Growing up
in a day
By Kate Kennedy
(KRT)
In one of their legendary songs, the
Beastie Boys summed up what a fair por
tion of college life is all about: “You’ve got
to fight, for your right, to party.” Fight? Well,
maybe not literally. But partying - that’s why
some students choose a school more than a
few miles from home. Such was life before
the date that now lives in infamy.
The booming ’9os fed college students the
notion that money was paramount and our
economy would be perpetually programmed
to a breakneck speed.
Life was good and the future was bright.
Being young, carefree and innocent was a
guaranteed right at the proverbial Ivory
Tower.
But then came Sept. 11, and the nation
took a collective punch in the stomach. No
one was immune from the aftershocks. Not
even college students, as expressed in a just
released poll by the Independent Women’s
Forum.
It should come as no surprise to learn that
students are still essentially liberal in their
politics. In fact, according to the IWF poll,
college students may be the most liberal con
stituency in America - 55 percent - when
compared to the U.S. electorate, which ranks
33 percent liberal.
And yet, President George W. Bush en
joys unprecedented support from this seg
ment of the population. Gone is the nasty
aftertaste of the 2000 election and the infa
mous Florida recounts. A full 75 percent of
students approve of the President’s perfor
mance and 70 percent approve of him as a
person. While not the 80 percent-plus num
bers Mr. Bush enjoys from the general pub
lic, it’s still a striking number given the stu
dent population’s taste for liberal traditions
and policies.
What’s more, only 18 percent wish A 1
Gore sat in the Oval Office today.
So much for the accidental presidency;
George Bush is clearly their commander-in
chief.
We’re looking at a generation of young
‘ people in the fdrmative years of life when
everything changed in one day. Now,
they’ve been forced to grow up fast in a
world that’s no longer so idyllic.
The two biggest concerns topping the stu
dents’ list were terrorism and the economy,
sentiments that mirror the focus of the Bush
Administration and the general public. In
some ways, it’s comforting to know they’ve
been affected, moved. And maybe not in
drastic, seismic shifts, but a full 32 percent
now spend more time praying and 22 per
cent have decided to hit the books a bit
harder.
Could it be that we’re witnessing the re
birth of values in a student population that
leaves many guessing what it treasures? It
appears that, almost overnight, Sept. 11
clarified what college students truly cher
ish. Ninety-four percent value personal re
sponsibility and family and 63 percent value
patriotism.
All this coincides neatly with the call to
arms issued by President Bush. On Sept. 20,
the nation expected marching orders from
the President during his address to a joint
session of Congress. We had been prepared
to expect sacrifice, but we were told by our
president to take to the skies and charge up
our credit cards. Fair enough, the economy
needed consumer confidence. There was
criticism that the President didn’t ask enough
of us in that primetime speech. That changed
during his State of the Union address.
“For too long our culture has said, 'lf it
feels good, do it,”’ said Mr. Bush. Now
America is embracing a new ethic and a new
creed: 'Let’s roll.’”
Are college students ready to answer the
call? Fifty-eight percent of those polled
value volunteerism. It will be interesting to
see how many translate that value into real
action. The opportunity is there. They can
sign onto the President’s initiative to com
mit two years, or 4,000 hours, to a cause
greater than themselves. Sept. 11 has taught
us a lesson in the value of time, how we
choose to spend it should be an issue of ut
most importance.
And yet, Sept. 11 has also provided a tu
torial that no college textbook or tenured
professor could hope to duplicate. Peace and
prosperity are not guaranteed and should not
be taken for granted. War and tragedy do
not take place on distant continents. Evil can
wreak havoc on the most unsuspecting pub
lic, in the greatest country on earth.
College students have an answer to this
wake-up call. Intangible qualities are sud
denly back in vogue. And it couldn’t have
come at a better time.
Encompassing every editorial ever written
G. Love
Bojangles
Ryan Anthony
editorial coin
mmb
It’s getting
down to the
nitty-gritty here
at Behrend for me. Spring break is just around
the comer and I’m still scrambling to make
plans. Likewise, graduation is just around the
corner after that and I will doubtless be
scrambling to put the finishing touches on my
thesis. But what would college be without
essential landmarks like these? As an editorial
writer, I have realized that there is a sort of
landmark for writers that I have yet to
accomplish. Well, it’s not really a landmark,
I guess, it’s more of a requirement. From
reading bits and pieces of the Beacon since
my freshman year, I have realized it is my duty
as an editorialist to write about a handful of
specific topics.
