Collocations

Come see the Gay Blades in concert: Oct. 15th in Rochester, NY!

2009-10-08T13:42:00.000-04:00

In This Month's Empty Closet

2009-08-03T22:13:00.003-04:00

There were two articles written by me that appeared in the August edition of The Empty Closet; please check them out!

The first is an article about this year's Pride Parade in Rochester, NY: it can be read at http://www.gayalliance.org/index.php?option=com_mojo&Itemid=114&p=3128.

The second is an article about Melange Lavonne, a homo-hop artist who is well worth listening to: http://www.gayalliance.org/index.php?option=com_mojo&Itemid=114&p=3152.

Enjoy and thanks for reading!

Visit The Empty Closet

2009-07-07T14:10:00.002-04:00

So, in addition to working as a home health aide, I am currently writing 1-2 articles per month for The Empty Closet, a monthly newspaper for the LGBT community in the Genesee Valley in upstate NY.

My first article can be read by visiting http://www.gayalliance.org/index.php?option=com_mojo&Itemid=114&p=3095

Feel free to check it out!

Carrie Newcomer visits Manchester College

2009-04-14T13:10:00.012-04:00

“Just when you think life can’t get any better, you find yourself in North Manchester, Indiana.”

These words were spoken with a big smile (and not so much as a drop of sarcasm) by singer/songwriter/guitarist Carrie Newcomer at the concert she gave last Thursday in Cordier Auditorium. During her visit, the students, faculty and staff of Manchester College (as well as members of the surrounding community) were gifted with her music, wisdom and guidance.

Carrie Newcomer’s visit to MC occurred on April 1st and 2nd. During this short visit, she led a workshop entitled "The Power of Story: Creative Writing for the Terrified," facilitated a discussion on vocation and faith with students in the Pathways program, gave a workshop for faculty and staff on how to incorporate what you love into what you do, spoke in several classes (including peace studies and literature classes), presented a workshop on vocation that was open to the entire campus community and gave a concert performance.

In the “Power of Story” workshop, Newcomer led writing exercises based on simple prompts that helped participants focus on the details of their memories and the present moment. This is an important practice, even for people who don’t consider themselves to be writers: “A regular practice of writing—and writing honestly and with integrity—well, it’s like a muscle you work,” she said. “And the more you practice it, the more it becomes a part of you, enriching your entire life and your interactions with other people.”

“Writing practice is a spiritual practice, and a practice at being present in our own lives,” she continued. “The worst thing is getting to the end of the day and thinking ‘Darn, I missed it.’”

Newcomer has released a total of 11 albums of intricate melodies with profoundly sincere, engaging lyrics. She self-produced her last three albums (The Geography of Light, Regulars and Refugees, and The Gathering of Spirits) at a small studio right here in Indiana.

Students who were lucky enough to have made it to her concert heard a rich variety of songs from The Geography of Light as well as several of her earlier albums. Her rhythmic plucking at her guitar strings resonated with her bluesy, emotion-rich voice, which sang out her poetic lyrics.

After the show, attendees could be heard discussing their favorite lines: one conversation I overheard centered around the chorus of her song “There is a Tree”: “There is a tree beyond this world/ In its ancient roots a song is curled./ I am the fool whose life's been spent/ Between what's said and what is meant.”

She was accompanied on the piano by the talented Gary Walters, who Newcomer has worked with for the last five years. Walters teaches jazz piano at Butler University, and often plays for the Indianapolis symphony: Newcomer describes him simply as “a fine musician and a lovely person.”

While she was in North Manchester, Newcomer also found time to meet with interested students for conversation and to share her experiences as a writer and musician. For instance, she met with MC students Zach Glenn and Ryan Deeter, the members of the fusion-folk-rock band Smoking Window.

“Meeting with Carrie was an excellent opportunity,” Deeter said. “Being able to talk to an accomplished performer and songwriter helped to provide us with a greater insight into the music world. Carrie also related to us how difficult it is to pursue music, and yet how rewarding and necessary it is to follow one's passion.”

Glenn agrees. “It was greatly empowering to talk with someone who practices my two passions, writing and music,” he said. “It showed me that it was possible to follow my heart and the crafts that I am passionate for, and to do so independently while having come from Indiana.”

Newcomer’s music has been described as folk, Americana, country and rock… and, indeed, it is all of these things and so much more. Although she does not write music specifically for a religious audience, her lyrics are influenced and shaped by the ways in which her experiences as a practicing Quaker have shaped her understanding of spirituality.

“I don't want to put the sacred in such a small box,” she said. “We can develop our appreciation of mystery, and find sacred moments in our day-to-day lives. When I write poems and songs, I look for where we connect. Beauty is discovered in the ordinary stuff, right here where we are.”

Newcomer is a native Hoosier who has developed a national and international following with her sincere, heartfelt, and elegant music. Folkwax magazine, the largest weekly magazine in the singer/songwriter genre, named her as the 2008 Artist of the Year, and awarded her newest album The Geography of Light the 2008 Album of the Year award; in 2002, she made a sweep of the Folkwax awards with her album The Gathering of Spirits.

In addition, she has received laudatory praise from such publications as Rolling Stone, USA Today, Acoustic Guitar, The Village Voice, Performing Songwriter and Bowlers’ Journal. That’s right… Bowlers’ Journal, in response to her lively, foot-stomping, hand-clapping, head-nodding tune “Bowling Baby,” off of her album Betty’s Diner.

“When I receive an award or some incredible praise from someone like [novelist] Barbara Kingsolver, well, there’s something very un-Quakerly in taking too much pride in it,” Newcomer said. “So I just embrace it with gratitude. It’s an affirmation.”

“The most important thing is that I allow my writing and music to keep changing, because I’m not interested in making the same album over and over again,” she continued. “Honest writing doesn’t focus on sticking with an equation that’s worked in the past, and it doesn’t censor either the pain or the beauty—because it's really an overlapping of the two.”

Her visit to Manchester College was much appreciated by the college community. “There are certain people that you meet, and instantly you can tell how awake they are to life around them,” Glenn said. “Carrie is definitely one of those people. She writes and performs powerfully, revealing the wondrous beauty and dark magnificence that is present in the day to day. She is both serious and comical, and always passionate and true.”

Newcomer's visit to MC was made possible through the generosity of MC graduate Sara Edgerton, a member of the college's Board of Trustees.

(This article originally appeared in the April 10, 1009 edition of The Oak Leaves. All photos by Laura McSpadden.)

Listen here... and enjoy!

2009-03-25T14:40:00.002-04:00

Smoking Window to Play this Friday

2008-12-04T10:50:00.003-05:00

Smoking Window, the band that was the subject of my last posting, is playing tomorrow, December 5th at 10:00 pm at the Time Out Inn in North Manchester, IN. The Time Out Inn is located at 403 State Road 13, North Manchester, Indiana 46962; their phone number is (260) 982-4321.

This show is a deal; the cover is only $3. I hope to see you there!

Smoking Window Lights Up the North Manchester Music Scene

2008-11-18T13:10:00.012-05:00

When a couple of MC students get together and decide to get something started, there’s just no telling just what could happen and how far they’ll go.

For example, Zach Glenn and Ryan Deeter started off as roomies, hanging out and having fun while engaged in the unending business of being a student. Fast-forward a few years, and they’ve formed Smoking Window, the hottest thing to happen to the Manchester music scene in years.

Smoking Window has gifted audiences with their “fusion folk funk” at such venues as Kenapocamocha Coffee House, The Brewhouse, The Time Out Inn and last year’s MC Peace Week (where they performed as the Deeter-Glenn Connection). They also played a benefit show for the new MC radio station in Wampler, as well as benefits for the Firehouse at the local high school and at The Main View.

The core of their shows is their original songs. They approach song writing as a collaborative effort, more often than not composing their own individual parts (Glenn plays lead guitar and Deeter plays rhythm guitar and vocals) while remaining flexible and receptive to each other’s feedback. “When we write a song, I’m always asking Zach ‘How does this make you feel?’” Deeter said. ‘“What emotion is being moved into being?’ We make sure when we’re writing a piece that there’s coherence between us and the song.”

The first song that they wrote together, “Another Pot of Coffee,” is a beautiful song of hope that is grounded in their shared experiences through their time in college. “We try to make our music real to our lives,” said Deeter. “Most of the music we’ve written has communicated some aspect of our experience or views.” This sincerity shines through in their other originals, illustrating how seriously the two musicians are when they express that their biggest influence is life itself.

Their sets are complemented by some covers of rock hits, referred to by Glenn and Deeter as “crowd pleasers.” “A lot of our covers are 90’s rock because there are a lot of people who know those songs, and we want to be able to reach a lot of people right off the bat,” Glenn said. “But there is an interesting balance between becoming a crowd pleaser and playing what you want to play.”

Even when they are playing a cover tune, they put a lot of themselves into the performance. “On a lot of the covers I improv the entire time, and I don’t play them the same way twice,” said Glenn. “I really like that. It keeps us open and honest, and it keeps playing interesting.”

Deeter agrees, and said that this is the root of the difference between playing live and playing while recording in a studio. “We are much more ‘live’ music people than recording people—we like the aliveness of our songs, the way they’re different every time,” he said. “When recording, you play more cautiously than you do when you play live, because you want it to be ‘right.’”

And when it comes to music, it’s not about right or wrong, it’s about how well the music is able to reach the listeners. “We are fascinated by how one is affected emotionally through music,” Deeter said. “This doesn’t mean the music has to be complex and complicated, but it does mean the music has to capture a feeling, a moment, or a deep honesty.”

In fact, this is the root of their affinity with music and song-writing. “What I love about music is its ability to help people from different backgrounds connect,” Glenn said. “This happens for both the listeners and the musicians. During our show at the Time Out [on November 14th], I looked out and saw all these people really enjoying the music, and yet I couldn’t see all of them hanging out together at one time anywhere else. Everyone in the world is connected to music somehow, which means we’re all connected to each other through this medium.”

Anyone who has been to one of their shows will look forward to their next one. So, when you see them around on campus, ask them when and where they’re playing next, and make it a plan to go.

Several of their songs can be heard on their Myspace profile; just search for “Smoking Window,” send them a friend request and sit back to enjoy the tunes.

(This article appeared in the November 21, 2008 issue of The Oak Leaves)

Outdoor in Indiana: Ouabache State Park

2008-11-15T09:59:00.015-05:00

It’s that time of the semester: everyone on campus is walking around with a preoccupied expression, an outward manifestation of their daunting to-do list that is likely at the forefront of their attention, and questions regarding how someone is doing are invariably answered with a simple, one word reply: “Busy.”

I confess that I was taken in by this frantic state of mind. Luckily, I remembered my own advice from my “Outdoors in Indiana” articles from last year, and I knew just what I had to do: retreat to the wilderness for a bit of peace and quiet. Within just a few hours of the end of my classes on Friday, November 7th, my van was loaded and I was on the road, heading towards Ouabache State Park.

“Ouabache” is derived from French and Native American languages. It is a word indicating a thing which is bright, light, and/or natural; the anglicized version of this name is the more widely-recognized “Wabash.” Although it is pronounced by modern-day speakers as “Wah’-bash,” it was originally pronounced “Wah-ba’-che.”
Ouabache State Park is located just outside of Bluffton, at 4930 E State Road 201. It is just barely over an hour’s drive from campus.

The park offers 47 primitive and 77 electric camping sites; fishing; tennis, basketball and volleyball courts; boating; five hiking trails; cross-country ski trails; a nature center; a paved bike trail; swimming (during the warmer months); a nature center; a fire tower and shelters that can be reserved for picnics or events. Although there is boat and canoe rental available, they do not offer ski rental; so, if you want to hit the cross-country ski trails, make sure you bring your own skis.

I chose to stay overnight at one of the primitive campsites. Although there were plenty of people at the electric campground, I was the only person in the entire primitive campsite area, a situation which suited me just fine.

For one thing, I could take my pick of the campsites. After all, some sites were not as large as others, or else had rocky, uneven ground. I chose one that was at a higher elevation (important if there is precipitation in the forecast, which there was) with a large, flat area that was relatively free from roots and rocks.

Secondly, it was quiet and very conducive to contemplation. My only companions were the forest animals and the campfire; after I finished setting up my tent, I was able to truly relax, free from the distractions that are all too pervasive within the world-at-large. I watched my campfire burn down to embers before retreating into the warm comfort provided by my tent.

And, yes, it was cold that night: the low was 35 degrees, and there were light, drizzly showers. However, I stayed toasty and cozy with my hoodie, Under-Armour and arctic mummy sleeping bag.

I suppose that many people could find a situation in which being warm requires such effort to be rather distasteful, but there is an important lesson to be learned from such experiences: it becomes patently obvious that the best place in the world where you could be is right where you are. Such complete contentment with things as they are can be hard to come by in day-to-day life.

The next day, after I ate a hearty breakfast and packed up my campsite, I set off on a hike. The park’s hiking trails range from one to six miles in length; all are rated as either “easy” or “moderate” in difficulty. I hiked trail four, a three-mile-long trail that wound around Kunkel Lake, through the forest, and around a “Wildlife Exhibit” of live bison.

The shorter trails are extraordinarily easy to hike on: the paths are wide and flat, and could be easily hiked by children and individuals in poor physical shape. However, they do not get very far from the buildings and campgrounds, and don’t provide the “lost in the wilderness” feel that I like so much. For this reason, I would recommend that anyone planning to hike in Ouabache State Park take either trail four or trail five, which meander the most deeply through the woods.

I drove back to Manchester in higher spirits than I’ve been in since the first week of classes. I had done some reading for my assignments and gotten a good night of sleep, it’s true: but more than that, I had been out in nature, active and attentive within the simplicity of the outdoors. It is amazing how little it takes for us to put all the complications of life back into perspective: all we have to do is decide that it’s important that we do so.

Remember: the world is right outside the door. Let’s go!

(This article originally appeared in the November 14 issue of The Oak Leaves)

Black Student Union Hosts Clothing Drive

2008-11-15T09:56:00.002-05:00

BSU is currently sponsoring a clothing drive to benefit foster children in northern Indiana. All students, faculty and staff are asked to donate gently-used clothing to the campus Intercultural Center (across the street from the Administration Building) by November 21st.

The clothing is being given to KidsPeace, which is, according to their website, “a private charity dedicated to serving the behavioral and mental health needs of children, preadolescents and teens.” Their mission is “to give hope, help and healing to children facing crisis.”

Indiana’s KidsPeace locations provide therapeutic foster care for individuals from birth to 21 years of age. As a result, clothing of all sizes is being collected, with an emphasis on garments for children and adolescents.

The clothing drive was conceived of by the current BSU executive board. “Unfortunately, through the years BSU has been known mostly for its parties and social gatherings,“ said John ‘J Bird’ Sams, MC junior and president of BSU. “We wanted to do something active to really help out those people who are in need.”

The decisions regarding what kind of fundraising to do or donation to make and whom to give the donations to were made very carefully. “When you’re dealing with money, things can get corrupt,” Sams said. “Clothes are just clothes. They’re not going to a corporation—they’re going right to the people who need them most.”

This was an important point to Jordan Tyson, MC junior and BSU’s vice-president. “We chose KidsPeace over Goodwill because Goodwill sells the clothes, rather than giving them away, and we could never be sure whether or not the clothing went to someone who was truly in need,” he said. “We wanted to be sure the clothing went to the people that would be most helped by them.”

Sams emphasized the significance of the donations going to foster children. “We wanted our focus to be on children, who can’t really do much to help themselves,” he said. “Sometimes they don’t even have good foster parents.”

