The Promiscuity Pendulum

A Duke University study suggests a swing from sexual
openness to prudery in this generation's sexual culture
Andrea Farrell | WF
A rynn McKenzie is a self-described slut.
“I prefer to say I have libertine sexual values,” said McKenzie, a Western
senior.
McKenzie identifies as polyamorous, meaning she has multiple romantic relationships at once with different people. However, when it comes to numbers,
McKenzie said she has had fewer partners than the average serial monogamist.
“Some people have four or five partners a year, but all in a row,” she said. “I
have a serious long-term boyfriend of seven years. I often refer to him as my
wife and call my other partners my mistresses.”
McKenzie said she usually has just one secondary partner at a time because of the effort required to communicate and maintain two relationships
on top of school and work.
see > PRUDE, pg. 7
the
WESTERN FRONT
westernfrontonline.net | Friday, May 14, 2010 | Vol. 150, Iss. 13
The Promiscuity Pendulum
NEWS
illustration by Drew Miller | WF
Oil spews in the
Gulf of Mexico
Pulitzerwinning
Exxon-Valdez
journalist
speaks
about spill
> pg. 6
Gregoire to speak at graduation
Writer lives
on the fringes
of society
Performer
confronts
identity
> pg. 4
SPORTS
Ripping
shoreline
Students sell
skimboards
> pg. 13
ONLINE
Explore
Bellingham
Students
jump from
Whatcom
Falls
photo by David Gonzales | WF
Gov. Chris Gregoire speaks at a rally against educational budget cuts at
the state capitol on Jan. 18, 2010.
Gov. will attend
9 a.m. ceremony
AS Election
Board dismisses
grievances
Andrew Cederlind | WF
Mackenzie Hudson | WF
Gov. Chris Gregoire will give
the keynote speech at Western’s
spring commencement June 12 at
Carver Gym.
The governor will speak at
the first commencement ceremony, starting at 9 a.m. It includes
graduates from the College of
Business and Economics, the College of Fine and Performing Arts,
Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies and Huxley College of the Environment, according to Western’s registrar’s office.
Paul Cocke, director of University Communications, said
Western President Bruce Shepard
extended the invitation to Gregoire to speak, and she accepted.
Cocke also said the speaker
at the second ceremony would
be former Secretary of State
Ralph Munro, member of Western’s Board of Trustees. The third
speaker will be Kevin Raymond,
a current member of the Pacific
Coast Canola management team,
and former Board of Trustees
member.
The second and third ceremonies start at 12:30 p.m. and 4
p.m., respectively.
The election debate among Associated Students employees has ended.
On Thursday night, the Associated
Students Election Board held the final
grievance hearing to determine if Vice
President for Governmental Affairs Morgan Holmgren, and Christina Roy, assistant to campus and community affairs,
violated election codes when giving statements to The Western Front for the article
“Pond, Ikegwuoha accused of neglect.”
The board said Roy’s statements
were based on her personal opinions, and
because she did not use her AS office
when speaking with the Front, the board
decided she was not acting in her official
capacity.
Although evidence showed Roy was
not in favor of Pond winning the election,
the board found that she did not break
election code.
The board also decided Holmgren did
not violate an election code because the
Front is not an AS publication. The board
also said he acted as a student with a personal opinion.
Both motions passed 5-0.
Holmgren said he was not surprised
by the outcome.
“I have been involved with the AS
see > grieve, pg. 2
2
|
See more online at
www.westernfrontonline.net
News
Friday • May 14, 2010 | The Western Front
Cops Box
Bellingham Police
photo by Carey Rose | WF
Singing in tongues |
Western senior Anneka Morgan writes a sentence on a blackboard in the international phonetic alphabet for a
music class taught by professor David Meyer. The class is part of a series where students learn Italian diction in the Fall, followed by German
in the winter and finally French in the spring. "Many of these students haven't taken French before," Meyer said. "For the rest of their lives,
they can access that gorgeous music." Meyer will receive the 19th Annual Van Lawrence Fellowship Award from the Voice Foundation in
Philadelphia this summer.
Around Town
Queer monologues
What: “The Queer
Experience” is a personal
monologue performance,
which is part of Western's
pride month. There will be
10 performers sharing from
across the queer spectrum.
When: 7 p.m. Friday, May 14
Where: Viking Union room 565
> GRIEVE
AS Board: no
revote for election
< pg. 1
and am familiar with election codes,
so I expected that to happen,” Holmgren
said.
A third motion stated the Front’s article was damaging to Pond’s reputation
because of the biased heading and the article running the Tuesday of election week.
Nicholas Johnson, editor in chief of
The Western Front, said it was a difficult
Lady Washington tour
Bike swap
What: The Lady Washington,
the official ship of Washington
state, is visiting Bellingham. It's
here with its companion ship,
the Hawaiian Chieftain. This
is the last weekend it will be
here. Lady Washington offers
a few different kinds of tours.
When: Times vary by day and
tour.
Where: Squalicum Harbor
Boat House
Cost: Varies by tour.
What: The Bike Shop’s first
annual Bellingham Bike
Swap. Ten percent of sales
go to The Bike Shop, a childcentered cycling project
serving youth from lowincome homes in Bellingham.
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturday, May 15
Where: Bellingham Sportsplex
decision to run the initial story on the
Tuesday of election week.
The board said the Front did not give
Pond enough time to defend himself.
“We could either share what we had
confirmed to be true with student voters,
or we could respect the fact that it was
election week and simply never release
the information,” he said. “It was either
allowing voters to be blind to the things
happening, or running the article at an inconvenient time for the candidates.”
However, because the Front is not
an AS publication, the article could not
be taken into account when deciding the
grievance outcome.
Editor's note: Editor in chief Nicholas
Johnson took no part in the editing or reporting of this article.
May 11
• Watt are you doing? |
At 12:27 a.m., police
arrested a 23-yearold man on suspicion
of attempting to steal
a stereo and amplifier
from a vehicle in the
1200 block of North
State
Street.
While
reportedly attempting
to steal the stereo and
amp, the suspect was
chased away.
• Dude, where's my car?
| At 7:53 a.m., police
responded to a call
in the 1800 block of
Electric Avenue where
a woman reported her
car stolen. The woman
has mental health issues
and has not owned a
vehicle for 20 years.
• Memorable mug |
At 10:33 a.m., police
received a call from the
1300 block of Orleans
Street where a person
reported having seen a
suspect wanted by the
FBI.
• But I’m 21 | A 21-yearold man was arrested
at
8:50
p.m.
on
suspicion of stealing a
malt beverage from
a grocery store in the
2800 block of Meridian
Street.
Cops Box compiled by Craig Batson
THE WESTERN FRONT
Western Washington University
Communications Building 251
Bellingham, WA 98225
SEND PRESS RELEASES TO:
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EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
360-650-3162
Editor in chief ............................................ Nicholas Johnson, editor@westernfrontonline.net
Managing editor ....................................... Alex Roberts, managing@westernfrontonline.net
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News editor ...................................................... Ben Woodard, news@westernfrontonline.net
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Arts & Life editor ............................................ Rod Lotter, artsandlife@westernfrontonline.net
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Opinion editor .............................................. Megan Jonas, opinion@westernfrontonline.net
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Corrections
In the May 7 column "Fanalysis: The Mariners: Time to worry?" Jeff Twining wrote that
the Mariners came back from a 2-0 deficit in the 2001 American League divisional playoffs
against the Cleveland Indians. In fact, the the Mariners were losing the series 1-0, and then
2-1, before coming back to win the five-game series.
In the same column, Twining said the Mariners lost the 2001 American League championship series in six games. In fact, the Mariners were beaten by the Yankees in five games.
The Western Front is published twice weekly in the fall, winter, and spring quarters and once
a week in the summer session. The Western Front is the official newspaper of Western Washington University, published by the Student Publications Council and is mainly supported by
advertising. Opinions and stories in the newspaper have no connection with advertising.
News content is determined by student editors. Staff reporters are involved in a course in
the department of journalism, but any student enrolled at Western may offer stories to the
editors. Members of the Western community are entitled to a single free copy of each issue
of the Western Front.
NEWS | 3
westernfrontonline.net | Friday • May 14, 2010
WTA cuts prompt forum
Keegan Prosser | WF
Community members voiced their
concerns about the impact of potential
cuts to bus service Thursday night at the
Whatcom County Council Chambers.
The two main topics of discussion
were the loss of Sunday bus service and
a decrease in routes to colleges and universities.
A.J. Garcia, Associated Students alternative transportation coordinator said
the proposed loss of the 25X and the 28X
would eliminate transportation for Western students and faculty members who
commute from Lynden and Ferndale on
a daily basis.
Eliminating Sunday routes would
adversely affect student riders who use
the bus regularly to run errands or as
transportation from the Greyhound station in Fairhaven, he said.
The Whatcom Transit Authority is
seeking to make a 14-percent cut to services in fall 2010. Last month’s failed
ballot measure sought to increase the
sales tax in the county by two-tenths of
one percent.
The board’s executive committee
will make a decision about the proposal
at the board meeting on June 17.
Included in the proposed cuts are the
elimination of bus routes 3 and 4, which
serve Bellingham Technical College, and
a decrease in the number of routes currently serving riders in Lynden and Ferndale.
Attendees also expressed concern
for the loss of specialized transportation
on Sundays — which they said could be
detrimental to senior citizens and residents with disabilities who rely heavily
on public transportation to get around.
Bellingham resident Chet Dow
urged the transit board to take another
look at reducing the cost of daily operations and to see where cuts can be made
at the administrative level.
Western junior Gregory Jilek said he
is ashamed of the lack of representation
from Western students at the hearing.
