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The Voice of the Colorado School of Mines, a Superior Education in Applied Science and EngineeringVolume 88, Issue 6 October 8, 2007

News - 2 Features - 3 Sports - 7 Editorials - 8 Fools Gold - 11

Through the Third Eye of HistoryDiversity ina Decade of

Dispute

Ricky Walker Staff Writer

MEAVE HAMM / OREDIGGER

Understanding Uniformity : Colorado School of Mines freshman gaze upon the Big Brother symbol from George Orwells 1984.

This is not a sermon. This is notmorality. It is the probing of onemind, the thoughts of an individualwho wishes to remain an individual.

They cannot be read as otherwise.If I am to pursue the mentalitiesof the past, if I am to understandthe thoughts and feelings of thosewho have gone before me from thisschool, I must do it with caution. Imust tread the worn paths of thehistory with light feet and a wary eye.

We are faced now with thequestion of our own society and theimportance lies in its concern for usand us alone, though we may buryit within the walls of our school. Isit in the grass, in the sun on the

Kafadar Commons, watching themyriad of people who pass withouta second glance - without a secondthought. They are all wrapped upin their destination. Not many think about the present anymore andeven fewer are concerned with thepast. They all start to look the same.

I look to my left and I see a fa-miliar face. I call it familiar becauseit is the same face I have seen dayin and day out - no two people look different anymore, at least in termsof their thinking. Surely some reve-lation is at hand, the words of Yeatsroll through my mind. I can onlyhope that something new awaits uson the horizon, that some new ideamay come to fruition from an unlike-

ly student in an unlikely society. I canonly hope that my search will bringme this far, to the diversity I seek.

Diversity is a simple word, butsimple words most often come withthe widest range of meanings. In themost straightforward sense of theword, diversity means difference inappearance from person to person.It is bone structure, eye color, orbody language that counts us apart.From a socialized standpoint, it isthe ethnicity or racial backgroundthat defines a person. Culturedetermines the individual, not theother way around in this case.

Yet, if we are to delve deeper intothe meaning of diversity, we nd thatit is not just a measure of appear-

ance or race, but of differences inthought. Indeed, what it means tohave a diverse society is that no twopeople think exactly alike. Humanityhas a hard enough time trying toagree on the truth, when the truth of the matter is that we need not agree.

SEE DIVERSITY PG 5

Shell President Visits Mines

Imagine running out of gaso-line in the country that foundedmodern energy. These wordswere spoken by John Hofmeister,the President of Shell, as he gavea speech at the Colorado Schoolof Mines last week. Mr. Hofmeis-ters speech focused primarily onthe development of alternative en-ergy sources, the utilization of coaland oil shale deposits in the UnitedStates, and the role of the gov-ernment in energy public policy.

Mr. Hofmeister cited four majorinsecurities that the nation cur-rently needs to deal with: border

insecurity, financial insecurity,environmental insecurity, andenergy insecurity. Energy inse-curity, as Hofmeister explained,is the only insecurity thatthe United States isnot only failing tosolve, but ratheris hindering withp u b l i c p o l i c y.

As an exam-ple of the inse-curity the nationfaces, Hofmeisterdescribed the crisisof hurricanes Katrinaand Rita in 2005,which caused a25% decrease in

production in the Gulf of Mex-ico for September, while, at

the same time, demand foroil remained the same. As

many will remember, thiscaused soaring gas

prices and, accord-ing to Hofmeister,almost caused a

run on gasoline inthe Eastern UnitedStates. Productionability has changedv e r y l i t t l e s i n c ethen, but the de-mand has gone up.

David Sommer Staff Writer

SEE ENERGY PG 2 M E A V E

H A M M

/ O R E D I G G E R

Discusses the Future of American Energy

Inside The Oredigger...

Intl Student ...............Conversation Group

Geek of the Week .....

Motorcycles Abound ..

Rockies Rock .............

CSM Rugby ...............

Whats Your Beef? .....

The Gravedigger ........

Cursing Controversy ...

Fools Gold ...............

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October 8, 2007

N ewsPage 2

UNITED STATES - 5people died in Crandon,Wisconsin on Sundayafter a gunman openedfire at a residence. Theg u n m a n i s r e p o r t e dt o b e p a r t o f t h e l o -c a l l a w e n f o r c e m e n t . SUDAN - A town in

the Darfur region of Su-dan was burned to theground and looted lastweek by rebellion forces.

IRAQ - Blackwater, a pri-

vate American security rmworking for the US StateDepartment, killed 17 Iraqicivilians in September. Theinvestigation of the situationhas been handed over tothe FBI. Blackwater CEOErik Prince was under refrom Congress last week.

IRAQ - The two lead-ers of Iraqs Shia groups Moqtada Sadr and Abdul

Aziz al-Hakim signedan agreement last week that would move towardunifying the populations.

JAPAN - The Japaneselunar explorer, nicknamedKaguya, has successfullyentered an orbit 60 milesabove the surface of themoon, where it will col-lect data on the moonso r i g i n a n d e v o l u t i o n .

Emily Trudell, Staff Writer

Over the past week in thesmall country of Myanmar, a pro-democracy movement of thou-sands lead by Buddhist monksand have held mass protests in thecountrys largest city of Yangon.

Myanmar, otherwise knownas Burma, has been a ruled by amilitary junta for over twenty years,preventing the country from havingdemocratic and causing the UnitedNations to sanction the actions of the government. The recent protestsbegan in mid-August, when the Bur-mese government raised gas pricesby roughly 500% without notice.

Last Monday, the protestors in the

city were in excess of 100,000, the

Unbeknownst to most Ameri-cans, the United States military isnot the only militant America forceinvolved in the Iraqi con icts. Overthe course of the war in Iraq, theU.S. government has issued a num-ber of private contractors to helptake on a militant role in the region.

Over recent weeks, one suchrm has been accused of brutal -

ity against Iraqi citizens, after anincident in mid-September thatcaused the death of roughly tencitizens, with many other con-

rmed injuries. Blackwater USA,the privatized security contrac-tor involved in the incident, as-serts that members of the forcewere simply defending themselvesagainst armed Iraqi attackers.

Other onlookers, however,have claimed that the Blackwatersoldiers attacked citizens with-out reason, targeting civilians.

Blackwater USA was foundedby former Navy Seal Erik Prince,and was one of the rst privatizedarmed forces to join the efforts of theU.S. occupation of Iraq. It currentlyhas headquarters in North Carolina,and has reported that it employsat least 1,000 personnel in Iraq.

Initially, the rm was involved inproviding training to governmentof cials, but now regards itself asa comprehensive professional se-curity and law enforcement agency.

More recently, the United Stateshas faced criticism of outsourcingthe war, allowing private companies

As the speech went on, the subject moved to-wards a rational approach to energy in the future.Hofmeister highlighted all of the options for alterna-tive energy, however he talked speci cally about twosources of energy that will likely become a majorfactor in the future: oil shale deposits and US coal.

The United States has more coal than anyother country, Hofmeister explained. While mostpeople believe burning coal signi cantly pollutes theatmosphere, the process of coal gasi cation holdslarge promise for the future of energy from both an

economic and environmental stance. He explainedhowever that restriction on coal gasi cation is oneof the many examples of US public policy prevent-ing large scale capitalization of alternative fuel.

In addition to coal, Hofmeister mentioned thatShell has been investing in private oil shale researchfor almost 35 years and that it shows great potentialfor energy in the future. According to a websiteon the Oil Shale Symposium, the Green River for-mation in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming has thepotential to produce almost 1 trillion barrels of oil.However, once again according to Hofmeister, US

public policy has only hindered progress on this issue. After mentioning alternative fuel sources from hy-

drocarbons, Hofmeister touched on many alternativefuel sources that do not result in carbon emissions.This is back in your hands, Hofmeister said to theroom of Mines students, describing solar technology,saying that it simply is not good enough to allow forlarge scale use. Touching on several other fuel sourcesincluding wind, hydrogen, and biofuel, he empha-sized the dif culty in switching to any one of thesefuel sources. The US burns enough gas to ll oneswimming pool every second, he said, noting that,when energy consumption is large, suitable alterna-

tive energies are dif cult to nd, especially when manyof the technologies are still in developmental stages.

He concluded his speech saying that some of the largest things that need to change with energyin America are: energy ef ciency and preservation,greenhouse gas policy, and education about whereenergy comes from. Currently, education on energyin America involves saying, Flip the switch and thelight comes on. Hofmeister made it very clear that,if we wish to have energy security for today as wellas tomorrow, we need to educate Americans atan earlier age where energy actually comes from.

Emily Trudell

Staff Writer

Continued from pg 1

Sparking the Energy Debate

In a world where the need foran alternative energy source is be-coming more and more important,the Colorado School of Mines ishosting the 27 th Oil Shale Sympo-sium on the week of October 15 th in the Green Center. The goal of the symposium will be to reviewdevelopment of oil shale resourcesin order to both reduce dependenceon foreign oil as well as to secureenergy resources for the future.

The reason for seeking an en-ergy source in oil shale depositsis well understood throughout theMines community. According to areport on the CSM website, theGreen River formation in Colorado,Utah, and Wyoming can provideroughly 1 trillion barrels of oil. Ac-cording to some, success of theproject depends on whether the ex-traction can be done in both an eco-nomical and environmental fashion.

These are but some of the is-sues that will play a part in thesymposium next week. The mainissues of the symposium includethe research development of oilshale resources, impact analy-sis, regulatory framework, andproject and program status. Thescheduled events for the sympo-sium begin with a broad overviewsession on Monday, October 15,technical discussions on October16-17, and will complete with anoptional field trip on Thursday,October 18 and Friday October 19.

