Judge Susan Crawford dismissed, without prejudice, all charges against Saudi-national Abd al-Rahim Al-Nashiri. Al-Nashiri was being held at the Guantánamo Bay Prison since he was accused of and admitted to-being the terrorist mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole, which killed and injured numerous American soldiers. In fact, seventeen US sailors died on 12 October 2000 when al-Qaeda suicide bombers steered a boat full of explosives into the Cole when it was at a port on the coast of Yemen. Before you start writing complaint letters to the government, the phrase, “without prejudice,” means that the charges held against Al-Nashiri can be opened again at a later date. For those of you thinking that justice will be served, I wouldn’t get your hopes up quite yet.
First off, Al-Nashiri has been in prison since the Clinton administration. You read right; it has been over eight years since the bombing occurred and Al-Nashiri still has yet to be convicted of his crime. The bombing occurred right at the end of President Clinton’s term and the Bush administration never whole-heatedly pursued conviction of the al-Qaeda member because the incident did not happen during their watch. The timeliness of the case is definitely an issue and could factor into the decision about whether Al-Nashiri’s case will be opened again. Retired Navy Commander Kirk S. Lippold, who was the commanding officer of the Cole when it was attacked in Yemen, said, “We’ve already waited eight years for justice. Justice delayed is justice denied.”
Also, with Guantánamo closing down, per President Obama’s orders, Al-Nashiri will have to be held in a federal prison, without any unmissable evidence against him. The fact he could be set free if charges are re-opened and nothing can be proved is extremely upsetting, especially to the families who lost loved ones in the bombing. Gary Swenchonis, who lost his son Gary Swenchonis Jr. in the Cole bombing wrote a letter to President Obama stating his feelings on the closing of Guantánamo, “It will be one more tragedy in a long list of tragedies in the Cole attack… Our fear is if the terrorists are tried here in our federal courts, they will go free.” President Obama was willing to discuss his decision to close Guantánamo with some of the people that were hurt by the decision most—the families of the victims of the USS Cole and of the World Trade Center attacks. Some people were skeptical of the decision but willing to listen to Obama’s reasoning, like Jacqueline Saunders who was widowed during the USS Cole attack. She said this about the meeting with Obama, “I had a calm, peaceful assurance that he had made the correct decision. He wants accurate charges so that when they go to trial, justice will prevail.”
The meeting with Obama also convinced John Clodfeller, who went into the meeting with negative thoughts. After the meeting Clodfeller expressed that he felt optimistic about President Obama’s method of handling the controversial issue. Other families of victims did not meet the news quite as smoothly. Sarah Gauna Esquivel, mother of one of the victims of the Cole attack, was not even contacted about the meeting between Obama and the victim’s families. She feels like Obama just forgot about her and her family after they heard about the meeting in Washington on the nightly news. Albert Ramirez, stepbrother of Tim Gauna, feels left in the dark about the whole incident. He expressed his disbelief and anger by pointing out that “someone…admitted to masterminding what happened on the Cole,” and yet “they are dropping the charges? What’s going to happen with him? If they release him, where did the justice go?” Another person who was upset with the decision was Jim Riches, whose son was killed at the World Trade Center attack. On February 14, he said that his “concern is these guys killed my son and I’d like to see justice served on them.” Riches went on to say that he would “like to see Guantánamo stay open but my main concern is that we get the justice we deserve.” Even some political unrest has come to the forefront over President Obama’s decision to close Guantánamo. Lamar Smith, Texas representative and ranking representative on the House Judiciary Committee states, “Justice for the families and the victims has already been delayed too long.” Smith wants to be sure that the U.S. is “careful not to send a message to our enemies abroad that we are letting up in our prosecution of the war on terror.” He also contends that “the Obama administration’s decision to close Guantánamo Bay was premature at best and dangerous at worst.”
The military charges against Al-Nashiri was the last active case at Guantánamo before all pending cases being held there were frozen for a three-month review period before any charges are brought up again. With over 245 cases being analyzed by the Obama administration, they will be very busy over the next few months. When the time period expires, decisions will have to be made on whether prosecutions will take place or if the alleged terrorists will be set free. Al-Nashiri’s case was made stronger, in his favor, when the CIA released a statement that he was one of the three inmates that was tortured through the use of ‘waterboarding’—a torture method used to simulate the feeling of drowning. After the CIA admitted to torturing Al-Nashiri, he made a statement that he only confessed to the planning the bombing because of the torture methods used by US interrogators, rendering this evidence inadmissible in non-military courts.
At the end of three months all will become clear as to the fate of Abd al-Rahim Al-Nashiri. Until then the victim’s families will have to continue waiting, as they have for eight years, to see if justice will be served. However with all of the time that has passed, the very little hard evidence, and the torture that Al-Nashiri experienced while being held in Guantánamo, there may not be enough to prove the al-Qaeda mastermind’s guilt in the murder of seventeen American lives.
Works Consulted:
http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1197231.html
http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/president_barack_obama_meets_with_area_widow_others/8987/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/06/guantanamo-trial-halted-cole-obama
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first-100days/2009/02/06/families-cole-victims-worrywhite-house-meeting-window-dressing/
Friday, February 27, 2009
Vol V Issue VI: For the Fear of Food by Megan McCormack
It bothers me that I am becoming paranoid about food. I had just recently discovered a love for spinach not too long before the whole scandal (around 2006) about contaminated spinach hit the fan. I stopped eating spinach, and I expected to get sick at any moment because of my previous spinach consumption habits. Even though much time has past since that recall, and despite how much I prefer spinach to iceberg lettuce in my salads, there is still this fear in the back of my head that I am going to become sick from e-coli if I eat spinach. Irrational? Maybe.
However, my fear does not stop there. My mom introduced me to the Peter Pan Reduced Fat crunchy peanut butter around the same time as I started liking spinach. I loved it because it was a lot healthier than regular peanut butter, and when I was dieting, this peanut butter helped me to curb my sugary food cravings. Lo and behold, a recall went out for this exact brand of peanut butter around 2007! I could not believe it. Peter Pan peanut butter and some other brands were pulled off the shelves because of several cases of salmonella poisonings linked to this tasty spread. Not all the peanut butter, if I remember correctly, was said to be infected; I decided to look up what was safe. I found out that I actually had one of the recalled jars of Peter Pan Reduced Fat crunchy peanut butter sitting in my cabinet. To my horror, I had already eaten about half of the contents of the jar before I had even known about the salmonella incident. Keeping in mind that I had a more than lack-luster immune system, I was pretty sure I was going to die at any moment. I also felt betrayed. First, spinach. And now Peter Pan. I did not die from my consumption of peanut butter. I do not think I even got sick from it, although I did feel instantly queasy when I realized I had eaten some recalled peanut butter. It only increased my fear of foods. Although, to be fair, I do not have cibophobia (fear of food) because I am not scared of all food. I do not have nightmares about carrots.
Tomatoes, however, are another story. Tomatoes were recalled in the summer of 2008, also because of salmonella. I am also a fan of tomatoes, always have been, but I avoided them like the plague that summer. I am beginning to think that somebody out there does not want me to eat healthily. Or that there is some sort of villain who goes around screwing with food that I like. There is also the recent infamous melamine milk scandal in China. So many babies became seriously ill because of the melamine found in baby formula. Some of these children died as a result. Last month, some of the people responsible for the contamination were sentenced for execution. Death for causing food contamination? No one is being shot for my spinach, but that is not what I would want anyway. I would like not to be afraid to eat something. I do not want to have the worry in the back of my head that I could get sick from eating a tomato. It angers me that people and children have become ill or have even died from improper food care. Don’t people have the right to eat and drink products they purchase without being scared about consuming them? I feel as though somebody needs to write a sequel for Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle to raise awareness about this issue. Although there had been many recalls on food that I liked, I was trying to get over my paranoia about them. I started buying my favorite peanut butter again many, many months after FDA said that it was safe again. I slowly reintroduced spinach into my salads, and I put tomatoes on my sandwiches. I decided to trust and to have faith, as hard as it was to do so. My fear was still there, but it was much smaller than it had been. Yet, I was let down again! Peanut products everywhere are being recalled because of salmonella for the past month or two.
