The Looking Glass | Fall 2014

Volume 11, Issue 1

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LOOKING GLASS

An Academic and Creative Publication of the University of Idaho Honors Program

a note from the editor

Honors students are talented across all disciplines, in many fun and surprising ways. The University of Idaho Honors Program publishes The Looking Glass every year as a chance to showcase some of that creative and academic talent.

I would like to extend a personal thank you to all those who submitted work this year. It wouldn’t be possible without you.

We are so excited to pulish such amazing work!

I would also like to thank our amazing team of editors who donated their time and talents into making this publication what it is today, the University Honors Program and the Honors Leadership Council for supporting us along the way.

I hope you enjoy reading this issue of The Looking Glass as much as we enjoyed creating it. —Krista Stanley

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LOOKING GLASS

Volume 11, Issue 1 The Looking Glass is a literary publication of the University of Idaho Honors Program, featuring creative and academic works submitted by students. A digital copy of the publication can be found at: http://issuu.com/honors_lookingglass

The works published have been reviewed by the Looking Glass editorial staff and printed primarily in their original, unedited form.

The viewpoints expressed are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of The Looking Glass, its editors or the University of Idaho Honors Program Every effort has been to reduce errors in this publication. The Looking Glass will not be held responsible for any errors that do exist, from human negligence or otherwise.

Any questions or concerns should be directed to the University of Idaho Honors Leadership Council.

CONTACT US:

University of Idaho Honors Leadership Council The Looking Glass P.O. Box 442533 Moscow, ID 83844-2533 uhp-hlc@uidaho.edu

An Academic and Creative Publication of the University of Idaho Honors Program

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LOOKING GLASS

Editor-in-Chief: Krista Stanley Content Editors: Alyssa Baugh, Taylor Kowalski, Elizabeth Miller, Amanda Vu, Linnea Worley Design Editor: Krista Stanley Cover Art: Ian Engerbretson Dropping Off a Cliff at Schweitzer by Cy Whitling

table of contents

26 by Elizabeth Miller ......................................................................................... 03 McClure by Molly Pittman ................................................................................. 03 Fly by Zachary Lien ............................................................................................ 04 Improving Internet Safety Education through Enhanced and Integrated Curriculum in Primary and Secondary Schools by Christopher Goes ............ 05 Goats on Top of Scotchman’s Peak overlooking Lake Pend Oriel by Cy Whitling ................................................................................................................ 06 Four Berries on a Winter Afternoon by Jennifer Hunt .................................. 08 Untitled by Kirsten Dolph ................................................................................. 09 Complacency by Cy Whitling .......................................................................... 10 The Bielski Brothers: Defying the Nazis by Anonymous .............................. 11 Untitled by Katie Anderson ............................................................................. 12 Untitled by Kirsten Dolph ............................................................................... 14 Chasing the Milky Way by Cooper Atkinson ................................................ 15 Graveyard Shift by Alan Hendricks ................................................................ 16 Untitled by Kirsten Dolph ................................................................................ 19 I Want to Write a Poem by Alex Lycan ........................................................... 21 Morrill Hall by Molly Pittman .......................................................................... 22 Riddles by Autumn Pratt .................................................................................. 23 James Engerbretson on Gaper Day at Schweitzer by Cy Whitling ............. 24 National Cancer Act of 1937: Cancer Research Funding by Antonia Exline 25 Our Worlds Collide by Jordan Brady ............................................................... 26 Black Knight by Jordan Brady ......................................................................... 28 About the Honors Program ................................................................................. 28

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26

Elizabeth Miller freedom is twenty six marks in the sand. it is sand the wind carries far from the sea, throwing it against houses built from pine cut at the spot where the river bends. those twenty six marks blend together in ways maybe gods of old could count, one blend for the taste of each emotion and another for the shadow of every star. these marks will work their way down, festering, burrowing, sowing, and feeding your mind. then the day comes when you get out of bed at two in the morning to find the right way to break the twenty six apart only to put them back together. freedom is the map the twenty six give you when you are introduced, the one that tells you where only half the waterfalls and chasms lie in wait. they do not give you a hatchet, they do not give you bread, they do not give you water. they throw you into the wilderness, beside the river as it throws itself in vain siege against the submerged rocks, leave you when the wolves raise their voices in song. if you are patient and if you follow them, they will part the water and let you cross, show you how to answer the song and unmake the danger by giving it names. they will paint the sky with ten thousand possibilities. I was ten when I was dropped here. there were days when I wished for a true map to lead me out but now I stay, making my home beside the river swirling water into worlds of my own making

mcclure Molly Pittman

FLY

Zachary Lien The daylight dwindled, old and slow; The sun set in the west.

I watched it as it came in again, And stepped out of the nest.

The others too were waking now; I saw them rise, like me.

Another day of toiling through, Our ancient home, the Tree.

But as I stepped out on the branch, I looked across, offhand; It seemed as though a thousand dreams, Had spilled out on the land.

And still, I turned away from them; I breathed in deep and knew, Nothing wrong could come of this; I leapt the branch, and flew.

A golden light had swept the hills, Below a naked sky; With all the love and hope of life, Reflecting in my eye.

And how I soared! I felt the warmth, Of sunlight on my face; A hundred hopes and dreams and loves, Emerged from empty space.

And though, at first, it frightened me, (I barely dared to blink), I walked up to the very edge, And stood upon the brink.

To think that all the beauty here, Surrounded our small world; I couldn’t wait to tell the rest, To see their wings unfurled.

But then- a noise behind me; The others gathered there.

In silence, they each stood and watched, I turned to meet their stare.

But as I came back to the Tree, I saw their looks of shame; A hundred muted stares of hate, Of pity, and of pain.

Their words all across the ages, All echoed in my ears; They spoke as they had always done, As though from distant years.

I tried to tell them what I’d seen, And what I’d felt and knew; But they each turned their eyes away, And so, alone, I flew.

You must not leave; you must not learn; You know you must not fly.

There is nothing good beyond the Tree…

Unless you hope to die.

I rode upon a lonely wind, Until I saw, with shock, A million freely sailing birds; I flew to join their flock.

I know it’s hard to leave the nest; To find yourself and try; But if you never spread your wings, You’ll never learn to fly.

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IMPROVING INTERNET SAFETY EDUCATION

through enhanced and integrated curriculum in primary and secondary schools Christopher Goes

failed, I can state that personal data breach statistics continue to rise, primarily due to

To be effective long-term, Internet a lack of user knowledge.1While current safety education needs to prepare people for the education programs are not unsuccessful4, they ever-changing nature of future Internet threats. are nowhere as prevalent nor effective as they The concepts that are critical for people to learn should be, and the path to solving this issue are the ideas of personal and public informa- lies with improving the way Internet safety tion, encryption, authentication, anonymity, education is taught around the world. The legality, malware, tracking, and the permanence solution I propose is two-fold: improve what is of data. The method of teaching these, and oth- being taught, so to prepare students for a new er, subjects related to Internet safety also needs and ever-changing landscape, and improve to be integrated fully into school curricula to how Internet safety is being taught, both enhance retention, as well as be introduced organizationally and in the classroom. at an earlier age. An existing or new Internet safety-related organization could spearhead the Approach development of a master repository of Internet safety resources, as well as the development of Current Weaknesses a framework for curriculum development that could set the standard for all schools to imple- Many current Internet safety classes, ment world-wide. like the popular i-SAFE program, teach specific methods to stay safe online and specific threats Introduction to avoid, such as common attack vectors like malware-laden e-mails, or false ads on auction

Every second, 18 adults report being websites.5 These programs do not generally victims of cybercrime globally, one and a half teach abstract concepts, which are key to million victims every day, and that number handling new threats, or threats a student has continues to grow each year.1 Currently, there not had exposure to. If emails are taught to be is a distinct lack of knowledge on Internet safe- avoided due to malware, how can a student ty, and consequently, a large number of people know that a file transfer over an Instant report being victims of cybercrime each year. Messaging (IM) service could be This is a definite problem, one that the informa- malicious, if they had no idea that tion security world is trying to tackle in many malware is just an executed ways. One of the methods of going about this is file? It is not practical, nor through secondary and primary Internet safety even feasible, to teach every education, which is, in part, also responsible for possible attack vector. this problem growing so large and out of con- The resources required trol. There is unsatisfactory data regarding the to update such a system effectiveness of Internet safety youth education of education when a new programs, and there are calls for improvements vector appears in the wild to the existing Internet safety programs. When would be ridiculous at best, these calls come from security researchers and and place an unreasonable respected organizations like RSA, there is a burden on already overloaded definite need for improvement somewhere.3, 2 students and teachers.6

Therefore, while I cannot claim that That is why this solution is tarthe current approaches are failing, or Abstract

geted at teaching fundamental online security concepts and ideas to students at a young age.

If students attain a basic grasp of computer and Internet safety fundamentals, they can not only more fully comprehend the specific protection measures they are being taught, but also learn new measures easier, and recognize new methods of attack as they emerge. The concepts that are critical for students to learn are the ideas of personal and public information, encryption, authentication, anonymity, legality, malware, tracking, and the permanence of data. I will touch on each of these, and why each is critical to the education of the future and for equipping the upcoming generations to deal with a very dynamic landscape of security.

