| Summary: | 8 nConcordian theconcordian.org • March 8, 2013 OPINION Sermons in stones An open letter to allies A message from President Craft CONCORDIA COLLEGE PRESIDENT Cowboy, outfielder, ar-chitect, trumpet player, lawyer, teacher and writ-er— these, more or less in order, were my notions of what I would do for my life's work, at least through the age of 40. My "influenc-es," as pop musicians say, were many: TV shows like "My Friend Flicka" (a boy and his horse); my base-ball card collection in the days of Mays, Mantle and Clemente; and the fetching daughter of a local archi-tect known to my contrac-tor father. The trumpet era lasted longer and led to a life-long joy in music, despite the braces that wrecked my embouchure and made me to realize that the Chi-cago Symphony was not my destiny. I still wonder about the lawyer business from time to time, especial-ly when I re-read Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mocking-bird" or Michael Malone's "Time's Witness," but I made the mistake in col-lege of attending a hearing about a guy who wanted more for his abandoned ELEGANT THOUGHTS 'WITH KATE! ,YN HENAGIN KATELYN HENAGIN My spring-fresh Cob-bers, how I have missed you! Welcome back from break! And for those of you here the whole time. Why didn't you visit me? To be honest you would have had to actually sched-ule something because all I did was work or sleep. In case you were wondering, I work at the Courtyard by Marriott, over by Qdoba and Starbucks. I work the front desk, so I am the first person you see when you check in, and usually the person you converse with the most. I absolutely love my job because I learn about people in all walks of life. I also learned that we here in Fargo-Moorhead have a lot of business peo-ple. Though some of the things I have learned really apply to life. For example, the num-ber one thing I have learned at work is that it IS the small things in life. The fact that I can give someone the right directions some-where, where to go to eat dinner, how to act like you belong and some small facts about this tundra we call home. I have guests come back from dinner raving about how JL Beers feels like a hometown dig. I have guests coming to Concor-dia for interviews and ask me where to go and how my life is at school. Having a real conversation is a small thing that can make a huge impact for a guest staying here on a hospital visit, for a woman visiting her kids, for people who fly all week only to be somewhere for a few days and for people from out of the country who just want someone to speak really BAD French with them. While being kind and having a light conversation with some-one seems small, I know it has impacted quite a few guests. Another big thing I have learned at work is no matter how small some-thing is, be accountable for it. I have messed up big time, and I have done some great things. I was held ac-countable for it all. I have learned about the fact that I really need to focus more on details, but I need to keep up the work I do in getting to know people. If you know me, you know I pride myself on knowing everyone, which applies to work at the ho-tel as well. I have lived had to narrow my choic-es— lawyer? college profes-sor?— in order to succeed at any one of them. So I did and earned a doctorate in English. But to my surprise, my life opened up again. Don't mistake me. I loved, and I still love, being a college professor: no work can be better. But other paths ap-peared and led me here. What I want you to know is that all that "other stuff"— my childhood among build-ers, my orchard labors, my family's stories—has as much or more to do with a life now wed to this college as does my formal training. So when you graduate, go do something good— good for yourself, good for the world. Pick one thing or another. Chances are very high that it won't be your only gig. And try to remem-ber the good news that you don't know how your life will unfold—or what seeds scattered across the rocky and fertile ground of your childhood will grow. Your life will open up, again and again. You don't know. Thank God. in 20 different houses all over this great state, which means I can iden-tify names and cities that guests know. I can sit and talk all day with guests about how awesome their tiny hometown of 50 is because I have genuinely been there. Being curious can get you miles with a person too. When I have guests who do interesting work I am genuinely intent upon learning what they do. This has led to people showing me cool medical devices, telling me cool personal safety tips and many business cards have been thrown on my desk. I have even learned self-defense moves from a man who came up here to guest teach at an Mixed Martial Arts club up here. These things, that I thought I already did well, have definitely improved because I can see immedi-ate