I felt sick to my stomach when I read an article on NPR about an inspection at a Texas peanut plant. According to the NPR article, “Salmonella-Linked Peanut Firm Files for Bankruptcy,” bird feathers, rat poop, and even dead rodents were discovered in this plant’s crawl space. I suppose I could have dealt with the idea that a peanut factory had a rat and bird problem, but what was worse was that the ventilation system in this factory was faulty. It was leaking this junk out of the crawl space and into the areas in the plant that produced the peanuts. The only reason I want my peanut butter to be crunchy is because of the peanuts, not because of rat crap, thank you very much. In this Texas plant alone, the article goes on to say, it sells its products to about 100 manufacturers. The FDA website has listed everything from ice cream to pet food that has been recalled because of this epic problem.
Not too long ago, I was excited to see that Kashi was sending out free cookies as a promotion. I was excited about this because I love Kashi and cookies: a winning combination. I filled out the form online, got my cookie about two weeks later, and ate it with joy. What email did I get a few days ago from Kashi? An email recalling those exact cookies they had been giving away because of the recent peanut-salmonella incident! I feel sometimes as though there is some weird sort of hit that has been placed on me because of all the coincidental food events that have happened to me. If all this was not enough to scare me off, earlier in the year, my boyfriend had to go to the hospital because of some food he ate at a local fast food restaurant. I had almost ordered the same thing that made him horribly sick; in fact, I had also had some of that ill-fated food, but I did not get nearly as sick. If there is not some sort of hit man after me, trying to kill me by e-coli infested spinach and salmonella Kashi cookies, I must have an incredible amount of bad luck with food. Or, perhaps it is not me at all. It could be that food plants and factories need to reevaluate and investigate how they produce their food. Maybe health inspectors are not doing enough to protect us, the consumers. It is just a thought. Then again, this is coming from a woman afraid of tomatoes.
Works Consulted:
http://www.npr.org/templates/stor y/stor y.php?storyId=100691167
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm
However, my fear does not stop there. My mom introduced me to the Peter Pan Reduced Fat crunchy peanut butter around the same time as I started liking spinach. I loved it because it was a lot healthier than regular peanut butter, and when I was dieting, this peanut butter helped me to curb my sugary food cravings. Lo and behold, a recall went out for this exact brand of peanut butter around 2007! I could not believe it. Peter Pan peanut butter and some other brands were pulled off the shelves because of several cases of salmonella poisonings linked to this tasty spread. Not all the peanut butter, if I remember correctly, was said to be infected; I decided to look up what was safe. I found out that I actually had one of the recalled jars of Peter Pan Reduced Fat crunchy peanut butter sitting in my cabinet. To my horror, I had already eaten about half of the contents of the jar before I had even known about the salmonella incident. Keeping in mind that I had a more than lack-luster immune system, I was pretty sure I was going to die at any moment. I also felt betrayed. First, spinach. And now Peter Pan. I did not die from my consumption of peanut butter. I do not think I even got sick from it, although I did feel instantly queasy when I realized I had eaten some recalled peanut butter. It only increased my fear of foods. Although, to be fair, I do not have cibophobia (fear of food) because I am not scared of all food. I do not have nightmares about carrots.
Tomatoes, however, are another story. Tomatoes were recalled in the summer of 2008, also because of salmonella. I am also a fan of tomatoes, always have been, but I avoided them like the plague that summer. I am beginning to think that somebody out there does not want me to eat healthily. Or that there is some sort of villain who goes around screwing with food that I like. There is also the recent infamous melamine milk scandal in China. So many babies became seriously ill because of the melamine found in baby formula. Some of these children died as a result. Last month, some of the people responsible for the contamination were sentenced for execution. Death for causing food contamination? No one is being shot for my spinach, but that is not what I would want anyway. I would like not to be afraid to eat something. I do not want to have the worry in the back of my head that I could get sick from eating a tomato. It angers me that people and children have become ill or have even died from improper food care. Don’t people have the right to eat and drink products they purchase without being scared about consuming them? I feel as though somebody needs to write a sequel for Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle to raise awareness about this issue. Although there had been many recalls on food that I liked, I was trying to get over my paranoia about them. I started buying my favorite peanut butter again many, many months after FDA said that it was safe again. I slowly reintroduced spinach into my salads, and I put tomatoes on my sandwiches. I decided to trust and to have faith, as hard as it was to do so. My fear was still there, but it was much smaller than it had been. Yet, I was let down again! Peanut products everywhere are being recalled because of salmonella for the past month or two.
I felt sick to my stomach when I read an article on NPR about an inspection at a Texas peanut plant. According to the NPR article, “Salmonella-Linked Peanut Firm Files for Bankruptcy,” bird feathers, rat poop, and even dead rodents were discovered in this plant’s crawl space. I suppose I could have dealt with the idea that a peanut factory had a rat and bird problem, but what was worse was that the ventilation system in this factory was faulty. It was leaking this junk out of the crawl space and into the areas in the plant that produced the peanuts. The only reason I want my peanut butter to be crunchy is because of the peanuts, not because of rat crap, thank you very much. In this Texas plant alone, the article goes on to say, it sells its products to about 100 manufacturers. The FDA website has listed everything from ice cream to pet food that has been recalled because of this epic problem.
Not too long ago, I was excited to see that Kashi was sending out free cookies as a promotion. I was excited about this because I love Kashi and cookies: a winning combination. I filled out the form online, got my cookie about two weeks later, and ate it with joy. What email did I get a few days ago from Kashi? An email recalling those exact cookies they had been giving away because of the recent peanut-salmonella incident! I feel sometimes as though there is some weird sort of hit that has been placed on me because of all the coincidental food events that have happened to me. If all this was not enough to scare me off, earlier in the year, my boyfriend had to go to the hospital because of some food he ate at a local fast food restaurant. I had almost ordered the same thing that made him horribly sick; in fact, I had also had some of that ill-fated food, but I did not get nearly as sick. If there is not some sort of hit man after me, trying to kill me by e-coli infested spinach and salmonella Kashi cookies, I must have an incredible amount of bad luck with food. Or, perhaps it is not me at all. It could be that food plants and factories need to reevaluate and investigate how they produce their food. Maybe health inspectors are not doing enough to protect us, the consumers. It is just a thought. Then again, this is coming from a woman afraid of tomatoes.
Works Consulted:
http://www.npr.org/templates/stor y/stor y.php?storyId=100691167
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm
Vol V Issue VI: Obama Ain't No Baller, But He Might Be A Hustla by Ilia Bailey
“Obama triumphed in the face of adversity,” “Obama has paved the way for generations of black Americans,” “Obama, Obama!, Oh-bama!”
Freakin’ STOP already!
Is anyone else tired of hearing these lies (not lines, lies; but certainly both) over and over again? Or is it just me? At first, I thought the media was just sensationalizing. Nothing wrong with that, you have to get people’s attention somehow, right? But now I’m hearing these lines that the media has been spoon feeding to our brains come out of rational students so freely and without any second thought, like a military brainwash mantra: “pain is weakness leaving the body,” “there are no guarantees in life,” “Obama has overcome so much.”
Are you guys even listening to yourself?
Think about it—Obama didn’t overcome anything except Hillary.
Think about it—MLK and Jimi Hendrix paved the way for generations of black Americans, this presidency is just another historic first. These “firsts” should inspire hope and sorrow—we’ve come a long way from slavery, yea, but we’ve got a long way to go.
Think about it—Obama is not the greatest thing since sliced bread. There are many more people with many more challenges who overcome true adversity everyday, I promise. You want a success story? Read Chicken Soup.
Laugh if you must, but know I’m deadly serious.