Jilek said Western students made up
the two lowest-ranked precincts in regard
to voter turnout, yet make up a large portion of the transit authority’s ridership as
part of the Viking Xpress bus pass program.
He said he thinks Western students
do not appreciate the heavily subsidized
student pass, which allows Western students and faculty members to ride the bus
at a fraction of the cost of other riders.
“I think the WTA should adjust [the
cost of] the student pass to what the community pays,” Jilek said. “To make it
more fair, and to have students value it
more.”
Rick Nicholson, director of service
development for the transit authority,
said the board did not anticipate such a
large turnout for the hearing.
“The next step,” Nicholson said, “is
for [the board] to digest and [review] all
we’ve heard.”
Nicholson said the transportation
board would consider the community’s
comments and, if necessary, modify the
proposal.
County aims to reduce hiring
of undocumented immigrants
Nicole Strep | WF
Whatcom County may use an online
system to ensure newly hired government
workers are eligible for employment.
After a year of researching E-Verify, a
federal system that verifies workers’ documents, the county has decided to add the system to the screening process that is already in
place for new county employees, said Tawni
Helms, Whatcom County’s administrative
supervisor for the Executive’s office.
The new system is a free and is only
required for companies with federal contracts, according to the U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services website.
Whatcom County is not required to
use this program because the county usually receives grants and not federal funding, Helms said.
In 1996, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was absorbed by
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, created three programs to test the best
way to verify an employee’s eligibility to
work. These programs combined to become the Basic Pilot program, which was
the precursor to today’s E-Verify system.
The act requires employers to examine new employees’ documents to ensure
that they are legally able to work in the
United States.
Employers who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants can be fined as
much as $2,000 per undocumented worker, according to the Immigration Reform
and Control Act of 1986.
The system uses the information re-
ported on the I-9, Employment Eligibility
Verification, to check an employee’s eligibility to work in the United States, according to the Homeland Security website.
By law, employers can use the E-Verify program for new employees, but not
existing employees, Helms said.
Helms said using the program is like
double-checking what the county already
does to ensure that employees are legally
allowed to work in the United States.
“[It’s] nothing beyond what we already do,” Helms said. “It’s just checking
it against these other systems, like the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security.”
Whatcom County has yet to decide if
it will require contractors for county jobs
to screen their employees, Helms said.
Ferndale resident Jeff McKay said he
thinks the county should require contractors to screen their employees.
McKay said he spoke at the April 27
meeting to ask for E-Verify before the decision was made.
His wife, Merle McKay, said she
immigrated to the United States in 1970
through a marriage visa. She said she recently became a U.S. citizen.
Jeff McKay said he and his wife often
travel to Peru and have traveled to other
parts of the world, and nowhere else can a
person walk around without documentation.
“I’m not asking for a police state,” he
said, “but I don’t think that people should
just be able to walk across the border into
this country and expect to live here illegally.”
4 | NEWS
Friday • May 14, 2010 | The Western Front
Performer addresses black, gay identity
is a counselor, too, so that counselor called
my dad. It was a big deal, but nobody really
knew. There was no barometer. It wasn’t
like a kid getting caught smoking pot and
the parents ask, “Well, how long have you
been doing this?” and they say, “It’s only
my first time.” [In this case,] nobody’s
going to believe that. Or like with liquor.
There wasn’t really a barometer. And I
didn’t give up the goods. I didn’t say, “Oh
yeah I’ve been doing this for the last seven
years, thousands of times.”
Alumnus to deliver
onstage memoir,
confront bulimia
Elise Harrington | WF
Prose poet and Western alumnus
Chad Goller-Sojourner will give a oneman performance, “Sitting in Circles with
Rich White Girls: Memoirs of a Bulimic
Black Boy,” at 8 p.m. on Monday in Fraser Hall room 4.
The memoir looks at Goller-Sojourner’s childhood as a gay, black boy who
was adopted by a white family. He grew
up in the University Place suburb of Tacoma. In the story, he reflects on the identity issues he dealt with at a young age and
how they led to his struggles with bulimia.
The Western Front spoke with GollerSojourner to find out more about his memoir.
What is “Sitting in Circles” about?
“Sitting in Circles” started as a piece,
about a three-minute performance piece.
And I built that up, and I created the whole
memoir. So that’s one piece [of the memoir]. We use that title. The show looks at
a whole bunch of things. That piece talks
about sitting in circles. The show talks
about how I got in those circles.
The memoir, the show, is really about
looking at these identities that we all have.
Some people have eating disorders, and
other people have a host of other things.
Basically what’s clear is that sometimes we
have these competing identities. And at the
end of the day, what are these things that
we use as self-preserving mechanisms?
What do we do to get through tough times?
What was your childhood like?
I grew up in Tacoma, so I’m from the
Washington region. I was the youngest of
three kids and I was adopted. My parents
are white, so I was part of the first wave of
transracial adoptions. I grew up in a suburb, University Place, where it was kind
of an upscale, white area. So I obviously
dealt with race at a young age.
Identity is what the show looks at —
what it was like growing up at that time,
which is somewhat different than now.
There’s still a lot of things that are similar, but growing up in this period where I
didn’t look like anybody in my neighborhood or in my church or the social group.
So a lot of identity issues. And that was
early on.
photos courtesy of Chad Goller-Sojourner
Left, a young Chad Goller-Sojourner eats a hamburger. Right, Goller-Sojourner speaks at
Washington State University last year.
It all can be brought to the relationship with food. The older I got, the better
I kind of understood, “Oh, this is the look
of other people.” When I became addicted
to purging, I didn’t know what bulimia
was. I was, if not the first, one of the first
males in the whole country to actually go
into treatment, to let alone be a black person in treatment, which at that time was
seen as more as a white girl’s disease.
You look at a lot of self-preserving
mechanisms. It was helpful back then, but
things come at a cost. And also I thought
I would go away to college and it would
all stop. It was like, ‘OK, let me just get
through school.’ I was also gay at that
time. I wasn’t gay in the sense of how gay
people see sexuality and identity today. I
experienced it different. I liked boys the
way girls liked boys. And weight was one
thing I felt like I could control. I did actually think I was pretty successful controlling my weight for awhile.
How did you begin writing?
I certainly had done academic writing
or writing for work, but creatively, I started kind of late. In my late 20s and early
30s I moved back [to Seattle] and I found a
group here called BENT, which was a creative writing school. I started things like
telling my stories. I always told my stories.
By nature, I’m a storyteller. And to actually write them down as a whole and then to
perform them, I started doing that more at
the poetry slam or spoken word, and then
kind of expand[ed] from that.
It’s also a way for me to make sense
of what people thought was a complicated
life, which I thought was maybe complex
but it was working for me. It was interesting: in my early years, I had these identity
conflict issues. I wanted to be white. I also
thought I wanted to be a girl. And I didn’t
really want to biologically be a girl, but it
was the whole thing: I started acting like
a girl. I liked boys like girls. It was pretty
basic and elementary. So that’s the irony,
here’s somebody who aspired to be this
rich white girl. And then I got the disease
that was attached to that.
When did you first begin suffering from
bulimia?
I began throwing up in 6th grade,
which was about 1981. And then I got
caught when I was a junior in high school.
So I was under the radar for several years.
I think it was in 1986 or ’87. It was still
unheard of for boys. I didn’t see any men
or anybody that looked like me remotely
[doing it]. It was a long time. The disease
always becomes worth it. [You’re] like
with an alcoholic. It becomes worse and
you’re going to manage it. You don’t have
the alternative.
How was it discovered that you were
bulimic?
I was in 10th or 11th grade. They
thought a girl had been sneaking in to
throw up. The janitor and school counselor
had been staking it out for a few months,
actually. I got caught one day. My father
How has writing and performing helped
you cope with these struggles?
When I wrote these down and started
performing them, I was in peace with that
portion, because it had ended. What this
has done, though, is brought a complete
story in. It’s making it a complete story.
When in real life, I could look back at areas as a kid and say, ‘Well done, you’ve
made it through fifth grade.’ Or, ‘You did
this.’ Or, ‘This worked.’ It becomes a witness to a story that was very fragmented
before. In that way, it’s my witness, and it
also becomes the witness for other people,
whose talents don’t lie in writing. Lots of
people identify in a lot of different aspects
of this story.
The one thing nobody tells you about
self-preserving mechanisms is that the job
is to protect the current self, the right thenand-there self, which in my case was the
child self and had no interest in my future
self if I ended up, say, in circles with rich
white girls. It’s a cautionary tale.
What do you hope to achieve in your
performances?
My intentions throughout my process
have been to draw from my own fragmented history and to hopefully stitch it
together in a compelling body of work.
And people come. It resonates with diverse audiences and particularly those
who find themselves or loved ones in the
bodies of the voices on stage.
I think that we all have a story, and
certainly not every story is deserving of a
stage, but there is something about hearing a reclamation story. I guess my reclamation story would be that, on the one
hand, this was a horrible decision that took
havoc on my body’s mental state for years
and there’s still residual damage from it.
But it's also clear to me that, but for those
15 years hiding out in restroom stalls, I
might not be here. I don’t mean that as an
overly dramatic point, but at some point,
that was what held me together.
NEWS | 5
westernfrontonline.net | Friday • May 14, 2010
Costume designer rides own coattails to New York
Senior to mingle with pros at U.S. fashion capital
Samantha Sorden | WF
As the winner of a national award for
costume design, Western senior DeLisle
Merrill will travel to New York City May
23 on an all-expenses-paid trip.
Merrill won first place for the Barbizon Award for Excellence in Costume
Design in Washington, D.C., in April.
The festival allowed participants to attend
intensive workshops and shows to hone
their costume designing skills, Merrill
said.
