2013–14 Issue 10

Campus Chronicle

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a publication of the Pacific Union College Student Association

vol. XC

no. 10

THURSDAY 1 MAY 2014

Aj Scarpino

Donald Sterling Saga

West Is Best

By Tara Hattendorf NEWS & FEATURES pg. 3

By Austin Ngaruiya SPORTS pg. 4

By David O’Hair OP-ED pg. 7

Alumni Recap in Pictures Photos by Allison Regan

PUC welcomes alumni for the 2014 Homecoming Weekend.

PUC alumnus Aren Rennacker speaks for vespers in the church he regularly attended as a student.

Bradford Newton, D. Min., speaks for Sabbath alumni service.

Professor Lary Taylor sits with honored alumni.

Richard Bonjour—honorary class of ‘64.

PUC honors its oldest alumnus from the class of ‘34.

A few notable alumni take a moment to take a picture with President Heather Knight.

Two former nursing roommates from the class of ‘54 reminisce about the past.

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Campus Chronicle

no.10

NEWS & FEATURES

The Record Keeper Causes Great Controversy Within General Conference Theological dispute regarding The Record Keeper.

By Malek Sheen The Record Keeper is a web mini-series of 11 episodes that dramatizes the story of good versus evil from angelic perspectives. The show follows Raina, an angel who attempts to record the viewpoints of Cadan, a good angel, and Larus, a bad angel, who struggle to preserve their friendship as universal civil war breaks out. Based on Ellen G. White’s The Great Controversy, the story sets out with the purpose to ask the question: “Is God fair?”

Having never attempted this type of creative outreach, with about $1 million, the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference sponsored the production of The Record Keeper. “As someone who has been raised as an Adventist and who has recently left the Adventist church, this is the type of production and program that would draw me back,” said an Andrews University student after the on-campus screening.

“Every time any of the three [writers] have shown the project to anyone over the past three years they said, ‘The General Conference did that?’” said Rajeev Sigamoney, assistant professor of film and television and one of the writers for the show. “They didn’t think the General Conference could be behind something so well produced.”

On April 11, 2014, the General Conference announced the cancellation of The Record Keeper.

According to Dave Gemmell, associate director of the NAD Ministerial Department, the scripts were “vetted through many committees and [had been] approved for production,” yet the General Conference decided last minute, after $1 million had already been spent on production and the show was completed, that The Record Keeper had “problematic and theologically inaccurate matters.”

The Biblical Research Institute claimed three theological inaccuracies: the view of God and His perfect creation, the view of Christ and the Atonement and the view of the Holy Spirit.

However, throughout production, Garret Caldwell, PR director for the General Conference, wrtier and producer of the show, was involved with the script. “We made changes on episodes based on notes given to us,” says Sigamoney. “Caldwell was in contact with the Ellen White estate. There was one time when one of the characters said Jesus’ face looked gaunt and we had to rewrite it because [the Ellen White Estate] said Jesus never looked like he was starving because he was so filled with the Holy Spirit.”

“Caldwell works for the General Conference, they funded it. He was approving the script and his boss was approving the script,” says Sigamoney.

Jason Satterlund, owner of Big Puddle Films, as well as director and one of

the writers for the show said this in an earlier interview: “It is important to note that this series was created for the outside world. Our congregation is not the target audience. Everything in the series, from the action to the steampunk, to the non-threatening political language, to the parkour, to the multi-cultural approach was specifically designed to that end … Unfortunately, a small handful of people at the GC simply don’t understand this. It is very important to note that it is a small group that opposes this. Most of the people at the church are behind it. What is sad is that the few who oppose it happen to be in positions of great power.”

Pastor Laffit Cortes screened the show during winter quarter of 2014. When asked his position on the General Conference’s decision, he said, “I don’t agree.

The General Conference needs to remember that we are a big tent and what the creative team behind The Record Keeper was trying to do, was to portray the great controversy story to the population that we aren’t reaching.

