Oak Leaf Newspaper: Spring 2013, Issue 4

TABLE of CONTENTS News

Walking “The Wall” with SRJC Theatre

“A Few Good Men” Stands Tall Nadav Soroker Co-Editor-in-Chief

Like the guards pacing the ambiguous “wall” framing the back of the stage, Aaron Sorkin’s drama, “A Few Good Men,” walks a dangerous, but necessary, line bridging the world of violence with the peaceful civilian lives we take for granted.

This play is even timelier with the current changes in war, changes blurring the lines and bringing “the wall” ever closer to our home, where soldiers defend us on domestic, as well as foreign soil.

With such a powerful and valuable piece, Santa Rosa Junior College’s Theatre Arts Department tackled the challenge with gusto, bravado and a line-up of Marinequality shouters. The theater department brought this piece to life with a beautiful set and creative use of lighting, creating a stark, austere ambiance. The marching chants and well-timed sound effects add touches of realism to the experience.

The acting is good enough that even those familiar with the story are affected by the ending.

The few weaker parts of the show did not detract much from the performance, and many will iron themselves out under the pressure of a watchful audience.

Entering the auditorium, the simple set draws the eye as a single armed guard paces back and forth upstage in front of a background lit up like the setting sun. Observant audience members may notice more armed guards pacing the catwalks above; altogether they project the feel of a military prison.

The show opens strong with Lance Corporal Harold W. Dawson (Jalil Houssain) and Private First Class Louden Downey (Brett Mollard) giving background on the story of how they have killed their fellow Marine, PFC. William T. Santiago (Jose L. del Toro). The imagery presents a strong and striking scene, making beautiful use of the stage and lighting.

The play unfolds from here, bringing to light conspiracies and secrets about how the Marine Corps operates and how the people who volunteer to stand between us and evil defend our country. The play revolves around how investigative officer Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway (Rosella Bearden) works with Lieutenant Junior Grade Daniel A. Kaffee (Justin Brown) to defend the two Marines.

The play ramps up quickly with the introduction of other strong characters, including the infamous Colonel Nathan Jessup (Chris Ginesi) who delivers a powerful performance different enough from the iconic Jack Nicholson version to avoid comparison. When he cuts in with the famous line, “You can’t handle the truth!” his performance is powerful enough to raise hairs on the back of one’s neck.

Overall the acting was strong, especially in the second act as the actors warmed up to the stage and overcame slight stiffness. The only real complaints about the actors is the canned feeling of Brown’s discovery of his magic bullet at the climax and the actors’ hats may need an abuse hotline if they keep knocking them off chairs and tables around the set. Such minor problems will fix themselves quickly as the show progresses.

The set and tech were gorgeous,

despite early misgivings when seeing them under the house lights.

The minimal set and small changes work seamlessly and translate well in conjunction with the lighting.

Only in one instance does this fail: when Brown, Bearden and Brown’s buddy and assistant Lt. J.G. Sam Weinberg (Nathan Luft-Runner) are in a bizarre transitional space that makes use of the courtroom furniture, but the scene doesn’t seem to be set in the courtroom.

The scene itself works well but there was some confusion about where it takes place.

The sound design worked well

to provide a great atmosphere.

Specific effects, like a helicopter landing at the base in Guantanamo Bay or the chatter of Brown’s baseball companions, set the background and contributed to the show’s realism. The only exception to this was the firing of a gun towards the end of the show, which had a slightly toy-like and poppy sound, providing almost a comical end to such a climactic event.

The overall performance is fantastic and enthralling. Though you can’t handle the play, you definitely need to see it.

Area Leaders Promote Green Jobs and Sustainability Page 4

Sports Women’s Bastketball Going to Championship PAGE 7 Women’s Swim Team Dominates at Cuesta Page 7

Features Cuban Culture Coming Soon PAGE 12

Art & Entertainment Rossetti String Quartet Review PAGE 15

Join the Oak Leaf Newspaper online for breaking news at: www.theoakleafnews.com www.facebook.com/oakleafnews www.twitter.com/sroakleaf www.youtube.com/oakleafnews Photo Courtesy of SRJC Theatre Arts Department

Rosella Bearden and Justin Brown both deliver excellent performances as the two protagonists of Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men, directed here at SRJC by Laura Downing-Lee. The show runs March 8-17.

