— STAFF EDITORIALS —
Widespread panic, few facts
“They’re trying to take away alcohol from Senior Board events!”
“They want to take away beer from Ryan’s!”
“They’re trying to make Xavier a dry campus!”
But guess what: they’re not.
There’s a growing concern with the administration that students are blowing little rumors about this issue out of proportion, and we at the Newswire think that’s completely justified.
We’re totally mystified about where some of these rumors are starting, and we’re extremely disappointed in many students for propagating rather outrageous rumors without bothering to take any steps to discern their validity.
As you may have noticed, the Newswire is strongly in favor of challenging and evaluating the decisions and policies of the administration, but we think it is incredibly irresponsible that many uninformed students hysterically proclaim completely unsubstantiated rumors to anyone who will listen.
We’ve talked to a few students recently who seem concerned enough about the alcohol “crackdown” on campus to stage a sit-in in the President’s office, yet they are completely unable to send Fr. Graham an email.
The Newswire recognizes that it is our job to investigate rumors, and we will certainly continue to do so, but we also want to encourage students to put a stop to all this rumor-mongering.
Furthermore, if you did hear that Xavier was going to be a dry campus and you were legitimately concerned about it, you owe it to your fellow students to actually address your concern through proper channels, rather than complaining to your friends and furthering falsehoods:
You could write to the student newspaper (We are assured that the administrators do actually read the Newswire).
You could attend the SGA senate meetings and voice your concerns at the public forum (The senators have lunch with a different administrator basically every day).
You could send an administrator an email (Administrators are actually much
more adept at checking and responding to emails than many academics).
And you MUST attend the Student-Administrator Forum at 1:30 p.m. on Monday,
Dec. 3, in the Gallagher Student Center Theatre.
For all the student complaints and whines directed at the administration, it would be criminal for us students not to show up.
If you, like the students featured in our Mall Talk feature, feel that the administration do not take a vested interest in you, then show up on Monday and let them know.
We must respond to their efforts to reach out to us.
Attention would-be vandals:
With extra-budgetary funding that SGA ear-marked for a solution to an ever-growing problem, the Newswire staff is taking steps to ensure the proper use of its publication.
For starters, we have hired security guards, a brute squad and a brute squad of security guards to monitor newspaper racks on campus.
They have been authorized to subdue any wayward hall directors, adolescent pranksters and the like.
Also, future issues will include warning labels, like “Not a Toy” and “Flammable (and inflammatory).”
We hope that these measures will help to affirm the Newswire’s identity: a weekly student newspaper that informs and is informed by the Xavier community.
Without these efforts, it is doubtless that policy-makers will continue to rightly refer to segments of the student body with a tone reserved for juveniles.
Consumerism kills culture
Andrew Chestnut
Editorial Columnist
The world of music is often referred to as an “industry,” which gives testament to the broad misconception of what music has become (an industry) rather than what it should be (an art form).
I recently read an article that is still bothering me to this day.
Rock critic Chuck Klosterman wrote in “Esquire” (and I’m paraphrasing) that country music and rap “music” are currently more successful than rock music because country and rap are visibly attached to a certain lifestyle.
“When someone says they like “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy),” by Big & Rich, or “I Go Back,” by Kenny Chesney, it actually says something about who they are and how they think,” Klosterman wrote.
“When someone says they like the Hives or Incubus or Modest Mouse, I don’t know if it says anything... I mean, what does liking Linkin Park mean? I suspect the only thing it means is that you like Linkin Park.”
He is absolutely 100 percent correct. You can tell a lot about a person by what sort of music they listen to, assuming that music is country, rap or emo.
But rock music seems to be the only genre that doesn’t necessarily denote something about the lifestyle of its listeners (in most cases).
The thing that disturbs me is that Klosterman sees this as the central problem that is destroying rock ‘n roll, whereas I think it’s best thing about rock.
Sure, rock is losing out commercially—fans are doubtlessly more likely to buy an album if they feel like their lifestyles are connected to it.
