Save the clock tower!
Spokane has always been a city with a small but passionate independent music sector, which has been able to thrive due to the activism on the part of students and local establishments friendly to the arts. Many Whitworthians have fond memories of nights spent at the Empyrean, a downtown coffeehouse which serves up more culture than you’ll find at any dozen regular establishments.
Unfortunately, a recently passed state law (RCW 19.27.500) requiring automatic sprinklers in all “nightclubs” (any place with a dance floor larger than 350 square feet) has the potential to force the Empyrean to shut down.
The Empyrean, founded two years ago by sisters Chrisy and Michelle Riddle as a personal commitment to community service, has been one of Spokane’s greatest friends to independent artists, poets, and bored students.
Installing a new sprinkler system would cost more than $20,000, which is money the owners do not have.
“It will basically shut us down,” Co-Owner of the Empyrean Chrisy Riddle said.
[...]
The sisters don’t make any money here, but they rely on their day jobs for income. They say this is their community service.
“I always had this dream about owning a coffee shop that would be also a center for the arts,” Riddle said.
She may have to wake up from the dream this winter, when a new law will require any business with a performing or dancing area that has an area 350 square feet or more, to have automatic sprinklers installed.
“Unless some miracle happens, or the law changes, or somehow we find the money we need, our plan is that we may have to close on November 30,” Riddle said.
[News coverage: http://www.kxly.com/Global/story.asp?S=10667473]
The Empyrean’s closure would truly be a great loss to the community. Unfortunately, it sounds as though the amount of money in question is essentially insurmountable without what Riddle calls a “miracle.
So here’s a thought: Whitworth’s students have the capacity to make that miracle happen. $20,000 across, say, 2,000 students starts to look pretty affordable pretty fast. I’m not intimately familiar with ASWU bylaws and financial regulations (especially as an ex-student), but it seems to me that a few motivated campaigners could get a benefit concert going on-campus. With sufficient impassioned advertising, a $10-30 ticket price over the course of one or two concerts could make a serious dent in solving the Empyrean’s problem.
What sorts of creative solutions do you folks have?
Why a Whitworth Student Might Reject Christianity
There are a number of draws to a non-religious stance. Obviously, students can easily reject Christianity in favor of other religions, but I want to delve into the agnostic/atheistic/naturalist alternative.
Positivity I disagree with the very first premise of Core 350: that we live in a broken world. So in the first 5 minutes of class, I – and I’m not the only one – felt disconnected. Is the world imperfect? Sure – but not because it was once good and then broke. It’s because we live in a world of challenges and we constantly strive to make it a better and better place. Fallenness, sinfulness, Armageddon? These are delusions from an atheistic/naturalistic perspective. As college students and recent grads, we can be optimistic. There’s plenty of time for pessimism when we’re old.
Responsibility No one is guiding your life. There is no ultimate place in the cosmic storyline, no fate, no one holding your hand and helping you make the right decisions. It’s scary at first. But instead of wondering “What is someone else’s purpose for me?” you get to ask “What will lead me to a fulfilling life? What am I passionate about?”
Avoiding Distasteful People With the exception of a few bad historical characters, the worst atheists are people like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett. What’s wrong with them? They are wickedly smart and they can be insulting to religious people. Well whoop-dee-do! Compared with some of the unsavory religious people out there – Bush, Cheney, Bin Laden – those guys aren’t such bad company. It’s much easier to criticize the “God Hates Fags” church when you’re actually on the other side of the fence, and that can be an appealing and morally soothing perspective.
Moral Sense Ever feel bad about people being punished for “crimes” that don’t have any victims? Like homosexuality? Or not hearing the gospel? All the questions that begin with “How could God-” are easily answered from an atheistic perspective. All the atheist has to figure out is “What on earth is morality, and where does ethics come from?” And sure, that can be challenging. But rather than thinking of what we need to do to please a watchful deity in the sky, we think about how to make the world a better place. All we humans have is each other, and the world is a tough place. If we figure out a way to get along we have the best chance to succeed. Oftentimes, religious dogma is no help at all.