This is not a problem that is far removed from life at Manchester College. There is an MC student (who asked to remain anonymous) who has been through foster care and has directly benefitted from the donations of a charity similar to KidsPeace. “I remember when I went to a foster home the first time, all I had were the clothes on my back,” she said. “These programs help foster kids not only with clothing but also with a sense of style and joy that they often need.”

This student hopes that many members of the MC community will decide to donate some of their clothing to KidsPeace. “Programs such as the ones BSU is working for help to make foster children's lives a bit less stressful, and make the child feel welcome when they are scared of the new environment,” she said. “Foster homes are often a scary thing for someone to experience.”

Participation in an event such as the clothing drive also serves to strengthen the sense of community here at MC. “In order to respect people as a whole, you need to unite with those who have it rougher than you,” Sams said. “You need to be willing to go outside your comfort zone and make some sacrifices.”

Tyson agreed. “BSU is here to unite people, at least as far as respect goes: you need to respect those who are different from you,” he said. “And to come together for a common goal is one way of uniting. Whether or not we like each other, let’s come together and show respect for each other so we can meet a common goal of helping people out.” The clothing drive offers the MC community with a chance to do exactly that.

There will be a second clothing drive sponsored by BSU to be held during the spring semester.

(This article originally appeared in the November 8, 2008 edition of The Oak Leaves.)

Debate Watch: Biden and Palin Square Off in VP Debate

2008-11-15T09:51:00.003-05:00

Anyone who has tried to watch a political debate in a dorm, with roommates or with a group of friends knows how difficult it can be. Jokes and sarcastic comments usually abound, along with requests for chips and, potentially, a mid-debate run to Lance’s.

Entertaining, perhaps, but hardly the best way to get the most benefit from your debate-watching experience.

Enter MC’s Debate Watch. On October 2nd, the vice presidential debates were shown live in Flory Auditorium. Despite the prevalence of televisions in dorm rooms and student-rented apartments, 94 members of the Manchester College community showed up to watch the only debate between Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin of the 2008 election in a relatively distraction-free environment.

Following the debate itself, a non-partisan discussion was lead by Dr. Mary Lahman, associate professor of communications, and Dr. Leonard Williams, professor of political science.

One of the discussion topics was the ways in which the vice presidential debates differed from the first presidential debate. “In many ways, it seemed like the candidates used the vice presidential debate as PR for their respective presidential candidate,” said senior Jason Adams.

It was also noted that issues such as foreign policy, civil rights and liberties and education were not as much of a focus in the vice presidential debates as they were in the previously occurring presidential debate. However, the vice presidential candidates did touch upon the subject of gay marriage, something that was not addressed by the presidential candidates in their first debate.

Another issue that was up for discussion was the relative degree of freedom that vice presidential candidates have relative to presidential candidates to voice firm opinions. This was particularly noticed in the candidates’ answers to questions regarding interventionism.

“I was surprised that Biden seemed to imply that a government that commits genocide against its own people [re: Sudan and the War in Darfur] forfeits its sovereignty,” said senior Laura Dell. “Do vice presidential candidates have more room to take strong stances than presidential candidates?” Not all students agreed that they do.

Those who challenged this assumption included junior Jon Largent, who noted the precedent of individuals changing their voting decision based upon vice presidential nominations, and Jared Baker, who hypothesized that Biden’s assertive image and stances during the debate were intended to help balance Obama’s softer public image.

Senior Milagros Ridoutt commented on the non-verbal communication of the two candidates. “Biden’s non-verbal communication seemed to be focused on creating a very strong image, the image of a ruler,” she said. “But what was up with Palin’s winking? What was she saying with that?”

Professor Williams, at this point, encouraged the attending students to examine whether it seemed as though the candidates were trying to appeal more to voters’ intellects or emotions.

Although no student unequivocally stated that one candidate seemed inherently more logical or qualified than the other, it did seem as though the audience’s sympathies were with Biden. For instance, in response to Palin’s consistent appeal to her middle-class roots, a “fact-checking squad,” armed with their laptops and wireless connections, found details regarding her less-than-humble financial assets, implying that (at least in this regard) her appeals were more emotional than factual.

Several students, when considering this point of fact-driven versus emotion-driven arguments, noted how Biden consistently repeated facts that he considered of great logical importance, while Palin seemed more rushed.

Whether this was good or bad was up for debate; some students appreciated the passion that they saw in Palin’s determination to share as much information and as many perspectives as she was able to in the allotted time, while others expressed that she seemed to come across as less focused.

The main consensus that was reached by the attending students was that both of the vice presidential candidates did well, and that it therefore seemed unlikely that many people would change their votes for the presidency based upon the vice presidential debates. “I appreciated the chance to see Palin speak up for herself and improve her image; I think that she was successful,” said senior Mary Cox. “However, I was also greatly impressed by Biden: I hadn’t had much exposure to him before, and he really reached me.”

The Oct. 15 presidential debate will be aired in the Lahman Room of the upper Union.

(this article originally appeared in the October 10, 2008 edition of The Oak Leaves.)

R.I.P., Prince Omar

2008-07-20T11:11:00.006-04:00

My cat, Prince Omar, was hit and killed by an inattentive driver midday last Tuesday, July 15. Although I am well aware that all pet owners say this, Prince Omar truly was one-of-a-kind.

He was the unofficial mascot of Manchester College; there was even a feature article written about him in the MC newspaper that can be seen at: http://www.manchester.edu/OSD/OakLeaves/archives/Issue_15/
NomadiccatbecomesanunofficialMCmascot.htm.

He touched many lives, and was loved by countless people. Whether following around groups of visitors to the campus; frolicking and visiting with students, faculty, staff AND their dogs during campus events on the mall; or terrorizing the local squirrel population, he was always making an impact on the lives of those who he came into contact with.

Please, I beg of each of you, drive attentively. Omar's death was untimely, and could have been prevented.

Ropewalk Writers' Retreat 2008

2008-06-26T14:05:00.028-04:00

Last week, from June 14th-21st, I attended the 20th annual Ropewalk Writers' Retreat as one of 12 participants in Brigit Pegeen Kelly's poetry workshop. Brigit Pegeen Kelly's workshop was one of three poetry workshops; the other poetry staff members were Dave Smith and Steven Dobyns. Workshops were also held for fiction (led by Lee Martin and Elizabeth Stuckey-French) and creative nonfiction writers (led by Susan Neville).

The workshop was held in New Harmony, Indiana, which had recently been flooded; during the first half of the week, members of the National Guard kept us company while they measured the receding water levels.

New Harmony, referred to by residents and visitors as "Utopia," is spackled with various statues, artworks, and signs that included excerpts from poems and quotations from religious figures. I was impressed with the import that such a small town had placed upon aethetics and literature.

There were also several off-the-beaten-path walking trails that winded their ways to different points of interest: these trails provided workshop participants with front-row viewing of the local flora and fauna.

In addition to the scheduled workshops, craft lectures, round-table discussions, and readings throughout the days and evenings, we all managed to find time to relax at the local tavern to discuss important literary matters, as well as to engage in shenanigans and goings-on.

Vesak: A Celebration of the Buddha's Birth

2008-06-09T13:43:00.016-04:00

Photographs of the Vesak Parade:

Photographs of the Buddha Bazaar: Fun and Games for the Whole Sangha

Photographs taken at Chapin Mill Retreat Center:

End of the 2007-2008 Collegiate School Year

2008-05-18T18:51:00.002-04:00

Although the end of the 2007-2008 collegiate school year does mean the end of issues of The Oak Leaves until September, it does not mean that the posts on Collocations will be left to stagnate. I will continue to post updates on my adventures and publications that occur over the summer; readers can expect a new post approximately every one to two weeks.

Senior Spotlight: Aaron Hostetler Looks back on His Time at MC

2008-05-11T21:33:00.002-04:00

This May marks the close of a chapter of senior Aaron Hostetler’s connection to MC.

Like many students here, Hostetler had experience with Manchester’s college and community before he enrolled; his grandfather, great uncle, great aunt, uncle, parents and older brother all attended MC. “I didn’t have to go here, of course,” he said, “but it was a school of higher learning that was always there in my thoughts as a possibility.”

Hostetler’s involvement in the social life of MC began during his junior year of high school, while his brother was a student here; it was largely his impressions of the community here that led to his enrollment. “Had it not been for his [Aaron’s brother’s] close group of friends who saw my need for an enclave of acceptant people and who wanted to see me grow, I might not have chosen to come here,” Hostetler said. “But with their influence, I was sold on the idea of attending MC.”

Aaron is majoring in sociology, with a minor in Spanish. Nevertheless, his time here as a student has involved much more than his academic goals.

He has either acted in or directed the dramatic productions of Alpha Psi Omega during all four years, was active in Amnesty International during his freshman and sophomore years, served as the group facilitator for United Sexualities during the 2005-06 school year and during the fall semester of 2006, and was involved with the college’s theatre productions every year except for his junior year, when he spent the spring semester studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain.

He also spent a summer in Tacoma, WA, working in inner-city organic gardens and green spaces that were created to provide community shared agriculture and sustainable revenue for a Catholic Workers’ House.

Although he is glad that he attended MC, he has noticed a shift in the campus community that he finds troubling. “My perception of Manchester has changed a lot through my continuing involvement in MC’s social culture,” he said.

As an example, he recounted how during his brother’s time as a student here (c. 2003-2004), there was a campus-wide gathering on the mall of students and faculty who were making a stand against hatred of any kind. The stance was initiated by the United Sexualities group, in response to threats made against the safety of a few of MC’s students.

Not only did this represent a coming together of the MC students for a common cause; even the administration offered support. “Parker Marden [former MC president] was really effective at providing a sense of safety for students who felt threatened,” Hostetler said. “He even visited a student’s room when they felt threatened, in order to provide support and reassurance.

“What’s been troubling me recently is that I haven’t recently seen that sense of coming together as a community, even in light of recent date rapes, peeping toms’ intrusions and sexual assaults on female MC students,” he said. “Why aren’t we seeing a campus-wide response from the MC community, working to educate people regarding what’s going on and eliminating the problem?”

This lack of coming together, regardless of individual and group identities, could pose a threat to the friendly environment offered by MC. “A community is defined as a group of people working together for a common goal—anything else is just groups of people who feel they fit together because of their similar backgrounds,” Hostetler said. “Although MC is in many ways still a community, I have begun to question the efficacy of MC’s work towards attaining a common goal.”

Hostetler hopes that the split between MC students of different backgrounds will heal. “This is such a small school,” he said. “There is such a potential for a strengthening of the feeling of togetherness here.”

Although his plans following graduation are not yet solidified, he hopes that more travel abroad is in his future. “I’ve been bitten by the international bug,” he said. “I don’t think that one semester abroad was enough for me.”

MC students receive Fulbright grant to study in Asia

2008-05-11T21:31:00.001-04:00

Following their graduation this May, MC seniors Tim Polakowski and Andrew Haff will be getting ready for a year abroad. They have each been awarded a Fulbright grant for 2008-2009.

Polakowski will be heading to South Korea, while Haff will be going to Vietnam.

The esteemed Fulbright scholarships are awarded to seniors who are graduating from a U.S. college for a year abroad. Applicants either propose a research topic to concentrate on during their time overseas, or else focus on teaching ESL classes while engaging in independent study on a suggested topic.

Including Polakowski and Haff, 25 MC students have received Fulbright scholarships since 1996, and three were named alternates. Several more won related grants. This is higher per capita than any other college or university in the state of Indiana.

Polakowski majored in social work and Spanish, with a minor in gerontology. He will be teaching ESL and studying the universal health care system of South Korea, in order to gain a more international perspective regarding medical care.

Haff is a history major. He will be part of the Fulbright’s first year sponsoring a program in Vietnam. He will be teaching English at the college level, rather than at area public schools (as would be typical in most other Fulbright programs).

This is not either of their first experience with travelling and living overseas. Polakowski spent both semesters of his sophomore year in Barcelona, Spain as part of the BCA program. During his junior year, he spent Jan-term in Mexico, whereas he travelled to Nicaragua during the most recent Jan-term.

Haff, meanwhile, accompanied Dr. Angelos on his Jan-term Comparative Civilizations trips for each of the last three years; in 2006, he toured around a variety of countries in Europe; in 2007, he travelled to Spain; and in 2008, he went to the British Isles. “I think I’ve been to almost every country in western Europe,” he said.

However, it will be their first time in Asia. “It still doesn’t seem quite right that I’m actually going to South Korea,” Polakowski said. “I’m really nervous about learning the language; all of my experiences abroad have been in Spanish-speaking countries. This will be my first time going to another country without at least some understanding of the native language.”

Nevertheless, he is looking forward to the process of learning, especially since he will be living with a host family. “I stayed with host families in Spain and in Mexico,” Polakowski said. “It really allows you to learn about the culture so much more thoroughly and deeply.”

Although this will not be Haff’s first time in a country with a language that is unfamiliar with him, this will be his first time abroad alone, without a group of his fellow students. Furthermore, he does not yet know what his living situation will be. “It’s up to the local institution regarding whether I’ll be living with a host family or in a college residence hall or apartment.”

Tim made the decision to apply as a Fulbright scholar to Korea partly because it is in the most need of teachers, and thereby provides the best chance of being awarded a grant. He encourages students who may be considering applying for a Fulbright to consider the acceptance rates of different countries, and to plan accordingly.

Polakowski’s back-up plan, in case he didn’t get the grant, was to join the Peace Corps.

Haff’s was to either take a job working with computers with a company that was seeking college graduates or to work as a substitute teacher.

Although Haff had gotten excited over the prospects offered by his back-up plans, he received encouragement from several people to accept the Fulbright grant. “Dr. Song [an MC history professor] talked with me about the importance of taking chances at this stage of my life,” he said, “and Clayton Pendergast [the acting spiritual leader of the Miami Indians in Indiana] stressed to me the importance of sharing one’s gifts with the world.”

Polakowski also emphasized the importance of the application essay. “Preparing the essay is the most grueling part of the application process,” he said. “However, through the writing, rewriting and editing of your essay, you will learn a lot about yourself and discover more about what you want to do with your time and energy.”

Although he misses people back in the states when he is travelling, Polakowski finds the rewards of living in different countries to be far greater than the difficulties. “Christmas is hard, but other than that it doesn’t really bother me,” he said. “After all, it’s temporary, and the experience is so worth it.”

Prison Abolition: Not Only Does It Matter, It Makes Sense

2008-04-24T21:52:00.008-04:00

When I tell people that I am an abolitionist, they tend to get a bit confused. After all, slavery was abolished with the ratification of the 13th Amendment, way back in 1865, right? Then I provide clarification... I believe in the abolition of the prison system.

In 2007, the Bureau of Justice Statistics released figures that confirmed that the United States incarcerated 751 of every 100,000 residents; this is more people per capita than any other of the countries that were studied.

This rate is even higher than in countries with struggling political systems and poor human rights histories, such as Iran (212:100,000), Libya (217:100,000) and China (119:100,000).

This situation is made even more unsettling by the fact that the prison system is filled with people who have either plea-bargained or been convicted within the structures of the U. S. justice system, a system which is to this day steeped in racial and economic biases.

For example, a study conducted by the National Council on Crime and Juvenile Delinquency in 2000 revealed that “minority youth are treated much more harshly than white youth at each stage of the
U. S. criminal justice system....When minority and white youth were charged with the same offenses, black youth who had no prior arrest record were six times more likely to be incarcerated than white youth with similar backgrounds. Hispanic youth were three times more likely to be incarcerated....”