“Part of the thrill of that [award] cer-
DeLisle Merrill describes her costume
collection through her sketchbook on May
13 in the costume shop in the Performing Arts
Center. Merrill uses a variety of materials,
including wire, which allows her to have
more control over the shape of her costumes.
emony was that the event was open to the
public. There was such an interesting array
of people,” she said. “I felt absolutely overwhelmed with gratitude and a great sense
of responsibility. Costume design, like
each area of the theater, is a powerful tool
in the telling of stories that must be told.”
Merrill said she will attend the Metropolitan Opera and attend Broadway
shows, mingle with designers and observe a rehearsal when she goes to New
York.
“The competition was hard work,”
Merrill said, “so for this trip, [The Kennedy Center staff is] encouraging us to
relax and have fun.”
Each character has its own theme and
design, Merrill said. The design of the costume has a lot of influence on the audience
and how they perceive the production.
Rachel Anderson, costume shop
manager at Western, said she is proud to
see Merrill doing great things.
Merrill said her next step is to
complete an internship with Glimmerglass
Opera in New York, a nonprofit summer
opera company. She will work alongside
the costume designers of two operas for
ten weeks. Merrill said she doesn’t know
much about what the internship will entail.
According to the Glimmerglass Opera website, many interns will hold senior
positions at theater and opera companies,
or continue their education in graduate
school.
The award also won Merrill $500 that
she said will go toward continuing her education after Western.
Her award-winning design was pro-
photos by Carey Rose | WF
Swatches of material are attached to the sketches of Merrill's winning costume collection.
duced for the theatre arts department’s
spring 2009 production of “She Stoops to
Conquer,” which was directed by Maureen
O’Reilly, acting professor at Western. The
play is an 18th-century comedy by Oliver
Goldsmith and was inspired by painters
and political cartoonists of the time.
“This combination of lovely and
absurd made the play a blast to design,”
Merrill said. “I got to watch as the sketches I painstakingly put together manifested into real gowns, corsets, buttons and
shoes, all with the communal effort of
dozens of people [in the costume shop.]”
Most materials in the shop are provided in production or shop budgets.
However, students pay for art supplies,
photocopies of research materials and
portfolio books.
Merrill said she finished sketches of
costumes for “She Stoops to Conquer”
in about three weeks. Once sketching is
finished, the final sketch is sent off to the
costume shop, only to be changed more,
she said.
“It was delightful doing all the research, transforming that research into
costumed characters,” Merrill said. “The
effort of everyone involved was magical.”
Merrill said she moved backstage
because of the Introduction to Costume
Technology and Design class taught by
Gregory Pulver, associate professor of
costume design.
“[Pulver] is one of the most wildly
inspirational teachers I’ve ever had,”
Merrill said. “I realized suddenly that I
was desperate to try my hand at [costume
designing.] I’d been drawing since I was a
small child, and it just seemed to fit.”
6 | NEWS
Friday • May 14, 2010 | The Western Front
Exxon-Valdez oil spill reporter speaks about Gulf spill
T
Andrew Cederlind | WF
he worst oil spill in America’s history has been
Exxon Valdez ever since the oil tanker’s 1989
crash, but the April 20 accident in the Gulf of
Mexico on a BP Amoco PLC oil rig is threatening to take
over that title.
Exxon Valdez dumped 11 million gallons of oil in
Prince William Sound in Alaska after it collided with the
Bligh Reef.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the explosion
on the BP oil rig is dumping 210,000 gallons of oil into
the Gulf of Mexico per day.
William Dietrich, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Western, covered the Exxon Valdez spill
for The Seattle Times and shared a Pulitzer Prize for his
coverage. The Western Front sat down with Dietrich to
discuss the similarities and differences of the two spills,
and how the spill might affect future legislation.
How does this spill differ from the Exxon Valdez?
[The Valdez] spill happened all at once; it was on
the surface. It was in a more enclosed area a few miles
from land, in Prince William Sound, where there’s no
current, and while it’s large compared to the Puget
Sound, its still much smaller than the Gulf of Mexico, so the oil reached the shore very quickly once the
winds picked up.
It was a rocky shoreline, and it was a northern ecosystem; very few people lived there. It was very undeveloped, so there was a lot of wildlife.
All those things are different in the Gulf of Mexico,
where oil is coming out more slowly and it’s coming out
in a different manner, as the area is much bigger.
Also, the shoreline is much bigger, with many more
people. The ecosystem is much more vulnerable because
the oil can travel further because the land is flat — it’s
wetlands and sandy beaches instead of rocky beaches and
cliffs.
What are your thoughts on the BP oil spill?
It’s not just a problem in terms of preventing these
accidents and cleanup, but changing our energy policies
so we’re not quite so oil-dependant that we’re drilling
down into areas that are a mile deep and difficult to access
and difficult to repair in case something goes wrong.
Do you think we should be pursuing alternative
energy sources?
Obama has talked about this, but Congress moves
kind of slow. I think we could do a lot more to develop
wind, solar and geothermal power to get some alternatives to what we’re doing right now.
I think it will help in terms of foreign policy so that
we would not be so beholden to countries in difficult parts
of the world.
Do you see an alternative way to avoid these
accidents without reducing our dependencies on
fossil fuels?
There’s a lot of speculation going on about what BP
and its subcontractors should and shouldn’t have done.
I’m sure we will learn things from this, because there
are things they were supposed to do that they didn’t do.
In the future, we would hope that we would be more prepared so if one of these wells blew out, we would have
a containment plan. But the underlying problem in both
Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico is that we are attaining
oil in very difficult and fragile environments in order to
keep our economy going, so the chance for catastrophic
ecological accidents is higher.
Do you think this spill will have a bigger impact
than the Valdez spill on government decisions as
far as determining our energy policies?
I think it will at least slow down President Obama’s
proposal that we open more offshore areas to drilling.
There is more opposition to that now because of this oil
spill. So it’s an attempt at a sort of compromise between
conservatives and liberals on energy policy that will make
this more difficult.
Congress will end up casting reform legislation of
photo courtesy of University Communications
William Dietrich, an assistant professor at Huxley College of
the Environment, won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the
Exxon Valdez oil spill, which occurred in 1989.
some sort that will put stricter requirements on oil companies as far as what kind of mechanisms for drilling, and
that, in turn, will probably slightly increase the price of
oil and gasoline down the road. They are a little bit more
optimistic, but it looks like we have a spill that is going
to exceed the Exxon Valdez, which was the biggest spill
in history.
It looks like you’re living through, right now, what’s
going to be the largest oil spill in history.
NEWS | 7
westernfrontonline.net | Friday • May 14, 2010
> PRUDE
Health Center:
condoms
prevent STDs
< pg. 1
McKenzie said she has noticed a rise
in the admission of polyamory in recent
years. Attitudes are changing about the
once-frowned-upon polyamory scene.
Many people are opening up about their
open relationships, she said, and still more
are putting off marriage until later in life.
The Hookup
Risks
Fitzpatrick said many Western students don’t bring protection when they go
out for a night on the town. Women don’t
necessarily think about condoms if they
are on birth control, she said.
“They think, ‘whatever happens, happens,’” she said.
In general though, Fitzpatrick said
she thinks condom use is on the rise at
Western, thanks to more comprehensive
sex education as well as fear of sexually
transmitted infections.
One reason for a change in attitudes
could be the HIV virus, she said. As a
generation that grew up after the rise of
AIDS, today’s college students may be
more wary about the potentially deadly
side effects of sex.
While the Health Center encourages
all sexually active students to use condoms in order to prevent STD transmission, in the polyamory scene, they are a
must.
“I use a condom every single time,
unless it is with my girlfriend,” said Kris
Harrell, a Western junior who said he is
polyamorous. He has a long-term girlfriend, but also engages in casual sex with
other partners.
Harrell said that even though he uses
condoms, he thinks most young people today are less likely to use and understand
Virginity
Western junior Beth White is 19 years
old and a member of the Campus Christian Fellowship. She wears a purity ring,
which she said her parents gave her when
she was 16 to symbolize her choice to
abstain from all sexual activity until marriage.
White said she chose chastity for a
number of reasons.
“I was raised that it is wrong to have
sex before marriage because of what the
Bible says,” White said. “I also know I
don’t want to get pregnant, or [contract]
an STD.”
White said promiscuity is hurting relationships because it is devaluing the idea
of commitment to one special person.
“I feel that every time you sleep with
someone, you lose a part of yourself to
them,” she said.
As a result, she said, when you find
the person you are going to marry, it is
hard to maintain a happy relationship because you constantly compare that person
to the others who came before.
White was homeschooled and said
she received no formal sex education. She
said her parents gave her books to learn
the basics of how sperm meets egg, but
the lessons came from a Christian perspective that emphasizes abstinence until
marriage.
Although White said she is strict
about her definition of virginity – no sexual activity – other Western virgins may use
the term more loosely.
“Purity has become a big thing,” said
Western senior Ashley Updike. “But there
are girls today who really think anal sex
doesn’t count.”
Fitzpatrick said she thinks a lot of
value is placed on the word “virginity,”
and as a result, many young people stretch
their definition of intercourse so they can
continue to identify as virgins while engaging in certain sex acts.
Messages of Sex
Royce Andrews, the assistant coordinator of the Sexual Awareness Center,
said that what people say and what they
do are often two different things when it
comes to sex.
Andrews said teens today are sent
mixed messages. On the one hand, media often tells teens sexual purity is virtuous. They are exposed to abstinenceonly sex education in school and given
idols like the Jonas Brothers – teen pop
singers who wear purity rings and encourage their fans to stay chaste until
marriage.
On the other hand, depictions of sex
are everywhere and there are dozens of
popular movies about teens trying to lose
their virginities, such as Superbad and
American Pie.