results. I think that as a 20—year—old I need to apply these things more in my daily life. Paying attention to detail, being accountable and being cu-rious are three things that will help you land jobs, make friends and . help you see where you need to work in your life. Have a great rest of the week, and if you want, tell me some things you have learned in your jobs that have helped you live better. NICOLE WAGNER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Look, I appreciate the fact that there are so many people allied to the LG-BTQ community here on campus. I appreciate the fact that usually I feel safe being a member of that community here, and that the "Vote No" campaign was successful amidst the support that was shown on campus. What I do not appre-ciate is people claiming they support the LGBTQ community when they only truly support the "L" and the "G." Sometimes the "B" is in there too, though not very often. I do not appreciate fair-weather support. I do not appreciate how many peo-ple stand up to purchase the "Love is Love" shirts from the Straight and Gay Alliance, but so many of those same people turn a blind eye to the members of the LGBTQ community who are harassed, bullied and killed every day. I appreciate each and every person who I can refer to as an ally. I do not appreciate those allies who believe they deserve a gold star. Being an ally does not make you spe-cial. It does not make you a voice for the LGBTQ community. It does not, in and of itself, make you a good person. Being an ally to the community makes you a decent human be-ing. If you are the type of ally who seriously thinks you deserve recognition simply for being an ally, you are wrong. If you are an ally who occasionally talks over a member of the LGBTQ community be-cause you have something important to say about an LGBTQ issue, you need to VICTORIA RICHMOND CONCORDIA JUNIOR Spotted: outraged and embarrassed Cobbers on Twitter. A Twitter ac-count called "Gossip Girl Conco" has been the talk of many students on cam-pus, and rarely does it inspire positive thoughts. This account has the main goal of spreading rumors and causing scandal—ex-posing infidelity, sexual promiscuity and embar-rassing moments. This anonymous account even has the audacity to name people in her tweets. (I say "her" because the ac-count identifies itself as female, but it could be anyone). This account is a copycat of the popular TV series "Gossip Girl", but unlike on TV the re-sults of this account are harmful to the lives of its victims. And instead of being entertaining to mil-lions, it only entertains one. Many people, including myself, are outraged that this kind of immature and disrespectful Twitter account associates itself with our campus. Con-cordia is known for its in-credible sense of commu-nity and its willingness to welcome all walks of life within that community. This reputation is some-thing I personally love about Concordia, and it was definitely a reason why I chose to come to this college. This silly little "gossip girl" goes against everything that learn to be a better ally. I feel that is something many people should learn in all branches of social justice: how to be a better ally. This is something I struggled with myself and is one of the largest prob-lems in the social justice movement today. Step one: when a mem-ber of an oppressed group is speaking up about their oppression, you shut up and listen. Do not try to input your story about how a friend of yours was being oppressed, and you stepped up to help. Do not input your opinion about the oppression. Do not input a way in which you are oppressed. Not only is this rude, but it is tak-ing the voice away from a member of a community under oppression and is indeed a form of oppres-sion. If a person you know is a member of an oppressed community that does not have a single set of defin-ing characteristics (such as the LGBTQ commu-nity) do not, under any circumstances, out them. For those of you who may not know, outing someone is the act of telling a third party details about their sexuality, gender identity or even lifestyles. To out someone as part of an op-pressed group they are not easily associated with can be extremely detri-mental to a person. By outing a friend, you could be risking their personal relationships, their men-tal health and even their physical safety. Step Two: educate yourself. Never rely on a member of an oppressed community to teach you about their oppression. It is not their job or duty, Concordia stands for— the things that make most of us proud to be called a "Cobber." I don't need to explain why hiding behind ano-nymity and shaming oth-ers is saddening: most of us learned that in elemen-tary school. However, this person is not only spread-ing rumors about our fel-low students, but does so with a picture of our Con-cordia "C," and identifies the college being from Moorhead, Minn. It is bad enough to write slander about our classmates, but to do so hidden under the name of our institution is down right wrong. We have been en-grained with the concept of "BREW" since the first day of orientation fresh-man year and have been told to implement this motto into everything we do as students and be-yond (sorry to mention BREW, as we often roll our eyes when we hear it). Obviously, this account does not exemplify these ideals in any way, and therefore it is inappropri-ate to have it associated with Concordia at all. (It would, however, be ap-propriate if our student motto were "ALAIMS" or "Act Like An Immature Middle Schooler.") I won't waste my time trying to convince this person to delete their ac-count— a person of such emotional immaturity probably doesn't pick up a newspaper often, nor and it is certainly not al-ways an enjoyable under-taking. In fact, as an ally, it is your role to learn as much as you can about the oppression being suf-fered by the groups you support and finding ways to overturn this oppres-sion. Just remember: never make your voice heard over the voices of the oppressed. Step three: vocalize. Did a student in your class just make fun of a Trans individual? Did that TV show you en-joy so much just make a racist or sexist joke? Speak up. This is your chance to put what you have been learning to the test. As an ally, you can help the community by not letting these hap-penings go unnoticed. By keeping silent you let people know such joking and hate-speech is ac-ceptable around you. The most difficult moment in this step is the mo-ment when you will have to call out one of your friends. At times like these, think about those who cannot safely speak for themselves. Even if your friend gets a bit upset with you, knowing you did the right thing will make you feel bet-ter about the situation, I promise. There are many more steps out there, but this is a good start. I chal-lenge every member of our campus community to take their stance as an ally one step further. I challenge you all to see allied status not as a spe-cial tag to add on to your name but as a weight to carry with you. An ally is only as good as their ac-tions. do they listen to reason. I will say this—clearly this person uses the account because she loves to see the reactions it can cause in people. I urge every-one to ignore all attempts from this person to elic-it a reaction from you. Whether you unfollow or block, don't give them the satisfaction of knowing they got under your skin. It's the same advice your mom gave you for the bul-lies on the playground, and your mom was right. It's really the only way we are going to be able to stop these embarrassing activities from continu-ing. Hopefully this Twitter account is only a tempo-rary embarrassment on our campus, but if this "gossip girl" has her way, she is here to stay, tweet-ing last week, "I will bury all who oppose me." The only thing that gives me comfort in this situa-tion is the overwhelming amount of opposition I have seen toward this ac-count from the student body. Many people have come forward to show their disgust and embar-rassment towards these events, and while this only seems to amuse the "gossip girl" herself, I am proud of how our students refuse to toler-ate this kind of ridicu-lous behavior. Continue to stand above, this non-sense, and show our com-munity what a real Cob-ber looks like. DR. WILLIAM CRAFT building than the city was willing to pay—even the at-torneys were bored. All along, other stuff happened, stuff I never as-sociated with "my work": my dad hauled me around to building sites, blue-prints rolled and tossed in the back of the Plymouth Belvedere, my grandpar-ents put me to work in their orchard and every-body told me stories. I lived in a mythology of carpen-ters, apple trees and the stream of family stories that rolled over me without ceasing. Why write this for our student newspaper? It's March, and spring break has ended. Some of you are finalizing post-graduation plans; some of you are, well, starting to think about them. Some of you, I'd bet, worry about them. So let me offer some good news—you don't know what will happen. You don't know. Doesn't sound like good news? I remember still the feeling that I had to do something in order to jus-tify my education—my life. I remember feeling that I Working girl Have any opinions of your own? Contact The Concordian! Visit us online at theconcordian.org or follow us on Twitter: @ConcordianPaper or our opinions account @CCLendMeYourEar. You can also submit opinions online or at concord@cord.edu or to FPO 214. All letters MUST bear writer's name, year in school, telephone number, major/minor and title (if applicable). Conco gossip A Cobber embarrassment
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