INSIDE
Dallas’s hottest new donuts Facebook: Big brother? Basketball’s bad weekend
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MONDAY
JANUARY 30, 2012 MONDAY High 70, Low 54 TUESDAY High 72, Low 54
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LGBT lights up City Hall ALISSA FITZPATRICK Contributing Writer afitzpatrick@smu.edu Facing the Dallas skyline, members and supporters of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community stood outside City Hall Friday night, protesting Mayor Mike Rawlings’ refusal to sign the “Freedom to Marry pledge.” “We want him [Rawlings] to sign the pledge. I know he is concerned with it just being symbolic, but it’s an important issue to the LGBT community and to the constituents,” Rafael McDonnell of Resource Center Dallas said. Over 100 mayors across the country have signed the measure, which promotes marriage equality. However, the Dallas mayor said that while he supports gay rights, it is a social issue and one that is not within his duties. “I decided not to sign onto that letter because that is inconsistent with my view of the duties of the office of the mayor,” Rawlings said in a Facebook post last week. Activists and members of Get Equal Texas, which fights for marriage equality, disagree. “Our fight for marriage
equality is not a social issue. We are fighting for our dignity; we are fighting for our families,” Mark Reed-Walkup of Get Equal Texas said. During his election, Rawlings supported gay marriage; however, Reed-Walkup now feels that Rawlings has turned his back on the community and Dallas. “Mayor Rawlings really campaigned heavily to the gay community that he supported our cause and supported marriage equality,” ReedWalkup said. “When he got to office, he turned his back on us.” While Mayor Rawlings cannot enact legislation for marriage equality, protestors want him to take a stance by signing the pledge. “The pledge is not going to turn into a law. It’s a commitment to his constituents that he believes all families are created equal,” C.D. Kirven, an activist at the protest, said. “City Hall is a place for love, a place for justice, a place for the people to be heard. It is not a place for religion.” And clearly the people are being heard, as Mayor Rawlings met with over 20 people from the LGBT community Saturday morning. The meeting was closed to the press, but Rawlings addressed
the media after, saying that he understands it is a big issue, “but in this case I chose to step back from symbolism, because that’s what it is.” Kirven believes supporting symbolism is exactly what Rawlings needs to do. “No mayor can approve marriage equality, but he can stand with our families,” Kirven said. Some believe that Rawlings’ refusal to sign the pledge is purely political. “I think he’s worried about re-election, honestly,” Sean Hubbard, who is running for U.S. Senate, said. “But I think in the end you have to do what is right and let the election work itself.” And Kirven agrees. “I can’t help but think that this is political … He’s playing to the money of anti-gay people.” Reed-Walkup and Get Equal Texas vow to continue speaking out until the mayor signs the pledge. “The Dallas LGBT community is large. We’re loud, we’re proud, and as Texans, we fight back against discrimination,” he said.
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Member of GetEQUAL TX and LGBT activist C.D. Kirven calls upon Mayor Mike Rawlings to sign the “Mayors for the Freedom to Marry Pledge” during Friday evening’s protest held in front of Dallas City Hall.
ENTERTAINMENT
MEMORIAL
SMU remembers the Holocaust CALEB WOSSEN Contributing Writer cwossen@smu.edu
Courtesy of Turner Broadcasting
The full cast in TNT’s remake of “Dallas.” The remake premieres this summer and has scenes filmed at SMU.