Understanding Data

The difference between Personal and Public data is a key concept to understand in the case of Internet safety. A common example of this is a name, an address, or a phone number, which are public, and a birth date, Social Security number, or how much money a person has, which are generally private. When dealing with the Internet, however, these concepts change. Personal becomes what is stored locally, and Public is what has been transmitted over the Internet.

Data on the Internet is far more permanent than the average person is led to think, and teaching this to students is critical if they are to protect themselves online.

With the rise of social networks, cloud storage, online backup, and other such repositories of information, understanding the concepts of public and private data is central to understanding how public or private a particular set of data is.

“every second, 18 adults report being victims of cybercrime globaly�

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The Looking Glass

GOATS ON TOP OF SCOTCHMAN’S PEAK overlooking lake pend oriel Cy Whitling

Security Technologies

Encryption is crucial to many modern security technologies, from secure banking to Virtual Private Networks (VPN), and is one of the most important aspects of security today. It is also as complex as it is important, and teaching encryption in any depth to young students would be beyond the level of most schools. However, teaching a basic understanding of it is very important to equipping students to use it effectively in their daily lives. Students need to know how to protect their data both locally and in-stream, and knowing the basics of how that done is needed to use tools such as file encryption or VPNs. Identity and Anonymity

Proof of identity is commonplace around the world, in forms such as ID cards, birth certificates, and fingerprints. While it is generally hard to fake an ID card or birth certificate in most developed countries, online it is trivial to fake an identity.7 This not only makes teaching authentication basics more difficult, but far more critical to staying safe online. Students must understand that methods of identity online differ from the real world, and be taught

how to properly implement those methods.

Anonymity is a concept that is, in its own way, truly unique to the Internet. While attaining true anonymity is nearly impossible, having some semblance of it is fairly trivial with little work involved.8 There is a common belief, however, that this anonymity exists by default, a dangerous view. This is not the case, with tracking cookies, usage logging, and other such methods now very commonplace. Personal information, such as political views, medical issues, and religious beliefs, can easily be released into the public sphere without knowledge of how to stay anonymous. Therefore, teaching the basics of anonymity on the Internet and methods used to track information is critical to preventing such information leaks and protecting the security and privacy of people.

Malware

Malware is very well known throughout the world. Thus, in implementing any Internet safety solution, it should be a high priority, and some teaching of specific attack methods should occur. Educating simply about specific types of malware or common attack vectors, however, is not enough. In order to properly protect themselves, students should have a basic

understanding of how malware works, how it spreads, and what it’s after. This would allow students to basically do the same as heuristic features in commercial anti-virus products-guard against zero-day threats, and reduce the impact of any new attack vector significantly.

Legal Issues

The teaching of legal issues is very tricky, convoluted, and neigh on impossible to implement by any international organization that span national borders. Students should know the laws of their own land before being fully exposed to the Internet to prevent the breaking of laws without even knowing they broke them. This can happen in the case of illegal downloading of copyrighted content, distribution of illegal content without their knowledge through peer-to-peer file sharing services9, and a host of other ways. Finally, knowing the local law is critical to keeping students safe from accidental persecution for offenses they did not intend or wish to commit.

Teaching

Teaching these concepts, though, is as much a part of the solution as the concepts and protection measures themselves.

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Creating a separate class just for the teaching of Internet safety, while a good idea, is not the only approach that should be taken, nor is it the best. Integration into every classroom, in every subject, at every level, will be far more effective for one simple reason--retention. The more students are exposed to a subject, and the more varied the environment, the better they retain the knowledge, as well as their ability to develop new ideas off of those concepts.

Varying the conditions under which learning takes place makes learning harder for learners but results in better learning. Like practice at retrieval, varied learning conditions pay high dividends for the effort exerted.

In the jargon of cognitive psychology, when learning occurs under varied conditions, key ideas have “multiple retrieval cues” and thus are more “available” in memory. For example, educational research suggests that significant learning gains can occur when different types of problems and solutions are mixed in the same lesson, even though the initial learning can take significantly longer.10

This is very important in the case of Internet safety, since the threat is ever present, and rapidly changing. It is something that must be internalized by students if any improvement in student safety is to be achieved, and teaching it constantly at every opportune moment is the best way to go about that. A 2006 graduate study by S. Jaimee Tsim, San Jose State University, entitled “Internet Safety Education: Information Retention Among Middle School Aged Children,” concluded that “student education must continue as a yearly event so that each age group receives exposure and reminders of Internet safety tips.”11 Global Framework Having a sole organization spearhead the development of Internet safety curriculum, as well as the teaching of it, is a massive undertaking, and ultimately unfeasible, even with government support. That is why there needs to be a split between those who develop and those who teach, to allow for specialization and efficiency. Collaboration between these two sides is very necessary, however, and is a critical component to this solution. The idea is for a computer security-grounded organization to develop the curriculum framework, training programs, and fundamentally, what needs to be taught. Then, they collaborate with the teachers to equip them with the tools to effectively teach students in classrooms throughout the world.

The simplicity of this approach will allow it to be applied by global computer security organizations to local government education institutions internationally.

Method

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This solution isn’t reinventing the

The Looking Glass

wheel, and nor should the method of implementing it. There are many international and national organizations that are working toward the same goal: improving Internet safety education. These include, among others, ITU’s International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT)12 and (ISC)2’s Foundation’s Safe and Secure Online program13.

Therefore, my proposed method is to follow in the footsteps of these organizations, and establish or revise an existing organization dedicated to: 1. The development of an enhanced curriculum framework to ensure fundamental security concepts are taught from the earliest ages/grade levels possible.

2. Establishing a world-wide master repository of existing learning resources (websites, commercial and government Internet safety training programs, existing curriculum, and international programs) for teaching Internet safety.

There are many skilled teachers around the world, and it would be a waste not to use the existing infrastructure to help solve this issue. That is why developing and disseminating a master repository of current and relevant education resources, as well as a open non-partisan framework for curriculum development, would be the primary goal of this hypothetical organization.

Example

A great example of the curriculum integration needed in action is the State of Virginia’s Internet Safety program.14 It has documents distributed to teachers detailing how to integrate the teaching of Internet safety at all levels, from elementary school to high school, and across a wide variety of subjects, including English, history/social science, science, and math. Additionally, the State of Virginia provides resources for teachers to learn these concepts, so they can effectively teach them to their students.

This is a perfect example of a “varied learning condition approach” which will help improve long-term retention of the subject matter. This is how I would suggest that schools world-wide should implement the proposed approach, and one that is worthy of modeling.

Conclusion

Solving the problem of Internet safety education won’t happen overnight. It is a long, difficult, process, one that will take the collaboration of two major fields of academia.

Combining the expertise of both information security experts as well as teachers will not be easy to do, but the payoff of doing it could be enormous both for the present state of security, and the future of the next generation.

References 1. 2012 Symantec Norton Cybercrime Report. Web. http://www.slideshare.net/marianmerritt/2012-norton-cybercrime-re-

port-14175700 2. Ellyne Phneah. “Cybersecurity Education Should Start Early” ZDnet.

19 June 2013 3. Aloul, Fadi. “The Need for Effective Information Security Awareness.”

JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. 3.3 (2012): 176-183. Web. http://www.aloul.net/Papers/faloul_jait12.pdf.

4. Intel Case Study, Mobile Technology Education, e-Learning. “Mobilizing for Student-Directed Learning: Pervasive technology redefines education as Crescent Girls’ School enjoys past success and eyes m-Learning 2.0.” 2012. Intel Corporation. Web. http://www.samsung. com/my/business-images/resource/case-study/2013/04/ITS _1208_Notebook_CrescentGirlsSchool_CS-0-1.pdf 5. i-SAFE. ESafety Education Solutions. Web. http://isafe.org/wp/ 6. Miller, Lauren. “High School Homework: Are American Students Overworked?.” Huffington Post 02 11 2011, n. pag. Web. http:// www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/high-school-homework-are_n_1071973.html.

7. How to Fake Your Identity Online. Web. http://www.wikihow.com/ Fake-Your-Identity-Online.

8. Drew Prindle. “How to Stay Anonymous Online.” May, 2013. Web. http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-be-anonymousonline/

9. “Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and Copyright Law.” Dartmouth Copyright Policy & Guidelines.

Trustees of Dartmouth College. 2013. Web. http://www.dartmouth.edu/copyright/peer2peer/#P2P. 10. Diane F. Halpern, Milton D. Hakel. “Applying the Science of Learning to the University and Beyond—Teaching for Long-Term Retention and Transfer.” Change. July/August 2003. Web. http://www.csub.edu/tlc/ options/resources/handouts/scholarship_teaching/HalpernHakel. pdf 11. S. Jaimee Tsim. “Internet Safety Education: Information Retention Among Middle School Aged Children.” 2006. Master’s Theses and Graduate Research. San Jose State University. Web. http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4031&context=etd_theses.