“Traditional evangelism isn’t working,” Cortes continued. “Storytelling is the most effective way of reaching this generation … Theological conflicts are for those of us who know the theology but for those who don’t know it wouldn’t matter … What they were hoping to do was show the movie and then have discussion.

And because of the decision, that’s where we’re missing the opportunity.”

Bible studies were prepared to accompany the series and promote further study. According to the Biblical Research Institute via Adventist New Network, “the content of The Record Keeper would have put the church in the difficult position of endorsing the misrepresentation of biblical truth while at the same time offering studies that conflicted with the dramatic presentations.”

As Sigamoney said in a previous interview, “If the series was released in its current form, I have no doubt it would have raised many relevant questions regarding the choices we made in the storytelling. It was fiction in the end; none of the three of us claimed to receive a prophetic vision. There would have been discussion regarding our choices and some of the specifics of our Adventist world view that many would have challenged us on. I don’t know where it would have all led, but I believe it would have been valuable. It would have been relevant. Isn’t that what our church is striving to be and so often failing with in our efforts towards our young people?”

In terms of the future of “The Record Keeper” or plans for compromise with the General Conference Sigamoney said, “I know of no plans for compromise.

I think they’re just burying it. I know that they explored options of modifying it but that’s not the route they’re willing to go. The only plans that it could ever see the light of day are if the General Conference changed its mind at some point in the future.”

The Danger of Gender Biased Safety Warnings Shouldn’t we all be careful?

By Jessica Winters As children, boys and girls are taught the dangers of crossing the street without looking both ways, talking to strangers and petting strange dogs. Parents encourage their kids to stay close and hold their hands, as well as to yell loudly and run to a trusted adult if a stranger tries to get the kids to go with them.

Up to the age of about 11, safety warnings for boys and girls sound about the same and are given with fairly equal consistency. Around the age of 12, though, when boys and girls start becoming young men and women, a rift develops and almost all of that talk of safety and stranger danger shifts toward girls.

This drastic difference is concerning not just because it teaches girls that they are less capable of taking care of themselves and that they have to cover up and avoid certain activities to prevent potential attackers. It also teaches boys that they are on their own when it comes to their personal safety—that they need to be “tough” or “man” enough to defend themselves. It makes it seem like they are fine to go walking down the street alone at night, or not to let someone know their plans in case something bad happens. In a sense, it teaches boys that they

are untouchable and that it’s okay for them to be more reckless, and that is the most dangerous lesson we can teach anyone.

I have a guy friend who was out with some friends one night, and someone slipped something into his drink. He woke up in an alleyway early in the morning to find that someone had bashed him in the back of his head and stolen his keys and wallet. They also had taken his car for a joyride and parked it somewhere else, as well as taken things out of the trunk. He’s so lucky he was able to walk away from that mostly unscathed, but it really rattled his faith in people.

According to rainn.org, “Men and boys are often the victims of the crimes of sexual assault, sexual abuse, and rape. In fact, in the U.S., about 10% of all victims are male.”

That statistic shows clearly that men are not immune to danger and abuse, but people rarely bring up those facts, allowing people to be lulled into believing that men don’t need to be careful.

Anyone can be attacked or taken of advantage of, no matter their gender, so it’s in all of our interest to practice basic safety when we travel or go out, and to remind all our loved ones to do the same.

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THURSDAY, 1 MAY 2014

NEWS & FEATURES

The Man Behind the Announcements: Aj Scarpino Vespers video announcements would not be the same without him.

By Tara Hattendorf You may know him only as the crazy guy who gives the video announcements every Friday at vespers, but Austin (Aj) Scarpino is more than that. He is a man with a genuine interest in telling the campus what’s going on, and as a film major he is able to do that and more. Since applying to read the announcements in the fall, Scarpino has been in the video announcements nearly every week, using humorous monologue to inform the school.

