DAILY LOBO new mexico
November 1, 2010
Breast incident exposes Frontier
Holy holidays see page 14
monday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
DRUM MAJOR MARIO
by Chelsea Erven cerven@unm.edu
New Mexico law protects women’s rights to breast-feed in public, but a UNM student and mother said a security guard and employees at the Frontier Restaurant violated that statute. Student Micayla Duran and her partner Parker Jennings were waiting for dinner at the restaurant while Duran breast-fed her 5-month-old son Oct. 23. A security guard approached the couple and asked Duran to cover herself, but Duran refused. The guard returned with two Frontier employees who said other Frontier patrons complained. “By now people were staring, and we felt so insulted that we decided to get our money back and leave,” Jennings said. Frontier management declined to comment, but issued a statement to the Albuquerque Journal that ran on Thursday. “We want to apologize to Ms. Duran for asking her to cover herself,” the statement said. “The security guard and our employees were in error.” As the couple left, the security guard told the couple it was indecent exposure, and he could have called the police, Duran said. Gilbert Herrera, vice president of United Security, which employs the security guard, said he was aware of the incident. “Neither me nor my employee is going to have any comment,” he said. Jennings and Duran consulted a lawyer and learned that it was well within Duran’s rights to breast-feed in public, Duran said. In fact, according to the New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Force, a state law passed in 1999 allows mothers to breast-feed their children in any location, public or private. The task force works toward “increasing the frequency and duration of breastfeeding in the state,” according to its website. UNM physician Emilie Sebesta said she was outraged when she heard about the incident. Sebesta, the pediatric director of the newborn nursery, said she still breast-feeds her youngest child. “It’s just sad,” she said. “Breastfeeding is the most normal thing in the world, and there is nothing indecent about it.” Sebesta, a member of the task force, said the organization works to create laws and gather data regarding breast-feeding benefits in an effort to educate the public. She also said she tries to educate mothers about the law and their rights. “I think there are a lot of myths and misconceptions regarding breastfeeding, and there are a lot of things we’re battling regarding educating
see Exposure page 5
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 115
issue 49
Junfu Han / Daily Lobo Daniel Sault from Sandia High School leads the marching band during the ZIA Marching Band Fiesta at University Stadium on Saturday. Around 30 high school bands from around the Southwest gathered to show off their skills. See photo essay page 2.
Come talk social change with TED by Eva Dameron
eva.incognito@gmail.com Today will manifest a field of ideas across UNM. Today is for the future. Today marks the campus’ first TEDx event from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. in SUB Ballroom C. TEDx, representing technology, entertainment, design and “x” for the unknown, is an international initiative, and the University’s version will offer eight hours packed with talks about issues of social change, said organizer and graduate student Mark Worthy. All speakers are affiliated with UNM. “It’s important, especially at an academic institution of higher learning, for opportunities to exist so people can engage in the
assimilation of information,” he said. Worthy, who is studying organizational learning and instructional technology, coordinated the event to seat 100 people. He said he first learned about TEDx lectures when he got an e-mail while living in the Netherlands. “I began to read it, and I viewed some TED talks,” he said. “I was really inspired by the concept of the spreading of ideas — very simple, uncomplicated.” There was a 400-person waiting list, but he said he somehow got a ticket for one of the 400 seats available for a TEDx talk in the Netherlands. “It’s passion,” Worthy said. “It’s an understanding of engaging people and promoting discussion and hopefully some action.”
Performance poet Hakim Bellamy will talk about activism in art at 2 p.m. He also coordinates community outreach for the State Office of African American Affairs. He helped organize Sept. 18th‘s TEDx city-wide event. “I have 12 to 18 minutes to talk about how I do what I do: the world of creating meaningful change, the politics of poetry, if you want to call it that,” Bellamy said. “Not just poetry but the politics of music, of visual art, of cinematography.” He said some people try to separate themselves from politics by doing safe, inoffensive work like designing Hallmark cards and claiming to not be political. He said absolving oneself from political responsibility still has an effect on political outcomes because the person turns their power over to other people.
“Even saying ‘I’m not into politics’ is a political statement,” Bellamy said. “But I’m mainly going to talk about what I do as an organizer and how that eventually snowballs. Once people who do have an agenda feel you have a platform, they’re always figuring out how to use your platform. People running for office saying, ‘Hey, we see you can gather an audience and we’d like to use you for your audience.’ It depends on what you’re selling.” He said the idea is to replace dependence on Wikipedia with real, engaging wspeakers and dialogue. “If we use that network, all of us are better informed, but they do it on a way-big scale,” he said. “The regular TEDx is a big deal. You get invited to it ... if you’re Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Then they have smaller local circles.”
GO Bonds Go! Make sure to read the entire election ballot on Tuesday, since two General Obligation bond measures that affect UNM appear at the very bottom. Here they are: Bond D will give $5 million to construction projects in chemistry, biology, College of Education, Health Education
Protests for protests See page 6
Last hope squandered? See page 11
and Carrie Tingley Children’s Hospital. Bond B will give about $600,000 to expand the collections at University libraries. *According to University spokeswoman Susan McKinsey
TODAY
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