12. International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT). Web. http://www.impact-alliance.org/home/index.html.

13. (ISC)2 Safe and Secure Online Program. Web. https://www.isc2cares.org/Default.aspx.

14. Virginia State Board of Education. Ideas for Integrating Internet Safety into the Classroom. Division of Technology & Human Resources, Office of Educational Technology. June 2007. Web. http://www.doe.virginia.gov/support/safety_crisis_management/internet_safety/index.sht

FOUR BERRIES on a winter afternoon Jennifer Hunt

untitled Kirsten Dolph

COMPLACENCY

Cy Whitling

As children we didn’t know what complacency was and we very rarely succumbed to it. We lived life and tried to roast the perfect marshmallow and loved it all. We never settled, we fought boredom instead of embracing it. We lived our happy little lives unencumbered with the dreary, inevitable despair that is that word.

Complacency is not failure. Complacency is the inability to learn from that failure. Complacency is the absence of reaction, engagement, movement and contribution. Complacency is not contentment. It is the ultimate anti-contentment, the biggest obstacle to true contentment. To be content we must at some level fail, accept that failure, learn from it and succeed. To be complacent all we need to do is fail and then avoid any situation that could potentially lead to further failure.

Complacency hinders the cycle of failure that leads to success. Complacency addresses failure by accepting it. This sentiment is the enemy of growth, knowledge and success. Robert F. Kennedy said, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” Winston Churchill agrees, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Complacency is eating marshmallows without roasting them because fires are hot and too hard to make.

So what stands between us and the motivational posters? Why do we so often settle for failure and stop growing? It’s part of man’s imperfect nature that we take the path of least resistance.

Complacency with failure is that path.

Complacency is the path most traveled. Complacency is the belief that we can succeed, that we can be happy, without failing. Complacency is the easy way out, the natural choice, the obvious decision.

So how do we fight that? How do we avoid the unavoidable? We can’t simply combat complacency by being successful or working hard or making a lot of money. Instead, the only real way to fight complacency is to strive for true contentment, the kind of contentment that comes with confidence, the kind of contentment that comes from failure.

Only by failing over and over and over again can we succeed. Only by learning from our failures and taking our motivation from them can we be content. Contentment doesn’t mean you have won or that you are successful or that you have the “right” job or that you make enough money.

Contentment means that you love life, that you love your neighbors and that you are always pushing, working, running, always moving “Further up and Further in.”

Complacency is sitting at home, complaining about the long drive, the painful hike, the cold tent and the high sugar content of S’mores. Contentment is glad to be sitting at the campfire, it is not afraid of adversity or failure and it would not trade its place for anything. Contentment is cooking the perfect marshmallow and isn’t going to settle with a burnt one.

Cook the perfect marshmallow.

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THE BIELSKI BROTHERS defying the nazis Anonymous

The Holocaust – the brutal, systematic annihilation of more than six million Jews – can hardly be described by mere words on paper. The word itself, though, has assumed a meaning of its own, indefinable and indescribable by all other words, to signify the horror and suffering of one of the greatest atrocities of mankind. Nevertheless where words fail, we have seen for ourselves the aftermath of the brutal Nazi regime. We have seen, in old black-and-white video footage, the mass graves and the gruesome piles of corpses. We have seen, in dim, tattered photographs the emaciated, withered, and gaunt survivors liberated

by Allied soldiers from the death camps. We have seen so much that we even ask ourselves, decades later, how could this have happened?

Who could have done this? But few of us have so much as heard the untold tale of human triumph, of the Jews who overcame the Nazi regime by fleeing to the forests. They were those who took their lives into their own hands, those who did more than merely endure, those who fought back: the Bielski brothers. Tuvia, Asael, and Zus Bielski, three men who remain largely unknown to the world over half a century after the war, are forgotten heroes of their time, three men who saved over a thousand Jews from Nazi persecution at the height of World War II.

These extraordinary men had humble beginnings; their early life largely revolved around the running of their family’s mill in Stankevich, Belorussia (Duffy 1). As the only Jewish family in the village, they were subject to constant anti-Semitic treatment by the villagers while under the oppressive rule of tsarist Russia (Duffy 5; Reiniger 1). Tuvia, the second eldest of David and Beyle Bielski’s ten children, was born in 1906 and was the first brother to fight back with his fists against anti-Semite slurs and crimes against his family (“Bielski Partisans” 1; Duffy 2). As his younger brother Zus later recalled of his childhood, “If somebody attacks you, you hit back” (qtd. in Duffy 20).

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The Looking Glass

It was not long before the brothers banded together to stand up against the prejudiced maltreatment; they learned not just to fight back but to fight together, a sentiment that would later become the principle of their mission during World War II.

Following the end of World War I and the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1920, the region of Belarus in which the Bielskis lived was annexed to the Second Republic of Poland by the Treaty of Riga (Duffy 21). Toward the end of the 1930s, political unrest exacerbated by the Great Depression created instability within the country even as the Nazi party clawed its way to power in nearby Germany (Duffy 20). Then, in 1939, the Soviets invaded Poland to recover the lands they had lost in war decades prior; at first, the Jews welcomed the Soviets under the false belief that they would receive better treatment under their rule than that of Poland (“Holocaust” 1). Then, in 1941, the Nazis violated the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact and invaded Belarus, forever changing the lives of the Bielskis and the course of history (Duffy 25).

Tuvia, a charismatic and sophisticated businessman in Lida at the time, woke to the bedlam of a German strike, and in the chaos of the Red Army’s retreat from the invading Nazis, traveled back to his home in Stankevich, seeking safety (Duffy 27). Zus and Asael, both

of whom had been drafted to the Red Army prior to the invasion, returned home when both their units disbanded without clear orders in the panic of the attacks (Duffy 28). It was not long before the Nazis seized power. Each of the brothers soon witnessed or even suffered the crimes of the German occupation – the vicious beatings, forced labor, and mass shootings – and escaped to the woods near their house to avoid execution (Duffy 33).

The German authorities also launched a campaign to eliminate those who had served in the Soviet administration, naming Zus and Asael as targets (Duffy 37). The brothers managed to evade capture, but there was nothing they could do to stop the harassment of their family, including the beatings of their father, the deportation of two of their brothers, and the barbaric questioning of their youngest brother, then a mere eleven years old (Duffy 39). They were helpless when 4,000 Jews were massacred in a shooting outside Skridlevo, leaving in the pile of dead their parents as well as Zus’s wife and the daughter he had never met (Duffy 54).

In the following weeks of persecution and butchery, burdened with grief and consumed with rage, the Bielskis reunited in the woods to save what they could of their remaining family (Duffy 76). The brothers did not set out to be heroes; in time, though, they realized they had to do more for their people (Duffy 89). Soon they began reaching out to distant relatives as well as others imprisoned in the ghettos, who had grown increasingly terrified as word of other Jewish slaughters spread.

As more escapees flooded into the camp, the brothers were confronted with the problem of protecting more and more Jews (Duffy 87). To

“the brothers did not set out to be heroes; in time, though, they realized they had to do more for their people”

do so, they needed organization and leadership, and Tuvia – a man of great strength and determination – was unanimously voted to be the leader of the rapidly growing community (Duffy 89). As Tuvia later said, “I can’t promise anything. We could live a day. We could live longer…We don’t have to be heroes. We just have to live through this war. Whoever will make it, he is the biggest hero” (qtd. in Duffy 160). In order to survive, Tuvia believed the unit had to act as one if they were all going to live, and that required discipline.

Tuvia, using the expertise he had gained in the Polish Army, organized the motley group militarily. It was said by one Jew that Tuvia “knew the war best,” that he realized

untitled Katie Anderson

the war would not be over in a matter of weeks, and if they were to survive it, it would only be as a cohesive unit (qtd. in Duffy 79). Asael was named second-in-command, and Zus was placed in charge of intelligence gathering and would later lead the combatant sector (Duffy 90). They acquired weapons from non-Jewish Belorussian friends, other partisans, and Germans they fought (“Bielski Partisans” 1).

Everyone would obey orders, Tuvia claimed with aggressive certainty, or there would be consequences (Duffy 90). Those orders were enforced without exception; crimes as petty as pilfering milk were punishable by time in the community’s jail (Reiniger 4). Once Zus executed a man who had violated the Bielski’s

code by abandoning a Jewish woman and child when they moved locations (Duffy 187). Some believed the Bielskis were greedy for power, indulged in vodka too much, or favored their friends and family, but for all their flaws, the Bielskis did all they could to save every single Jew (Duffy 157).

Never did Tuvia, despite the concerns of his brothers, turn a single Jew away, regardless of their gender, health, or age (“Bielski Partisans” 1). He was a man who could mercilessly punish dissidents and then weep in front of those same men for the tragedy that had befallen them all (Duffy 90). Above all else, Tuvia was respected and honored as their leader (Duffy 109). Regarded as a friend, Asael was loved by the young fighters in the unit whom he led (Duffy 109). Though Zus was neither warm nor generous like either of his brothers, he was an excellent scout and soldier that any partisan was grateful to have at his side (Duffy 109). Under their rule, everyone was guaranteed three meals a day, though the status of the fighters who procured food and gathered intelligence were naturally elevated in the military society (Duffy 158). While their rule was one of absolute authority, the brothers maintained the order and discipline that was crucial for the survival of the unit, and few dissented because they knew they fared far better than those who remained in the ghettos.

