I The Behrend Beacon
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof: or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. - The First Ammendment to the U.S. Constitution
The Behrend Beacon
Puhlkhed weckly by the students Penn Stale Behrend
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Beacon
News Editor
Ashley Bressler
Assistant News Editors Assistant Humor Editor
Lenny Smith Jerry Pohl
Scott Muska
Student Life Editors
Sean Mihlo
Joshua Lane
Opinion Editor
Janet Niedenberger
Penn State Erie,
The Behrend College
First Floor, The J• Elmer Reed Union Building
Station Road, Erie, PA 16563
Contact the Beacon at:
Telephone: (814) 898-6488
Fax: (814) 898-6019
And that's a rap
By Christopher LaFuria
editor in chief
In honor of Black History Month, it is
only fitting that we pay tribute to the
beginning and the end of a genre of
music that was founded by, but not lim
ited to, the Black population of music.
In the early 10s, as a response to the
demise of disco music, many Black,
Latino and Puerto Rican musicians
developed a form of musical expression
that came to be known as hip-hop. In
the mid-90s the genre as the American
public came to know and adore took an
unexpected turn towards not expressing
the intentions of the founders, but bask
ing in the glory of fat paychecks, fancy
cars and oversized houses.
Although the genre took off in the
70s, a large portion of the early success
can be credited to Grand Master Flash,
the Furious Five and the Sugar Hill
Gang. It is through Grand Master Flash
and the Furious Five that the terms "hip
hop" and "MC" were coined. It has
become accepted that the term "hip
hop" was Keith Cowboy's, a rapper in
the Furious Five, way of expressing the
cadence of the U.S Army's march in
response to a good friend who had
joined the army. Melle Mel, one of the
lyricists for the Furious Five, was one of
the first musicians to refer to themselves
as an "MC."
In the 70s, hip-hop took off with such
acts as Grand Master Flash, Sugar Hill
Gang and Kurtis Blow. In the middle of
the 1980 s, with the emergence of LL
Cool J, Run DMC and Public Enemy,
hip-hop became more than just musical
expression. It became the reflection of a
culture of individuals who needed an
outlet for their own expression.
Whether it was a need to sport a pair of
unlaced Adidas sneakers and a tracksuit
like in the case of Run DMC, who used
hip-hop to express their musical beats
and loops, or it was an expression of
political and official injustice like in
Public Enemy and later NWA, hip-hop
took on all forms of appearances.
Into the 90s, hip-hop took yet another
form of expression, this time to reflect
the struggles of Black people on the
Christopher LaPuna, Editor in Chief
Patrick Webster, Managing Editor
Lindsay Snyder, Advertising Manager
Kim Young, Adviser
Sports Editors
Danielle Brown
Kara Struski
streets and in society. Acts such as
NWA, Ice-T, Tupac Shakur, Snoop
Dogg, Dr. Dre and Warren G used their
lyrics to express their struggles on the
streets, their distaste for authority and
their perpetual grapple with the drug
underworld.
Songs such as Ice-T's "Cop Killa"
used lyrics to stretch the First
Amendment and express downright
detest for police in an artful manner.
"COP KILLER/it's better you than
me/COP KILLER/f*** police brutali
ty/COP KILLER/I know your family's
grieving/COP KILLER/but tonight we
get even." Within the song, there are
references to Rodney King, a Black cit
izen who was beaten by the LAPD.
Enter Diddy in 1998 (then known as
Puff Daddy), who, along with other
notorious money-makers, forever
changed the face and direction of hip
hop. With the release of his track "It's
All About the Benjamins," hip-hop
became more of an outlet to express
love of money and the need to have the
biggest bank account and the fattest wal
let. Later in 1998, rapper 8.G., with
Juvenile, Birdman and Lil Wayne intro
duced the phrase "bling-bling," which
was used to express jewelry worn by
wealthy rappers.
This epidemic of lyrics about money,
sex and drugs spread into the new mil
lennium with acts such as Ludacris,
Chingy, Nelly and Ginuwine who cared
more about expressing their material
wealth than for rapping about the emo
tional struggles that were endured by
other rappers throughout the 80s and
early 90s. Although there are rappers
such as Talib Kweli, Mos Def and
Common who still remain true to hip
hop's intention, to hit the mark for a hip
hop artist in today's society, a rapper
needs to write about wealth, sex and
drugs. Hip-hop artists in the 80s main
tained their identity by expressing tangi
ble and genuine issues. Today, most rap
songs share the same form of commer
cial success and monetary gain. This is
why we need to pay tribute to the fathers
of hip-hop--the Grand Master Flashes
and the Sugar Hill Gangs. And to pay
tribute to the death of their genre and
hope we never forget hip-hop's roots.
0 P [l\l [ol\l
Humor Editor
Ben Raymond
Head Copy Editor
Rachael Conway
Copy Editors
Chris Brown
Janet Niedenberger
Jessica Samol
Photography Editor
Mike Sharkey
This week in politics
By Chris Brown
copy editor
On Feb. 6, the House Oversight and
Government Committee heard testimo
ny concerning the shipment of over $l2
billion of cash to Iraq between May
2003 and June 2004. Let that sink
in...CASH. It was Iraqi money from
oil sales and leftover revenue from the
UN Oil-for-food program; it was the
responsibility of the United States,
under U.N. Security Council Resolution
1483, to make sure that money was
spent appropriately. Needless to say,
the U.S. failed miserably and since the
Iraqi money ran out U.S. taxpayers are
forced to foot the bill for Iraqi recon
struction.
roblem seemed to be how
The main
much oversight and transparency the
Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)
needed to provide in the handling of the
money. The CPA had the job of getting
Iraq's government up and running again
~~
,~:.
What the hell was he thinking?
