n'l
McCain VP pick steals
Obama spotlight
BY CHRIS VARMECKY
STAFF WRITER
CJVSO43@PSU.EDU
As the polls began to tighten
and the conventions came
approaching, the Obama camp
foresaw an insurmountable
opportunity to leave John McCain
and his precarious campaign
flailing in the dust once and for
all.
Barrack Obama's riveting
speech at the 2008 Democratic
Convention last week was (at the
time) seen as a mastery of ethos
and pathos that captivated the 38
million Americans watching and
managed to reduce the almighty
media mogul Oprah Winfrey to a
mere rubble of tears.
Not only did he master his
predictably rhetorical staple
that has catapulted him to the
forefront of the Democratic Party,
but he offered something that
remained to be seen up until then:
specifics.
In his speech, he outlined the
meaning of "change" as he saw
appropriate. No, it wasn't change
from politics as usual, as Obama
SEPT. n: A look at where we are. now
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video of the collapse of the
towers the actual smoke, the
crumbling is so painful it is
almost never aired, and when it
is, as it was in a montage at the
Republican National Convention,
it is utterly halting.
No one will forget. But when is
it OK to move on?
For the people who were left
behind, left without a spouse or
a child or a parent or a friend on
that day, it is a very real question,
something to turn over in their
minds every day.
For some, seven years means
enough time to pickup, sometimes
to pack up, to start anew.
Cathy Faughnan's husband,
Christopher, a 37-year-old bond
trader, was killed in the trade
continually touts in appearances
throughout the country and
campaign commercials. But it was
change from the last eight years,
from the ever so despised Bush
administration. Liberal change.
The same policies, programs and
additional spending the left has
been peddling for years.
As far as domestic policies go,
Obama's promises to "invest" in
our future are liberal speak for a
more bloated government whose
"good intentions" threaten to
create more problems than they
solve.
For example, Lyndon Johnson's
Great Society an extension ofJohn
F. Kennedy's War on Poverty, an
amalgam ofadditional government
spending in healthcare, education
and welfare, has not done
much at all to alleviate poverty
throughout the country, yet it has
cost taxpayers billions in the form
of Medicare, Medicaid and urban
housing development.
Please see PALIN
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center. She was 37 then, too, and
remembers thinking she was too
young to be a widow for the rest
of her life.
Now she is 44. Within two years
after the attacks she moved back
to her home state of Colorado,
and has since been remarried, to
a widower she met in New York
shortly after Sept. 11.
She does not like to watch TV
coverage of these anniversaries.
Her family remembers Christopher
in other ways. September also
means the start of college football,
and they go to cheer his beloved
Colorado Buffaloes once a year.
This year, for the first time, she
took the three children she had
with Christopher Siena, Juliet
and Liam, who are now 14 and 11
and 9 to ground zero, where
steel from the rebuilding now
pokes above street level.
At the visitors center across
A different state in Pa.
By JAMES SPEED
STAFF WRITER
JKSSI6IOPSU.EDU
Fall is among us and it's the start
of yet another school year, and I
would like to personally welcome
all the new students here to Capital
College, especially those who
like me have come from lands far,
far away. Whether you are from
another country or simply another
state, welcome to "Pennsylvania
Strange."
I have only been in this beautiful
state for a couple of months and
have noticed that strange things
go on in this state that do not
happen anywhere else, at least
anywhere I have been.
With that being said, I think
it's important to inform you
that I have done some traveling
and have lived at some point in
time on the West Coast, in the
Midwest, in the South and in
the South East. Notice I did not
mention the North East. This is
my first venture in this area but
I still believe that most of the
strange things I am going to tell
you about are indeed isolated to
"Pennsylvania Strange."
First off, Pennsylvania is not
even known as a state but instead
a commonwealth. Yes, you
from the pit, they saw the pictures
of thousands of people who died
when the youngest of them was
just 2 years old.
"I think that was the first time it
really maybe hit them how many
people died," their mother says.
"I saw them with their mouths
open."
For others, seven years is an
instant.
One morning last month, Diane
Horning was watching a webcast
of the federal government's
briefing on the mechanics of the
collapse of Building 7 at the trade
center complex.
A half-hour later, she saw a
television report speculating on
the vice presidential prospects
for Giuliani and was outraged:
"He can't put two words together
without talking about my son's
death."
Her son was Matthew Horning,
now live in a
commonwealth.
"What is the
difference?" you
might ask. Good
question.
After hours
and hours of
research, I have
finally found
the answer.
The difference
between a
state and a
commonwealth is absolutely,
positively nothing. It's just a
matter of preference.
There are four commonwealths
here in the U.S.: Kentucky,
Pennsylvania, Virginia and
Massachusetts.
Remember I said most of these
things will be isolated to "Penn
Strange?" Well, I probably lied.
Now for those of you who have
to drive around these ridiculous
roadways, be very careful. Many
of you who learned to drive in
other states know that when
merging onto a freeway, you must
accelerate to the speed of traffic
to make a smooth transition from
on-ramp to freeway. This is rarely
the case here in "Penn Strange."
I remember my first merger. It
was a looping onramp and I was
26 years old, killed in the north
tower. Tiny bits of his remains
were recovered from the site and
from the Staten Island landfill
where a million tons of debris and
human remains were taken.
The years have not lessened
her anger. She is appealing the
dismissal this summer of a lawsuit
that would require the city to
move the material at the landfill
to a separate burial plot.
"I just can't stop," Diane Horning
says. "I need my son to be treated
with dignity. He has been treated
like garbage, and I can't imagine
a mother sitting back and saying,
`You know, it's OK.'
Seven years also means some
people say to her that she is
"obsessed."
Exactly how much the nation
has changed since Sept. 11, 2001,
is a matter of perspective.
"There were economic changes,
accelerating out of the turn to get
up to speed. I was looking over
my shoulder and checking my
mirrors for where traffic was.
Judging distance and adjusting
speed, I had my timing down and
was going to pass smoothly right
in between a semi and a compact
car when my eyes came around
that curve and caught glimpse of
a car at a complete stop just yards
ahead of me.
My first reaction was to slam
on the brakes but I knew I would
not stop in time, so I stomped on
the skinny pedal, veered my Jeep
onto the shoulder, blew the doors
Please see 'PENN STRANGE'
psychological effects," says
Alfred Goldberg, who retired
last year as the Pentagon's chief
historian, and who points to the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He says he believes the tragedy
of Sept. 11 was compounded
by the national response, and
perhaps by an exaggeration of
the threat posed by al-Qaida. "We
are in many ways a very changed
nation because of those attacks,"
he says.
And while that is indisputable in
a broad sense, it is a point bitterly
contested by some of the people
most directly affected.
For Sarah Arnold of Orlando,
Fla., this Sept. 11 will not be an
anniversary she cares much about.
It will be one year and 21 days
since her only child, a son named
Britt, was killed by an improvised
explosive device in Iraq.
She says she feels a kinship with
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