Another study, issued by the Washington D. C. Leadership Conference on Civil Rights revealed that “black youth were 100 times more likely to be arrested for selling drugs than white youth, although drug use rates among black youth appear to be about equal those of white youth,” and noted that “blacks who killed whites were sentenced to death 22 times more frequently than blacks who killed blacks and seven times more frequently than whites who killed blacks.”

These facts reveal a chilling secret: the U. S. justice system continues to perpetuate the long-standing myth that America was built upon, that white people’s lives are worth more than the lives of blacks and other minorities. And this is the so-called “justice” system that determines who will make up the population of U. S. prisons.

The Human Rights Watch points out the consequences of this state of affairs in its report “Incarcerated America.” “The high and disproportionate rate of minority incarceration… exposes and deepens the racial fault lines that weaken the country; contradicts principles of justice and equal protection of the laws; and undermines faith among all races in the fairness and efficacy of the criminal justice system.”

Furthermore, the justice system is undeniably biased towards those who can afford more experienced and effective legal council. Many impoverished and innocent individuals elect to plea-bargain for a reduced sentence due to their fear of what effective council could cost or because of their correctly-placed cynicism regarding their chance for a truly fair and impartial trial.

The prison system thereby becomes a holding-cell for those who have experienced American injustice the most intimately, keeping them disenfranchised and denied of many of the rights of democracy. In such a case, it is ethically questionable to assert that the ends justify the means.

Furthermore, the ends of this situation cannot even be described as effective. Although prisons are ostensibly “correctional facilities,” they fail miserably in providing corrective measures that would allow for the healing and rehabilitation of convicted criminals.

Calvin Malone, a prisoner in Washington state, has written several books about his experiences in state penitentiaries. He tells about trying to find peace amongst his fellow prisoners, many of whom are “notorious for sexually and physically assaulting the vulnerable.”

In fact, the Bureau of Justice Statistics has determined that in the course of one calendar year, more than 70,000 U. S. prisoners were sexually abused by either their fellow inmates or by the prison staff.

In Connecticut, prison staff are allowed to use dogs “to terrify and attack and bite prisoners to force them to leave their cells when they won’t do so voluntarily,” according to Human Rights Watch and an article published in the New Haven Register.

The American Civil Liberties Union has documented numerous cases of girls in the New York juvenile detention centers being sexually abused and harassed by the staff of the prisons.

That is hardly the sort of environment that would enable those amongst us who have fallen into realms of violence and fear to correct themselves. One of the reasons prison recidivism is so high is that many individuals convicted of non-violent offenses are eventually released after having endured months or years of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, angrier and more damaged than when they went in.

Another source of prison recidivism is found amongst those whose original conviction was the result of illegal activities motivated by the need to survive while immersed in poverty– namely, petty theft and prostitution. If they are not provided with the tools of correction such as counseling and education, they will experience even greater difficulty in finding gainful employment as a result of their conviction, and the cycle will continue.

In fact, despite increasing prison populations, crime has not dropped over time. Is it possible that, by subjecting violent individuals to sustained levels of further abuse, we are creating a self-defeating downward spiral towards an ever more fearful and violent society?

(the author, Laura McSpadden, with Angela Davis at the 2008 MBLGTACC, aka "Big Gay Conference")

Angela Davis, one of the pioneers of the prison abolition movement, emphasizes that that the abolition of prison is a long-term goal that will involve a massive amount of social reform along the way, including a basic restructuring of how we as a culture perceive crime.“In order to imagine a world without prisons... a new popular vocabulary will have to replace the current language, which articulates crime and punishment in such a way that we cannot think about a society without crime except as a society in which all the criminals are imprisoned,” Davis said. “Thus, one of the first challenges is to be able to talk about the many ways in which punishment is linked to poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia and other modes of dominance.”

Such a reframe, which acknowledges and takes responsibility for the social causes of crime, would lead to a re-chanelling of the billions of dollars that currently go into the prison system into community-based economic resources, educational services, community forums for dispute resolution, medical and mental health care, rehabilitation systems and community services for adults and children– a conglomeration of services that would deserve the term “correctional facilities” in a way that prisons never will.

Quite frankly, I am not comfortable with the fact that the society to which I belong condones an industry that promotes and spreads suffering.

Whether it be by becoming involved with a prison pen-pal program, writing to your elected representatives, volunteering for a community-based outreach program or rehabilitation center, educating people about the realities of the prison system (which, incidentally, we condone and fund with our tax dollars), or any number of other ways, I encourage all to speak up for those who have had their voices silenced.

(this article appeared in the April 25, 2008 edition of the Oak Leaves)

Indecision Day 2008: An Opportunity for MC's Prospective Students

2008-04-17T13:49:00.004-04:00

On Friday, April 4, MC offered a new way for prospective students to experience what the campus has to offer, “Indecision Day.”

Indecision Day was designed for prospective students who are unsure about what area of study they want to focus on during their collegiate career. It combined a typical campus visit with career testing and a department fair that showcased the different areas of study available at MC.

Indecision Day was largely conceived of and promoted by senior Tish Bitner. Bitner, who formerly worked within the admissions department, is a psychology major who now has an internship with the career services department.
She came up with the idea along with Rusty Coulter-Kern, a faculty member in the psychology department. “The idea for Indecision Day made a lot of sense for me,” Bitner said. “It is a program that brings together my experience in admissions with my work in career services and within my major.”

The first activity of the day was SDS, a “self-directed search” examination that is an abbreviated version of what career services offers to currently enrolled students. The prospective students also completed values sheets.

Concurrent activities were offered to the parents of the prospective students. Parents could attend either a workshop on how to support a child who is undecided, a panel discussion that offered parents a chance to ask questions to representatives of different college departments (such as security, residential life and athletics), or a session led by Leonard Williams on collegiate academics.

The benefit of separating the parents and their children at this point was that it provided the students with a situation in which they could explore and think on their own, at their own pace.

After the testing, students and their parents took a tour of campus and had lunch, during which conversations with athletic coaches were an option for interested persons.

The afternoon began with individual feedback sessions between the prospective students and current psychology students before taking part in a group activity designed to help them learn more regarding how their profiles from the student directed testing apply to them at this point in their education.
The last major activity of Indecision Day was the department fair. At the fair, there were student representatives from most of MC’s academic departments.

Prospective students were able to move around the room at will, asking questions of the current MC students and gathering pamphlets and information.
Parents were also present, and of course were likewise able to ask questions of the current MC students.

The MC students were all majoring in the area of study that they were representing. “We presented the idea at a department chair meeting and to staff members,” Bitner said. “All of the students who presented at the fair were nominated in some form by either staff or faculty members.”

The feedback that has been received so far has all been positive. “One prospective student said that it was the best visit day he had been on,” Bitner said, “because he left having learned more than just basic information about the school.”

Bitner also emphasized that the benefits of Indecision Day extended beyond those offered to prospective students. “Admissions was able to provide an experience that will help them get students to attend MC,” she said. “Furthermore, the psychology students who participated were given a chance to actually practice some degree of counseling, rather than just discussing the issues with their peers.”

Although there are plans to have more Indecision Days in the future, the date is not yet set for the next one. “We are discussing the merits of holding it in the fall or winter,” Bitner said. “This would hopefully allow us to get more prospective students to participate, but it would also help the high school students as well.

Not only would they have more time for gathering information; it could also help bring them to an earlier acceptance of their indecisiveness at such an early point in their college career.”

(this article appeared in the April 11 edition of the Oak Leaves)

Outdoors in Indiana: Chain O' Lakes State Park: How to Plan Your Perfect Adventure

2008-04-06T13:39:00.020-04:00

My outdoor excursion this past weekend was a canoeing trip at Chain O’Lakes State Park with my friend Ally.

Those of you who have followed this series from its beginning will know that Chain O’Lakes was the first place that I wrote about, way back in the fall. So, this is not going to be yet another write-up of the benefits and beauties of the park itself: anyone who is interested in reading about that can refer to the September 14, 2007 edition of the “Oak Leaves,” or check it out in my blog’s archives.

Instead, this is going to be an exploration of some different approaches to outdoor adventures in hopes that it will help people to plan an outdoor adventure most suitable to them. Alone or with a friend? Overnight or a day trip? On or off the water? It’s all up to you, and there are benefits and complications to each option.

You see, for almost all of my trips during the fall semester, I travelled solo. I like being alone in the wilderness. It’s simple that way… I eat when I’m hungry; I sleep when I’m tired; I hike when it’s sunny; I read in my tent when it drizzles; I listen to the critters when they chirp, scurry and howl; I write when I’m inspired. Everything is at its most basic.

And, if you haven’t figured this out on your own, reading is not the same when you do it alone in the forest as it is when you do it inside the library or your dorm. Different things in the writings seem important; you will notice beautiful words and interesting ideas that you hadn’t before; you will like things that hadn’t previously made sense.

But there are a few things you can’t do when you’re alone. It’s hard to tell jokes to the forest, at least not if you expect to get a laugh. I have never yet managed to play a guitar duet while sitting alone by the campfire. And it’s easiest to canoe if you have two people; when alone, a kayak is the way to go.

I also tend to prefer overnight trips to daytrips, except that it’s hard to find the time for them during the middle of a semester. In fact, lack of time is about the only thing that will keep me from an overnight camping trip on the weekends.

However, even those lucky individuals who have way too much time on their hands should consider a few points before finding a campground.

You should either have proper gear (don’t forget a decent sleeping bag!) or enough knowledge of knots and survival skills to be alright without them. You should be willing to go without creature comforts, such as temperature control, mattresses and indoor plumbing. And you will have to have a plan for all of the meals you will need during the duration of your trip.

If you are lacking in any of these categories, this does not mean that you should waste away indoors; get out anyways! Exploration and exercise are great, even without a forest sleepover.

I am also unequivocally in favor of taking trips on canoes and kayaks whenever possible. For instance, on the canoe ride that Ally and I took this week, we saw the forest from a perspective that otherwise would have been impossible. We spotted over a dozen turtles who were sunning themselves on branches and rocks in the river, and literally dozens of couples of Canada geese bathing themselves and building their nests. These are sights that would have been denied to us if we had stayed on dry land.

Nevertheless, it is of some import that Ally and I are both good swimmers with experience on the water. We had a map of the lakes with us in the canoe, and lifejackets along in case of difficulty. I would discourage poor swimmers and people who are unfamiliar with the local waterways from heading off down a river or lake without gathering further knowledge about these two critical aspects of boating.

This is by no means to insult the great activity of hiking. Hiking offers new and constantly shifting perspectives due to changing elevation and terrain. And, because there are so incredibly many hiking trails at the parks of Indiana, there is always an element of feeling like an intrepid explorer, bravely seeing what will come next on the long and winding trail.

So, there are many ways to do the great-outdoors adventure thing. The specifics aren’t the important part; the important part is simply the doing. After all, the world is right outside the door. Let’s go!

(this article appeared in the April 25 edition of The Oak Leaves)

ICPA Awards Given to Five Members of the Staff of MC's "Oak Leaves"

2008-04-01T10:01:00.006-04:00

The awards and judges' comments--

1st place:

Laura McSpadden, Best News or Feature Series, for "Outdoors in Indiana": "Useful series focuses on outdoor adventures just minutes from campus. The writer is a brave soul who blazes the path."

2nd place:

Matthew Penner, Best Opinion Column, for "The Problem with Styrofoam": "Well-researched column that alerts the campus to environmental hypocrisy. Writer offers a solution, though perhaps an expensive one."

Jessica Hickerson and Adam King, Best Stand-alone/Pullout Section, for "Literary Journalism" : "Refreshing writing examples. Effective use of literary techniques to convey journalistic message."

3rd place:

Adam King, Best Sports News Story, for "Spartan Football Beats Hiram": "Clever lead, good use of sports jargon. Effective support from quotes."

Adam King, Best Sports Column, for "Is MVP A-Rod worth the money?": "Clever play on words (Pay-Rod) and lively writing makes for an entertaining read."

Adam King, Best Entertainment Column, for "Heartbreak Kid": "Reviewed points out the films many flaws, but still finds it entertaining at times. Knowledge of similar films provides a useful contrast."

Jessica Hickerson, Best Opinion Column, for "Support Our Troops, Not War": "Good job of relating personal experience to issues of national concern. Writer acknowledges value of conflicting opinions."

Alina BigJohny, Best Sports Feature Story, for "Hall Director Marinello Made into a Runner": "Charming story with lots of detail. Not the traditional 'make-over' plot."

Outdoors in Indiana: Turkey Run State Park

2008-04-01T09:54:00.029-04:00

On March 29th, my friend Ally O’Neill and I took our first journey to Turkey Run State Park.

It is the furthest away of the many locations I will be writing about this year. Although it is an approximately two hour drive from campus, it is well worth it if you have the time.

Turkey Run does not offer primitive campsites. However, they have over 200 electric sites that are spread out over a wide area, so we had no trouble locating one that was both beautiful and off of the beaten path, site 170.

170 sat atop a steep valley, providing a lovely overlook when we sat by the fire.

Although it was on an out-of-the-way loop of the Turkey Run campground, the park was full enough that there were campers at a few of the nearby sites. However, this became a positive situation. Some of our neighboring campers, down for the weekend from Purdue University, joined us for dinner and conversation.

It just goes to show that, even if you’ve fled to the wilderness, friends will find you in the darndest places.

The following day, Ally and I packed up our campsite, drank a couple of cups of coffee, and headed off to the main part of the park.

The only disappointing part of our trip occurred at the park’s Saddle Barn. Although Turkey Run State Park does offer guided horseback rides through the park, the employees there said that they could not take us out due to drizzling rain. So, we decided to go for a hike.

Turkey Run offers 11 hiking trails, ranging in difficulty from “Easy” to “Rugged” and in distance from 0.5 to three miles. We decided to hike down trail 2, a “Rugged” trail only one mile long that is described in the park’s brochure as a trail that “follows under cliff edges. A trail for the more adventurous. Be careful!”

We knew we had found the trail for us.

One of the highlights of our hike was the so-called “Gypsy Gulch.”

Within the gulch was one of the most unique and colorful waterfalls I have ever seen. Although much of the water flew over the side of the cliff in an expected manner, some of it simply trickled down the sides of the rock. The oxidation effect that resulted on the stone below resulted in streaks of red, green, black, brown and orange.

Because the water that poured further out from the rock was moving at a high velocity and wide angle, it was possible to stand directly underneath the brink of the cliff where the waterfall began without getting wet. The perspective of the forest offered from that vantage point was as relaxing as it was beautiful.

The ruggedness of the terrain provided Ally and me with many opportunities for climbing, scurrying, dangling, and jumping. It certainly wasn’t a trail for the faint-hearted or poorly-balanced, especially considering the slickness of the rocks and moss in the drizzle. Nevertheless, our excursion truly felt like an adventure of the highest order.

In the end, it was an experience that could not have been improved upon, and it was worth all of the time and effort that were involved.

Turkey Run State Park is located on S. R. 47, two miles east of S. R. 41.

Remember… the world is right outside the door. Let’s go!

(This article appeared in the April 4, 2008 edition of the Oak Leaves)

JOAK LEAVES: Squirrel Chasing Addiction Brings MC Student to Financial and Personal Ruin

2008-04-01T09:40:00.006-04:00

This article was published in the Friday, April 4th edition of the Oak Leaves. This is part of a satirical section of the paper that is titled "The Joak Leaves," and should not be considered to be "real" news. I repeat... Chris Webster is still a student at Manchester College in good standing.