Duke Hookup Study
A survey of 732 freshmen and 723 seniors
at Duke reported the following:
Students predicted that 2.5 percent of the
student body had been sexually active in the
past year
Actual number who hadn’t been sexually
active in one year was 33 percent
47 percent had one sexual partner
One-third reported “hooking up” at least
once
Oral and vaginal intercourse constituted
less than half of those encounters
About 60 percent of incoming freshmen
reported they had never had sexual
intercourse
Definitions
Sexually transmitted infections “Medically,
infections are only called diseases when they cause
symptoms. That is why STDs are also called ‘sexually
transmitted infections.’ But it’s very common for people to
use the terms ‘sexually transmitted diseases’ or ‘STDs,’
even when there are no signs of disease.”
–Planned Parenthood
Polyamory The state or practice of having
more than one open romantic relationship at a time
Monogamy The condition or practice of having a single
partner during a period of time
Safer sex “Even though a lot of people say ‘safe sex’
instead of ‘safer sex,’ there is no kind of skin-to-skin
sex play with a partner that is totally risk-free.”
– Planned Parenthood
“We are taught by the mainstream
culture to be overly sexualized,” Andrews
said, “but if you buy into the whole 'sex,
sex, sex’ thing, as a woman, you are often
seen as a whore.”
Fitzpatrick said a double standard between the genders continues to exist when
it comes to sex.
“I see girls who are considered sluts
because they enjoy sex,” Fitzpatrick said.
“But boys who have the same amount of
sex, if not more, just think of themselves
as accomplished, with another notch in
their belts.”
Fitzpatrick said she doesn’t agree
with these distinctions, and thinks that regardless of gender, people should feel free
to have as much sex as they want to.
“I don’t believe in sluts or whores,”
she said.
McKenzie said most people accept
her polyamorous lifestyle, but it is not for
everyone. To be in multiple relationships
takes time, communication skills and a
infographic by Cassy Meyers | WF
The recent phenomenon of college
hookup culture is touted as proof that today’s young people are having more sex
than ever before.
However, a study released last month
suggests students may actually be less
sexually promiscuous, compared to previous generations that embraced free love
and engaged in sex without protection.
Researchers at Duke University surveyed 732 freshmen and 723 seniors this
year and found that while a third of students said they had “hooked up,” less than
half of these one-night stands involved
oral sex or vaginal intercourse.
“People have been speculating that
the hookup was becoming the dominant
relationship. We don't think it is,” said
Duke University sociologist Philip S.
Morgan, who co-authored the research.
At Western, hookup culture is present but not common, said Briana Fitzpatrick of Western’s Sexual Awareness
Center. Fitzpatrick said she knows of
a small group of people who hook up
with different partners every time they
go out.
More common at Western are people
who have friends-with-benefits-style relationships with one person, she said.
Fitzpatrick said the emotional connection in these relationships is less important than the physical one, but people
still choose to stay with one partner instead of many because they don’t want to
be viewed as “easy.”
safer sex practices.
“Girls think just because they are on
birth control, they don’t need to use condoms,” he said.
While misconceptions abound, the
national Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention report that male latex condoms
are extremely effective at preventing the
spread of all sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. In a two-year study
of couples in which one partner was HIVpositive and the other was HIV-negative,
no HIV-negative partner was infected
when couples used condoms consistently
and correctly.
However, 56 percent of teens, both
male and female, said they agreed with
the statement, “Having sex without a condom every now and then is not that big of
a deal,” according to a 2000 survey by the
Kaiser Family Foundation.
genuine love of people.
“I’m poly because I’m a romantic,”
she said. “Who doesn’t love that initial
stage of a relationship when you’re unsure
whether the other person feels the same
way and are full of that amazing chemical
giddiness?”
She said she does not want to have
to sacrifice this feeling for the sake of a
partner’s jealousy or insecurity.
“This person should be your partner
in crime for all of your sexual adventures,” she said. “Not some sort of balland-chain, or lockdown situation. If your
relationship is like that, you’re in a bad
one.”
Andrews said that whatever you
choose to do or not do, openness is the key
to a happy love life.
“I am a big advocate for open expression and communication,” she said. “If we
were more open and honest and healthy
about our sexualities, we wouldn’t have
so many problems.”
Arts & th
Spittin' rhymes to make a dime
8 | Friday • May 14, 2010 | The Western Front
Western junior Tim Satterwhite has wanted to be a rapper since he was a
child, and now with his group, "The Team," he is making it happen
groups name came to them one night and it just felt right.
“The name just seemed natural because we can really depend on each other
no
matter
what,” he said. “We do sports, so it was inspired by that, and we have
Western junior Tim Satterwhite discovered his talent for rap in second grade,
a
group
of
friends that really are a team, because it’s not just about one person.”
when he wrote his first song. Now, he is trying to work his way into the music
industry with his rhymes.
Satterwhite’s brother and stepbrother, who are both rappers, have been influences
Satterwhite said a musical family has always had a musical family, and now he
to him in the world of music by inspiring him to follow in their footsteps, he said.
is writing and producing songs with his unofficial family - his friends.
Satterwhite’s stepbrother, Luke Zader, raps under the name “Anonimous, aka
He said his first rap was about wanting to make money. He said he remembers
Tha Loco.” Zader said he thinks it’s cool that Satterwhite is following in his footsteps.
the chorus of that first song he wrote:
“I would have Tim [Satterwhite] write down little raps when he was younger,
“All I wanna do is make major moves/ I want the cash comin’ fast and I refuse
so it’s no surprise that he is now taking it to the next level,” Zader said. “But it’s
to lose/ I wanna make money.”
great to be able to show and teach him the things and mistakes I’ve learned over
Satterwhite said he came to Western for track and joined the football team
the years in the business.”
during its final year. When the football team was cut, he continued with track.
Satterwhite said he is selling a mixtape on campus for $1 to help out Relay for Life
About eight months ago, he started a rap group, “The Team,” with his best
on May 16. He said he is on a team, “Rally for Relay,” with four others this year.
friend, Josh Hauck, a senior at the University of Washington.
“I am doing Relay for Life because cancer is a disease that has affected a lot
The two have been best friends since high school, when they met through track
of people’s lives and I just wanted to help make a difference,” Satterwhite said. “I
and football, Satterwhite said. He said they got together to rap because of their
have never done it before, so I am really excited for the event.”
shared passion for music.
Satterwhite said The Team’s next mixtape, called “When Being Cool Pays the
Satterwhite’s rap name is “SRN” and Hauck’s is “F1RST.” Hauck said the
Bills,” comes out in a couple of weeks. A mixtape is a hip-hop term for an album
with other artists’ music, but original lyrics, he said.
The Team have built a name
for themselves with a recent performance at the Fairhaven Pub and
Martini Bar with Dyme Def, a local
hip-hop trio. They also opened at
and I refuse to lose.
The King Cat Theater in Seattle for
The Pack and Big Sean. The latter
is an artist recently signed to Island
Def Jam, the same as Kanye West.
Satterwhite said his musical
- Lyrics from Satterwhite's first song influences are Kanye West, Cool
written while he was in second grade Kids, Pac Div, Big Sean, Dyme Def
and his stepbrother. Hauck said he
is inspired by Andre 3000, Lupe Fiasco and A Tribe Called Quest.
Because Satterwhite and Hauck attend different
schools, they get together on the weekends to record in a
Federal Way studio that belongs to Zader. Each member
comes up with concepts for a new rap, then the two go
back and forth with verses to create a song, Satterwhite
said.
Hauck started with poetry and writing when he was
younger to get his thoughts down, which influenced his
meaningful lyrics, he said. Satterwhite’s lyrics are more
in-your-face and obvious, he said.
“We have two different styles of rapping,” Hauck
said. “Tim’s lyrics stand out, and that is the reason we’re
going to get heard, but I hope I’m the reason they keep
listening.”
Hauck said he appreciates music with deeper meanings that a listener has to think about. He said he likes to
challenge himself to write a song that takes three or four
listens to understand.
Nate Whitson, 20, a fan of The Team, said he thinks
the group represents an exciting and new approach in
today’s college hip-hop scene.
“The guys are hilarious, yet their lyrics have a fresh
twist,” Whitson said. “It is truly impressive to see how
far their relationship to music has come when compared
to their high-school days.”
Janice Ibarra, 18, another fan of the group, said she
enjoys watching The Team perform.
“No matter what area code, The Team will hype the
crowd,” Ibarra said. “Local rappers are just songs; The
Team is the remix.”
Satterwhite said that right now, performing with the
photo courtesy of Thanh Huynh
Members of The Team, Tim Satterwhite, left, and Josh Hauck, perform at the King Cat Theater in Seattle.
group is just a hobby, but he hopes to see it go somewhere.
“If us being cool could actually pay the bills, I could
Hear "The Team" on their MySpace page: www.myspace.com/srnfyrstborn
most definitely see myself doing this,” he said. “We are
Read their lyrics: westernfrontonline.net
becoming more serious as opportunities open up for us.”
Samantha O' Brochta | WF
make major moves
I want the cash comin' fast
I wanna make money"
"All I wanna do is
hug Life
westernfrontonline.net | Friday • May 14, 2010
making a name with
|9
wild style
A wall on the roof of The Color Pot on State Street provides a view of downtown Bellingham as well as a hot spot for graffiti.
photo by Carey Rose | WF
Graffiti artist and Western senior Alex Williamson goes by many pseudonyms, but
his motivations always remain the same
Keegan Prosser | WF
For Western senior Alex Williamson, graffiti is more than scribbling words on a wall
— it is a legitimate form of political and artistic expression.
Williamson said his opposition to the Iraq war is what first got him involved in sharing his graffiti with the public.
He practices wildstyle graffiti, an intricate form of graffiti writing that is hard to read
by people not familiar with it, he said.
