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VOLUME 66, ISSUE 47
U N I V E R S I T Y ,
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s the semester comes to an end, so too will the controversial reign of Associated Students President Heith Rothman. Rothman, who was the first ever three-term student government president in the CSU system’s history, will quietly leave his post and AS will have it’s first new president, Christian Tesoro, in three years. Although many of the AS students,
Inaugural victory tainted by scandal It began on April 21, 1995 when the jeans and T-shirt wearing Republi-
those speed bumps ... See page 4.
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Local historian focuses on race relations in L.A. By CINDY JIMENEZ Daily Titan Staff Writer
Photo by Myles Robinson
Associated Students president, Heith Rothman will hand his position over to Christian Tesoro.
Watch out for
chronicled the history of Latinos in Southern California over the past two decades.
Story by Jason Silver
including himself, see his tenure as productive, his career as a student leader at Cal State Fullerton has definitely had it’s ups and downs, including bribery and election misconduct charges. As the Rothman presidency comes to a close, the Daily Titan recaps some of the “highlights” from the AS president’s three-year reign. While, by no means an exhaustive study, we dug up some past issues of the newspaper and started reading.
INSIDE
n AUTHOR: USC professor has
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can won the 1995 election by 66 votes with a platform that included promoting athletics on campus and lower textbook prices. His celebration was short-lived however when he was charged with election violations six months later in October 1995 by the AS Election Commissioner Bryan Davenport. Allegedly Rothman illegally posted campaign fliers of his opponent David Mendoza. The fliers violated the University Posting Policy and resulted in Mendoza’s disqualification from the race. Davenport said that Rothman had admitted that he and Mike Troncale,
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Car windows were shattered. Innocent people pulled from their cars were slashed, kicked and beaten. As the nation watched the evening news, truck driver Reginald Denny was beaten to near death in front of dozens of people at the corner of Florence and Normandie during one of the most senseless acts of violence in L.A. County history. So what significance does this tragic event on April 30, 1992 have to George Sanchez, a renowned historian of Chicano culture and expert on Latino issues. Sanchez informed the students and faculty gathered in the CSUF Titan Student Union on Tuesday that Denny was just one of two white people beaten at that history-making corner. All the other victims of violence were people of color. Many of those were Mexican American, others were Japanese Americans and Vietnamese American. Sanchez said the L.A. riots, motivated by the Rodney King incident and the later acquittal of his white police attackers, was an anti-immigrant spectacle from the very beginning. This racially-motivated incident, like many before and after, have alarmed Sanchez, who has researched and chronicled the lives of Mexicans in Southern California. The 37-year-old Sanchez, who is presently the director of the Chicano/Latino Students Program at USC, recognizes the historical plight of Latinos in this country. Over the last decade, Sanchez has chronicled the struggle of Latinos as they have migrated in and out of the United States since the beginning of the century.
American Studies students at Fullerton are familiar with Sanchez by way of his book “Becoming Mexican American, Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 19001945,” which is required reading for the 301 class. Sanchez chronicles in detail the immigration patterns, living and working conditions and racial prejudices Mexicans have faced, and still face, as they make the cultural transition from South to North America. And, according to Sanchez, it is a perpetual struggle.
JEFF CHONG/Daily Titan
USC professor George Sanchez greets Elisa Heredia after his speach. During his hour-long address to the capacity crowd of over 100, Sanchez criticized the continuing attempts by lawmakers to control legal as well as illegal immigrants in L.A. Sanchez said Proposition 187, for example, was an attempt to punish illegal immigrants by keeping them from school and health care. He said officials try to tie issues of crime and immigration into tidy packages. He said that propositions like 187 and 227, the bilingual initiative, are anti-immigrant propositions that offer non-solutions to real problems. Sanchez said he believes immigrants are punished for not adapting to American society, but
New associate dean keeps herself busy n FACULTY : In her new
position, Lori Walker-Guyer thrives on getting students involved. By MELISSA MORRIS Daily Titan Staff Writer
Lori Walker-Guyer
She managed Communications Week, ended her term as assistant dean of communications and began her new job as associate dean of students—all at the same time. Lori Walker-Guyer, the new associate dean of students, is also the chair of a professional development committee, owner and operator of a Chino Hills-based consulting firm and treasurer of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. “I literally have business meetings one after the other,” Walker-Guyer said. Walker-Guyer thrives on being busy. As a child, her mother encouraged her to try everything, and she did. She was an ice skater, a diver, a swimmer, a tennis player, even an opera singer. Now her activities focus more on getting others involved. “I have an internal connection for opening that door to people,” Walker-Guyer said. As associate dean of students, WalkerGuyer oversees New Student Programs,
Connections, Classic, Co-curricular Achievement Record and Fullerton First Year. According to those who know her, she remains optimistic, even when managing a variety of tasks. “She always has a smile on her face,” freshman Oney Legaspe said. Professor and chair of the Communications Department, Wendell Crow, said Walker-Guyer has a unique ability to work with students. “She relates well to students, which I think makes a difference,” Crow said. “I enjoy the connection with people,” Walker-Guyer said. Walker-Guyer was the first person in her family to go to college and said some part of that experience gave her a desire to work with new students. “I’m really passionate about working with students in their first year,” Walker-Guyer said. Walker-Guyer and her husband of 11 years, William, escape to Catalina Island when the pressure becomes too much. “I like to spend quiet time with my husband. It brings back memories,” she said. Looking back on her life, Walker-Guyer said she has no regrets. But there still are things she would like to do, like meet the Dalai Lama for example. “I love the culture of Tibet,” she said.
see SANCHEZ/
U.S. drafts antitrust case against Microsoft n LAWSUITS: Microsoft is
accused of violating the antitrust law regulating monopolies.
