Opinion
Sports
Softball sweeps Pacific to inch closer to an NCAA Tournament bid 8
Mindless TV hits new low with runaway bride coverage; UN reform 6
C a l i f o r n i a S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y, F u l l e r t o n
M o n d a y, M a y 9 , 2 0 0 5
CSUF hosts special athletes
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Groups urge community, cooperation
Anger management
Town hall meeting looks at issues facing African-Americans
5,000 participants fill up sports field near Titan Gymnasium
By DIANICA ABBOT For the Daily Titan
By CHISATO KANEGAE For the Daily Titan
The rain stayed away from the festivities at Fridayʼs Special Games, allowing the participants in this unconventional sporting event to fully enjoy this yearʼs games – which mark the 20th anniversary of the event – at Cal State Fullerton. This time around, the event drew the largest number of participants ever. Approximately 3,000 special athletes, along with over 2,000 volunteers, gathered at the sports field north of the Titan Gymnasium. The volunteers present during the athletesʼ arrival formed a human wall, stretching from one end of the field to the other. Most volunteers were representatives from elementary, junior high and high schools, coming from Orange and Los Angeles Counties. Some schools had mandatory participation for their students, while others volunteered to come and spend a day with the special athletes. Marlene Hernandez, a junior at Fullerton High School, expressed her reasons for volunteering. “[Itʼs] life changing to help out,” she said. “[We can] realize what we take for granted.” Hernandez decided to help when the school made an announcement about the event. She said she would “love to come again” for next yearʼs games. Two football players from Anaheimʼs Savanna High School escorted Fernando Alcala, of Tustin High School, during the games. Habacuc Jara and Francisco Saucedo, both juniors, volunteered for the event along with other members of the Savanna football team. “We just like helping the special kids,” Jara said. “As a football team, [we felt it was] good for the community,” Saucedo added. Jara and Saucedo heard announcements at their school about the event and wanted to volunteer again next year. The games were all about volunteers getting to know the special athletes and spending the day doing activities set up for the athGAMES 5
ERIC TOM/Daily Titan
Frank Zaccaro argues loudly with sophomore music major Andre Kelly in the Quad Wednesday afternoon. Zaccaro and his partner Jeremiah Baldwin travel from place to place with their signs as “believer[s] in Jesus Christ” Zaccaro said.
Convenience, cost are main causes for ‘fast-food frenzy’ Americans considered obese or overweight balloons to 60 percent By JENNY LOR For the Daily Titan
Fast, easy and cheap. Thatʼs the way people seem to eat nowadays. With the option to choose a healthy lifestyle, many Americans seem to forgo healthy eating and instead choose instant gratification through fast food. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 60 percent of Americans are either obese or overweight. Out of this percentage, an estimated 16 percent of children and adolescents ages 6 to 19 are overweight. “So much of America is beautiful,” said Ada Schulz, a nutritionist at Cal State Fullerton. “But not our eating habits.” With the abundance of fast food chains, it seems as if people canʼt walk down the street without passing a McDonaldʼs or Burger King. In California alone, there are 1,297 operating McDonaldʼs, according to their Web site. Outside of California, the company has sold billions of burgers worldwide. Many believe that fast food contributes to the obesity of millions. The blockbuster hit, “Super Size Me,” is a prime example of one per-
sonʼs opinion that America is eating itself to death. Director, producer and guinea pig of the experiment, Morgan Spurlock, goes on a monthlong road trip to interview experts in 20 U.S. cities and eats nothing but McDonaldʼs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. By the end of the study, Spurlock gained a substantial amount of weight, developed heart problems and depression associated with his
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So much of America is beautiful. But not our eating habits. Ada Schulz CSUF Nutritionist
” fast food eating habits. Although the film might be interpreted as an exaggeration of a fastfood frenzy, it is plausible that fastfood companies try to accommodate their customers to the best of their ability as a way of making “heavy users” out of them. Spurlock used his film as an example of how Americans overlook health concerns when it comes to eating out. Sharing Spurlockʼs view, Schulz compared the human body to a vehicle. “People would not compromise with the fuel for our vehicles,” she
said. “No matter how much the price of gas.” She said the same should apply to eating habits. “What goes into your body becomes your fuel.” Understanding the consequences that come with eating fast food, no matter how fast, easy and cheap it may be is important for students to consider. “I know itʼs [bad] for me,” said Christina Kim, a junior human services major. “But itʼs so convenient, somewhat cheap and easily accessible. And Iʼm happy with it.” Nancy Tao, a junior child development major, sides with Kim. “I think [fast food] is good, convenient and efficient,” she said. “Because there are so many – and they have drive-thruʼs.” For others, fast food is only a means to silence the rumbling in their stomachs – not the main source of a good meal. “Fast food is only good on the go,” said Duong Le, a business major. “But if I had a choice of eating home-cooked meals or at a restaurant, then I wouldnʼt eat fast food.” The Department of Health and Human Services suggests that people aim for a healthy weight by being active and eating well. On campus, Schultz can discuss eating habits with students and help set them on a path to proper nutrition based on discussion about exercise and eating properly.
