PC|Bluestocking

It’s safe to say that here at Presbyterian College, diversity is to be expected. Even though the title of the school refers to a specific denomination of the Protestant side of Christianity, anybody is welcome to enroll. It’s also safe to say that the classes are challenging and engaging. However, a strange thing occurs inside young students as they find the version of college that they appreciate the most. Each student finds their way to the houses or some social event and answers that age old question.

What is your major?

Even though every student at this school had to answer that question for every relative, high school friend, employer, doctor, dentist, and lawyer before they even finished high school, there’s something about approaching a group of strangers and telling them what you plan to study for four years that is different. When I tell people that I’m an English Major I just get the knowing nod. “He’ll probably be a high school teacher, maybe a college professor if he sticks with it. He’ll be middle to lower middle class.”

While all those things are true, it’s interesting that they immediately become who I am. For instance, I’ve recently met a few people that plan to become Medical Doctors. I immediately thought of how stressed out they would be in the future. I thought about the cost of medical school, the salaries they would get in exchange for time with their families, the crucial decisions they would have to make about patients without getting emotional, etc.

I caught myself. I thought, you know maybe that doesn’t happen to everybody. Maybe that’s just the doctors on television. I have all these pre-conceived notions of what a doctor is, then I project them upon people with a sort of patronizing attitude. I don’t know if that’s how everybody is, but I’m sure I’m not the only one.

So I decided not to ask people of their majors, not to think about them if I already knew them, and to just try to understand them as just another student. It sounds elementary. I’m sure you’re thinking right now that you don’t judge people based on such a trivial thing as that. Yet deep down I also know that there is a culture clash between, say, English Majors and Math Majors, or Biology Majors and Religion Majors, because I’ve seen it. So maybe this article is a little too much like The Breakfast Club or Empire Records, trying to play the liberal card. That’s not my intention, it’s just an observation I’ve made that actually holds pretty well. I think that maybe breaking those preconceived notions about the other person because of the major may actually be the final frontier.

    I don’t know why, but I seem to be doing more campus articles than usual and it’s really annoying me.  So I’ll break my vow and try for fun with this article, which is little more than a bunch of announcements relating to two liberal groups on campus.

Announcement 1:  PC Democrats exist.  I bet you didn’t know that, considering all the conservative students on campus who drown us out, but PC Dems meets every other Tuesday at 8:15 in the CIH classroom (we last met September 29th), and we have many activities lined up including t-shirts that make fun of Joe Wilson (and other things but they’re not as important as t-shirts that make fun of Joe Wilson and really, what more could you want from a liberal group in SC?).

Announcement 2: There’s another group that exists on campus, and it leans to the left too.  You’ve probably seen their signs (the green circles with a white equal sign and it has SAFE ZONE written on it).  SPECTRUM, sponsors the SAFE ZONES (yes I must have all this in caps) on campus, and a SAFE ZONE is a room, office, or space created with teh idea of being a “safe haven” for anyone – an area free of judgment, purely confidential, and open to all people regardless of sexuality, gender, religion, age, race, nationality, ethnicity, or ability.  I really wish I had a picture of it, but like I said earlier green circle, white equals sign, SAFE ZONE.

Announcment 3: Also about SPECTRUM.  There will be a presentation about the Stonewall Riots on October 7 at 7:00 PM in Whitelaw Auditorium in the basement of Richardson.  SPECTRUM will be presenting on these riots which sparked the gay revolution in America, both the events of the riot and their significance.  It will be educational–actually it won’t be educational if that will convince more people to come, and there will be food so freeloaders are welcome.  Afterward, there will be a panel discussion with Dr. Bebber, Dr. Frey, and an idiot* who is really quick to remind people that he’s president of SPECTRUM.

Quick rundown, PC Dems exists, Spectrum does too and has two projects going on at the moment which are SAFE ZONES and Stonewall.  So if you lean to the left and aren’t suffering from an ear infection, then come.  Oh, and SPECTRUM meets Thursdays at 7:30 in the CIH Classroom, but we aren’t meeting the first of Octover.

*The idiot is myself, David Nguyen (I told you I’m quick to remind people I’m the president of SPECTRUM).

Last Thursday, Panhellenic Council put on Little Black Dress to support HPV awareness at New Bailey Stadium. This event was attended by the majority of all greek women on campus from each sorority as well as all women who are interested in joining a sorority and others who were interested in the HPV awareness that it provided. Panhellenic did a wonderful job of hosting the event, and despite the humidity the women all looked magnificent in their little black dresses. Most decided to spice up their attire by pairing this wardrobe staple with eye-popping footwear.
The speaker, Dr. Belcher, was effective in getting out the facts about HPV. It wasn’t clear to me why he was chosen to be the speaker for this event, other than the fact that his title is “Doctor”. However, he did a swell job with the circumstances, i.e. a man speaking about HPV to a large group of women in late September heat who feel uncomfortable that he is speaking to them about this topic in the first place. So snaps to him I say! All in all it was a lovely event and Panhellenic Council did a superb job with it.