By mid-March of 1943, it is estimated that nearly 80 percent of the victims of the Holocaust had already met their grim fate (Duffy 133). The Jews of the nearby towns of Lida and Novogrudek continued to remain under the iron control of the Nazis, confined within several ghettos. Those who chose to remain in the ghettos despite opportunities for escape were mainly city-folk who knew nothing of living in the wilderness and feared starving or freezing during the winter (Reiniger 1).

Others refused to leave their families behind, fearful of retaliation upon those that remained (Reiniger 1). Besides, how could they fight such a powerful army? (Duffy 155). Still others, particularly the craftsmen, believed that the Germans needed their skilled labor for the war effort, and after the mass killings these thoughts were confirmed by officials who claimed that those Jews who had needed to be exterminated already had been, and those left would live (Duffy 155). There was no way, though, for the Jews to forget the mass killings of May of 1942 in Lida that had resulted in the deaths of 13,000 Jews, nor the even bloodier treatment of the Jews in Novogrudek (Duffy 155). Since the very first massacre in December of 1941, a mass killing had occurred nearly every six months, exterminating 8,000 to 10,000 Jews (Duffy 156).

Now, only 250 Jews remained confined in a single ghetto in Novogrudek (Duffy 157).

As more and more fled the ghettos for the relative safety of the Bielski camp, Tuvia, Asael, and Zus were stretched

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thin, fighting what seemed to be a war on four fronts (Duffy 144). The procurement of enough food to feed the rapidly expanding community was a constant and perilous struggle with the peasants; as one partisan said, they were “something between a hero and a robber” (qtd. in Reiniger 6). As a result of these tense relations, the Bielskis frequently worried about peasant informers (Duffy 144). Moreover, as the Soviet resistance movement gained structure and organization, Tuvia was forced to walk a dangerous line, disguising their mission as a Soviet one rather than a purely Jewish one, for Jews still held a precarious place in Soviet society and were still targeted at times by Soviet partisans (Duffy 144). There were also concerns about the growing number of noncombatants (Duffy 161). The Soviet resistance command even ordered the separation of the Bielskis and their unit; Tuvia remained with the noncombatants in the woods, while Asael was forced to assume a job he detested in the Soviet administration and Zus led a group of combatants in frequent missions against the Germans (Duffy 191). Internal dissension over the leadership of the brothers also created problems; a rising rebel faction within the unit – known as the Komsomol cell – attempted to strip them of their command by exposing their lack of Communist ideology to Soviet superiors (Duffy 141). Many in favor of the Bielskis were relieved when the agitation abruptly ceased with the death of its gentile head, Grigori “Grisha” Latij (Duffy 210). Lastly, as always, the looming threat that had stalked the Jews since the breaking of the Nonaggression Pact – the Nazis – had hardly abated.

The first tragedy for the Bielski unit came in the winter of 1942, six months after the unit was officially formed (Duffy 118). The brothers’ wives and other soldiers had taken refuge from the harsh winter in the village of Chrapinveyo and were caught unawares by a German stealth attack in the heavy snowfall (Duffy 118). The attack left the woman Tuvia referred to as his wife, Sonia Warshavsky, and others dead, tallying a loss of nine Jews (Duffy 118). Then, in June of 1943, the camp scattered in the mayhem of a surprise German attack in the woods; though the community eventually regrouped, there were ten less (Duffy 151). The biggest threat to the Bielski group’s survival was the German’s Operation Hermann in 1943, which set out to eliminate all the Soviet partisan groups in the Naliboki Puscha where they had taken refuge (Duffy 173).

Operation Hermann was comprised of an SS infantry brigade, a Polish sharpshooter unit, multiple SD commando units, gendarme platoons, riflemen regiments, and Luftwaffe air fleets (Duffy 173). The number of soldiers totaled as many as 52,000 (Reiniger 2). The puscha was surrounded in July, with the enemy reported to be mere hours away; in despair, Tuvia could think of no plan to escape

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The Looking Glass

their most desperate predicament yet, calling for “quiet courage” (qtd. in Duffy 176). Their salvation came in the form of a daring venture concocted by Michel Mechlis and Akiva Shemonovich, two refugees who were familiar with the area: flee through the forest and nearly impassable marshlands for Krasnaya Gorka, an island surrounded by an endless swamp (Duffy 177). All 800 men, women, and children, young and old, slogged through the murky marsh whose mud was at times up to their chests, the cover of darkness and tall grasses concealing them as they were chased through the night by raucous German voices (Duffy 177). It was perhaps the greatest gamble for escape of Jews the war had known.

It was there on the tiny island of Krasnaya Gorka amid the nearly uninhabitable swamp that the Bielski unit eventually built the infamous base that would become disdainfully known to anti-Semites as a “Jerusalem in the woods,” a name the Jews took pride in (Duffy 220). For the first time, the unit was safe from imminent danger, and the island became less a last resort and more of a haven (Reiniger 3).

Eventually sleeping quarters, medical facilities, a bathhouse, synagogue, tannery, mill, bakery, jail, and school were erected (Duffy 213; Reiniger 3). The Bielski unit lived in relative peace and happiness – considering all that had happened – and remained there until the Red Army, met with tears of joy and broken laughter, marched through the nearby area after vanquishing the Germans that had brutalized and massacred their race for the past three years of war (Duffy 256).

The Bielski community was the largest rescue of Jews by fellow Jews; at its peak, it was comprised of as many as 1,230 people (Duffy 251). Never had Tuvia nor the brothers wavered from their mission of preserving all Jewish life; upwards of 70 percent of the population were women, children, and the elderly (“Bielski Partisans” 2; “Holocaust” 1). Tuvia had belied his earlier words that they needed only to live to be heroes, accomplishing far more than that (Duffy 160). Throughout the war, the Bielski troops had destroyed 34 train cars, 18 bridges, and 8 supply buildings, killing 261 enemy combatants in the process; in contrast, the Bielski unit had lost only 50 members (Duffy 261). They had done the impossible; they had not only endured an army that had conquered nearly all of Europe but also triumphed against it.

Three men – Tuvia, Asael, and Zus Bielski – had been the sparks of defiance to flame a Jewish resistance that could not be extinguished. As Tuvia said grimly on July 10, 1944, standing for the last time before those he had saved, “We will bear witness to the murder and destruction, to the suffering that the Nazis brought upon the Jewish people” (qtd. in Duffy 257). In the end, though, they did far more than bear witness; despite the despair, the tragedy, and

the struggle, they displayed a spirit that could not be conquered. They embodied resilience in the face of overwhelming and seemingly insurmountable odds, believing despite everything not only that they could, but they would, prevail. The Bielski brothers and the Jews of the unit were not gods; they were mere men, and they had dared to defy the Nazis.

Works Cited “The Bielski Partisans.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 10 June 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

Duffy, Peter. Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three men Who Defied the Nazis, Saved 1,200 Jews, and Built a Village in the Forest. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Print.

“The Holocaust Resistance: The Bielski Brothers and the ‘Otriad.’”

Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

Reiniger, Franziska. “Solidarity in the Forest – The Bielski Brothers.”

The International School for Holocaust Studies. The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, 2014. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

UNTITLED Kirsten Dolph

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chasing the milky way Cooper Atkinson

GRAVEYARD SHIFT

Alan Hendricks

The fluorescent lights above the register flickered again, threatening Lawrence and the rest of the Texaco with darkness as he smacked his gum. His girlfriend had tearfully convinced him to stop chewing tobacco weeks ago, begging him to quit before his tongue swelled up, white and leathery, and cancer rotted his throat. Not that Lawrence had picked up a guitar or crooned into a microphone in six months anyway. Clarissa adored his musical talent, she said, but not who he was when he performed. That wild boy would leave a smudge on his family’s Southern Baptist reputation.

And if they found out he did covers of Manson and Bauhaus, they’d force him down to the river to cleanse his soul.

Promising to stop chewing had been easier than deciding not to play. Over the past weeks, he had hoarded a stash of crumpled gum wrappers under the counter. Long nights passed where he eyed the gleaming tins of chew and ripped into another piece of Wrigley’s instead. Now silver wads of paper rained down on the cracked linoleum floor whenever he dug for his keys. Once, after coming to work high— tongue bitter from acid as he counted change for customers with swirling oil-slick skin—he’d convinced himself the wrappers were silver doubloons. Relics from some Spanish galleon that sank long ago under the greedy waters of the Gulf.

If only. Then he would be able to quit working and pick up his guitar.

Breaking up with Clarissa wouldn’t solve his problems. Except for the ones it would, like wanting to chew and sing. But then he’d need another girlfriend. No amount of silver doubloons would buy back his family once he came out.

A previous teller had stacked a newspaper on one end of the counter. From these, Lawrence took the top copy to distract himself.