Chris Webster, formerly an MC sophomore who was majoring in art, has been diagnosed with a condition known as Compulsive Rodenita Sciuridae Disorder (CRSD). The symptoms of this diagnosis have, because of an obscure MC rule, brought Webster to financial ruin and forced him to drop out of Manchester College.

CRSD is characterized by an irresistible need to chase squirrels whenever they are seen.

Although typically the sufferers of this disorder can lead normal, functional lives by moving to an urban environment and avoiding parks, that is not an option for students who wish to remain at MC. However, the college’s administration has mandated that students who chase squirrels are to be charged $25 per offense.

Webster is now living in the alleys and on the park benches of North Manchester. His access to Spartan Cash has been rescinded, and he has been known to say, “I’m cold and I want to go home.”

Advocates for Webster assert that he is dealing with an addiction, and that the college should be helping him rather than punishing him. “I do have a squirrel chasing problem,” Webster said. “I just want to catch them and pet them. I find it strange that I have been fined for this, because it has proven very hard to actually catch a squirrel. It would help if I was better at climbing trees; I might have [MC junior] Russell Holl give me some lessons on that.”

Danette Norman Till, the director of MC’s counseling services, laments the manner in which Webster’s diagnosis is being handled by the administration. “Like many mental health disorders, it is possible to deal with the symptoms of CRSD,” she said. “However, given that he is one of the first to be diagnosed, there are no known treatment protocols established. Nevertheless, punishing him for a diagnosed condition is detrimental to his healing process and the development of life skills that could help him overcome his difficulties.”

His former roommate Martin Baldner Yohn, a first-year student, was one of the first to notice the changes in Webster. “No one really noticed at first, but eventually all he wanted to do was chase squirrels,” Yohn said. “I do still see him every once in a while, scurrying from trashcan to trashcan. Honestly, by now he’s become something like the squirrels themselves.”

In the words of first-year student Lindsey Baugh, “It’s not Chris’s fault. Those squirrels taunt him, taunt him I tell you!”

First-year Katherine Pea understands that there is a distinct difference between chasing squirrels and actually catching them. “Is it really Chris’s fault that squirrels lay at the bottom of the food chain and are incredibly fun to torment?” she asked. “Anyway, has anyone actually seen a person CATCH a squirrel? It is impossible! I suspect that sometimes the squirrels actually intend to egg us on. From a squirrel’s point of view, ‘YOU WILL NEVER GET THIS, YOU WILL NEVER GET THIS!’”

Campus Pastor Steven Crain believes that, given Webster’s lack of access to food following the rescinding of his Spartan Cash, the campus should be actively assisting him through this difficult time. “As his campus pastor, I will supply Chris with squirrel traps, a small grill and several recipes for BBQ squirrel. We can have a Simply Brethren Squirrel Roast. It’s the pastoral thing to do.”

Chef Chris Fogerty agrees. “As the MC Executive Chef, I will tutor him in the preparation of said squirrels, so that they may be finger lickin’ good for the Brethren BBQ.”

However, not all of the MC community agrees with these conclusions. “The monster deserves what he gets!” exclaimed sophomore Kyle Watson. “To prey on innocent squirrels for sport… without regard for the victims’ families! With Chris now out of the picture, a more beautiful future is available to the squirrels.”

Sophomore Maggie Winey elaborated on this sentiment. “As a result of being chased, much harm is caused mentally to those squirrels who are being pursued,” she said. “A squirrel that is chased by a human experiences much mental trauma, because they normally see humans as friends and not enemies.”

Junior Nicolas Kauffman, a current participant in the BCA program to Mexico, agrees that the prohibition of squirrel chasing is a benefit to the college. “As Manchester’s recruiting agent in Mexico, it has been my experience that MC’s happy squirrel population is among the top draws our college has to students in this region,” he said. “I am concerned what Webster’s activities could eventually do to our enrollment.”

Nevertheless, there are students who believe that the whole issue has a sinister undertone that is dangerous to ignore. “I think they take pleasure in throwing acorns down trees at the people below,” said first-year student Nadia Nubani. “They might even have an army formulating.”

First-year Nathan Driscoll speaks of a bizarre interaction that he had with Webster, and of its potential consequences. “Chris has told me that squirrels are evil tyrants who are threatening to take over the college,” Driscoll said. “He told me that ‘Those creatures are plotting to overthrow the administration and run the college themselves; that will only be their first step towards world domination.’

“At first I wanted to dismiss him as a lunatic, but then he showed me the scars he has received from his furry nemeses,” Driscoll continued. “He said that about two dozen squirrels had jumped him and threw acorns at him, bit his kneecaps, ripped out numerous arm and leg hairs and stabbed him with small, broken tree branches. I think it’s time for everyone to know the truth. After all, how do we know that the squirrels haven’t already taken over the administration?”

Senior Drema Drudge had even more information regarding a potential squirrel conspiracy. “I think that the reason Chris is getting so persecuted is that he has found out the deep, dark secret the administration has been trying to keep: the squirrels are actually all of the professors who have ever retired,” she said. “They love Manchester so much they get turned into squirrels in a secret ceremony held every May in the underground tunnels, complete with tiny gowns and mortar boards.

“Chris had better be careful-- they’re pretty serious about keeping this secret away from the students,” Drudge continued. “Better he should take a few bites (and possibly even contract rabies) than risk the wrath of the administration.”

First-year Ally O’Neill has noticed the suspicious behaviors of the MC campus squirrels, as well. “One of the first things I noticed about them was their boldness; they stand, tails flicking, right next to the sidewalk,” she said. “Sometimes it’s all I can do not to take off after them. I completely understand Chris’s actions. Those insubordinate little rodents know exactly what they’re doing.”

Regardless of one’s opinions regarding CRSD, it is apparent that squirrel chasing is an important issue for campus life at MC. We truly do not yet know what could still develop from this situation, but it cannot be ignored any longer.

Compassion, Change and College: MC Senior Drema Drudge

2008-03-28T15:08:00.003-04:00

Drema Drudge, a senior here at MC and a so-called "non-traditional student", is an exceptional woman.

After graduating from high school, Drema attended MC for a while. However, she and her husband Barry became aware of the dire need for foster parents. They decided to volunteer as foster parents on a short term basis, but ultimately committed themselves to the long-term care of emotionally handicapped children.

They initially adopted a girl who, had they not provided a home for her, would have likely been institutionalized. Then, a few years later, they adopted a boy. “So, that kind of interrupted things, as far as college was concerned,” Drema said.

The process of being foster parents provided them not only with challenges, but with opportunities for learning and growth. “The man from Allen County Child Protective Services said that she [their adopted daughter] was the third worst case he’d seen in 25 years,” Drema said.

She and Barry rose to the challenge, however. “She’s had a happy ending,” Barry said. “She’s now in college, married and doing very well. She is so intelligent.”Drema is currently homeschooling their son, who will enroll in the public high school next year. She homeschooled both of her children for part of their educations.

As their children grew up and came into themselves as more mature people, Drema was able to return to school. She returned to MC at the beginning of 2007’s fall semester, and will be graduating this spring with a major in English/writing.

During her time away from college, Drema and her family lived for five years in Nashville, TN. “We really loved the multicultural aspect of living there,” Barry said. “We saw so many perspectives on life through the ways the people there were conducting their lives. We realized, you know, that they were really wonderful people. Then, we came back here and, well, we love the people here, but we felt the difference, the lack of diversity.”

Also during this period, Drema wrote three unpublished novels; in her words, “two horrible, one not so bad.”

“Also I had built a bit of a freelance writing career in my ‘spare time’,” she continued, “though I have now shifted my focus to work primarily on my fiction."

And, she says, the pace has been just right. “It’s been good for me to have some distance between high school and college,” Dreema said. “I think a lot of the time if someone goes to college right out of high school, they tend to think of it on some level as an extension of their high school experience without realizing how important and meaningful college can be.”

Which is not to say that her return to college has been without frustrations. For one thing, although the age difference between herself and MC’s many traditional students is often unapparent, it nevertheless exists. “There are moments when I feel like everyone else,” she said. “And then there are moments when one of the other students will say something so… incredibly young.”

Furthermore, it has required that members of her family adapt to the growth in her life. Although this primarily affects her husband and son, of course, it also has resulted in changes in her relationships with the members of her extended family. “I’ve had family members who, as a result of all the growth that’s happened in me since I returned to college, have some extra difficulty relating to me,” Drema said. “You know, ‘Who are you? You’ve changed.’”

However, the benefits have far outweighed the frustrations. “It’s been so worthwhile,” she said. “I’ve learned almost as much from the students as I have from the professors—and I’ve had fabulous professors.”

“It’s funny how people who are necessary for your growth find you at the right time,” she continued. “There have been incidental comments by professors and students that have transformed my way of thinking towards people, towards my writing and towards my faith.”

Barry feels that there is a connection between this willingness to question herself and her beliefs and the benefits that she has gotten from her college experience. “I think that her growth in her writing and in her academics started when she began to allow herself to go anywhere with her writing, when she stopped saying, ‘No, I can’t go there,’” he said.

“We’ve been on a journey for many years of expanding our lives on so many levels, and Drema’s experiences in college have kind of rammed that up another level.”

Following her graduation this spring, Drema will be going on to graduate school at Spalding to pursue an MFA.

Outdoors in Indiana: The Hidden Wonders of Winter Hikes

2008-03-09T18:20:00.007-04:00

These last few months, I’ve noticed that I always get the same response when I tell someone I’m on my way out to go for a hike.

“Isn’t it a bit cold for that now?”

The short answer is, no. The long answer is, there are wonders to be discovered while in the forest during the wintertime that are completely denied to people who only wander to the out-of-doors during the warmer times of the year.

Take, for instance, Saturday, March 8. Three of my friends—Brittany Carpenter, Ally O’Neill and Zachary VanWinkle—and I decided to take a short trip to Salamonie State Forest for a hike up to the top of Hanging Rock and a trek around the Three Falls Trail (see “Outdoors in Indiana” articles from September 21, 2007 and November 16, 2007).

Not all of my companions were equally enthusiastic about the venture. “When I was first asked if I wanted to go hiking, I was very unsure,” Zachary said. “I was mostly unsure of my friends’ sanity, because it was freezing and there was snow on the ground.”

But he was willing to be persuaded by the rest of us, and less than an hour later we were trekking across unbroken fields of snow, towards hills, rivers and waterfalls.

Now, I have been on the Three Falls Trail a plethora of times, but that day it was like discovering a previously unseen winter wonderland. The river flowed beneath a thin crust of ice; the ice was shimmery and traced with patterns of starbursts on top and the ripples of trickling water underneath.

About a mile into the trail, there is a steep drop-off down into a valley; I call it the “As You Wish” hill, my own tribute to The Princess Bride. Because we could see a frozen waterfall just a short distance beyond the bottom of the hill, we decided to slide down it and see what exploring there was to be done.

The journey down was an adventure unto itself. We swisssshed down swiftly: no sleds were required. “That slide is better than anything you will be able to find at the local park!”, Zachary exclaimed later.

If you have never climbed underneath a frozen waterfall, you should strongly consider doing so. Although the icy and snow underneath our gloves was cold, our cheeks were warm and our breath danced with our giggles whenever we slipped.

The sound of water dripping was audible underneath the heavy solidity of the ice; it was so profound it is difficult to not wax poetic about the movement found within stability. I’ll leave it at this: when it comes to waterfalls, direct experience is really the way to go.

So-called “bad” weather provides us with an opportunity to see familiar things in a new way. Although the comfort level may not have been equal to that of a mellow stroll in June, the discoveries, challenges and new perspectives that are offered by hiking in snowy, rainy, or icy conditions far outweigh the difficulty.

The hike even affected Brittany’s perspective on Indiana and the area surrounding Manchester College. “Until my hike at Three Falls Trail, I had thought that Indiana was generally kind of ugly,” she said. “The frozen waterfalls were some of the most gorgeous sights I’d seen in quite some time, and there was absolutely nobody around. It was very refreshing to experience such peace and beauty only minutes from Manchester’s campus.”

Of course, spring has now officially started and melting has begun. However, it is hardly unheard of for there to be an early spring frost. If this does occur, I will humbly recommend that you consider breaking out your hiking boots and a good pair of gloves and seeing what you can discover.

After all, the world is right outside the door…. Let’s go!

Indiana Collegiate Press Association Award

2008-03-07T10:03:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, my journalism professor Dr. Katharine Ings informed the Oak Leaves staff that five of its writers have won writing awards from the Indiana Collegiate Press Association.

I am one of those five students. The other students from Manchester College who received awards are Adam King, Matt Penner, Jessie Hickerson, and Alina BigJohny.

We do not yet know which or how many awards we may have won, since several of us had multiple articles submitted.

The award ceremony will be at the Indiana Collegiate Press Association's conference in Terre Haute, IN on March 29.

Decision Regarding $50 Raise in Student Activity Fee To Be Delayed until Spring of 2009

2008-03-07T09:38:00.008-05:00

The Student Budget Board held a forum last Friday to discuss a potential $50 increase in the student activity fee.

Although no long-term decision has been made, it has been decided that the SGA’s vote on the matter will be delayed until the spring semester of 2009.

Sophomore Jason Elliott, the president of the SBB, had a lot to say about the context for the proposed change. “We originally thought about raising the student activity fee because the requests from clubs were $10,000 above what we are allowed to give, which is about $25,000 per semester,” he said.

“The result was a decrease in every student organization’s budget by 30 percent,” Elliott continued. “The organizations were quite irate.”

The proposed raised fee is an effort to avoid having to encounter this problem during upcoming semesters.

Students were not silent about this semester’s budget cuts. “SBB should be comprised of a member of each organization, or at least someone that is knowledgeable about what each of the clubs need,” said senior Heidi Gonyea. “When I have to put $100 of my own money into an organization [Alpha Psi] each year, there is a problem.”

First-year student Zachary VanWinkle agreed: “I am not opposed to an increase in the student activities fee, but I would like to be ensured that the money they currently have is being used efficiently and wisely.”

Goynea cloncluded, “The school may eventually be getting an extra $50 from each student for student activities, but I doubt some organizations will see even a penny of that increase."

Although SBB believes that unnecessary requests and budget padding is a significant contributor to the original problem, it is not ignoring student concerns about the unfair distribution of funds.

Starting this semester, the president and treasurer of each club can have an opportunity to sit with the SBB and go over the club’s budget in order to have a chance to justify their need for each item and to communicate the club’s budgetary priorities.

“We hope that this will prevent ill-directed and unnecessary anger towards SBB, because people will have had a chance to meet with us,” Elliott said. “If we could have eliminated the problem of budget padding, then this problem wouldn’t have arisen, at least not to this degree.”

Another concern arises from the ease with which students can create their own clubs, which results in an abundance of organizations requesting funding. “I'm the President for AAA,” said junior Jahan Monirian. “I understand the need to raise the activity fee, but it would be nice if there was a set number of clubs or some way to filter out clubs which aren't bringing much to the table.”

Other students have focused on the benefits of club participation, asserting that they far outweigh the costs involved in raising the fee. “I am president of two clubs, and quasi-active in about three others,” said junior Russell Holl. “I definitely care about them. I think clubs are a great outlet.”

Sophomore Brittany Carpenter agreed. “I think clubs are a very important part of a school, especially one as small and homogenous as Manchester,” Carpenter said. “Although it is getting more and more important to keep costs low at our school, clubs increase opportunity and awareness on a campus in many different ways, and it is difficult to put a price on that.”

One unresolved issue that was brought up during the forum involved the disparity with which the raised fee will affect some students, particularly international students and students from lower socio-economic classes.