There will be more than 350attendees to the symposium, in-cluding Shell, ExxonMobil, Chev-ron, ConocoPhillips, Petrochina,and others. In a world where en-ergy is a growing issue, the oilshale symposium promises tohave important implications forboth the present and the future.

Ricky Walker

Staff Writer

Oil Shalelargest protest in the nation since

a failed uprising in the late 1980s.In order to quell the dissent-ing crowd, officials from thegovernment have set a curfewto ban gatherings after 9 pmand before 5 am. Also, themilitary has deployed armed sol-diers to guard Yangon. Already,the protestors have sufferedat least ve con rmed deaths,and there have been reports of beatings and military aggression.

Because of this potential forviolence, the U.N. has steppedin, sending an envoy to Myan-mar at the start of the week to promote peace. The envoycompleted its visit on Tuesday,without any reported improve-

ment in the countrys situation.

to take on jobs that should be theresponsibility of the government.Blackwater has been accused of being a mercenary group that is tak-ing advantage of such con icts inorder to reap the economic bene ts.

Moreover, on September 19, apanel consisting of Iraqi and Ameri-can of cials noted that the recentviolence involving Blackwater raisesconcerns that private contractorsare too militant and are further com-

plicating the problems in the area.

Myanmar Protests

Emily TrudellStaff Writer

Blackwater

Under FireSecurity Contractor Under Investigation for 17 Deaths

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F eaturesOctober 8, 2007

What is the best way to mastersomething? Do it. A lot. This is ex-actly what international studentseager to improve their Englishconversation skill are doing.

Diane Witters leads a groupof students every Wednesday inEnglish Conversation Group. Ko-rea, Mexico, Thailand, Australia,and Chile are among just a fewof the countries represented. Themeetings are very informal and itis not uncommon for a studentto be there oneweek and nott h e n e x t .

Whilemany of the s tu-

dents whocome toMines

Practice Makes PerfectEnglish Conversation Night for Foreign Student

Greg SmithStaff Writer

are very confident with theirgeneral skills and technical ex-pertise, some say that its dif cult

in their classes and departmentof ces to get the conversationalpractice theyd like. They cravea casual environment where itseasier to experiment with thelanguage, ask questions, shareopinions, build con dence, andmake friends, said Diane Witters.

Around 15 students attend anygiven week and the discussionsrange from controversial issues

such as global warmingand politics to more

mellow, easy-g o i n g

topics like comparing respectivecountries to each others and tothe United States. They also playgames such as Unsolved Myster-ies, where students write downsomething interesting that has

happened to them in their life andthe other students try to guesswho it is and then discuss theevent. This week, a student fromChile explained how she once hadto jump out of a helicopter! Theyalso discuss things like verbs andadjectives, past tense and pres-ent tense, and pronunciation.Weve touched on gun control,t h e purpose and practice

of Ramadan, cul-ture shock, andclimate change,s a i d W i t t e r s .

To imagine lifefor a foreign

s t u d e n t ,t a k e t h e

averages t u -

[ O r e d i g g e r ] W h a tm a k e s y o u a g e e k ?

[Hughes] Probably it is the factthat I do all those really geekythings. And Im really into Halo.I can do most of the really com-plex math problems, but then Iforget to carry the one. Its reallydepressing. I can also recite thewords to the song, The Sun isa Mass of Incandescent Gas(apparently a really nerdy song).

What is your geekiest joke?

All the great scientists haddied and gone to Heaven. Theyhadnt had a nice childhood, sothey were trying to relive it by play-ing hide and seek. So Einsteincounted to 100 in German, andthen opened his eyes and turnedaround. He saw Newton, standingthere. He was trying to hide on topof a square drawn on the ground.

The square seemed to be onemeter by one meter. So Einstein

said, What are you doing hidingthere, Newton? The man respond-ed, Im not Newton! Im Pascal!

W h a t i s t h e g e e k i -e s t t h i n g y o u v e d o n e ?

It was when I was sitting in theSlate, and I happened to overheara conversation. They were talkingabout some rock and its ability tofoat and its density. They describedthe density in lbs/ft cubed. So I wasthinking that usually density is mea-sured in grams/centimeters cubed.So I grabbed a napkin and startedworking out converting the metricsystems I knew to try to match theempirical system they were using.

Who is your role model?Oh, lets see it would have to

be Alex Yuffa. He was my PhysicsII TA. He would always address usas little serfs and tell us to Godo what your little dictators tellyou to do. He was so laid back,and would always drink coffee andconverse in the foulest language.

Do you have a geeky talent?

Geek Weekofthe...Jerad Hughes, SophmoreSatira Tajdin-Labib

Staff Writer

MEAVE HAMM / OREDIGGER

I can insult classmates with thegeekiest words possible. Ive usedthese to on a fellow student in class,when they replied the most incorrectanswers possible. Well, looks like nat-ural selection missed one. And Imsurprised you have the IQ to breathe.

W h a t m o t i v a t e s y o u h e r e a t M i n e s ?

Probably, the though that someday Ill actually get out of here. Also,some day Ill actually get to work realproblems in the real world. Theyll beno more of these nonsense problemsthey assign us everyday in class

that have no real world application.What is your favorite math thing? The very rare instances when

you see the light at the end, andthe Math Gods are shining downon you, that instance when yourealize that what you are doingmight actually be useful. Plus, thesquiggly Greek letters we get to use.

Do you prefer geek girls? Actually, some of the girls here at

Mines scare me. When you kill me

HALO THERE: Jerad Hughes shows off his tie.

in Halo, that scares me. When youare way more athletic than I am, thatscares me. Sometimes I think girlsare more complicated than Calculus.

W h a t d o y o u w a n t t od o a f t e r y o u g r a d u a t e ?

I want toblow thingsup. Im gettingmy degree inmining. Itll feelgreat when Iknow some-one has putlots of timeand effort intobuilding some-thing and I getto blow it up.I t s k ind of morbid, too.O r , m a y b esomething thatI can apply allthe very use-less things Ivelearned here,to look smart.

When do y o u t h i n ksomeone cana u t o m a t i -cally assumesomeone elseis a geek?

When theyve got the giant,round glasses on with the large,gold frames. Or possibly whenyou are in class and they pull outa slide rule. Also, geeks alwaystend to wear horrendous ties.

d e n t s c o u r s e - l o a d a n dthen add a language barrier.

While at the meeting, it wasnice to feel like an expert onsomething for once! But, it is easyto take something as seemingly

trivial as speaking for granted.The time it takes for [in-ternational students]to feel comfortablein conversation de-pends on many fac-tors such as theiraf nity for learningnew lan-g u a g e s ,t h e d e -g r e e o f contrastbetweentheir na-tive lan-g u a g ea n dEnglish,

t h e i rp e r -sonal-ity and

commitment to improving theirskills, and the available opportu-nities for practice and construc-tive feedback, said Witters.

All students wanting to work on their English conversation skills

are welcome to the meetings. The group meets Wednesdayevenings at ve in Stratton

Hall room 410. Its beengreat to have patient,friendly native speakersattend the group also.

The international studentsare often curious about

American culture and atti-tudes, saidW i t t e r s .

MEAVE HAMM / OREDIGGER

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October 8, 2007F eatures

Page 4

Digger DavesCareer Corner

Monday, October 8Exxon Mobil Info Session Ballroom B 6:00 8:00 PM

ChemE, Civ, Elec, Env, PE, Met, ETM Samsung Information SessionStu Ctr, # 236 6:00 7:00 PM

Chem,ChemE, EE,Mech,Mat,Phys, Civ ,ArcelorMittal Information SessionBallroom C 7:00 8:00 PM

Mech, Met and MaterialsAera Energy Info SessionBallroom D 7:30 8:30 PM

ChemE, Mech, Geo, PE

Tuesday, October 9Anadarko Info Session (Geosciences)Ballroom C 5:00 PM 6:00 PMPioneer National Resources Info SessionBallroom E 6:00 PM 7:00 PM

ChemE, Mech, PE Occidental Info SessionBallroom B 7:00 PM 8:00 PM ChemE, PE Caterpillar Info SessionBallroom A 7:00 PM 8:00 PM

Mech, Elec, Met

Wednesday, October 10M.A. Mortenson Information SessionBrown Bldg 201 5:00 PM 6:00 PM

Civil, Mech, ElecNewfield Exploration Info SessionBallroom D 5:00 PM 6:00 PM

PE, Geology, GeophysicsDuff & Phelps, LLC Info Session

StuCtr, #236 6:00 PM 7:00 PM Econ, PE, Mining

Encana Info SessionBallroom A 6:00 PM-7:00 PM

Geochem, Geos, ChemE, PE, MechPetro-Canada Mining Info SessionBallroom E 7:00 PM -8:00PMURS Information SessionBrown Bldg 201 7:00 PM 8:00 PM

CompSci, Enviro, ChemE, Civil, Geo, ETM

Be sure you know how to use DiggerNet tothe max before putting your valuable timeand energy into other ways to search forfull-time jobs or internships.

