor, Michael Smith, sees a fatal,
misguided flaw with our quest for freedom from foreign oil. “In the framing of
the argument for energy independence,
there’s the notion that we don’t have to
accept limits,” says Smith. “Conservationism is lost. It says something very
deep about the American myth that we
can’t be brought down… we think we
are limitless.”
The pursuit of energy independence,
through the promise of technological
breakthroughs in clean coal, Smith
fears, is one that will lead nowhere.
The denial of the tragedies tied to our
pursuit of energy independence and
infatuation with clean coal will only
further darken our nation’s energy
situation. With no real attention being paid to fuel conservation and mere
peripheral investments in alternative
fuels outside of corn subsidies, Americans will have to rely on unethical
mining practices that are destroying
ecosystems and lives in West Virginia
and other Appalachian states.
Still, despite the myths perpetuated around clean coal, Smith remains
hopeful for the future of American
energy policy.
“If we are willing to make sacrifices, and we are willing to look at our
situation objectively,” says Smith.
“America has a history of producing dramatic and necessary change
through crisis. Only if we are willing,
can we make the changes we need to
be both environmentally sustainable
and energy independent.”
____________________________________
Brian Hotchkiss is a senior writing
major. E-mail him at [email protected].
Image by Julie Hepp
Upfront
19
Regaining National Pride
Resurging nationalism in U.S. culture
By Julissa Treviño
t was practically a riot: people screamed and cheered
for the next president in
the name of “hope” and
“change.” Hundreds of students rallied on the quads of the Ithaca
College campus celebrating the election of Democratic nominee Barack
Obama. The IC campus became a
place of worship.
That night no one was working quietly in their rooms, as many students
had been gathering all evening to
watch the results of the election unfold on a television screen. Wherever
there were people watching the election, there was naturally noise of excitement exuding from the thin walls
of the IC dorm rooms.
There were yells and screams
(“Obama won!”) outside my door for the
next few minutes until a massive crowd
congregated outside the Terraces. The
excitement picked up momentum until
reaching the quads, where people united in celebration of the president-elect.
People cheered, “Yes-We-Can, Yes-WeCan” and screamed “Obama” until
tears rolled down their eyes.
Obama has been cemented as a symbol for change, hope and belonging,
while nationalism is being revived as an
undeniable, unavoidable and indefinite
religious fact in American society.
Rachel Wagner, professor of religion
at IC, referred to the election gathering on campus to show how religious
practices can happen anywhere. “People
felt a sense of hope, they felt a sense of
purpose, they felt like they belonged as
part of a group and they were singing
songs… they were doing a kind of religious work.”
“Given the election, it’s interesting to
see that more people are finding that
sense of community… it’s interesting
to think about what qualities this particular election may have had—and
Barack Obama himself—to inspire this
sort of devotion,” Wagner said, sitting
in her Park office that looks like an
American pop culture museum, filled
with books and films that in one way
BUZZSAW
I
Images by Devan Johnson
20
or another relate to religion. “From the
Democratic standpoint, Republicans
have always been able to invoke religion as a means of supporting aspects
of civil religion, but Democrats not so
much.” Until Obama.
Civil religion is a set of beliefs, worldviews and practices that unite Americans with a sense of shared purpose
and identity. Beliefs are focused on
what is meaningful and what it means
to live a good life, Wagner said. In
American civil religion, the American
flag, the National Anthem, the Pledge
of Allegiance and national and historical myths and stories all serve as rituals and symbols that hold meaning
to Americans. These symbols give us
a shared belief that these things are
“sacred” in our history. Civil religion can be either nationalism or patriotism, though both have
two distinct connotations. Patriotism
is usually defined as a love or devotion for one’s country, while nationalism refers to the ideology and culture
of focusing on the nation as a point of
unity, belonging and devotion–a more
religious kind of patriotism. “It’s hard to not be Christian in
America, and I think that it’s probably harder to practice civil religion in
America if you’re not Christian because
of the close association that Christianity has had and has with patriotism,”
Wagner said. The U.S. has a Christiandominated history, so it is not surprising that religion and politics are so
mixed together. According to David
Morgan in his book The Sacred Gaze,
Protestantism in American history
has thrived when another institution
challenges its authority. Following the
disestablishment of state-sponsored
religion, the increasing threat of nonProtestant immigrants and the rise of
democracy through the 19th century,
says Morgan, Protestants fought back
with a distribution of Christian literature and an encouragement of using
the Bible in public education.
“So it’s civil religion and the manifestation in a country where the flag
and the Bible seem to be inextricably
linked,” said James R. Henery, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church
in Ithaca, during a September sermon
about “the politics of faith.”
Morgan suggests that as Protestantism and religion itself were increasingly
driven out of the public sector, nationalistic symbols and rituals replaced
Christian ones (like the image of Warner
Sallman’s Head of Christ as a symbol of
American values), but still kept religious
value and significance because Christians practiced them.
“[Separation of Church and State]
is not a clear line. The line of separation isn’t in practice,” Rodriguez said.
“Religion is at the basis of social organizations. There’s a lot of that basis of
organization that transfers into politics
because there are interests involved. It
ends up being politicized.”
The Sallman image of Jesus, Head
of Christ, is a 1940 painting that represents Jesus as a white, peaceful,
angelic figure. According to Morgan,
Protestant missionaries took that image abroad to Africa as a tool for teaching and a representation of America,.
It was also used as a nonsectarian image of Jesus to promote the idea that
the U.S. was a Christian nation. For
many, Head of Christ represented a
national icon under which Americans
could unite and form a national identity. Another Sallman painting, Christ
Our Pilot, in which Jesus leads a young
boy to the right path, was inspired by a
1944 World War II poster encouraging
sailors to fight the good fight. During the Jackson administration, the
idea of a godly power was used to form a
following of Manifest Destiny, the “divine”
right of the U.S., the Christian nation, to
expand westward.
Today civil religion, especially nationalism, holds a strong connection with
Fast Facts
Christian values. According to Morgan, nationalism does not supersede
religion–it develops from it. Neither
Wagner nor Rodriguez believe that
separation of church and state is
possible.
Civic symbols, Wagner said, are
the way “people project their sense of
belonging, our sense of being a member of America.” However, she does
not believe that to be American, one
must participate in civil religion.
Still, civil religion is all around
us–it is the symbols and rituals of
the United States and, of course, the
practice that surrounds them that
makes them significant.
“It was spontaneous and crazy
and euphoric. There was screaming
and sparklers and random people
with instruments,” Emily George, IC
sophomore, said about the Obama
rally on campus. “And we sang patriotic songs.”
The crowd banged pots and pans,
hugged and even began to sing the
National Anthem at one point. Tears
rolled down many faces and people
felt truly happy.
Though far from an institutionalized religious ceremony, the campus
gathering really did religious work.
It united students on campus, gave
people a sense of hope and the will
to say they’re proud of the U.S.
Religion may not be directly instilled in politics today as it once
was, but its presence is still there.
Nationalism requires a religious devotion to a country, politics or even
politicians themselves. With the
election of Obama, nationalism is
getting revamped as a positive ideology in politics.
___________________________________
Julissa Treviño is a junior writing major. E-mail her at [email protected].
According to their percentage of citizens in the U.S., Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Jews, Christian Scientists and Mormons were over-represented in the 2005-2006
congress.
41% of Americans, 15% of French, 10% of UK, and 7.5% of
Australian citizens regularly attend religious services.
England, France, and Russia mention God in their national
anthem. The Canadian, American and Japanese anthems
do not.
America has no national religion or national language.
-Melissa Fassetta
21
Upfront
Every U.S. president has identified with a Christian denomination except Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln,
and Andrew Johnson.
The phrase “separation of church and state” is generally traced a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in 1802,
and refers to the First Amendment, which protects the free exercise of religion in the U.S.
The U.S. Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by
a Baptist minister. The phrase “Under God” was not
added until 1954.
Of the 9 Supreme Court Justices, 5 are Catholic, 2 are
Jewish, 1 is Episcopalian and 1 is Protestant.
Off the Streets, Into the Jungle
The difficult situation faced by homeless and those who want to help
Image by Andy Casler
By Andy Casler
or more than three generations Ithaca has
been home to a community shrouded in stereotype. In The Jungle, Ithaca’s destitute find
a canvass roof above their heads and shelter
from the streets. Located in the woods behind
Agway, it’s often portrayed as a wildly unsafe subculture,
but in reality, it’s a community that strives to look after
its own. It’s a place where justice is as raw as the residents see fit and fights often resolve disputes.
I made my first visit to The Jungle on a snowy November morning. Still within earshot of the city traffic, I
found a trail that looked like a good way into the dwellings that comprise The Jungle. The path was narrow,
and the first tents that I passed were unoccupied. I made
sure to pass cautiously through the residents’ space. I
stopped to shout out an unsure “Hello!” and received a
“Woof!” in reply. The bark came from a tent with a fivetipped star painted on the front; its entrance was littered
with beer cans. I asked if anyone inside would like to give
an interview and, without hesitation, a man offered me
a seat in the tent. Inside were four men, including the
tent’s owner who went by the name Dorito. As we talked,
smoke from the cigarette in his hand wafted into the air.
I asked him why he came to The Jungle: “Life,” he said.
“Can’t afford rent.”
Dorito’s dilemma is not an exceptional case. According
to Pete Meyers, the co-founder of The Tompkins County
Workers Center (TCWC), roughly 30 percent of people in
Tompkins County are making less than living wage and
unable to afford the cost of housing in Ithaca. The living wage for a single individual in Ithaca is $9.83 per
hour—$11.18 if you don’t have health insurance. “It is
almost unaffordable for people to live in Ithaca; it takes
two incomes to have a pretty decent one-bedroom apartment,” said John Ward, the director of Homeless Services
for Tompkins County Red Cross.
A resident of The Jungle named Brian, nicknamed Tattoo, said he came to Ithaca looking for work, but when he
got here he couldn’t find any. “I basically just got stuck
here, and was living with friends here and there, and next
thing I knew I was out on the street. [I] Found out about
[The Jungle] and then I came down here,” he said.
BUZZSAW
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22
I studied the inside of Dorito’s tent as we talked. The
tent is weathered. There’s a cluttered table in one corner,
next to his bed. Dorito told me his favorite thing about
The Jungle is “the people,” although they sometimes “go
through [their] little riffs and raffs.” A man named David
sat directly across from me. He had a black eye. David, a
self described part-timer of The Jungle, told me that his
least favorite thing about The Jungle “is the violence that
happens sometimes down here.” He pointed to his black
eye and told me that the violent and dishonest are not
welcome. “We’re not here to kill each other. We’re here
to help each other,” David said. All three men in the tent
reinforced this idea. They made it clear that when you’re
in The Jungle, kindness governs, violence polices and alcoholism lives.
