College Happenings

It was an absolutely beautiful day today! The sun is shining bright, the sky is clear and there were a million people on campus today. Everyone was out in the oval playing frisbee, reading or just soaking up the sun.

As I was walking I heard a girl say “I love how the nice weather brings out all the hippies.”

I looked around expecting to see some people playing hackie sack or passing a J around. No, none of that. I did see a group of long-hair granola looking people, but that was it.

It made me think, since when does long hair equal hippy. My man used to have long hair and people would call him hippy. He is in no way hippy. He is what I would classify as a greaser. He just happened to like long hair and he also said it kept the ladies away. And he thinks that he is so good-looking that he needed a lady deterrent. (he is very good-looking, but please)

I looked up the word hippy.

Wikipedia says this

Hippie (often spelled hippy, especially outside the United States) is a term originally used to describe some of the rebellious youth of the 1960s and 1970s, although there is currently a neo-hippie movement (these neo-hippies hold the same beliefs and values as the hippies of the 1960s and 1970s). The word hippie was popularized by the late San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen

I personally think of hippies as lovers of life. There are two guys on the amazing race that everyone calls hippies, and they are…to me. They are fun loving and kind, and seem to be about peace.

What do you think? Does a long hair equal a hippy or is a hippy a state of mind and a way of living?

Happy 4/20 everyone.

Today my friend Ashley and I went to see the Debutante Ball at the University of Montana. The play was written by Beth Henley. The play is set in Hattiesburg, Miss., at the Turner family’s mansion.

When we first meet Mrs. Turner, the mother, played by Robin Lindsey Rose, she is conducting a walk-through with her youngest daughter, Teddy, on how to enter her debutante ball. This part is sure to get a laugh from the audience as they watch Teddy, played by Nora Munde Gustuson, struggle to walk elegantly down stairs while stretching her neck out and holding her chin up.
I did not expect this play to be so good or to keep me so interested.

I was pleasantly surprised. The plot had a nice twist, it was funny and dramatic. I was impressed by all the actors.

I assumed by the title that the play would be about, well, a debutante ball, full of snotty southern bells. It was about a family and their struggle to overcome the past. They hope that the ball will be a new start for them and elevate them in the eyes of society. Unfortunately their past sticks with them.

It was nice to go see a play I actually enjoyed. When I went to Sheridan College I took a required theatre/drama class and we had to go see a lot of plays. I usually found my self fidgeting in my seat and checking my watch every five minutes.

Today, when the intermission came I looked at my watch and saw that an hour had already passed. I was so intrigued by the play that I hadn’t checked the time once.

If the Debutante Ball comes to your town, you should check it out. It is worth the time and the ticket price ($12).

This is from the Missoulian

A sea of homemade signs bobbed above the throng of anti-war protesters at the University of Montana on Monday, airing what appeared to be the majority opinion of 300-some students, professors, campus staff and community residents who participated in the noon-hour event on the Oval.

Among the hastily-scrawled, hand-held message boards and one artfully painted banner were these sentiments: “Bring our troops home,� “No more war,� “Peace, back by popular demand,� “Fund education not war,� and “Your country is calling George, time to come home.�

A trio of women calling themselves the “Radical Cheerleaders for Peace� warmed up the crowd and got the rally started by uniting the hundreds of voices in a “No war, Go Peace� chant.

As the sound system got wired up to dance-party music provided by an on-site DJ, an event organizer took in the scene and the ever-growing number of people who gathered together.

Ross Miranti smiled quietly, and said he wasn’t surprised by the robust turnout.

“About three weeks ago, me and my friends realized nothing was going on at the University of Montana to protest the third anniversary of the war in Iraq,� he said. “I knew that there was a lot of people here who have feelings against the war, and we felt that we had to somehow facilitate a platform for people to channel their feelings. This is exactly what we thought would happen.�

A few individual protesters arrived with drums, pounding out a background rhythm while others handed out Xeroxed copies of apocalyptic drawings.

Seeds of Peace, an Idaho-based group that supports social and environmental justice events, arrived with a food cart, providing protesters with free helpings of steamed rice and cooked vegetables.

“Food represents community, and helps people be out here when it’s cold,â€? Emily Rose explained as she helped dish up the meals. “It helps make sure people hang around and support this kind of event.â€?

Some students, like Becky Vandercar, skipped class to attend the protest. Others, like Ken King, attended the event for an English 101 class assignment, and a small minority, like Will Selph, came to counter-protest.

Aligning himself with a small pack of students who carried College Republicans Support Our Troops banners and “We Support Our Troops and the War� signs, Selph said it was important for a different perspective to be represented.

“It’s important to show and send the message that there are conservative voices on this campus and that we don’t want to be left out of this circle,â€? he said.

While few like-minded brethren showed up to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Selph and his handful of friends, others did share their beliefs in a more anonymous fashion.

Messages written in blue chalk on the Oval sidewalk and other campus walkways read: “Soldiers give you the right to protest,� “Thank Soldiers 4 Peace,� and other similar statements.

Phil Reed, a UM student and Army veteran, took his turn at the microphone to share with the crowd his revelation: There are other options for solving world challenges than through violence.

Borrowing themes from conservative Republicans, UM professor Phil Fandozzi called for the conservation of the U.S. Constitution, the preservation of America’s moral traditions, the protection of privacy from intrusions by “Big Brother Bush and his ‘dis-patriot act,’ and the preservation of America’s tradition of academic and scientific freedom from political manipulation and religious fundamentalism.â€?

“Terrorism wins when fear replaces vigilance,â€? Fandozzi said. “Worry not to ‘cut and run’ from Iraq; but to ‘cut and run’ from the values and traditions that make this country great.â€?

Katie Kane, an English professor, used her invitation to speak to invoke the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. and his speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.�

Her impassioned delivery received an equally impassioned response from the audience.

“The war in Iraq is wrong, it betrays the promise of America when it tortures innocent and guilty alike, when it turns our citizen-soldiers into torturers,� Kane said. “The war in Iraq is wrong, it betrays the notion of America when it means that there is no money or will to help the homeless people of New Orleans, Louisiana and Mississippi.

“The war in Iraq is wrong, it overturns the promise of America when it wiretaps Americans and plays fast and loose with our civil rights.�

It is wrong, she said, when “it pollutes and corrupts the dream of America, when it kills some 37,000 Iraqi citizens, when it burns and breaks and wounds the bodies of children, when it takes the lives of over 2,400 American women and men, and wounds and maims thousands more.�

Event organizer Reed Perry wrapped up the event with a moment of silence followed by a loudly amplified recording of the song “Why Can’t We Be Friendsâ€? by the 1970s band War.

“Thanks for doing the right thing and showing up,� he said.

There’s more protesting to come, he said, every day this week at noon on the Oval.