Ww

Thursday, October 11Shell Lunch-Time Info SessionBerthoud 243 12:00 PM 1:30 PM

ComSci, ChemE,Civil,Elec,Mech, PE, GeosKinder Morgan Info SessionAlderson 151 5:00 PM 6:00 PM

PE,ChemE, MechChevron Mining Information Session

Ballroom A 5:00 PM 6:00 PMCivil, Elec, Geo, Mining, MetallurgyMarston & Marston Inc. Info SessionBrown Bldg, #125 6:00 PM 7:00 PM

Geology, Mining Engineering ARUP Info SessionStuCtr #236 6:00 PM 7:00 PM

Elec ,Mech, Civil Baker Hughes Info SessionBallroom A 7:00 - 8:00 PM

PE,Geos,ChE,Met,Elec,Env,Mech,Math,Civil

M

i n e s

A c

t i v

i t y

C o u n c i l

M o v

i e N i g h t

Come s ee r atatoui l le t his t hursday , o Ctober 11,at 9:30 pm in the s tudent Center b allrooms

Get the InterviewingEdge!

Ron Brummett

Career Center Director

Do you want to set yourself apart fromyour competition? Do you know what willmake you stand out to an interviewer?

Be able to answer the questions:How do your skills t with our industry?What do you know about our company?

Research!What will blow the socks off of any

interviewer is your knowledge of their in-dustry and talking about how your skills areneeded by the company. It is that simple.

Doing company research is not thathard. Now there is a resource that makesit even easier, VAULT! The Vault Career Li-brary is a comprehensive career resource:

* Downloadable e-books* Insider company information not

available anywhere else* Industry research* Career advice articles* Electronic Watercooler message

boards, with 2.5+ millionposting archives

Vault, in conjunction with the CSM CareerCenter, is a valuable asset in your arsenal of career resources. VAULT supplies you withexpertly-researched, up-to-the minute insidercareer information that no one but Vault can ac-cess. Using these resources will give you a well-researched foundation for more personalizedcareer planning. Vault can be accessed 24/7,even when the Career Center of ce is closed.

VAULT delivers a veritable treasure troveof hot-off-the-virtual-presses, Eureka!-inspiring information. No books to check out! The Vault Online Career Library emergedwhen several career centers noticed theycould not keep Vault Guides on their shelves.

They approached VAULT and suggestedthat they provide downloadable E-booksso that students could access from theircomputers 24/7. The Vault Online CareerLibrary is a different product and cannot befound on the public www.vault.com site.

Access the Vault Online Career Library The access to the Vault Online Career

Library is through DiggerNet. Login to Dig-gerNet, using your DiggerNet username andpassword. The link to the Vault Online CareerLibrary can be found within the left sidebar.

Out of all the traditions at the

Colorado School of Mines, oneof the most unique and time-honored is the Senior Stetson.Graduating seniors can purchasea Stetson, a distinctive kind of lightweight felt cowboy hat char-acterized by its tall crown and nar-row brim, and even if they dontwear it, keep it as a memento.

Historically, mining engineersfrom the gold-rush era were iden-tified by their silver-belly Stetson.

Their hat was like a badgefor their trade. While working,it was easy to pick them out.

The Stetsons were a symbol of pride and profession and werea mark of experience becauseof the sweat and dirt stains ac-

cumulated on them. The moreexperienced the miner, the moreworn out their hates became.

Eventually, a student at Minesdecided it was unfair that newgraduates stuck out in theirnew Stetsons. To fix this disad-vantage, they allowed graduat-

ing seniors to purchase theirStetson their final year and wearit in. That way, when they begantheir new job, their hats were

worn in and they were readyfor the beginning of their pro-fessional engineering career.

Nobody really knows theexact time Mines se-niors began wearingStetsons. Howev-er, it was be-fore 1900;t h e1 9 0 0g r a d u -a t e c l a s ss igned a s i l -ver-belly Stetsonthat is now on dis-play in the CSM Alumni

Association office. Alumnifrom the class of 1901 stated

that miners wore the Stetsonswhen they went undergroundbefore hard hats were available.

The Stetson hats were actuallyin style between the 1920s and1940s. In fact, engineers oftenappeared in pictures wearing theirStetsons in various journals and

magazines. Although few seniorsor graduates actually sport theirStetson, many seniors still pur-chase in honor of the tradition and

as a reward for graduating Mines. This year, seniors can pur-chase their Senior Stetson from

Corral West at a bargain price. There are five different styles

of hates to choose fromthat range in price

from $120 to $200e a c h . H o w -

ever, Cor-ral Westg i v e s

seniors 10%off the total cost,

and in addition theSenior Class covers half

the cost. From now untilWednesday, October 17 th, Se-

niors can go to Corral West (1-70

and Youngfield Ave, Applewood Village Shopping Center) and pick out their Stetson. The Stetsonsshould arrive in plenty of time forgraduation. For more informationon the Senior Stetsons, contactthe Senior Class Treasurer AmyDubetz at adubetz@mines.edu.

Melinda Bartel

Staff Writer

Engineers often appeared

in pictures wearing their

Stetsons in various jour-

nals and magazines.

History of Senior StetsonsWhere on Earth Did They Come From?

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Diversity, then, is a necessity if we are to avoid the bore-dom of uniformity. Once we have crossed that boundary intomonotony, into that existential vacuum, there can hardly be areturn to where we began. We cannot emerge unchanged.

That is why the indifference of our boredom is so much morefrightening thanthe passion of our strife. At leastwith the latterwe possess theclarity to knoww h o w e a r e .

So, what doesthis all mean in the context of our campus life? To under-stand where we are now, we must retrace the footprints of time through a brief history of the diversity and the campusclimate at the Colorado School of Mines. Since its found-ing in 1874, CSM has attracted a consistent demographicfrom mostly the white middle-class, and the ethnic majorityremains white to this day. Whether this is a consequenceof the eld of engineering or the school itself is yet to bedetermined, but statistics have not lied on this essential fact.

The cultural background at CSM has a history of inad-

equacy. Yet, cultural diversity is only a small part of an en-compassing whole. When viewed in terms of psychologicalclimate, in what we can refer to as a diversity of thought, CSMhas built a reputation on being a focused, one-track school.

The greatest empha-sis has always beenon engineering, andwhy not? CSM is anengineering school.However, there is aneed for more; thereis a constant de-mand for change.

The common stu-dent - if he or sheis to remain a stu-dent- needs an es-cape from the con-stant study of a single

subject. In an agewhere multitasking and well-roundedness are val-ued, academic sanity depends on not burning out.

We dont do a very good job in our universities theyrethe traditional departments that are somewhat isolated theyre insular, said Norman Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin, during an interview. In addition to technicalknowledge, he said that a good engineer needs to knowsomething about public policy, about economics, aboutethics, about literature, about writing, about speaking.

It was not until 1996 that CSM noted the existence of aproblem in the academic culture. These rumblings of dis-content among the student body led to the Appraisal of

Academic Culture at the Colorado School of Mines , a studyconducted and released by the Academic Culture Committee.

The committee noted that problems arose with a studentbody whose expectations are increasingly consumer-oriented and the contrasts between partnered learningamong adults and subservient instruction to kids. Thefocus of the study was on easing the burden of academiaon the student, on improving the student-teacher interac-tion and the classroom experience. It was a recognitionof the need to be cognizant of how times are changing.

By 2001, nothing had been implemented. Recom-mendations were still only recommendations, ideas fitonly for the discussion room. With an eye towards revivingthe pursuit of campus improvement, CSM recruited Dr.James H. Banning, an environmental psychologist fromColorado State University, to assess the campus climate.

In his preliminary report released in 2002, Dr. Ban-ning focused on the student perspective and theiropinions on their academic experience, with specialpriority placed on the experiences of diversity groups.

In general, Banning found that the academic environ-ment is seen as harsh, callous, insensitive, and belittling.For minority groups, speci cally women, ethnic minorities,disabled students, gay and lesbian students and interna-

tional students, Banning emphasized the feeling of isola-tion that accompanied their lack of cultural identi cation. A sense of campus unity was needed. Students, lacking

community, lacking con dence, began to develop a linkagebetween the amount of stress on the CSM campus andthe frequency of student deaths - suicide. When askedwhat skill was critical for success at Mines, most studentsresponded with time management, an indication that a re-duction in the number of hours for a degree was needed.

For diversity groups, Banning stressed the importanceof instituting cultural artifacts that minority studentscould identify with and that would breed an atmo-

sphere of acceptance and incorporation. How far havewe come? To this day, CSM has still not included itsgay and lesbian faculty in its nondiscrimination policy.

Bannings report went off like a bombshell. It wasleaked to the press, leaked to the community, and rumors

began to spreadthat CSM drove itsstudents to over-anxiety and sui-cide. A follow-upreport was neverconducted. Thebe all and end all

of the issues centered on preliminaries, on surface observa-tions, on an initial investigation based on student testimony.

While students have a tendency to over exaggerate thebad, the Banning report was not without itsmerits. It addressed the potential for a deeperpsychological problem within Mines than wasoriginally anticipated. Yet, more informationwas needed. The truth was hardly withinreach, but rather than substantiate the argu-ments, the Banning report was buried within

the vaults of campus history. It was rarelytalked about, rarely mentioned. Today thename Banning is taboo for those familiarwith the recent history of diversity at Mines.

The essential questionwe are left with, then, is where are we now?When the Banning report was released, itwas like the perfect storm - all the things go-ing wrong at the same time, said Jahi Sim-bai, Director of Graduate Admissions and amember of the Diversity Committee for sevenyears. In the middle of all this, everythingcame down on the Diversity Committee.

Since then, CSM has gone to lengths to im-prove the campus climate. I think I have seensome loosening of the ties around here andthe ability to entertain different ways of doingthings. Ive been more encouraged in the lasttwo years with the new president, said Simbai.

The amount of clubs on campus is rising.Students are nding new ways of relaxing and entertain -ing a different side of their personalities. Still, CSM is arigorous school, but in being so it has a responsibility tohave the support there aswell, explained Simbai.Improving programs liketutoring and academicadvising is a big goal. Yet,in the end, the successof the student dependson the student himself. Dif culties are often necessary toencourage students to reach their full potential. Thosewho rise to the occasion seldom regret the decision.