No Dogma or Rituals All the Creeds and This-We-Believes go away. No more reconciling ancient manuscripts with scientific understanding. No more arguments about which sects truly understand which sacraments the best. No more praying to the right saint. Nothing binds an atheist to a particular, unified set of beliefs. Nothing tears them apart and causes strife over interpretations or practices. Isn’t that nice?
A Lot of Tough Questions Start to Make Sense Why does the human eye have a blind spot? A vestigial tail? Why the billions of years of cosmic evolution leading up to the infinitesimal existence of the human species? Advances in neuroscience and psychology provide so many answers to so many questions. And that is not to say that atheism does not create its own difficult questions, but, generally speaking, the explanations all occur within the realm of the natural world. It makes everything seem less complex – at least to someone who holds that perspective, like me.
That’s all I can think of at this point. Anyone have any to add?
3 Things Whitworth Should have Taught You About the World Outside the Pinecone Curtain
Congrats, seniors! Six and a grisly half out of ten of you (65%) will be moving back in with your parents after graduation. Juniors, the clock is ticking. Are you scared?
In the year since I was graduated, I have learned about a trillion times as much about the real world as I learned at Whitworth. So here are three basic tips I’m going to assume they didn’t teach you well enough.
1. Don’t be afraid to ask (for help, for knowledge…)
People will generally like you more if they get to do you a favor. So, ask the career center, professors; counselors. This is self-explanatory, but I didn’t take full advantage of this excellent resource when I was at Whitworth.
Ask your friends: Make it common knowledge on Facebook that you’re looking for a particular kind of work. If your friends, their families, and their families’ connections don’t know anybody looking to hire someone like you, I’ll be surprised. Just don’t beg pathetically or anything.
Ask professionals: Request an interview with a local person who has the job you wish you had. How did they get there? What surprised them along the way? Is it really lonely at the top?
2. Know your strengths: (technology, integrity…)
You are part of Generation Y, and people have assumptions about you.
Some are negative: They think you are not loyal to companies (statistically speaking, you may work 11-14 jobs in your life) and you prefer to ask what your company can do for you; not what you can do for your company.
Some are positive, so know your strengths: They assume you are more tech-savvy than they are (after all, you’ve spent 20,000 hours online already). You can bring new ideas. No more ‘business as usual.’ Stress that you are an ethical person. That is hugely important. These days it’s actually becoming cool to be ethical. So keep your copy of Boondock Saints hidden away.
Don’t believe me about the negative assumptions? Peruse some contributions to Brazen Careerist, the top career site for people our age.
3. Social media is incredibly important to understand. (facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, youtube, flickr, feedburner/google reader…)
Facebook has made recent changes that allow businesses to connect and interact with their fans/followers/potential customers. If you can think of a creative way to make that work for your company, you are a valuable asset.
Twitter is a site you probably don’t understand. If you’re like Daniel Walters and any of a myriad of other people who don’t ‘get it’ yet, don’t feel bad. I can return and write a quick twitter guide, discuss in the comments, or have a facebook conversation about it. I’m happy to advise.
LinkedIn: If you don’t have a professional page on this site (basically an online resume) you’re on a ride into the fail-zone. Get on it!
RSS reader: Check out Feedburner or if you have a Google account, Google Reader. Subscribe to CNN or BBC news, Mashable, The Onion, all your friends’ blogs, Google Alerts for your name etc. The list goes on!
I currently have 49 feeds in my Google Reader. I’d never take the time to visit each site, but with an RSS reader I know any time something new is posted. Then I can read a quick summary and decide whether I want to read the whole thing.
Network, network, network. Join a professional association, find meet ups and events. Stay connected with your college friends. Do these things, O graduate, and leave a comment about how you’re preparing for Life Beyond. Fellow alums – what advice would you add? Did I miss anything?
“If it was rape, it was good rape.”