Another man in the tent, A-Sun, said his least favorite thing about The Jungle is that the Red Cross sends
people who can’t obey the shelter’s no-substance policy
there. “Yeah, this ain’t a shelter. You know it happened a
lot this summer, and that’s one of my dislikes about it,”
A-Sun said.
Recent focus reports for The Department of Homeless
Services show a negative slope for the number of people spending nights in Tompkins County shelters since
2005. But every year about six to eight people end up
living in The Jungle because their addictions make them
unemployable, and would therefore need to live in the
shelter indefinitely. Meyers commented on the Red Cross
deferring needy people to The Jungle, he described it as
“fucked up.”
As the Red Cross’ John Ward noted, “There is a need
for a place that does not have quite the requirements
that our program does, that doesn’t have quite the structure that our program has.” The Jungle will continue
to provide refuge for Ithaca’s destitute. And as the Red
Cross continues to redirect their ineligible inquirers to
The Jungle, its residents will remain agitated. As Dortio
said, “We try not to attract a lot of people down here.”
_______________________________________________________
Andy Casler is a sophomore journalism major. E-mail
him at [email protected].
Where does your trash go?
Despite having 5 percent of the world’s population, the U.S. produces 30 percent of the waste. With our trash being carried away in the middle of the night, it’s
easy to be oblivious to the extent each individual contributes to this statistic.
Until 1895 there was no
trash removal law enforced
in NYC and garbage would
either be thrown out on the
streets for rats to eat, or disposed
of only by the wealthy.
Plastic is made from nonrenewable resources (oil and
natural gas) and will not be able
to be produced forever; the process of making it is very harmful for
the environment, and it takes hundreds of years to break down.
“Environmental
racism”
can be seen within our own
border: Wealthier neighborhoods don’t want the burden
of having a landfill near them, so
landfills are instead relocated in
poorer towns.
Poor towns agree to having
a landfill because they get a
large amount of money in turn,
even though it is putting their
health and property at higher risk.
Leachate, a chemically contaminated water leaking from landfills
and polluting the adjacent soils. is
a problem for every landfill.
125 years ago the kitchen trashcan was nonexistent.
Trash:
By the Numbers
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
each person throws out
4.5
pounds of garbage per
day—a 1.8 pound increase
from 45 years ago.
Some of the largest dumps
in the country accept
12,000 tons
of garbage a day.
In New York City (2002) it cost $257
to dispose of one ton of trash;
this cost includes the pay of the
employee(s), the cost of diesel fuel
and tolls, as well as other miscellaneous fees.
The largest landfill
in the world is
New
York
City’s Fresh
Kills (Staten Island).
N e w
Yo r k
landfills
import
garbage from
Canada to remain economically viable.
New York City
recycles about
13%
of its waste.
For every
40,000
tons of garbage added to a
landfill, at least
1 acre
of land is lost for future use.
New York has a
76.1%
return rate for
beer containers.
(compared to 54.6% for soda)
Upfront
Image by Sally Russell
23
Exposing the Repression
of Depression
How ignoring illnesses
affects our mental health
BUZZSAW
By Matt Biddle
24
Caitlin Bango, a senior psychology major, has dealt with mental
illness her whole life. Many of her
family members have suffered from
anxiety, a mental disorder in which
someone feels apprehensive or tense
for no apparent reason.
During high school, Bango began
to feel nervous in class or before going up to the chalkboard. Eventually
she recognized she also suffered from
the condition, “I hadn’t always realized that I had anxiety, that it wasn’t
a normal way to feel,” she said.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 26.2 percent
of Americans ages 18 and older suf-
fer from some form of a diagnosable
mental disorder in any given year.
This translates into more than 50
million people dealing with a mental
illness this year alone. Furthermore, a 2007 Harvard
Medical School and World Health
Organization study found that the
U.S. has the most instances of
diagnosed cases of mental disorders—especially depression. And
according to the National Institute
of Mental Health, more than 18
percent of Americans suffer from
an anxiety disorder, making it the
most common mental illness in
the country.
25
Image by Caylena Cahill
BUZZSAW
When Bango arrived at Ithaca College in 2005, she joined Active Minds,
a group dedicated to raising awareness
about mental health. She is now the
co-president. Last year Bango began
taking medication to help control her
anxiety. “Being in Active Minds made
me realize that if I’m advocating for
these people, I need to focus on myself,
too,” she said.
Even with its prevalence in society,
many still misunderstand mental illness. “The images they get come from
the media,” said Carol Booth, the
president of the Ithaca chapter of the
National Alliance of Mental Illness.
“People develop stereotypes. These stereotypes lead to the stigma.”
While it may seem typical to blame
the media, a recent study in the Journal of Health Communication confirms
those who watch films such as Psycho,
Fatal Attraction or One Flew over the
Cuckoo’s Nest were more likely to develop negative views toward people
with mental illness.
The study found films often portray
people who suffer from mental illnesses
as failures, victims or maniacs. Mental illness is also the most common
health problem to affect characters on
soap operas—shows not exactly known
for realism. The common use of terms
like “deranged” or “psycho,” combined
with various framing techniques—like
certain lighting schemes or music arrangements during a scene that includes a person with any form of mental illness—perpetuates the stigma.
This public’s lack of adequate knowledge about mental illness contributes
to the stigma toward those who suffer
from illnesses such as anxiety, in part
because there isn’t significant education on the subject to counter the
harmful effects of the media. Booth
said much of the stigma comes from
people who incorrectly consider these
disorders to be more controllable than
other illnesses. “We need to equate
mental illness with other biological illnesses,” she said.
This stigma causes many who could
benefit from seeking help to hide their
illness and deny their problem. Dr.
LeBron Rankins, a psychologist at IC’s
Ithaca College Counseling Center: Located on the ground
floor of the Hammond Health Center, the Counseling Center
is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday,
with walk-in hours from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Call 607-274-3136 to
schedule an appointment, or call the Health Center or Public
Safety for after-hours emergencies. There is also a Counselor-on-Call during the day to discuss any concerns.
26
counseling center, encounters many
students who remark they were initially afraid to come in and speak with a
professional. “Going to counseling, for
a lot of people, is equal to being weak,”
he said. This is also part of the reason
that men traditionally seek counseling
less than women do: it’s less socially
acceptable for men to appear weak.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, almost half of college
students report feeling so depressed
at times that they have trouble functioning. Almost 15 percent of students
have been diagnosed with clinical depression. “I think that’s a very stressful time of your life–leaving home,”
Booth said, also mentioning the added
stress of maintaining a high GPA and
finishing the ever-increasing mountain of coursework.
IC’s Active Minds’ other co-president, Joe Fraioli, believes some people
hide their illness in order to not hurt
those around them. He speaks from
personal experience: He suffered from
depression throughout high school.
“I dealt with it in a very self-destructive way,” he admits. Fraioli says he
blamed himself for his issues, which
only worsened the depression. “I was
so scared of the concept of ‘counseling’
from the stigma surrounding it that I
kept it inside and never sought help
[during high school],” he said.
Contrary to popular belief, clinical
depression is not the same as simply
being sad. While an emotionally draining event, such as a death, can trigger
depression, it is the result of a combination of biological and environmental factors and can linger for weeks,
months or even years. It affects one’s
thoughts, behaviors and their ability to
work, study and interact with others.
When Fraioli arrived at IC, he learned
about Active Minds and became angry
that a similar outlet was not available for him during high school. “It’s
Mental Health Association in Tompkins County: Through its
information and referral program, the association links people
with treatment or facilities, or gives them the tools to help
themselves. They offer a monthly parent support group. Their
comprehensive Web site, www.mhaedu.org, also provides link
to resources for anything from alcoholism to cancer to gambling addictions. You can call them with questions at 607-2739250 and the association is located at 614 West State St.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, almost half of college students report feeling so depressed at times
that they have trouble functioning. Almost 15 percent of students have been diagnosed with clinical depression.
one of the reasons why I am pushing
so hard this year to start a chapter of
Active Minds at Ithaca High School,”
he said. Fraioli and Active Minds are
planning to speak with students at the
high school soon to generate interest
in starting a chapter there.
There are warning signs you can recognize if you develop concerns about a
loved one. While they vary with each
case, most boil down to a persistent,
dramatic change in one’s daily habits,
such as showering or sleeping much
less or much more often than usual.
While some family members deny
or overlook a problem out of fear or
denial, it’s important for family and
friends to look out for each other. If a
person doesn’t seek help, it can hurt
them and their relationships. “People
are afraid of being locked up or ostracized from their social situation,” Catherine Wedge, the community educator
for the Mental Health Association of
Tompkins County, said, emphasizing
the need for family to point loved ones
to helpful resources.
Away from home, the college community can act as that familial unit
and support network. IC started a new
program this year for students who
are hesitant about bringing concerns
directly to their friends. Though it is
relatively unknown so far on campus,
the Assisting Students at Risk Initiative allows students, faculty and staff
to report concerns over a student’s
well-being or the campus community’s
safety to one central location.
“If multiple students bring concerns, they can recognize that the
person needs support,” Rankins said.
Students are encouraged to discuss
their concerns with the person directly
or with a professional staff member,
such as a residence director or someone within the Office of Public Safety,
before filing an official report with the
Office of the Vice President for Student
Affairs and Campus Life. This open
conversation can then encourage the
person to seek the help they need.
“The best thing to do is not to fight it,
but to talk about it,” Fraioli said of the
stigma. “Bring up conversation.” This
is what Active Minds aims to accomplish on campus through events and
other campaigns. The group held DeStress Fest on Dec. 3, 2008 and will
hold its annual Stomp out the Stigma
rally in late February. Active Minds
also hopes to host another play like
last year’s Dying to be Thin, as well as
another De-Stress event next semester. The group meets Wednesdays at 7
p.m. in Williams 218.
In creating dialogue, Rankins advises people to be aware of how they
talk about mental health. “Much of the
stigma is maintained through certain
comments in conversation,” he said.
Tossing around words like ‘crazy’ and
‘insane’ contributes to the stigma.
“One thing that helps is people that
are very famous being willing to talk
about it,” Wedge said. In 2007, for
example, actress Mandy Moore discussed her bout with depression in
Jane magazine. Critics praised actress
Carrie Fisher for openly discussing
in a book how she dealt with bipolar
disorder, and actress Brooke Shields
penned a tell-all book about her struggle through postpartum depression.
Booth believes in the strength and
necessity of education and wants everyone to realize that mental illness is
nothing to be ashamed of. She teaches
a class in Tompkins County schools to
students from fifth grade to high school
The Crisis Phone Line: This is a 24-hour service for anyone with an emotional crisis. The center receives about 9,000
calls each year from people considering suicide or dealing
with depression, loss, addiction or family problems. Each
caller speaks with a counselor over the phone that listens and
helps the caller find a possible solution. The phone number
is 607-272-1616.