By James V. Grimaldi Knight-Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Justice Department is putting the finishing touches on a broad antitrust lawsuit, to be filed as early as next week, aimed at Microsoft’s business practices surrounding Windows 98 and its handling of a competitor’s software programming language. Prosecutors have drafted an allegation that Microsoft transformed rival Sun Microsystems’s Java software language—designed to run on
all types of computers—to create an exclusive version that works only on Microsoft Windows operating systems and not other products, according to someone familiar with a draft of the lawsuit. That allegation—bolstered by another charge—that Microsoft plans to illegally bundle its Internetbrowsing software with Windows 98 - would be used by the government to build a broad case that Microsoft is following a practice of illegally extending and protecting its monopoly in personal-computer operating systems. Prosecutors are planning to focus, among other things, on Microsoft’s deals with computer makers on
see GATES/
Forget the flowers, May brings more showers
MYLES ROBINSON/Daily Titan
The Channel 7 ABC helicopter hovers above a two-car non-injury collision on the 57 northbound at Nutwood on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. All of the rain-slicked lanes were closed until CHP officers cleared the wreck. The rain, which has dumped 1.57” on the L.A. Civic Center so far this month—1.38” more than normal— is supposed to clear up today. Copyright ©1998, Daily Titan
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A GUIDE TO WHAT’S HAPPENING
BRIEFS
Talent show
The Teaching Ombudsman Action Program will be presenting the ‘Extremely Talented Talent Show.’ The show will display cultural song and dance. Students will share dance rituals from their ethnic backgrounds. Each performance will highlight the importance of celebrating and understanding the differences we each possess. The show will be open to students, faculty and the community on Friday at noon in University Hall room 123. TOAP’s staff and students will share lunch. TOAP aids students in assimilating to the university lifestyle: studying, time-mangement, developing friendships, learning communication with professors and campus involvement.
PRSSA A chance to meet the stars at PRSSA’s “An Evening About Nothing.” The farewell extravaganza for “Seinfeld’s Last Episode” at the Palace in Hollywood on Thursday. There will be guest stars from the show and a Seinfeld memorabilia auction. Participants can enter Seinfeld look-alike contests. Volunteers are needed to help with the registration. The event is sponsored by KIIS-FM Radio and the media invited will include People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and KTLA. For more information call Sandy at (909) 394-1834.
Latin American festival The Latin American Cultural Festival 1998, presented by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and the Spanish Club, will be held in the Titan Student Union Titan The-
atre on Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. The program will display a variety of cultural performances including the play “El delantal blanco” (The White Apron). Arturo Jasso will be entertaining the audiences with a combination of song and guitar. Popular Carribean dances will shake the theater.
What fashions are popping up this spring? The sisters of Sistertalk may have the answers to the blooming colors and styles that will be splashing the spring fashion scene. “Images In Mahogany” is a fashion show with runway models at the Titan Student Union Pavilions B and C on Saturday at 6 p.m. Admission is $5 pre-sale and $7 at the door. For ticket sales contact JerMara Davis at 810-7598. Sistertalk is a club on campus recognizing the beauty of black women. The club gives black women a chance to get together to discuss issues and socialize.
All Night Study Program The Titan Student Union will be open 24 hours for students during finals week to help students prepare for upcoming spring semester finals. The program will begin May 18 and run through 11 p.m., May 29. Several lounges and study areas will be available for individuals and study groups. The Information and Service Desk, the Mainframe-computer lounge and the Games and Recreation area will also extend their hours for late-night customers. For more information contact Titan Student Union’s assistant director for operations, Kurt Borsting, at 278-7719.
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS State Senator Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), candidate for Attorney General, is speaking today at 1:30 p.m. in Titan Student Union Portola Pavilion C. Admission is free. Supersuckers will be performing today at noon in the Becker Ampitheater. The day event presented by Associated Student Productions will also make a moonbounce available from 11:30 to 2:30 p.m. Admission free. Associated Student Productions presents Tito & Tarantula Thursday at noon in
the Pub. Admission free. The CSUF Accounting Society, a 190-member student organization, will be holding its semi-annual awards banquet event on Thursday in the Fullerton Marriot Hotel Grand Ball Room. For more information contact the Department of Accounting at 278-3420. A faculty/artist recital with violinist Earnest Salem and pianist Cynthia Williams will be held on Friday at 8 p.m. in the Little Theatre. Tickets are available at the Performing Arts Center box office for $8
or $5 with Titan ID. All tickets are $8 at the door. For more information contact Elizabeth Champion, School of Arts, at 278-3371.
in Little Theatre. The concert will be conducted by Elizabeth Stoyanovich and John Alexander. Admission is $13 ($7 with advance Titan discount).