Natalie Heath and Jessi Prestia at the event

Being left-handed is one of the best integrated minorities. It is considered as a “difference”, or people would just not bother noticing “Oh, you’re left-handed” (which they do). Another reason would be that you never hear “Oh, you’re right-handed”. I’ve made my point clear.
I have been left-handed for 23 years. My parents, seeing I couldn’t get the whole cutting-paper thing bought me special scissors when I was little. For the rest I adapted myself. I take notes at a funny angle, annoying my right-handed neighbor who is sharing the same desk. I continually mix up my left hand from my right hand, or leg, or side. I get particularly low scores at bowling. But I just found out that while I was taking the bowl with my left hand I placed my legs as a right-handed person would. The thing is, I’m constantly torn between my intuition (like picking up the bowl with my left hand) and my observations (“Oh, I should place my legs like the others do…”).
A right-hander does everything with his right hand. A southpaw has to be a little ambidextrous: I don’t always find lefties-friendly scissors and in general, most objects, devices and pretty much anything you can imagine has been made for right-handers. I don’t have a problem with that; we only represent (about) 10% of the population after all. I can never read the label on a pen from the moment I’m writing with it, but really, I don’t mind. My mouse is running on the right hand side of my computer, fair enough. So apart from the problem of cups, I have no problem with my condition. Cups? Imagine a cup on which you have a drawing. You take it, with your right hand, and you’re really happy because you can see the drawing. I grab the handle with my left hand, and all I am confronted with is that blank, plain, dull side of the cup. Oh yeah you never thought about that.
So, where am I going with these stories about left-handed people? I would argue that it’s like being a foreigner in a country whose language you know, whose morals and manners you believe you know, a country in which you feel comfortable even though you haven’t seen a croissant for a while. Being a foreigner is like being left-handed because it’s not handicapping, it’s not traumatizing, however, you feel a gap. I speak English fairly well, I’m used to traveling, but the same way I’ll never see the picture on my cup, I will miss the point of many jokes because I lack the cultural and common endowment I am expected to have. I am naturally incredibly clumsy, a gift from left-handling things. The same way, I can be incredibly clumsy with words, if I’m not aware of double meanings, for example. I guess I could resume my experience as a foreigner like that: all is going well, if it were for some details that leave me facing my alienness. My dad was forced to write with his right hand after he picked up the pencil with his left one. They took out the sinistra out of him and he now writes with his right hand…but draws with the left hand. I think that’s a good image of how international students, or faculty members, are making their way here.

Remember my article last week about Dr. Gordon, our new Biology professor?  Probably not, since I don’t think anybody knew about the website but continuing on with that idea, I conducted another interview with Dr. Peterson, our new adjunct Physics instructor.

Dr. Peterson did his undergrad work at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and his graduate work at Auburn University in Alabama.  His major concentration is in nuclear fusion, but has since moved away from saying  it’s, “too technical to be practical.”  His focus has moved toward sustainable energy, especially in the area of designing houses to reduce energy use (using white shingles instead of black to reduce the use of air conditioning, etc.).  In that regard, he couldn’t have chosen a better year to come, since our CEP calender is very green-centric.

Dr. Peterson came to Presbyterian College because he liked the idea of a small school and the increased contact with students.  When asked how he liked it here he replied, “I really like it…It would be a nice school for me to end up at” (he isn’t on tenure track).  He also stated that it offered freedom in class and research to pursue his own goals.

Finally, when asked about what activities he would like to be involved in, he showed interest in the Bike Club at PC.  Not only has he ridden his bike across the country in two stages, he plans to bike along the coast of Australia, and exressed hope to bike across other continents as well. It seems he would feel right at home (or on the road??) with PC’s Bike Club.

You may  have noticed something about our landscaping around campus – it hurts.  One may even go as far as to say that perhaps, among all the things that deserve conspiracy theories, these sharp prickly bushes lining our sidewalks do as well.  It’s been said that these bushes may have been intentionally planted to bring pain and hardship to our drinking crowd.  There seems to be some logic to such a claim, especially when these bushes line both sides of the sidewalks.  So, friends, you must choose whether to believe that these bushes were planted by the man in order to persecute our drinking brethren, or whether it is just a mere coincidence that painful bushes are guarding sidewalks all across campus.

In a move to promote net neutrality and ensure that all people in the United States have free, unhindered use of the internet, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski proposed that the FCC turn its principles of network openness into official regulation. He also recommended adding two more principles to those that already exist, bringing the total number to six. The original four rules can be summarized as follows: users cannot be prevented from accessing lawful internet content, applications, and services by network operators, and users also cannot be prohibited from attaching non-harmful devices to the network.