Rather than use up the rest of my columns
addressing these mandatory issues written
Young people still making
black history
By E.R. Shipp
New York Daily News
The thing about Black History Month is that
it’s too short - February is the shortest month
- and it’s too often a simplistic display of what
might be called black trivia. Who invented the
traffic light? Who came up with the plan for
Washington? Who came up with umpty-hun
dred uses for peanuts?
But the other night I saw, and, more impor
tantly, felt a reason to celebrate. It was an oc
casion to remind us that it’s often young
people who spur us to reform. These young
folks, ranging in age from the teens to the 40s
- were blacks, whites. Latinos and Asians who
were being honored for their activism. It was,
as the Rev. James Forbes put it in his inimi
table style, an affirmation “that it’s the people
who make the difference when they learn to
walk together.”
The honorees represented a continuation of
the “Long Walk to Freedom.” An exhibit of
that name is on display at Riverside Church,
giving recognition to 16 people, black and
white, whose efforts during the civil rights
movement made a difference but went largely
unrecognized. History student that I am, I
didn’t know, for instance, that Roberta Yancy,
now a public relations specialist at the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture, first made her mark as a high school
student in Pennsylvania. She challenged the
“whites only” snack bars in her hometown and
was charged with disorderly conduct for do
ing so. After she graduated from Barnard Col
lege in 1962, she went on to a leadership role
in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Com
mittee. Who knew?
And 1 certainly had not heard of the younger
Why do American snowboarders wear such baggy pants?
By Mark Patinkin
The Providence Journal
Thoughts at Large:
-Truth-test for everyone who watched
Olympic downhill skiing: Admit it, in some
dark part or your psyche, you were hoping
someone would wipe out.
-And you thought the same thing during ski
jumping.
-In their testimony to Congress, Enron’s top
executives insisted they were dimwits kept so
in the dark they could barely find their own
offices, and certainly had no clue how their
company was run. Gee, I guess they were
mistaken all those years they passed them
selves off as the most on-top-of-it, in-the
know business geniuses around.
-I’ve got nothing but applause for the
Americans who won us snowboard and mo
gul medals, but why do they wear such baggy
EDITORIAL
Friday, February 15, 2002
about countless times by editorialists before
me, I choose to cover all of them in one article.
Plus, since they have all been written several
times already, I’ll spare you the boring details
and give the Spark Notes versions instead.
Keep in mind, the following is not at all a list
of my own ideas; it is, rather, a summary of
repetitive editorials written year after year by
former enlightened Beacon writers.
First, Behrend sucks. There is nothing to
do here on weekends or weeknights except
drink and drink some more. There is nothing
within walking distance, so we are all stuck
here with nothing better to do than sleep. Once
we have slept all we can, we wake up and
start drinking again. Therefore, Police and
Safety and RAs should take that into
consideration before they bust us.
Secondly, snow removal here sucks. How
hard is it to shift a truck into drive and lower
a plow? Why wait until it stops snowing
before you even think of beginning to clear
the walkways that get students to class. It’s
no wonder so many people skip their 8 a.m.
classes. They should never have scheduled
them in the first place because everyone is
too hung over to get up at that time (see above
paragraph). I love how maintenance throws
generation of men and women honored Sun
day night. Folks like Rachel Lloyd, whose or
ganization, GEMS - Girls Educational and
Mentoring Services - deals with the sexual ex
ploitation of young women.
Gessy Nixon, who grew up in an abusive
home, works through Voices of Youth to train
those who manage the foster care system, pro
viding the perspective of young people
who’ve come through that system.
Hosea Givan is humbled by the notion his
work carries on the legacy of the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. and others we revere in Feb
ruary. But he also sees his role as different
from theirs: “If I can save 20 lives a year or
can redirect 20 lives a year, that’s a major
contribution. I don’t have to lead a march to
make an impact.”
He and the others - Isis Sapp-Grant, Jane
Bai, Chhaya Chhoum, Sayu Bhojwani, Oona
Chatterjee, Andrew Friedman, Jason Warwin,
Susan Wilcox, Khary Lazarre-White - are
there “in the biting cold and the searing heat,”
as Forbes put it. As their mentor, the Rev.
Alfonso Wyatt, vice president of the Fund for
the City of New York, made clear, they often
operate not on shoestring budgets but on “wish
budgets.” And they’re tackling issues that
many of us older folks don’t spend our days
dwelling on: gentrification, welfare benefits,
immigration, domestic violence, sexual abuse,
racism, economic inequality.
“Struggle,” said Wyatt, is what people do
when they “care so much for others that they
are willing to inconvenience themselves.”