And if you think Obama overcame his ethnicity (which is mixed, for those of you wondering) and hat was his “adversity” then you are a racist son-of-a-gun if I ever knew one (believe me, in Arkansas you run into a few). First things first: Obama was not a poor, destitute thug with racist peers. Obama grew up with well-to-do parents (and several prominent, well-off father figures, although his biological father passed away) and globe trotted around the world, living a majority of his life in Hawaii and Indonesia, before going to Colombia College in New York and eventually Harvard Law—where he was a legacy because his father went to Harvard Law. Obama graduated Magna Cum Laude with a book deal, contract, and a job offer in hand; all three from Chicago University of Law. Can you say cushy? I can. Cushy. Not adversity—elementary. Certainly it took some work to graduate Magna Cum Laude and yes, yes it takes some kind of tenacity to impress the academics at Harvard, but this is what any student willingly signs up for when they attend Harvard freakin’ Law School! In his several volumes of memoirs that he has published (you’d think the man would wait until he was out of office to begin his autobiography, but I guess when you’re this accomplished and financially backed, book signing is a sport), Obama has detailed the parts of his life that he feels are important. These pivotal life points include his seventh-grade torment of being called a “coon” once and, as reported by the New York Times in 2007, his experiences in New York “with a Pakistani [roommate] whom
he calls Sadik. He [recalled] that when he lived in a walk-up on East 94th Street, he would chat with his Puerto Rican neighbors about the Knicks or the sound of gunfire at night.”1 If these small instances are grounds for claiming thugdom then I’mma a true gangsta. Do you understand? I, the small, white, caucus girl from Southern suburbia have equal claim to thug life as Barack Obama. This shit ain’t legit. Note that these statements in no way serve to belittle Obama’s personal turmoil as a multiracial boy growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia, but rather to put his experiences in perspective of, oh, let’s say Martin Luther King, Jr. who grew up in rural Atlanta; or Abraham Lincoln who grew up in impoverished Hardin County, Kentucky; or even Oprah Winfrey who was raised on the family farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi. These men and women faced true and lifelong challenges of poverty, classism and racism; not just during their stint as poor college students or ‘this one time in middle school.’
As for the claim of drug addiction(s), let me just say this: Obama openly admits to his brief addiction to cocaine in high school. And if you know anything about anything, you know cocaine is an expensive and destructive habit. If he was impoverished during his college years, I am not surprised (what college student isn’t impoverished) and I am certainly not forgiving. If Obama was truly an inner city kid, he would have, in all honesty, turned to hustling crack cocaine before buying a gram to avoid his identity issues. Obama writes in Dreams from My Father, he used alcohol, marijuana and cocaine during his teenage years to “push questions of who I was out of my mind.”2 Does anyone really buy this? Firstly, what high school student can afford cocaine? The rich ones. Secondly, I’m pretty sure people use drugs to get fucked up, not as substitute mental therapy. And if they do, then they need mental therapy.
Now, second things second: Obama is not the greatest African-American achiever to ever grace our nation. Yes, his successes are notable, but anyone who is given greater acclaim for their life achievements because of their race, in this day and age (that is, post civil rights movment), should be deeply insulted. Was Obama’s election an historical election? Yes. An important election? Certainly, given the political climate of the world. But an important election solely because it is historical? No. Obama did not “achieve” or “overcome adversity” by being black and being President-elect simultaneously. He did so by playing the political game, very well, and running the most expensive and progressive political campaign in the history of Presidential campaigns. Again, this argument is not to sully or besmirch Obama’s fine campaign, but it is simply not moral or just to claim that the greatness of Obama’s win lies only in the historical aspect of his election. That statement in itself is subversively racist. There are many intelligent campaign strategies and triumphs (and not to mention a brilliant and now filthy rich campaign manager) that are discredited in one sweep of a thoughtless sentence that was spoon fed to you by a mind-dulling, corporate-owned media machine. Just ‘cause he’s black doesn’t mean it’s special. It just means we’re still trying to distance ourselves from the persistent guilt of slavery—the original sin of white-born Americans across the nation.
So, the take home lesson: think before you speak. Really think. Are these your thoughts that are coming out of your mouth or is it lobby owned media mantras? When you repeat these sound-bites and repetitive commentary about Obama’s election, you may not realize that you are being racist. This is why it is important to avoid such blind ignorance by using your clever brains. You all have them and I know you all can use them well. Have you ever repeated “well Fox news is so conservative”or “CNN is just too liberal” while not actually ever watching the two to make an assessment for yourself? I will not tell you my opinion on those stations as that would further encourage blind trust.
Instead, form your own opinions by being informed. And as difficult as that is, what with the television being owned by seventeen major corporations with deep pockets and iron-clad contracts, I know you can do it. It may sound like a conspiracy theory—and I wish it were just that. But truthfully, there is no way to get accurate information these days without tenacity and relentless scrutiny. The only thing you can rely on is that everything is unreliable. Not even the sky is truly blue, it’s all in your mind. If you value your intelligence then use it to gain truth and knowledge. Otherwise you’re just another lemming, another parrot, another uninformed bumbling American. And we’ve got enough of those.
Endnotes:
1 Scott, Janny. “Obama’s Account of New York Years
Often Differs From What Others Say.” New York
Times. accessed online at <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/us/politics/30obama.html>
2 The Associated Press. “Obama gets blunt with
N.H. students.” The Boston Globe. accessed online
at <http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/21/obama_gets_blunt_with_nh_students/>
Freakin’ STOP already!
Is anyone else tired of hearing these lies (not lines, lies; but certainly both) over and over again? Or is it just me? At first, I thought the media was just sensationalizing. Nothing wrong with that, you have to get people’s attention somehow, right? But now I’m hearing these lines that the media has been spoon feeding to our brains come out of rational students so freely and without any second thought, like a military brainwash mantra: “pain is weakness leaving the body,” “there are no guarantees in life,” “Obama has overcome so much.”
Are you guys even listening to yourself?
Think about it—Obama didn’t overcome anything except Hillary.
Think about it—MLK and Jimi Hendrix paved the way for generations of black Americans, this presidency is just another historic first. These “firsts” should inspire hope and sorrow—we’ve come a long way from slavery, yea, but we’ve got a long way to go.
Think about it—Obama is not the greatest thing since sliced bread. There are many more people with many more challenges who overcome true adversity everyday, I promise. You want a success story? Read Chicken Soup.
Laugh if you must, but know I’m deadly serious.
And if you think Obama overcame his ethnicity (which is mixed, for those of you wondering) and hat was his “adversity” then you are a racist son-of-a-gun if I ever knew one (believe me, in Arkansas you run into a few). First things first: Obama was not a poor, destitute thug with racist peers. Obama grew up with well-to-do parents (and several prominent, well-off father figures, although his biological father passed away) and globe trotted around the world, living a majority of his life in Hawaii and Indonesia, before going to Colombia College in New York and eventually Harvard Law—where he was a legacy because his father went to Harvard Law. Obama graduated Magna Cum Laude with a book deal, contract, and a job offer in hand; all three from Chicago University of Law. Can you say cushy? I can. Cushy. Not adversity—elementary. Certainly it took some work to graduate Magna Cum Laude and yes, yes it takes some kind of tenacity to impress the academics at Harvard, but this is what any student willingly signs up for when they attend Harvard freakin’ Law School! In his several volumes of memoirs that he has published (you’d think the man would wait until he was out of office to begin his autobiography, but I guess when you’re this accomplished and financially backed, book signing is a sport), Obama has detailed the parts of his life that he feels are important. These pivotal life points include his seventh-grade torment of being called a “coon” once and, as reported by the New York Times in 2007, his experiences in New York “with a Pakistani [roommate] whom
he calls Sadik. He [recalled] that when he lived in a walk-up on East 94th Street, he would chat with his Puerto Rican neighbors about the Knicks or the sound of gunfire at night.”1 If these small instances are grounds for claiming thugdom then I’mma a true gangsta. Do you understand? I, the small, white, caucus girl from Southern suburbia have equal claim to thug life as Barack Obama. This shit ain’t legit. Note that these statements in no way serve to belittle Obama’s personal turmoil as a multiracial boy growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia, but rather to put his experiences in perspective of, oh, let’s say Martin Luther King, Jr. who grew up in rural Atlanta; or Abraham Lincoln who grew up in impoverished Hardin County, Kentucky; or even Oprah Winfrey who was raised on the family farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi. These men and women faced true and lifelong challenges of poverty, classism and racism; not just during their stint as poor college students or ‘this one time in middle school.’
As for the claim of drug addiction(s), let me just say this: Obama openly admits to his brief addiction to cocaine in high school. And if you know anything about anything, you know cocaine is an expensive and destructive habit. If he was impoverished during his college years, I am not surprised (what college student isn’t impoverished) and I am certainly not forgiving. If Obama was truly an inner city kid, he would have, in all honesty, turned to hustling crack cocaine before buying a gram to avoid his identity issues. Obama writes in Dreams from My Father, he used alcohol, marijuana and cocaine during his teenage years to “push questions of who I was out of my mind.”2 Does anyone really buy this? Firstly, what high school student can afford cocaine? The rich ones. Secondly, I’m pretty sure people use drugs to get fucked up, not as substitute mental therapy. And if they do, then they need mental therapy.