A guitar ensmble by David Grimes will be held in Little Theatre on Friday, May 22 at 8 p.m. The program includes a variety of duets, trios and quartets as well as works from the full guitar orchestra. Admission is $8 ($5 with advance Titan discount).
The Pirates of Penzance have stormed the stage of the Curtis Theatre through May 24. Evening performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Matinee performances are held on Sunday at 2 p.m. Ticket prices range from $13 to $17 for adults; $11 to $15 for seniors; and $7 to $9 for children. The Curtis Theatre is located at the Brea Civic & Cultural Center.
The Pacific Symphony Institute Orchestra will hold a concert on May 24 at 4 p.m.
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May 13, 1998
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The Daily Titan is a student publication, printed every Tuesday through Friday. Unless implied by the advertising party or otherwise stated, advertising in the Daily Titan is inserted by commercial activities or ventures identified in the advertisements themselves and not by the university. Such printing is not to be construed as written or implied sponsorship, endorsement or investigation of such commercial enterprises. The mail subscription price is $45 per semester, $65 per year, payable to the Daily Titan, Humanities 211, CSUF, Fullerton, CA 92834.
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Rothman’s campaign assistant were responsible for the posting. “I’m coming out now because it’s the honorable thing to do. What Heith did was wrong and it’s wrong to continue punishing David Mendoza,” Davenport told the Daily Titan at the time of the incident. Rothman denied the charges. “This is completely untrue. It appears I’m being set up,” Rothman said at the time. The charges were investigated throughout October and were eventually dropped in early November. Bill Reeves, the coordinator of Student discipline said the university determined there was insufficient evidence to proceed with disciplinary action against Rothman. Anti-Rothman candidates attack again Rothman was again embroiled in controversy when he was accused of election misconduct in March 1996. This time Mendoza charged him with obstruction of justice. He alleged that Rothman stood in the way of a
judicial filing procedure Mendoza was trying to carry out by refusing to give him forms for a complaint. Then in April another candidate in the election accused Rothman of bribery when he released a tape that allegedly had Rothman offering Smith an AS committee spot if he pulled out of the presedential race. Rothman claimed the tape was made illegally and may have been partially altered. Despite the controversy Rothman easily defeated the competition and was re-elected on April 18, 1996. Almost two years later, the Rothman-led AS Board quietly nixed the AS Judicial Commission. Rothman told the Daily Titan that the Commission had not acted on any serious election complaint in three years. “We’re getting rid of a committee that didn’t work,” Rothman said in Daily Titan’s Feb. 25 edition. Twice the Judicial Commission received and/or heard complaints against Rothman’s alleged campaign violations. Neither time was he found guilty of any wrongdoing. Another term in 1997 In 1997, Rothman sucsessfully ran for an unprecedented third term as
president amidst criticism that there should be term limits set on the AS presidency. “Most of us are only here for four years and I don’t think we need to have the same people running AS the whole time,” said Josh Kurpies, who ran against Rothman in that election. Even with all the controversy Rothman is perceived by members of the board as having a succesful, productive time in office. “I’ve changed my mind since I’ve had the chance to work with Heith closely. He is completely dedicated to representing students on a statewide level,” said Michael Felix, director of statewide affairs. Felix was an oppo-
nent of Rothman’s in the 1996 presidential race. His accomplishments Rothman himself sees his time in office as productive, and said his administration accomplished many of the things it set out to do. In true politician style he always refers to his administration’s accomplishments in the plural sense. “The first thing we did was get rid of the 900-number students had to use for registration,” Rothman said. Other accomplishments Rothman is proud of include creating nearly $71,000 in student scholarships,
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screen restrictions, regarding what is permitted to appear on the first screen when a computer is turned on. They also will target Microsoft’s contracts with content providers, companies that want Windows’s users to have a direct link from the first screen to their Internet sites. Short of major concessions by Microsoft, federal antitrust prosecutors are prepared to file a lawsuit under the Sherman Antitrust Act sometime next week in U.S. District Court in a case they expect to come before Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson. Justice Department spokesmen declined to comment on the points of the potential antitrust action outlined in the lawsuit draft. Attorney General Janet Reno and her antitrust chief, Joel Klein, have not yet given the final go-ahead to file a broader suit against Microsoft, but attorneys in the Justice Department’s San Francisco office have taken the lead in piecing together the final draft complaint. Reno and Klein could still make changes, but attorneys have been
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directed to focus on Microsoft’s inclusion of its Internet browser in Windows 98—its newest operating system, which is set to be released next month—and on Microsoft’s use of the rival Java software language. The Justice Department’s legal theory zeros in on Microsoft’s business strategy, laid out in internal documents, to control the Internet and outmaneuver rivals Netscape Communications and Sun Microsystems before they use their software tools to build an operating system that could compete with Windows. The Internet browser case has been a focus of an ongoing investigation by the Justice Department, but the Sun allegations have not been on the antitrust radar screen for some time. Antitrust expert Herb Hovenkamp of the University of Iowa law school said he expects several surprises if the case is filed. “I think when we see this, it is going to have many different allegations of various. . .kinds of anti-competitive behavior,” Hovenkamp said. “That’s a typical antitrust approach. It increases the chances that you will win on something.” Justice’s developing legal strategy also contains echoes of longstanding