Although student opinions regarding the matter are diverse and strongly held, attendance at the forum was low. “There were only about 10 students there, so either people didn’t know about it or didn’t care,” Elliott said. “This, of course, is also a big issue.”

“One student, Katie McCann, said to me that she felt honored to have even been asked her opinion about it,” Elliott said. “It is not usually the case that students are asked for their feedback in tuition and room and board rate changes, but we gave them a chance to speak their opinion about this fee.”

(This article appeared in the March 7 edition of The Oak Leaves)

MC Baseball Team's Season Opens in South Carolina

2008-02-29T07:32:00.002-05:00

The Manchester College baseball team’s season started this week.

Although in recent years the team has gone to Florida for the start of the season, this year will be different. The team will be traveling to Myrtle Beach, SC. They left on Thursday, Feb. 28 and will be gone through Sunday, March 2. Their opening game was Thursday against Concordia College (MI).

Several of last year’s varsity players graduated in the spring of 2007: Scott Tarnowski, Matt Talarico, Tyler Wolfe, Marcus Miller, Jordan Adams, Jason Carmichael, and Zac Bireley. As a result, this year’s lineup will include several first-year students: Wes Bucher, David Tatham, John Smolinski, Trey Forbes, Jay Sheets, Eric Roof, Curtis Mallory, JT Podell, and Andy Hughes will all be joining the team on its trip to South Carolina.

This year’s players expressed excitement about the upcoming trip, particularly because it offers a chance for them to spend time together as a team. “I’m excited to go and get to know the first-year players a little better, and to spend time with the team,” said junior Shawn Baker. “We always have a good time on road trips because we are so close.”

It is also particularly exciting for many of the players precisely because it is the start of a new season. “I’m excited about starting the season!” said junior Jared Baker. “There’s nothing like opening day. It’s a new year; everyone has a chance to go all the way.”

One anticipated benefit from the trip is the chance to leave the grey, cold and fickle Indiana weather. “I am the most excited about leaving the snow behind,” said senior Shaun Carrico, “and
replacing it with some decent 60 degree weather.”

But that coin has two sides; the dismal Indiana weather has meant that their practices have, so far, all been indoors. “The thing I’m the most nervous about is going from practicing inside to playing games right away without having a single practice on the field,” said sophomore Kaz Kalita. “Everything is different outside: throwing, fielding groundballs for infielders, reading the ball off the bat for outfielders, and even hitting.”

“But I’m confident that my teammates and I can adjust quickly down there in Myrtle Beach,” Kalita concluded.

Sophomore Adam King is not only excited about the prospect of playing baseball and seeing the east coast; this trip is giving him a chance to meet members of his family for the first time. “I have family in Myrtle Beach who I’ve actually never met,” he said. “They’re coming to watch me play.”

Like many of his teammates, King started playing baseball when he was four or five years old. “It’s a great game, the best in my opinion,” he said.

Nevertheless, he hasn’t lost his perspective. “It took an ESPN: The Magazine article about Morgan Ensberg, a major league ballplayer, to make me realize how minor baseball was compared to some other things in my life. Striking out or making an error doesn't mean the end of the world,” King said.

This perspective helps him sustain his joy for the game, which he said has “always been a means of pure enjoyment.”

The time on the road is a great way to start the season, according to junior Jeffrey Mendenhall. “We’re going to have a few days of thinking about nothing except for baseball,” Mendenhall said. “I believe that it will help to set a tone for the rest of the season.”

(This article appeared in the February 29 edition of The Oak Leaves)

Destruction of Snow Phallus Bemoaned by Its Creators and Their Fellow Students

2008-02-22T07:56:00.007-05:00

There was a new arrival to the MC campus during the evening following the Super Bowl. Although the visitor seemed cold and hard, there was an air of artistry and dedication surrounding the area. By the morning, there was no remaining trace of the visitor ever having come at all. What was this mysterious stranger? It was a giant snow penis, constructed by Manchester College art students.

Very few members of the MC community got a chance to see the snow construction, however, because it was destroyed by campus security and maintenance before the start of Monday’s classes. It had existed for less than seven hours before it was removed.

The demolition of the snow phallus has since been protested by the students who created it, as well as by their fellow students who wanted to see the campus’s infamous penis.

Sophomore Chris Webster conceived of the idea for the construction of the snow phallus. “No one that I called wanted to just go outside and play in the snow, but when I changed my request and asked if they wanted to help me build a big, giant, throbbing [penis] on the mall, they were all for it,” Webster said. “It started out as play, and ended up as art.”

Martin Yohn, a first-year student, was one of the friends that received a call to come help. “I immediately put on everything warm that I owned and met Chris, followed closely by Brian [Kunze] and Joe [Dwars],” Yohn said. “It must have been amusing for any passersby to see four figures, spaced evenly on the sidewalk around the mall, each with a 40 pound ball of snow being pushed and forced along the path in front of them.”

Dwars’ sense of humor and desire for novelty contributed to his participation in the construction of the penis. “I decided to join in because I thought it was hilarious to do a snow penis when everyone else was just making snowmen, and I wanted to make something everyone would be talking about, kind of like immortalizing us and the penis.”

Construction of a snow phallus of such a magnitude required some creative problem-solving in order to achieve the right shape and level of realism that was envisioned by its creators. “You would be surprised at the amount of consideration that is involved in sculpting a hard-on out of snow,” Yohn said. “We had to ask ourselves questions like, how big should we make it? How long? Should it be vertically or horizontally erect? Should we even tackle the issue of hair?”

“The shaft was multi-balled, and then unified—we put three or four balls in a line and then filled in the spaces,” Webster said. “Marty and I demanded that it be huge; we didn’t want just a tiny [penis] for the corner.”

“Once we had it together, it was all about rubbing the [penis] thoroughly to make sure it had the right shape—you know, good and strong,” Webster continued. “Then, from there we added on veins, to make it throbbing.”

All of the people who were up and around on campus late enough to witness the creation of the phallus were amused, supportive and impressed. “Everybody who saw the penis loved it and loved the idea,” Dwars said. “We even had a bunch of people stand and watch and even pack some snow on.”

Kunze and Webster agreed that their fellow students seemed more enthusiastic than offended. “While we were making the penis, a group came to the mall, and we all threw some snowballs back and forth,” Kunze said. “After a while, they went off to make a wall across the road in front of the Union. Everyone who walked by or stopped to watch was amazed by the snow penis.”

“The people who witnessed the assembly of the [penis] were all pretty supportive,” Webster said. “Some people rode it, but that was before it had the veins on it yet. Others asked us why we were making a giant penis on the mall in the first place. Still others joined in and helped with the construction. Some other people were talking about making a giant vagina, too, but then they realized it would be too difficult.”

Although students’ opinions regarding the snow penis were varied, there seems to be a consensus among many students that it was not necessary to destroy the snow art. “I can see how the penis could seem offensive, but college is a time for people to be more explorative and open-minded,” said sophomore Maggie Winey. “I’m a little pissed off that I didn’t get a chance to see it in person.”

First-year student Zachary VanWinkle sees the destruction of the phallus as an indication of the power dynamic between students and the administration. “I think that the way the college reacted to the snow penis reveals that anything that is deemed inappropriate is subject to censure by the college’s administration and staff,” VanWinkle said. “Although this may be their right, we live here, and we should have the right to freedom of expression.”

Junior Natasha Miller was one of the most outspoken students in favor of the existence of snow phalluses on campus. “I have no problem with penises,” Miller said. “In fact, I am very fond of them. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of them (like this snow penis) around campus.”

Likewise, first-year student Epigmenio Sanchez regrets that the penis was destroyed so promptly. “A big snow penis on campus is actually pretty funny,” Sanchez said. “It would have been nice to be able to see it myself, and maybe even get a few photos of myself with the penis.”

The creators of the snow penis were saddened by the removal of their creation. “When it was tore down we were all upset, because we really didn’t feel like anyone had the right to demolish our snow penis,” Dwars said. “After all, there’s a bunch of art that has penises and other genitals in it. We were also pretty pissed that not a whole lot of people got to see the penis, because what we wanted to do was make the campus laugh.”

Chris Webster agreed. “I felt a great disappointment towards this college when our penis was destroyed,” Webster said. “It was art, and I had hoped it would be respected, but it wasn’t. It was throbbing—I mean, c’mon, you have to at least respect that.”

Webster also had advice to offer to other potential snow artists. “If I was to give any advice to future snow masons, it would be this: wear gloves. Good ones.”

(An edited version of this article appeared in the February 22 edition of The Oak Leaves)

Scout Fuller Fund for Social Justice to Provide an MC Student with Opportunity for Service-Oriented Internship

2008-02-17T19:30:00.005-05:00

On March 1st, applications for the 2008 Scout Fuller Fund for Social Justice Summer Service Award are due; all Manchester College students who will still be enrolled for the 2008-2009 academic year are eligible to apply.

The recipient of the award will receive up to $2000 of expenses directly related to a service-oriented internship, as well as up to an additional $3000 cash award to help cover expenses during the 2008-2009 school year.

This fund is in memory of Josephine “Scout” Wollman Fuller, the daughter of Abby Fuller (associate professor of sociology) and Neil Wollman (former professor of psychology), who died following a seven-month-long battle with cancer on July 7, 2007 at the age of eight.

“The idea for the fund originated very soon after Scout’s death out of a desire to perpetuate her legacy of concern for others and strong sense of justice,” said Abby Fuller. “We have all found it very meaningful to create and run the fund; it has given us something positive to do in the midst of our grief.”

In a tribute written for Scout’s Caring Bridge website, Abby said that “Scout was scrupulously honest, and could be indignant when others were not. She had a strong sense of fairness and was troubled when people were not treated equally…. She had philosophical discussions with her dad about evolution, about the spiritual world, about the importance of helping others…. It is Scout’s sensitivity to others, though, that was perhaps her defining quality.”

“We decided to give an award to an MC student for a summer internship or volunteer experience because as an MC prof, I know that there are many capable and motivated students who must work during the summer,” continued Fuller. “So, we decided to not only pay for the internship/volunteer experience but also to award extra money for the student to use the following year.”

“Scout inspired me,” said Neil Wollman. “We learned from each other, and she’s continued to inspire me in a lot of ways even after her death. For instance, I’ve been thinking more about how I interact with others, becoming calmer in certain ways, so there’s definitely been a personal involvement…. But there’s also been an effect in my work with social concern projects. Wherever I can, I try to think about Scout and how I can remember her and honor her in certain ways. This fund, likewise, is a way of remembering her and honoring her.”

“I feel that there are still a number of ways where it seems as though Scout is still around, helping other people,” Wollman continued. “It seems impossible to completely accept her death, but it is made easier to accept because of this sense that she still has a presence that reveals itself in ways that are helpful to people, and creative, and to a fair amount that means that she is showing her power continually and carrying on some of her character.”

A touching account of Scout’s story, told by members of her family, can be read at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/scout.

Information on the Scout Fuller Award for Social Justice, including a link to the application, can be found at http://www.scoutfullerfund.org/pages/apply-for-the-2008-summer-service-award.php.

(This article appeared in the February 15 edition of The Oak Leaves)

Growing Divide between Liberal and Conservative Students Results in Conflict, Conversation

2008-02-17T19:21:00.001-05:00

On January 28, a message titled “Some Nice Conservative Opinions about Manchester” was circulated on Facebook. This message, written by a self-avowed “Conservative [sic] Republican,” damned Manchester as a “Hippie Palace… controlled by gay liberal vegans,” and declared that “the bottom line is basically that people need to grow the [expletive] up.”

Although the majority of Facebook notes stand on their own, without response, this particular message yielded almost a dozen replies within the first 18 hours. Remarkably, many of these responses were from liberal students who felt empathy over the writer’s sense of alienation, and included many offers for further conversation.

These messages indicate that dissent within the student body regarding politics and lifestyle is more prevalent than is apparent from the average classroom discussion. Because these matters are primarily discussed in informal settings and online forums, it is likely that much of the faculty and staff are unaware of the disputes at all. However, there is clearly both a need and a desire for a forum for discussion between liberal and conservative MC students.

The original message stated that the writer’s experience at MC has led her to feel that “if your [sic] not a liberal then the gays basically assign you as to what you are supposed to believe and think and if you don’t do as they say they degrade [you] as a human…. They order you to recycle and never eat meat and to stop buying name brand clothes,” she wrote. “I can understand the hate of soldiers and the abuse of children from parents, but for one Caucasian HUMAN to treat another Caucasian HUMAN so badly for how they dress and for what they eat? That’s terrible.”

She also expressed confusion regarding the presence of Christian homosexual students; “Last time I checked Christianity protested against homosexuality.”

One of the first replies, written by sophomore Zach Blatz, warned future readers to avoid automatically responding in a judgmental and hostile manner. “[The writer] is obviously saying this because something happened,” he said. “Why are we, as accepting ‘liberals,’ going around attacking people for not being just like us?”

First year student Zachary VanWinkle was easily able to see the parallel between the writer’s sense of alienation in a liberal environment and his own experience of alienation as a homosexual in a conservative environment. “There are some very misinformed and troubling arguments in this piece,” he said. “But if I reverse the role, I can try to understand. Kendallville is not a liberal heaven, and especially not a place to be gay or vegetarian.”

“I am not sure where [the writer] came from, but know this-- I never felt safe or at home in Kendallville,” VanWinkle said. “I am safe and can be who I want to be here. I can be gay, liberal, and a ‘label whore’… But you should speak out. Voice your opinions, or else how will you and I communicate and find common ground?”

Senior Anna Simons, referring to another poster’s comment, wrote “Thanks for the reminder that ‘mean people are suffering.’… I think it’s probably [one of] the easiest truths to forget. I think we forget it because we get angry, too, because we suffer also and then we get mean sometimes.”

“I can understand this person’s feeling that she is surrounded by differing assumptions and wanting to rail against those,” Simons continued. “I often feel that way too, and sometimes
feel like the only response I can make is to take just as strong a position on the other side and act like just as big an asshole. One of the scariest and most important things we can do as members of a human community is to learn to really listen to each other.”

John Fagan, a sophomore religion major, spoke out on behalf of moderate and conservative students here at MC. “I will be honest about the letter written by the first year student; I don't disagree on every point made,” Fagan said. “Yes, I think that her letter was racist and narrow minded and all around poorly thought out, but a valid point was made [regarding] the overwhelming unbalance in the liberal to conservative population of the student body.”

“In my experience here, I have found that it is to be expected that if one is to express a conservative view point in a group setting, one should be prepared to be attacked much more aggressively than [if a liberal student were to express] his/her point,” Fagan continued. “Furthermore, in my opinion, I feel a forum of discussion between the two sides would be excellent. I would have much to say, given that the discussion was properly mediated.”

“I have learned so much already about people and how different they can be,” said sophomore Erica Nisley, a self-professed conservative Mennonite. “In no way, however, have I ever felt that a certain group of people has overbearing control of the environment here.… As for the groups on campus who support clothing not manufactured in sweatshops, recycling, and encourage us not to waste as much food, they're just being proactive with their values. It may not be your style, but its their's. They're doing something to better the lives of others in a way they see fit.”

“As far as Christianity goes, the Bible contains passages that don't condone homosexuality, but then there are also the passages that speak about the love of your fellow human beings,” Nisley said. “Which matters more, your orientation or your common humanity? No matter where you go to school, no matter where you live, you'll come into contact with people whose views are so much different than yours. You're going to have to learn to live with them.”

First-year student Matthew Bennett said “I am a conservative Christian…. However, I have adapted to the culture of the school, and am not angered by it…. While I believe homosexuality is immoral, I do not believe hatred and violence against those who choose that lifestyle is warranted.”