Scarpino is not alone in creating the video announcements. He has a team of two other film majors helping him. Taylor Smith takes care of the sound and Hayden Cox works with the cinematography.

“I’ve worked with them before on school projects,” Scarpino says. “We’re all really dynamic and work well together.” The crew has become closer over the course of making the videos and has been able to produce higher quality videos each time.

The total process to create the video announcements for each week takes about two hours. Between Monday and Wednesday, Religious Vice President Adam Washington sends Scarpino the announcements to cover. Then they film at the end of the week, “depending on when we get the announcements,” Scarpino says. “We meet up and have all of our equipment — the sound equipment, the camera — and we pick a location at random on campus.” They try to find areas with nice backgrounds to create interesting shots.

After Scarpino memorizes the announcements he ad-libs on the spot and uses different comedic tones, so each take is different than the previous. Because they don’t edit the clips, they usually film about three to four takes to get it perfect, but Scarpino says, “If I can get it in one take then we’re done.” Filming the announcements takes about half an hour, and

Scarpino says, “It’s a nice break from school,” and the three friends get to hang out while working at the same time.

As film majors Scarpino and his team are able to put to use what they learn in class. “We’ve been applying everything that we’ve learned with editing software and color correcting,” he says. When Scarpino began working on the video announcements in the fall, the crew, which has changed each quarter, used point-and-shoot cameras. The team now utilizes more equipment and resources from the film department, and videos are edited more now than they were in the start. This quarter’s announcements also now feature introductions filmed by Cox. Scarpino says that Cox “went around campus on his own time and filmed a bunch of different locations of people and buildings, and he made a Portlandia-like snippet.”

The video announcements are known for being funny, but Scarpino and his team have run into a few problems with their humorous videos. Once in the fall while filming a segment by the fountain in front of the church and Paulin Hall, a woman saw them acting funny while filming and she came up to them with her opinion. Scarpino says she asked, “What is this for? Are you going to show this in the church? Why would you do that?”

Scarpino responded to her, “Because it’s funny and we’re trying to make people laugh.”

The woman then said, “Why would you want to make people laugh in the sanctuary?”

Scarpino says after the incident, “We just kind of awkwardly left the area, and she just kept staring.”

Meeting this woman did change the team’s ideas about the announcement videos. He says, “I decided to view it from her standpoint, because not everyone laughs in the sanctuary. Some people find that place is a lot more serious than I personally do in my personal walk. What I’ve been doing now is keeping it really

simple. That’s what the announcements are and that’s what I want.” Scarpino and his team realized that the videos need to be more than just funny — they need to fit the setting of the church sanctuary.

The experience taught Scarpino the importance of making people feel comfortable in church, which is one of the reasons he uses humor in the announcements at all. “I think that the minute and half that we get to put together on screen is what makes people sit a little bit easier in their seats. Because maybe somebody hasn’t been to church in a while and that’s the thing they see. And if that makes them think, ‘All right, this place is accepting,’ then we’re doing God’s work.”

Scarpino advises students, in whatever they are doing, to have confidence and to find their passion.

“Have fun or it won’t be good work,” he says. “Have confidence in it. If you don’t believe in it yourself, then no one else is going to enjoy it.”

“I’m just really honored and blessed to be able to do what I love doing for the school. It’s my contribution, and if I can make anyone laugh on a Friday night because of what I say, then it’s a success.”

Aj Scarpino, the face of vespers announcements.

Cross My Heart – The Story of Jesus People A look at the rise and fall of America’s worst Christian pop band.

By Jayson Paw It is one thing to spoof something of daily life, such as one’s occupation, but it’s another matter entirely to spoof a religion, especially in our Christian school.

Enter Jesus People – a mockumentary that chronicles the world of Christian pop music the eyes of what the movie describes as “America’s worst Christian pop band” through the humor of This is Spinal Tap and Best In Show. Directed

by Jason Naumann and written by PUC’s own Rajeev Sigamoney and Dan Ewald, it is a film that has gained both praise and scorn towards to its subject material. It has struck chords with people, especially Christians, in regards to whether the subject material is considered fair in its satire or bordering on “mocking God,” as stated by faith magazine Relevant.