Now, second things second: Obama is not the greatest African-American achiever to ever grace our nation. Yes, his successes are notable, but anyone who is given greater acclaim for their life achievements because of their race, in this day and age (that is, post civil rights movment), should be deeply insulted. Was Obama’s election an historical election? Yes. An important election? Certainly, given the political climate of the world. But an important election solely because it is historical? No. Obama did not “achieve” or “overcome adversity” by being black and being President-elect simultaneously. He did so by playing the political game, very well, and running the most expensive and progressive political campaign in the history of Presidential campaigns. Again, this argument is not to sully or besmirch Obama’s fine campaign, but it is simply not moral or just to claim that the greatness of Obama’s win lies only in the historical aspect of his election. That statement in itself is subversively racist. There are many intelligent campaign strategies and triumphs (and not to mention a brilliant and now filthy rich campaign manager) that are discredited in one sweep of a thoughtless sentence that was spoon fed to you by a mind-dulling, corporate-owned media machine. Just ‘cause he’s black doesn’t mean it’s special. It just means we’re still trying to distance ourselves from the persistent guilt of slavery—the original sin of white-born Americans across the nation.
So, the take home lesson: think before you speak. Really think. Are these your thoughts that are coming out of your mouth or is it lobby owned media mantras? When you repeat these sound-bites and repetitive commentary about Obama’s election, you may not realize that you are being racist. This is why it is important to avoid such blind ignorance by using your clever brains. You all have them and I know you all can use them well. Have you ever repeated “well Fox news is so conservative”or “CNN is just too liberal” while not actually ever watching the two to make an assessment for yourself? I will not tell you my opinion on those stations as that would further encourage blind trust.
Instead, form your own opinions by being informed. And as difficult as that is, what with the television being owned by seventeen major corporations with deep pockets and iron-clad contracts, I know you can do it. It may sound like a conspiracy theory—and I wish it were just that. But truthfully, there is no way to get accurate information these days without tenacity and relentless scrutiny. The only thing you can rely on is that everything is unreliable. Not even the sky is truly blue, it’s all in your mind. If you value your intelligence then use it to gain truth and knowledge. Otherwise you’re just another lemming, another parrot, another uninformed bumbling American. And we’ve got enough of those.
Endnotes:
1 Scott, Janny. “Obama’s Account of New York Years
Often Differs From What Others Say.” New York
Times. accessed online at <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/us/politics/30obama.html>
2 The Associated Press. “Obama gets blunt with
N.H. students.” The Boston Globe. accessed online
at <http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/21/obama_gets_blunt_with_nh_students/>
Vol V Issue VI: KFC is a Manifestation of Disorder by Anna Cherry
I always feel the need to shower after eating KFC. After pulling away from what appears to be a bullet-proof drive-thru window, I continue the rest of the way to the writing lab with my newborn one-piece chicken breast meal, snug as a bug in the passenger seat beside me. Against my better judgment, I decided on the quick fix of a meal that only a fast food restaurant could offer. What better, I thought, on one of my days off from calorie-counting, and when a long night of studying has rendered me too exhausted for grocery shopping, to go pick myself up a nice piece of fried chicken before work. I have earned it. Only, I haven’t. When has anyone really earned the right to intoxicate her body with the hormone-ridden remnants of a baby chicken and a chalky lukewarm biscuit with an accompaniment of suspiciously titled condiments which evoke the word “truthiness”: Honey Sauce. Buttery Spread. They send a message which is slightly disturbing, a message which says: “Honey—but not quite!” As I eat the meal in the quiet rightness of my workspace, I am surprised by a penetrating anxiety. Where to look? There is no T.V. to distract me. I feel certain that I will find something distasteful lurking in my styrofoam KFC tray if I pay it too much attention: a cockroach burrowing headfirst into my mashed potatoes, a hair stretched out languidly beneath the fried breast. I call to memory the nausea-inducing pictures of a whole chicken head, deep fried and found in the McDonald’s Happy Meal of some unsuspecting six-year-old. KFC may not exactly be McDonald’s, but still—how am I eating this? Why am I eating this?
As much as I love our heroine Bridget Jones, I do not want to be her. I was acutely aware of this reality, standing on a scale nearly three years ago after returning from a family wedding. I had had a recent epiphany about how fat Americans in general were and how we ate like 5,000 more calories daily than we actually needed, and we were killing ourselves with processed foods and refined sugars. I was on a mission for nutrition and armed with cardboard food. Nutrition, I thought, is a key to spiritual and bodily harmony! Right, check. Easier said than done. I worked during the peak of this gung-ho mentality as an Outback Steakhouse hostess, staring down and consequently lusting after horribly fattening foods for six and seven hours at a time, so let’s just be honest: When I wasn’t salivating on the host stand or getting hot flashes from ridiculous ‘entitled’ customers who felt they were being personally snubbed by John Outback Jr. himself because they had to go around to the side door (which they always called “the back door” in the most pejorative way) if they refused to pay the five dollar membership fee required in dry counties, I was sending angsty text messages to omeone about my real food fantasies.
For example: “Brittney. All I want are some damned cheese fries drenched in melty cheese/grease and bacon or a chocolate tower cake with raspberry, for the love of God. Can a woman find no relief from Kashi hell!” I finally caved by allowing myself to ‘vacation’ from small portions and healthy food while at the lake for a couple of days with some girlfriends. After all, I had earned it. Unfortunately for me, this meant eating my body weight in junk foods in a sort of panic for forty-eight hours straight. It was like watching that episode of Baywatch on repeat (you know, that one where one of the chicks spins into a crazy bulimic-girl binge frenzy and overdoses on food)—only I didn’t do myself the favor of throwing up afterwards. Needless to say, I spent the majority of the trip in a state of health equilibrium funk and general discomfort. So, much like a cheating husband, I realized the error of my ways, and how eating whatever I want whenever I want will not bring me fulfillment, and got back on the healthy eating track when I got home. The only bad thing was that I stayed at home approximately two days before leaving on another trip with the fam for a wedding in Ft. Smith. This, in my mind, again pardoned me from normal healthy eating. Free booze, free sausage balls, uncomfortably attractive third cousins whom I rarely see and thus have no cousinly feelings towards, and chocolate dipped strawberries made for a comically depressing reception of Arkansan lethargic debauchery. (I like to joke that my life is like a B grade indie film, but then I think I’d be giving myself too much credit.) Fast forward through giant Sunrise Sampler breakfast at Cracker Barrel and to stepping on the scale. WHAT? I had gained six pounds in a matter of days. Deep breath, this is cake. Wait, no, bad, this is simple. Get back on track, and you’ll be fine. Fast forward again three years later and I still haven’t learned my lesson. My descent into Col. Sanders’ dark, dark world had all the subtleties of date rape and all the empty promises of a one night stand with a fifth of Jaeger as the lone bond between you. But sometimes being bad looks so good. Some people’s propensity for using KFC meals as comfort food to ease broken hearts or discontenting career paths or just general exhaustion seems so delicious and carefree. They sit there, watching Flavor of Love reruns, laughing, having a jolly old time, just eating their KFC and not worrying about calories or carcinogens. And it makes me think: Yes, yes. This is what I want. But, after all is said and done, I only feel…greasy. Normative tension appears to be not uncommon among KFCers. A quick Google search reveals that I am not the only one with chicken fetus on the brain. “I have heard that KFC burger patties are made of baby chickens!” writes one disgruntled message boarder. “Is this true? Apparently they crush everything including the chicklets legs, etc. I need closure on this as I want to get [KFC] food to eat soon.” “Chicklets” may not be a word, but it somehow encapsulates wholly the image of just the kind of poultry I imagine KFC slaughters. “Help Baby Chicks by Boycotting KFC” a petakids.com headline reads. The article notes that with spring just around the corner, loads of new fuzzy chicks will be hatching soon, ready to take on the world. “Although we like to think that these chicks are destined to a life full of happiness and sweetness,” this is merely a pipedream, says petakids.com. The article goes on to explain to the PETA kids that, in fact, tons of baby chicks will be slaughtered in such horrific ways that it would likely give them nightmares, were they to tell them. 850 million chicklets, to be precise. Petakids.com then provides the most heart-crumblingly adorable picture of a couple of chicks staring curiously at one another. They look like two Marshmallow Peeps straight out of the package. Don’t get me wrong, I have few moral qualms with eating meat. I am sufficiently convinced that human life is fundamentally more valuable than that of animals (apologies, Skinny Bitch). It’s just that unpredictable gut-reaction of repulsion at the thought of eating anything baby that sometimes gets in the way. (This coming from the girl who likes her steak bloody.)