Editors-in-Chief:

Staff:

Managing Editor: Keshia Knight

Dineen, Drue Dunn, Alex Gray, Anna Hecht, Jeremy Hoskins, Erik Jorgensen, Tara Kaveh, Francisco Mendez, Deborah San Angelo, Drew Sheets and Mark Williamson

Section Editors:

Photographers | Brooks Blair, Drue Dunn, Conor

Thomas De Alba Nadav Soroker

A&E Editor: Ken Kutska Assistant A&E Editor: Gary Baker Copy Editors: Darcy Fracolli and Peter Njoroge Features Editor: Andrew McQuiddy News Editor: William Rohrs Assistant News Editor: Nashelly Chavez Center Spread: Cassidy Mila Opinion Editor: Peter Njoroge Photo Editor: Joseph Barkoff Sports Editor: Jenna Burkman Assistant Sports Editor: Jimmy Merrill

Writers | Samuel Bemis, Brandon De Alba, Patrick

Estes, Kai Kaluahine and Tara Kaveh

Advertising:

Contact:

Newsroom: 707-527-4401 Ads: Office: 707-527-4254 Anne Belden, Adviser: 707-527-4867 abelden@santarosa.edu EMAIL: oakleaf-ads@santarosa.edu oakleafstaff@gmail.com oakleafpr@gmail.com

Manager: Nicole Hoey

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

Art Direction:

Send letters to oakleaf-editor@santarosa.edu or to the Oak Leaf office. They should include your first and last name and be limited to 300 words. Letters may be edited for style, length, clarity and taste. Libelous or obscene letters will not be printed.

Daniel Barba Almeida, Courtesy of DBDesign Layout: Keshia Knight, Nadav Soroker and Thomas De Alba

Brand Management:

Keshia Knight, Courtesy of SavageMediaCA Web Manager: Nathan Quast

Editorials do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the students, staff, faculty or administration.

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News

March 11, 2013

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Former Chief Suspected Holzworth, Says He Told VP May 2005

SRJC District Police Sergeant Jeffrey Holzworth named Employee of the Month

July 2010

Christopher Wilkinson named Chief of Police two months after 33year chief Terry Stewart retired

Feb. 13, 2011

Wilkinson resigns. Joe Palla takes over as interim chief of police

Oct. 4, 2012 Nov. 1, 2012 Nov. 13, 2012 Matthew McC af f re y named new SRJC Chief of Police

Jan. 31, 2013

Karen Holzworth Dec. 3, 2012 Search of Holzarrested under worth’s garbage cans Nov. 28, 2012 Scott Holsuspicion as an uncovers two Red- Jeffrey wood Credit Union zworth arrested accessory to her receipts, one alleg- at SRJC police edly under Karen department as he husband Holzworth’s name

Feb. 5, 2013

Karen Holzworth pleads not guilty to three counts of possession of stolen property and being an accessory

Feb. 6, 2013 Jeffrey Holzworth arraigned on 12 felony counts, including embezzlement and possession of stolen property

finishes his shift

Chief McCaffrey shares memo with SRPD Det. Azzouni and Sgt. Lazzarini alleging Holzworth’s theft of parking meter money

SRPD attach a GPS tracker to Holzworth’s police car and private truck

Nov. 19, 2012 Search warrant affidavit describes Holzworth throwing parking meter machine receipts into dumpsters

Nov. 26, 2012 Nov. 24, 2012 Nov. 23, 2012 Search of Holz- Holzworth drives Test parking worth’s garbage home in his patrol car, meter macans uncovers gets out with a “thick and white” object, eipaperwork not- ther a newspaper or chine receipts ing NFL wins and cloth bag. He walks found in SRJC losses for Weeks inside his house and garbage cans leaves empty-handed a #11 and #12

half-hour later

Feb. 20, 2013 Holzworth admits responsibility but is adamant his wife was uninvolved in state court

March 13, 2013

The Holzworths’ upcoming pleadeal hearing

Illustration by Daniel Barba, Timeline by Erik Jorgensen

Drew Sheets Staff Writer

A former Santa Rosa Junior College District police chief alleges that he informed an SRJC vice president of former police officer Jeff Holzworth’s embezzlement scheme in 2010 and was instructed not to pursue it.