The Mercy Tribune ran in his home town, but it picked up stories from surrounding states and slapped the most interesting on the front page. In Mercy, there wasn’t much to report on otherwise. This time, a boy younger than Lawrence graced the middle of the page, his fringe of blond hair falling into his eyes and multiple piercings peeking out his ear.

He looked like the kind of boy Lawrence adored. Young, feminine, and with a fondness for piercings, leather, and hard rock— but now he was nothing more than a blackand-white photograph. Skimming the article, Lawrence caught the important details: Earl Clairmont, seventeen, had been hacked up and left to rot in the heat of summer.

A shiver shook his spine. Since the police hadn’t charged anyone, the motive remained unknown. But the story speculated he’d been targeted for being gay. Another hate crime added to the statistics that kept Lawrence’s mouth closed on his secret. Folding the newspaper, he pushed it away.

At least business stayed slow this late. From two to four, most of the travelers that swept over the barren concrete were solely interested in buying gas, staying huddled in the shadows under the jaundiced lights. Only a trucker needing a caffeine high or teenagers looking to buy cigarettes disturbed the peace.

So the last thing he expected was the Corvette that purred into the parking space just outside the door. Lawrence caught a strain of music before the driver killed the engine: something sinister with guitar chords tuned in a minor key.

Lawrence craned over the counter to get a better look. The Corvette’s paintjob was cherry-red, but the color decayed in the gloom of the Louisiana night. He thought the car would divulge another group of teenagers, this pack with wealthier parents than most that braved the humid nights. But when the driver door swung open, it wasn’t a teenager that unfolded himself from the car. Another man, slightly taller than the first, joined him. As they approached the Texaco’s grimy door, Lawrence tried not to stare. Both men were much taller than him, easily over six feet. The first looked like an unfinished sketch, rough around the edges with a slouch that made him look gangly inside his black leather jacket; the second was all sharp, precise planes like he’d been cut from marble. Both of them seemed somewhere in their twenties, but the driver had a boyishness to him like he still belonged in college.

“It won’t take long, Aubrey, I promise,” the driver said as he moved past the register. He glanced at Lawrence and flashed a smile both shy and reckless. His mouth was too wide for his face, but the wry curve to his lips made him handsome. Dark makeup ringed his eyes, drawing out the femininity of his nose and mouth. “I’ve been craving chocolate all night.”

“If you’re hungry, you should eat something healthier.” Both of the travelers’ voices clipped the syllables—abrupt words, Yankee words. Their vowels weren’t syrupy like Lawrence’s, nor bent toward the Cajun influences closer to the Gulf. Alien and fast, they sounded staccato like a guitar-string plucked but not allowed to resonate.

Eyes flicking toward Aubrey, the driver hunched deeper inside his coat. His mouth twisted into a frown. “I didn’t think there were

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any restaurants open.” Something about the words sounded plaintive. The enthusiasm that had suffused his voice withered. “But we can go somewhere else…”

“Evenin’.”

Aubrey seemed bored as he noticed Lawrence. Yet the man wearing the makeup looked pleased, tension leaking out of his posture as Aubrey’s focus shifted. Sitting up straighter on the stool behind the counter, Lawrence smiled. These were the sort of men he sought out at Louisiana State dances, when he drove north to Baton Rouge and told Clarissa he was going to a frat party with a cousin.

Instead, he painted his eyes with makeup, watching himself in the visor mirror of his Chevy truck. Then he would enter the hot press of a party in someone’s basement or a leased warehouse, grinding against the bodies of other men and tasting the lime from their Coronas when he kissed them.

The Corvette’s driver studied him hopefully. “You live around here, don’t you?”

Obvious, Lawrence thought, but that was alright. He liked boys who were a bit oblivious, even naïve. “Are there any restaurants open nearby?”

“Not for another fifty miles.” Lawrence leaned on the pitted counter. “Most folks ‘round here are asleep this late. Not much open twenty-four-seven.”

“See, I told you.” The driver grinned, triumphant.

Aubrey’s cool gaze swung toward his companion again, and the driver flinched.

“Fine. But mind your weight, Gordon. You know I like you just the way you are.” He smiled, but the expression was cold.

Lawrence expected them to argue: for Gordon’s mouth to crumple into a frown before he lashed out in return.

Instead, Gordon ducked his head and murmured, “Yes, Aubrey.”

The heavy silence that followed lay thick and oppressive.

Lawrence started to speak, but found the words sticking in his throat. Shoulders tight, he watched Gordon slink away from the counter with Aubrey in his wake.

He milled aimlessly between the racks, circulating among the shiny packages of processed food and glancing at Aubrey as he fingered the wrapper of a Heath bar. Eventually he pulled the sweet off the shelf and studied where the Nutrition Facts were printed.

Next to him, Aubrey’s head tilted up as he

sensed Lawrence staring. And he smiled, an unpleasant showing of his teeth like he knew just what the clerk was thinking and didn’t approve.

Lawrence’s fingers tightened on the edge of the counter. A crawling sensation tickled the back of his neck, but likewise a low heat had pooled in the pit of his stomach. Absurdly, Lawrence felt the urge to blurt out his secrets, to confess: and to ask if the two men had ever been to a party in Baton Rouge, if he could get their numbers.

Gordon’s lips were moving. Sighing, Aubrey grasped his elbow and guided him toward the corner where the beer chilled in tall glass cases.

They conversed inaudibly, and Lawrence tried to relax. Even so, he kept his attention on them as he straightened the box of lighters by the register. Gordon had slouched again, though he maintained eye contact with Aubrey. Occasionally, he interjected a few rushed words into Aubrey’s slow and methodical sentences.

Gordon’s expression darkened until his eyes left Aubrey’s face. The other traveler reacted immediately, one long-fingered hand gripping Gordon’s jaw. He forced him to look up, directing him with that touch. A moment of silence passed between them before Aubrey slid his fingers into Gordon’s hair and graced him with a quick kiss. Lawrence envied their lack of self-consciousness.

Gordon melted against Aubrey, narrow chest pressed to narrow chest. Though his eyes remained shadowed with a frown, his lips turned up in a smile. He even laughed softly.

Aubrey smiled back serenely and icily, fingers wrapped in Gordon’s black curls. Despite its lack of warmth, Gordon visibly drank in the approval. He straightened, and Lawrence wondered if they were as flexible as they appeared—if they could bend against each other in the backseat of the Corvette.

Aubrey released Gordon’s hair and traced a finger down the line of his jaw. He stepped back then, smoothing his immaculate white shirt though it bore no wrinkles. “Pick out what you want.” Endeavoring not to look guilty, Lawrence busied himself with straightening the rest of the displays clustered on the counter: the box of Slim Jims and the plastic lighters; the spinning frame of sunglasses; the pile of local newspapers. In his peripheral vision, he saw Gordon drag a six pack of Corona out of the cooler. Almost gleeful now, he strode back to the candy section with Aubrey close behind.

This time it didn’t take long for him to choose.

Balancing a pile of candy and the six pack, he returned to the front and dumped them next to

“the touch, so blatantly intimate, sent a thrill of electricity straight through lawrence”

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The Looking Glass

the register. Snickers and Milky Ways mingled with blood-orange Kit-Kat wrappers and the silvery logs of Three Musketeers, all haphazard next to the gold-and-blue cardboard.

Thankful that the tension had dissipated, Lawrence reached out to ring up their items. “Did you find everythin’ you need?”

“I think so.” Gordon smiled.

Aubrey lifted a slender hand and brushed a lock of Gordon’s curly hair behind the shell of his ear. Smirking, he leaned down to press his lips to the curve of the other man’s neck. Lawrence thought he saw the tip of a scarlet tongue dart against Gordon’s skin.

The touch, so blatantly intimate, sent a thrill of electricity straight through Lawrence. He longed to find out how that mouth would feel on his skin; Gordon giggled, leaning into the touch without shame. Straightening, Aubrey fixed Lawrence with a wicked look. Now that he stood so close, Aubrey’s eyes gleamed a brighter green than Lawrence had ever seen—as green as the chartreuse he drank at Mardi Gras. A cruel smirk curved the corner of Aubrey’s mouth when it took Lawrence several seconds to look away.

Why did that look make him feel like he was being sized up as a meal? More importantly, why did that excite him?

The beep of the item scanner thickened the obvious silence. Clearing his throat, Lawrence set his hand on top of the beer bottles. “I’m gonna need some ID for this. From both of you.” He couldn’t look at Aubrey, afraid of how that stare made him feel. Abruptly, he longed to be anywhere but there—anywhere with these beautiful men. Maybe on the coast or at a party in Baton Rouge.

Gordon touched the pockets of his jeans and then his leather coat. “My wallet is in the car,” he said, apologetic. “I’ll be right back.”

“Allow me.” Aubrey touched his arm and smiled in his strange emotionless way. “Mine is as well.”

Lawrence’s eyes trailed Aubrey as he stepped back out into the hot night. As soon as the door sucked shut, Lawrence leaned forward. He found Gordon’s eyes—realizing they weren’t the fawn brown he’d thought, but a peculiar yellow-amber color. “Is he mean to you often? You don’t have to stay with someone like that.”