The administration’s choice to allow a production of the Vagina Monologues on school grounds represents but one sign of Whitworth’s ongoing de-Christianization.
George F. Whitworth, when he first established the college back in 1890, envisioned a college where students would “honor God, follow Christ, and serve humanity”. By endorsing and condoning such an inherently anti-Christian and perverse play such as The Vagina Monologues on campus, the administration has violated, at the very least, the first two objectives of George Whitworth’s vision.
With its glorification of fornication and perversity, manifested in subject matter such as a dominatrix pridefully going on about the merits of her work, as well as its heaping doses of crude shock value (exemplified in the skit where the performers chant notable slang – sometimes ouright obscene words – for the vagina), it doesn’t surprise me that this performance was just barely allowed to be performed on university grounds [criticism of The V. Monologues from a colonial, heterosexual perspective can be found here].
Moreover, the fact that it managed to slide past the same people who thought the title “Free Beer” was an unacceptable name for an art show in which no alcohol was served, further proves that this university is beginning to compromise on its original message.
The very concept of The Vagina Monologues, with its focus on the female genitalia as the pinnacle of worth and pride among women, represents a naturalist and materialistic view of the female persuasion, which stands in contrast to the Judeo-Christian view of women, whose bodies belong not to them, nor their lovers, but to God, who warns against the misuse of His gifts*.
Men, in The Vagina Monologues, are shown primarily as hypersexual simpletons, (such as in “Because He Liked to Look At It”, in which a man stares infatuated for hours at a woman’s mid section after just meeting her at the grocery store), and sadistic savages (nearly every other story involving men).
Women (the play implies), are totally incapable of abuse, as can be seen in the case of”The Little Cootchie Snorcher That Could”, in which a woman fondly recalls being drugged and rape at the age of thirteen by a woman in her twenties. Although the Whitworth presentation changed the last few words, in the original script, the woman narrator ends with “If it was rape, it was good rape.”
Now, this critique is not, in the least, meant as a personal slant against those participating in the play. I’m all too aware that the actors, like those of every respectable performance, poured their time and labor into not only raising awareness of domestic violence, but making the show entertaining to all. Rather, this critique is meant primarily as an assault on the immoral content and anti-Christian attitude of the play in question.
If Whitworth still wants to call itself anything more than nominally Christian, it will have to play a more active role in keeping watch against, as well as actively banning, subversive performances on campus. With more prestige as the university grows, there will be an ever present temptation to be more open to “alternative views“, much like other once religious colleges have, selling their souls so that they might attract more students – and not tick off the PC police!
Although non-Christian views and ideas should not necessarily be shut completely out of the the picture, blatantly vulgar and ideologically flawed plays – such as The Vagina Monologues - should not be endorsed by a university that prides itself on solid Christian values. Especially not a play that arguably condones sexual deviance, much less assault.
*1st Corinthians 6:13: “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body [NKJ].”
Flying is merely the art of learning to throw yourself at the ground…and miss!
There comes a time in every epic friendship when things go badly.
I don’t mean the silly squabbles about what to do once you finally decide to hang out Friday night, or whether that one movie really did deserve to win the Oscar for “Best Picture”.
No, I’m talking about a REAL disagreement. Raised voices, maybe some tears, and a cooling period will occur before both the parties involved can talk to each other in a civil manner again.To be honest, it’s always a little frightening the first time it happens – at least for me. I seem to have a secret hope, no matter how many times it’s proven wrong, that with this person, we won’t disagree. Or, if we do, we’ll settle it quickly and it won’t stretch out into an actual fight. Of course, it never happens, or, if it does, I realize that the friendship has become shallow. Not having dared to risk it on the rocks of talking about anything important, or showing enough of myself that things turn serious, my friend and I no longer connect.
It seems that, the closer I get to someone, the more inevitable it is that we will eventually fight, and fight quite badly. There is something that touches both of us deeply enough that it is worth risking the friendship to speak of.