Former SRJC District Police Chief Christopher Wilkinson said he investigated Holzworth on his own and suspected he was stealing parking money. “I reported this issue two years earlier to [Vice President of Business Services] Doug Roberts and was told not to pursue it,” Wilkinson said.

Roberts denies Wilkinson ever brought allegations about Holzworth to his attention and dismissed him as a disgruntled ex-employee. Six months after his hiring, Wilkinson was placed on administrative leave and forced to resign his post in February 2011.

Holzworth, a 28-year veteran SRJC District Police officer, was arrested Nov. 28 2012 and pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of receiving stolen property over $400 and one count of embezzlement with a special enhancement for amounts in excess of $150,000 at his arraignment Feb. 20.

According to his defense attorney, Joe Passalacqua, Holzworth admitted responsibility in statements he made to police. Holzworth’s wife Karen was also arrested and pleaded not guilty to one count of being an accessory to commit a felony and three counts of receiving stolen property. A joint settlement hearing for both Holzworths is scheduled for March 13.

While at SRJC, Holzworth was the sole officer in charge of collecting parking revenue and taking it to the accounting office. Detectives who tailed Holzworth in November

2012 watched him throw out pay station receipts and change small denomination bills into larger bills at local credit unions. In one fiveday period, detectives watched him change more than $2000, according to a search warrant affidavit.

Wilkinson said he was hired as a “change agent” in July 2010 when Dr. Robert Agrella was SRJC’s president.

Wilkinson claimed Agrella instructed him to discuss a recently performed internal audit of SRJC with Joe Palla, a former SRJC board member who stepped in as interim police chief after Wilkinson was forced out.

Wilkinson said he met with Palla at a Chinese restaurant, and Palla outlined the changes Wilkinson needed to implement in his new job as chief.

Wilkinson said he still has the four pages of notes from that meeting. One of the suggested changes was related to parking as Palla told Wilkinson of parking audit discrepancies, Wilkinson said.

Palla recalled the meeting but said he wouldn’t use the word “audit” and that they didn’t discuss parking revenue or Holzworth. Palla said he shared general internal concerns and told Wilkinson what issues current employees wanted their new chief to address. “People thought some things about Holzworth were shady but no one had proof or anything that would lead me to suspect anything,” Palla said.

Once on the job, two district police officers also approached Wilkinson with suspicions of Holzworth’s handling of the parking money. Wilkinson said he decided to investigate the matter personally. He confirmed that Holzworth had complete autonomy of the pay collection system, possessed a machine capable of zeroing out the parking station receipts and insisted on collecting parking money on his own.

When Holzworth took a three-

day vacation in fall 2010, Wilkinson took the opportunity to go out with a community service officer and learn about the collection process, he said. He was aghast when he saw stacks of $1 and $5 bills “10-12 inches tall” and rolls of quarters off to the side of the collection bag in the very first machine.

This same thing happened with machine after machine. Wilkinson asked the CSO if this was normal, and said he was told, “Well, that’s how Jeff does that.

Jeff said he would take care of the money when he gets back from vacation.”

“I said ‘No. You will take the money right now and bring it to accounting,’” Wilkinson said.

“Don’t you print out the receipts?”

Wilkinson asked the CSO. “She replied, ‘No, Jeff does that.’ I said, ‘Take the money and the forms.’”

Wilkinson said he had 20 years of investigative experience during his 30year police career, many of those years in internal affairs. “This is basic audit procedure,” he said. “I saw the telltale signs” of embezzlement.

Wilkinson said he went straight to Roberts’ office and told him, “This is what I saw. This what I’ve been told [by the two officers]. This is the current protocol.”

He said he informed Roberts of the discrepancies in the parking audit and said, “You’ve hired me to take care of this. We need to talk about accepting money and audit trails. We need to work through this. I think Jeff Holzworth’s pilfering the parking money.’”