complaints by Sun and Netscape, two of Microsoft’s fiercest competitors, potentially adding fuel to Microsoft’s argument that the Justice Department simply is fighting the battle of its unsuccessful competitors. Last fall, in a federal lawsuit filed in San Jose, Calif., Sun accused Microsoft of breaking the terms of its contract over the use of the Java programming language, which fosters the creation of programs that are easily transmitted on the Internet. Sun said Microsoft had rewritten Java so that it works only on Windows-driven computers and not on rivals’ machines. Microsoft said it simply made Java work better with Microsoft software. Netscape argued that Microsoft used its dominance in operating systems to cut deals with computer makers and Internet-service providers that have shut out Netscape’s rival products and that require the purchase of Microsoft’s browser with Windows. In the case of Windows 95, Microsoft argues that the browser is inseparable from Windows. The Justice Department went to court last October to sue Microsoft, alleging that the way it is included in the operat-
ing system unfairly hampers competitors. A similar showdown looms over Windows 98 A series of meetings between the Justice Department and Microsoft attorneys—and one face-to-face session Tuesday between Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Klein— have not yet resolved disagreements over Windows 98, an update of the operating system that Microsoft says fully integrates the World Wide Webbrowsing software. Emphasizing the stalemate between Justice prosecutors and Microsoft, attorneys for the Redmond, Wash., software company on Tuesday filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington over the issue. Microsoft asked the court to clarify a Dec. 11 district-court ruling requiring Microsoft to offer computer makers versions of Windows 95 with and without an Internet browser. Microsoft wants the appeals court to declare that the preliminary injunction does not apply to Windows 98. “We don’t believe there is any legal basis for the December preliminary injunction to apply to Windows 98 given that the court did not
consider any evidence or arguments related to Windows 98,” said Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray. “We tried to work with the Department of Justice to resolve this issue, but we were unable to reach a satisfactory mutual agreement.” Meanwhile, the Justice Department is prepared to include the issue in a broader Sherman Antitrust Act case—arguing that Microsoft’s contracts with computer makers on how they set up Internet-browsing and other software on Windows 98 also violate the terms of the 1994 consent decree. Justice officials already have concluded that the test version of Windows 98 provided to prosecutors is in violation of that consent decree because it gives preference to Microsoft’s Internet browser. The 1994 consent decree was the result of a settlement between Justice and Microsoft over business practices relating to its operating system, now used by nine of 10 personal computers in the world. Disagreements over the meaning of that decree led Justice to file a contempt motion in U.S. District Court last fall. With Windows 98 set to be shipped to computer makers on May 15, the Justice Department is
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developing a request for either a preliminary injunction or a temporary restraining order, challenging the legality of Microsoft’s licensing agreements with computer makers and asking the judge to grant computer makers more flexibility to include non-Microsoft products on their computers. These agreements have become the centerpiece of a Senate Judiciary Committee investigation led by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who this week said of the deals: “Such seemingly predatory and exclusionary practices raise concerns for even the most conservative, free-market antitrust thinkers.” While the Justice Department wraps up its work, a coalition of about a dozen state attorneys general also is leaning toward bringing a similar antitrust lawsuit when a federal case is filed. Attorneys general previously let the Justice Department know that if no federal suit was coming, they would file a suit by the end of April. With signs that the federal case was advancing, the attorneys general have agreed to give the Justice Department at least another week before they make a move.
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Miami student is a woman in the process of becoming a man n SEX CHANGE: Changing
identities has been painful for Nick Sarchet, born Kimberly Lin Smith. By LORI YEARWOOD Knight-Ridder Newspapers
MIAMI—Maybe you think Nick Sarchet is a tortured soul. Someone who deserves your pity. Or maybe, like the two men who beat him up two weeks ago, you think he’s some kind of freak. “You queers don’t deserve to live,” they hissed after they smashed his head with a rock and kicked him in the gut. “We don’t want you in our school. We don’t want you in our neighborhood.” Nick has been assaulted before. But this time, for the first time, he has decided to speak out. Without hiding anything. No matter what the repercussions. “I’m tired of other people thinking people like me don’t exist, that we’re just weird, or strange, or abnormal. Someone has to make people like me real.” The attack happened on April 7, around 11:30 at night. Nick had finished working on a paper about child development for his psychology class and driven home. He briefly wondered who was in the small dark car turning the corner behind him, onto his street. He unlocked the front door, headed straight for the living room light. He heard a noise behind him and thought it was James Dean, his cat. The two men took turns kicking Nick in the gut. Then they hurled him against the living room wall by the fireplace, calling him a “f—— — faggot.” Nick could feel the blood coursing through his head. He didn’t dare tell them what he really was.