27
Upfront
National Alliance of Mental Illness of the Finger Lakes: Located at 104 East Lewis St. in Ithaca, NAMI-Finger Lakes is
dedicated to “support, education and advocacy,” said Carol
Booth, the president of the local affiliate. Geared mostly towards supporting the loved ones of those with a mental illness,
the center offers a 12-week education program for families and
a monthly support group. There are programs for members
throughout the year and a bi-annual newsletter. For more information, call 607-273-2462 or visit www.namifingerlakes.org.
called “Breaking the Silence: Lessons
about Mental Illness,” which attempts
to reach students before they develop
a stigma toward mental illness.
In some ways the stigma is becoming
less prevalent across the nation and
on our campus. Rankins has seen an
increase in students already accessing care before they reach college. At
the Counseling Center, the number of
students seeking care continues to increase. According to data provided by
Counseling Center Director Deb Harper, during the 2007–2008 school year
742 students sought clinical services
and 226 of them came to the Counseling Center during daytime emergency
hours. This represents a 7 percent increase over the previous school year in
the overall use of clinical services and
a 23 percent increase over five years
ago. Additionally, nearly 500 students
took online mental health screenings
during the last school year. Those who
showed indications of depression or
anxiety were then encouraged to come
in to the Counseling Center for a discussion and evaluation.
“Requests for intakes have been
steady enough that we’ve been booking almost two weeks in advance for
scheduled first-time appointments,”
Harper said. “That’s the longest wait
for scheduled appointments we’ve
had in many years.” So far, 340 students have used the Counseling Center this year.
At the same time, the stigma is still
present and affecting those with a mental disorder. As Fraioli said, “I think
we’re making progress, but there’s still
a ways to go.”
____________________________________
Matt Biddle is a sophomore journalism major. E-mail him at mbiddle1@
ithaca.edu.
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of
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28
Flipping Our Own Reel-al-ities
The ‘philosophy of mind’ trend in current movies
By Andrea Bichan
T
The next time you find yourself asking,
“What am I, really?” you may want to
check out these popular flicks:
The Matrix, the famous 1999 Keanu Reeves butt-kicker that took the
world by storm is the closest to Professor Bostrom’s theory. In it, Neo,
the protagonist, learns about the Matrix, a computer simulation in which
he lives while his body heat is being
harnessed as power for the superintelligent machines that have since
taken over the world. It’s up to Neo
and his team of rebels to take down
the Matrix and give humans their actual lives back. However, in the film,
one in the group betrays them, preferring the simulation to reality. This
brings up interesting questions: Does
the group have the right to determine
which “reality”—mental or physical—
is more important? Does it matter if a
world is fictional?
The Truman Show is a 1998 “dramedy” starring Jim Carrey as Truman
Burbank, a man who unwittingly lives
the first three decades of his life on an
enormous TV show set. His life—the
creation of a writing team—is a huge
success, capturing hearts across the
country. Once he realizes that all the
circumstances of his life are false, Truman tries to make a getaway for reality.
Just before reaching the door to freedom, the show’s creator, Cristof, ap-
peals to him: “Truman, there’s no more
truth out there than the world I created
for you. The same lies and deceit. But
in my world, there’s nothing to fear.” It
is up to Truman, and to you, to decide
whether or not Cristof is right.
In Being John Malkovich, the man in
an alternate reality is being controlled
by something a little more direct—the
reckless employees of LesterCorp, a
mundane, Manhattan-based company. They find a portal directly into
Malkovich’s mind and have the ability
to control his every action. Eventually
it is revealed that the founder of LesterCorp is planning on inhabiting his body
permanently when it turns 44—he has
been using this portal to live forever in
a variety of host bodies. In this film,
the questions of reality lie not in the
surroundings, but in the actual person. John Malkovich’s reality is being
controlled by any number of people at
a time, but he is functioning in a completely “real” world, as far as we know.
Just how real are people and their identities, if they can be so overpowered?
“I think film does a pretty good job
in dealing with philosophical questions,” says Murday. “Look at Minority Report…they can look into the
future…but obviously they saw it
incorrectly, because otherwise they
would have seen themselves stopping the crime.”
It’s all metaphysics. Maybe we
are living in the future,
like Bostrom claims—in a
world where humans no
longer exist. Or maybe the
concepts of past and present are nothing more than
ideas. It’s a debate that will
long outlive our generation.
So for now, let’s just kick
back and enjoy the entertainment that it brings.
__________________________
Andrea Bichan is a sophomore journalism major.
E-mail her at abichan1@
ithaca.edu.
This movie isn’t even real.
Image by Bryan Cipolla
29
Ministry of Cool
he magazine you’re holding
in your hands right now is
not real. In fact, you’re not
real. Nothing is. Everything
you know, everyone you’ve
ever cared about simply does not
exist. You’re in a computer simulation, or someone else’s dream. Maybe you’re somebody’s creation, their
main character. Or maybe you’re just
an extra.
It is possible. Oxford Philosophy Professor Nick Bostrom published a paper
in 2002 that theorizes that we are all
part of a computer simulation created
by a posthuman society, which means
we are “living” in the future.
The paper “follows that the belief
that there is a significant chance
that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations
is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation.” Essentially,
unless we are in a simulation right
now, basking in our own unreality,
the creatures that come after us will
probably never try to simulate our
existence. This significantly enlarges
the chance that we are an illusion.
Theories like this stem from a
branch of philosophy called metaphysics. “Metaphysics is the study
of what is real and what isn’t,” says
Brendan Murday, an Ithaca College
philosophy professor, who is teaching a course in metaphysics next semester. “Time, is
the future real, is the past
real… Are tables real? I know
someone who doesn’t believe
in tables.” The science dates
back to Aristotle and Plato,
and unfortunately, we are no
closer to the answers than
they were.
This terrifying notion captivated the film industry in the
late 1990s. They churned out
action-packed thrillers, heartwarmers, and movies that
are downright uncomfortable.
If The Shoe Fits & It’s Not Hideous
The UGGly choice we ALL have to deal with
Image by Jess Hock
By Sarah Craig
ashion faux pas: they happen to the best of us. From
head to toe, whether it’s a
an ugly shirt or hideous pair
of pants, we’re all doomed
some days. The fashion world, however, seems to be particularly picky
when it comes to what one decides to
strut around in on their feet.
Ithaca College, as well as the rest
of the world, has been overrun with
Uggs and Crocs. Both shoes have
been condemned as hideous eyesores along with other frightening
footwear such as Birkenstocks and
Doc Martens. For those of you behind on your shoe facts, Uggs are
sheepskin boots from Australia with
a wool inner lining and Crocs are
plastic clogs from Canada. Both have
grown in popularity over the last few
years and neither show any sign of
going away soon.
Why are they so popular? Part of the
hype is that celebrities have been seen
wearing them both. They’re just the
new trend. No one ever said fashion
was attractive, or even that celebrities
actually had good fashion sense.
Sarah Bernard commented in her
New York Magazine article, “Every
few years, tastemakers mysteriously
embrace some comfortable but undeniably ugly footwear more typically associated with river-rafting
potheads or line cooks.”
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30
Unattractive clothes happen. Those
who hate Crocs claim they look like
“an accidental mating between Swiss
cheese and a gardening shoe.” Uggs
critics describe them as “looking like
they were made from hamster fur”
and “unshapely.”
The most common reason for their
allure, is both shoes’ extreme comfort level. Crocs have been approved
as helping avoid foot injuries and are
comfy on top of that. Uggs are incredibly cushy and have the warmth
factor on their side. Each shoe was
also designed to serve a specific use.
Crocs were originally made as boating shoes and Uggs were first worn
by pilots in WWI.
Nobody will ever win the fight for
or against Crocs and Uggs. Much of
it simply has to do with one’s own
preference. Senior culture & communication major Tatiana Sy, who has
designed her own clothing and had
pieces modeled in the student-run
“Capture the Dream” fashion show,
is a fan of Uggs and said, “I remember when I first saw Cameron Diaz
wear them. They really are the shoe
everybody loves to hate. The amount
of attention the shoes get negative or
positive is a bit absurd. I just know
at the end of the day when it’s freezing and snowing outside, nobody can
tell me anything.”
If you love Uggs and Crocs, you
most likely won’t admit that they are
both pretty low on the prettiest shoe
list. But please, at least try to invest in a nice pair of shoes. If you’re
caught wearing Crocs or Uggs constantly with formal wear, we have a
slight problem.
However, if you absolutely hate
them, you won’t give in to the fact
they are comfortable and useful. Instead you’d rather have every pair
burned so you’ll never have to see
them again, even if you have to do
it while they’re still being worn. But
try to be a bit more understanding.
There’s probably an embarrassing
piece of clothing lurking somewhere
in your closet.
So what right do we have to play
fashion police and decide what others wear or don’t wear? This isn’t as
a promotion for insincerity: Don’t
gush, “nice shoes!” while secretly
wishing they’d find a new home in a
dumpster. But in the end, it’s up to
one’s own discretion what they are
willing to be seen wearing in public. So if the shoe fits, regardless of
whether that shoe is a pair of Crocs
or Uggs, well, why not wear it?
___________________________________
Sarah Craig is a sophomore journalism major. E-mail her at scraig1@
ithaca.edu.
Do You Know What Song This Is?
Rock legend’s live performances don’t live up to his rep
By Giovanni Colantonio
J
It isn’t so much that Dylan’s live
performance is “bad.” His lengthy,
classic studded set was certainly enjoyable. But it’s hard for diehard fans
to shake off their expectations. Dylan
didn’t touch a guitar the entire night,
instead sticking to an electric keyboard. He explained this to the audience at the start of the set claiming,
“I was going to play guitar this tour,
but I didn’t have anyone to work this
thing.” That’s right. Bob Dylan could
not find a stable keyboardist for his
full American tour. As disappointing as this was, it’s a rather nit-picky
complaint in comparison to the rest
of his set. At least the crowd was still
treated to some of his classic harmonica playing.
Image by Josh Elmer
The real problem lies in the songs
themselves. A casual listener may have
found they didn’t recognize a single
song of the man’s set. This isn’t because he didn’t play the songs. On the
contrary, his set was stacked with some
of his biggest hits like “Tangled Up In
Blue.” None of these, however, sounded
a thing like they do on record.
“I didn’t even know what ‘All Along
the Watchtower’ was until more than
halfway through it,” said Doug Linse,
a Bob Dylan fan in attendance at the
Boston performance. “Honestly, there
were some songs that I had hoped to
hear him play that night that I left the
show thinking he didn’t, only to learn
later on that he did.”
The songs were all morphed beyond recognition by the mastermind
himself. As Sarah Rodman, a critic
for the Boston Globe, pointed out,
“It’s not just the timings that have
changed in the 65-year-old’s repertoire, but the melodies, the rhythms,
and the genres.”