Wilkinson said Roberts asked for some time and the two scheduled a meeting for the following Tuesday. “At Tuesday’s meeting Roberts told me, ‘You are to leave Jeff alone because he is personal friends with Dr. Agrella.’ I asked, ‘I’m to do what?’ He said, ‘You’re to leave Jeff alone if you like being employed here.’ I said, ‘OK Doug.’”

Roberts adamantly denies these

claims. “Chris Wilkinson never brought any of this to my attention. I would’ve acted immediately, just like I did when it was brought to my attention by Chief [Matt] McCaffrey,” he said.

Chief Palla was quick to defend Roberts. “I have 110 percent confidence in Doug Roberts. There’s no doubt in my mind that Roberts would have taken immediate steps to address inappropriate behavior,” he said.

Mary Kay Rudolph, vice president of Academic Affairs, also supported Roberts. “I’ve known Doug Roberts since he arrived at the college four or five years ago and had to work with him every day on very sensitive issues from contracts to negotiations to budgets,” she said. “I think he is not only the best CBO (chief business officer) I have met in the system, but he is absolutely a man of integrity and honor. As a CPA, being able to trust his word is part of his criteria to do his job.”

Wilkinson claims he visited Roberts’ office twice unannounced and found Holzworth in uniform talking to Roberts. Wilkinson believes Holzworth knew he was onto him.

“Jeff felt like he had a target on his back where Wilkinson was concerned,” said an officer who was on the force at the time and wished to remain anonymous.

He confirmed that Holzworth was instrumental in getting the ear of top administrators to get Wilkinson removed from his chief position.

A second SRJC District Police officer who also wished to remain anonymous claimed Holzworth had SRJC administrators fooled. “They all trusted him,” the officer said. “If McCaffrey had not gone outside of the administration, nothing would’ve happened. He’d [Holzworth] still be getting away with it.”

When asked for proof of his claims, Wilkinson said, “I suggested

a grand jury back in 2011. I’ll bring all of my e-mails. I’ll bring all of my memorandums and will gladly show them to a grand jury.”

Wilkinson said SRJC management was part of the problem. “I don’t blame Jeff. His activity was encouraged by management not addressing the issue.

Along comes me and I say, ‘This is inappropriate. We need to change this.’ What do I get? ‘Leave Jeff alone,’” Wilkinson said. “I asked to meet with Agrella to tell him about this and Doug Roberts refused to allow me to have an audience with him.”

Dr. Agrella refused to comment on Wilkinson saying that he would “leave personnel issues up to the college.”

Agrella emphatically denied ever being alerted to any suspicions of Holzworth’s embezzlement and echoed support for Roberts. “I’m positive that Roberts would’ve never allowed anything like that to continue. I think any story that says otherwise is BS.” Agrella retired as SRJC’s president at the end of 2011.

Wilkinson left SRJC in February 2011, only six months after taking over as chief. He said he’s been waiting for two years for the Holzworth scandal to unfold. “When Holzworth was arrested, I knew it was time [to come forward].”

Wilkinson, who is now police chief at Saddleback College, insisted he is not a bitter ex-employee. “I’m very happy with my career. There is no animosity.

I brought forth all the issues,” he said.

Palla, however, disagreed. “There were certainly hard feelings between Chief Wilkinson and district police officers. They were about to file a hostile work environment complaint,” he said, adding that Wilkinson did nothing to bring the Holzworth issue to his attention when Palla took over the department.

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March 11, 2013

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March in March: jiowjfieowjfiofjoifjoijfiwj William Rohrs

News Editor

Photo by William Rohrs William Rohrs

State University and University of California programs all suffered from the coagulation of school funding, and March in March became a centerpiece to shout these concerns at state legislators in the capitol.

SRJC President Dr. Frank Chong walked the first March in March while serving at City College of San Francisco. Since then, Chong has been an avid supporter of March in March. “The first one was the largest.

There were some cuts and people were upset. But because this one wasn’t as large, that doesn’t make it any less important. They [community colleges] are such an important part of the state economy and SRJC has a huge impact on the well-being of our community,” he said.