Williamson was arrested for doing graffiti in 2003 during a protest in Seattle against
the Iraq war. Police found him with a backpack full of spray paint and stencils, and
tracked down where the anti-war stencils had been put up on walls.
He said he has been more selective about where he creates his murals since the incident.
Williamson said he does not advocate for scribbling, and thinks graffiti should be
done in an artistic, stylized way. He said it should also have a message.
Williamson has created about 60 murals around Bellingham, some of which can be
seen in the alleys north of Western’s campus. He said he likes using simple lines; spirals
are also common in his murals.
Williamson said he tends to avoid tagging small businesses that generally do not
have the money to pay for damages to their building.
“Go ahead, spray paint the side of a Walmart,” he said. “But don’t go spray paint the
side of The Bagelry.”
Williamson said most of the work he has done in Bellingham was at the request of
property owners. He has also done artwork for latte stands in Seattle and Shoreline, and
once painted a school bus for a client.
“For me, that was a fun couple of afternoons,” Williamson said. “It wasn’t really
about the pay; it was just a fun project.”
However, the police have been cracking down on graffiti artists in Bellingham in the
past two years, Williamson said.
Mark Young, spokesman for the Bellingham Police Department, said the increased
police response to illegal graffiti has come at the request of community members.
According to the Washington criminal code, criminal street-gang tagging and graffiti
is a gross misdemeanor offense. If prior infractions exist, violators could face jail time.
Williamson said if the police have enough evidence to connect a graffiti name to a
specific person, that person can be charged with all of the art found with the graffiti name.
Those fines could quickly add up to thousands of dollars in fines, he said.
Williamson has used three graffiti names in Bellingham. A low number, compared
to that of other artists. He recently retired the tag name “Soma” because it became too
well-known and others started using it.
“[Bellingham] is too small to make a name,” Williamson said. “And that is what
graffiti is all about — building a reputation and making a name for yourself.”
Williamson said he has found that most artists who associate with a crew — a team
of artists—end up getting caught more frequently in Bellingham.
He said he knows of nine or 10 artists in Bellingham who have been charged by the
police recently.
Williamson said the best time to do graffiti is in the middle of the day, when everyone
is looking. He said some artists wear coveralls and bring paint trays with them so they
look less suspicious.
photo courtesy of Alex Williamson
Alex Williamson stands by a new work near the beach in Bellingham. He said the railroad
company gave him permission, so long as it was not offensive and was "artsy and not just
scribbles."
Although there are a few graffiti crews, Williamson said he has never been affiliated
with any of them.
Josh Dahlquist, a student at Whatcom Community College, said he used to be active
in graffiti in Bellingham. Dahlquist said he is a fan of the hip-hop culture, which drew
him to graffiti.
Dahlquist said he knows of a few crews in Bellingham, which he declined to name,
but said he used to tag with just one friend.
Dahlquist said he practices a more alternative style of graffiti than most. He said he
does not use intricate lettering and that his pieces are usually pretty small.
He said he would not be a good fit for the existing crews because of this.
“I have a lot of respect for people who do large pieces,” Dahlquist said, “because
they are more risky.”
Williamson said the underground culture of graffiti is part of what makes the art unique.
“If it gets too legitimized or mainstream, it takes something away from [the art],”
Williamson said.
In hopes of rebelling against the popularity of graffiti art, Williamson is experimenting with different mediums: washable and organic graffiti.
“I think there are a lot of options out there that use non-conventional ways to graffiti,” he said.
Williamson said this includes using mud and natural dyes.
He said he has tried using sugar water and fertilizer in place of spray paint on walls.
This mixture promotes the growth of lichen, and moss in the shape of the letters he stencils, he said.
Williamson said he has also used wet rags to spell words on already-dirtied walls and
has used fertilizer and seeds to help grass grow longer on sections of a lawn.
He said both theses methods can be used to create interesting graffiti-like designs.
“I’ve never had police stop me and go, ‘Stop planting seeds,’” Williamson said.
10 | arts & life
Friday • May 14, 2010 | The Western Front
Computer Labyrinth
Andrea Farrell | WF
During the busiest times of the quarter, finding an open computer in the well-known
labs on campus can be almost impossible.
However, if students are willing to climb a few stairs, navigate around construction
or use an older computer, a seat in a nearby lab can be theirs.
There are three types of labs on campus: those maintained by Academic Technology
User Services and open to all students, labs that only majors in a department or students
enrolled in specific classes can use, and labs that are shared, meaning computers are
purchased by a department but maintained by ATUS in exchange for letting non-majors
use them.
North Campus
Old Main: Old Main is the oldest building on campus, with some of the oldest computers. Computers on campus are replaced every five years. With 2005 model computers,
room 330 is due for renovation. This summer, the lab will be stocked with new 2010
computers.
Red Square
Wilson Library: Student Technology Center employee Krista Helms said students use
computers scattered around the library, but many don’t know about room 245. The lab
is down a hallway past the circulation desk, and has some of the newest machines on
campus, with software for editing movies and photos, making presentations and creating
Flash animations.
“Sometimes we see people wandering around, looking lost, trying to find a computer,” Helms said. “We always say, ‘Hey, do you know about 245?’”
Before budget cuts, an ATUS employee would check the labs every morning to see if
there were any non-working computers. Now, ATUS requests students call into the help
desk to report broken computers, not just leave notes on them, which can delay repair
for weeks.
“Students don’t realize that rather than taking time to write a note, they could have
just called the help desk,” said Rob Galbraith, ATUS assistant director. “Then it would
already be in someone’s work queue to be fixed.”
Haggard Hall: Four labs with about 30
computers each can be found here. One
lab is currently closed for remodel and
will be reopened this summer. The three
open labs have 2008 computers and are
often full of students. If you strike out
finding a computer at Haggard, Galbraith
recommends walking across Red Square
to Miller Hall.
art building makes it perfect for students
trying to print quickly between classes.
South Campus
ATUS will begin
to set up printers
around campus
for students to
connect to from
their laptops
Communications Facility: With seven computer labs, the building has the
most labs of any building on campus.
The 150 computers in the building are
all 2009 models, but some receive more
use than others.
“Students would rather use a computer on the first floor than walk up the
stairs,” Galbraith said.
In the building, basement labs in
rooms 21, 24 and 26 and a third-floor lab in room 312 are all typically less crowded than
rooms 161, 165 and 167 on the main floor of the building.
Arntzen Hall: This is another building with computers due to be updated. Arntzen Hall
room 2 was recently closed, because the computers there became too problematic and
needed constant repairs. Room 5 computers are doing better, but the 2005 machines there
are beginning to show signs of wear as well.
“[On older computers,] we usually have to fix anything that gets hot or moves,” Galbraith said. This often means CD and hard drives and power supplies, he said.
Academic Instructional Center, West Wing: Upstairs is a Mac lab and the secondlargest PC lab on campus. It has 65 new computers.
“New building, new machines,” Galbraith said.
When ATUS buys computers, it look for machines that will last.
“We try to buy really good ones,” Galbraith said. “They have to last at least five
years.”
Currently, ATUS is buying computers for next fall. The new machines will have
four gigabytes of memory, large hard drives and medium-end processors. The high-end
processors cost too much for little improvement in performance, Galbraith said.
Campus computers
Miller Hall: Though the building may
appear inaccessible, students who dare to
walk around the maze of construction can
enter the building and access basement
labs in rooms 61, 65, 66 and 72. Rooms
61 and 65 combine to make the largest lab
on campus; it has 70 seats.
Bond Hall: Although it is currently closed
for remodel, room 319 is due for upgraded
computers next fall.
Fine Arts Building: Another often-overlooked lab is Fine Arts Building room
101, which received a batch of brand-new
Macs this year. The central location of the
illustration by Cassy Meyers | WF
arts & life | 11
westernfrontonline.net | Friday • May 14, 2010
The Pill
Giving women
a choice since
May 1960
Chelsea Asplund | WF
After 50 years, women across America have it down to a science: open the
foiled seal and swallow the tiny, discreet
pill at the same time every day.
May commemorates the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approving the birth control
pill in 1960. Known to many as simply
“The Pill,” the birth-control drug has taken many other forms throughout the years:
from basic tablets and hormone injections
to vaginal rings and skin patches.
Sexual Awareness Center coordinator
Jennifer Veliz said a variety of students
come to the center to openly talk about
their sexual health, either by acquiring
birth control or choosing abstinence. She
said this anniversary signifies the idea that
women have a choice.
“It’s always better for people to have
an option than not have an option,” Veliz
said. “People who don’t approve of birth
control or can’t use it for personal or religious reasons, they have the option of not
using it in their sexual life, and for that, I
really commend them for being vocal and
standing by their opinion [on] it.”
According to the Planned Parenthood
website, the daily pill is a combination
of estrogen and progesterone hormones,
that works with a woman’s body to prevent ovulation. Variations of the drug can
now treat acne, body aches, irritability and
feelings of anxiousness. The drug even
comes in a chewable form and minty-fresh
flavors.
Western psychology professor Deborah Forgays said the dawn of birth control,
said. “You could suddenly have a work
from a medical perspective, brought on a
life [or] a stay-at-home life. Those were
new idea of people taking medicine even
both your choices.”
though they were not sick.