Gordon’s lips parted in surprise; he shook his head, but his eyes cut away toward the Corvette. Aubrey had opened the driver’s side door and was leaning in, fishing for their wallets.

“He’s just a little rough.” The shyand-reckless smile was back, this time more on the shy side. “I know the way he acts might be misleading, but he’s actually,” Gordon exhaled the last word in a sigh, “wonderful.” He stressed it too emphatically, like he was convincing himself too. “Hey.” His smile widened. “I didn’t catch your name. Thanks for asking, but I’m

really fine. We’re fine.” Again breathlessly, and Lawrence felt his heart squeeze tight behind his breastbone.

“Name’s Lawrence.” A hasty glance revealed Aubrey still half-hidden in the Corvette. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.

You don’t have to let him speak to you the way he does. It ain’t right, even if you are gay.”

“I’m Gordon,” Gordon said, and laughed. “Well. He’s just very particular.” He worried his thumbnail with his teeth, and for the first time Lawrence noticed his nails were lacquered black as chips of obsidian. “Aubrey likes things to be, you know, the way he wants them.” Gordon’s smile curved differently this time, conspiratorial and teasing, like he was telling a secret.

“Includin’ you?”

“Well, yeah. I’m his. Sort of.”

The clang of the bell over the door made Lawrence jump. Gordon didn’t even flinch. “I was telling Lawrence that we’re going to New Orleans,” he said, glancing over his shoulder to give Aubrey a smile as he held out his hand for his wallet. The easiness of the lie surprised Lawrence, who had read an earnest if delusional honesty in Gordon’s face. It bothered him to know that the man with the eyeliner and the nail polish felt the need to lie about such a mundane conversation—though Lawrence wasn’t sure if it said more about Gordon or Aubrey. The fact New Orleans came out “Knew Oar-leens,” each syllable drawn out in that nasally Yankee way, made the lie worse. Like Gordon was talking about a place that didn’t even exist.

“I see.” Aubrey slid both of their licenses across the counter. “Making friends, are you?”

“I didn’t think it could hurt. You always say it helps to know people.”

The two travelers were from somewhere in Connecticut that Lawrence didn’t know. It surprised him not at all to learn Gordon Morphy was only 22, nor that Aubrey Piper was 26. Which meant he landed comfortably in between their ages. For some reason that pleased him as he handed back their licenses, each to their correct owner. “You’re a long way from home.”

Gordon giggled. “Yeah, I guess we are. We’ve been driving around, seeing everything. But New Orleans is the end of our trip. We’ve been down for Mardi Gras, but we wanted to come back for Halloween.” Which seemed odd to say, considering it was barely the end of August.

Confusion must have shown on Lawrence’s face, because Gordon added, “We’re thinking about getting an apartment and staying for a while. Maybe forever.” The way he said it, nothing seemed more magical. Something about New Orleans always seemed to draw the Yankees.

“If you’d like someone to show you around, I’ll give you my number.” Refusing to acknowledge he was blushing, Lawrence kept his gaze on the

register as it totaled the purchase. “And that’ll be twenty-six dollars eighty-two cents.”

Aubrey pulled a ten and a twenty from inside his wallet, the bills crisp. “You can keep the change.” Rather than kind, the sentiment came out condescending.

“Aubrey,” Gordon breathed. He’d picked up a copy of the newspaper. His fingertips passed over the print as he pointed to a picture on the front page. “It’s Earl.”

The picture Gordon was referring to was from the article Lawrence had read earlier. “He’s a kid from Tennessee,” he said. “The found him in a ditch in Mississippi, cut up somethin’ awful.

Had slashes all over his belly like someone’d tried to gut him.”

“We knew him,” Gordon said mournfully, the newspaper slipping out of his nerveless fingers to splay on the countertop. Aubrey hadn’t made a move to take it from him. “We met him in Nashville. He said he was going to—” “Gordon.” His mouth clicked shut when Aubrey spoke, teeth audibly clacking together.

Lawrence’s vertebrae were quivering in his back again. “He said he was gonna what?”

Glancing at him without concern, Aubrey shrugged. “He wanted to run away from home.

He asked us for a ride, but we said no. Someone else must have picked him up.”

“Yeah,” Lawrence said, “That’s a shame.” Silence contorted between them before he asked, “Would you like a bag for this?”

“Please.” The clipped syllable dropped from Aubrey’s mouth like a stone. Chagrined, Lawrence scraped the candy bars into a plastic bag.

He reached out to set it on the counter when Aubrey hooked his fingers around his wrist.

Lawrence marveled at the change that passed over Aubrey’s face like someone trading masks at Mardi Gras. He smiled without his teeth, and this time light rose in his green eyes. “We appreciate your offer to show us around the city. Gordon and I intend to drive through the night until we reach it. But I fear we don’t know what to do beyond finding a hotel.” Lawrence couldn’t respond, not frozen as he was with that cool touch on his wrist. “If your shift is ending soon, would you be interested in joining us? We would be glad of some new company.”

“Oh, please! We could all go out together.”

Gordon was smiling again as though this was the best idea he had ever heard. Finally, Aubrey removed his fingers from Lawrence’s wrist, evidently waiting for an answer.

What answer could he possibly give? It was only three, and his shift didn’t end until six. As many times as he’d come in late or left early, he would probably get fired if he did so again.

It had certainly taken him long enough to get the job in the first place, and Clarissa would be disappointed. She wouldn’t understand what could possess someone to simply leave.

Yet even as he considered saying no and going back to his dissatisfying life, something warm and careless bloomed in his chest. Hadn’t he

been wishing that he could cast everything off?

Maybe he wouldn’t return at all. His family would be disappointed, but he’d be free to sing his own music, to play guitar in smoky bars, to chew tobacco, to paint his eyes and kiss boys at crowded parties.

“So? Will you come with us?”

Lawrence wondered what he would have been doing at that moment any other night. Maybe sleeping. Or having passionless sex with Clarissa. Or standing in the kitchen of his apartment as he fought down heartburn, sucking on seltzer water and crunching antacid tablets.

But he wasn’t doing any of those things, and that was what mattered. Gordon watched him hopefully, that shy and wild smile lighting his eyes. His back had straightened some, giving him the impression of a dog on point. Just beyond him, Aubrey stood haughty and silent.

Slowly, Lawrence slid off his stool, the back pockets of his jeans scraping against the fake leather. As he pushed through the swinging door that separated him from the rest of the Texaco, Gordon held out his hand to him like a friend might.

Aubrey made a pleased sound as Gordon tugged Lawrence close to his lanky body. He was stronger than he looked, lean arms corded with muscle, and his jacket smelled like Jack Daniels whiskey and motor oil. Gordon grinned at Lawrence as Aubrey snagged their food off the counter. Neither of them seemed concerned that their new friend was abandoning his job. Instead, they exited the Texaco in a flurry of the bell above the door and Gordon’s laughter.

Lawrence’s heart fluttered as he set his hand on one of the Corvette’s smooth handles. He glanced once more at the fluorescent lights and neon signs of the Texaco before pulling open the door and sliding into the back seat.

Gordon had already keyed the engine to life and backed out of the parking space when Lawrence thought of everything he was leaving in his rusty Chevy pickup. Glancing out the window at where it sat parked along one side of the Texaco, he imagined climbing back out of the Corvette to retrieve his spare clothes, his guitar case and chipped guitar, the tin of chew in the glove box. But though his fingertips tapped a rhythm on the inside of the door, he said nothing. Surely he could buy new things in New Orleans.

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untitled Kirsten Dolph

i want to write a poem Alex Lycan

I want to write a poem One so simple, yet profound Nothing anyone can say Will make it feel dumbed-down I want to write a poem That will make lovers kiss Like they’ve never kissed before And bring feelings of joy and bliss I want to write a poem Of love and peace To make everyone’s fighting Completely stop and cease I want to write a poem With words so scathing and true My critics can yell and yell Until their faces turn blue I wrote a poem And it’s actually not half bad One of my first where reading it Does make my red and mad I wrote a poem Simple, with all the metaphors and meaning Will it end world fighting?

No, but it might lead to dreaming I wrote a poem To convey that joy and bliss And though its words are scathing I hope it bring you happiness

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MORRILL HALL Molly Pittman

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RIDDLES Autumn Pratt

1.

23

My tongue is tied I cannot speak Though trampled by a thousand feet.

The Looking Glass

2.

The penniless prince never takes off his spurs And never lays down to rest.

3.

Fair, you say And fair am I But justice I have never seen.

4.

Eyes without face Skin without bone Flesh without blood In the darkness I grow.

JAMES ENGERBRETSON on gaper day at schweitzer Cy Whitling

5.

What was, what is, and what may be I am a mirror to the first of these three.

6.

With one toeless foot I rule the world.