“The note spoke of the way the author felt that certain groups were seeking to force her to adapt to their points of view. I have not felt that I have been pressured to accept their agenda or to conform to their beliefs,” said Bennett. “While the sort of tolerance I possess may not be what some want it to be, I am tolerant on several levels…. Not all conservatives are full of hate, just as not all liberals are full of hate towards others. Hopefully more of us will realize that, and we can all go through our days without hard feelings towards one another.”

Kendal Sue Kosta Mikel, an MC alum from the class of 2007, observed that prejudice tends to produce conflict rather than knowledge. “I feel sorry for this person, who seems to be completely misinformed,” Mikel wrote. “It’s sad if she was mistreated by someone in a certain social group, however, she should probably understand that generalizing people is not going to solve her problems. She does not want people unlike her to say that because she is a conservative
she fits into a specific ‘box,’ so why does she believe this about others?”

Mikel concluded by observing that some of the important things that students are able to learn during their time at MC include a deepening understanding of “who [we are], what [we] really believe and, most importantly, why [we] believe those things.”

Great Jukai: Ceremony of Love, Family, and Dedication

2007-11-27T15:31:00.001-05:00

Earlier this evening, I was in a Hell Realm with my good friend Frank Villone. Red faced demons, black faced demons, and blue faced demons peered out at me through the tight, smoky passageway. Haunting music was playing relentlessly. I turned a corner, and was confronted with images of starving, tortured, mutilated, and dying beings. Breath came short and skin crawled. I wanted out of there.
Together we traveled through the walkway of the Zen Center in Rochester, New York, which was set up to vividly represent the six realms of unenlightened existence. Each realm revealed to our senses the defilements, suffering, and impermanent nature of the world in which we live.

This is Great Jukai, the most sacred of Buddhist ceremonies that a lay practitioner will ever participate in, it only happens every three years, and the hell realm is just the beginning. I have been a member of the Rochester Zen Center for almost six years, and so this is only my second time participating in a Great Jukai ceremony.

“In Buddhism, traditionally we talk about different realms, or levels, of unenlightened existence,” explained Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, the abbot of the Zen Center. “You could say that before reaching Buddhahood, or enlightenment, we must all ascend through these six realms. We use our covered walkway to lay out images and music representing these six realms, so that en route to the Buddha Hall for the Great Jukai ceremony we have to go through these—it represents our spiritual evolution through these different realms.”

The gentle touch of Frank’s hand on my shoulder gave me the strength to continue on into the next realm. In our hands we clutched the klesa papers that had been given to us as we entered the tunnel; on these papers were the symbols for greed, anger, and delusion, the three poisons that estrange us from our intrinsically pure nature.

Unfortunately, the suffering in the next realm, that of hungry ghosts and thirsty spirits, was not less than that of the hell realm, just different. Gloved hands reached out of the walls, grabbing for my legs; starved beings seemed to moan from every direction; the blank and empty gaze of addicts penetrated into my awareness.

But the animal realm that came next felt desperate and frightening. Bullet shells were scattered everywhere, traps lay hidden, and the elusiveness of food and nourishment seemed tangible.

“How are you doing, Laura?” Frank asked. “Are you ready to move on?”

I inhaled, looked around, hearing the sounds of gunshots and screeching, and nodded. I knew what came next; this was no time to be timid.

For next came the realm of asuras, the fighting titans who represent the competitive, destructive, and warlike impulses within us. Images of warfare, wealth, consumption, and hatred reflected into me, and I felt the sadness and separation that lay beneath my desires for success and security.

The human realm included pictures of elderly, sick, and dying people interspersed with pictures of people embracing and images of tenderness and connection between children and their elders. A sign hung from the rafters of the walkway that read “The human realm provides the most advantageous foundation to attain Buddhahood. But: 1. Rare is birth as a human being, 2. Scarce is the probability of hearing the Dharma, and 3. Serious is the delusion of our mind,” a succinct reminder of the deeply precious nature of life and the human bodymind.

“There are different ways of looking at all of these realms, and different ways of articulating the essence of it,” said Roshi. “One way of looking at the human realm is that it is a realm of dualism, dilemma, and choice. Animals, people in hellish realms, people in states of addiction and craving—they don’t have the same element of choice…. The human realm is where we can exercise our wisdom in making choices that do not cause unnecessary suffering.”

“The Buddha said that another way of looking at the human predicament,” continued Roshi, “is that of being caught between desires and aversions, our likes and our dislikes… There is a great German saying that ‘whoever has choice has pain.’”

From the human realm, we moved into the sixth realm of unenlightened existence, the heavenly realm, the realm of devas. It often seems curious to people who grew up in an Abrahamic religion that heavenly realms are considered deeply dangerous for those with spiritual aspirations, for the overwhelming comfort can lead to complacency in the face of the suffering of others.

“The deva realm means any existence of comfort or privilege or pleasure, such as being wealthy, beautiful or admired-- when everything is going so well, when there is so much comfort and adoration, it can be more difficult to see into the impermanent nature of things,” said Roshi.

“So, great, you reach a deva realm, you become a wealthy financier of some sort who has houses in the Hamptons and Miami and so forth, and there is then little incentive usually to practice [meditation]. I haven’t heard of people in these kind of deva realms who practice with the rigor of the dharma. It’s true that when you’re in pain, when you’re in a hellish realm, there is more dukkha, more dissatisfaction, more motivation to try to get out of that, to transcend that, but when you’re adrift in pleasure, well, eventually, that becomes hell too.”

After moving through the misty rose light, clouds, and beautiful beings floating in the deva realm, we exited the covered walkway. We stood outside the Buddha Hall under the echoing crisp winter sky. A stone Buddha just sat in the garden, steady and patient and still.

As we entered the Buddha Hall, we removed our shoes and hung our jackets up in the coat room. The air was fresh with light, woody incense, and the deep pounding of the mokugyo-- the large, round wooden percussion instrument that sets the rhythm of our chanting-- was clearly audible, even though it was being played on the upper level of the building. The Ten Verse Kannon Sutra, a chant dedicated to the bodhisattva of compassion, was being chanted by the ninety-some people slowly making their way up the stairs.

Kanzeon, praise to Buddha, All are one with Buddha, all awake to Buddha, the voices of all people joined into one voice, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Eternal, joyous, selfless, pure, and it was so easy to feel that way as the chant continued and I slowly, one step at a time, waiting, chanting, being, listening, This moment arises from mind, this moment itself is mind.

After we reached the top of the staircase, Frank and I walked down the aisle towards the altar, embraced by the chants of those who had already taken their seats. We deposited our klesa papers in a bowl at the altar, did a prostration before the Buddha statue, and walked around the circumference of the room before taking our seats on two cushions towards the back of the room.

Jukai is formed from two Japanese words, ju (which means both to give and to receive) and kai (which means precepts).

“The precepts are the morality leg of the tripod of what we call the three essentials of the practice of Buddhism-- the precepts (or morality), meditation (what we call zazen), and wisdom (or prajna),” continued Roshi. “I see upholding the precepts as a way to stop hurting other people and oneself.”

“This goes more to the core of it than looking at morality in terms of right and wrong. Right and wrong I see as just an overlay, a western religious overlay. You don’t need to frame things in terms of right and wrong, all you have to know is whether it causes suffering or not.”

“This is not just a technical, semantic difference-- the right and wrong thing is a judgment that doesn’t need to be there-- it has an absolutist quality to it. We don’t need to go that far. We just need to know whether an action or speech, both of which originate out of thoughts, whether these things cause suffering or not.”

“Giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin-- if you are really giving with a full heart, then you are always receiving-- you cannot give without receiving if the giving is pure, genuine and sincere-- the giving and receiving are like the breath. So, technically, you could say that student who goes to the Jukai ceremony is receiving the precepts, but they are also very much giving to me as the teacher by being able to, in this formal way, usher themselves into the Buddha’s family.”

After everyone had gone to the altar and made their way around to their seat, we sat together in silence before Roshi ascended into the Buddha Hall and prostrated before the altar. After he had taken his seat, the quietude settled around us before the voice of Roshi, gentle and low, introduced the Repentance Gatta:

“We ask the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, who have realized enlightenment, to have compassion for us, to help free us from obstructive suffering, the legacy of our past lives, and to help us share in the merit power that fills the countless worlds. The Buddhas and bodhisattvas in the past were like us, and we will in the future become Buddhas and bodhisattvas,” a gentle reminder of our origins, attachments, and the potential that grows from them.

And then, with one voice, almost one hundred people said together: “All evil actions committed by me since time immemorial, stemming from greed, anger and delusion, arising from body, speech and mind, I now repent having committed.” It is said 9 times in all, deeper each time, and there were tears on my face by the fifth. The air seemed to shine when we again fell into an awakened silence.

Following the repentance, the klesa papers were burned ceremoniously in a metal urn. The flickering of the flames shone off of our faces, and the heavy smell of smoke hung for only a minute before dispersing, lightened, towards the full moon shining in through the windows.

“All of this is a way to embody the meaning of all of this,” said Roshi. “It’s one thing to think about and to talk about it, but to enact it through this drama of picking up the paper, going through the tunnel, ascending into the Buddha Hall, doing a prostration, putting the paper in the bowl and seeing and hearing the paper burn is very dramatic in the silence of the Buddha Hall.”

Next, we recited the 16 precepts that lay practitioners of Buddhism vow to live in accordance with. “The taking of the precepts themselves is another way of embodying them,” said Roshi. “When you have to articulate them, you engage the lips and the tongue and the throat and the larynx and so forth; when you have to engage all of these aspects physically, then it goes deeper than by just thinking about it.”

We say all 16 of the precepts three times each, the energy of compassion and dedication pulsing tangibly in the air. “We do it three times each to hammer it in deeper each time,” said Roshi. “Hopefully by the third time there will be some deeper attention being brought to it.”

The ceremony ends with the Return of Merit. The lead chanter sounds the echoing toned kesu, a large low ringing bowl-shaped bell, while chanting deeply, Homage to all Buddhas and Bodhissatvas. Homage to the living Buddha in the ten directions. Homage to the living dharma in the ten directions. Homage to the living sangha in the ten directions. Buddhas and dharma ancestors have opened wide the gates of compassion; We enter the Buddha’s family. We now return the merit of out efforts to all beings in the ten directions. May all beings attain Buddhahood.

The Return of Merit is a grounding reminder that we take these vows not so that we can feel proud of being such good, moral people, but in order to avoid causing unnecessary suffering in the lives of all beings.

We walked back down the stairs, lighter and different than when we had entered an hour earlier, smiling and loving each other. Frank and I didn’t talk as we put our shoes and jackets back on. Outside in the cold air, we exchanged hugs and laughter with the dozens of glowing people standing in the clear western New York night.

I walked down the curving brick walkway of the garden back to the main building of the Zen Center. I had a cup of tea and a gallon of conversation before I headed towards bed.

The following day, I drove back home to Indiana. I left while the sky was still dark in the east, but it shifted into shades of indigo blue, and then purple, and then pink, as the light stretched to catch up with the rising sun.

It was in this iridescently changing light that I saw the deer. He was dead and strapped to the top of a brown Grand Cherokee. Although his legs were bound together, his head was nodding and bouncing in the rush of wind that flowed over the vehicle moving at 70 mph. His tongue was sticking out, and it flapped at me hauntingly as I passed.

I thought about what the deer’s last few moments must have been like, and contemplated the desperation for survival that pervades the animal realm. I felt the desire to chant, and remembered that I had recorded the previous night’s ceremony.

I plugged my digital recorder into my radio transmitter, and the sounds of the Ten Verse Kannon Sutra swelled through my car’s speakers. I chanted along, hoping to ease the pain of myself, the deer, the hunter, and all beings.

“The Buddha is quoted famously as saying, ‘I teach but two things, suffering and the end of suffering,’” Roshi said. It seemed to me, then and there at 8:00 am on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, dead deer in rearview mirror and chanting in my ears and throat, that that is all that the entire world is ever teaching us.

At one point, in between chants when nothing was being said, I realized that what I was not hearing through the silence of my volume turned all the way up was the sound of yesterday’s defilements crackling as they burned.

I was driving home from my visit home, and I felt at home as I moved at 72 mph down the sun-shadowed highway.

Giving Thanks and Buying Nothing

2007-11-20T08:40:00.000-05:00

This Friday, November 23, there will be no new edition of The Oak Leaves as a result of Manchester College's Thanksgiving break.

Nevertheless, there is an even larger occurrence scheduled for November 23. I would like to encourage all of you to participate in the 15th annual Buy Nothing Day, which takes place each year on the day after Thanksgiving ("Black Friday"). This is a great opportunity to question the role of consumption and consumerism in your life.

Buy Nothing Day was started by the good people at Adbusters, which I unreservedly assert is one of the most innovative, intelligent, and politically pertinent magazines currently being published.

More information on Buy Nothing Day can be found at http://adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/view.php?id=403.

Carol J. Adams, Author of The Sexual Politics of Meat, Speaks at Manchester College

2007-11-12T18:25:00.000-05:00

In her book The Pornography of Meat, Carol J. Adams reveals ways in which advertising and pornography have made inequality tasty, sexy and fun. We don’t see this inequality as anything wrong, she says, because we benefit from it. The dominant paradigm of inequality is at the root of violence against both women and animals.

On November 12, Adams presented her slide show on “The Sexual Politics of Meat.” Afterwards, she met with students for lunch and conversation .

“We live in a world of dominance,” Adams said. “In the western world, we are made to fit into a dualistic structure in which the dominant side is over and against the non-dominant ‘other’…. Women live in sexual objectification the way fish live in water. The water of sexual objectification is all around us.”

The environment of sexual objectification is created by “the male gaze,” which views women not as specific and unique individuals, but as consumable things that are “to be looked at and used.” This is synonymous, Adams said, with the way that the male gaze views animals.

“What is on the plate in front of us is not devoid of specificity; it is the dead flesh of what was once a living, feeling being,” Adams said. “The crucial point here is that we make someone who is a unique being into something that is the appropriate referent of a mass term. Mass terms signal the thingification of beings.”

According to Adams, the role of feminism is to intervene against inequality in order to create equality. She has certainly exerted a great deal of effort towards this goal in her own life. In the 1970s, she and her partner started to run a hotline for battered women.

A difficulty arose when it became necessary to find safe places for the women. When community support failed to rise to meet this opportunity to help, she decided that her home could serve as headquarters until volunteer participation increased.

She also intervenes against the inequality of species-ism through her choice to live a vegan life.

In the absence of the currently all-pervasive power dynamic that is created by advertisements and pornography, society would look much different than it does now. “For one thing, women would no longer die at the hands of their lovers,” Adams said, “and animals would not be slaughtered for food.”

It seems undeniable that that would certainly be an important indication of a more peaceful, less violent, and more just society.

Creating such a society would not be an easy task, because it will require that people collectively open themselves to the pain that has been caused and continues to exist. However, in the long run, the healing will be greater than the difficulty.

“Compassion is a renewable resource,” Adams said. “It is true that when we allow ourselves to be aware of the pain of others, there will be disappointment, anger and grief; but these will not kill us. We are better off feeling the compassion. Many people don’t recognize that it ultimately takes more work to protect yourself from the vulnerability and pain of caring than to just let yourself care.”

Although there is certainly merit in dedicating oneself to equal rights causes and/or a vegetarian lifestyle, one does not need to make such a large commitment in order to bring about positive change to the current conditions of inequality. “I’d like to see male college students call each other out when they objectify women, for them to become more deeply aware that the objectification exists and to recognize it for what it is,” Adams said, “and to begin to accept accountability,”

“I’d also like to see a world in which women feel safe,” Adams continued. “How do we think that there can be equality if there is not safety?”