Western sophomore Alix Crilly said
“[Birth control] has been the mostshe first started taking the pill seven years
researched drug in terms of [the] FDA—
ago for medical reasons. Since then, she
long-term studies, cancer risks and other
said, her reasons have grown to include
risks,” she said. “There was suddenly lots
using the pill as a precautionary measure
of solid medical data related to one spefor her choice of being sexually active.
cific medication. So, from a medical per“I feel liberated,” she said. “If a man
spective, it has been an interesting jourwants to have a [sexual lifestyle], all he
ney.”
has to do is just put on a condom, whereas
According to the Planned Parentme, as a woman, I don’t really have an ophood website, the journey began when
tion of doing that and having it be effecthe first birth-control clinic was opened in
tive. This is my life; my body. Birth con1916 by Margaret Sanger, an advocate for
trol gives me that freedom.”
birth control. It wasn’t until 1950 when she pitched
When the pill came out, it was
the idea of a contraceptive
pill to Gregory Pincus, a
time for women to have some
research biologist, that the
liberation for themselves
first experimentations of
the pill began. By 1960,
-Alix Crilly, Western sophomore
the FDA had approved
the drug, and within five
years, more than six million women were
Crilly said this anniversary reminds
taking it.
her of how lucky she is to celebrate her
Forgays, who teaches psychology
sexuality.
classes about women and gender assess“[In the 1950s], women were seen as
ment across cultures, said that from a
not being capable of having a sexuality,
historical standpoint, birth control gave
and if they did, something was wrong with
women a flexibility in their careers.
them,” she said. “In that particular time
“Birth control helped women’s place
period, men’s sexuality was celebrated.
[at work] and the reality of knowing that
When the pill came out, it was time for
you could plan your pregnancies,” she
women to have some liberation for them-
“
”
photo illustration by Cejae Thompson | WF
selves.”
According to research by the University of Southern California, the oldest
forms of contraceptive date back to 3000
B.C., when condoms were made from fish
bladders and animal intestines. Today,
latex and polyurethane condoms vary in
size, flavor and color.
Forgays said the pill also demanded
women look at their bodies differently.
She said that women beginning to look at
themselves differently didn’t necessarily
mean the advent of birth control affected
everyone the same.
“[Birth control] didn’t suddenly mean
that every woman 16 and over engaged in
free love at the drop of a hat,” she said.
“It gave women choices, it gave women
responsibilities, and it did shift the culture in terms of acknowledging women’s
sexuality. But there were so many social
upheavals going on at the same time. This
was just one part of it.”
Western senior Katie Foster said that
while birth control should be celebrated,
it should also be looked at more carefully.
“[Birth control] is introducing extra
hormones into your body. When you have
excess of anything in your body, it gets
flushed out in your urine,” she said. “And
with that, the excess is being flushed out
into sewers and consequently, into bodies
of water.”
Foster, who is majoring in environmental toxicology, said that while she
can’t personally side with either position,
she feels it is an issue most people do not
consider and one that needs attention.
“In one sense, I feel like everyone has
the right to their reproductive rights,” she
said. “But at the same time, the impact
[birth control] has on the environment
needs to be considered. It might not be as
obvious as oil and gasoline [impact], but
any human activity that impacts the environment needs attention.”
While the anniversary of birth control
may be celebrated by some, Forgays said
the pill’s controversies are still present.
“Women obviously have the right to
see their sexuality and the way it is consistent with their values,” she said. “If their
values are that intercourse is for procreation and that pleasure should be secondary if at all, it’s their choice.”
Western junior Trisia Kulaas said she
is currently not on the pill but is planning
on taking it soon. She said she takes pride
in the fact that she is able to live her life as
a college student and plan her life with her
control, not by a man’s.
“As a woman, if [there was] the same
[birth control] for a man, how much would
you trust the male to have that responsibility to take his contraceptive?” she said.
“I feel like it’s a catch 22. Men should be
more responsible in that sense, and they
should feel it is their part, too, if a woman
gets pregnant. It takes two to have sex, but
it only takes one person to take the pill.”
12
|
See more online at
www.westernfrontonline.net
opinion
Friday • May 14, 2010 | The Western Front
Viking Voices
Opinions from around campus
Huxley College is
celebrating its 40th
anniversary. What do
you think of Huxley?
compiled by Sofia Padbury
Opinions of the Editorial Board
OK, now it’s time for Washington to boycott Arizona
T
here’s no denying that racial
hatred has been spewing out
of Arizona’s government lately.
On Tuesday, just a few weeks
after Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer
toughened up immigration law,
Sierra Saunders
Sophomore
“I think that Huxley is important to
Western. Being in Bellingham and the
Northwest, a lot of people who come
here are environmentally conscious and
come here for the great outdoors that
Bellingham has to offer. So, Huxley is
definitely something that Bellingham and
Western is known for and it is a really
great program.”
Natalia Herrett
Junior
“I do think Huxley is something Western
is known for. It’s not the reason I came
here, but I think the reason Western is
so liberal is because of Huxley. I think
it is what grounds the school and what
makes it so peaceful at the same time.”
she signed into law HB 2281,
which drastically limits ethnic
studies programs in K-12 public
schools.
Oh, and the Arizona Department of
Education recently announced that teachers with ‘heavy’ or ‘ungrammatical’ accents can no longer teach English.
Are Arizona leaders trying to cause
the economic destruction of their state?
Because if Washington state lawmakers
have any sense of just how sickening this
law is, they will institute a stiff trade boycott without hesitation.
In reaction to Arizona’s recent immigration law, SB 1070, the Los Angeles
“I think Huxley is definitely well-known
around the country. It’s probably the
reason I chose to come here, to take
the environmental policy track. And I
think it’s a great addition to Western’s
curriculum.”
Charlie Powers
Freshman
“When I came to this school, I was
more interested in Fairhaven, but I am
also really interested in environmental
issues. Even though Huxley is very hard
to get into, it is very well-respected,
and I am taking a class now that some
of the professors are from Huxley and
everything has been super interesting.”
City Council voted Wednesday to ban
most official city travel to Arizona. According to the Los Angeles Times, it also
called on the city attorney’s office to determine which contracts with Arizona
companies can be canceled.
Congress members and activists are
calling for the 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star Game to be relocated out of
Arizona.
The Editorial Board was hesitant to
call for a boycott of Arizona after amendments passed to the state's racist immigration law, but now feels a statewide ban is
more than justified.
Starting in 2011, HB 2281 will prohibit Arizona state schools from offering
classes that promote the overthrow of the
U.S. government, promote resentment
toward a class or race of people, are designed mainly for students of a certain
ethnic group, or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of students as
individuals. If schools do not comply, the
state may withhold as much as 10 percent
of its monthly funding for that school.
According to the Los Angeles Times,
state Superintendent of Public Instruction
Tom Horne, who has fought for this legislation for two years, said it was written to
target the Chicano studies program in the
Tucson Unified School District.
Unlike Arizona lawmakers, the Editorial Board does not believe it is a threat to
have classes that are designed for students
of a certain heritage or that advocate ethnic
solidarity — in fact, it's a human right.
Such a diverse population should
have the right to be educated about their
rich and unique historical, cultural and
ethnic identities.
When commenting on how schools
shouldn’t segregate students into classes
that promote resentment toward whites,
Horne said, ‘It’s just like the old South, and
it’s long past time that we prohibited it.’
Wait, what? Arizona really passed a
law that’s main supporter is a guy who
thinks ethnic studies programs have the
same detrimental effect on white people
that racism had on black people in the
South? Ah, yes. How unfortunate it is that
whites are persecuted by minorities.
It is high time Washington state legislators come together to boycott Arizona
exports and ban travel to Arizona. Washington residents and Western students are
obligated to remind legislators that racial
intolerance in any state is unacceptable.
The Editorial Board is comprised
of Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Johnson,
Managing Editor Alex Roberts and
Opinion Editor Megan Jonas.
Pipeline decision contradicts city's values
Megan Mullay | WF Columnist
Wyatt Jarvis
Sophomore
Frontline
What do a hockey obsession, maple
syrup candy and oil sands have in common? They are all things I don’t understand about Canada. The latter, however, I
am becoming more familiar with.
Oil sand (also called tar sand) deposits are found in Alberta. Tar sand is a mixture of sand, clay and a heavy kind of oil
called bitumen. Canada’s oil sands potentially contain 170 billion barrels of oil that
can be recovered and mass marketed. One
million barrels are being produced each
day from these oil sands, and analysts say
this rate of production can be sustained for
100 years.
Now considered by most to be part
of the world’s oil reserves, oil sands have
been getting more attention. Improvements in technology and inflated oil prices
have made the extraction of oil from oil
sands profitable, and the process is becoming more mainstream.
The oil that’s tied up in the oil sands
is a hell of a lot. It makes Canada the
second-leading country for oil reserves,
behind Saudi Arabia. Why am I just hearing about this now? Yes, we need to work
on giving up our dependence on fossil fuels – and soon – but we can’t do it cold
turkey, and we need oil during the transition phase. Getting it from these oil sands
sounds like the lesser of the aforementioned evils; why isn’t it more popular?
On Monday, Bellingham City Council voted to renew a contract at the same
rate to continue to operate four miles of
oil pipeline that run through the city. The
pipeline transports products from the Alberta tar sands and, despite environmental
concerns voiced by the public, the council
approved it 6-1.
Most of the debate on this issue has
been about the source of the oil. Getting
oil from Alberta is a step toward reducing
America’s dependence on Middle Eastern
oil. Plus, when the oil is transported within the continent, there is no risk of oceanic
oil spills and no need for offshore drilling. Those are marks in the ‘pro’ column,
but I'm not quite finished. These pros are
vastly outweighed by cons.
The big-picture impact of getting oil
from the tar sands is awful enough for
the environment to make the process not
worth it.
When mining oil from oil sands, as
much as four times more greenhouse gas
is emitted into the atmosphere than during conventional oil production. According to a watchdog website that campaigns
against the harvesting of oil from oil sands,
www.tarsandswatch.org, the production
process for this is the greatest single emitter of greenhouse gas. This is the statistic
that gets the most attention, but it doesn’t
stop there; more issues are localized to the
delicate environment of Alberta.