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1. Shoe 2. Rooster 3. Lady Justice 4. Potato 5. Photograph 6. Ruler

Answers

NATIONAL CANCER ACT OF 1937 cancer research funding Antonia Exline

Abstract The National Cancer Act of 1937 created the National Cancer Institute (NCI), an organization devoted to appropriating funds to find better treatment and diagnosis for all forms of cancer. The National Cancer Institute has made great strides in their mission.

Since the creation of the NCI, many outside organizations, such as the American Lung Association, have begun to lobby for more funding from the National Cancer Institute.

While these organizations disagree about which cancer NCI’s top priority should be, all hope to find better treatment and diagnosis for cancer. The National Institutes of Health, overseers of the NCI, should restrict interest groups access to appropriation meetings. All decisions about how to disperse funds should be based solely on statistical evidence collected and generated by the National Cancer Institute and its associates. This approach would ensure that cancer research funding would be better prioritized.

Policy Identification and Explanation

The National Cancer Act of 1937, Public Law No. 244, was enacted on August 5, 1937. When the Federal government passed this act, it created the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Along with the creation of the NCI, the bill also outlined the responsibilities of the new organization. The National Cancer Institute is responsible for appropriating funds to research organizations for all forms of cancer. NCI must also draft and submit a budget for approval

by Congress that details which organizations receive what percentage of the appropriated funds. The National Cancer Institute’s original purpose was to prioritize funding for cancer research and provide the needed federal support to produce useful findings.

The National Cancer Act of 1937 states that, “ The act will provide for, foster and aid in coordinating research relating to cancer;

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to establish the National Cancer institute; and for other purposes” (National Cancer Act of 1937,1937).

The NCI, because of its federal funding, has the ability to attract the best and brightest in the medical field. For this reason Congress made it part of the National Cancer Institute’s responsibilities to conduct trainings on the latest cancer detection techniques and research procedures for how to find a cure for cancer. The implementation of this act was carried out by the federal government and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH was put in charge of carrying out the creation of the National Cancer Institute within thirty days of the enactment date (National Cancer Act of 1937, 1937). There is no punishment for violating this Act, mostly because there is very little that could be done to violate it. The biggest consequence that NCI faces by not carrying out its specified duties is outrage from the public, which could prompt the federal government to reduce funding. The American people depend on this organization’s life-saving work. Should the NCI fail to do its job, or appropriate its funds in a way that is less than satisfactory to the public, the pressure placed on them would be enormous. With public pressure, Congress could decide to cut spending to the National Cancer Institute, which would then halt the organization’s progress in cancer diagnosis and treatment (National Cancer Act of 1937, 1937).

Policy History/Background

In the 1930’s there were many reform programs at the federal level. One such reform was the Social Security Act of 1935. This act provided better health care for the elderly, blind, disabled and children, as well as added benefits for overall public health. The poor economic conditions of the 1930’s, put some pressure on the federal government to try to provide assistance to the American people in any way it could (Social Security Act of 1935, 1935). The National Cancer Act of 1937 was an

extension of the reform for improved public health. Over the years, the NCI continued to grow and receive funding from the federal government (National Institutes of Health, 2013).

On December 23, 1971, Nixon signed into law the National Cancer Act of 1971. This act expanded the power of the National Cancer Institute by giving it the ability to submit an additional annual budget to the President directly allowing the NCI to bypass the lengthy budget approval process by Congress. This additional budget had to include a report on the progress that was made during the last fiscal year in order to ensure that the appropriated money had been spent effectively. The 1971 legislation also allowed the National Cancer Institute to create a special board, called the National Cancer Program, which meets to hear testimony from outside research organizations requesting monies for the coming year. The National Cancer Group then determines the budget that is to be sent to the President along with the past year’s progress report (National Cancer Act of 1971, 1971). Nixon claimed that we would wage a war on cancer with this new act (National Institutes of Health, 2013). Since Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the first cancer act and Nixon signed the second, the “war on cancer” transcended political party lines and became a unified, national goal.

As the NCI was expanding, outside organizations were also gaining some ground.

The American Lung Association (ALA) was created in 1904 (American Lung Association, 2014). This group was originally founded to fight tuberculosis, a disease that was ravaging the country at this time. By 1954, the organization had contributed to finding the means to control tuberculosis in the United States. After they had accomplished their primary goal, the American Lung Association expanded their goal to overall lung health.

This included finding diagnosis, treatments and cures for lung cancer (American Lung Association, 2014).

our worlds collide Jordan Brady

Since the ALA, other organizations, such as the Susan G. Komen Foundation, founded in 1982, and the Lustgarden Foundation, founded in 1998, have emerged (Brinker, 2012; Lustgarden Foundation, 2009).

All three of these organizations have grown into some of the biggest political lobbying and fundraising groups in the health care industry.

These foundations, along with many others, meet with the NCI once a year to lobby for an increase in their funding. While each of these organizations is able to raise funds on their own, the money awarded to them by the NCI helps make significant strides in their private research (Parker-pope, 2008).

Once a year, all of the groups present their testimony to the National Cancer Program Advisory Board on their progress

and their plans for the future. The Advisory Board comprised of 18 presidentially appointed members, deliberate and create the budget that goes directly to the President (National Cancer Act of 1971, 1971). The second budget that the National Cancer Institute can submit is an extension of the budget created by the National Cancer Program, using their progress report as a basis for their funding requests. This second financial request is part of the National Institutes of Health budget that goes through the regular approval process in Congress (National Cancer Act of 1971, 1971).

Over the last decade or so, breast cancer research has received the largest percentage of the total funding from the National Cancer Institute, an amount of funding nearly double the next highest

funded form of cancer. Some of the other top contenders for NCI funding are lung, prostate, colorectal, bladder, melanoma, Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, kidney, thyroid, and endometrial cancers. Other cancers, such as pancreatic or brain cancer, do not even rank in the top ten highest funded cancers by the NCI (National Institutes of Health, 2013).

Recently, the Lustgarden Foundation has gained some ground for increasing pancreatic cancer research funding. However, because of the Susan G. Komen Foundation public relations and marketing campaign and the influence with the general public that publicity has generated, when it comes to support from the NCI, increases in funding for research into the cure for pancreatic cancer has been slow and mostly unsuccessful

Fall 2014

26

(Lustgarden Foundation, 2009).

Current Situation

The National Cancer Institute has maintained their responsibilities faithfully.

Today, the NCI continues to prioritize cancer research and funding. The NCI tracks cases and deaths for all forms of cancer to monitor any changes that have occurred, such as an increase in cases or a decrease in deaths (National Institutes of Health, 2013). The table in Appendix 1 displays the estimated number of cases and deaths for the top 10 most common forms of cancer with lung cancer having the highest number of estimated deaths in 2013 (National Institutes of Health, 2013). These numbers have decreased over the last ten years, showing the progress that the NCI’s focus has prompted. With the change in cancer statistics, the NCI is constantly looking for new ways to promote steady progress (National Institutes of Health, 2013).

The NCI also continues to submit its two budgets regularly and has maintained a steady flow of income from the United States government. The funding has fluctuated with the economy, but the NCI has still managed to make strides in cancer research. However, the growth of interest groups and their influence has prompted the NCI to shift its focus when it comes to how to appropriate its funds (National Institutes of Health, 2013).

In the past three years, the dispersing of funds from the NCI has remained fairly steady. Breast cancer has maintained its position as the most highly funded form of cancer. It received a total of $602.7 million in funding from the NCI in 2012. Lung cancer research, the cancer with the second highest funding received $314.6 million as seen in Appendix 2 (National Institutes of Health, 2013). Appendix 3 contains a breakdown of how much the NCI spends on five common cancers per death and per new case (ParkerPope, 2008). For example, breast cancer research receives $13,452 in NCI funding per death from breast cancer. By comparison, lung cancer research receives $1,630 per death. In addition, 162,460 Americans die from lung cancer each year. In contrast, 41,430 Americans die of breast cancer. This information is the basis of unrest between lobbying groups dealing with cancer research appropriations; the funding dispersed by the NCI clearly is not based on statistical evidence.

Thanks to the NCI, the survival rates of most forms of cancer have increased (National Institutes of Health, 2013). According to the Susan G. Komen Foundation website, breast cancer now has a survival rate of ninetynine percent (Brinker, 2012). The survival rates of other forms of cancer have also increased, but not nearly to the same extent as breast cancer (National Institutes of Health,

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The Looking Glass

2013).

Part of the reason for this huge leap in cancer survival rates comes from the growth of outside organizations. Recently, the ability of outside organizations to fund cancer research has grown immensely (Alexander, 2008). With the help of nationwide marathons, celebrity spokesmen and women, and televised public service announcements, outside organizations like the American Lung Association have been able to raise large amounts of money from sources other than the NCI for their cause (Alexander, 2008). The Susan G. Komen Foundation raised and donated to 1.5 billion dollars in the 2012 fiscal year to research breast cancer, the largest amount raised in a year by a cancer research organization. The money be raised by outside organizations does not include the funds provided to them by the National Cancer Institute (Brinker, 2012).