Because Nick Sarchet, who until last month went by the name of Kimberly Lin Smith, is a woman. A woman in the process of becoming a man. It has taken years for him to get to this place, a place of relative comfort and self-acceptance. Right now, Nick is in psychological therapy, a requirement for transgender candidates who want to take the male hormone, tes-
ing biology and psychology at the University of Miami, where he has an academic scholarship. He moved to Miami-Dade’s Westchester neighborhood from Ann Arbor, Mich., in August because he thought South Florida was so diverse, he would simply melt into the crowd. Be just one more person living his life. But no. The attackers finished spewing their rage and ran out of the house. Stunned and breathless, Nick called 911. MetroDade Police Officer Janet Sosa responded. “In my opinion,” says Sosa, “it was a hate crime ... I really felt bad.” Sosa speculates that the attackers may have seen the stickers with the rainbow colors of the gay flag on the bumper of Nick’s w h i t e Dodge Shadow and fol-
tosterone. (The hormone promotes the growth of body hair, lowers voice tones and re-distributes fat). Nick plans to leave his genitals alone for now. But he hopes to have a double mastectomy, which costs at least $3,000, as soon as he can afford it. “I want what’s in my mind to be congruent with the way I look,” Nick says. He is 5 feet 7 inches, about 130 pounds. He has short red hair, thick red eyebrows and an upturned nose. His green-blue eyes change in the light. His voice is a mixture of gentle femininity and boyish gruff. He walks with grace and confidence. “On any given day,” he says, “I can walk down the street and within 10 minutes someone will see me and think I’m a straight man, someone else will see me and think I’m a gay man, and someone else will think I’m a lesbian.” Nick Sarchet is 28, a junior study-
lowed him home from school. One said “Celebrate Diversity” and the other said “Hate is NOT a family value.” A week after the attack, Nick’s face is still marred by the assault. Black and blue marks have faded to a greenish yellow. A dark red scab stretches across his left eyelid. But he feels a lot better, he says, and has healed enough physically to begin to sift through his emotions surrounding the attack. “People look at me and make judgments about who I am based on their own experience - not mine. Sometimes, though, they can’t fit me in a box and that scares them.” The only box his psychologist is willing to put him in is that of a “well-adjusted person” who “is in touch with feelings but not ruled entirely by emotions.” “I don’t see him as a tortured person,” says Kim Fuller, clinical psy-
chologist at the University of Miami Counseling Center. Still, the pressures of an often homophobic world, Fuller says, make life hard for Nick, no matter how level-headed he is. The gay community faces similar stereotypes
and the ensuing discrimination, but over the years has developed its own support network, she says. Yet, for people like Nick, who want to be a gender they were not biologically assigned, there is far less understanding, far less support.
And a lot more isolation. Nick grew up as Kimberly Lin Smith in South Lyon, Mich., then a small, middle-class town with one high school, one local newspaper and an abundance of churches and pizza
see SARCHET/
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joints. Kimberly’s father tested control panels and airbags for Chrysler. Her mother was a pharmacy assistant for a local drugstore. Both are devout Catholics and raised Kimberly and her two brothers accordingly. She always thought of herself as a boy. In junior high school, Kimberly would lie in bed at night and fantasize about it. When her friends started menstruating, they felt proud, vital. When Kimberly got her period, she hid it from her mother because she felt ashamed. She bonded with other outcasts, like the kids in the drama club who didn’t think it was strange that Kimberly’s favorite things to wear were her father’s ties and plaid sports coats. Kimberly was attracted to girls. But she had boyfriends, kissed them even. It was what she was expected to do. But while it was happening, she would imagine hiking in far-away mountains. “I only did it because everyone else was doing it. I wasn’t into it.” The feeling that she was different continued to develop. She tried to ignore it by being an overachiever. “I joined another club, did another school activity. I stayed busy so I wouldn’t have to think about what
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was going on in my head.” The older Kimberly got, the more acute the feeling became. So she did the only thing she could think to do to squelch it forever. She got married. She was 22. By 23, she had a son. “I did that because I had really low self-esteem and I thought having a kid was the answer. I thought I would have someone who would love me the way I loved them.” By 24, Kimberly was divorced. A single mom with a son—and an identity crisis. She stopped masquerading as a woman who liked men and began to call herself a lesbian. She cut her hair. Threw away her dresses and bought some jeans and striped Tshirts. She loved dressing like a man and sleeping with women. But other people didn’t like it that she felt that way. One day after a k.d. lang concert in Detroit, some men followed her into a parking garage, called her a lesbian, snatched her purse and slapped her around. Kimberly found outside support in a “really cool group of women friends who loved me for who I was.” Life was better. But it wasn’t good. Kimberly still wasn’t comfortable with being a woman. She still stared at herself in the mirror and thought, “That doesn’t feel like me”.
Last year, shortly before moving to Miami, she started binding her breasts with a lower back restraint and passing as a man. Her friends are still grappling with the change but strangers and new acquaintances consider her a man. This month, continuing her transformation, Kimberly Lin Smith filed a court order to become Nick Kim Sarchet. Nick hasn’t told his parents about becoming a man. He’s trying to break it to them slowly, maybe in a letter. His worst fear is that they will try to take his son, who is now 4 and a half and bounding across the living room in Westchester. “Mommy, Mommy, can I play on the computer?” he begs. Nick scoops him up and they play jungle gym. Nick’s the jungle gym. The child smothers his mother—his father?—with kisses. Nick asks the child how he would feel about having another father. “I don’t want you to be my daddy,” the child replies. “I want you to be my mommy.”