I don’t mean that there is a conscious decision – a realization that what happens next is going to drive all parties involved to fury. I just mean that things happen when people get really close. Bad things.
Someone will say something uncalled for. The other person says something equally awful back. And before we know it, we’ve just had a fight that could sever me from the other person forever. If both of us hold a grudge, the bitterness will grow. And that’s when the choice comes. Is this person worth enough to me to work through this fight, and become better friends because of it? Am I going to allow simple, stupid human nature to prevent me from getting to know someone who, really, is one of the most awesome people I have ever met?
Hopefully, the answer is no. Any good friendship has scars. Any relationship worth holding on to isn’t pretty. But the point of scars is not to show pain, it is to show healing.
There was once a wound, yes.
But it’s better now.
WE’RE better now.
My Two Cents on “The Vagina Monologues”
First off, I am tremendously proud of Whitworth for finally having the gumption and wherewithal to put on a work like this. I know that we have tried to put on a production of the Vagina Monologues for years, and I am glad that it finally happened. Moreover, I always felt that college should be a time of hearing different perspectives, and tonight exemplified that to a tee.
Second, I am also proud of all of the incredible maturity displayed by all of the performers, and how the play has challenged the way you think about certain issues raised in the play. Well done.
Third, I am hugely impressed with the turnout, for two reasons. Firstly, it was one of those rare times I have actually seen a line snaking around in order to enter a theatre production at Whitworth. Secondly, there were quite a few men in the audience (myself included), and that impressed me. I talked to Jim McPherson a little bit before the start of the show, and he said he had a friend who went to a production of the Vagina Monologues, and he ended up being the only guy in the audience.
As for my thoughts on the play, I think it imbued a sense of community, as cliche as that might sound to us on the Whitworth campus. I think all of us, regardless of our gender, can relate to the overall message of being comfortable in our skins, and being able to be proud of the fact that we recognize sexuality as part of ourselves.
Furthermore, one of the most powerful things for me, was the fact that all of the stories in the play were true. That adds a new dimension to the work, and creates a sense of connection that cannot be ignored. It simply reinforces the whole community aspect that I mentioned earlier.
Lastly, and it was touched upon during the post-play discussion, the subject matter contained in the play isn’t necessarily something that is outwardly expressed here on this campus. Having said that, I hope conversation will either continue, or get started because of what was done tonight.
Anyways, that’s what I have been thinking. What say you?
Dear G-Unit
Introducing Whitworth’s only advice column, written by a Whitworth student, for other Whitworth students! For your edification, amusement, & pleasure: it’s Dear G-Unit!
Dear G-Unit: I’m writing you today because I feel my parents are starting to like my roomate better than me. The first thing they always ask when they call is “And how is *roommate name witheld to protect the innocent* doing?”. They give him care packages, and they lavish him with compliments when they see him. What can I do to reassert… ahem… “parental focus” back on to moi?
Belittled in BJ
Hi BB! Wow, how insensitive. I suggest getting new parents….No, wait, that’s not cost-effective. Never mind. Um. Let’s see.
I assume you have already tried standard techniques like whining on the phone. It’s time to get drastic. Stage a crisis.
I’ll go ahead & assume you’re a freshman, because, after all, Baldwin-Jenkins is a freshman-only dorm. It is a well known fact (at least to us upperclassmen) that most freshman are more concerned with friends then they are with grades. Plan carefully. Begin mentioning the names of friends that you are hanging out with (make up names if you have no friends or your friends hate you and refuse to hang out with you). Begin mentioning these names at an exponentially increasing rate. Eventually, if they are the kind of parents I think they are (by which I mean, parents who like to see some evidence that you are putting all that money they are forking out for tuition to practical use), they will begin to ask about homework, classes, and grades. Downplay the grades, at first. Mention classes, but when they ask how said classes are going, mumble and change the subject. Mention tests but then don’t mention your final grade. Et cetera. Eventually they will catch on, being the savvy adults they are, and demand proof. Proof of grades. Proof of success. Proof that you are not on academic probation. At this point, break down. Begin to sob. Tell them about how much time you have been spending with your friends, instead of poring over your homework. Tell them the love of your friends is only a poor, shabby substitute for their love. And beg them to fly up/down/over and visit you next weekend. And they, sobbing by now as well, will proceed to do exactly as you ask.