But Klosterman is missing the entire point of music, as many people often do, which is not to sell as many albums as possible.
The point of music is to be good.
When artists—e.g. record companies—concern themselves with relating to consumers (and believe me, a great deal of attention is paid to marketing bands in a very precise, predetermined way), they lose sight of what you would think would be the artists’ original goal, which is to make good music.
Any effort put towards marketing is effort taken away from creating quality songs.
This fact makes “lifestyle” music inherently bad, which means if there is any evidence rock is not “lifestyle” music, it would suggest that rock is better than country or rap.
Which it is.
I’m not sure who is to blame for this, the consumers or the “industry.”
I would guess the consumers, who aren’t exactly getting more culturally intelligent.
The industry is going to make whatever people buy, and that goes for all industries—television, film, sports, diapers, whatever. And we as consumers aren’t demanding better quality.
More effort is put toward marketing movies (getting people to believe they want to see them) than is put it toward making quality movies that people would want to see because they are good.
People vote for a president based on who they relate to more, not who will be the better president (whether they like to admit it or not), thus candidates spend more time trying to be likeable and less time conveying a reasonable platform.
They’re all slices of the same proverbial, overproduced pie.
The most unsettling thing about all of this is that most of the people I bring this up to acknowledge it, but don’t seem to care. Or think it’s a good thing.
Culture is dead, and we have killed it.
It’s about giving, not the getting
Mfreke Akpaninye
Editorial Board
I hope all of you had a great and wonderful Thanksgiving break. I spent most of mine eating turkey and gravy, sleeping past noon and watching college football (GO MIZZOU TIGERS). For the most part I had a good break. However there was one thing that seemed to catch my attention in a weird way: all the commercials and hype about “Black Friday.”
It seemed like every store possible had a special sale or clearance for the day after Thanksgiving. Stores were opening as early as 3 a.m. on Friday and some even opened Thanksgiving Day. I am sure you watched your local television stations at home and saw news stories in which people waited hours for stores to open. I know that some of you even stood in those store lines to get an early start on Christmas shopping.
This made me wonder if “Black Friday” is more of a holiday than Thanksgiving. People seem to be more excited about “Black Friday” than the day we are supposed to be celebrating. Just think about it: People wait hours in the dark and cold of the early morning hours to be the first in line as if they are waiting for tickets to the Rolling Stones. Stampedes happen as the doors open to let customers inside. You can witness the madness on YouTube.
The clips remind me of the scene in “The Lion King” when Simba is running away from the stampede of wildebeest and Mufusa saves him and gets trampled to death.
I think we need to re-evaluate our priorities as a society and place value on things that are more important. It’s called “Thanks”giving for a reason.
I remember when I was younger and in elementary school we had to write essays about what we were thankful for. Usually I wrote about things along the line of my family and being healthy and alive. Nowadays I wonder if kids are writing about how they are thankful they got the newest iPod or the newest gaming system.
I am definitely not saying that I am totally against having nice things or shopping every now and then, but I think that the craziness of Black Friday has gotten out of hand.
When shoppers are getting violent in the stores over Tickle Me Elmos and Cabbage Patch Kids, I think it’s time to take a major chill pill. Seriously, Tickle Me Elmos? I don’t understand what drives these parents to get physical over a toy that their child might play with for a month or two. Maybe it is just the fact that I am not a parent yet, but I know that I will never wait in the dawning hours of the morning for a freaking toy.
I would like to propose some thoughts. Would it be a crazy idea if stores opened at regular hours on the Friday after Thanksgiving? What if we did away with “Black Friday?" Would the world suddenly end? I think we need to shift our gears back to family values instead of material ones. When it’s all said and done, it isn’t the things you have in life but the people you share them with.
— LETTERS TO THE EDITOR—
Insulting Insert
We would just like to comment on the rather offending insert that was added into the Nov. 14 issue of the Newswire. Normally we throw away the inserts because they are nothing more than a Geico ad.