By Janet Niedenberger
opinion editor
This past Wednesday, Feb. 7, an arti
cle was published in The Recorder, the
newspaper at Central Connecticut State
University (CCSU). The article, enti
tled, "Rape Only Hurts If You Fight It"
was written by the paper's opinion edi
tor, John Petroski. The article is disgust
ing, and it trivializes as well as mocks
rape.
According to Petroski, "Far from a
vile act, rape is a magical experience that
benefits society as a whole...lf it
weren't for rape, Western Civilization
might not exist as we know it today."
Basically, Petroski has decided that rape
isn't just okay, but it's necessary. After
reading the article, I thought that maybe
it was a sick attempt at satire, but some
thing changed my mind. I found out
about this article through a Facebook
group; the numbers of members in this
group grow by the second, and hundreds
of people have given their opinions of
the piece. Earlier today, Thursday, Feb.
8, Petroski wrote a message on the
group's board. I cannot quote any of the
comment, though, because Petroski has
apparently deleted his Facebook profile.
The comment, however, was a sincere
after the invasion: part of that job
included distributing the Development
Fund for Iraq (DFI). "The CPA's inter
pretation of transparency was that fit]
required transparency with respect to
how the CPA managed the development
fund for Iraq internally, and not what
happened to them after they were trans
ferred to the ministries," testified the
Special Inspector General for Iraq
Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, a
staunch critic of the CPA's accounting
practices.
The financial oversight problems and
inability of the CPA to rebuild the Iraqi
economy stem from the composition of
the CPA workforce. When choosing the
CPA staff the Bush administration
chose a hunch of recent college gradu
ates with no experience in financial
management instead of seasoned
experts from Treasury, Energy, and
Commerce Departments. It also chose
an administrator, Paul Bremer. who had
no experience in civil reconstruction
efforts and staff members who had little
overseas experience: a majority of
whom applied for their first passport
when hired to go to Iraq.
However, the lost money in Iraq isn't
even the biggest story to come out of
the hearing: it's old news. Bowen first
reported these findings about the $l2
billion lost and inexperience in the CPA
workforce in an audit report to a
Republican-controlled congress in Jan.
2005. The bigger story is that Congress
finally performed one of its most
important functions in government,
ib
issytior
apology from Petroski; the apology
included verification that the article in
fact was not meant to be satirical.
Petroski claimed that he was just stupid
for writing the article, and that he was
very sorry.
It seems that no one is really ready to
accept this apology. Many people are
enraged; on Monday, Feb. 12, the
Student Government Association at
CCSU is holding a town hall meeting so
that the concerns raised by this article
can be addressed.
The president of CCSU, Dr. Jack
Miller, has also taken an action against
the article. He put a statement on
CCSU's website, saying, "Many times in
the past I have been called upon to
defend First Amendment principles. But
what Mr. Petroski wrote in the February
7 issue of "The Recorder" deserves to be
roundly condemned as deeply offensive
and hurtful." Miller went on to say, "We
will in the near future gather a group
composed of students and faculty to
examine the editorial process and to take
positive steps to educate students about
the damage such blatantly misogynistic
and homophobic content causes. While
we always want to protect journalistic
integrity and First Amendment princi
ples, we need to be sure that students
understand that such hateful speech is
Friday, February 9, 2007
oversight of the Executive branch. Why
hold a committee hearing on it now,
over two years later? Because no one
bothered to hold one in the first place.
Governor Ed Rendell unveiled his
budget plan to the State Legislature last
week. Included in the plan is a proposal
to increase the state sales tax to 7%,
accelerate his plan to cut property taxes,
a plan to lease the Pennsylvania
Turnpike, and an overall increase in
spending to help cover the costs of
diminished financial support from the
federal government.
Critics claim that the increased sales
tax would drive consumers out of state
or to the Internet and thereby hurt in
state businesses. That makes no sense.
Neighboring states' sales tax rates range
from 5.5-7%. That means at most,
someone could save 1.5 cents per dollar
spent. If gasoline prices remain steady
(that's a big if) and if your car gets good
gas mileage, it costs about 9 cents per
mile: not including the cost of your time
to go out of state or the hassle of having
to drive somewhere. Even if gas costs
are split between four people, each per
son would have to spend about $225 on
merchandise if the people go to Buffalo
or Cleveland from Erie to break even;
anything above that and the cents saved
start adding up. I don't know anyone
willing to make that sacrifice for so lit
tle. The best bet for increased business
in Pennsylvania is to attract it here with
low property taxes and increased incen
tives that can be offered only if we
cover the costs with a sales tax.
' I
,
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>~~x~.
Je Pohl
not protected and simply is not worthy,
on any ground, of publication."
Being an opinion editor myself, I am
still dumbfounded as to how such trash
could possibly have been printed in a
college publication. The fact that none
of the other editors omitted it from the
issue also makes me doubt their ability
to properly run their newspaper.
Petroski not only disgraced The
Recorder, he has insulted journalists
everywhere.
Petroski ended his article as "tasteful
ly" as he began it, saying, "But if there is
one bread and butter reason for why rape
should not only be accepted, but even
endorsed, it is because our news editors
are in dire need of interesting stories for
our front page. Bookstore stories?
Fossils? One dollar coins? Please. Now,
some saucy circle-jerk rape action?
Yeah, that's the ticket." I'm pretty much
speechless.
If you want to read the article for
yourself, go to: http://clubs.ccsu.edu/
recorder/currentissue.pdf. The article is
on page seven. If you're interested in
the Facebook group, go to:
http://psu.facebook.com/group.php?gid
=2232925990. If that link doesn't
work, search for the group, which is
named, "Petition against 'Rape Only
Hurts If You Fight It' by John Petroski."