Differing Viewpoints

Due to the spending trend implemented by the NCI, the National Cancer Institute has come under fire. Groups like the Lustgarden Foundation and the American Lung Association argue that they deserve more funding because the cancers they advocate for are some of the most common: lung cancer, and one of the most deadly, pancreatic cancer (Lee, 2013). These two organizations are not alone in their fight. Most outside organizations are furious that the National Cancer Institute would continue to fund breast cancer at such a great level when its survival rate is so high (Alexander, 2008).

From Nancy Brinker’s perspective, the founder of the Susan G. Komen Foundation, breast cancer has earned every penny of their funding (2012). The Komen Foundation believes that because they have managed to raise the survival rate of breast cancer to ninety-nine percent, with the help of the NCI, they should continue their fight until they reach a one-hundred percent survival rate (Brinker, 2012).

All groups, although arguing over how the money should be spent, all want the same thing: each group wants to find a cure for cancer. Each group also believes that the form of cancer they advocate for is the most important. Neither group can seem to agree on the best budgetary strategy to pursue in the

fight against cancer (Parker-pope, 2008). Is it prudent to raise the survival rate of all cancers or is it best to eradicate one form and then focus on the rest? (Brinker, 2012; Alexander, 2008).

Where the NCI stands in this debate is unclear, although the National Cancer Institute appears to better fund the form of cancer presents the best opportunity for progress. The National Cancer Institute does seem to base its decisions on the input it receives from the public (National Institutes of Health, 2013).

Policy Recommendation

The National Cancer Institute has proven to be a powerful force of good in the world of cancer research (National Institutes of Health, 2013). But like any part of the government, the organizations with the power don’t always know best. When it comes to emotional issues, like dealing with cancer, more often than not our feelings get the better of us. This causes some to lose sight of what is most important when it comes to the job of the NCI: to wage war on cancer (National Cancer Act of 1971, 1971). Although larger organizations like the Susan G. Komen Foundation have good intentions, the responsibility of the National Institute of Health should be to look beyond politics and public pressure and care for those most in need (Parker-pope, 2008). The NCI has become too involved in the politics of cancer research, and as a result the most deadly forms of cancer have continued to ravage our country.

The National Cancer Institute should not allow outside organizations to lobby for more funding. Instead, the NCI should base all of its funding decisions on cancer statistics that have been compiled by their own organization.

Although this change would be hard to initiate, it is politically feasible. The federal government would allow outside organizations to contribute funding to the cancer research of their choice, but would not allow these organizations to sway the funding priorities of the National Cancer Program. While outside organizations would protest, individuals would support a more fair spending system (Parker-pope, 2008).

As for economic feasibility, the amount of funding would not change. The regular process of federal appropriation to the NCI would continue. Outside organizations

“when it comes to emotional issues, like dealing with cancer, more often than not our feelings get the better of us”

would also continue to raise massive amounts of funds on their own, removing the need for more money to be appropriated to them by the NCI (Brinker, 2012; American Lung Association, 2014; Lustgarden Foundation, 2009). Clearly, the NCI has been able to make continual progress in the war on cancer with the money it has been given in the past so there is no clear need for an increase in funding (National Institutes of Health, 2013).

The National Cancer Act of 1937 created an organization that has proven to be successful in waging a war on cancer. It has done its job valiantly over the past seventy years. With the growth of outside organizations however, it has begun to lose sight of its responsibilities (Alexander, 2008). The National Institutes of Health need to be reminded that their job is to fight the most deadly of diseases, not referee the screaming match between interest groups (National Cancer Act of 1935, 1935). The NCI should simply shut out the advice of outside organizations and follow their own statistical evidence when it comes to appropriating research dollars used for cancer research.

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Parker-Pope, T. (2008, March 06). Cancer funding: does it all add up?.The New York Times. Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes. com/2008/03/06/cancer-funding-does-it-add-up/.

National Institutes of Health. (2013, August 28). Cancer research funding. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/ NCI/research-funding.

References Alexander, B. (2008, October 22). The politics behind the pink ribbon.

NBC News. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/27283197/.

American Lung Association. (2014). Our history. Retrieved from http:// www.lung.org/about-us/our-history/.

Brinker, N. (2012). Susan G. Komen for the Cure: about us. Retrieved from http://ww5.komen.org/aboutus/aboutus.html.

Lee, C. (2013). Why does our fifth most deadly cancer get just 1% of our research funding?. Daily Mail. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail. co.uk/health/article-2470711/Pancreatic-cancer-receives-1-researchfunding.html.

Lustgarden Foundation. (2009). Cure pancreatic cancer: The Lustgarden Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.lustgarten.org/ourmission.

National Cancer Act of 1937, Pub.L.No.244.

National Cancer Act of 1971, Pub.L.No. 92-218.

National Institutes of Health. (2013, August 28). Cancer research funding. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/ NCI/research-funding.

Parker-Pope, T. (2008, March 06). Cancer funding: does it all add up?. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes. com/2008/03/06/cancer-funding-does-it-add-up/.

Social Security Act of 1935, Pub.L.No. 74-271.

Appendix 1

National Institutes of Health. (2013, August 28). Cancer research funding. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/ NCI/research-funding.

BLACK KNIGHT Jordan Brady

The university of Idaho Honors Program (UHP) offers a range of enriching course study and activities. Active since 1983, events such as concerts, plays, films, leadership retreats, service trips during Spring Break, and “Fire Side Chats” with professors have been well loved by students.

These, on top of honors exclusive seminars and lectures, are great ways to meet like-minded students across both colleges and majors. What more information?

See the UHP website at http:// www.uidaho.edu/honors.

about the HONORS PROGRAM

“In my Honors experience, I’ve seen Honors students try to start a campfire with synthetic motor oil and calculate that 90,000 amps are needed to cook four hot dogs… you never know what is coming next!”

—Cooper Atkinson

“It’s not a specific event. It’s just

generally being in this environment with people of like minds and similar aspirations. that’s what i like.

—Kennadie Johnson

”

“

I Still don’t understand what brownie-in-motion is. —Jordan Brady

”

“My most memorable moment

was when we built a huge blanket fort in the 11th floor lounge and then we watched four movies. we were pretty much laying on top of each other in this pillow-infested blanket fort. —Andrea Mansfeld

”

“

The Ice Cream social. We met in the old arboretum and it was raining and everyone was talking. We played the ninja game and had ice cream. We met Alton and all the upperclassmen, that was really fun. It was one of the first events we did with the Honors program, and I got to know some of the other students better. It was just the adventure of going out in the rain and hiking through the old arb with students that I didn’t know that well.

—Caleb Quates

”

“Last year I made more friends than

I would have thought possible being on McCoy. I think we became a lot closer because we were all in the honors program. We took a lot of the same classes, and being so close with the two floors, it was easy to make both girl friends and guy friends.

—Melissa Damele

”

“

I enjoy the dynamic of honors classes. It’s a different environment and allows for better class discussion.

—Jackson Deobald

”

“Why show

up to a camp fire with a bundle of wood when you can bring a truck full?

—Mark Woodland

”

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The Looking Glass

meet the honors leadership

HONORS LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

meet the editors Alyssa Baugh

Microbiology, Physics “I have made some empty promises in my life but, hands down, that was the most generous.” —Michael Scott, The Office

Taylor Kowalski English, Psychology

“I like writing books and vintage dresses.”

Mickinzie Johnson President Katie Vandenberg Vice President Emily Gehlken Treasurer

Jennifer Downen Secretary, Service Chair Krista Stanley Historian, Media Chair Nicole Carter Alyssa Ertel

Karina Eyre Jesse Jutson Lauren Kees Calvin Miller Sam Roberts

HONORS PROGRAM DIRECTOR Dr. Alton Campbell received his Ph.D. in Wood and Paper Science from North Carolina State University, his M.A. in Chemistry from Duke University, and his B.S. in Science Education from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is a tenured, full professor in the Department of Conservation Social Science and served as Associate Dean for the College of Natural Resources from 1993 to 2007, as Associate Dean for the College of Graduate studies from 2007-2011. Dr. Campbell was the Honors Program Associate Director from 2008 until January 2014, at which point he was named Director. Over the course of his career, Dr. Campbell has authored 27 refereed manuscripts, 23 non-refereed manuscripts, and 3 book chapters and made over 60 presentations at national and regional meetings.

As Director, Dr. Campbell endeavors tirelessly to engage and support students at every chance he can: through leadership development, club activities, service programs, living groups, undergrad research, study abroad programs, national student exchange, and advising for undergraduates and graduate students. His efforts earned him an ASUI Outstanding Faculty Award, an ASUI Service Award, an ASUI Outstanding Organization Adviser Award, a Residence Hall Faculty Involvement Award, and over 30 UI Alumni Awards for Excellence as the most inspiring faculty mentor selected individually by the top 40 graduating students each year.

Elizabeth Miller English, Psychology

“I’ve been writing for ten years now. I think I might be getting serious.”

Krista Stanley

Advertising, Mathematics “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” —G. K. Chesterton

Amanda Vu

Chemical Engineering “It may take just one fall to become a true hurdler, but it takes more than one failure to become a successful person.”

Linnea Worley

International Studies “If writing was oxygen, I’d be set for life.”