Even his backing band didn’t seem
to know what exactly was going on;
their eyes never left Dylan for the
entire show. They remained fixated
on the mad scientist trying to follow
along with his seemingly improvised
re-imaginings of his own songs. Sure,
that’s nice for him, as it
keeps his sets from becoming boring to perform.
But to an audience who
shelled out at least $60
for a ticket, this is beyond
frustrating.
So is Bob Dylan just
some old washed up hack
whose moment in the spotlight has finally burned
out? Well, not really. Sure,
he isn’t the best live performer… by any means.
But what he stands for
outshines this. Dylan’s innovative career continues to
inspire musicians to this very day. The
man himself may appear worn and
tired in 2008, but his music maintains
the freshness that got him famous in
the first place. Despite anything he
does, Bob Dylan is and will always be
a legend. A bad live performer… yes.
But a legend nonetheless!
____________________________________
Giovanni Colantonio is a sophomore
cinema and photography major. Email him at [email protected].
31
Ministry of Cool
ack White and his merry
group of Raconteurs had
just wrapped up a gloriously energetic set at Boston
University’s Agganis Arena.
The band’s stage presence and performance filled the massive venue, provoking an equally massive applause
from the audience. The clapping eventually deceased as the house lights
came on, indicating a slight break
before the night’s main event. Anxiously, the crowd began killing time in
any way possible: making small talk
with their friends, taking a stroll to
the merchandise booth or stealthily
lighting up a bowl. After what felt like
an eternity of waiting, the house lights
fell back down, spurring an uproar of
applause. Everyone looked
on fascinated as the night’s
main attraction staggered
his way onto the stage: the
legendary Bob Dylan.
For such an epic setup, one would expect an
equally monumental climax. However, this was
not the case on that chilly
November night. The audience was instead treated to
a confusing and lackluster
performance, leaving a baffling aftertaste. How could
such a legendary and influential musician put on
such a disappointing act? How can
a man who has played myriads of
shows be overshadowed by the opening act who had only formed that
year?
The pieces don’t seem to add up at
first glance. But let’s face it—Bob Dylan
isn’t the youngest whippersnapper in
today’s music scene. Nearing 70 years
of age, it’s clear that Dylan’s eventful
life has taken a toll on him. This isn’t
the same lively innovator who once
unleashed electric hell on the unsuspecting Newport Folk Festival.
The Mass Appeal of Podcasts
And why we keep subscribing to them
By Julia Pergolini
n March 2005, two Chinese
college students received international fame when they
created a series of videos of
themselves lip synching and
dancing to some of the Backstreet
Boys’ best singles. These two average
teens became so well-known because
they were able to podcast their videos globally. With minimal work and
money, they could stream their videos, upload them and let technology
do the rest.
Podcasting enables people to be
their own radio or television show
hosts, connecting with people and
sharing advice all over the world.
Podcasts enable people to create a
brand or an image and market themselves as such. These hosts become
their own PR agents, distributing
their product on a global scale, right
to people’s personal computers.
Additionally, podcasting has become a major resource in news media organizations’ social networking initiatives. Newspapers, radio
shows,and TV shows have all come
up with one—if not multiple—podcasts to distribute in conjunction
with their primary projects.
“We’re gaining a new audience—
and a growing one,” says Dan Savage, who is primarily known for his
syndicated sex advice column, Savage Love with the Seattle alternative
weekly newspaper, The Stranger.
“Also, I’ve gained the ability to work
in radio again. I enjoyed doing a sexadvice call-in show in the early ‘90s,
but it was too dirty for broadcast
standards and I had to stop. This allows me to gab away without the fear
of incurring fines.”
There are very few podcasts that
BUZZSAW
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32
come with a price tag, although some
will charge a small fee for archived
shows. It’s a side project. You don’t
make money, but you don’t have to invest financially in it either. With a simple microphone and an editing program
like Garage Band, you’re all set.
More established companies or
organizations will sell advertising
space, but it’s not enough to create
actual revenue. The motive then, is
to generate ideas, network and share
common interests.
Topics range from health advice,to
political commentary to comedy—
there’s even podnography.
“The iPod has been a real driving force in making podcasts more
accessible and easy to download,”
says Omar Gallaga, a tech writer
for The Austin American-Statesman
and weekly contributor to NPR’s All
Things Considered.
The speed cycle that humans run
on these days doesn’t always leave
room for people to sit down and relax
to programs they enjoy, and once it’s
gone, the Internet, maybe, is the only
way to catch it again. Now people can
get their news on-the-go.
“The iPod has made podcasting pretty easy,” says Ithaca College senior and
journalism major Meghan Loftus.
“I can take NPR or the Economist
with me while I’m on the Metro or
walking around town. But I also like
that I can choose when and where
I watch or listen to my favorite radio shows. I like that I don’t have to
wake up on Sunday morning or make
sure I’m home for the re-air of Meet
the Press—I can watch it on my own
time,” Loftus says.
She also points out that publications, which ordinarily cost money,
can give you a brief synopsis for free
of what’s included in their new edition, all via the podcast.
“It’s just another way to create
brand loyalty to a product,” she says.
A certain loyalty or affinity is
bridged between host and listener.
“I only listen to podcasts where I
have a strong connection with the
source material or host,” says Gallaga.
“I think podcasts that have a very
unique focus and good personalities
behind the mic will succeed.”
For someone like Dan Savage, who
is maintaining both a column and
a podcast, he can approach people
with two different mediums—something that is giving him a larger audience base.
“I seem to have a lot of regular listeners and the podcast does seem to
create a degree of intimacy that the
column does not,” Savage says.
“It is more intimate and immediate,
and hearing someone speak makes
you feel closer to that person than
reading that person’s writing typically does.”
In 2004, when podcasts first caught
on, Google could generate 2,750 results when “podcast” was entered in
the search engine. Today, it produces 138,000,000 hits. It’s impossible
to predict where they will fall into
place as greater technology emerges,
but for now, they are allowing common, everyday people to connect in
a global society in ways they never
could before, and that is drastically
changing the ways we communicate
and represent ourselves.
____________________________________
Julia Pergolini is a senior English
major. E-mail her at juliapergolini@
gmail.com.
Break Up of the American Family
Questioning the 21st season of The Simpsons
By Chris Giblin
T
ization. Fans like Way cannot be defined by either of these groups. He
was born after the show premiered,
yet he believes the first ten seasons to
be far better than the last ten. Simply
put, there is no clearly defined Simpsons fan.
In many ways, the show has become
a mere caricature of itself, maintaining the necessary, familiar elements
and following a recognizable process,
just without the same entertainment
quality of the old days. In 2003, Slate
writer Chris Sullentrop compared the
state of The Simpsons to Pete Rose in
the later days of his career: “There’s
still greatness there, and you get to
see a home run now and then, but
mostly it’s a halo of reflected glory.”
It’s true. Quality jokes have become
increasingly sporadic in recent years
and episode plotlines don’t offer the
substance and social commentary
they once had. While episodes once
opened up debate on issues such as
gun control and citizenship, storylines in this season involve crossword
puzzles and prank phone calls. The
Simpsons just doesn’t pack as much
punch as it used to.
Regardless of speculation about the
show’s declining quality, the thing that
has kept The Simpsons on the air all
these years is their consistently good
ratings. Despite a relatively steady
drop in viewers over the course of the
show’s history, which had an
average 13.4 million
Image by Sally Russell
Ministry of Cool
he Simpsons has become a
staple of American television
and is as much a part of recognized Sunday tradition as
church or NFL football. Airing in the 8:00 time slot on Fox Sunday
nights since 1989, it has aired 427 episodes as of Nov. 30, making it the longest-running sitcom and the longestrunning American animated series.
After so much time, it becomes difficult to keep things fresh in any series.
Today, the new episodes of the show
often come under scrutiny for using
familiar storylines or overly ridiculous
situations, and other times it is simply
accused of not being funny anymore.
Is it time to cancel The Simpsons?
The show has done things no other
sitcom has even tried. It has established a multifaceted environment for
the Simpson family, as the characters
interact with the people and places of
their highly dysfunctional, backward
hometown of Springfield. They also
interact with a cast of literally hundreds, all of whom have their own
names, distinct personalities and at
times, elaborate back-stories.
Multiple pop culture references can
be identified in any given episode as
well, entertaining casual viewers who
may not understand the characterbased humor built into the plotlines.
The show ideally packs a high density
of jokes into each show, which gives
it a “something-for-everybody” quality. It also gives the show a high rewatch value that has attracted one of
the most numerous and diehard fan
bases of any show on the air.
What has kept The Simpsons popular long after its initial cult popularity
fueled by catch phrases like “D’oh!”
and “Ay Carumba!” has been mostly
due to solid writing. However, as the
show progresses through its 20th
season, the current writing team is
comprised of a completely different
group of people, with very few significant contributions being made from
the original or earlier writers. Classic
writers such as Jon Vitti, George Meyer, and John Swartzwelder have not
written episodes since the early part
of the decade, and several fans point
to this as a reason for the show’s declining quality.
“The show’s in its 20th season now
and it hasn’t been good since the 12th
or so,” said avid fan Stewart Way, who
frequently contributes to discussions
about the show on the fan site nohomers.net. “That means almost half the
show is garbage now. The new writers aren’t being influenced by the good
ones who were there at the start, so the
episodes are worse. They can’t appreciate the show for what it once was.”
Critic and fan episode ratings give
support to this sentiment. In a 2003
survey in honor of The Simpsons’
300th episode, fans came up with a
“Top 10 Episodes” list, while the writers made a “Top 15 List.” The most
recent episode from the fans’ list was
“Homer’s Phobia” from 1997. The
writers chose “Behind the Laughter”
from 2000.
Within the fan base, there is a clear
division between those who enjoy
only older episodes and those who
like the series as a whole, according
to Adam Wolf, owner and maintainer
of Simpsons fan sites lardlad.com
and simpsonschannel.com.
“There are two types of fans,”
he said. “There are those that
love the first ten seasons
and are of the opinion that
the following ten are not
worth watching. They have
been watching the show
since it began in 1989.
Then there’s the others,
who are the age now that
those growing up watching the show were. They
are less likely to notice
the decline in quality
and find the show as
enjoyable as ever.”
However, there are
certain exceptions to Wolf’s general-
33
viewers per episode in the first season
compared to 7.7 million in the 19th
season, the show has remained economically viable after all these years,
at least for the most part.
On the other hand, costs have added
up over the years in production, even
as ratings have declined. Months of
negotiations were necessary to come
up with the show’s current contract,
which only included this year.
Huge increases in voice actor rates
are fetching $400,000 per episode for
main cast members, as opposed to
the $30,000 they made in the past,
when the show was more popular. The
Simpsons now costs about $5 million
per episode to produce, and it is quite
possible the show has become too financially cumbersome for Fox executives to support, as the show’s oneyear contract is up at the end of this
season. Adam Wolf hopes they renew
that contract:
“I think as long as the show is attracting the amount of viewers it
is currently, there is still a core fan
base out there to enjoy it. Even if we
don’t all think it’s funny anymore, the
kids today appreciate it so if the show
wants to keep going, it should.”
