Hate/Love

There are some hippies driving a hippie bus down 13th all morning "blasting" a very tinny version of "Louie Louie." I suppose I am being "freaked out." I know am being annoyed.

Campus

Too bad there are no bike lanes on campus forcing you to ride your bike on the sidewalk, because the sidewalk is really pretty crowded.

There is a guy wearing a viking helmet (metal, not plastic) sitting outside of the campus head shop offering to read your palm (or whatever) for free, for $5.

Street Faire is going on, so that means people are standing in a 20 minute line to spend $8 for (small) plate of noodles. Pretty plain noodles.

I cannot freakin' understand it.

Is It Just Me?

Or is sweaty nut-sack guy's heart just not in it since the students left?

Summer Solstice

I marked the solstice with my good friend Chris Goff and about twenty other science and history geeks this afternoon. What did you do?

Setting a Low Threshold

Overheard outside the bookstore...

"...oh, no, I mean there's diversity here, but not where I live, out in Santa Clara."

Yes, But Who Weeps for the American Landmass?

WALK IN MY SHOES

All my life I've had to bite my tongue when Oct. 12 came around because of the romantic delusions that a certain cross-section of the population has with Christopher Columbus. But the last few years have been very traumatic for me. Between 2002 and 2004 Lewis and Clark was the focus of celebration, despite the fact that event led to the mass murder of native people as well as environmental devastation. This year in Virginia marked the 400 years of the colonization of the Southern territories, so the first reaction by the arrogant descendants of those invaders is to once again "celebrate," despite the fact of the legacy of slavery and mass murder that followed. I have decided to celebrate an event that is very humiliating to the Caucasian population.

Sept. 11 will be my holiday, for I have the right to admire "questionable figures and events" as well. Osama bin Laden in reality is a valiant revolutionary who has the courage to stand up to an overwhelmingly violent and ambitious force whose only goal is to seize control of all indigenous recourses. Mr. bin Laden is the George Washington, Geronimo and Sitting Bull of the 21st century. He did not start this war; that dubious honor goes to the U.S. This so called terrorist, as he is so commonly referred to by the Western world, has the courage to stand up to this "white entity" with conviction. The 19 brave fighters, like the colonial militia or the many other colorful heroes of Americas past, laid down their lives to strike a punishing blow to the very symbol of American imperialism.

I also must not forget to give a salute to the brave Iraqi resistance who are fighting a life and death struggle against the modern day conquistadors who are trying to plunder their country of its natural resources. All in order to feed the gluttonous appetite of a "mega-consumer society" and force them to assimilate into a foreign system of ideology. Someone who has limited arms and has to resort to using his body as a bomb is a coward to the West, but dropping a bomb from three miles in the sky or firing a cruise missile from a thousand miles out in the ocean is a heroic act. How arrogant this culture is.

Now I'm sure I have infuriated most of the reading audience. Congratulations! You have walked in my shoes.

Wyona Wolf, Cottage Grove

March Madness Post 12

How not gangster is Eugene, OR? I submit the following for evaluative purposes:

From the Register Guard:

Nick Norton-Guerra and Danny Steele (right) paint over graffiti at Flicks & Pics in Eugene as part of GRiT, a team of youths who remove and cover up graffiti. GRiT is operated by the Lane County Department of Youth Services and is funded by a grant from Oregon Youth Authority Gang Intervention Services. Community members interested in using the service to clean up graffiti in their neighborhood can call 682-7905, but appointments should be made soon because funding for the program expires in June.

We are so not gangster that Opie Taylor is hardcore here.