The beginnings of Jesus People came from the concept of humor. Sigamoney mentions that the film is a way to “poke fun at some of the eccentricities of the Christian community” out of a belief that “we, as Christians, needed to have a better sense of humor about ourselves.

“I think when we as a group of people think that we are above criticism, we lose the capacity to grow,” he continued. “Christians often get the reputation of being too serious and never having a sense of humor, so another hopeful result was that people would see some of us Christians in a different light.”

First released on YouTube and the comedy site Funny or Die as an online series back in 2008, Jesus People generated fierce discussions within the comments

section with people defending or condemning the content for its portrayal of Christian culture. With the conversion to the big screen, it is logical to assume that the debate will continue. “We screened the feature at Sonscreen and at numerous film festivals across the country (including the Friars Club Film Festival) and the majority of audiences definitely connected with the content,” commented Sigamoney. “Of course, some people were offended because they thought that we were taking shots at a faith as outsiders (not understanding that we ourselves were a part of the community). But in conversation with people about what our intended results were for the film and the need for self-reflective criticism, often our conversations ended with an understanding of both sides.”

Jesus People premiered as a feature film on April 12 to theaters across the United States ranging from Hollywood cinemas to the theatre in the Mall of America. Besides being reviewed by newspapers, movie websites and religious blogs concerning its content, Jesus People has also been recently requested by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to be part of the cinema collection at the Margret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills.

When asked why people should watch Jesus People, Sigamoney said, “So people may see someone they know or dare I say it, even themselves, in one or a few of the characters. And that ability might help them grow in their walk to be an honest individual.” He also said that the film is “funny and will make people laugh for 90 minutes. And most doctors agree laughter is good for your health.”

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Campus Chronicle

no.10

SPORTS

Playoffs? Don’t talk about... Playoffs?

Processing the insanity that is the NBA Playoffs.

By James Shim

Western Conference has lived up to its fullest potential, causing basketball fans everywhere to drool over each nail-biting game.

It’s safe to say that basketball fans everywhere were excited when the NBA playoffs began on April 19. The thing is, nobody expected the playoffs to be this exciting early on. Countless overtime games, nail-biters and clutch shots have defined this year’s playoffs, and it’s only the first round. Heading into April 29, there have already been eight overtime games and out of the 30 games played up to this point, half of them have been decided by only five points or fewer.

If we switch conferences and look over to the East, the major headline surrounding the playoffs thus far is who can dethrone the Miami Heat’s run at a third consecutive title? The Heat coasted out of the first round by sweeping the Charlotte Bobcats, and now patiently wait for the rest of the bracket to fill out. The Indiana Pacers who had the Eastern Conference’s best record may find themselves upset by the Atlanta Hawks in the first round. Thought by many to be the team to dethrone the Heat, the Pacers’ team has completely fallen apart, Throughout the NBA regular season, it was clear that the Western Conference as they are on the verge of an early playoff bounce. had a number of more talented teams than the Eastern Conference, and if anybody had any doubts, the playoffs are showing exactly why the West triumphs over With the Pacers struggling to find their mojo, many are selecting the Washington the East. Every series in the West has provided fans with rushes of adrenaline, Wizards to give the Heat a run for their money. Their mix of young talent as lots of “ooh’s” and “ah’s” and even times of uneasiness. The eight-seeded Dallas well as veteran leadership prompt some to believe that they have the blueprint Mavericks have a chance to upset last year’s Western Conference champion San of a team with their athleticism to keep up with the Heat. However, it seems Antonio Spurs, the Houston Rockets and Portland Trailblazers have already inevitable that the Heat will reach a fourth consecutive Finals appearance with gone to overtime three times, and the heavy favorites in the Oklahoma City an opportunity to win a third consecutive with the way the East is collapsing Thunder may find themselves leaving the playoffs early for a second consecutive around them and practically handing them a ticket to the NBA Finals. year. The headlines go on and on, from Vince Carter’s improbable buzzer beater, to former D-League player Troy Daniels finding overtime stardom, Regardless of what happens throughout the next weeks, the first round of and ridiculous four-point plays by Steph Curry, Russell Westbrook and Kevin the NBA playoffs have provided fans everywhere with exciting basketball. The Durant in clutch moments. true intensity and emotion of the players can be seen as they all try to achieve a common goal of winning a NBA title. While this is only the start of the NBA If that was all too much information to handle, just think of it like this: playoffs, be sure to go to the Campus Center or tune into any of the playoff every playoff series in the West but one was tied at 2-2 heading into April games online during a study break and don’t miss any of the action that is the 29. Nobody expected the first round to be this close, but every game in the NBA playoffs.