Evidently, not everyone shares my gastrointestinal biases . A.J. Daulerio shares his sentiments on blacktable.com, writing: “Bottom line is, it doesn’t matter. KFC could smash their chickens’ beaks with aluminum baseball bats, cut off their heads with scissors and set their wings on fire, or just run an assembly line of screaming baby chickens through a grist mill, I will eat KFC until my arteries break off like old twigs from cholesterol consumption.” Delicate. Even with some opinions capable of making PETA advocates’ hair stand on end, couldn’t there at least exist a more unified voice of concern with issues that directly affect the health of the consumers themselves? After all, the health woes of mass produced fried chicken is no large mystery: antibiotics and hormones probably harmful to humans, and loads of trans fats definitely harmful to humans. But it would appear that consumers everywhere are answering back to my question and the cries of health experts and common sense with a hardy, “Not in America!” With the obesity rate at an all time high (30.5%), it looks like KFC isn’t going anywhere anytime soon—especially not away from the U.S. of A. It goes deeper than deep fried chicken flesh. Our need to self-destruct, over indulge, and eat our feelings is such a clichéd dilemma that I feel silly writing an article that shares a theme with so many episodes of Oprah. But I’m not really even talking about food. It’s the disconnect so many of us experience when we are putting things (various things, and not all edible) inside of our bodies that is indicative of a fundamental problem with…American culture, the world, human nature… just to name a few. It’s the residual need to get black-out drunk, the food-induced comatose state, the self-deprecating mantras, the indiscriminate sex. Whether or not you enjoy an occasional piece of fried chicken is neither here nor there.
Sources:
http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/1031002183.html
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread. php?t=137426
http://www.petakids.com/boycottKFC.asp
http://www.blacktable.com/blacklist031021.htm
As much as I love our heroine Bridget Jones, I do not want to be her. I was acutely aware of this reality, standing on a scale nearly three years ago after returning from a family wedding. I had had a recent epiphany about how fat Americans in general were and how we ate like 5,000 more calories daily than we actually needed, and we were killing ourselves with processed foods and refined sugars. I was on a mission for nutrition and armed with cardboard food. Nutrition, I thought, is a key to spiritual and bodily harmony! Right, check. Easier said than done. I worked during the peak of this gung-ho mentality as an Outback Steakhouse hostess, staring down and consequently lusting after horribly fattening foods for six and seven hours at a time, so let’s just be honest: When I wasn’t salivating on the host stand or getting hot flashes from ridiculous ‘entitled’ customers who felt they were being personally snubbed by John Outback Jr. himself because they had to go around to the side door (which they always called “the back door” in the most pejorative way) if they refused to pay the five dollar membership fee required in dry counties, I was sending angsty text messages to omeone about my real food fantasies.
For example: “Brittney. All I want are some damned cheese fries drenched in melty cheese/grease and bacon or a chocolate tower cake with raspberry, for the love of God. Can a woman find no relief from Kashi hell!” I finally caved by allowing myself to ‘vacation’ from small portions and healthy food while at the lake for a couple of days with some girlfriends. After all, I had earned it. Unfortunately for me, this meant eating my body weight in junk foods in a sort of panic for forty-eight hours straight. It was like watching that episode of Baywatch on repeat (you know, that one where one of the chicks spins into a crazy bulimic-girl binge frenzy and overdoses on food)—only I didn’t do myself the favor of throwing up afterwards. Needless to say, I spent the majority of the trip in a state of health equilibrium funk and general discomfort. So, much like a cheating husband, I realized the error of my ways, and how eating whatever I want whenever I want will not bring me fulfillment, and got back on the healthy eating track when I got home. The only bad thing was that I stayed at home approximately two days before leaving on another trip with the fam for a wedding in Ft. Smith. This, in my mind, again pardoned me from normal healthy eating. Free booze, free sausage balls, uncomfortably attractive third cousins whom I rarely see and thus have no cousinly feelings towards, and chocolate dipped strawberries made for a comically depressing reception of Arkansan lethargic debauchery. (I like to joke that my life is like a B grade indie film, but then I think I’d be giving myself too much credit.) Fast forward through giant Sunrise Sampler breakfast at Cracker Barrel and to stepping on the scale. WHAT? I had gained six pounds in a matter of days. Deep breath, this is cake. Wait, no, bad, this is simple. Get back on track, and you’ll be fine. Fast forward again three years later and I still haven’t learned my lesson. My descent into Col. Sanders’ dark, dark world had all the subtleties of date rape and all the empty promises of a one night stand with a fifth of Jaeger as the lone bond between you. But sometimes being bad looks so good. Some people’s propensity for using KFC meals as comfort food to ease broken hearts or discontenting career paths or just general exhaustion seems so delicious and carefree. They sit there, watching Flavor of Love reruns, laughing, having a jolly old time, just eating their KFC and not worrying about calories or carcinogens. And it makes me think: Yes, yes. This is what I want. But, after all is said and done, I only feel…greasy. Normative tension appears to be not uncommon among KFCers. A quick Google search reveals that I am not the only one with chicken fetus on the brain. “I have heard that KFC burger patties are made of baby chickens!” writes one disgruntled message boarder. “Is this true? Apparently they crush everything including the chicklets legs, etc. I need closure on this as I want to get [KFC] food to eat soon.” “Chicklets” may not be a word, but it somehow encapsulates wholly the image of just the kind of poultry I imagine KFC slaughters. “Help Baby Chicks by Boycotting KFC” a petakids.com headline reads. The article notes that with spring just around the corner, loads of new fuzzy chicks will be hatching soon, ready to take on the world. “Although we like to think that these chicks are destined to a life full of happiness and sweetness,” this is merely a pipedream, says petakids.com. The article goes on to explain to the PETA kids that, in fact, tons of baby chicks will be slaughtered in such horrific ways that it would likely give them nightmares, were they to tell them. 850 million chicklets, to be precise. Petakids.com then provides the most heart-crumblingly adorable picture of a couple of chicks staring curiously at one another. They look like two Marshmallow Peeps straight out of the package. Don’t get me wrong, I have few moral qualms with eating meat. I am sufficiently convinced that human life is fundamentally more valuable than that of animals (apologies, Skinny Bitch). It’s just that unpredictable gut-reaction of repulsion at the thought of eating anything baby that sometimes gets in the way. (This coming from the girl who likes her steak bloody.)
Evidently, not everyone shares my gastrointestinal biases . A.J. Daulerio shares his sentiments on blacktable.com, writing: “Bottom line is, it doesn’t matter. KFC could smash their chickens’ beaks with aluminum baseball bats, cut off their heads with scissors and set their wings on fire, or just run an assembly line of screaming baby chickens through a grist mill, I will eat KFC until my arteries break off like old twigs from cholesterol consumption.” Delicate. Even with some opinions capable of making PETA advocates’ hair stand on end, couldn’t there at least exist a more unified voice of concern with issues that directly affect the health of the consumers themselves? After all, the health woes of mass produced fried chicken is no large mystery: antibiotics and hormones probably harmful to humans, and loads of trans fats definitely harmful to humans. But it would appear that consumers everywhere are answering back to my question and the cries of health experts and common sense with a hardy, “Not in America!” With the obesity rate at an all time high (30.5%), it looks like KFC isn’t going anywhere anytime soon—especially not away from the U.S. of A. It goes deeper than deep fried chicken flesh. Our need to self-destruct, over indulge, and eat our feelings is such a clichéd dilemma that I feel silly writing an article that shares a theme with so many episodes of Oprah. But I’m not really even talking about food. It’s the disconnect so many of us experience when we are putting things (various things, and not all edible) inside of our bodies that is indicative of a fundamental problem with…American culture, the world, human nature… just to name a few. It’s the residual need to get black-out drunk, the food-induced comatose state, the self-deprecating mantras, the indiscriminate sex. Whether or not you enjoy an occasional piece of fried chicken is neither here nor there.