(This article appeared in the November 16 edition of The Oak Leaves)

Moving up in the World of Science: A Look at the Glass Ceiling from a Different Angle

2007-11-09T10:10:00.002-05:00

One could hardly imagine a less likely subject of campus controversy than the architectural configuration of the new Science Center.

However, many members of the Manchester College community have alleged that the staircase in the main foyer (the steps of which are made primarily of glass panels) was designed without proper sensitivity to female students and faculty members, and poses a risk that anyone wearing a skirt or a dress could be inadvertently putting themselves on display.

The MC Science Center was completed in the fall of 2005, after more than 13 years of planning and $17million in expenditures. Later that same year, it was awarded the ABC Award of Excellence by the Associated Builders and Contractors of Indiana. Nearly every detail of the building was considered in relation to both practical and aesthetic concerns.

Other than the glass stairs, that is. Although the treads (the horizontal surfaces that are walked on) are opaque, every vertical surface of the staircase is completely transparent. Although it is extraordinarily unlikely that anyone would ever be fully on display, the upward angle of sight available to those walking on the first floor poses a risk that a student on the stairs may be showing more than she intends to or is comfortable with.

The oversight is noticed and felt by many women in the MC community. “Yes, I have thought about those stairs before,” said Reaunna Murphy, an MC alumna from the class of 2006, “and I think it’s obvious that no one thought about all of the implications of making a staircase like that.”

“I agree that the staircase design was gender insensitive,” said Dagny Boebel, a former MC English and Gender Studies professor. “Actually, before the first faculty meeting in the new Science Center, female faculty members were warned NOT to walk up the stairs if they were wearing a skirt. I know that I have sometimes walked up or down wearing a skirt, but only when I have forgotten that this activity puts me on display.”

One consequence of the glass staircase is the impression that it makes upon prospective students. “Upon walking up to the Science Center stairs on my tour, one of the first things I thought was ‘Wow, thank goodness I didn’t wear a skirt!’” said first-year Becka Lee. “I wanted to make an impression, just not one of that sort.”

“No person should be subjected to being put on display in a manner that is outside of their control,” said Travis Rose, a frequent visitor to North Manchester and a current prospective student, “albeit even a minor one.”

Obviously, Lee decided to enroll at MC despite her observations regarding the
glass staircase. However, the comments of Lee and Rose illustrate the probability that other prospective students (not to mention their parents) have been keenly aware of the stairs’ transparency.

Not all members of the MC community agree that the staircase poses a problem. “In general, MC faculty had an above average amount of input into the design of the Science Center, and that includes four women,” said chemistry professor Dr. Terrie Salupo-Bryant. “The glass staircase is in keeping with the glass design throughout the building, and my opinion is that it looks much better that way.”

Defenders of the staircase design pointed out that the area directly under the stairs is barred off. However, this does not solve the problem, for two reasons.

Firstly, the bars are a mediocre deterrent at best. It is easy to get around the bars, as there is a sizable gap between the bars and the wall. Furthermore, I sat and stood in the barred off area on several occasions during the investigative process, which included a few passing periods. Although I am sure that I was seen by faculty members, not once was I confronted or asked to move.

Secondly, because the treads and the landing of the stairs are opaque, the angle that is the most worrisome is not from directly under the stairs, but from the heavily-trafficked areas slightly further from the staircase.

Opinions varied regarding the best way to respond to the design. The simplest way, many contend, is for students and faculty members to avoid wearing skirts and dresses on days when they may need to be in the Science Center.

“I expect that the administration would say that students are here to learn, not to be fashion icons,” said first-year Wendy Lude. “If students feel exposed [by climbing the Science Center’s stairs] while wearing skirts…. then they should simply not wear skirts.”

Others feel that it is unfair to ask students and faculty to be forced to either alter their attire or to find an alternative route to their classrooms, simply so that the foyer of a building can be aesthetically pleasing. It is also an insufficient remedy, for it doesn’t account for those who either have momentarily forgotten or have not yet considered the implications of the glass risers.

Unfortunately, many feel that it is unlikely that the college will actually do anything to change the situation: “I think if the administration had thought about female students and their skirts before the stairs went in, there would have been changes,” Murphy said. “As it is now, I doubt much will be done to help console upset female students.”

The solution most commonly proposed was for the glass risers to be frosted. This would be inexpensive and fairly simple to accomplish, and would preserve the aesthetic unity and openness of the Science Center’s lobby.

(published in Manchester College's weekly newspaper, The Oak Leaves, on November 9, 2007)

Outdoors in Indiana 7: Salamonie State Park and Reservoir

2007-11-04T18:38:00.001-05:00

I am writing this week’s article in my notebook, sitting at a picnic bench in the Salamonie State Forest. The Salamonie Lake is glistening before me in the afternoon sun, and I’m wishing I had brought a picnic.

The Salamonie State Forest and Reservoir are only about a 30 minute drive from campus, which makes me wonder why I haven’t been here sooner.

The forest is huge, and there are two separate boat docks; one is on the Salamonie River and one is here, on the Salamonie Lake. Within the last week I have kayaked on both. For what it is worth, I preferred kayaking on the river, although the lake has a better vista. It is a windy day today, and I must say that kayaking into the wind (or worse, perpendicular to it) was a rather… interesting experience.

There are two entrances into the forest, one on Lost Bridge Road off of 105 and one off of 524. The Lost Bridge area, where I am currently writing, offers camping, boating, hiking, areas for picnicking, and snowmobile trail for use in the winter months.

The picnicking area here is, without hyperbole, sublime. There are several picnic tables, spaced several hundred feet part, each with its own grill. Most of these tables are long the crest of a hill that overlooks the lake, but there is one below me that is directly on the lake’s shoreline; it is only accessible by going down to the boat launching area and walking southeast along the shore about 400 yards.

Yesterday, I visited the area of the forest that is accessible off of 524. There, you can find horseback riding trails as well as a primitive horseman’s camp, hiking trails, primitive and family camping, and (as previously mentioned) a boat ramp onto the Salamonie River.

As I drove into that area of the forest, I noticed a sign marking the entrance onto the “Three Falls Trail.” This trail is not mentioned in the Salamonie State Forest map and info brochure, and sounded intriguing, so I decided to hike it after my kayaking adventure.

Kayaking down the river was a peaceful and invigorating experience. The only sounds were the “Gluck! Gluck! Gluck!” of my paddle entering the water and the “Tschhuhhh” of the wind blowing through the trees. It was the warmest day in over a week, and I worked up a bit of a sweat before returning to the dock.

I did learn a very important lesson, however; if you plan to be boating down a river in a westerly direction, don’t plan on doing it while the sun is setting. The light that gleams beautifully when filtered through the trees can become a bit blinding when reflected off of a body of water.

After I got the kayak strapped back on to the hood of my car, I went to the trailhead of the Three Falls Trail. I hiked through a beautiful stretch of forest, with a lovely open clearing along the way, before I heard the water.

And, after a slight curve in the trail, I saw the falls. They were rushing and white and bubbly and musical, and I couldn’t help but smile. The trail at that point travels alongside a drop off of about 100 feet, the river with its occasional rushing falls flows below it.

It had rained the day before, and the ground was soft underneath my shoes. The wind was still playing with the leaves, and the surroundings could not have been more beautiful. It was by far the nicest hiking trail that I have ever found in Indiana thus far.

All of this, a mere 22 miles from campus! The world is right outside your door... let's go!

(This article appeared in the November 16 edition of The Oak Leaves)

Outdoors in Indiana 6: Crooked Creek Trails

2007-10-28T19:47:00.000-04:00

In last week’s article, I mentioned that Tippecanoe State Park has bridle trails and a horse camp (“Outdoors in Indiana,” November 2, 2007). Sadly, I am one of the many MC students who does not own my own horse, and so I was unable to take advantage of those opportunities. However, an employee of Tippecanoe State Park recommended that I check out Crooked Creek Trails.

Crooked Creek Trails Horseback Riding is in Cass County on W CR 250 N, just over an hour’s drive from campus. According to their website, http://www.crookedcreektrails.com/ , Crooked Creek was established by Luke and Jan Riley and their friend, Gene Ohrt “around 20 years ago (it’s hard to say… time flies when you’re having fun!)”

“We started this ‘business’ because we knew that good, public riding facilities are hard to find,” say the Crooked Creek founders. “With the hustle and bustle of most peoples’ lives these days, we’ve made it our goal to make this the perfect place to relax.”

That was certainly my experience. I went on a 1-hour guided trail ride around their property. My horse’s name was Starbuck, a handsome fellow full of energy. We wound around the trails on the property, passing beautiful scenery that included streams, forested areas, and a small lake.

A light drizzle began to fall about halfway through the ride, but no one in the group was bothered in the least. The guide asked if we wanted to return to the stables, and a resounding “No!” was the answer. What is a little bit of rain to a person riding a horse as handsome, gentle, and responsive as Starbuck while surrounded by the luminous colors of fall?

Crooked Creek Trails offers 30-minute and 1-hour trail rides at the cost of $15 and $20 per person, respectively.

They also offer Moonlight Rides from May through November for $25. These rides, offered only to riders over 18, start at approximately 9:00 p.m. on nights with a full (or almost full) moon; the last one of 2007 is scheduled for November 24th (the Saturday of MC’s Thanksgiving Break). Groups of 10 or more with reservations receive a 10% discount.

If you’re thinking what I’m thinking, then you’re already trying to figure out the details involved in getting a carpool of MC students together on the evening of the 24th.

Crooked Creek also offers “Outfitter Rides” for groups of five or more; these rides last from roughly 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. and wind through the forests of the Tippecanoe River, Potato Creek, and Brown Country State Parks, the Francis Slocum SRA, or the Harrison Crawford State Forest. Prices vary based upon the location of the ride and the number of riders in your group.

Riders under six years of age cannot ride horses alone, but can either ride tandem with a parent or go on a pony ride. Hayrides are also available for groups of 12 or more.

The proprietors of Crooked Creek were kind enough to extend a 20% student discount for MC students who bring in the accompanying coupon; I strongly recommend all of you to take advantage of this opportunity.

Guided tours are available year-round, seven days a week; however, it is necessary to call ahead to schedule rides on weekdays. Crooked Creek Trails can be contacted by calling (574) 643-9395 or by emailing trailguide@crookedcreektrails.com.

Remember, the world is right outside your door… Let’s go!

(published in Manchester College's weekly newspaper, The Oak Leaves, on November 9, 2007)

Outdoors in Indiana 5: Tippecanoe State Park

2007-10-28T16:20:00.000-04:00

I have been eager to go exploring in Tippecanoe State Park for quite some time. There was no objective basis for my enthusiasm; I had never been there before, and all that I knew about the park I had learned from my friends’ stories about the fun times they’d had while there.

So, I was curious about what the park would be like. What’s more, it is the only one of the Indiana State Parks with a name that effortlessly transforms into a delightfully apropos pun.

My interest was peaked even further when I went onto the Indiana DNR’s website. I learned that the park has a “Canoe Camp” area that is separate from both the family campground and the youth tent area. The Canoe Camp consists of ten widely-spaced, primitive sites and is located directly next to the park’s access point onto the Tippecanoe River.

Though I knew that I had to go check it out before the end of the semester, I decided I would wait until a colorful, sunny autumn day.

Friday, October 12th was a warm day with a cool breeze। The trees were changing into the color of sunsets, plump with the leaves that would be clinging to the branches for only a short while longer. The weather was perfect, and I drove to the park as soon as my classes were over.

When I arrived at the park, a woman named Jen was managing the front entrance. I had several brief conversations with her throughout the course of the weekend; she was always kind, and I was grateful to have met someone so helpful.

Tippecanoe’s Canoe Camp is designed to provide campers with convenient access to both the tent sites and the river. Therefore, rental of these sites is only available to individuals who will have either a kayak or a canoe on their site overnight. One result of this restriction is that the setting remained quieter, more private, and more peaceful than that of the average campground.

I went on several kayaking excursions through the Tippecanoe River’s wiggles and bends, admiring the diversity of plant and animal life along the way. If you do ever decide to camp at the Tippecanoe State Park but don’t own a paddleboat of your own, I strongly urge you to rent or borrow one.

Within the park’s 2,761 acres there are two nature preserves and ten hiking trails; the trails range in distance from 0.8 miles to 3.5 miles. Jen had recommended that I hike trail eight, a 1.4 mile-long trail that meanders through the Sandhill Nature Preserve.

Trail eight wound through a deciduous forest, over a sand dune covered in prairie growth, and through a large pine grove before looping back into the deciduously forested area. It was so beautiful that I actually hiked it several times.

In addition to hiking and boating opportunities, the park has bridle trails and a horse camp (great options for those of you who own your own horses), a fire tower for bird watching, and cross country skiing during the winter। Furthermore, the park employs “interpretive naturalists” who provide services such as guided hikes, presentations of थे nature centers’ exhibits, and historic tours.

I ended up returning to the park three times during the next two weeks; site three of the Canoe Camp has started to feel like my home away from home. I may not have initially known why I felt so drawn to go there. However, now that I’ve spent time on the trails and rivers of Tippecanoe State Park, I have discovered countless reasons to return.

Tippecanoe State Park is located just south of Winamac on US 35; the drive from campus takes just over an hour. And remember, the world is right outside your door... Let's go!

(published in Manchester College's weekly newspaper, The Oak Leaves, on November 2, 2007)

Peace without Passivity: Citizenship in Action

2007-10-14T19:21:00.001-04:00

It happened for me in my junior year of high school, in American History class, and my life just hasn’t been the same ever since. My teacher, Mr. Jay Rogers, was mostly to blame.

Mr. Rogers taught with his whole being. Our desks were arranged in a semi-circle, and he would move around the room while he talked. Usually he walked at a slow pace, but sometimes he would dash across the room from student to student, the intensity of his arm gesticulations and eye contact revealing shamelessly his passion for the matter at hand.

It happened on the day he gave a lecture on the Civil Rights movement in the first person. The We’s and I’s that he spoke of seemed to do so much in response to the pain that steeped their world. His voice had reached a powerful crescendo when he abruptly stopped. His eyes moved from one student to another slowly, making eye contact with each.

“We had to do it, because we knew that suffering and injustice were important,” he said. “Being a citizen means more than being a legal adult resident of a nation. Being a citizen entails that one acts within the public sphere in order to bring forth a more just society. We needed to act because we cared.”

I had never previously been encouraged so directly to consider what it meant to be a citizen in one’s community. But I understood, right then and there, that I could not let myself be content to stand idly by when confronted with matters of injustice in the world.

It is ten years later, but it was the continuing effects of Mr. Rogers’ thoughts on citizenship that brought me to the Citizens for Global Solutions’ People’s Foreign Policy deliberations in Indianapolis on September 22. Although my political activity has changed during that time—waxing and waning some, and growing away from angry protests and towards deliberations, conversations, letters, and literary activities—it has always seemed of great importance to mobilize my role as a citizen by speaking out against injustice with my voice, pen, and actions.