Nick says he knows it’s difficult for his son, and plans to put him in therapy. Already, one of the boy’s friends in preschool has been teasing him about how Nick looks more like a father than a mother. Fuller, the therapist, doesn’t foresee an easy time, either. “I’m sure it’s going to be an issue for the child,” she says. “Again, it’s similar to what gays and lesbians experience. Many are wonderful parents. But the children have to deal with a lot of outside prejudice and hostility long before they’re ready.” Laurel Sprague sits in the living room, watching parent and child play. She is having a hard time with all this. See, Laurel used to be Kimberly’s partner. “When I met her—him—he was Kim,” Laurel says. “I’m trying to listen and have faith that eventually I’ll understand. But to tell you the truth, I don’t.” Meanwhile, they’ve broken up.
Because Laurel, 27, is a lesbian. And now that her partner is becoming a man, life has become extremely complicated. “I don’t know, maybe it will all work out,” she says. “I love her—him—so much.” She stares at Nick. Tells him: “It must be so hard for the one person who is supposed to know you the best to not understand. I’m sorry.” Nick squirms a little. It would be easier, he says, if people understood. But he’s become accustomed to feeling terminally unique. The dozen or so people in his weekly support group for transsexual people are males becoming females, though he corresponds via e-mail with one man who used to be a woman. Nick is his psychologist’s first female-to-male client. “He brings me books and papers and articles from the Internet,” Fuller says. “He’s taught me a lot.” It’s almost dinner time in the Sarchet and Sprague household.
Nick’s little boy romps around with Sprague’s son. (Laurel was once married, too.) A big golden mutt stretches out on the living room carpet. The smell of dumplings and corn bread saturates the air. The phone rings. It’s a friend of Nick’s, wanting to know if Nick is going to scuba diving class. Nick says no, his face is still too swollen from the attack to wear his goggles. The caller worries about Nick. He’s fine, Nick reassures. Just needs a little more time to heal. Nick hangs up the phone - and turns his mind away from the inherent stress of his life. Luckily, he is not without a sense of humor. “I have nothing to hide,” Nick says, “except my breasts.”
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largely in the form of the Titan Book scholarship. Rothman’s office also passed the Children’s Center referendum during the Spring 1996 vote, which will create a new center through a student fee increase of $10 per semester. “Soon we will have a state-of-the art Children’s Center that’s nearly twice as big as the one we have now,” Rothman said. He also touts increasing student safety and lighting as a major accomplishment of his presidency “We’re extremely proud of what we were able to do. We did a survey and found 80 lights burned out. We not only fixed all the lights, we also replaced all the lights that were at wrong levels,” Rothman said. Rothman said that his administration was effective because he concentrated on a few pratical problems to solve. “We were able to do that because we focused on a few issues. We promised something and delivered it,” he said. Rothman’s main dissapointment in his terms was that he was unable to
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eliminate the 1/3 financial aid policy that makes one third of student fees be applied to financial aid. This year Rothman, who according to a April 1995 Daily Titan report, decided to attend CSUF because he could not afford UC Berkeley or UCLA, promoted the ambitious Fitness Center referendum that would have raised student fees by $300 a year. The referendum failed a student vote by a 74 percent margin. After he vacates his office, Rothman’s plans to serve as the commis-
sioner on the California Student Aid Commission—a post to which he was appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson. Rothman said he will also continue to take classes here until he receives his master’s degree. Rothman said he is unsure if he will go into politics in the future. “The first step I will take is to finish school with my master’s degree. I will probably get a job in the private sector and see how it goes from there,” Rothman said.
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they are finding ways to fight back. “There is a new-found Latino political clout” in L.A., Sanchez said. Until recently, Mexicans have not participated in the political process and elections, Sanchez said. Latinos are becoming more involved by voting as they try to make the areas where they live more accommodating to their children, Sanchez said. American Studies student Aleida Rodriguez said what Sanchez said
during his lecture was very true for her, coming from a Mexican background. “The issue of bilingual education is very important. I have many cousins who don’t speak English that well,” she said. “That will affect my family.” “I think he is brilliant,” advertising major Sara Katan said. “He pays attention to things that are overlooked, like racial tension.” Elisa Heredia, who is originally from Michoacan, Mexico, and is working toward her master’s degree in TESOL (teaching English as a second language), understands the
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courage people from Mexico have as they try to acculturate into American society. She had to do it herself. “I think he (Sanchez) is well acknowledged in the problems of Mexican immigrants,” Heredia said. “He knows about all kinds of problems that people have when they come to the United States, as they try to adopt. They don’t come to steal, they come to work.”