I know, I know, I’m a genius. You don’t have to tell me.
Dear G-Unit: I just starting dating this AMAZING girl from Warren. I think she may be the one. We agree on everything; from how it is TOTALLY wrong to call people gay as an insult, to that apples are the best fruit! My question is: how do I tell when we’re annoying people? We really love each other and like holding hands and kissing and being all ridiculous, but even so, I don’t want to be THAT couple, who totally alienates everyone they meet just because they are just so SO.
Warren Peace
I’ll try to make this quick and painless for both of us, Tolstoy: I’m afraid you already are that couple. The ones making goo-goo eyes at each other across their Saga tables. The ones constantly referencing stupid inside jokes that nobody else gets, even if we cared to try and figure them out. The ones walking each other home in the Loop, shrieking loudly at 3 AM. The ones breaking the ‘quiet’ rule in the back shelves of the libraries.I have three words for you and your girlfriend: GET. A. LIFE. I know, I know, you are SOOOOOOOO IN LUV, and you NEVER want to be apart and you ALWAYS want to be together and you are TOTALLY ring-by-spring-ing, but my point stands. The relationship will die (I know, I know, HEAVEN FORBID OMG) without space. You need space, especially if you are seriously considering getting married and aren’t just flinging that around like so many Whitworth couples do. By space, I mean time apart, and having things you enjoy doing WITHOUT the other attached to your hip.
And, are you annoying your friends (really the only ‘people’ who matter)? I don’t know. I am not your friends. Perhaps you should, you know, ask them.
Dear G-Unit: Recently this really awesome band came to visit Whitworth. They played the HUB multipurpose room. Me and a couple friends started dancing. We just couldn’t help it. The music was so good! It was really awkward though, because it’s like the band on stage, and then that little square of light, and then everything else is dark. And there were, seriously, like four of us dancing, and everyone else just outside in the dark, standing still, maybe swaying a little, all spooky like. How lame! How can I get people to join in the fun next time?
I’ll March to the Beat of Any Drummer with a Good Bass Line
Well, I.M.B.A.D.G.B.L., all I can tell ya is to lead by example. Whitworthians are a little, how do you say, challenged in the R&B department. Trust me, get em a little excited, or, just, you know, turn ALL the lights off (Warren Rave, I’m talking to you), and they go absolutely nuts. Try not to stare at them, though. I know, I know, that dance move was out of style when your granddad was a kid, but progress is progress. You have to do the Running Man before you can waltz, as they say.
If you’d like some words of wisdom from the most straight up G advice columnist this side of Seattle, shoot an email at dearg-unit@live.com, and you could see yourself in print! Er, type! Er…Whitworth Forum post! Yeah, that one.
Just Don’t Censor the Sweatshirts
“So, people get more fired up about sweatshirts than censorship?,” Elizabeth Johnson commented on her own article. “Great.”
She had a point. The article chronicling the administration’s censorship of the intended title for the annual senior art exhibition had received precisely one comment from the Whitworth community in the week it had been posted. Conversely, the article attacking the average Whitworthian’s propensity for wearing sweatshirts to class (also penned by Ms. Johnson) received five comments in its first week and thirteen as of this posting. It also inspired a Letter to the Editor, notable as being the only Letter to the Editor that the Whitworthian has published in 2009.
I won’t even get into the Vagina Monologues incident, which spurred the writing of two Whitworthian articles and an opinions column, but apparently failed to garner any attention from individual students (at least judging from the lack of comments upon said articles/columns).
It is, as a recent In the Loop column stated, “an upsetting trend.” But what I find more upsetting than the administration’s actions is the lack of response from the Whitworth community at large – a community that erupts in outrage when someone makes negative remarks about their everyday attire, but says not a word when the artistic expression of their peers is imperilled! What kind of attitude is this?