Sources:
http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/1031002183.html
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread. php?t=137426
http://www.petakids.com/boycottKFC.asp
http://www.blacktable.com/blacklist031021.htm
Vol V Issue VI: A Grain of Salt by Zach Williams
It has been brought to my attention that in my last article concerning Westminster’s “Bonus Bucks” I was, in point of fact, talking out of my ass. It turns out that if I had attended even a single RHA meeting, I would have learned the cause of my frustrations and the reasoning behind them. Although, to be fair, I hardly ever actually know what I’m talking about anyway. I just wanted to get that out of the way before I get to the main part of the article. Sorry about that.
So, how about some news that doesn’t make me look like a monumental jackass? What about those Israelis and Palestinians? It’s pretty crazy stuff, isn’t it? Every time I turn around, those people seem to find some new way of royally pissing each other off. Some people say that we should support the Israelis, as we have been doing for quite some time, while others say that the Palestinians have a more legitimate right to the land. I say screw ‘em both (I am just really bad at not looking like a jackass, aren’t I?) If they can’t get along after hundreds of years, I don’t see why we should cater to either of their needs. If the fighting has managed to go on for this long, chances are there are some gigantic assholes on both sides of the fence. Even now, I’m doing something to help the progress of peace over there; I’m providing both sides with someone to be mad at. That’s me in a nutshell, though. I’m just a giver. Seriously, what’s so great about this place? You can be just as Jewish/Christian/Muslim outside of Jerusalem as you can inside of it. Is it about bragging rights or something? Does whoever owns this city get the privilege to rub it in everybody else’s faces? The country wasn’t even a very good idea in the first place. We knew that the plan to split up Palestine was going to seriously piss a lot of people off, yet we went ahead and did it anyway. It should probably be noted that I’m not talking about the complete population of either side of the conflict in this article; I’m simply talking about the people who keep fucking things up. First of all, we’ve got the Jewish Israelis who, admittedly, have had a bit of a rough time of it throughout history. It seems like every time they turn around, someone
else is trying to exterminate them, so I can understand a little bit of paranoia on their part. On the other hand, though, they’ve been pretty gigantic dicks recently. Without any end in sight to the growth of the settlements on the West Bank and the recent incident where they completely flipped out on Gaza, Israel really isn’t the perfect little angel a lot of people seem to make it out to be. It probably also doesn’t help their case that the Israeli lobby in the United States is so eager to go after anyone who they perceive as not being at least 200% in support of every and anything Israel does. On the other side of the rocket-lined razor wire fence, we’ve got the media’s favorite punching bag, the Palestinians. Again, not exactly a history filled with rainbows and gumdrops. Also again, not exactly the best role models in the world at this point. You’d think that after the last few years of firing rockets at Israel not working, they’d have figured out by now that it’s not going to work. Seriously guys, I’m no military genius, but if something doesn’t bring about the outcome you want for this long, I think you can be pretty certain that it’s not going to. It really just seems like a gigantic waste of money at this point. Actually, they’re a lot like Israel in some respects. Lack of concern for civilians, huge amounts of propaganda dissing their enemy, and, last but not least, the same overwhelming desire to live Jerusalem for some reason.
Since I’ve devoted so much time to bitching about both sides, I bet you’re wondering if I’ve got any better ideas. I’m so glad you asked! Here’s what we do. Get an equal number of ambassadors and diplomats and whatnot from both sides of the conflict in one room and have Samuel L. Jackson mediate the talks. Every time either side makes an unreasonable demand, Mr. Jackson is authorized to call him/her a motherfucker and throw him/her out of the room. What constitutes an unreasonable demand will be left up to the discretion of Mr. Jackson. Once both sides get down to only one person left (trust me, this is inevitable), the next person to make an unreasonable demand will cause Mr. Jackson to flip the table over, yell “Fuck this!” and leave the room, locking the door behind them. A giant screen would then roll down and they would both be forced to watch Uwe Boll movies until they manage to come up with something Mr. Jackson deems acceptable. I find it inexplicable that I have not yet been put into a leading role for the United Nations for diplomatic relations. Some people just don’t recognize genius when they see it. I’d just like to point out once again that this article is most definitely not aimed towards the general populations of these two antagonists. Most of the ordinary people are actually nice, decent human beings who would really rather not be a part of all this. It’s the jackholes who can’t seem to learn when it’s time to put down the guns that are screwing everything up. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that if they’re not for one side, then they have to be for the other. This is simply not true. Both sides here are being extremely childish, and I don’t really think either of them deserves to get what they’re fighting for. If there was a way to only allow the level-headed people live there and send the rest to Antarctica or something, I’d support that in a heartbeat. Sadly, there’s no such method I’m aware of, so we’ll just have to go with my Samuel L. Jackson idea. It’s better than anything else that’s being tried.
So, how about some news that doesn’t make me look like a monumental jackass? What about those Israelis and Palestinians? It’s pretty crazy stuff, isn’t it? Every time I turn around, those people seem to find some new way of royally pissing each other off. Some people say that we should support the Israelis, as we have been doing for quite some time, while others say that the Palestinians have a more legitimate right to the land. I say screw ‘em both (I am just really bad at not looking like a jackass, aren’t I?) If they can’t get along after hundreds of years, I don’t see why we should cater to either of their needs. If the fighting has managed to go on for this long, chances are there are some gigantic assholes on both sides of the fence. Even now, I’m doing something to help the progress of peace over there; I’m providing both sides with someone to be mad at. That’s me in a nutshell, though. I’m just a giver. Seriously, what’s so great about this place? You can be just as Jewish/Christian/Muslim outside of Jerusalem as you can inside of it. Is it about bragging rights or something? Does whoever owns this city get the privilege to rub it in everybody else’s faces? The country wasn’t even a very good idea in the first place. We knew that the plan to split up Palestine was going to seriously piss a lot of people off, yet we went ahead and did it anyway. It should probably be noted that I’m not talking about the complete population of either side of the conflict in this article; I’m simply talking about the people who keep fucking things up. First of all, we’ve got the Jewish Israelis who, admittedly, have had a bit of a rough time of it throughout history. It seems like every time they turn around, someone
else is trying to exterminate them, so I can understand a little bit of paranoia on their part. On the other hand, though, they’ve been pretty gigantic dicks recently. Without any end in sight to the growth of the settlements on the West Bank and the recent incident where they completely flipped out on Gaza, Israel really isn’t the perfect little angel a lot of people seem to make it out to be. It probably also doesn’t help their case that the Israeli lobby in the United States is so eager to go after anyone who they perceive as not being at least 200% in support of every and anything Israel does. On the other side of the rocket-lined razor wire fence, we’ve got the media’s favorite punching bag, the Palestinians. Again, not exactly a history filled with rainbows and gumdrops. Also again, not exactly the best role models in the world at this point. You’d think that after the last few years of firing rockets at Israel not working, they’d have figured out by now that it’s not going to work. Seriously guys, I’m no military genius, but if something doesn’t bring about the outcome you want for this long, I think you can be pretty certain that it’s not going to. It really just seems like a gigantic waste of money at this point. Actually, they’re a lot like Israel in some respects. Lack of concern for civilians, huge amounts of propaganda dissing their enemy, and, last but not least, the same overwhelming desire to live Jerusalem for some reason.