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WEDNESDAY
‘Seinfeld’s’ long goodbye is so, well, unlike ‘Seinfeld’
By Karen Heller
Knight-Ridder Newspapers Of course, “Seinfeld” was never about nothing. “The Love Boat” is about nothing. “Suddenly Susan” is about nothing. Everything on Fox is about nothing. And if you’re desperate for nothing, there is always the 11 o’clock news. But “Seinfeld” was never about nothing. The show, as you may have heard, has its finale this Thursday. “Seinfeld” was the id unleashed on 21.6 million American households. It was neurotic to the core, uncanny at social observation, and expert at magnifying the small things that annoy some people—close talking, manfurs, double dipping and every other bizarre eating habit—and making them hysterical. “We didn’t change the culture,” Jerry Seinfeld said recently. “We just reflected it a little more intimately.” The show was about food, strange clothes, New York, the absurdity of life, working and, even more so, working hard at not working. “Seinfeld” was about parking and driving and greed and intense queasiness about little people—not Kramer’s friend Mickey the dwarf, but about all children. And it was always about consummate self-centeredness, very bad male-female relationships and very, very, very bad parent-adult child relationships. And viewers still cared. This five-hanky goodbye for
Thursday’s finale, dragging out longer than Kenneth Starr’s investigation is completely out of character for such a quick-witted, cold-hearted show. This long goodbye is absurd. Then again, absurdity was the only thing “Seinfeld” did embrace. So, in a “Seinfeldian” way, the emotional farewell IS in character. “Seinfeld” was not one of television’s ground breakers— like “All in the Family” or “The Simpsons”—but it was scrupulously well-written. Writing for television is generally dismissed yet rarely done well. Being funny is hard. Being consistently funny for 22 minutes is very hard. “Seinfeld” was built for speed; a dozen scenes per episode compared to most shows’ six to eight. Leave the room and you missed the boat. It meant everything that the lines were performed by Seinfeld with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards. But without great scripts, and a strong production and directing team to ensure their safe delivery to the tube, you would have ... almost everything else on the air. George: “I don’t want hope. Hope is killing me. My dream is to become hopeless.” Jerry: “So hopelessness is the key.” George: “It’s my only hope.”
The show was intensely verbal in a medium that increasingly relies on visual pyrotechnics, offering love of wordplay, rhythm and repetition. While consistently current with pop-
ular culture, it favored old-fashioned, vaudevillian forms of humor. Jerry and George are two Jewish old men. “It may be the quintessential American sitcom of all time. It has the longest list of memorable characters and episode plots of any comedy I can think of on television. ‘Seinfeld’ is part of the lexicon of how we explain American life,” says Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Center for the Study of Popular Television. “Americans were watching Thursday night for how they could explain their life on Friday morning.” All these qualities make the show extremely rerun-wor-
thy. The show was predictable in its circular, three- and four-story plot line that came together like a shaggydog story in the final moments—and yet it was, in its made-for-television way, as strange, brutal and unpredictable as anything David Lynch delivered. Kramer exploded into Jerry’s living room, just “this side” of being fit for civilian life. Newman was sweaty, angry and seemingly within seconds of grabbing an AK-47 and taking out the town. Uncle Leo, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Peterman and George were way out there, all in need of psychotropic medication. Television is the great flattener. Over time, it will make characters nice and sane, inject them with treacle and render them duller than toast. On “Seinfeld,” no one grew up, no one got better, and Elaine—just like child actors and most dairy products—actually got worse, stealing,
hating her co-workers, and contemplating murder. “The characters are very spiteful,” Gelbart says. The humor is what redeemed them. “There’s nothing really likable about them except that they remind you of yourself,” Seinfeld said of his characters. Seinfeld and his co-creator, Larry David, were smart to surround the star with superb actors who possess such sensational timing. “Stand-up comics are lox’s. They’re not used to moving. They stand,” says writer Dava Savel, who won an Emmy for “Ellen’s” coming-out episode. “Like Roseanne, it was a great thing that Seinfeld was surrounded by such good, solid actors.” Some critics decried the show’s lack of moral compass. Current events, save for popular culture, were almost never addressed. Homelessness was mocked. The envelopelicking death of George’s fiancee, caused by his parsimony, became not only comic fodder but cause for
celebration. Death was constantly viewed as a bonanza. Selfishness was elevated to an art form. “It took all that Nineties irony, its apolitical stance with a dash of the whole slacker culture and domesticated it into this basic American idiom,” Thompson argues, a tone first established by David Letterman and Spy magazine. “Which is what TV is best at doing, not being on the avant garde but the derriere garde. It’s here. It’s already happened.” “The greatest thing I think ‘Seinfeld’ had, other than being a terrifically written show, was Seinfeld and David had total artistic freedom, and they really got that early in the game,” says Savel. Seinfeld was never willing to compromise, he has said repeatedly, and always capable of walking away if his vision was compromised. Now, at the end of nine sterling seasons, he’s walking away, leaving—as everyone would like to—at the top of his craft and popularity.
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February 10, 1998
Perspectives
Let’s RACE
CARS ARE GETTING LOUDER, LOWER AND FASTER as road warriors keep trying to outdo each other.