Donald Sterling and the Facade of Moral Outrage

By Austin Ngaruiya In 2014, while racism is not tolerated in the public light, it still exists behind closed doors. By now you’ve heard about the fiasco involving Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and his oh so racist remarks recorded during a private conversation. Players, coaches and owners across the league have expressed their utter disgust of Sterling and his comments. Commissioner Adam Silver acted swiftly by issuing Sterling a lifetime ban from the NBA league and a $2.5 million fine. The league handled the fiasco perfectly, but I can’t help but feel that we all missed the broader point on this topic. In our haste to pat ourselves on the back for becoming outraged at a single anecdote of bigotry, we’ve failed to see the systemic nature of Sterling’s antics.

When executives and owners across the league spoke on Sterling’s comments, they seemed disappointed but not shocked. Sterling’s bigotry has been public knowledge for decades, however, the NBA never took steps to punish or remove Sterling until his antics were front and center in the national spotlight. In 2005, Sterling was the culprit of the largest housing discrimination settlement in the history of the United States. Sterling, who owns nearly a quarter of the apartments in Los Angeles, continually berated and hassled minority tenants until they moved out. Sterling even sent his wife to apartment buildings to pose as an inspector and harass minority tenants. Discrimination is ingrained into Donald Sterling’s DNA. However crude Sterling’s recent comments were, they are nothing in comparison to the damage his housing discrimination caused. Housing discrimination is the most damaging version of institutionalized racism that exists in America.

Slumlords like Donald Sterling prevent minorities from renting in affluent white neighborhoods. Sterling is but a cog in the machine of housing discrimination.

Banks and lending firms conduct practices such as redlining, in which they draw red lines around certain low income-minority areas and refuse to offer mortgages to these areas. These housing practices contribute largely to the widening equality gap between blacks and whites. Living in better neighborhoods allows your children to attend better schools, which leads to a better job and higher quality of living.

Out of this unfortunate situation, a silver lining has appeared for the NBA.

Teams have used the Sterling situation to bond and stand in solidarity with the Clippers. Several teams wore black socks or headbands to signify their alliance with the Clippers. The Miami Heat duplicated the Clippers act of protest by wearing their warmups inside out, hiding their logos. Teams were even prepared to boycott games if Adam Silver had not handed out a punishment considered severe enough. All these acts of support led to a league wide public relations campaign called, “we are one.”

Even though Donald Sterling has been ousted from the NBA, this is not a cure-all to racism. There are a million Donald Sterlings; it just so happens that this one got caught. The collective moral outrage is well meaning, but sadly misplaced. Soon, the Donald Sterling story will be gone, the outrage will simmer down and people will revert to pretending racism no longer exists. Sterling is gone from the NBA, but he still resides over nearly one-fourth of the apartments in Los Angeles. Hopefully, one day that’ll anger us too.

Donald Sterling; Photo Credit: northjersey.com

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THURSDAY, 1 MAY 2014

SPORTS

Alumni Sports Recap

Brandon Monty recalls his playing days at the Covered Wagon.