This seems to be the current atti-
tude of the people who produce The
Simpsons, although there will, of
course, always be a faction of fans
who believe continuing the show only
progresses it into an already-begun
downward spiral. Either way, the state
of the Simpson family can be summed
up nicely by The Simpsons’ Troy McClure: “Who knows what adventures
they’ll have between now and the time
the show becomes unprofitable?”
_____________________________________
Chris Giblin is a sophomore TV-R major. E-mail him at [email protected].
Television’s Great Unrequited Loves
My So-Called Life
My So-Called Life, possibly one of
the best shows of the ‘90s unfortunately cancelled after its first season,
follows 15-year-old high schooler Angela (a pre-Romeo and Juliet Claire
Danes) and her dramatic teenage life.
She, of course, falls for the cutest guy
in school, Jordan Catalano (Jared
Leto, long before he began his terrible music career), who, in the show,
memorably can’t read. The unfolding
of drama in the show includes their
slowly developing and destructive
relationship, in which Jordan never tells Angela that he likes her. He
once tells her, “I’m not that into you,”
though we all know he is. His pride
and bad-boy reputaion prevents him
from expressing his love for her. And
the show ends before he ever tells her
he loves her, but for diehard My SoCalled Life fans, his sweet face will
always read, “I love you, Angela.”
BUZZSAW
Wonderfalls
Niagara Falls is one of those places
tourists seem to love, but Americans
seem to ignore. But Wonderfalls actually made me want to go there. The
show is a clever, underrated comedy
about a young woman who discovers
objects with animal faces that talk
and tell her to do things. It’s actually a lot better than it sounds. Under
her nose, her brother Aaron (the ridiculously attractive and talented Lee
Pace), a philosophy enthusiast getting
his PhD and still living with his par-
34
ents, and her best friend, Mahandra,
start a fling. And while Aaron seems
to be strongly attached to Mahandra,
she denies their relationship, often
completely ignoring him. It isn’t until
the last episode (which actually never
aired—it’s another prematurely-cancelled show) that she accepts that
they love each other.
Friends
It seems that in every episode of
Friends, Ross (David Schwimmer) and
Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) went back
and forth from loving to hating each
other, though deep down they were always in love. It may have taken Rachel
an entire season to find out Ross was
in love with her, but surprisingly, she
found out from someone other than
Ross. Throughout the seasons, the
two, nonetheless, realize they love each
other and even tell each other that, but
it takes them the whole series to realize
they belong together. Why those two
spent so many episodes denying their
love for each other, no one will ever
know. And even Joey denies his love
for Rachel to be a good friend to Ross.
Gossip Girl
Gossip Girl is a show you hate to
love. Over the last few episodes, the
show’s writing and topics seem to get
more and more ridiculous, but equally entertaining. What we learned last
season is that while Blair (Leighton
Meester) was trying to get back with
Nate (Chace Crawford), Chuck (Ed
Westwick) was falling for her. And as we
know from season two, she fell in love
with him too. Their sexual relationship
and games perhaps fueled them to be
in love in the first place, but it also
made them completely incapable of
saying, “I love you.” In season two, the
characters are literally unable to say
those three little words to each other.
And even more frustrating, they would
be a perfect match if only they didn’t
deny their love. At least here, though,
the characters are mutually too proud
of admitting their true feelings.
Deadwood
Based on the historical town of the
same name, Deadwood follows several
real characters to aptly show Western
life with impressive visual and epic storytelling. In the first season, Seth Bullock (remarkably played by Timothy Olyphant), town sheriff and co-owner of a
hardware store, and Alma Garrett (Molly Parker), the widow of a claim seeker, begin a brief relationship after one
night they spent together. While they
obviously have a connection throughout the show, the two are forced apart
after Bullock’s wife (though, she is only
his wife because he married her after
she became a widow to her brother) and
her son arrive in Deadwood. They never
express their feelings for each other because it would cause a scandal in town,
and so, they go on about their business
and rarely even speak, though they still
love each other.
-Julissa Treviño
RAW FROM THE SAW
I’m From Barcelona
Who Killed Harr y Houdini?
Mute U.S., 2008
By Renée Addington
way Let Me Introduce My Friends
did. But it is infused with such a
sweet, melancholy nostalgia that
it’s impossible not to fall in love
with.
As on the debut disc, Lundgren’s
charming vocals are the heart and
soul of Houdini. The instruments
range from the standard guitar,
drums, keyboard set to trumpet,
clarinet, sax, banjo, mandolin,
accordion and most of the instruments ever invented.
Disappointingly,
the
album
opens with what is perhaps its
weakest track—the pleasant but
unimaginative “Andy.” The album’s
single, “Paper Planes,” is by far the
most similar to the catchy tunes
from Friends. It’s the cute, upbeat
story of enjoying the sights and
sounds of an apartment building.
Back to back are “Headphones,”
a tribute to the transformative
power of music, and “Music Killed
Me,” a thinly veiled reference to the
seductive power of a relationship.
French songstress SoKo accom-
panies Lundgren with her own melodic vocals on “Gunhild,” a sweetly
gloomy tune.
“Mingus” is the older brother to
Barcelona classics like “Chicken
Pox.” It deals with the fear of growing
up. It’s a glimpse into the heart of a
band that sooner or later will have to
decide whether it wants to grow up
and potentially abandon a piece of itself or stay the same sweet but boring
child forever. “Mingus” sets the tone
for the rest of the album, delving into
more serious topics and bringing in a
rougher, folksier sound.
Any skepticism about the growing
pains of Who Killed Harry Houdini?
is eliminated with the final track. The
seven-minute “Rufus” leaves listeners with a final thought on the band’s
future. Its nonsense lyrics play at
the notion of finding someone to take
you where you’re supposed to be.
The song ends with the note, “In my
heart, in my heart/still a kid,” suggesting that while the band may grow
up musically, their inner child is always willing to come out and play.
35
Ministry of Cool
The mere fact that I’m from Barcelona exists is somewhat miraculous. Nearly 30 people coming together, somehow managing to put
aside artistic differences and create something fun and beautiful is
incredible. If you have yet to appreciate the phenomenon of these
Swedish minstrels, you should
start downloading now.
Barcelona
originated
in
Jönköping, Sweden in 2005 at the
behest of lead vocalist and songwriter Emanuel Lundgren. They released an EP in 2006 called, Don’t
Give Up on Your Dreams, Buddy!
Their straightforward indie pop
chords and heartfelt lyrics were a
critical and commercial success.
With their second disc, Who Killed
Harry Houdini? the group achieves
a different sound that is unlikely
to be quickly lauded.
It would be easy to characterize Who Killed Harry Houdini? as
a sophomore slump. It doesn’t
make you long for summer days
and green grass and first love the
Quantum
of Solace
Fox Searchlight
2008
BUZZSAW
By Shaun Poust
36
James Bond, that testosterone-mad,
gadget-hording, reckless, chauvinistic,
super-violent super spy, was only ever
likable if you understood him as a caricature. View Bond seriously and he,
the ultimate male fantasy, looks pretty
monstrous. That said, I’ve been puzzled with the new direction of the 007
franchise, of which Quantum of Solace
is the latest, for it seems determined
to view the character through the most
objective of lenses—doesn’t it thereby
self-defeat?
Daniel Craig’s must be the least fun
of all the Bonds. Don’t let me be misunderstood: Craig is a fine actor. He
makes a wonderful statue. That’s what
the quintessential secret agent has
been reduced to, by the way: a man so
crushed by the death of his true love,
Vesper in Casino Royale, that he is cold
and humorless and kills unnecessarily.
Ah, I remember when Bond used to kill
unnecessarily because it was funny—
those were the days. Now he’s grumpy,
tortured and real. And don’t expect
Craig to deliver jokes like Sean Connery
or Roger Moore did so well; Craig’s few
jokes take the form of bitter sarcasm,
like Hamlet’s.
In Quantum of Solace, the most cumbersome title of any 007 movie, Bond
must investigate the mysterious criminal organization, Quantum. Quantum has agents everywhere, including
within MI6, and the unknown size and
nature of the group makes it all the
more threatening. Of immediate concern is Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), Quantum agent and chairman of
ecological organization Greene Planet.
He is behind a coup in Bolivia aimed
at installing current-General Medrano
as dictator. In exchange, he will get a
small piece of desert land—for oil, or
for something else? Bond is also trying
to avenge Vesper’s murder and regain
the trust of MI6 and M (Judi Dench),
who think the grief-stricken Bond is
out of control. In addition, Bond forms
a partnership with Russian-Bolivian
agent Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko),
who hopes to avenge the death of her
family by killing General Medrano.
It’s a more complicated plot than that
of, say, Goldfinger. Things are different now. Instead of megalomaniacs, we
have corrupt officials. Instead of world
domination, there’s natural resourcespeculating. Instead of black and white,
there’s lots of gray. Quantum of Solace
might have taken its premise from a
story I might have watched on CNN—
except that story would have been so
complicated, and probably so poorly
covered, that I wouldn’t have paid attention.
Quantum of Solace seems more conscious of its cinematography than previous installments in the franchise, and
the results are varied. One interesting
scene takes place during an opera: several members of Quantum are watching
Puccini’s “Tosca” while communicating
via headsets, Bond listens in and makes
some snide comments, they sneak out
awkwardly. A subsequent shootout,
shot with some slow motion and with
opera music in the background, was
classier than I’d expect from a Bond
flick.
But there is also excessive use of “the
jostling camera,” in vogue ever since the
Bourne movies. It is mostly distracting. I’d argue that it keeps one from appreciating some of the most impressive
action sequences. The best example
of this is the car chase that opens the
movie. We see the chase in flashes: a
door, keys, a thigh, Craig’s face, a broken windshield, a wall, a truck, a car,
a pedal, a bird, tires—it’s too much to
take in. At several points I thought
Bond had died. It was when I’d later
see a shot of Bond’s forehead or fingernail that I’d realize that the enemies’
cars, not our hero’s, had flipped over,
smashed into walls, flown off a cliff, exploded, etc.
There are exciting things—explosions,
mainly—in Quantum of Solace, but it’s
hard to be more than lukewarm about a
movie with a hero who’s an emotionless
jerk and a convoluted plot centered on
Bolivian politics, which could be going
on right now (without me caring). Maybe that’s my fault—compassion fatigue,
anyone?
By Julissa
Treviño
Baghead
Sony Pictures
Classics, 2008
Baghead is an awkward, unlikely film.
Though it is never as funny as it could
be, the film is an original, unconventional
spoof on films that try too hard to be serious in their ridiculous plots.
