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LUTHER COLLEGE
CHIPS
“Let the chips fall where they may.”
DECEMBER 11, 2014
Serving the Luther College community since 1884.
VOLUME 137, NO. 12
Decorah to hold civil rights vigil
BLACK LIVES MATTER. In early December, protestors in Times Square, New York City marched in response to recent police action.
ANNA JEIDE NEWS EDITOR The Decorah Human Rights Commission, Northeast Iowa Peace and Justice Center and area churches will host Black Lives Matter: Civil Rights Vigil at the Winneshiek County Courthouse at noon on Saturday, Dec. 13. This vigil will be an open meeting of the Decorah Human Rights Commission in response to recent police action in the United States, which resulted in the deaths of individuals such as Michael Brown and
Eric Garner. “After the last situation in New York City where the grand jury chose not to indict a police officer, we felt that we had to have some response as an organization in order to create conversation,” Human Rights Commissioner and Northeast Iowa Peace and Justice Center board member Matt Tapscott said. The vigil in Decorah coincides with the National March Against Police Violence in Washington, D.C., which will be held on the same day. “We think this is a human rights issue,
not just a civil rights issue,” Chair of the Decorah Human Rights Commission Sheila Radford-Hill said. “It’s about the patterns of policing and the brokenness of the criminal justice system. We recognize that the police are operating in a very broken system. We just want to stand up to say enough is enough and it’s time to make some changes.” All who attend the vigil will be invited to sign a petition that will be sent to United States Attorney General Eric Holder. “The Peace and Justice Center’s perspective is that justice means justice for
Photo courtesy of ibtimes.co.uk
all, but it’s fairly obvious that for people of color their communities are policed differently than majority communities are policed,” Tapscott said. “We are going to petition the Attorney General to review police guidelines and investigate abuses.” The vigil will be an opportunity for participants to sign the petition, listen to keynote speakers and join the conversation about this issue, according to Radford-Hill. VIGIL, PAGE 4
Faculty blog on Ferguson Students reflect on change projects receives mixed responses LAURA HAYES STAFF WRITER On Nov. 24, Prosecuting Attorney for St. Louis County Robert McCulloch announced that the grand jury would not indict officer Darren Wilson, sparking controversy nationwide. In August, Wilson fatally shot Michael Brown, 18. Since the incident began in Ferguson, Mo., there have been dueling testimonies. The day after McCulloch announced that the grand jury decided that there was no “probable cause” to file charges against Wilson, Professor of Religion Guy Nave published a blog entry entitled “Ferguson: A Question of Excessive Force.” “I was sitting in a hotel room in San Diego the evening that the prosecuting attorney made the announcement,” Nave said. “I was so taken aback by the verdict. I was not surprised by the verdict,
but I was somewhat surprised by the lack of any acknowledgement or recognition of what seemed to me an obvious excessive use of violence.” In this blog entry, Nave raises the question of the use of “excessive force” by the police department. Citing the Washington Post, Nave says that a total of six Ferguson officers have been “named in civil rights lawsuits alleging the use of excessive force.” “What does it say about police training if a trained police officer feels his life is at risk because an unarmed teenager is approaching him?” Nave writes. “Do we really believe there is NOTHING wrong, excessive or even illegal when a police officer kills an unarmed teenager by firing more than ten shots at him?” Within minutes of being posted, Nave’s blog received feedback. FERGUSON BLOG, PAGE 4
MATT HELM STAFF WRITER
Students in the environmental studies senior seminar course have spent the semester working on environmental change projects to better the community. “The general tenor of the course is about taking action in the environment,” Assistant Director of the Center for Sustainable Communities Stratis Giannakouros said. “This course isn’t just about being critical, it is about doing something. We make the move from just reading about something for a class to getting answers for yourself. The important part here is the process, not the answer.”
Throughout the semester the students have been studying how businesses and grassroots organizations make changes to more sustainable practices. “My original research was on sustainable cities and how they function,” Emily Stumpf (‘15) said. “About 35 percent of waste that goes into a landfill could have been composted. The Decorah landfill has about seven years left on it before it fills up. For our project, we wanted to initiate curbside composting, where you take your compost scraps and set them up at the end of the driveway with recycling.” CHANGE PROJECTS, PAGE 4