Genachowski’s new rules include a rule to prevent internet service providers from discriminating against particular internet content or applications, but while allowing reasonable network management. The second rule is to ensure that all information is released to the users regarding the internet service providers’ implemented network management policies. AT&T and Verizon Networks have already accepted the newly proposed regulations; however, their approvals only apply to their wired networks, while Genachowski’s rules would apply to both wired and wireless networks. They argue that the rules are too difficult to implement for wireless networks because of the contraints on wireless network capacities.

The Internet is not a series of tubes.

Right under all of our noses America has already turned Socialist and many never even realized it. A gradual process spanning from the late 1800’s to today has created a society that many in the early 1900’s would agree is Socialism. Socialism even at its peak in America has never faired well in elections or with the general sentiments of the American public. Maybe it was the Red Scare and fighting the USSR or its the lack of a cap on the success of an individual in a laissez faire system but socialism has never had the foothold in America as it has had in many other sovereign, industrialized nations. Many people may not realize it but socialist candidates are not considered third party runners in many nations including most countries throughout Europe and even Canada. The last election to have a major socialist candidate in the United States was in 1912 with Eugene V. Debs.

The reason America would seem socialist by early 1900’s standards is by the platform that the socialist party of 1912 ran on. Many of the promises stated by Debs during his 1912 run for president have been carried out and still continue through this day and age.  Some of these promises include:

1)Eight hour work days

2)The conservation and development of natural resources

3)Establishing minimum wage

4)The separation of the Bureau of Labor from the Department of Commerce and Labor

5)Child labor laws

While it may seem like these aren’t much because we have been living with them all our lives, these are the issues socialists fought so hard to change in the early 20th century. Many other similarities include the rights of workers and universal suffrage for all citizens of the United States. While we may not think we live in a socialist society today, Debs would look at today and see a society that has progressively moved towards a more socialist agenda. Among his other promises includes the first time a universal healthcare plan was ever proposed in the US.

When looking back we can see that these issues have been debated and fought about for nearly 100 years. It makes you think that if so many policies from the socialist party have been enacted from 1912, how much farther can we go?

If you are interested in visiting and staying in Mexico City, this is your chance to do it!

The 2010 Maymester trip offers you the opportunity to visit the archeological region of Palenque, as well as the ancestral Mayan Ruins in Yucatan. PC Students would not only have the opportunity to visit Mexico City, but also the beautiful Yucatan Peninsula , Oaxaca, San Cristobal, Montealban and other Native towns, all in a low-cost trip to Mexico.

The Department of Modern Foreign Languages is glad to invite you all to an informational meeting on September 30^th held by Dr. Margarita Ramirez and Dr. Clinia Saffi. The meeting would take place in Neville 207 at 6 pm. Hopefully we’ll see you there!

I laugh when people tell me that America has the best health care system in the world.  Us, the US, the nation that led AIDS cartwheel through the gay community while Reagan took the research funding to the guillotine, the nation that lets the uninsured into poverty should they have the ill-fortune to acquire ill health, the nation who decided to apply free market capitalism to the universal right of health.  I could go on.  So I will.

The United States has an absurdly high expenditure on health care.  Spending roughly $4,178 per capita compared to Switzerland, our next highest competitor that spends $2784–and the median for the nations polled is about a thousand dollars lower.  This is for a variety of reasons including: 1) skyrocketing costs for medical technology and prescription drugs, 2)administrative costs, and 3)the uninsured, whose medical problems could be fixed cheaply earlier, but are allowed to spiral out into medical and financial crises.  America also has relatively high infant mortality rates and relatively low life-expectancies.  Finally, America is the only developed nation without universal health care (aside form South Africa).  Not only is it not freely accessible, but it’s unfairly financed.  We need change, and by that I mean…

Better than Baucus.  The Baucus Bill, written by Senator Max Baucus (D) from Montana, has gotten more attention recently because it’s a more bipartisan proposal, but you’d hardly notice from all the GOP politicians ignoring it and the Democratic ideas it ignored.  As it is there would be 17 million (instead of 46 million) without health care.  It would fine families without health insurance.  It sounds cruel, but it makes sense.  The easiest way out of paying the fine is paying health insurance and at least the latter does you good.  There would also be tax credits to help middle and low income families obtain coverage.  The Bill would be be financed by squeezing funds from MediCare and raising taxes; within a decade revenues and savings would exceed costs.  Good, but not good enough.  It does not include a government health insurance plan to compete with private insurers.  What real reform needs is choice.  People are worried that a government plan will drive private plans out of business, but right now private insurers have a monopoly, since it’s usually easier and much cheaper for people to get insurance through their employer.  Competition begets efficiency (okay so maybe free market capitalism can be applied to something as universal a right as health, but I’m justified if I at least highlight the importance of universal health).

In conclusion, the Baucus Bill floating on the floor of Congress is not enough to make America’s health care live up to what it can truly be.  Universal health care does not have to be less cost effective than the current plan.  Government health care worries people because they are afraid of the government having a say in whether their health care is worth the expense.  But right now human greed is making that call.  Who do you trust more?  Shouldn’t we at least get a choice?