Writers and directors Jay and Mark
Duplass create a short, whacky blend of
comedy and drama. The film begins as
four friends watch an indie film set behind a Los Angeles film festival. Though
the film is a joke, they are intrigued by the
director’s strategy of recording his subjects
without letting them know until the end of
the shoot. The friends decide to head to a
cabin to make their own script and movie,
convinced they can do a better job.
The friends (Matt, Catherine, Chad and
Michelle), instead of working at producing
a script, begin to get tangled up in feelings
of desire and jealousy. Michelle (played by
Mumblecore queen Greta Gerwig) begins to
have a crush on Catherine’s ex-boyfriend
Matt, even though his best friend, Chad,
likes Michelle. It’s actually less confusing
than it sounds. Meanwhile, their idea for a
horror movie (about a guy with a bag over
LGady
aga
The Fame
Interscope Records, 2008
By Sarah McCarthy
sic is far from naïve. Her music reeks
of excess and sexual undertones. In
“Dirty Sexy Rich” and “Money Honey,”
she heads to the over-privileged club
scene of the Lower East Side. Just like
her scene, her songs feel like a guilty
pleasure; they carry an addictive vibe
that refuses to let the listener go.
The album starts off strong with
“Just Dance,” a fun dance track that
has already reached number one on
the charts in Australia and Canada.
She hits a high point with “Pokerface,” a hypnotizing tune that is sure
to become a club classic. Lady Gaga
is not a one-trick pony though—as
a whole, The Fame is an incredible
dance album.
Lady Gaga falls short when she
steers clear of her strengths and opts
for a mellower feel. “Eh, Eh (Nothing I
Can Say)” and “Brown Eyes” aren’t to-
tal flops, but both give off this weird
90s vibe—a vibe that should have
been left in the 20th century with
the Spice Girls and Aqua. However,
the closer “Summerboy” manages
to have a slower tempo while still
being cute and sassy, and not providing any unwanted flashbacks.
Lady Gaga is already one hit away
from mega-stardom, but it is not her
music that will keep her relevant.
Her over-the-top, glittery live shows
have gained her a name among the
alternative crowds. Even her stage
act won’t be enough for the music
industry to remember her after a
year, but with a good follow-up album, she could be on her way to
legendary status in the electropop
genre.
37
Ministry of Cool
The Fame
may be an
unfitting
title for a debut album,
but perhaps works in its propheticness. Already hailed as the “future
of pop,” newcomer Lady Gaga is just
beginning to make a splash in the
music industry. While The Fame is
not a masterpiece, it is a fantastic
peak into what the feisty Lady Gaga
can deliver.
Lady Gaga has found her niche
in electropop. She has the singing
chops of a pop singer, but she also
carries an edge to her that is reminiscent of M.I.A. or Gwen Stefani.
Her tracks already have the blogosphere going crazy, and she is slowly taking over mainstream as well.
Lady Gaga is only 22, but her mu-
his head) begins to come true.
Filmed with what seems like a handheld
camera, Baghead works well. It is exactly
what the friends set out to make in the
film, except that Baghead turns out to be
a comedy because of the simple, ridiculous
idea.
The best aspect of the film, however, has
nothing to do with the quality of the film,
but with the subject matter: Baghead. The
image of a guy with a bag over his head
trying to be scary actually works. It creates
a sort of tense, awkward feeling that could
really be terrifying if the viewer placed
him/herself in the woods at night.
But with several long pauses, the film
can drag on a little too much. And though
the film prides itself on being low-budget
and having a great deal of improvisation,
Baghead’s dialogue can get too predictable.
Overall, however, Baghead works as a film
based on a funny concept. It plays off the
classic scary movie where the characters’
ideas start becoming true, but doesn’t take
itself too seriously. And neither should
viewers.
Tom
Jones
Fallout 3
Bethesda, 2008
24 Hours
By Bryant Francis
S-Curve Records, 2008
BUZZSAW
By Josh Elmer
During Thanksgiving Break
I ventured downstairs and
watched some television with
my Nan. We were in for a
treat—Tom Jones was one of
the guests. My Nan (who has
been Jonesin’ for nearly 40
years) and I witnessed Jones’
debut single from 24 Hours, his
first album of original songs in nearly 10 years.
With grunge-inspired rock riffs, Tom Jones proclaiming that he is, in fact “ALIVE,” he is “REAL,” and
he is, still, in fact, a “MAN,” “I’m Alive” is a fun, albeit
strange first song on his new album (it was also the
song he played on TV). It is clear that even though
Jones has gained a few pounds, lost some hair and
had a few fake tans, that he still has a powerful and
compelling voice.
“If He Should Ever Leave You,” a mellow, more traditional song finds the vocal powerhouse singing a
familiar tune about unrequited love from a married
woman—something Jones probably receives a great
deal more of nowadays.
Jones also has fun funk and gospel infusions sprinkled liberally through the album. I find myself grooving to “Give a Little Love,” a saucy Sly & the Family Stone inspired tune with a catchy tuba-led beat
and trumpet line. “Seasons” starts with a slow fender
Rhodes piano chord progression that respectfully
shouts awesome. I never knew Tom Jones had so
much soul.
“Seen That Face,” the attempt at a hard-rock ballad
with a bad drum machine and a strange synthesizer/
piano, and the title track “24 Hours,” a traditional ballad without synthesizer, but still with drum machine
are the album’s only weaknesses. It seems Jones, like
most older men, needed to take a nap. With “More
than Memories” he regains his horns and his double
entendre to triumphantly conclude the album.
This album is definitely not what I was expecting,
but that is not a bad thing. Even though many rag
on Tom Jones, he still possesses a great vocal talent, which is on display here. The only complaint I
heard from my Nan when he was performing on Regis and Kelly was the fact that he didn’t “move like
he used to,” but then again, neither can most of his
audience.
38
Welcome to the apocalypse—or, at least, the apocalypse as envisioned by Bethesda Softworks in their
newest release, Fallout 3. In this latest addition to
the Fallout universe, you play as a resident of one
of a series of “vaults,” which were designed to keep
paying citizens “safe” in the event of a nuclear war.
When your character reaches the age of 19, your
father (voiced by Liam Neeson), suddenly leaves
the safety of the vault without any kind of warning,
forcing your character to chase after him into the
nuclear wasteland surrounding the Washington,
D.C. area.
That about amounts to the guaranteed storyline of
Fallout 3. You, the player, are key in determining exactly who your character is, what they do, and how
they interact with the world around them. You can
be a kind, helping citizen or a cruel and unforgiving raider who randomly dispenses nuclear devices
onto the local populations—or neither, choosing to
be a nomad. Whatever choice you pick, the game
easily adapts and provides you with an adventure
that matches whatever attitude you’ve taken toward
your fellow post-apocalyptic survivors.
Fallout 3 also benefits from some incredibly good
writing and voice acting—so far, most of the characters I’ve encountered haven’t had the same voice,
which keeps the experience immersive and interesting. The writing manages to carry the grim facts of
this dying and violent world, along with a cynical
and fairly intelligent sense of humor that brings irony to any situation. My favorite line so far has been
in reference to an atomic bomb laying smack in the
middle of a small town. When I asked a local mechanic how I could disarm it, she replied “Oh, what
would you want to go do that for? It ain’t harmed
nobody.”
To wrap things up, Fallout 3 is definitely one of
the strongest gaming experiences offered this holiday season, backed by a strong voice acting cast,
deep and detailed gameplay and incredibly witty
writing. Even if you haven’t played the previous
Fallout games, or Bethesda’s previous blockbuster
title Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls, you can definitely
find something to enjoy in this latest trek to the end
of the world.
Prose & Cons
Prose & Cons
39
The Fish Pub
By Mike Grippi
BUZZSAW
They lay intertwined, like the resting gears of an awful
machine. His eyes studied her shoulder and side of her
neck and her ear, tracing the lines of her muscles and tendons that connected them, each so soft and natural. He
watched her skin, a light from outside the window outlining her edges with a pale yellow line. He rubbed his face
along her neck and behind her ear, lightly, finding a place
for him to settle in. She was young, very young—too young
to be what she was. Too young to know that she shouldn’t
fall asleep after sleeping with a strange man—that the men
in her line of work could be very, very dangerous.
“I’m pretty new at all of this,” she’d said from the bed,
sipping from the glass of whiskey he’d poured her. Her
dark bangs fell across her face, leaving only one big
brown eye locked on him, a strap from her dress falling
off her shoulder. It was blue—the dress—like the sky in
an old photo of him and his brother, Shane. They were
kids standing next to a cornfield; their mom wanted to
show how tall the stalks were.
“Well so am I,” he’d replied, smiling, “but I think we can
figure it out.”
He turned from her and downed his whiskey, his mouth
burning as the alcohol killed the lie that had just slipped
from between his lips. He looked around the room—a
cheap motel next to a shitty bar, as if it was established
with this sort of thing in mind. The walls were tan and
striped with more tan, a band of some tawdry floral pattern cut the walls about a third of the way up, like a belt
around the room, that almost matched the bedspread.
There was a TV on top of a small dresser across from
the bed, and a Bible sitting on the bedside table, next to
the only lamp and the clock. He walked over and tossed
the book in a drawer, then moved to the bed and started
kissing her.
He could feel her heart beat in her mouth, and taste
the Kent she’d smoked on the way to their room. It wasn’t
long before his hands began to wander—up and down her
legs and torso, sneaking grazes of her breasts.
“Wait,” she breathed, pushing him back. “Wait, wait…
what was your name again?”
“David”, he said quickly. He went in again, and again
she protested.
“Do you remember mine?” She was so afraid. He could
see how terrified she was, how young she was.
He put his hand on her cheek and pulled her toward
him, and they didn’t say anything for a long time.
It was pitch dark in the room except for the light from
outside the window. David got up and dressed quietly as
she slept. The light in the bathroom was so bright it was
almost angry; he shut the door behind him to trap it in.
Looking in the mirror, he did a quick once over on himself: his beard was thick and long, but neat, and his dark
hair was self-cut, something he’d become rather good at.
David wasn’t a tall man, nor short, just average, though
40
he was slimmer than he was when he’d left. His appetite
wasn’t what it used to be. He splashed water on his face
and ran his wet hands through his hair, then turned off
the light before he opened the door.
He scribbled a note telling her to wait until he got back,
that he’d pay her later. He had the feeling he wouldn’t
want to be alone.
He walked quickly, pushed by the winter air. The cold
snatched his breath as it escaped, leaving him to walk
through frozen mists of cigarettes and cheap whiskey.
He didn’t smoke. Dirty snow screamed beneath his feet,
pleading him to stop, but his lips had frozen shut while
his mind kept him warm as it raced and raced and raced.
His hands hid in his coat pockets, red with cold. He was
spreading out his fingers then balling them into fists
over and over again, his blood pumping through them
so quickly that they had no choice but to keep moving.
When the wind pushed hard it whipped his ears and his
neck, mocking him, teasing him. Streetlights lit his path,
casting bright circles onto the sidewalk, but he stuck to
the edge of the light. He did not want any light to shine
on him.