Cultural diversity is a deeper facet in the issue.The school offers the opportunity without regards torace, creed, or background. The kids themselves haveto be tough if theyre going to make it through, saidGene Tafoya, member of the CSM faculty from 1985to 1998, about the experiences of minority students.

The question is whether a minority student has thepresence of mind to endure the additional burden of beinga minority. Tafoya notes the experience of the Little Rock Nine: They saw it as a bad job. The hazing, the verbalabuse, it was just part of t he job. Nothing more. Theywould not endorse discrimination. It would nothave the satisfaction of being something impor-tant. They made it through because they coulddetach themselves from the situation. Theywere individuals, not statistics in a group.

However, it is not just the feeling of isolation that discourages many minoritystudents. Top minority students have thepick of the top schools, schools like Stanford,MIT, and Caltech. Whats stopping them fromgoing there instead of here? If you want mi-nority kids, youll have to get them interested

in Mines when theyre young, said Tafoya.We must not forget to ask ourselves, if thereis some aspect of the curriculum, of engineeringitself, that is not diversity-friendly. CSM is prettyhomogenous, vanilla, boring, but this is not thecolleges fault. Its a national problem, said Tafoya.

What is needed now is an integration of culturaldiversity and the diversity of thought. The formersees students as a product of their environment.

The latter sees them as a product of themselves. If there is to be any progress, a balance must be struck.

The goal is to enrich the college experience, to open stu-

Page 5

F eatures

Reassessing Diversity: A History at MinesOctober 8, 2007

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P G 1

When viewed in terms of psychological climate, in what

we can refer to as a diversity of thought, CSM has built

a reputation on being a focused, one-track school.

I think I have seen some loos-ening of the ties around hereand the ability to entertaindi erent ways of doing things.Ive been more encouraged inthe last two years with the new

president, said Simbai.

CSM is pretty homog-enous, vanilla, boring, butthis is not the colleges

fault. Its a national prob-lem, said Tafoya.

dents to different thoughts and different opinions, said TerreDeegan-Young, a counselor at Mines for twenty-one years.

A common misconception among students at CSM is thatthey are all the same. They will nd that they are different; they

just need to be prodded. The trouble with Mines is that it doesnot offer many opportunities for its students to socially inter-act and bene t from that interaction. We need to encourageinteraction. The challenge is to get students to recognize howthey can bene t from diversity, explained Deegan-Young.

The Admiss ions Off ice is t ry ing harder, butit is up to the students to make their efforts worth-whi le . I t i s necessary to have s tudent input .

Today, our society is growing into a global community inwhich it is essential to have global communication. Many of our students have never had the opportunity to experienceanother culture prior to coming to Mines, said Deegan-Young.

By increasing diversity, weincrease the ability to commu-nicate. Engineering is not justabout engineering anymore.

Academia just needs to buyin; we dont need to addmore burden and stress, of-fered Deegan-Young. Most,if not all, of the true prob-lems faced by graduatestoday are social and cultural,not technical. The trick is

to dispel preconceived notions and a predisposition to judge before listening. The trick is to open the com-munity and the individual to new ideas and new beliefs.

And so, I continue to sit in Kafadar, waiting for the daywhen diversity will no longer be an issue to write about. A campus diversity plan has recently been released. Plansare being made to make plans to diversify CSM. It is a slowprocess and a touchy issue, but it is progress nonetheless.

Action, however, must begin at the foundations. Itbegins with the students, with the very essence of theinstitution. It begins when we remove the blinders fromour eyes, when we realize that all the world tends to-wards uniformity but that we need not follow. In the end,it is mentality that fosters reality, not the other way around.

And if it is true, as Viktor Frankl says, that mans freedomlies in his interpretation of his condition, in his ability tochoose his judgments, then it is with a responsibility to ourtimes, and to the times that will come and to the times that

have passed, that we reinterpret what we are doing here. The duty rests squarely on our shoulders, not as a

society but as individuals. It demands a creation of newvalues. It cries out for new thoughts, if only to revive oldones. It requires that we heed the lessons of prior gen-erations or else return to the monotony that has sti edmany, to the boredom that has relinquished precious few.

The duty rests squarely on our shoulders, not as a societybut as individuals. It demands a creation of new values.

The Presidents Committee on Diversity is

very interested in getting your input on

how to increase Mines students cultural

uency and social adaptivity. We invite

you to come share your thoughts in an

open and confdential environment.

FREE PIZZA!RSVP to Terre Deegan-Young

(tdeegan@mines.edu)

DIVERSITY EVENT

Wed, Oct. 10, 4-6 PM,

Stratton Hall Room 313

8/14/2019 The Oredigger Issue 06 - October 8, 2007

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October 8, 2007

L ifestyLePage 6

Earlier this year, Conor Oberst and his BrightEyes band released Cassadaga , a folk-bluegrass

journey into the human psyche. Bright Eyes, in2005, simultaneously released two albums: the

electronic-experimental Digital Ash In A Digital Urn , and the stripped-down

folk Im Wide Awake Its Morn- ing . Cassadaga returns to Bright

Eyes signature Midwesternbluegrass sound, building on

and picking up whereIm Wide Awake ItsMorning left off.

The record beginswith a phone conversation

abo ut the supernatural premoni-t i o n s of a figurative protagonista n d taking a trip to Cassadaga,Florida. A urry of strings bellow anddive, leading into the main thrust of thealbum. Four Winds, the first singlefrom the record, showcases a multi-layered mixture of acoustic guitars,strings and a slew of other instruments.

Unlike many of the records on the indie-folk scene, Cassadaga alludes to an olderstyle of country music, easily heard during

the middle section of the record. Confusion and beautygrip the protest song No One Would Riot For Less,which leads into the airy Coat Check Daydream.

The metaphorical traveler nally reaches Florida duringLime Tree, and is met with somber realizations aboutthe people he has loved and lost along the journey.

Obersts distinct vocals, though occasionallydistracting, provide an agreeable medium for his mel-ancholy lyrics. Cassadaga combines themes aboutlove, nding escape from the Midwest, and discover -ing solace through a physical and spiritual journey.

Tim Weilert

Staff Writer

If any of my readers thinksthat this was a pro-war propa-ganda lm, they would be wrong. Ithought that it would be a pro-warpropaganda lm when I saw thepreviews (which never seemed toend). Some of my more conserva-

tive friends thought that it wouldbe an anti-war propaganda lm.Fortunately for everyone, nei-

ther one of these presumptions isthe case. The movie is instead ananti-terrorist movie, and everyonehates terrorists. There certainly is alittle politics mixed into the movie,but it is more of an anti-bureaucratrant, typical of many action movies.

There is a decent story, andexcellent action scenes. This isde nitely the type of movie whichsatis es the whole righteous angeremotion (good for after tests!). It isalso a very stirring movie, as it of course talks about the very real and

Konrad Klett

Staff Writer

A gentle wash of warm lightbathes our little campus in the earlymorning hours. Sleepy students,awakened by the sharp siren bell

of their alarm clocks, stagger intothis inviting scape. In their drowsyhaze many will stumble acrossone of the countless chalk adver-tisements plied onto concrete bywilling hands. The colorful wash of limestone oods the concrete witha beautiful mosaic of advertising.Messages such as Lumpia Saleat MEP and Circle K Meeting,beckon every student to take heed.

Over the course of the week,thousands of students will pass overthese finite letters; each of themmentally branded by the messagewritten on stone. Though somefind these chalkings informative,others nd them downright ugly. Sois the nature of chalking at CSM.

Many readers may have noticedthe assault of chalkings in the lastfew weeks upon the student cen-ter main entrance and wondered:

Why does CSM evenallow chalkings,can any-one justs t a r tchalking,and arent

there anybetter al-ternatives tochalkings?

According to the CSM adminis-tration, chalkings are just one way of addressing the fundamental need forstudent advertising at CSM. Otheroptions include outdoor banners, in-door yers, and email. Chalkings area way to get information out aboutclubs and activities. Sidewalk chalk is the talk of the walk, explained se-nior Nick Macon. Chalking is a wayto communicate to a large portionof the student body in an inexpen-sive and sightly manner; accordingto the Student Activities Office.

Chalking exemplifies many of

CSMs advertising goals. Accordingto Plant Facilities, chalking requiresno clean up (except in the case of obscene messages). It gets washed

Here at Colorado School of Mines, most students look forways to help offset that high tuitioncost and those numerous fees.One way todo this isby drivingmotorcy-cles, andthis is a so-lution usedby manystudents.

Yes, theystill haveto pay thesame park-ing price

to registertheir mo-torcycle asthe vehicledrivers do,b u t t h e ycan savegas , andp o s s i b l ysome timeb y p a r k -ing closert o t h e i rc l a s s e s .

I start-ed [a mo-t o r c y c l e ]club two years ago, but nobodyseemed to care enough to show

up for any meetings, so it just kindof died out, said Garrett Garner.He hoped to host some charitypoker rides and [other events] withthe community, to give Mines stu-dents the chance to learn to rideby offering discounted MotorcycleSafety Foundation safety coursesso people could get their license.He also wanted to increase helmetawareness and even get politicalby creating a mandatory helmetlaw for Colorado. There are alsonegative views that he wanted toreverse, because most peoplelook at bikers as irresponsiblepeople who just want to go fast.

MotorcyclesInvade CSM

Steven Easter

Staff Writer

GRIP WITH YOUR KNEES: Motorcycling isbecoming more popular on campus.