Traveling comic gallery trucks into Art Center Exhibit on mission to prove that popular art appeals to adults too By JASON KEHLER Daily Titan Staff
On itʼs fifth stop, the travelling gallery “Raw Boiled and Cooked: Comics on the Verge” is being displayed at the Cal State Fullerton Grand Central Art Center in the Artistʼs Village in Santa Ana. The gallery, which focuses on North American comic artists, originated in San Francisco at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. While stopping at other art galleries across the nation, Paul Candler, the curator of the show from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, sees the display as unique because
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JASON KEHLER/Daily Titan
A game board based on a homeless person is one of the many pieces on display at the Grand Central Art Center in the Artist’s Village in Santa Ana. comics arenʼt normally displayed in art centers.
“This isnʼt a normal venue that you would see comics in,” Candler
said. “Theyʼre normally in your magazines and comic format, and theyʼre not usually hung on walls. I think comics belong on walls just like anything else, itʼs art to me.” Candler said the gallery was designed to show people a different side of comic book art. “I just wanted to show people that there are so many great comics out there that adults can pay attention to,” he said. The art displayed in the gallery had a mature theme that included pieces based on rape, the peddling of Western ideals across the world and an oversized board game based on the life of a homeless person. There was also a piece based on the seven deadly sins, which were displayed as shot glasses and included an illustration of the shot COMICS 3
It is time to wake up and find solutions to the problems that plague African-American communities, said more than 40 members of various African-American clubs and organizations Thursday evening at the Alumni House. The Waking Up Dialogue, sponsored by the Alliance for the Preservation of African Consciousness, was a town hall meeting held to inform the Cal State Fullerton community of the issues that stand in the way of AfricanAmerican progression. “This is what APAC stands for. Itʼs time for us to raise awareness so that all the groups on campus can join together in order to help better our communities,” said Warner Brown, president of APAC. One by one, students in the audience pointed out reasons why African-Americans are apathetic to the problems facing their communities. One passionate student asserted that the biggest problem with the African-American community is that there is no sense of community. “We are all about ourselves, and until we can learn to work not only with ourselves, but with other people, we will not progress,” said Victoria
Eley, an afro-ethnic studies major. Christopher Walton, a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, said he believes another problem is that African-Americans are not aware of their roots. “This is a major problem because we allow outside influences like television and other media outlets tell us who we are,” he said. Franklin Vinson, a facilitator of the dialogue and member of APAC, said one of the major problems is that African-Americans do not teach their children to put education first. “We push black children to be more athletic,” Vinson said. “Instead of putting athletics first, we need to put education first. We get so caught up in showing support at athletic games that we fail to support our children academically. What we need to do is support them by taking them to the library and putting a book in their hands.” After two hours of addressing the problems, Brown proposed that students come up with solutions. “We are not too young to start change. The students at the Woolworth lunch counters were our age when they started. It time to stop talking about the problems and come up with solutions that will help our communities,” Brown said. Students proposed that various organizations set up a shadow day program that would allow high school students from urban neighborhoods to come to campus and spend the day with student leaders. WAKE UP 3
X-rated film shows students the reality of Asian sexuality Darrel Hamamotoʼs porn flick gives Titans ʻcultural educationʼ By JULIE KIM Daily Titan Staff
An Asian-American couple was shown having sex on the big screen of the Mackey Auditorium in the Ruby Gerontology Center on Thursday. The X-rated video, entitled “Yellocaust: A Patriot Act,” marked the conclusion of Cal State Fullertonʼs celebration of Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month. “We wanted to present something that needed to be exposed,” said Asian-American studies professor Susan Shoho, who helped organize the event. “But itʼs not about showing a skin flick; itʼs about cultural education.” UC Davis Asian-American studies professor Darrell Y. Hamamoto, who directed the six-minute politicized pornography, said he created “Yellocaust” for several reasons. One reason is that the Asian community was going through systemic genocide by the United States military. To underscore that impression, Hamamoto edited into “Yellocaust” sounds of people wailing and a scrolling text outlining historical information. For example, according to the video, 200,000 Filipinos died in the hands of American soldiers. The movie also addressed a proposal to sterilize Asian-Americans and claimed some Chinese men have
KATHERINE BARKLEY/For the Daily Titan
Dr. Darrell Hamamoto, a UC AsianAmerican studies professor, spoke on Asian-American sexuality and racism as perceived in American media on campus on Thursday. been unable to procreate with their wives because of a United States ban on Chinese women entering into the United States. In order to survive this “slowmotion Holocaust,” Asians must have sexual vitality, Hamamoto said. But the problem is that the whitedominated media has portrayed Asian men as emasculated, Hamamoto added. Asian-American studies senior Chaz Curry agreed. “His attempt to justify the AsianAmerican male stereotype by making an adult film with the sole purpose of casting an Asian-American male is very radical, but at the same time YELLOCAUST 5