Julio Garcia looks to steal the ball from the opposing team.

Aren Rennacker analyzes the situation before making his next move for the alumni team.

Both the alumni and the student team seek possession of the ball.

Alumnus Will Bell looks to run the fast break against some of his former teammates.

Keoni Real aggressively keeps the ball away from the alumni team.

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Campus Chronicle

no.10

OPINIONS & EDITORIALS

My Church Doesn’t Care About Me Adventism’s disconnection with Generation Y.

By Carlo Pean There is something frightfully wrong with the Seventh-day Adventist church today­­­—a problem that has pervaded most religious organizations around the world. If not dealt with, it can take away all of the good that the SDA church has done in the world. The problem is this: my church doesn’t care about me.

It is a bold statement to say, surely. Perhaps when I get older I’ll see the complexities of the church’s organization, and I’ll laugh that I ever said such blasphemies. I’m just afraid that I won’t last until then. The fact of the matter is that our church is ignoring youth. In churches, programs cater to children with Vacation Bible Schools and Pathfinders, and their parents are occupied with Revelation seminars and maybe some marriage counseling. All the while kids from as early as middle school to as late as adults in their mid-thirties either have to join a conversation made for and by a generation out of touch with their issues or concerns.

This neglect of Generation X and Y is reflected in Adventist entertainment, as well. Adventist media such as Adventist World Radio, 3ABN or The Hope Channel continue to crank out live sermons and entertainment for young children and we in the middle are forgotten. If there is any program or media that begins to appeal to us, it is either underfunded or cancelled due to obsessions over certain interpretations of theology or something. What we see on this end is a fear towards new media of communication and a dismissal of a generation.

Those who do talk to us tend to speak about things that we’ve honestly found irrelevant. Adventists have been obsessed with times and dates and my generation simply does not care anymore. Church history is interesting and eschatological guesswork is entertaining, but it is no world to live within.

What’s more, because of these twisted doctrines, a steady message is beaten out. Catholics are evil, the pope is evil and Satan has used all fictional writers (J.K Rowling, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien for starters), all actors and directors of Hollywood and all musicians (insert any voice that parents fear that their children would listen to before their own) to carry out his sinister plot. And what is this sinister plot? To bring about a National Sunday Law in the United States; this is the end of time. Never mind the fact that as I write, there are Christians being fired, ostracized, tortured or even killed because they confess the name of Christ despite what day they worship on. The end of times only counts when it affects Americans. This frivalty is something that my generation finds ridiculous and a horrid waste of time.

I know at this point I will be flocked by well meaning Adventists insisting that I am wrong. They’ll say that not all church members are like that. That

the church actually cares about me. That I should listen to the message and not the messenger. To them, I would say that enough church members are like this. That as long as the church talks about caring about me instead of doing something, I will still feel neglected. That it is almost impossible to distinguish the message from the messengers own words.

As I see it, this is how the church can show me that they care about me: 1.

Include us in something serious. I’m not talking about collecting offering or dismissing church members. For us to know that we are valued, we need to see pieces of our vision actually realized in church.

2.

Invest in us. Prove to us that you care and invest in us. When the church invests its time, money and energy into it’s youth, they will see returns.

3.

Destroy fear tactics. Fear tactics are unsustainable and always turn out to be ineffective. Perfect love casts out fear and Jesus’ message sets us free. If church leaders want their (ugh, I hate this term) “young people” to know that they are cared for and to then care for the church, they need to—without using fear—give us convincing reasons to live by the 24 fundamental beliefs. If they can’t, then either change some beliefs or don’t ask us to believe something that you can’t articulate.

What if the Adventist church continues to neglect its most creative and powerful age demographic? What if nothing arises for us to do in the church and nothing to entertain us in church media? What if the church continues to preach an irrelevant message? What will become of us? I see three plausible futures: 1.