While [that] might be true, a goodmajority of us are responsible and

very safe riders, and I thoughtthe motorcycle club could helpget that image across to others.

Garner designed a motorcycleparking lot as his EPICS II proj-

e c t a n dp l a n n e dthe con-structionof it, butthe schoolwent andput a fireh y d r a n tr i g h t i nthe mid-dle of thedrive thatwas go-

ing to bebuilt, andalso theynever fol-lowed upon callingthe con-t r a c t o r sto get itpoured. Itwas onlygoing tob e 1 0s p a c e s ,becauset h a t sa l l t h a t

Rich Boyd would fund. Cur-rently there is no designated

motorcycle parking, so there is nosafe place for the bikes to park. Although the Colorado School

of Mines Department of PublicSafety states that properly regis-tered motorcycles may be parkedin the cross hatched areas of thestudent parking lots; They alsosay that motorcycle parking,identifed by signage, is providedon campus, but Garner seems tosuggest that it is practically non-existent. There also seems to havebeen an increase of the number of motorcycles on campus, and asGarner put it, there are at least50 people who ride at Mines.

New Classic:Cassadaga

very current situation of terrorism. As usual there is some Hollywoodtear jerker cheese, but it is goodcheese, like brie or sharp cheddar.

The acting was decent, butyou will not nd Oscar worthy stuff in this movie. That probably wasnot the intent here anyway. Thereis a semi-star-studded cast, withJennifer Garner and Jamie Foxx.For once, Jennifer Garner is in an

action movie instead of a romanticcomedy, which makes more senseanyway. Shedid becomefamous fromstarring in Alias after all. Ja-mie Foxx wasgood as well.

There reallywas not anybad acting inthis movie, justnot anythingreally stirring,leave that tothe story itself.

All in all it was a good actionmovie, but not a really great movie.I am sure there will be certainviewers who are offended at thevarious implications made in themovie (although it was fairly po-litically correct). It is rated R andabout terrorism, so it was violent,but in a shoot-em-up way not agory way. It will not make manypeoples best film of the year.

However it does have the potentialto become the favorite of some.

The Kingdom is at Hand

William Everson

Staff Writer

Chalking It Up To...a w a y b y

rain, snow, sprin-klers, and foot traf c.

Chalking also keepsadvertisements temporallyrelevant by being washed away soquickly; thus, adhering to CSMsOutdoor Advertising Policy rulethat advertisements must be re-moved after seven days. Chalkingkeeps the campus looking good.Instead of allowing flyers to beposted on any flat surface likemany other campuses (think CSU),chalking (in conjunction with CSMsother advertising policies) keepsadvertisements visually tasteful.

If you would like to post a chalk-ing on campus, you need to llout a CSM Outdoor AdvertisingPolicies form from the Student Ac-tivities Of ce (or from their website)

and turn it in to the same place. Allpostings are subject to approvaland should be turned in at leas t 24hours prior to the date of chalking.

H I L A R Y B R O W N / O R E D I G G E R

M EA V E H

A M M / O R

E D I G G E R

ANDY SUDERMAN / OREDIGGER

8/14/2019 The Oredigger Issue 06 - October 8, 2007

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S portSOctober 8, 2007

After 162 regular season games, itcame down to one for the San Diego

Padres and the Colorado Rockies. The winner would make the playoffswhile the loser would be in for a long,heart-breaking offseason. This wasthe seventh one-game tiebreaker inmajor league history, the rst since1999 when the New York Mets shutout the Cincinnati Reds 5-0 and forthe Rockies, it was arguably the mostimportant game in franchise history.

At rst glance, the game lookedlike a mismatch. Despite winning 13of their last 14 games, the Rock-ies were the underdogs going intothe game. The high octane offenseof the Rockies were due to faceJake Peavy, the favorite for the Cy

Young award with 19wins on the season

and a major league-bes t 2 .36 ERA.Meanwhile, the

Padres and their injury-depletedoffense were up against Josh Fogg,the fifth starter for the Rockieswho has had a decidedly averagecareer thus far. However, Fogggained the nickname Dragon-Slayer from his teammates thisseason for besting far better pitch-ers like Curt Schilling and Bran-don Webb throughout the season.

On paper, it still appeared tobe a mismatch, but in reality thestarting pitchers had little impacton the eventual outcome. Peavylasted 6.1 innings, but gave upan uncharacteristic 6 runs. Fogg

gave up 5 runs in 4 innings. It wasa game that the hitters, the bull-pens, and the umpires took over.

The Rockies struck rst, unleash -ing 3 runs in the rst 2 innings of play, including a home run by C. Yorvit Torrealba. But the Padres

quickly retaliated with 5 runs inthe top of the third capped off with a grand slam by 1B AdrianGonzales. The Rockies foughtback, however, nailing single

runs in the 3 rd, 4 th, and 6 th innings. This put the Rockies back ahead 6-5.

This is the second highest num-ber of runs Peavy had let up in agame this season with the mostcoming from a start in which he onlyhad a short 3 days rest. He had

been, in short, nearly unbeatablethis season, but the Rockies nallychased him from the game with oneout in the 7 th when Rockies 3BGarrett Atkins hit what was ruled aground rule double by the umpires.

While camera angles weresketchy at best, it appeared as if it may have bounced off of a chair

just beyond the fence rather than off the top of the fence itself and back into the eld of play -which is whatthe umpires ruled. Peavy pitched anintentional walk to RF Brad Hawpe,then reliever Heath Bell came in andmanaged to strike out the next twobatters for the Rockies to strandJamey Carroll - who came in to pinchrun for Atkins - and Hawpe on base.

The Padres tied it up shortly af-terwards in the 8 th off of a double hitby RF Brian Giles that Matt Hollidaymisplayed in the out eld. In addi -tion to the critical misplay, Hollidaystruck out 3 times throughout thecourse of the game and he showeda lot of frustration as the game wenton. The game stayed tied throughthe ninth and into extra innings.

The Rockies, at rst glance, hadthe advantage as the game went

After four races, the ColoradoSchool of Mines Cycling team isspeeding past the competition. With4141 points in the Rocky MountainCollegiate Cycling Conference Divi-sion II points race, the team holds acommanding 1623 point lead oversecond place team, Mesa State.

A number of individual racersare among the top two racers intheir divisions. Joe Schneider andNathan Monnig are both second inthe Individual Endurance races formen A and B, respectively, whilePiotr Wilczek is first in men C.Melissa Marts and Iris Tomlinsonare ranked frst and second in thewomen A in the same category.In the Individual Gravity division,the Mines presence is equally felt.Brandon Turman and Nathan Work are frst and second in the men A,while Cristen Boyer and Myra Dyerare frst and second in women A.

These Mines riders have workedexceptionally hard to get to wherethey are. Many of them routinely bikeup to Lookout Mountain and back.Joe Schneider, a freshman thisyear, rides for at least a few hours

To many people, the wordsmaul, blood bin, ruck, and scrumsound like they might comestraight out of Fight Club . Tothe Colorado School of MinesRugby team, however, thesewords all part of the vocabu-lary which has propelled themto being ranked 7 th nationallyin Division II Rugby Standings.

The Mines Rugby team is a tra-ditional powerhouse, starting outthe season ranked 10 th. However,after big wins against Western State(69-12) and Metro State (68-0),theyve moved up in the rankings.

Our ultimate goal is to beat theUniversity of Northern Colorado,says freshman Adam Warsh. UNC

is currently ranked 2 nd in the na-tion, and have been in the collegechampionship game three times inthe last fve years and won in 2005.If Mines can beat UNC, they shouldbe going to the national playoffs.

In order to accomplish their

Jake Rezac

Staff Writer

Jake Rezac

Staff Writer

Rockies Make HistoryTeam Advances to the NLCS for the First Time

Matthew Pusard

Staff Writer longer due to a deep bullpen. Itwasnt necessarily the quality of relievers, but rather the quantity.

Due to a major league rule thatexpands roster from 25 to 40 players

to let minor leaguers get experience,the Rockies had so many relieversin their bullpen than manager ClintHurdle had to double up names onhis roster chart to t them all in. How -ever, the Padres had a bullpen withone of the lowest ERAs in the majors.Both teams remained deadlockedthrough the 10 th, 11 th, and 12 th. Bothteams got players on base, but neverreally threatened to score. At thispoint, the game was already oneof the longest tiebreakers in history.

Then the 13 th inning started.Rockies reliever Jorge Julio took over the mound; the Rockies hadacquired him earlier in the year after

Julio failed as the closer for the Flor-ida Marlins. He seemed to channelhis Marlins performance in this gameby pitching quite unpredictably.

Julio nearly hit his first batter,Giles, with his rst pitch and eventu -ally walked him on ve pitches. Then,Julio let up a two run home run toScott Hairston on just his secondstrike thrown of the inning. Russ Ortizcame in and nished up the inning, butthe damage had already been done.

The Rockies were just 3 outsaway from being eliminated fromthe playoffs. Even worse for theRockies was the fact that they

were going up against baseballs alltime saves leader, the future Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman. It was no-ticeable that Hairstons homer hurtthe sold-out crowd at Coors Field.While they had been crazy all game,they were noticeably quieter goinginto the bottom of the thirteenth.

It didnt last long though. KazMatsui let off the inning with a doubleand Rookie of the Year candidate

Troy Tulowitzki followed that up witha double of his own, his 4 th hit of thenight. Then up came Holliday whowas up for an award of his own: Most

Valuable Player. Holliday had not hada great game up until this point, but heput an exclamation point on his cam-paign by hitting a game tying triple.