That edition, however, was different and we stopped mid-toss into the trash.
Now we wish we would have placed this where it belongs.
We don’t know who wrote this but first off they have way too much time on their hands to print enough copies and place them into each individual paper.
We’ll admit, at first we thought that the insert was funny, until we got to the part about “Zeus . . . transforming all of the women [at Xavier] into hideous creatures.”
This was uncalled for. We’re sorry if whoever wrote this has been unlucky in the aspect of relationships while here at Xavier, but that is not a reason to make derogatory comments about over half the Xavier student population.
And may we just remind the anonymous writer that there are actually more females on campus than males, and that he just ticked off said female students so it would appear that his unlucky streak is going to continue.
We’re not saying that we think that the Newswire staff condoned this offensive piece of literature, but we are suggesting that they have a closer supervision on the delivery of the paper.
Anne Ogle | 2010
Brie Cupp | 2010
Vicky Gomez | 2010
Sara Blomenberg | 2010
Dr. Wong Was Wrong
As a senior social work major with a gender and diversity studies minor, I feel compelled to respond to the article “Thinking Beyond Appearance” by Dr. Wong.
While I understand that Dr. Wong is attempting to state the importance of thinking of diversity in terms of intelligence and personality instead of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, etc., I believe one key element is being lost.
He says, “We bring more to Xavier than our skin color and genetic make up. We bring to Xavier our special personality, unique individuality and separate experiences. We are much more than a label.”
But what if I am a woman? What if I am homosexual? What if I am black?
Am I supposed to blend in with the rest of our melting pot society and not allow those aspects of my heritage, background, lifestyle, and, most of all, personality, shine?
To say that we should no longer define ourselves by labels, I understand.
However, to say that we should not overcome discrimination by helping people rise out of those labels is wrong.
Discrimination will not end if we merely suppress these important aspects of our soul.
Discrimination can only end when society compensates those who have been discriminated against with the proper forms of respect.
Is it wrong to allow a safe place for women to come when they have been sexually harassed? Is it wrong to allow a student, who might not have had the opportunity otherwise, to receive a higher education with the proper legislation?
More importantly, is it wrong that Xavier is making efforts to show the proper forms of respect to end discrimination?
In a perfect world, equality would be able to happen as Dr. Wong describes. Unfortunately, in 2007, our world has not come even close to perfect.
Women are still receiving 75 cents for every dollar a man makes. African Americans are still disproportionately represented in the areas of homelessness, poverty, addiction and lack of education.
I am proud to attend a school that will fight to end discrimination the right way.
I am proud that there are student organizations that have done amazing things because of their labels.
Thank you, Black Student Association, for rising up to show us what real leadership looks like. Thank you, Xavier Alliance, for showing Ann Coulter what true concern for our nation is. Thank you, Women’s Center, for giving all women a safe place to feel accepted, cared for and welcome.
Thank you Xavier, for doing the hard things that show the true spirit of social justice.
Lauren Hendrickson | 2008 President of Student Social Work Organization
View From The Cheap Seats
I am so tired of standing in the small section of cheap seats offered to the students.
After spending nearly $30,000 a year to go to this school you would think we could get better seats.
But that isn’t where my beef is.
When I stand there among the “you... you... you suck!” X-treme Fans and look around Cintas Center, I notice the open seats that exist around half court only a few rows back.
These are the seats of some rich old man who only shows up to a Miami or UC game.
This man doesn’t care how much season tickets cost or that his seats are constantly empty.
Why is this?
It is because there is no place for people to dump their unused tickets so that someone else can use them.
That old man who doesn’t plan on going to a Coppin State game isn’t going to stand outside and scalp them. He won’t even give them away to a 5-year-old kid who would give the world to see a game from those seats.
I have never sat courtside or even around mid-court, but I can stand slightly buzzed off Bud Light and notice that there is a problem with our old season ticket holders.
And that is my beef!
Tom Skiba | 2008
Darren LaCour
Op-Ed Editor
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