Water sources in Alberta are being depleted by the process. Extracting
oil from oil sands involves using a lot
of steam. In addition to using up mass
amounts of water, the contamination of
surrounding water is a huge issue. Man-
made ponds hold contaminated wastewater that results from the process. Contaminated ponds have significant potential to
contaminate soil and groundwater, and
they are harmful for any animal that sees
an opportunity for a drink or a new habitat.
If that’s not bad enough, to extract
the oil, it is often necessary to clear-cut an
area and remove any soil or clay that lay
on top of the oil sands. This destroys ecosystems, removes habitat and eliminates
any potential for future agriculture.
Oil-sands production is too detrimental to be a viable option for obtaining fuel.
Now that the contract to operate the
pipeline has been renewed, oil from tar
sands will be flowing under Bellingham.
It is necessary to clarify that the city council only decided to keep running the pipe;
there was never any option of deciding
what comes through the pipe due to federal law.
Bellingham residents are right to be
wary of this pipeline. Having the product
of the environmental destruction running
under our feet is a great contradiction to
our collective environmental consciousness.
A community forum will be held at 7
p.m. on March 20 at the Squalicum Boathouse. Experts will speak about oil sands
and what it means to direct this oil through
Bellingham. I encourage everyone to attend and contribute. Without the voice of
some, nothing gets done for the many.
Megan Mullay is a Western senior
majoring in environmental science with an
emphasis on terrestrial ecology. Contact
Megan at westernfrontcolumnist@gmail.
com.
See more online at
www.westernfrontonline.net
Friday • May 14, 2010 | The Western Front
sports | 13
Western skimboarders make waves
Students win prestigious contest and
found successful board company
A
Lindsie Rowe | WF
breeze pushes ripples across the
warm pools left by the low tide.
The sound of footsteps becomes
quicker and a sudden buzzing is heard
as the rider nimbly takes to his board,
briskly skimming the glossy water atop
a seemingly delicate piece of plywood.
Skimboarding, a sport often
mistaken for surfing, has one basic
principle: to skim on the water for as
long as possible. It is a combination
of board sports, said Western senior
Isaac Thomas, a rider and co-owner of
Dashboard Skimboards, also known as
DB Skimboards, a skimboard production
company with its own professional team.
“It’s all your own creativity,”
Thomas said. “Skimboarding has taken
a lot of snowboarding and skateboarding tricks and used that progression, so
the difficulty is pretty similar [to skateboarding and snowboarding]. It’s really
just ‘Go out and do what you can.’”
The idea is to throw a skimboard
onto shallow water, run behind it and
jump onto the board, gliding on top of
the water and, if possible, successfully
landing a jump or trick.
Skimboarding is thought to date
back to the 1920s when lifeguards at
Laguna Beach, Calif., balanced on
long pieces of wood on shallow water,
according to the online skimboarding
resource “Skimonline.” The current form
of skimboarding originated in the 1960s
and evolved 10 years later when two
men, Tex Haines and Peter
Prietto, went on to
start Victoria
Skimboards, the first skimboard company in the world.
Thomas started skimming during
his sophomore year of high school along
with three other boys. He said he and his
friends could not initially afford to buy
skimboards, so they bought the basic
starting materials for a board, which
are plywood, fiberglass and resin. From
there, Dashboard Skimboards was born.
"Wherever you are [while
you're] skimboarding, you
have a great view. It's just
great to be outside and in
the water."
- Isaac Thomas,
Western senior and co-owner
of Dashboard Skimboards
“More and more people wanted
boards and we wanted to make them better
and better,” Thomas said. “Everyone in the
company rides, so we know what we want
in a skimboard, and we know what’s good
and what’s not good. We’re constantly
improving our board every year.”
DB Skimboards has been growing every year since its start in 2002,
Thomas said. Last year, the company
shipped out about 1,000 boards and this
year Thomas said he expects to produce 1,500. Thomas said that
DB Skimboards is
Issac Thomas, co-founder of DB Skimboard, does a trick over
a rock on May 10 out at Locust Beach on Bellingham Bay.
made up of students attending Western
and Whatcom Community College and
one University of Washington alumnus
who graduated with a business degree
and is now working fulltime for the
company.
Thomas said that with the assistance
of one manufacturer, DB Skimboards
has about six employees who run production out of their hometown shop in
Tacoma. He said they also host skimboard camps and competitions during
the summer.
Western freshman Emile Panerio
was the first DB skimboarder to win
Skimfest, a skimboarding competition
in Sacramento, Calif., this past year.
Skimfest is one of the larger competitions, with about 50 competitors.
Skimboarding competitions are
similar to skateboarding or snowboarding competitions, Thomas said. They are
based on individual performance, including a basic performance, a small feature
that could be a jump or a certain trick,
and one larger feature for the finals.
“I think the competition itself is
really fun,” Panerio said. “You see other
competitors, but you also get challenged
and put on the spot, so it’s really exciting, just like playing a normal team
sport.” Panerio said the sport’s popularity is
growing and he enjoys seeing the crowd
grow each year.
Thomas and Panerio have both
competed and won numerous competitions.
Brennan Nowak and Chris
Cummens, both Western sophomores,
said they started skimboarding last year
when their resident adviser introduced
them to the sport. Although the two have
never won any competitions, they said they
love the sport.
“Me and [Cummens] really enjoy
skimboarding,” Nowak said. “We love
going out to the beach, we love taking people out there, showing people
what [skimboarding] is all about and
how awesome it is and [that] it’s really
not that hard. People can learn within a
day.”
Nowak and Cummens both bought
their skimboards from Dashboard.
Nowak said he feels more confident
jumping onto a board with a foam top,
one of Dashboard’s distinguishing
details, rather than a board that has simply been waxed like most skimboards.
“I think Dashboard is awesome,”
Cummens said. “The whole idea behind
the company and the guys who started it
are genius. They are the epitome of male
role models to me.”
Panerio said his favorite part of
being a part of the Dashboard team is
traveling and hanging out with the its
members. The Dashboard team tours to
various locations during the summer to
skimboard, skateboard and surf to hone
their skills. While traveling, the members make a film of their explorations to
promote the sport.
Dashboard Skimboards will be
premiering its latest film, “Believe in
your Dreams,” at 7 p.m. on Friday, May
21 in the Viking Union Multi-Purpose
room. Thomas said there will be a
raffle giveaway with prizes including
a free Dashboard skimboard. The film
will present Dashboard’s pro team’s
skimboarding skills in various locations
around the Northwest.
“Being exposed to so many different natural spots in Washington or
Oregon, wherever we go, we get to go
out on the coast and see the great views
and get out in the water, and it’s just a
cool feeling,” Thomas said. “Wherever
you are [while you’re] skimboarding,
you have a great view. It’s just great to
be outside and in the water.”
Photo by Cejae Thompson | WF
14 | SpORTS
Friday • May 14, 2010 | The Western Front
Training center keeps athletes in the game
Chelsea Crump | WF
Western senior Nathan
Zahn ran about 60 to 70 miles
per week before the cross country season began in early September. He increased his running
to 80 miles per week and that is
when his hip injury became a
problem.
“I felt a sharp pain in my
leg almost every time I walked,”
he said. “I ran through the second race of the season before I
couldn’t stand it anymore."
Zahn said he consulted head
athletic trainer Lonnie Lyon in
the Athletic Training Center in
Carver Gym and began his twomonth-long healing process.
The training center is a facility in which Western athletes
can receive care for injuries sustained while competing. If the
injury needs more attention than
professionals at the training center can accommodate, the athlete
can be referred to an outside
specialist for X-rays, MRIs and
orthopedic surgery.
Lyon said he and three other
full-time staff members exclusively rehabilitate injured Western athletes.
“[Staff members at the Athletic Training Center] are the
complete health care provider
for all Western athletes,” Lyon
said.
Dr. Warren Howe was hired
18 years ago to be the team physician for all Western athletic
teams. When an athlete is injured, he said, he evaluates the
severity of the athlete’s injury
and then refers the athletes to a
specialist if necessary.
A Western athlete must
complete a pre-participation
evaluation by Dr. Howe to determine if the athlete is healthy
enough to compete on a Western
team, he said.
Starting at 5:30 p.m. on
weekdays, Dr. Howe begins
a varsity clinic at the training
room for athletes to consult with
him.
The training center is now
treating 20 Western athletes for
anything from hangnails to softtissue injuries, Lyon said.
The training center also offers rehabilitation for athletes
from other Division-II schools
who are competing at Western,
Lyon said. Athletes from other
schools have told him Western
has one of the best athletic training centers of all the Division-II
schools.
Amanda Overdick, a Western freshman track and field
member, said she injured her
ankle during practice last Friday.
“I rolled my ankle right
Photo by Chelsea Crump | WF
Western senior Nathan Zahn, left, begins electro-stimulus therapy on Western freshman Amanda Overdick.
The electro-stimulus machine sends electrical pulses through Overdick’s injured ankle to slightly stimulate the
musclesandtoincreasebloodflowintheinjuredarea.
before the approach of the high
jump,” she said.
She said she injures her ankle at least three times per year.
She went to the training room after her ankle bruised and began
to swell, she said.
To improve the range of
motion in her ankle and get
back to practice, Overdick
does a series of exercises in
the training room, she said.
This includes wrapping her
ankle with ice, using a piece of
stretchy rubber, called a TheraBand, to rotate and stretch the
muscles in the ankle, and balancing exercises.
Lyon said highly competi-
tive athletes do not like to report
injuries because they believe
they can either play through the
pain, or that the injury is not serious. However, athletes should
consult the training center if they
feel any pain or muscle soreness,
he said.
Preventive care, before an
injury occurs, is best for the athlete to maintain a healthy and
strong body, Lyon said.
“We are not trying to keep
athletes from playing and not
trying to take them out of the
game,” Lyon said.