He turned right onto Sharp St., home of the Fish Pub,
where he’d told Shane he’d meet him. They used to be
regulars there, when they were younger, on a first name
basis with the bartenders and waitresses. Every weekend
they’d come and drink pitcher after pitcher and play pool
and meet women, their libidos thriving as they clung to
youth like barnacles. But they were older now, and David
had much less interest in going to shitty bars, acting like
a frat boy and drinking beer. He drank whiskey now.
David was surprised when his brother had called.
Their conversation was sparse, formal; they were both
holding back.
“So I hear you’re coming back to town,” Shane had said
over the phone.
“From who?”
“Mom. She said you were in Tennessee or something
and that you were coming back. So, are you?”
“Yeah, just for a little while.” They hadn’t spoken in a
long time, and David had trouble finding words he wanted to share. “I wanted to grab a few things from mom’s
place. Some stuff for my apartment. I’m moving to Nashville; I found a place.”
“Yeah? That’s great, Dave, really. Well, are you going to
stay with mom? You could crash with Sara and me if you
wanted to. We have a futon.”
“I know you have a futon.” David had helped move the
futon into Shane and Sara’s apartment. He’d cut his hand
on the doorframe and Sara had screamed at him for getting blood on her new couch. “I’m just going to stay in a
hotel, I think. I wouldn’t want to impose on you.”
“No way, it wouldn’t be a problem at all. I’ll have to talk
to Sara, but it should be fine.”
David rolled his eyes to no one, biting his tongue. “No,
That was the corner booth next to the bathroom, and the
pinball machine had been across from it, but it had been
replaced by and electronic poker game.
David moved naturally, hanging his coat on the rack to
the left of the door without thinking and sat at the bar,
on one of the new stools. They were shiny and stiff, like
they were fresh out of the package, with metal legs and a
bat in a red circle in the center of the seat. The old stools
were hard, sturdy wood; hurt your butt a little if you sat
down for too long. David had found this out not long before he’d left town, as he spent more of his nights sitting
at the bar alone, looking around and watching the people
around him, the students getting younger and younger.
He sat and watched and drank tequila to get drunk faster.
It helped for a little while.
“David?” His brother’s voice assaulted him from behind, echoed in his head and made him jump a little. He
turned to see Shane standing in the bar, the door closing behind him. He looked the same, just older, a little
heavier. His shirt was tucked in making his stomach a
little more pronounced.
Shane walked over to the bar and put his hand on
his brother’s shoulder. “It’s good to see you, man,” he
wrapped his other arm around David, trapping him in an
uncomfortable side hug. David simply patted his back,
fighting the urge to flail his arms and throw his brother
off. After an eternity, Shane let go.
“Damn, little brother, I barely recognized you. I was
afraid you weren’t going to show up.”
David smiled and forced a chuckle, and turned back
to the bar as his brother sat. He was afraid to speak, his
heart beating so hard he was sure anyone could have seen
his back pulsing. The idea of just looking at his brother
was terrifying, so he kept his eyes locked on the bar.
“So what are we drinking?” Shane asked, trying to relieve some tension.
Thinking a drink could only help, David signaled the
bartender and choked out an order for whisky and water,
and Shane followed suit.
“You never drank liquor,” David said.
“Neither did you,” Shane retorted.
Then they sat quiet for a while, each afraid to speak.
David knew where any words they had would end up.
Shane would want to know why he’d left, why he’d
41
Prose & Cons
it’s ok,” he said firmly, “I’ll just stay in a hotel.”
They agreed to meet for a drink the night David got in,
then said clumsy goodbyes and hung up quickly. This
was two weeks ago, and even then it made David’s bones
bend the wrong ways just to think about sitting down and
talking with his brother.
It had been years since they’d spoken, since David
left Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and everyone in it. The
city, once swelling with money from steel factories, now
seemed to always be in the shadow of what it was. David
had seen what it could do to people. He’d seen it in his
parents, family friends, his brother; even he had begun
feeling like the city and the bar and his family were all
holding a pillow over his face until he was dead—trapped
in himself and this place. In his travels, that was what he
told people when they asked why he’d left. He lied to all
of them.
There he was, at nine thirty five, pushing open the
heavy wood door, stepping into a memory. The bar was
not a big one, by any means, but it was perfect for them
in their twenties. It was busy then, a college bar in a small
town, one of the few places the kids from the school could
go that wasn’t on campus. Neither Shane nor David were
concerned with the idea of college at the time, just the
women that went to them. They’d spend their days working construction wherever they could, and most nights
ended with the two of them chasing tail like professionals, armed with small town charm and arrogance to the
point of endearment. Rarely did their efforts amount to
more than sloppy make-out sessions in the corner booth
in the back near the one pinball machine and bathrooms.
So they drank, long after most of the kids had stumbled
back to their dorms, beating their livers and shooting
shit with the bar tender until he would kick them out. It
wasn’t unusual for them to leave the bar and be greeted
by the next morning’s sun.
Not too much had changed since then, not in the bar,
anyway. On the right, booths lined the wall, the same red
vinyl lining the seats, though now there were more duct
tape patches keeping the lining together. On the left as
he walked in, there was a round table, and behind that
the bar started and continued fifteen or so feet down. At
that end of the bar there was one more booth, its seat
backs high, making it impossible to see who was there.
BUZZSAW
dropped everything, a good job, a decent apartment, his
family, his friends, and just disappeared. He knew all of
this and he knew that he couldn’t tell his brother the
answer. He couldn’t tell Shane that he knew about the
freckles on Sara’s backside that looked like Orion in a
white sky, or the way she would laugh after she came. He
knew the way she tasted.
Sara and Shane met in this bar; she was a student at
the university then. She was short and thin, her black
hair fell just above her shoulders and her bangs cut
across her face like a mask, almost hiding her arctic eyes,
so blue they would freeze a salty lake. They had ended up
in the booth in the back after weeks of him chasing her
frosty stare, and Shane loved her relentlessly. She knew
this, and she knew just how beautiful she was. It wasn’t
long before she got bored of her country boy, and started
to sneak chilling glances at other boys, David included,
but kept Shane around. David was young then, judgment
clouded by booze and youthful lust, and her skin was always warm when she laid curled around him like a vine.
On and off for a year they kept it up, getting drunk
enough to call it a mistake, slipping away to fool around
in David’s car in one of the parking lots on the campus or
in his mother’s old house, whenever she was gone to her
book club or town meetings. The first time they slept together, David writhed in self-loathing for two days straight,
not returning anyone’s calls, not going to work, holing
himself up on his room. It was a mistake, he thought, a
stupid mistake, not worth telling anybody. When he finally emerged from his apartment he told Shane he’d eaten
some bad shellfish. It got easier after that.
Their drinks came, and David quickly took a long sip,
the back of his throat swelling some as the whisky made
its way down. The glass still to his lips, something shiny
caught his eye. Shane had reached for his drink with his
left hand, and one of the lights above the bar reflected off
of the base of his ring finger. Shane was married. Shane
and Sara were married.
David imploded.
With each tryst, David let himself dip deeper into delusion. He knew it was wrong, that Shane was his brother,
would do anything for him, but David was addicted. He
began to crave her fingertips laying cross his chest as
they slept, her breath softly sweeping across the meeting
place of his neck and torso. He began to love her like she
was his own and told her this, to which she would always
respond, “Maybe next time.”
Like his brother, David became tiresome to Sara. The
last time they were together, David told her he loved her
again, though she’d told him not to. “This has nothing
to do with love,” she’d said, coolly, “you know that. This
is all we can ever be, David, now please stop pretending
that this will work”. He couldn’t speak. He could barely
breathe.
Enraged and heart broken, David went to tell his
brother everything. He got in his car and drove to Shane’s
apartment and parked his car and gathered his thoughts.
Minutes crawled by, as he wracked his brain to find a way
to break it to his brother that he’d been sleeping with his
girl, his love. He sat and thought until his head ached
and his eyes burned. This was his own fault, he thought,
42
and shame began to eat him from inside, devouring the
muscles in his legs and thought until he started the car
again, and started to drive. He didn’t stop until he reached
the Ohio border, and by that time he felt so heavy that he
couldn’t lift his foot off the gas pedal.
“So, how’ve you been, Dave?”
David snapped back to the bar, blinking like he’d just
woken up.
“I cant do this,” he muttered. “I cant… I just cant do
this.” He got up quickly and almost tripped over the stool
as he lunged for his coat.
“David,” Shane said distressed, like saying his name
would be enough make his brother calm down and come
back to the bar. “David, what’s wrong with you?”
David was out the door now, the wind pouncing on him
like a cat that had been lurking, waiting. Shane burst
through the door by the time David had taken maybe
five steps. David quickened his pace, keeping his eyes
on the ground. He heard Shane yelling behind him but
wasn’t listening. Whatever he was saying, David knew he
deserved. Shane caught up to him and grabbed his arm,
spinning him around.
“What the fuck, David?” Formalities had been abandoned; the cold had stripped Shane of any frivolous conversation. “I don’t know where the hell you’re going or
where the fuck you’ve been, and frankly I don’t care. All
I want from you is a goddamn explanation. I think you
owe me that.”
Any hairs that weren’t standing on the back of David’s
neck were now at full attention. Whether he told Shane
everything here and now or turned and walked away, he
would probably never see his brother again.
“I have to go Shane. Someone is waiting for me.”
“What? Are you kidding me?” Shane was angry now.
“You fucking asshole, you disappear for four years without a single fucking word, phone call, letter, nothing, and
you can’t sit and talk for a night with your own goddamn
brother?
David turned and started walking.
“Fine, run away again David. And don’t bother coming
back again. No on here wants you anymore.”
“That’s probably for the best,” David said, mostly to
himself.
She was still asleep when he got back; it hadn’t been
more than an hour and a half. The door slammed and she
jumped under the covers, suddenly realizing where she
was and who she was and what she was there, then.
David threw his jacket on the floor, started unbuttoning his shirt. She held the sheet to her chest, confused
and scared, her hair a mess. Undressed, David slid into
bed.
“Um… is everything… alright?” she almost whispered.
David chuckled a little and shook his head.
“You seem to be missing the point of all of this, sweetheart.” His face dropped and sat like stone. “You don’t
have to care about me, and I don’t need to care about
you. That’s what makes this so beautiful.”
And then they didn’t say anything for a long time.
Images by Steven Gorgos & Jake Forney
43
sawdust
The Band’s Gonna Make It
Drama between area band, Electric Vagina
By Harrison Flatau
ude, where have you guys been? We were
supposed to have practice an hour ago. Like,
this is the third time this has happened.
Greg, you never told me you had work. How
am I supposed to schedule practice if you
guys don’t tell me these things? What about
you, Steve? Oh, so you knew that Greg had work? And
you decided not to tell me? I did call you—like three
times. You still could have come over and we could
have practiced. It’s like you’re not interested in the
band anymore.