Since I’ve devoted so much time to bitching about both sides, I bet you’re wondering if I’ve got any better ideas. I’m so glad you asked! Here’s what we do. Get an equal number of ambassadors and diplomats and whatnot from both sides of the conflict in one room and have Samuel L. Jackson mediate the talks. Every time either side makes an unreasonable demand, Mr. Jackson is authorized to call him/her a motherfucker and throw him/her out of the room. What constitutes an unreasonable demand will be left up to the discretion of Mr. Jackson. Once both sides get down to only one person left (trust me, this is inevitable), the next person to make an unreasonable demand will cause Mr. Jackson to flip the table over, yell “Fuck this!” and leave the room, locking the door behind them. A giant screen would then roll down and they would both be forced to watch Uwe Boll movies until they manage to come up with something Mr. Jackson deems acceptable. I find it inexplicable that I have not yet been put into a leading role for the United Nations for diplomatic relations. Some people just don’t recognize genius when they see it. I’d just like to point out once again that this article is most definitely not aimed towards the general populations of these two antagonists. Most of the ordinary people are actually nice, decent human beings who would really rather not be a part of all this. It’s the jackholes who can’t seem to learn when it’s time to put down the guns that are screwing everything up. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that if they’re not for one side, then they have to be for the other. This is simply not true. Both sides here are being extremely childish, and I don’t really think either of them deserves to get what they’re fighting for. If there was a way to only allow the level-headed people live there and send the rest to Antarctica or something, I’d support that in a heartbeat. Sadly, there’s no such method I’m aware of, so we’ll just have to go with my Samuel L. Jackson idea. It’s better than anything else that’s being tried.
Vol. V Issue VI: Letters To and From the Editors
opening Letter From the Editor:
Dear Readers,
Hello again and welcome to another wonderful issue of the Alati! There’s been quite a bit of controversy afoot since the publication of the last issue and hopefully the many letters to and from the editors can give you clarity and peace on this matter. There is much to be said and it is all laid out [below]. Please take the time to read through these letters. In addition to the many letters, this issue is chock full of great articles to read through, too! There were a lot of new writers and we hope to see many more articles from you all as well as more new writers! There’s great commentary on everything from KFC and Flavor Flav to the USS Cole, Israel and Palestine and, of course, Obama woes and hopes.
Something to keep your eye out for especially, though, is the latest extension to the Alati. In an effort to save money and “go green,” the Alati has launched a companion website! We will be posting what we feel are the most interesting (and of course, controversial) articles and topics and they will be open to discussion on our new blogspot! The website will have links to further reading, a place for topical discussion and even polls on current issues every week. Check it out at www.thealati.blogspot.com [thank you to those of you here!] and vote on the new website! We’d love to get every bit of feedback. You don’t have to have a membership; the blog is open for all posting (blogger/gmail members and nonmembers alike). All we ask is that
you maintain common courtesy and a level of professionalism in your posts (but you already knew that!). Look for the “read more” boxes around articles in the future and there will be a copy of the article online [here!] for your comments and thoughts!
Want to say more? Write a letter to the editor! Not enough? Well then it’s time for you to write an article! Our hope is that we can publish one issue a semester online in order to save the rainforest and all of it’s cuddly creatures and cancer cures. So, with that, I hope you enjoy this issue of the Alati.
Cheers,
Ilia Bailey, Editor-In-Chief ALATI
The following letters concern Patrick Davey's response to a letter from Dr. John:
Dear Ilia and Kate,
I am disappointed. I do not know where else to go or even exactly what to say. It has been well over a year since I have contributed to this magazine, and possibly now for good reason. The last time I expressed myself publicly in words in this particular outlet in November 2007, I started a series in which I wrote on integrity. Now I feel it is time for me to address the issue of respect.
I do not know when it became acceptable for people to lay out unfounded claims. And even worse, I do not know when it became acceptable for people to print them (but I guess that is just the media). After reading the letter to the editor from Dr. John Langton, a dear friend of mine despite the fact we are polar opposites, I began to think about the level of respect and professionalism present at Westminster College. However this one time, there are parts of his arguments with which I agree. The political science department, including Dr. Langton (whom I have taken several classes with and even tutored for) and Dr. Jefferson (who is my advisor), does an excellent job covering the breadth of political ideology both throughout history and in America.
Even though I agree on this subtle point, I am quite disappointed with how many things have been presented in the Alati and how unfounded many of the claims are. It is not only my disappointment in the Alati printing the material, but also in the authors writing them and no one else submitting anything better for publication. First, I will address the personal attacks that have flow from the pages. Dr. Langton and Patrick Davey are the first to be addressed as neither article holds up any level of respect and honor. The claims against professors that they are teaching a liberal indoctrination and stating that they dispense nonsense are absurd. Then, Dr. Langton’s reply is less than tactful. Professors should not demand superficial apologies from students for their opinions (however unfounded they may be), they should ask for explanations if they are going to ask for anything. In addition, Dr. Langton claims that a fellow student is committing slander without proof. Patrick Davey challenges the teaching style of Dr. John without ever walking through the doors of one of his classes. I thought both sides knew how to back up their opinions with realities. Why have both sides resorted to attacking each others’ character?
Next, the Alati has started unfounded attacks. As a member of Finance Committee I was offended by the cartoon in the last issue in which we were portrayed as a weight around the neck of the student publications caricatured as an innocent puppy. Although it may be your opinion, please back it up with fact. I am one of the foremost supporters (along with other Finance Committee members) of the student publications on campus as I believe they provide a great outlet for student scholarship and creativity. But, the numbers and accusations I have heard are ridiculous. Money is in short supply, as any one alive today knows that the economy is down. All budgets have suffered. I have fought my entire Westminster career for both the college and the student body. Why is Finance Committee being attacked for trying to work with ALL clubs and organizations to fund quality experiences? I know that there is major demand for the Alati as shown by their petition, but there are many events and clubs that are in highly requested. If anyone is truly concerned about funding, students should be asking more questions as to why the school wanted SGA to re-budget about $15,000 to general fund projects. Everyone, especially Finance Committee (who does not get paid), does the best they can with what they have. I do not appreciate personal attacks, not matter who they are from or who they are against. Where has respect gone at Westminster College? I thought that the principles that Westminster stood for meant more to my fellow students and colleagues than to pen childish attacks against each other. Why can we not be thankful for the wonderful professors that we are blessed with? The wonderful academic environment and debate we are capable of creating and fostering? Why can we not just be thankful for the abilities that we do have even in the hard times? Be thankful for the student publications we have, the clubs and leaders that lead even when everyone knows they are wrong, and the opportunity for an education in and out of the classroom? Why can we not be satisfied to wake up every morning with the ability to call Westminster home? I am not saying to skip the debate, but simply to raise its level. Why do we not start living up to be the change our generation proclaimed us to be? Not everything is perfect, but let us take the bad times and injuries and turn them around. Let us always find the good, and always and ever work for the betterment of Westminster College.
Sincerely,
Jordan Lawrence Pauluhn
replies:
Dear Readers,
Hello again and welcome to another wonderful issue of the Alati! There’s been quite a bit of controversy afoot since the publication of the last issue and hopefully the many letters to and from the editors can give you clarity and peace on this matter. There is much to be said and it is all laid out [below]. Please take the time to read through these letters. In addition to the many letters, this issue is chock full of great articles to read through, too! There were a lot of new writers and we hope to see many more articles from you all as well as more new writers! There’s great commentary on everything from KFC and Flavor Flav to the USS Cole, Israel and Palestine and, of course, Obama woes and hopes.
Something to keep your eye out for especially, though, is the latest extension to the Alati. In an effort to save money and “go green,” the Alati has launched a companion website! We will be posting what we feel are the most interesting (and of course, controversial) articles and topics and they will be open to discussion on our new blogspot! The website will have links to further reading, a place for topical discussion and even polls on current issues every week. Check it out at www.thealati.blogspot.com [thank you to those of you here!] and vote on the new website! We’d love to get every bit of feedback. You don’t have to have a membership; the blog is open for all posting (blogger/gmail members and nonmembers alike). All we ask is that
you maintain common courtesy and a level of professionalism in your posts (but you already knew that!). Look for the “read more” boxes around articles in the future and there will be a copy of the article online [here!] for your comments and thoughts!
Want to say more? Write a letter to the editor! Not enough? Well then it’s time for you to write an article! Our hope is that we can publish one issue a semester online in order to save the rainforest and all of it’s cuddly creatures and cancer cures. So, with that, I hope you enjoy this issue of the Alati.
Cheers,
Ilia Bailey, Editor-In-Chief ALATI
The following letters concern Patrick Davey's response to a letter from Dr. John:
Dear Ilia and Kate,
I am disappointed. I do not know where else to go or even exactly what to say. It has been well over a year since I have contributed to this magazine, and possibly now for good reason. The last time I expressed myself publicly in words in this particular outlet in November 2007, I started a series in which I wrote on integrity. Now I feel it is time for me to address the issue of respect.