Zahn said that last year, he
injured his iliotibial band, a thick
band of fibrous tissue that con-
"It is a constant battle to keep athletes
from getting injured. But the team that stays
healthy for the entire season is usually the
Photo by Chelsea Crump | WF
Western freshman Amanda Overdick uses a Thera-Band, a piece of
stretchyrubber,torotateandstretchheranklemusclesonthefloorof
the Athletic Training Center in Carver Gym. Overdick rolled her ankle
lastFridaypracticingthehighjumpfortheWesterntrackandfieldteam.
teamthatgoesontowinchampionships."
-Lonnie Lyon, Western head athletic trainer
nects the hip to the knee.
“I completely stopped exercising,” Zahn said, “and the pain
just kept getting worse.”
Zahn said he has now injured his flexor hallucis longus
tendon, the tendon that begins on
the underside of the big toe and
continues to the backside of the
ankle, and is treating this injury
with a heat pack.
Zahn is interning at the
training center this quarter and
puts a heat pack on his foot
while he is rehabilitating other
Western athletes.
This treatment will continue
until the pain in his foot subsides
or a new treatment is decided
upon, he said.
Lyon said he wants to keep
Western athletes feeling good
and performing at their best.
“It is a constant battle to
keep athletes from getting injured,” Lyon said. “But the
team that stays healthy for the
entire season is usually the
team that goes on to win championships.”
Sports | 15
westernfrontonline.net | Friday • May 14, 2010
Cyclists place fifth at nationals
Jen Sawyer | WF
The Western cycling team
took fifth place overall for the
second year in a row at the
USA Cycling Collegiate Road
National Championships last
weekend in Madison, Wis.
The Vikings’ biggest collegiate conference rival, Whitman
College, finished in first place.
“Last year, we got fifth
overall, too, but we had better placing in the events,” said
Western senior and cycling
team president Ben Rathkamp.
“We had some really strong riders graduate [last year], but this
year, we just had more spread
out talent.”
The collegiate road nationals is comprised of three events,
including a 72-mile road race at
Blue Mound State Park, a short
criterium race course around
the capital building in Madison,
and the team time trial at the
Trek Bike Corporation headquarters.
The Vikings finished in the
top 25 for the road race and
received more points than any
other team for the event.
“The road race was most
memorable because the weather
was really bad,” junior Logan
Wetzel said. “It was 40 degrees
with rain, wind and fog. It was
miserable, but satisfying.“
Wetzel said 38 people –
half of the race participants –
dropped out of the road race
due to the harsh weather conditions, while 38 people finished.
“The weather probably
played to our advantage because
we train in crappy weather like
that all the time,” Rathkamp
said, “so the rain wasn’t as big
of a deal to us.”
Rathkamp said the team
typically sends four men and
four women to national races,
but this year, it sent one woman
and four men.
For the criterium race,
Wetzel placed 10th, sophomore
Steve Fisher placed 16th, sophomore Ryan Short got 24th and
Rathkamp received 53rd.
Wetzel, Fisher, Short and
Rathkamp raced together in the
team time trial and placed second with a time of 38:38.
Courtenay McFadden was
the only woman from Western
to compete at nationals. She
placed 11th in the road race and
15th in the criterium.
“The biggest thing that
could’ve been better for the
team was getting more women
involved,” Fisher said. “We
were only able to bring one
woman, so we didn’t score as
many points from the women’s
side of things.”
Fisher said that if a full
team of four women participated in the timed trial race, even
if they finished last, Western
would have earned enough
points to place third overall during the championship weekend.
“We have a few women
on the team now, so there are
some that will hopefully move
up [in competition levels], but
it would be nice to have more
women on the team,” Wetzel
said. “They don’t have to be
the fastest or most experienced
racer.”
Photo courtesy of Amara Boursaw
Western sophomore Steve Fisher, left, and junior Logan Wetzel compete
in the USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships.
Men's lacrosse falls in national championships
Andrew Cederlind | WF
Photo by Benjamin Woodard | WF
Western sophomore Colin Gaddy shoots a lacrosse ball into a goal on the Wade King Student Recreation
Center field. He and his teammates practiced three times a week before the national tournament.
The
Western
men’s
lacrosse team was eliminated from the Men’s Collegiate
Lacrosse Association national
championships after its 8-11
loss in the first round to the
Davenport University Panthers
Tuesday, May 11 in Denver.
Western started off slowly
in the game at Dick’s Sporting
Goods Park, scoring one goal
in the first half, compared to
Davenport’s four. In the second
half, the Vikings matched the
Panthers with seven goals, but
it wasn’t enough to make up
the deficit.
“We’re a second-half
team; we woke up kind of
late,” senior defender Adam
Extine said. “They were cocky,
and they were surprised we
were sticking with them.”
In the match, Western
senior
midfielder
Cody
Bludorn had two goals and two
assists; senior attacker Sean
Finley had two goals and one
assist; senior attacker Willy
Delius had two goals; sophomore attacker Kian Farahani
had one goal. Extine said Western’s
defense kept the team in the
game, but Davenport’s offense
was too strong.
“Their mids controlled
most of the game,” he said.
“They were getting up to their
attackers who were letting it
rip.”
Davenport advanced to
the final four, where the team
will play the University of St.
Thomas. The tournament ends
Sunday, May 16.
16 | sports
Friday • May 14, 2010 | The Western Front
Mariners: What to do with Junior?
Sweeney, not Griffey, is M's
veteran who needs to go
Jeff Twining | WF Columnist
When the Mariners decided to re-sign
Ken Griffey Jr. last offseason, I was excited. Nevertheless, I remained skeptical that
Griffey could repeat last year’s success. It
was the general consensus that if Junior
couldn’t produce, the Mariners needed to
swallow their pride and let him go.
I never thought that discussion
would begin in May, nor did I think it
would culminate with a leaked report
that Junior was asleep in the clubhouse
during a recent game and missed a pinchhitting opportunity.
Andrew Mitchell believes Griffey is
ruining his legacy with his poor offensive
effort, and the sleeping incident was the
last straw. I do agree the Mariners need to
release an aging designated hitter, but it is
not Griffey; it’s Mike Sweeney.
I wholly understand why, despite
Griffey's lack of offense, the Mariners
want to retain him. He is a local icon, one
of the best, all-natural superstars baseball
has ever seen. The Mariners made the decision to re-sign him, and they owe it to him
to see it through to the very end, or at least
through the rest of the Griffey promotions.
With all this talk of releasing Griffey,
few have discussed the idea of releasing
Sweeney. I don’t understand why we’re
still hanging onto this guy. He is a lifelong
Kansas City Royal, can only hit against
lefties and seems to always ground out
with the bases loaded and a tied game in
the ninth or tenth inning.
After Larry Larue of the Tacoma
News Tribune reported that the Mariners
were close to releasing Griffey if they
couldn’t force him into retirement,
the Mariners’ clubhouse scrambled to
cover up whatever may have happened.
Sweeney organized a players-only team
meeting in an attempt to call out the two
players who leaked the story.
His solution: publicly chastising the
anonymous players for talking to the
media and then standing up and challenging either of them to a fight. Wait, this is
our good-character clubhouse guy?
We’ve reached the point where the
Mariners need to stop worrying so damn
much about all the camaraderie they have
in the clubhouse, because it has become a
detriment to the quality of play on the field.
Since clubhouse character doesn’t win
ballgames — which the Mariners desperately need to do — it is time for Sweeney
to go. Griffey? He can stay…for now. The
Mariners at least owe him that much.
Jeff Twining was a four-year member
of the Western football team and is double
majoring in
journalism and communication. To reach Jeff, e-mail front.sportscolumn@gmail.com.
Time for Seattle
baseball legend to retire
Andrew Mitchell | WF Columnist
The first Seattle-based team I fell
in love with growing up was the Mariners, and for really only one reason: Ken
Griffey Jr.
Many Seattle fans consider Griffey
the most exciting and most talented
athlete the city has ever seen, for hitting
more than 500 home runs in a Mariner
uniform and leading the Mariners to
multiple playoffs in the 1990s.
But those days are long behind us. It
pains me to say this, but I think it is time
for the Seattle-Griffey relationship to end.
We just do not have the time to let him
continue to underproduce as badly as he is
currently, because the Mariners are in last
place in the American League West.
That is just from the perspective of
wanting to win and put the best team forward, but I am also saying this because I do
not want Griffey, one of my personal heroes
growing up, to embarrass himself anymore.
Griffey, who has hit 630 home
runs in his storied career, has yet to hit
a single home run for the Mariners this
season. He has almost as many strikeouts
as he has hits, and only two of those hits
have gone for extra bases.
This is not the Griffey we want to see.
I don’t want Griffey to suffer through such
a low point as he exits the game that he
infused so much excitement into for years.
I want this to end sooner, rather than later,
so it does not get more depressing.
Griffey plays a valuable role on
our team as an older player who helps
with chemistry between the players, but
winning games is the best way to foster
chemistry and unity, and Griffey is not
part of the solution on the field.
Make him an assistant coach or
bench coach if you still want him to have
that impact, because the Mariners already
have enough hitters floating around .200.
At this point, I would much rather
see a young player like Michael Saunders
or Matt Tuiasosopo get a chance to hit.
Griffey does not have the upside that they
do, and those players have their best years
in front of them, not behind them. Let's end the charade and let this
legend leave the game without having to
decay so rapidly before our eyes.
Ken Griffey Jr. will always have a
place in the Seattle sports fans’ hearts as
the first professional athlete we adored.
But I would rather have only good
memories of “Kid Griffey.” He is not a
kid anymore. We have to let those memories go and move on.
Andrew Mitchell is a journalism major and has been a sports fanatic all his
life. To reach Andrew, e-mail front.sportscolumn@gmail.com.