‘Dallas’ TV remake shoots on campus JAN ANDERSON Copy Editor jnanderson@smu.edu In the 1980s, one TV show symbolized Dallas more than any other. The glitzy oil-rich Ewing family entertained audiences week after week on CBS for 13 years. The series gave people around the country a view of Dallas not tied to what happened one sad day in the fall of 1963. Dallas as portrayed on “Dallas” had glitz and glamour, big hair and big hats, high stakes business deals and high drama. The original series filmed most of the show’s 357 episodes either on site at Southfork Ranch in Parker, Texas or at the MGM Studios in Hollywood. The updated “Dallas” is filming all around Dallas, and on Friday, they filmed on campus at Southern Methodist University. The new series is not a remake, but a continuation. John Patterson, location
manager for “Dallas” said they were looking for a “location that had the right gravitas, importance and beauty.” “[We] looked at a few locations around town and kept coming back to Dallas Hall. We loved the look,” Patterson said. “They don’t often do this, but they granted us the right to film here and use the name SMU.” For the show’s on-set prop master John Navarro, it was a chance to get paid to spend time at his alma mater. He attended SMU as part of the Professional Actors Training Program in the MFA program in 1976 to 1977. Navarro said the campus “seems bigger, unlike when I went back to my elementary school, which seemed smaller, this seems bigger.” Navarro said his job was “a lot like the army, hours and hours of boredom surrounded by moments of pure panic when you have to get stuff done, but it is rewarding.” While she was not a regular
viewer of the show back in the day, executive producer Cynthia Cidre has caught up on her viewing and is now a self-described “Dallas nerd.” The original series “Dallas” had one of the most watched episodes in TV history when on Nov. 7, 1980, a record-setting audience of 360 million tuned in to find out who shot J.R. Ewing in the previous season’s finale. The latest incarnation of “Dallas” as a TV show will premiere this summer on cable network TNT. Original continuing cast members Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J. R. Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs) and Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing) are joined in the new series by Josh Henderson (John Ross Ewing III), Jesse Metcalfe (Christopher Ewing), Jordana Brewster (Elena Ramos), Brenda Strong (Ann Ryland Ewing), Julie Gonzalo (Rebecca Sutter) and Marlene Forte (Carmen Ramos).
Students and academics alike bustled into Hughes-Trigg Student Center to observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day Friday. The SMU office of the Chaplain, Hillel of Dallas and the Embrey Human Rights Program sponsored the event. In a room seasoned with artwork both educational and evocative of concentration
camps, the audience sat in deliberate attention waiting for the ceremony to commence, catalyzed with a prayer led by Dr. Judy Henneberger, associate chaplain and minister at SMU. Afterwards, a Yahrzeit candle, present at synagogues to commemorate the dead, was lit in respect for those lost in the concentration camps, while Serge Frolov, associate professor of religious studies, and Nate and Ann Levine, chair of Jewish studies at SMU, recited Kaddish Yehe Shelama Rabba.
“It’s a traditional Jewish prayer recited for the deceased that is a part of every synagogue service,” Frolov said. “Traditionally, it was the duty of the firstborn son to recite it for the father, which is why it is usually translated as the Orphan’s Kaddish, but it literally means the Mourner’s Kaddish.” Dr. Rick Halperin, director of SMU’s Embrey Human Rights Program, also spoke at
See MEMORIAL on Page 3
POLITICS
GOP race heats up in Florida RAHFIN FARUK News Editor rfaruk@smu.edu Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are squaring off in Florida’s primary on Tuesday. With Rick Santorum back in Pennsylvania and Ron Paul abstaining from the expensive Florida race, recent debates have centered on Romney and Gingrich. Gingrich, whose candidacy has been declared dead twice in the race to the November election, has surged in the last week because of his surprise victory in the South Carolina primary. He appealed to evangelicals and the Christian Right in strong debate performances. For the Romney campaign,
Florida is a key test for the exgovernor’s national appeal. After barely losing Iowa and not appealing to the GOP base in South Carolina, Romney needs to win Florida to secure his position as the front-runner in the race. Seeking to deliver a knockout blow to Gingrich’s upstart campaign, Romney and his campaign have attacked Gingrich’s record as speaker of the House and his work for mortgage giant Fannie Mae. The Gingrich campaign has complained about the relentless assault of negative advertisements that Romney has shown in Florida. Gingrich, in his usual aggressive style, has also attacked Romney
for his not-so-conservative track record. As the governor of Massachusetts, Romney supported state-sponsored healthcare and gun control legislation. The Florida primary will decide the future of the Gingrich campaign. The campaign will either gain steam or be unable to stay competitive in the long run of primaries to come. Gingrich remains optimistic about his chances even though the latest polls show he is about 10 percent behind Romney. “We’re seeing the conservative movement start to come together,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I think it’s going to be very close. We have a tremendous effort under way to reach out to the conservatives.”