What do you mean our name sucks? But we decided
on Electric Vagina. Don’t you remember? We said it
was a comment on today’s crass commercialization and
factory-made idea of sexuality. We can’t just up and
change the band name. No, I agree the Bacon Initiative
is a good name, but we’ve already established ourselves
as Electric Vagina. I mean, we have T shirts. What are
we supposed to do? Cross out Electric Vagina with a
sharpie and put in the Bacon Initiative?
Dude, we don’t suck. You’re just rationalizing because
our gigs haven’t gone well. No. That doesn’t mean we
suck, it just wasn’t the right crowd. Every band starts
at small gigs. So what if it’s the coffee shop? Those people weren’t there to see us. They just wanted coffee. As
soon as we get a gig where people actually want to see
us, then it’ll go much better.
The band’s gonna make it. You know we’re so much
better than all the crap that’s out there today. As soon
as we get a good gig, then we’ll get an agent, then we’ll
get a record deal, and then the world will be rocked by
Electric Vagina. We’re gonna be huge guys. We’re gonna
have groupies and a cereal and a Saturday morning
cartoon. People are going to go nuts for us.
Can’t you picture it? We’re on stage at Madison
_____________________________________________________
Harrison Flatau is a senior writing major. E-mail him
at [email protected].
BUZZSAW
D
Square Garden and the place is packed. Everyone is
screaming for us to come on stage. Suddenly, the lights
go out and we come on stage while fireworks are exploding left and right. Then the lasers go on. We’ll have
them sync up with the music—green for vocals, red for
guitar, and blue for drums. Then Greg starts on the
drums for “Feeling Buddhist.” The girls in the front row
are flashing us. Steve starts slow on his guitar building
up the tempo. Then I start on the vocals and everyone
just looses it. The concert keeps going and it’s insane.
People are crowd surfing and stage diving. When we
start playing “Thumbtack Stapler,” everyone will start
jumping to the beat. It’ll be awesome.
After the show will be even better. We’ll stick around
and sign autographs for a few hours and then we’ll go
back to our hotel with a ton of groupies and drugs. Well
clearly we have to start doing drugs. Haven’t you seen
any Behind the Music? Every successful band does a
ton of drugs. I don’t know where to get anything. I just
assumed people would give them to us.
Look, we’ve already wasted enough time on this.
Let’s get started on practicing. I think we should start
on “Cryptozoology, inc.” first. I don’t think we have a
handle on that song yet. I thought I explained it to you
guys. This song is an experimental piece about the nature of our distrust of the supernatural. I know it’s not
normally what we do, but I think we need something to
show our range.
Guys, trust me. The band’s gonna make it. Soon everyone won’t be able to stop talking about Electric Vagina.
44
Images by Bryan Cipolla
Santa Arrested!
Authorities find cocaine hidden in home
By Sarah Craig
local resident posing as Santa Claus was arrested with
charges of child kidnapping
on Dec. 6, 2008 at the Ithaca
Mall.
The arrest of Edgar Hughes, a 57year-old white male who was dressed
in a worn, red jumpsuit at the time,
led to the arrests of two other individuals on drug charges.
The mall Santa allegedly promised 8year-old Billy Patterson presents and
a chance to meet Rudolph if he came
back with him to “The South Pole.”
“He said there would be candy! Lots
of candy!” Billy said. “But there wasn’t
any. Not even a candy cane! It wasn’t as
much fun as I thought it would be.”
The South Pole was actually a farm
half an hour away from the mall where
Edgar Hughes has lived for three
years. The house was covered with
cheap Christmas decorations, complete with a fake tree in every room.
There was “snow” everywhere: Three
grams of pure cocaine was found in his
house, along with 6 ounces of marijuana.
“We hadn’t been expecting to make
A
this big of a bust going in,” said policeman John Ritter. “Apparently, Santa’s
been the naughty one this year.”
The “merry appearance” of Edgar
Hughes included rosy cheeks, twinkling
eyes and a jolly belly. However, authorities believe the red blotches and stomach were due to prolonged alcohol abuse
and his “twinkling” eyes glazed over from
smoking too much marijuana.
After police confronted Edgar
Hughes at his residence, he said he
had evidence to defend his claim that
he was the “real” Santa Claus. However, his “proof” turned out to be his
roommates: his two relatives who
seem to believe they are “The Easter
Bunny” and “The Tooth Fairy.” Lee
Hughes, who goes by “Bunny,” is a
white male in his mid 40s who was
wearing a gray sweat suit and a pair
of bunny ears at the time of his arrest. Caroline Hughes, who prefers to
be called “Fairy,” was a white female
in her early 40s with a blue tutu and
a dollar store tiara.
Authorities believe the relatives
used their aliases to run a cocaine
distribution ring.
“You know that money kids get
under their pillow in exchange for a
tooth? That’s all me! I give money to
kids. It makes them happy. I don’t understand why I’m in trouble for that,”
Caroline Hughes said before authorities handcuffed her.
Authorities seem baffled by the case,
as the suspects seem to truly believe
they are the mythical characters they
claim to be.
As a result of recent events, the state
is now requiring mall Santas to have
licenses. The manager of the Ithaca
Mall claimed they hadn’t decided at
this time whether they plan on hiring
a new Santa for the rest of the season
after this recent embarrassment.
“It’s scary to think there are people
like that in Ithaca.” Carrie Patterson,
the mother of Billy, confided. “You hear
about it happening in other big cities,
but never in your own hometown.”
____________________________________
Sarah Craig is a sophomore journalism major. E-mail her at scraig1@
ithaca.edu.
Show me pics or it didn’t happen
graphic evidence. To put it into current cultural context, I
mean simply, “pics or it didn’t happen.” I have created a
list of “historical” events and people that I personally believe are products of the human mind, the result of men
and women with pens who went mad with imaginative
power. These events include:
The plague, Charlemagne, the first six U.S. presidencies, the Revolutionary War, mermaids, Confucius, the War
of 1812, the discovery of North America (we were always
here), the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the
Roman Empire, anything that happened in 300, Vikings,
the Qing Dynasty, the Opium Wars, the invention of fire,
the Ottoman Empire, Napoleon, the Dodo bird, Darwin,
pirates, Socrates, dinosaurs, the Bronze Age, the Renaissance, the chick in The Mona Lisa, Vasco da Gama, Michelangelo, Donatello, Rafael, the other Ninja Turtle, feudalism, the Salem witch trials, and Martin Luther.
-Tyler Noreika
Image by Jess Hock
45
Sawdust
Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I am a firm believer
in the saying “I’ll believe it when I see it.” That being
said, for some time now I have grown increasingly suspicious of a great deal of so-called “historic” events.
There are wars, empires, social movements, and leaders that we know of only through written documentation, not through photographs. Thousands of years of
human history are believed to be true solely because
someone, somewhere, scribbled them onto paper.
To you this may be sufficient evidence, but I think
otherwise. People lie. People fabricate stories. People
can create that which had never existed through written language. It is my ever-developing theory that absolutely NOTHING in human history happened before the
invention
of the camera (in 1826). To put
things bluntly, one simply cannot prove that
anything happened
without
photo-
Access Denied
Local man locked out of office
By Chris Giblin
telecommunications worker was denied access
into his office building Monday morning despite
swiping his worker ID card through the scanner
several times.
Gregory Anson, 41, who has worked at Sennotech for seven years, was left in a state of utter frustration
from the situation.
“That was not what I needed that morning,” he said. “It
was too fucking cold out and I was already five fucking
minutes late. I hate this job.”
After his initial denial, Anson tried swiping his card
using several different variations, starting at moderate
speed, then going extremely fast, and then going really
slow. None of these came to any avail.
“I don’t know what it was,” he said. “I’ve never had a
problem getting in before. I guess this is the appreciation I
get for wasting seven fucking years of my life here. I could
have taken that internship in L.A., but no, I needed the
money…”
Anson proceeded to bang on the glass door of the office building and yell at the security guard to let him inside. This brought about no reaction from guard Albert
A
Images by Cat Nuwer
Gutman, who continued to sip his coffee and play minesweeper on his computer.
“By standard policy, I’m not allowed to open the door
for anyone,” he said. “Besides, I was going for the high
score.”
Sennotech regional manager Brett Kearney said Anson’s problem is almost certainly due to the fact that he
never got his ID card renewed for the new security system, which was unveiled Monday.
“I sent out emails to everyone and mentioned it in a few
meetings, too,” Kearney said. “I don’t know how anyone
could have slipped through the cracks, but it looks like
Greg found a way to do just that. He seems to be ‘that
guy’ a lot.”
Anson eventually made it into the building after nine
minutes of swiping his card, when coworker Brian Holden let him in using his new ID card. Anson said a quick
“thanks” and stormed into the building.
________________________________________________________
Chris Giblin is a sophomore TV-R major. E-mail him at
[email protected].
buzzsaw 4 kidz!
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BUZZSAW
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46
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What a great le
-Bryant Francis
Buzzsaw Asks Why...
CHS Food Cart uses styrofoam cups
Oh mixed signals. Center for Health
Sciences snack bar, did you not get
the memo? The Ithaca College campus is trying to go green. We know
what you’re doing—the plastic foam
cups for coffee. Did you really think
you were going to get away with it?
The plastic foam cups are really bad
for our environment. Even worse
than that, they’re really bad for our
new-and-improved environmentallyfriendly image.
I don’t think you really understand
the gravity of the situation. The
foam is actually plastic injected with
HCFC, CFC 11 or CFC 12, which are
all chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCS.
You know, the gases that slowly eat
away at the ozone layer. Plastic foam
is made with and oftentimes secretes
the harmful chemicals Benzene, Styrene and Ethylene, all three of which
are carcinogens.
Twenty-five million foam cups are
thrown away each year. How many do
you think we contributed to that 25
million? Did you know that foam never biodegrades? NEVER. These foam
cups are going to be on the planet forever, or at least for 500 years. Plastic
foam takes up to 30 percent of space
in landfills. It is impermeable, which
allows water to form into puddles that
soak garbage. During periods of heavy
rain, these puddles of water flow out
of the landfill and make their way into
Comic
the groundwater. So not only does
the plastic foam pollute with its own
chemicals, but it’s a gateway polluter:
It allows other chemicals to as well.
I understand that plastic foam cups
are really awesome. It totally keeps the
coffee piping hot, but you and I know
that the benefits do not outweigh the
costs—especially because that piping
hot coffee doesn’t just have cream and
sugar in it. I’m not just picking on you
because you’re using the cups. It’s just
that we have an image now. We’re trying to be environmentally friendly and
you’re screwing it up. I don’t want to
sound mean, but you need to clean up
your act.
-Josh Elmer
by Malti Jones
Sawdust
47
48
BUZZSAW