A dead church. The church will die. Some time in the next 20 years, the last of us will turn off the lights and curse the devil that our inaction has brought the end of such a beautiful movement. This is not the worst of all outcomes.

2.

A wicked church. In an effort to control people, while being relevant to no one, the church will mirror the archenemy that it has been unfairly preaching against all these years.

3.

A broken church. The church will split. Those of us, young and old, who love the church and continue to seek God’s truth will be cast out of the church by those frowning faces, insisting that they are the only pure ones in a polluted world. We will hold onto the church that we love, but we’ll most likely lose our names as Seventh-day Adventists. They’ll keep the name but lose the church.

And yet, there is a fourth option. I see a church wrestling with theology, diverse in membership and inclusive in love. The young and the old, black and white, gay and straight all have a place, and no one will have the time nor reason to believe that their church does not care about them.

The Pursuit of Happiness The 100 happy days challenge.

By Araya Moss I have this jar, which isn’t so much a jar as it is a washed out container of Talenti gelato. Specifics aside, I call it my “good things” jar, and anytime something good happens—something that puts a smile on my face—I’ll write it down, fold it up and toss it in the jar. At the end of the year, I’ll open the jar and “see what little presents life gave me.” The idea came from a post I saw on Tumblr; go figure. I have been doing this for the last two years, and it has helped me to take the time out to appreciate the small things in life.

To taking it a step further, a few weeks ago I stumbled across a website called 100 Happy Days. Its premise is to challenge yourself to—you guessed it—100 days of happiness. To keep track of your 100 happy days, take a picture of what made you happy, and post a picture on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with #100happydays. I’ve seen the hashtag floating around Instagram, and I immediately thought of my own “good things” jar.

So, what were these good things that I documented? Words of affirmation, words of appreciation and compliments are among the ones I remember, because they served as ego boosters in a sense.

These single circumstances amounted toward my happiness, and then just like that the moment was gone. I waited for the next good thing to happen to me and would write that down too. I was measuring the goodness of my day

based on what happened to me.

Thinking about it, something about that just doesn’t seem right.

There’s this thing called joy, which is considered deep and rich. Happiness depends on outside circumstances, whereas joy is internal and constant, therefore more fulfilling.

We’re in the constant pursuit of happiness, but perhaps we’re in search of the wrong thing. Bad things are going to happen to us. It’s inevitable. We can be unhappy about them, but joy comes from within and is what will keep us going.

I know this may sound like I’m just giving different meanings to synonyms here, but the relationship between happiness and joy is like that of jealousy and envy; very similar, yet very different.

This sheds light on the difficulty of the 100 Happy Days Challenge. According to the website, 71 percent of people tried to complete the challenge, but failed because of lack of time. I’m thinking the reason is because happiness is not longterm.

This whole happiness vs. joy debate is a bit confusing. To be honest, I’m trying to better understand it. But if happiness is fleeting and joy is everlasting, I think I’d rather be in the pursuit of joy. *Link to website from QR code Scan Me

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THURSDAY, 1 MAY 2014

OPINIONS & EDITORIALS

The Media’s Overexposure of Flight 370 Major news networks losing credibility.

By David O’Hair The best thing about 24-hour news networks is their ability to broadcast and share important information as it is happening or immediately after it occurrs.

However, the privilege of instant communication gets wasted and severely undervalued when major news outlets broadcast their news using the “ESPN model.” I have determined that the ESPN model of broadcasting is when a news network replays the same handful of stories on a loop for (at least) a continuous 12-hour period. This information flow issue has become prevalent for over a month now; ever since the mysterious disappearance of Flight 370, every major news network has been repeating the same stream of inaccurate and uninformed information.