• STORY BY ANNETTE WELLS • PHOTOS BY MYLES ROBINSON •
A Situation
Two girls at Cal State Fullerton were on route to their classes. They both parked their cars in lot E. As they proceeded to walk onto campus, both had to cross the little street between the parking lot and campus. Upon approaching it, two lowered cars, a red Acura Integra and a black Honda civic were gearing up at the signal just a few feet away from the two girls. As the two accompanying drivers pressed their gas pedals, loud sounds propelled from their exteriors, indicating a race in the making. As the two cars’ revved up for take-off, the first girl continued her route to campus while the second girl stood behind eyeing the two cars. Just as she stopped to look, another loud roar, exceeding the other noises, came clear into the sky like thunder, as the two cars sped off leaving only black rubber, smeared behind. By now, the first girl had made her way onto the street as the second girl stood and watched in horror. The two cars roared forward like two jets in route for air attack. The first girl stopped in her tracks only to find herself the center of attention. She was their checkered flag as they paraded on to an invisible finish line.
The Complaints
Does driving behind a car that is weaving from left to right, trying to avoid or drive slower over a speed bump because it is less than three inches from the ground, annoy the hell out of you? Does waiting behind a car that is less than three inches from the ground with an extremely large exhaust pipe, making a loud thunderous sound, tick you off? And does the idea of crossing the street where two drivers driving lowered cars with spoilers and body kits, revving their engines, and to whom appear to about to do battle in a drag race, send chills up your spine? Well if you answered yes to any of the above questions about lowered cars, you’re certainly not alone.
Past Vs Present
Wednesday, May 13, 1998
This, however isn’t the first time lowered cars has been around. In the late 1940’s, early 50’s, during The Rebel without
A Cause age, had cars such as Hot Rod’s, Chevy’s and the Ford Mustang around to keep young men busy. These cars, while seemingly different from today’s models, were mainly considered lookers, and gave status to many. For those with the fastest were surely looked upon as the stud. They (cars), if not raced, were worshiped by their owners as priceless heirlooms, while the others were raced illegally at nights, starting the so-cal However the guys and gals of today, while still impressed with speed, aren’t as impressed with the gaudy muscle cars of yesteryear. Instead they are combining their artistic abilities with the tattooing of companies names to the sides of their cars. Companies such as: Neuspeed, DC-Sports, and HKS make performance parts for the four banger, Japanese imports, which are fueling drivers interests today. These companies sell their parts to those who drive cars such as the Honda Civics and Acura Integras in order to make them faster while at the same time sponsoring those who have won the ultimate race. Those who have actually made their car into the 710hp racing machine. However, the cars of the past were lowered specifically for display and hardly ever were used other than racing, some feel the lowered cars of today are merely symbols of ones ego. “They want the lowest car thinking they can go the fastest and then when their car is matched up against another lowered car, the ego thickens and they’re off to the races,” Cindy Arelona, drama and communications major said. “I don’t mind seeing guys or girls driving these lowered cars, but when they try to show off with them, by driving real slow down a street with the radio turned up, drive across speed bumps really slow and press the gas pedal, making the loud exhaust sound, then I think it’s stupid.” Tua Nguyen, owner of a lowered Honda Civic, didn’t agree. Nguyen said he didn’t lower his car to show off or to drive fast, he did it because he felt it made his car perform better. “I wanted my car to drive smooth like other cars and the only way to do that is to lower it,” Nguyen said. This, Nguyen said is the main reason most guys or girls lower
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their cars. They don’t want faster cars, just cars that look and feel fast.
Dangers?
While most drivers and fans deny any danger related to lowered or racing cars some are still skeptical. “I don’t know, it just seems like these cars are gang related,” Michelle Rino, a junior said, “I guess I’ve watched too many movies because in all the bad movies lowered cars, especially with hydraulics, seem to be related to gangs.” Rino went on to say that while some cars seem dangerous in their appearances, some look good, along with the guys that drive them. “I like to see the Mitsubishi Eclipses lowered with nice looking rims,” Rino said, “and the guys that drive them are hot.” Nguyen, however said that the gang related cars, if at all they are gang related, in Orange County, will probably be found in cities such as Garden Grove and Westminster because these are areas where the many teen-agers with lowered cars hang out. He also said that most of the illegal drag racing that is associated with these cars, can be witnessed in cities such as Long Beach
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and in the City of Industry. Legally though, many drivers can race their cars at the Pomona race way in Pomona. “In Westminster and Garden Grove, I’ve found while passing through with my friends to be unfriendly territory,” Nguyen said. “That territory has a lot of lowered cars.” Nguyen went on to say that usually “they” (those he assumes to be in gang) don’t bother drivers who don’t have their radio loud or appear to be “madd-dogging” them and that people shouldn’t be afraid. “If a guy in one lowered car looks down on another guy in a lowered car, then the guy is madd-dogging him,” Nguyen said. “This could mean only one of two things, they will either race to see who is the best man or they will fight (physically).”
End Result
There is no end. Until this fad, if at all it is a fad, goes away, those waiting in the parking lots must continue to grit their teeth as they wait patiently for these cars to slowly drive over the bumps. Of course, as long as cars like the Porsche, Acura NSX, and Dodge Viper are continuously being manufactured, consumers with cheaper wallets will continue to try and duplicate these cars. Just so their cars can look, feel and drive like a million dollars.
Pricey high performance products (clockwise from above): A chrome rim with ultra low profile tire, used to help corner better. A tachometer measuring engine speed, and shift indicator with memory button. Purple mini fog lights for those who need to see those speed bumbs and potholes that may ruin body.
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