I do not know when it became acceptable for people to lay out unfounded claims. And even worse, I do not know when it became acceptable for people to print them (but I guess that is just the media). After reading the letter to the editor from Dr. John Langton, a dear friend of mine despite the fact we are polar opposites, I began to think about the level of respect and professionalism present at Westminster College. However this one time, there are parts of his arguments with which I agree. The political science department, including Dr. Langton (whom I have taken several classes with and even tutored for) and Dr. Jefferson (who is my advisor), does an excellent job covering the breadth of political ideology both throughout history and in America.
Even though I agree on this subtle point, I am quite disappointed with how many things have been presented in the Alati and how unfounded many of the claims are. It is not only my disappointment in the Alati printing the material, but also in the authors writing them and no one else submitting anything better for publication. First, I will address the personal attacks that have flow from the pages. Dr. Langton and Patrick Davey are the first to be addressed as neither article holds up any level of respect and honor. The claims against professors that they are teaching a liberal indoctrination and stating that they dispense nonsense are absurd. Then, Dr. Langton’s reply is less than tactful. Professors should not demand superficial apologies from students for their opinions (however unfounded they may be), they should ask for explanations if they are going to ask for anything. In addition, Dr. Langton claims that a fellow student is committing slander without proof. Patrick Davey challenges the teaching style of Dr. John without ever walking through the doors of one of his classes. I thought both sides knew how to back up their opinions with realities. Why have both sides resorted to attacking each others’ character?
Next, the Alati has started unfounded attacks. As a member of Finance Committee I was offended by the cartoon in the last issue in which we were portrayed as a weight around the neck of the student publications caricatured as an innocent puppy. Although it may be your opinion, please back it up with fact. I am one of the foremost supporters (along with other Finance Committee members) of the student publications on campus as I believe they provide a great outlet for student scholarship and creativity. But, the numbers and accusations I have heard are ridiculous. Money is in short supply, as any one alive today knows that the economy is down. All budgets have suffered. I have fought my entire Westminster career for both the college and the student body. Why is Finance Committee being attacked for trying to work with ALL clubs and organizations to fund quality experiences? I know that there is major demand for the Alati as shown by their petition, but there are many events and clubs that are in highly requested. If anyone is truly concerned about funding, students should be asking more questions as to why the school wanted SGA to re-budget about $15,000 to general fund projects. Everyone, especially Finance Committee (who does not get paid), does the best they can with what they have. I do not appreciate personal attacks, not matter who they are from or who they are against. Where has respect gone at Westminster College? I thought that the principles that Westminster stood for meant more to my fellow students and colleagues than to pen childish attacks against each other. Why can we not be thankful for the wonderful professors that we are blessed with? The wonderful academic environment and debate we are capable of creating and fostering? Why can we not just be thankful for the abilities that we do have even in the hard times? Be thankful for the student publications we have, the clubs and leaders that lead even when everyone knows they are wrong, and the opportunity for an education in and out of the classroom? Why can we not be satisfied to wake up every morning with the ability to call Westminster home? I am not saying to skip the debate, but simply to raise its level. Why do we not start living up to be the change our generation proclaimed us to be? Not everything is perfect, but let us take the bad times and injuries and turn them around. Let us always find the good, and always and ever work for the betterment of Westminster College.
Sincerely,
Jordan Lawrence Pauluhn
replies:
First I would like to thank you for your letter. I will respond to your two concerns: the first in regards to the level of disrespect that was displayed by Patrick and Dr. John and second in regards to the political cartoon. The decision to publish Patrick’s response was not an easy one. I hope you know me well enough to know that I am not blind to disrespect or undue criticism. The manner in which this debate between Dr. John ad Patrick first arose was rooted in civility and constructive criticism. Were there some unfounded claims? I would say so. The fact that Patrick has never set foot into Dr. John’s classroom while at the same time is providing a critique of his methods lays the foundation for scrutiny. But as it became increasingly clear that neither Dr. John nor Patrick were going to “hold back” we decided that if they really wanted this to be a public discussion, we would let the students decide what was funny and what was crossing the line. Clearly, you have spoken out against Patrick’s response, among many other students. This was our intention–not to propagate hostility but to inspire reaction. Forgive us if we allow students to hold their most outlandish opinions, but that is part of the free spirit that the Alati embraces. Just as Patrick had the right to respond, you had the right to react. Now, that being said is not an excuse of the tension that students may have felt reading those two letters. But, if you know anything about Patrick and Dr. John you will see that there is no animosity between the two. Only friendly banter as they respectfully agree to disrespectfully disagree.
Now, onto your second point of unfounded claims. Well,
as these organizations are, they only represent a handful of those students involved with them. The Alati is a forum for the entire campus! More than just students, even. We publish our magazine for the entire campus, the alumni, and the entirety of the Westminster Community. We are very different and deserve our full funding, and there has been no reason provided by SGA FC or anyone else to indicate otherwise, with the sole exception of “budget constraints.” Now, that being said we fully understand the necessity for trimming our budget. And we have done so—all of our staff took a pay cut, I have given up my pay in order to finance the fourth print issue and my staff has agreed to work on an online fifth issue without pay. But it seems this is not enough. Finance Committee wishes us to email our issues to the campus. Do you see the many problems with this (because we see about four)?
But I digress. The point is if Finance Committee will not sacrifice what is necessary to keep Student Publications alive, then we will. Now, the political cartoon that was submitted was created by a student and represented a widespread sentiment of injustice. The fact that you were emotionally provoked by it is the very reason it was printed. Political cartoons are meant to evoke emotion and reaction. Done and done. There is actually a method to our madness. I hope you understand.
—Ilia Bailey, Editor-in-Chief
I hope you don’t mind that I also take this opportunity to respond to your letter, as it was addressed to both Ilia and me. I am sorry that you feel that one of the core values of
First of all, this was not the first letter to the editor the Alati had received regarding Mr. Davey’s sometimes incendiary articles published herein. I will direct your attention to the rather disrespectful letter we received from a computer science professor which personally insulted Mr. Davey by calling him “silly.” Secondly, consider the article Mr. Davey wrote that inspired Dr. Langton to respond. It was entitled, “What is a Conservative? Answers to All the Questions You Were too Afraid to Ask.” Why might someone be afraid to ask questions about conservatism? Perhaps because of the backlash it may incur? Finally, I must direct you to the very first page of each and every issue of the Alati, where, beneath the table of contents one can find a disclaimer: “Neither
—Kate Black, Assistant Editor
the following letter is a reply to Billy Brownfield's article in Vol. V Issue V:
Anti-Semitism in the
I am a Palestinian and I will not accept any sort of Israeli governance over my daily life. I refuse to be ruled by my occupiers. Just like the Americans refused
—Hasan Adwan
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Welcome to the Alati Online!
The Westminster College Alati is a political magazine that accepts opinion and editorial from all across the political and ethical spectrum, guided by standards of literary merit and logic.
MISSION: The Alati serves as an open forum for the Westminster community to voice their opinions on a wide range of political topics and current events--opinion, news, and commentary all welcome. We aim for fair and well-reasoned debate while encouraging dialogues from all sides of the political spectrum. The Alati seeks to build upon the legacy of dynamic communication created by the many world leaders who have graced the Westminster College campus in Fulton, Missouri. By bringing together Westminster's finest minds in an arena of debate, the Alati seeks to build great leaders and foster great thinkers in the same spirit.
New and improved and ever-progressive, the Alati has opened this online forum for all students, faculty, staff and members of the Westminster Community in general.
We will soon add articles from this upcoming issue
Please, discuss.
Cheers,
Ilia Bailey
Editor-in-Chief, ALATI
MISSION: The Alati serves as an open forum for the Westminster community to voice their opinions on a wide range of political topics and current events--opinion, news, and commentary all welcome. We aim for fair and well-reasoned debate while encouraging dialogues from all sides of the political spectrum. The Alati seeks to build upon the legacy of dynamic communication created by the many world leaders who have graced the Westminster College campus in Fulton, Missouri. By bringing together Westminster's finest minds in an arena of debate, the Alati seeks to build great leaders and foster great thinkers in the same spirit.
New and improved and ever-progressive, the Alati has opened this online forum for all students, faculty, staff and members of the Westminster Community in general.
We will soon add articles from this upcoming issue
Please, discuss.
Cheers,
Ilia Bailey
Editor-in-Chief, ALATI
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