One friend who I pestered about the administration’s actions vis-a-vis the senior art exhibit said, “Well, I don’t really care about art. It’s not my [rights to free speech] that are being infringed upon.”
I hate to subcribe to an obvious logical fallacy, in this case the slippery slope argument, but indulge me. In recent years Whitworth has been moving more and more toward a particular image, the image of a hallowed institution of learning. This is fine, but their image apparently does not include seniors who wear wigs and make silly faces for their ID card photos, or advertisements that don’t have a “Whitworth University” stamp on the corner, or students who bedeck the other university in town’s campus with fliers declaring Whitworth’s societal, academic, and athletic superiority (in unapologetically silly terms, of course).
Understandable? Maybe…but the administration’s objections have now cut a little closer to home. No ironic art show titles. No productions of plays that dare to criticize traditional sexual mores.
How many more such decisions will have to be made before students as a whole start taking notice?
GO. VOTE. NOW [PT. TWO].
Ha ha ha…..really though. Vote. The sooner the better.
Same deal as last time, people. I logged into Facebook and typed each candidate’s name into Facebook search. Their first name I made a link to either the picture they’re using to campaign with, or their profile pic. Their last name is a link to whatever picture on their Profile Pictures Page amused or intrigued me most. And after that I quoted an intriguing, amusing, or just plain WHAT?! quote from their “Favorite Quotations” section on Facebook. And after THAT I linked you to any existing Facebook support groups. Only difference: this time it’s the people who became, as the email said, “official candidates through the write-in process.”
Duvall Senator
- Jonathan Deal (We must not look to government to solve our problems. Government is the problem [Ronald Reagan].)
- Peter Pascacio (We’ll go with that [Alex Haley].)
Off Campus Senator
Warren Senator
GO. VOTE. NOW.
…before you forget, ’cause you were busy doing @#!# CORE homework!
OKAY, here’s what I did. I logged into Facebook and typed each candidate’s name into Facebook search. Their first name I made a link to either the picture they’re using to campaign with, or their profile pic (in many cases, both [in one case a Paint interpretation of a particularly evocative campaign poster]). Their last name is a link to whatever picture on their Profile Pictures Page amused or intrigued me most. And after that I quoted an intriguing, amusing, or just plain WHAT?! quote from their “Favorite Quotations” section on Facebook. And after THAT I linked you to any existing Facebook support groups. WHEW.
President
- Tyler Whitney (Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is [[Ghandi])
- Michael Harri (I‘m not weakened by the fears/that you have applied/See I’m now learning in these walls/that You have supplied./Slow, slow down boy./Slow down to/Control [Collective Soul]) The Official Facebook Support Group. The Website.
EVP
- Tyler Hamilton (If at first you don’t suceed, then lower your standards.)
- Charley Brinkman (We cannot all do great things, but we can all do small things with great love [Mother Teresa].)
FVP
- Carl Chan (Spirituality is not religion. Religion divides people. Belief in something unites them.) The Official Facebook Support Group.
Boppell Senator
Mac Senator
- Jesse Prichard
- Stephen Jansons (..when I’m going through the hard times I like to punch dance away life’s problems…) The Official Facebook Support Group.
Ballard Senator
Stewart Senator
- Brittany Roach (life is a series of images that change as they repeat themselves [Andy Warhol]
East Senator
Arend Senator
- Beau Lamb (I feel like I’m in some Greek play, you try to control your fate, but the gods have other plans.)
- Rachel Busick (violence is not the answer [though it is a solution at times]) The Official Facebook Support Group.
Off Campus Senator
- David Kuraya (The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work [Emile Zola].) The Official Facebook Support Group.
Off Campus Rep
- Dan Lewis (The world will never be safe as long as millions live in poverty so the few can live as they wish [Shane Clairborne].) The Official Facebook Support Group.