This ESPN model causes two events to take place: news viewers tune-out from the broadcast and the news outlets lose a bit of their valuable credibility. The networks lose their consistent viewers for the same reason that I have become sick of seeing the CNN logo and listening to Anderson Cooper. I walk into the Grind every morning and see the headline, “Plane search area expanded to the entire ocean due to new information,” and I instantly look away. People inher-ently become tired of repetition and, to be frank, people who actually watch the news are few and far between, so networks need to be careful about accidentally losing viewers because of information stagnation. Besides constant information refreshment, viewers demand that the news networks remain credible

in all aspects of news; this means covering the entire world for global networks.

There are revolts happening in Ukraine, Ferry’s capsizing in Korea, potential plane hi-jackings happening in Bali, yet I did not see any of those events during the 45-minutes of CNN that I watched. If a news outlet wants to maintain its credibility and journalistic weight in the eye of the public, then they have to actually cover the entire world, not just one big issue. It is understandable to an extent why these networks would focus on this one story; a plane simply vanished into thin air (or more likely water). People want to find the plane for their mental and emotional closure, and that is why this story continues to remain prevalent on news stations.

Please do not misconstrue my complaints against the news networks as being com-plaints advocating that no one cares about the missing flight. My heart goes out to all the family members and friends that have loved ones that are still missing. If I was in their shoes, I would probably be demanding that the world stand still until my family was found. Unfortunately, the world moves at a much faster pace than the slow nervous antici-pation of those directly affected by this tragedy.

The world’s populace demands instant and reliable information. That is why the news networks breaking a story every-other-day regarding a promising yet dead-end lead to the plane’s location, is incredibly hurtful to the news industry.

While the world does mourn the innocent casualties of this mysterious accident, the world also moves on. It is time for the news to shift its daily coverage away from Flight 370.

Was God Angry When He Made Michigan?

West Coast is the best coast.

By David O’Hair

with what seemed like a watery hate crime. Coming from the divinely inspired West Coast, I never had to deal with weather that seemed fit for hell. On the topic of awful places, if you picture any reproduction movie of World War I, then you have successfully seen the lovely countryside of Michigan.

The forest are full of trees, but they lack a certain element: their branches. This leaves miles and miles of giant sticks, essentially Satan’s candy cane forest.

But I was happy to hear that our group was going to go see Michigan’s beach! I was eager to compare their finest lakeshore to our might Pacific. Oh boy, my spirits had never been lower then when I saw their beach: it had literal icebergs floating on it. However, trying to be an optimist I thought I would have some fun by jumping from ice burg to iceberg.

Michigan does not even make good ice. My foot went through and into the freezing lake.

So keep these factors in mind when you are thinking about heading to America’s ugly step-sister in the north.

I know this comes across as biased and hurtful to some, but it is not my fault I grew up in the United State’s version of the Garden of Eden.

Thanksgiving has come early this year and we all need to promptly get on our hands and knees to rejoice that our school is not located in Michigan or anywhere on the East Coast for that matter. After returning from a trip to Michigan where I had the “privilege” to spend my time at an Adventist center for higher education that will remain nameless. I have never been more thankful for living in California.

Before I get criticized for writing a biased article, let me just say that I used to live in Washington D.C. and to my surprise the East Coast is just as bad as it was several years ago. Okay, now the rest of the article is going to be extremely California-biased. I am going to save you time by providing you with the top disadvantages of Michigan, so when you are older and Detroit sounds like a good vacation destination, just think back to this and abandon that idiotic thought.

What to say when trying to pick out the right school in Michigan? Um, maybe not next to the projects of downtown. Well that simple request will be extremely difficult as I witnessed the largest amount of scary neighborhoods *This statistic is not accurate, but in the continental United States.* So watch the movie 8 Mile and you will when you are trying to find that great know what I mean. first home, if you are west of Arizona, you are in luck.

Sideways rain, must I continue? Yes, for three days straight I was bombarded

A grotesque look at icy Lake Michigan.

2014-2015 Campus Chronicle editor-in-chief David O’Hair is not impressed.

Campus Chronicle

8

no.10

The Backpage

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