I can’t think of a better way to observe Black
History Month, that time of the year when we
focus on all that black folks have contributed
- and still contribute - to the making of
America. The struggle does continue.
pants?
-By the way, now that they have snowboard
events in winter, can the street luge and the
skateboard half-pipe be far behind for the sum-
mer games?
-Before you dismiss such sports as odd, take
a moment to watch curling, where people slide
a heavy granite teapot down the ice, while
frantically sweeping brooms in front of it.
-I voted for A 1 Gore, in part because it
seemed Bush and his team were a bit mean,
which is exactly why I’m now glad Gore lost
- Don’t you prefer having your war run by a
crowd who’s a bit mean?
-Why doesn’t anyone take the top newspa
per when they choose one from a pile?
-I hereby decree that Olympic journalists
be fined $lOO if they describe competitors as
“mining for gold” more than once.
-I see that Barry Bonds stands to make $9O
million over the next five years, which brings
up a critical cultural question: Why did I join
down a pile of salt in one spot and then expects
people’s shoes to track it across the entire
snow covered campus.
Erie sucks. We get to see the sun from about
August until October and not again until May.
I wonder if that’s why you never see any tour
groups going through during those months.
The only thing we are left with to do is go to
the bars. I am not positive, but I think aside
from Millvale down by Pittsburgh, Erie has
more bars per capita than any other town in
the world. Anyone out there from Shaler
knows what I’m talking about.
Let’s see here. So far I have covered Behrend
sucks, snow removal sucks, and Erie sucks. I
can cross those off my list of mandatory topics
and move on.
Food on campus sucks. Dobbins offers such
a huge variety of foul items that I feel like
I’m lining up at a smorgasbord piled with
socks that have been fermenting inside
students’ wet shoes after they’ve had to trek
through a foot of snow (see above paragraph)
to and from class all day. Bruno’s does a little
better. Since they only offer three products,
they at least know how to make a bacon
cheeseburger. It’s like they take three
students’ sweat and snow soaked socks and
1 See *me Hew vmtor olw»cs dofWtetfoßtti
my high school newspaper instead of the base
ball team?
-If Arthur Andersen auditors had worked for
the Nixon White House, they’d have erased
the tapes.
-Why do women always talk about men as
being “a good catch.” What are we? Fish?
-Word to prima donnas: Remember Terry
Glenn, the talented but misbehaving New
England Patriots’ wide receiver who was sus
pended long before his team won the Super
bowl? Did he miss the ride of his life or what?
-As one who only watches football at
season’s end, I’d forgotten how stressful it is.
Is there another sport where you shout at the
television as much?
-Then again, if you think football fans are
diehards, how about Olympic downhill ski
buffs who hike up a mountain to spend hours
in the snow watching 70-mi le-per-hour rac
ers zip by for a half-second each.
-Why do women who walk around in pain
manage to cook one of them up pretty well.
Next on my list here is my job. My job sucks.
I am miserable everyday because I wake*up,
go to school, drop my socks olf at Bruno’s
(mine are the bacon cheeseburger of socks),
go to work, do homework, and go to bed.
Then on the weekends I go to work, sleep
and do it all over again the next day. I’d go
to the bars, but I’m underage and I’ve already
had my license suspended (I found out that
this is a requirement if you want to one day
call yourself an “Erieite”). Anyway, my job
sucks and people are sucky tippers. Tip your
waiter or waitress. They really work hard
for you and their job is not as easy as you
may think.
Wow, I’ve reached my word limit and I
still haven't covered graduation, Greeks,
athletics, getting a real job someday, housing,
my classes, homework, and parties. I’ll have
to cross all those off my list next time. Until
then, remember nothing above represents my
own ideas. My superiors forced me to write
about those topics or else I would lose my
position as a Beacon editorialist.
Anthony’s column appears every
three weeks.
pep, COPPoOAie N/AMINO
The Behrend Beacon
ful, pinching, high heels have scorn for
women logical enough to wear “sensible”
shoes?
-Before the people of Eastern Europe de
cided to break up their countries, shouldn’t
they have thought about how hard it would
be for the rest of us to follow such competing
Olympic hockey teams as Kazakhstan,
Slovakia, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine?
-Given how many of the accused need to
be prosecuted, I think military tribunals are
the only logical choice.
-For Enron executives, I mean.
-Meanwhile, is there room for them at
Guantanamo Bay?
-And a final question: What happened to
all the roaring ‘9os day traders who greedily,
and foolishly, tried to play the market like a
casino?
-Final answer: They went to work for
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