Hoffman intentionally walked Todd Helton to bring up Jamey Car-roll, a man once voted by baseballplayers as one of the players thatgets the most out of the least tal-ent in an issue of Sports illustratedlast year. Carroll managed to geta y ball out to shallow right eld.

Giles caught the ball, Hollidaytagged up, and raced home whileGiles threw a dead accurate but loftyshot to try to gun down Holliday. Theball arrived rst and catcher MichaelBarrett was blocking the plate, butHolliday slid head rst into home asBarrett bobbled the ball. Holliday cutup his chin, but the umpire called himsafe after a brief pause. The Rock-ies were in the playoffs. The team

celebrated on the eld as if they had just won the World Series while train-ers attended to a shaken Holliday.

Upon further review, it is un-clear whether Hollidays hand actu-ally touched the plate, but Barrettnever ultimately tagged him andthe umpires ruling is nal due tothe lack of video review in theMLB. The Rockies won one of themost thrilling tiebreakers of all time.

This win sent the Rockies to

Philadelphia for a 5 game seriesagainst the Phillies. The Phillieshad a dramatic race to the play-offs as well, overcoming a 7 gamedeficit to the New York Mets as

of September 12th

, the biggestcomeback in major league history. The Phillies were built just like the

Rockies with a hard hitting lineupplaying in a hitters park. They hadthe other NL candidate for MVP inJimmy Rollins, the reigning 2006MVP in Ryan Howard - a home rundynamo - and the best-hitting 2B inthe league in Chase Utley, a futureMVP contender. They too had ayoung ace in Cole Hamels - hestarted game 1 against the Rockies.

Hamels was shelled early though,letting up a triple to Todd Helton inHeltons rst ever playoff at bat tolead off the second inning. Garrett At-

kins drove Helton in ona double and the Rock-

ies proceeded to scorethree runs. They neverlooked back as the

Rockies won 4-2, with Jeff Francispicking up the win with 2 earned runslet up and 8 strikeouts in 6 inningspitched. The Rockies are 40-4 all timewhen Jeff Francis pitches 6 inningsand lets up 2 earned runs or less.

The next day, the Rockies pickedup when they led off against the Phil-lies with back-to-back home runs by

Tulowitzki and Holliday in the top of the 1 st inning. The Phillies took thelead early in the second inning, butthe Rockies then proceeded to putit away in the 4 th with a grand slamby 2B Kazuo Matsui, a Japanesebaseball player who came over to

MLB in 2004 and failed as a New York Met. His nickname in Japanwas Little Matsui, referencing the

Yankees home run hitting mon-ster Hideki Godzilla Matsui, butit was only Kazuos 5 th home runall season. He ended the game asingle short of hitting for the cycle.

The Rockies completed thesweep Saturday at home in frontof 50,724 raucous, screaming,towel-waving fans. Rookie UbaldoJimenez pitched 6.1 innings of 3-hitbaseball and the bullpen never gaveup anything. The game was 1-1 go-ing into the eighth inning, but pinchhitter Jeff Baker was able to single inthe go-ahead run and the Rockieswon 2-1. It was the rst time since

July 9th

, 2005 that they won a gamescoring 2 runs or less at home.Now, the Rockies have won 17

games out of their past 18. Only 2other teams nished a season win -ning 14 of their last 15 games andboth of them, the 1960 NY Yankeesand the 1964 LA Dodgers, made itto the World Series. The Rockiesnext opponent, the Arizona Dia-mondbacks, lost 2 of 3 in Coloradoto end the season, but did hand theRockies their only loss of their streak behind the arm of 2006 Cy Youngwinner Brandon Webb. The Rock-ies nally get a break from the grindas the NLCS starts on Thursday.

In addition to eld performance,the Rockies have notable character.

On July 22nd

, the rst base coach of their AA af liate, Mike Coolbaugh,was struck by a line drive and waskilled. He left behind 2 sons andhis pregnant wife, Amanda. TheRockies recently voted to give afull share of their playoff earningsto Amanda Coolbaugh. When Iheard about what the players did,I almost cried, Dan ODowd, thegeneral manager of the Rockies,said of this act of compassion.

The Rockies, at frst glance, had the advantage

as the game went longer due to a deep bullpen.

Ruck and ScrumRugby Off to a Rocking Season

goal, the Rugby team is train-ing very hard. They have prac-tice for two hours three times a

week, trying to include a scrim-mage at least once each week.

The situation this year is verysimilar to ones the Mines rugbyteam has experienced in the re-cent past. A few years ago, welost to Missouri-Rolla, which took away our chances for going to thenational fnals, Warsh explained.Weve been pretty good in thelast few years, but the closestweve come to making the fnalswas that Missouri-Rolla game.

With two regular season gamesleft, including one against Colo-rado State, at Colorado State, onOctober 14 th , the Rugby team islooking to make their mark on thenational rugby scene. According to

Warsh, Rugby is pretty easy youmainly just have to listen to whatthe referees say. However, ac-complishing their goals will be a littlebit harder, and theyll have to playvery hard and very well in order towin out the season, beat UNC, andmake it to the collegiate playoffs.

Cycle of Victoryevery day while training.

One of Schneiders goals thisyear is to make it to the nationalcompetition, which takes placethis year at Lees-McRae Collegein North Carolina from October 26to October 28. Along with the restof the Mines riders, he is in goodposition to compete at nationalsat the moment, having 1681 morepoints in the nationals race thanthe nearest Division II competitor inthe RMCCC. If Mines dominancecontinues, at least one male andone female rider will go to nationals,as the NCAA rules allow for at leastthat coalition from each conferenceto compete in the competition.

However, according to Sch-neider, there are a lot of very goodschools in Colorado, so nationalcompetition is about the same levelas were used to. If Mines keepsup its performance, it will likelyhave more than the minimum twocompetitors. Assuming they makeit to the tournament, the cyclistshope to have a similar performanceas the one they had last year, plac-ing 5 th in division II. But with theintense practice habits they have,and the talent on the team, theroad to success should be easier.

ANDY SUDERMAN / OREDIGGER

8/14/2019 The Oredigger Issue 06 - October 8, 2007

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October 8, 2007Page 8

If you identify yourself politicallyas a neo-conservative, Id like tomeet you. Maybe you can explain

what exactly it is. From Paul Wolfow-itz to George W. Bush, those whocarry the banner of neo-con havesupported the illogical, damaging,and dangerous policies that havebrought our country to its knees.

As names go, neo-conserva-tism is up there with religious fun-damentalism, as something whichmanifests itself as the opposite of what it pretends to be. In the next 16months, the rst neo-conservativeadministration in this countryshistory will terminate. I cant think of a better reason to celebrate.

The United States, as led by theBush Administration and its policies,has let spending run rampant andtreated money like it is printed at

will. With Bush as the head of thesnake, the U.S. has acted like asupreme theocracy, becoming asbelligerent as a child who thinks heis always right. In the mind of thatchild, what he knows is best, andeveryone else should follow his rules.

Needless to say, it just doesntwork like that. The world isnt a

Smile if Youre a Neo-ConIdeology Destroys Everything It Touches

Andrew Aschenbrenner Editorials Editor

playground. Things dont alwayshappen like you want them to. Mak-ing people happy should not be themost important piece of your agen-da. Now, if you drank the Kool-Aidof national security, its not your fault.

Plenty of people are still entrancedby the train wreck that is Bush. Hey,at least his father is sane. George Jr.unfortunately is surrounded by peo-ple like Dick Cheney and Karl Roveand the aforementioned Wolfowitz.

The tragedy of the neo-conser-vative philosophy is not so muchthat it is inherently awed, but thatso many people have bought intothe spread democracy, ght terrorcrock. Not all American voters haveyet or will realize that it is not whatyou do that counts, but how you goabout it. Those who call themselvesneo-conservatives are so caughtup in their own indoctrination thatthey fail to realize that their mainfailure is that, instead of launching

the Republican party even higherinto greatness as intended, theyhave nearly destroyed the faithof Americans in their politicians.

I cannot nd any justi able ex -planation for why neo-conservativepolicies make sense. It seems thatpolicymakers ignore evidence andprior events to push ahead with

blind faith. A good goal must be sat-is ed with simple, sensible steps, nomatter how uncomfortable they maybe. The reality is that if you choosesteps based on will and not onlogic, you only delay your suffering.

When George W. Bush waselected in 2000, I could not voteand had no idea that there wassuch a thing as a neo-conservative.I liked John McCain better, butI would have chosen Bush over

Al Gore if I had a vote. I was withMr. Bush on September 11th, asI am sure most of America was.However, I simply cannot abandonmy sense of what is right and whatmakes sense to follow policiesthat satisfy personal preference

rst and collective need second. The last twenty-five years in

American politics have seen therise and fall of the Moral Majority,Reagans America, the economicand social relaxation in the Clin-

ton era, and the terror-dominatedreign of Bush. The United Stateshave stayed strong through 200-plus years of Constitution-basedleadership. There is no reasonthat we should have to abandonthat to satisfy a group of neo-cons who insist, despite all evi-dence, that what they have is right.

Beef:Whats with the Indian Statue?Response:

The statue is called The Greet-ing. It is here to give a sense of belonging on campus by illustrat-ing a traditional Native Americanwelcoming. The Lockridge familyselected it after they made theirdonation of $3 million to helpstudents fund the Rec. Cen-ter. The statue also ts well withthe Presidents goal of makingMines a more welcoming place.

Beef: ASCSM shou ld have a

representative from the Inter-national Student Organization.