The speakers at the deliberations were—
· Dr. Robert Geroux , assistant professor at Marian College currently working on a book addressing the duty of doctors and social scientists to protect human rights during wartime,
· Sheila Suess Kennedy, J. D., an associate professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI, associate Editor of Policy Sciences, columnist for the Indianapolis Star, and author of several books, including God and Country: America in Red and Blue,
· Keni Washington, founder and managing director of the Earth-Solar Technologies Corporation, a company that works to create more mindful ways of obtaining and distributing energy (such as the Boulevard Plaza project to create a sustainable community in Indianapolis), as well as a jazz musician and composer,
· Dr. John Clark, senior fellow at Sagamore Institute and adjunct professor at IUPUI who teaches courses about terrorism to the FBI’s Midwest Counterterrorism Taskforce,
and
· Dr. Michael Goodhart, professor of Political Science and Women’s Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and past president of the American Political Science section on Human Rights.

Although all of the speakers were though provoking, well informed, and engaging, there were three ideas that were presented that seemed especially significant for the pursuit of a more just and less violent world community.

The first of these ideas was presented by Sheila Suess Kennedy. The focus of her talk was the importance of creating a community that is capable of sustaining genuine communication. “Disputes over foreign policy cannot be understood without reference to a larger phenomenon, sometimes called the ‘culture war,’” she said. “Americans tend to conduct our arguments in shades of black and white. America is irredeemably evil, or America is all good…. Such extremes are, to put it mildly, unhelpful.”

She continued to say that the difficulty in finding an effective U. S. foreign policy is grounded in the intensity of an “ongoing struggle to control the national narrative.” It is therefore important that all concerned citizens—including those in colleges—examine their beliefs regarding the role of the United States in the world—“Foreign policy attitudes are a product of our national self-image,” she said, and concluded that “we have to recognize the different realities Americans occupy, and endeavor to communicate despite them.”

The second idea that seemed particularly pertinent was presented by Keni Washington. He said that citizens of the United States need to recognize that one result of U. S. involvement in the Middle East is the impending destruction of another culture, and that the primary casualties of this and all wars are not the soldiers, but the civilians. As citizens of the United States, we are parties to this atrocity, and thus we should be called into action. He said that Americans who are aware of the injustice and illegality of the U. S. military action in the Middle East are “obligated to press for the indictment of Bush.”

The third idea that I found particularly interesting was made by Dr. Geroux. “America will of course continue to be an economic powerhouse,” he said, “but in terms of foreign policy it will become increasingly marginalized. It has already lost its moral authority because of legal policies that served as the superstructure behind GTMO and Abu Gharib.”

The implication is that it is imperative for the future security of the United States for all U.S. citizens to consider the ethical values that are driving the actions of its government and military.

Whether or not you agree with these conclusions, it is obvious that the issues that confront our generation are staggering in scope and profound in implication. It is not an act of pacifism and nonviolence to remain silent and passive in the face of such a situation; it is an act of complicity.

I would like for all those who read this to consider how they can more fully mobilize themselves as citizens in the world community, and what values lay behind their political beliefs.

To not be passionately arisen to action in the face of such morally and politically dynamic a time as ours seems to me to be halfway to being dead. All of us who hope for a more peaceful world community must find a way to express ourselves publicly and loudly with both our voices and our actions. Speak out.

(published in Manchester College's weekly newspaper, the Oak Leaves, on October 5, 2007)

Outdoors in Indiana 4: Canoe Country

2007-10-14T19:08:00.000-04:00

It was through a serendipitous turn of events during my previous camping trip (see "Outdoors in Indiana," September 28, 2007) that I heard about Canoe Country in Daleville, IN. Although it primarily focuses on canoe and kayak rental and tours, they also have a few primitive campsites that are available for rental at a mere $4 per person per night. These sites have easy access to the White River, and can be reached by kayak as well as by car.

My trip to Canoe Country was the first of my trips thus far this semester that I had someone else along. My friend and fellow student Russell Holl not only provided two kayaks but also pleasant company and conversation for the ride down.

This was much appreciated, in fact… the directions that we got from Mapquest had left out a few turns, and it took us quite awhile to find the site. All is well that ends well, though, and it wasn’t even midnight by the time we got our tent set up and a fire going.

We were the only campers there; actually, I got the sense that the campsites were not used very often. The solitude and silence were much appreciated; the sounds of wind blowing through the dry corn stalks and dogs barking in the distance lulled me to sleep, and I had the best night of sleep that I can remember.

The following morning, after a simple breakfast of coffee and peaches n’cream oatmeal, we carried the kayaks down to the river and went exploring.

The weather was perfect for the excursion. The water reflected the multihued blush of the trees and the golden glow of the sun, while a slight breeze prevented us from getting uncomfortably hot.

Unfortunately, the water level was quite low. There were a few instances when Russell determined that it was easier to simply push himself along down the river with his hands; he would bend forward, after finding a rock with each hand, push himself along. Although I tried valiantly, I was simply not as effective at this system as he was; I had to jump out of the kayak and, with mud squishing between my toes and laughter bursting forth from my smile, push my intrepid sea vessel along until I reached deeper water.

The most breathtaking occurrence during our outing was when we were accompanied by a blue heron for 10 or 15 minutes. He would be perched proudly on a fallen tree trunk and, when we got close, swoop away to another limb 200 yards or so further down the river. He repeated this dance five or six times before disappearing around a bend.

Somewhat less poetic, but equally as amusing, was the impromptu race we had with a friendly duck family. We definitely had them when it came to speed of paddling down the river; however, they used their trump card and, like the heron, took off and flew away. Sadly, our kayaks were not equipped for flight, and we had to acknowledge that we had been beaten.

Ultimately, my trip to Canoe Country couldn’t have been better; I only wish that I could have stayed there longer. Perhaps another time. After all, the world is right outside your door… let’s go!

(published in Manchester College's weekly newspaper, the Oak Leaves, on October 12, 2007)

Outdoors in Indiana 3: Timberline Campground/Mounds State Park

2007-10-14T19:00:00.000-04:00

It was Friday, September 21^st at 5:00 pm when I finally decided that I was going to go to the Mounds State Park for the weekend’s camping trip. An hour-and-a-half later, I decided to go ahead and load my camping gear into my car and camp both Friday and Saturday nights. It was 7:30 by the time I had run to Lance’s for some food to grill and was ready to get on the road.

My plans hit a snag when I called the park from my cell phone to reserve a site and was told that they were full for the entire weekend. Full? Completely? Both nights? It warmed my heart that there were so many people who were out appreciating the beauty of the world, but I was already on the road; I neither wanted to turn back nor to spend the night in a cookie-cutter hotel room with nothing to listen to but the television and drunken laughter of whoever was in the next room.

However, the woman from the Mounds was very helpful, and provided me with the number of a small campground only a mile-and-a-half away from the park, the Timberline Campground.

I called the campground, and spoke with a very kind woman named Elizabeth, one of the owners of the campground. She gave me directions to the campground and to a site that I could stay at, and said that I could just come by the office in the morning to handle the payment. In a kind voice, she asked me to please drive carefully and to have a lovely evening. I felt welcomed before I even arrived.

Because I set up camp after dark, and had to wake up at dawn on Saturday in order to attend the People’s Foreign Policy deliberations in Indianapolis (see Opinion article “Pacifism without Passivity”), I didn’t get a chance to explore the campground until Saturday afternoon.

I will admit that I was initially cynical; the camp is geared towards people who use campers, and there were quite a few of RV’s, vans, and campers in the park. But Elizabeth had directed me to a site that was actually quite private.

It was only about 100 yards from a lovely pond that seemed to always have a fisherman or two standing at the shore, casting their lines and looking into the distance. Behind my site there was a path into the woods that led quickly to a river that had been hidden from my view at the site.

All things considered, it was the most relaxing time that I have ever had at a family campground, and I wouldn’t hesitate to return.

I packed up my site late Sunday morning. I always try to do this extra attentively, out of respect for the land itself, the directors of the campground, and whoever will use the campsite next. It is always necessary to remove all detritus; I have never camped anywhere that didn’t have dumpsters located conveniently on the way to the exit. If I cooked breakfast over a fire, as I usually do, I always make sure that the fire is extinguished before I leave.

I left the campground (“Antennae down-Wife on board,” reads the sign at the exit. “Thanks for your visit. Please come again.”) and drove to the Mounds State Park.

The park is named for the several ceremonial mounds that were built by the Adena- Hopewell people over 2000 years ago. I walked the 2.5 mile trail that winds its way though and around most of the 290 acres of the park. About one mile of the trail ran parallel to the White River, which reflected the clear sky and the technicolor display of the fall leaves with a glistening intensity.

The hike was well marked, and led me up and down some hills and varied between portions right alongside the river and portions deeper in the forested area. It was a perfect day for it, and I plan to come back and explore the other trails in the near future.

The only downside of the park is that, unlike Chain O’Lakes (see “Outside in Indiana, September 14), the Mounds State Park does not offer canoe and kayak rental. However, the woman who was working the gate recommended a nearby kayak rental location that has a few primitive campsites with access by road and river. Yep, you guessed it… I’m going there this next weekend.

Stay tuned to see how it goes. And remember, the world’s right outside your door… Let’s go!

(published in Manchester College's weekly newspaper, the Oak Leaves, on September 28, 2007)

Timberline Family Campground
http://www.timberlinecampground.com/
3230 E CR 75 N
Anderson, Indiana 46017
765-378-5909

Mounds State Park
4306 Mounds Road
Anderson, IN 46017
765-642-6627

Outdoors in Indiana 2: Hanging Rock

2007-10-14T18:18:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was extraordinarily busy for me from start to finish, and I was tempted to forego an outing. However, it is often the case that those times in which I am the busiest are the times when it is most important to spend some time relaxing in a quiet atmosphere.

So, I decided that I would simply take a short day trip out to Hanging Rock—it’s a short drive away and it doesn’t involve lengthy hikes or overnight camping, and yet it is a beautiful location with spiritual and historical significance. A Journal Gazette article from August 4, 1998 quotes Arthur Sonier, the executive director of The Five State Alliance of First Americans, regarding the significance of Hanging Rock—“Hanging Rock is a spiritual place to American Indians…. ‘It’s a church to us.’”

Hanging Rock is right here in Wabash County south of 24, just off of 524. There is a small parking area at the foot of the rock, a short path that goes down to the Wabash River, and a slightly longer path that winds up to the top.

A warning… although there is practically no hiking involved, the path up to the top of the rock is steep and does require some degree of dexterity and a great deal of sobriety. However, the view is worth the climb; at the top of the overlook, one is gifted with a panoramic view of Indiana farmland surrounding the visibly glistening Wabash and Salamonie Rivers.

There are a variety of trees still green and flowers in bloom. However, some of the trees are starting to blush, giving the whole vista a vibrant glow. I could hear the river flowing below me, and reveled in the noisy silence of the outdoors. Although there were a few people there when I arrived, they soon left, and I was alone for the rest of my visit, relaxing against a tree and breathing in the fresh air.

The legend of Hanging Rock is an archetypical romance involving a young Native American girl named Wynusa and the two men who were fighting for her love. The two men were dueling at the top of Hanging Rock when the man that Wynusa loved the most lost and fell over the side of the cliff. Wynusa, heartbroken, supposedly screamed something to the effect of “How could I love a man who killed my one true beloved? I cannot live in such a way without him!” before jumping over the cliff herself.

The Ballad of Hanging Rock tells the story of Wynusa and her two lovers; the final stanzas allege that –
They say when skies are dreary,
And Wabash rivers sigh
When the lovers’ moon smiles wanly
They hear her mournful cry….
If on some lonesome evening,
You venture there alone,
You may see the Indian maiden,
Leap from the Hanging stone."

Now, I went there alone, it is true; however, it was midday and sunny, which hardly qualifies as a dreary, lonesome evening. So, I cannot attest to the truth or untruth of this legend. However, with Halloween creeping forward, I may have to venture there again at dusk. And if any of you spend a lonesome evening at the rock and happen to see Wynusa, please do let me know.

In the end, my trip to Hanging Rock left me relaxed and invigorated. I am reminded of a quote from “Affirming Faith in Mind,” a sixth century Chinese text that reminds us that “Your frantic haste just slows you down.” When life has gotten too stressful to handle and you just can’t seem to find time to do everything you need to do, my recommendation is to step outside, go to a secluded spot, breathe, and relax for a while. The world’s right outside your door… Let’s go!

(published in Manchester College's weekly newspaper, the Oak Leaves, on September 21, 2007)

Outdoors in Indiana 1: Chain O'Lakes

2007-10-14T17:44:00.000-04:00

There is no shortage of fun things to do in northern Indiana. No, that’s not a typo, and I’m not being sarcastic. Even if you’re not yet twenty-one, and the mystery and thrill of The Inn’s free fry nights remains absent from your social calendar, you can still pack some fun into your Manchester College experience… although you may also have to pack a tent, a sleeping bag, and plenty of bug-spray along next to the fun.

In order to prove the truth of my opening statement, every week I will be featuring a different park, campground, or wilderness area that provides public access to outdoor recreation within a two-hour drive from North Manchester.

For my first weekend outing, I decided to go to Chain O’Lakes State Park in Albion. Chain O’Lakes is just off of S. R. 9, about 4 miles north of Highway 33. The park as a whole is over 2,700 acres and includes an interconnecting chain of eight lakes. Also on the property are trails for hiking (and cross-country skiing in the winter), picnic areas, a beach (only open for swimming from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend), and a campground offering cabins as well as electric, non-electric, and primitive sites.

It was rather gray and drizzly on Saturday, September 8th when I loaded my car with my camping gear and headed towards Chain O’Lakes. I refused to be swayed from my course, however, and remained quite confident about my campground survival skills as I drove to the park and reserved a primitive site. All was going well; I got my tent set up and furnished it beautifully with my pillows, sleeping bag, an electric lantern to use at night, and a few textbooks from my more interesting courses.

It got a bit more complicated when it grew closer to dinner time and I had to get a fire going. It had been raining lightly through the day, and although this seemed to have little effect on dissuading the local mosquitoes, it did an efficient job of getting the firepit and all available kindling rather damp. However, I was inspired by the persistence of the mosquitoes, and I refused to be outdone by a swarm of bloodsucking insects. I got a nice fire going, and had some potatoes and barbeque cooking while I kicked back, relaxed, and got to know the people who had rented a nearby site.

One of the things I like about camping is the interesting mix of people that I meet out in the woods. People usually don’t end up in the primitive campsite area by accident; it takes at least some planning and motivation to get there in the first place. No matter what differences that there may be in their day-to-day lives, they all have a few important things in common—they are all where they want to be because they want to be there, and they do not require high-tech technology or expensive, elaborate outings in order to be entertained. These people tend to be quite entertaining when left to their own devices. Even if you don’t like rain and bugs and sleeping on the ground, camping can still have a lot to offer if you’re willing to talk to the folks you meet.

After an invigorating conversation and a (thankfully) dry night of sleep, I decided to do some hiking and canoeing before heading back to campus. I’ve been canoeing on these lakes dozens of times, and have never grow tired of the moment in which, after having traversed through a narrow, shadowy waterway, the trees separate and reveal the next lake, open and shining before me. At five dollars an hour for the canoe rental, the experience can’t be beat.

The trails were a bit too filled with mosquitoes for me to do the length of hike that I had planned on, and so I stuck to a short one-mile walk around Sand Lake. However, there are trails that go by (and, in some cases, around) each of the eight lakes, with distances between 0.5 and 2.5 miles.

Whether or not camping is something you find enjoyable, Chain O’Lakes definitely has something to offer to you if you are looking for a fun weekend activity. Canoeing, paddle boating, picnicking, hiking, and cross-country skiing sure beat staring at the wall of your dorm room and wishing you had something to do… The world’s right outside your door. Let’s go!

(published in Manchester College's weekly newspaper, the Oak Leaves, on September 14, 2007)