Response: ASCSM has a designated vot-

ing seat on the Senate for anundergraduate and a graduateinternational student. The gradu-ate student is elected throughthe Graduate Student Associa-tion, but there has never been astructured election process for theundergraduate student. Therehas not been an undergraduate

international representative at an ASCSM meeting in several yearsbecause there is some confusionas to which body is responsiblefor electing that student to be theirrepresentative. Also, as an af liatedclub, the ISO could apply for a seaton the ASCSM Club Council, wherethey could have voting powersover all ASCSM budgetary issues.

Beef:No paper towels in the

Student Center bath-rooms, and thetoilette paperstinks (thep e r s o ndidnt ac-tually saythat; I justwanted tomake a pun)

Response: There are no paper

towels because it is more environ-mentally friendly to use hand dryers.Students did request paper towels inthe Rec. Center bathrooms, though.

As far as the toilette paper, studentstend to steel the good toilette paperwhenever the school puts it intopublic bathrooms. This is also thebest way of buying bulk. I suggest

carrying around your own toilettepaper if it really bothers you. Any-ways, people will think youre cool.

Beef:Why dont we have a unified

Recycling Program across campus?Response:I am meeting with the Environ-

mental Health and Safety Depart-ment this week to discuss this and

some possiblesolutions.

I shouldhave ab e t t e ranswerto this

questionnext week.

Beef: There arent enough

events for minorities dur-ing E-Days and Homecoming.

Response: The Mines Activities Council does

their best to host events that theentire campus can enjoy. If you haveany suggestions for ways to betterserve the campus during theseevents, MAC would appreciate yourcomments. You can also put morecomments into the Whats Your

Beef with Mines? Box and I canget them to the appropriate people.

Beef:Parking, parking, and more

parking (there were 5 com-plaints this week actual ly)

Response:Heres the deal with on-campus

parking: there will be a parkinggarage in the next couple yearsas I discussed in last weeks Beef,and every time the administrationwalks the campus during peak us-age times they nd plenty of openspaces. Along with this weeksBeef is the Deans recent survey of open parking spaces on campus.Dean Cheuvront did not bother tocount open parking spaces on thestreet during his study. Still, thestudy shows that we have plentyof parking spaces on campus toserve the demand of the students.

The problem is not a lack of parkingspaces on campus, which is whyno immediate action is taking place.

The problem is a lack of parking onthe streets near the buildings. Afterlooking through this study, you willbe able to see which lots on cam-pus typically have parking spacesreadily available during peak hours.

Whats Your Beef With Mines? ASCSM President Casey Morse Answers Your Questions

The Orediggers Oct. 1 columnWhats Your Beef with Mines? present-ed the following question and response:

Beef: Trailhead is the big-gest pain.Response: Youre not alone

on this one. This sentimentis generally accepted acrosscampus. The administrationis examining the benefits andpitfalls of the program and as-sessing its impact on our cam-pus. As of right now, thats allI can say. Well just have toget through this one together.

Maybe an explanation of Trail-head would be helpful. Trailhead isa complex web portal or gatewaythat provides easy access to multipleCSM computer services, systems,and information. Trailheads primarygoal is to provide access to individu-

als campus records. The majorityof these records are managed by aservice called Self-Service Banner.For students, this includes registeringfor classes and accessing grades,transcripts, billing and nancial-aidaward information. Faculty mem-bers access their course rosters,enter grades, and review advisees

records. Employees access pay-roll, bene ts and attendance/leaveinformation. Campus administratorsaccess campus nancial records.

Obviously, thats a lot of data tobe synthesized and made available

on one website. In fact, the abovedata alone spans at least four dif-ferent systems, not counting Trail-head itself. Trailhead also providessingle-sign-on (SSO) access to manyother campus systems. Log into

Trailhead and then instantly accessother SSO services without loggingin again. Self-Service Banner itself isan SSO service. Other SSO servicesaccessible through Trailhead are:CSM Webmail, Exchange Email (foradministrative of ces), CSMGroups,the CSM Portal Calendar, Environ-ment Health and Safety ChemicalSearch, Vacation/Sick Leave Report -ing, e~Print Financial Reporting, andDiscoverer Viewer (a reporting tool).

But what about other computer

systems like Blackboard or the Li-brary system or LON-CAPA? Yes,there are still computer systemson campus not yet connected to

Trailhead. For those systems, us-ers still need to remember individualpasswords and sign on separately.We are working to provide single-sign-on access to these and othercampus services, while improving thefunctionality of existing SSO services.

In fact, many improvementsare in the works. Heres what thecampus community will nd whenan upgraded version of Trailheadmakes its appearance in mid-2008:

Improved and extendedSelf-Service Banner services.

More single-sign-on services

amalgamated within Trailhead.I m p r o v e d c o m m u n i c a -tion for the campus community.

Campus-specific informa-tion in the form of bulletins, gen-eral information, and RSS feeds.

M o r e a n d b e t t e r e x t e r -n a l c o n t e n t f r o m o u t s i d enews and service providers.

In sum, both Trailhead it-self and Self-Service Bannerwill undergo major upgrades.

OK, so what does any of theabove really mean? And how doesit make Trailhead any less of apain? It means that Trailheadis a complex set of systems, andto improve it, besides improvedsoftware from our software ven-

dor well need concrete feedback from the campus community aboutwhat works and doesnt work.

So help us out. Go to the onlineMines Help Center helpdesk.mines.edu. In the subject line typeTrailhead is the biggest pain andin the long description give concreteexamples of what works and whatdoesnt work. We will do our bestto improve Trailhead continuouslyin the coming months and years.

Casey MorseASCSM President

Ginny LeeTrailhead Portal Manager

Upgrades UpcomingTrailhead Improvements On the Way

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O p -E dOctober 8, 2007

In the October 1 st issue of the Oredig-ger, an article entitled Isnt AhmadinejadEntitled to Freedom of Speech? bySatira Tajdin-Labib was published muchto the dismay and surprise of many onthe CSM Campus. The article is a clearshow of support for the Iranian dictator,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, however theclaims made have very little supportand the author lacks general knowledgeand information with regard to politicsand the reality of the situation in Iran.

To begin with a response to the title,freedom of speech is indeed a humanright, but the sheer irony of such astatement is that Ahmadinejad is themastermind of denying this very right tohis own people. Journalist Amit Pyakurelstates that, Reports suggest that themedia is seeing a signi cant rise in cen -sorship from the present government ledby President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,more than under any government inthe past. 1 This fact is not surprising.

The 2006 Press Freedom Index col-lected by the international journalismmonitoring group, Reporters WithoutBorders (RSF), ranks Iran 162nd out of 168 counties as being among one of the worst violators of the internation-ally recognized right of free speech. 2

In answering the question Who isMahmoud Ahmadinejad? his historyincludes a past as a revolutionary guardwho was personally responsible forthe killing and torture of Iranian politicalprisoners. Alireza Jafarzadeh, author of The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejadand the Coming Nuclear Crisis (PalgraveMacmillan, 2007) stated evidence that

Ahmadinejad is known in Iran as theman of a thousand bullets becausehe was the one to re the last blow, ortir-khalas, to political prisoners whowere executed by way of a ring squad. 3 Former political prisoners such as 58-year-old Laya Roshan gave a pressconference in Paris on September 26 th of this year in which she testi ed that shemet Ahmadinejad in 1982 while in thetorture chamber of Irans notorious Evinprison. Roshan was a dentist who wasarrested and taken to Evin prison underthe charges of assisting opponents of theregime. As she painfully recalls the vividmemories she has of Ahmadinejad, shealso revealed an experience in which shewitnessed his torture of a female prisonerwhen he held her arm and dragged heron the ground and took her to the torturechamber. The prisoner was returnedtwo hours later with broken teeth, tornlips and blue face. 4 Roshan plans topress charges against Ahmadinejad.

Statements Tajdin-Labib makes suchas Ahmadinejad is a great leader andthat he has done many things for Iranare wholly unfounded. In actuality, Ah-madinejad is detested by his own people,as well as scores of others around theworld. Pyakurel continues to explain thatIranians live under signi cant oppres -sion from their government, includingrestrictions on the freedom of expressionand many instances of suppressionof other basic democratic norms. 5 InDecember of last year when Ahmadine-

jad was making a

round of visits toIrans universities,he was met withstudent protestsat Amirkabir Uni-versity (Polytech-nique) in Tehran.Students wereburning photos of

Ahmadinejad whileshouting deathto the dictator. 6 S e v e r a l o f

these students were taken to pris-on and have since been executed.

Ahmadinejad was originally selectedon the platform that he would improvethe Iranian economy and to date, votershave rebuked him for failing to deliveron promises to improve the economy; 7 in fact, the economy has worsened.Saeed Leylaz, a leading Iranian econo-mist stated, The future of the nation hasnever been this dark, both economicallyand politically.8 Ahmadinejads tenurehas offered nothing but mass oppressionand restrictions, ery diatribes that onlyen ame the already volatile region, andpurposeful chaos and in ltration in Iraqis indeed a ploy to compel US forces toleave the region unsecuredso that theIranian regime may swallow Iraq whole.

What is meant by the Tajdin-Labibwhen she states that Iran has taken aturn for the better in religion and politicsunder Ahmadinejads reign? Because noevidence or explanation is offered, read-ers are left wondering, and those who areknowledgeable hotly disagree with goodreason. As an Iranian-American living inexile, I feel it appropriate to quote the Ira-nians on the street, a voice in which Ah-madinejad uses torture and execution tosilence. A graduate student by the nameof Ali said, Ahmadinejad promised to doall sorts of things. But he hasnt doneanything. He promised to share out theoil revenue. Look at the price of oil now!Wheres all that money going? Theres noeconomic management in this country.Its inef cient. Its corrupt. Ahmadinejadloves all the international attention. Hesmaking the most of the nuclear issueto distract attention from the failures of the economy. 9 When asked about his/ her opinion of Ahmadinejad, a Tehranresident stated that, Hes achievednothing in the past year. The econo-my is very bad. Everyone is poor. 10

As a Muslim, I can say with con -dence that Islam does not advocate thekilling of, or as the author puts it, elimi-nation of any human being on the basisof personal beliefs, lifestyles, or opinions.

Again, the paradox of this principle is thatthe members of the Iranian regime, whoclaim that Iran is a nation based in Islam,execute dissidents at will. Amnesty In-ternationals tally of executions reached210 people since the beginning of 2007, this is already more than the totalamount of executions in 2006 (177). 11

Amongst these executions includes thehorrifying cases of several minors whoare systematically killed in Iran. AmnestyInternational states that Iran currentlyhas 71 minors on death row, and hasexecuted 24 since 1990 which is morethan any other country in the world. 12

Ahmadinejad foolishly, not fearless-ly, criticizes the US and other countriesfor killing and wounding people, andwhile it is necessary to be critical of USforeign policy, we must remember thatwhen one points a nger at someone,three ngers point back to themselves.

All of the ills Ahmadinejad criticizes othersfor are practices he himself has takento gruesome levels. This is a classiccase of the pot calling the kettle black.

Although it is a known fact that Ah-madinejad nancially supports terroristorganizations like Hezbollah, he atly

denied this verity just before his recenttrip to the US when directly asked bythe 60 Minutes correspondent ScottPelley. Therefore, while Ahmadinejadwould approve of the praise Tajdin-Labibhas for Hezbollah, he might continue todeny the fact that most of the weap-ons Hezbollah uses are from Iran, if hedecides to answer the question at all.

Since the obvious must be stated,Iran should not be allowed to harbora nuclear weapon as it is a threat toglobal peace and security because of theviolent nature of the regime. Contrary towhat the author states, the Iranian regime(Ahmadinejad included) has threatenedand killed Americans in addition to manyother victims all around the world. The1983 marine barracks bombing in Leba-non killed 241 American servicemen, andwas declared in a US court of law to havebeen directly conducted under the direc-tion and auspices of the Iranian Regime.

The 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towersin Saudi Arabia killed 19 US servicemenand left 372 wounded. It was con rmedby the 9/11 Commission Report aspublished in 2004 to have direct ties tothe Iranian regime. Former FBI DirectorLouis Freeh stated, My own conclusionwas that the [Khobar Towers] attack wasplanned, funded and sponsored by thesenior leadership of the Government of Iran. All the training and the funding wasdone by the IRGC [Iranian RevolutionaryGuard Corps] with support from seniorleaders of the Government of Iran. 13

Indeed, as Tajdin-Labib states, Ah-madinejad does not hate you, but hasshown his hatred toward humankindwhich far surpasses any level a saneindividual can imagine. While it is alsotrue that no man should be hated fortheir personal beliefs, the situation involv-ing Ahmadinejad is far from being thisbenign. Ahmadinejad and his cohortsbeliefs have become wedded with apolitical system that severely punishesany who wish to oppose the statusquo. While differences of opinion andopposing arguments should be encour-aged, academic institutions and theirpublications should insist that argumentsmade be presented with facts and soundanalysis. Academics should continuallyask themselves this critical question: Isthe value in offering opposing points of view simply to give the illusion of varietyand diversity without offering a soundapproach based in critical thinking? Oris it that the value lies in the content of the argument itself which should bebased on fact and educated argumentsas opposed to shallow reactionary com-ments that have no basis for argument.

The disgrace of Ahmadinejad isshown rst and foremost by his ruthlessactions, and second by his refusal toanswer truthfully as well as his constantevasion when confronted with fact; itis an example of the farce that he is.His childish trickster grin while givinginterviews are made in conjunction withhis painfully obvious efforts to distracthis people as well as the internationalcommunity from his inevitable demise.I encourage CSM students as well asthe international community to knowthat Ahmadinejad is not the voice of theIranian people. It is imperative to know

guile and deceptionwhen it is revealed be-fore the eyes as promi-nently displayed in Ah-madinejad. This endhas hijacked the streetsof Tehran, and will notcease in spreading histentacles unless con-fronted by those whoacknowledge the factsas stated above, andthen take responsibilityas active global citizens.

Ana Sami

Guest Columnist

Ahmadinejad is No Leader

Welcome my friends, fe l low Orediggers , I am theGravedigger. Let me introducemysel f in the most uncom-

monly way possible. I hail froma school where most peoplegraduated with a .0324 bloodalcohol level. I never drank, be-cause my mom told me I wouldloose my manhood, not thatthere would be much use for ithere anyway. Nevertheless, if there are some women in theaudience, let me say a little bitabout me. Who knows, maybeyou will start to fancy me. Imnot Jewish by Id want to be,Im not Christian but I ought tobe, I am Catholic but I shouldntbe (talk about a rhyme at theright time). Nevertheless, to allyou single ladies reading this, myfavorite game is hopscotch, my

favorite CD is Nighttime Oceansounds, and I like taking longpeaceful walks on my treadmill.

There is nothing like breath-ing in that sweaty gym smell,looking at a blank wall, and hav-ing the ultimate Mines phrasego through your head, Why amI not studying? Continuing mylittle bio, to achieve compan-ionship, my turn-ons include:an excruciatingly scary laugh,

(Endnotes)

1 http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=344534&rel_no=12 http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=6393 http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=87114 http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/4143/152/ 5 http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=344534&rel_no=16 http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=341661&rel_no=17 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/world/middleeast/19iran.html?_r=1&n=Top/Reference/

Times%20Topics/People/A/Ahmadinejad,%20Mahmoud&oref=slogin8 http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=341661&rel_no=19 http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=341661&rel_no=110 Ibid 11 http://news.amnesty.org.au/comments/amnesty_international_appalled_at_numbers_of_execu

tions_in_iran/ 12 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/26/AR2007062601968.html13 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1646578/posts

w e i g h t o f e x a c t l y 7 3 4 l b s . ,e a r l y f e m a l e b a l d n e s s , a n dpretty much the exact replicaof a human bowling bowl. My

turn-offs include: anything thatare not my turn-ons. Think-ing back to when my last fourhundred pound girlfriend brokeup with me, my friend told methe common saying, There aremany other fish in the sea, towhich my only response was,Yea, but how many whales??. Ifeel like my 734 pound morbidlyobese chubbiness is hard tofind in this world anymore, soIm putting my name out thereto hopefully find somebody per-fect. Somebody, where it wouldtake me a 4 month expeditionto get on her right side, or useas shelter if a nuclear bombdetonates, or, maybe even just

share a couple hundred Twinkieswi th . Am I rea l ly asking forthat much, come on! So ladiesof Mines start eating, becauseit is getting pretty ridiculousthat you dont even have tosuck in your stomachs to getthrough the cafeteria doors.

Sincerely,Gravedigger

-Jackson Robertson

Dear Editor,

I agree wholeheartedly that this school is due for a change. Itneeds to be a real noticeable change. The key to this diversity planis recruitment and retention. These are not possible in a campusthat is simply tolerant of any percent of its population. Tolerance isnot and should not be an end unto itself; it is a way station on theroad to inclusion. Tolerance has a negative connotation and doesnot encompass the goal for an institution ask ing its populations tobecome more culturally uent. Cultural uency is not tolerance;it is an acceptance and integration of cultures, ideas, and ideals.In a school that has high standards for almost all of the endeav-ors it aspires to, it seems appalling to me that this school wouldaim for the middle or average in any endeavor it undertakes. Thepresident should be aspiring to inclusion of a diverse population forthe school. I think that people need to feel safe, accepted and anintegral part of the school. I want to see a more exibl e, inclusive,accepting, and sustainable institution. This goal does not requirethe lowering of the schools high standards. To accept the diversityplan as stated right now would be compromising the excellencethat is expected from this school. I urge readers to express their

opinion to the Presidents Committee on Diversity.-Anonymous

Dear Editor,

A nation of Christians does not equal a Christian nation. Learnthe difference and quit perpetuating ignorance. The whole pointof the rst amendment was to keep politics and religion separate.

The founders realized that faith should not be a part of politics justas politics should not interfere with the church, thus freedom of religion. No the constitution does not say exactly separation of church and state but that is the whole point of the rst amend -ment in regards to religion. The same can go for science and reli-gion. They are different types of thinking and one should respectthe other and vice versa. The USA has the rst amendment andpeople need to start understanding it. Where it came from, why itcame to be, and what its rami cations are. Not just spit out soundbites of it and pretend they know what they are talking about.

The rights set forth in the rst amendment only extend as far asthey dont infringe the rights it set forth for another. There is moreto be said of this topic but I leave it at this for you all to pander.

Letters to the Editor

8/14/2019 The Oredigger Issue 06 - October 8, 2007

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8/14/2019 The Oredigger Issue 06 - October 8, 2007

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Falcons QB inTrouble...Again Atlanta Falcons Quarter-

back, Joey Harr ington, hasbeen indicted in an illegal giraffefighting ring. Charges arose onSunday after the Falcons lost20-13 to Tennessee. As wasexpected, illegal fights ensued.

D u r i n gt h e s t i n gopera t ion ,Harr ingtonsupposed-ly returnedh o m e u p -s e t a n dwas v ideo taped , th rowingdown $20,000 and $30,000bets , cla