In Sacramento, Chong met with various state legislators to discuss options to help bolster California college budgets. Chong and board of trustee member Don Edgar talked to State Assemblyman Marc Levine and State Senator Noreen Evans after the rally dispersed. “We took a look at Governor Brown’s proposed 90-credit

system and the future of online classes. upon them since the period from They said they would take it under 2008-12, now known as the “Great News Editor advisement,” Chong said.

Recession.”

Proposition 30, passed in the While Proposition 30 hopes Nearly 3000 California students November to offset the gathered in front of the Capitol 2012 election, balance between building in Sacramento to protest increased the budget cuts and student rights during March in March.

C a l i f o r n i a bonus funds, it’s Approximately 50 Santa Rosa sales tax to 7.5 not enough to Junior College students, staff and percent from prepare California faculty members joined the crowd 7.25 percent. universities for March 4 to raise awareness that The proposition the rapid rise the incoming classes and funds also introduced of incoming Proposition 30 provided won’t be higher tax rates students.

“Prop. enough to offset the tremendous in brackets 30 is like having budget and class cuts suffered by for citizens a finger in the California colleges across the state earning more dyke,” said Dean from the past several years. than $1 million of Arts and March in March began as a in taxable Humanities Tyra sanctioned protest day to give revenue. Based Benoit. “It’s going students the opportunity to exercise on California to slow down their First Amendment right to Franchise Tax the bleeding, assemble and collectively protest for Joseph Barkoff/Oak Leaf Board data but it won’t stop California Community College of San whatever students believe is wrong Francisco president Shanell Williams speaks for 2009, the it.

We [SRJC] with or absent from today’s collegiate a d d i t i o n a l about the current financial status. absolutely need program. March in March serves as income tax is imposed on the top 3 to keep marching.

I think it’s very an appropriate place to voice concerns percent of California taxpayers.

This important to understand that just over budget and class cuts. California infusion of tax revenue helps the state because Proposition 30 passed, there Community Colleges, California recover from the slurry of cuts forced are still a lot of issues we need to bring to our legislators.”

Student Advisor of Student Affairs Hilleary Izard organized SRJC’s participation for March in March.

Izard helped register students in the weeks leading up to the protest and provided meals and transportation for everyone on both Santa Rosa and Petaluma campuses that day. Izard lead the SRJC protesters in chants throughout the day.

All students met outside Raley Field to a sanguine reception. According to California state law, protest signs cannot have any length of wood attached to them, which presented a problem to every SRJC student.

Directly after disembarking the bus, every student toiled hard to affix William Rohrs/Oak Leaf wooden sticks to each and every sign SRJC’s ASB Executive President Robert Edmonds and President Jessica Jones march in the protest against budget cuts. of protest. After much grumbling from

the protesters, all potential firewood lay piled in the corner of the field, its hopes and dreams of holding signs aloft axed in one fell swoop.

The protesters milled around the field for nearly an hour before the goahead sounded throughout the field.

Students marched one mile from the field to the Capitol with signs held high, chanting, “They say cut back, we say fight back!” among other pleas for saving class budgets and promoting the student presence in Sacramento.

Police on foot, car and horseback patrolled the sides of the protest, herding wayward students back on the street. The procession to the capitol occurred without major incident.

At the Capitol, speakers from the California Community Colleges took the podium to speak about their experiences in college becoming more and more financially desperate until they felt the only course was to reverse the budget cuts through protest.

Associated Student Body President Jessica Jones and Executive Vice President Robert Edmonds represented the SRJC student body inside the capitol. “Student participation in mass protests is vital to achieving social change, and in moving toward a more just and equitable society,” Edmonds said.

Because Proposition 30 notes a gradual shift from cutting to refunding California universities, colleges begin to consider March in March a symbolic movement rather than a practical one. “This year it was much harder to get everyone riled up and make this march. Now that we have Proposition 30 that passed, and some new legislation from the Student Success Act, it’s going to change access, and us marching the street is more of a symbolic gesture,” Jones said.

-To view the full photo gallery, visit the online article at www.theoakleafnews.com

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Green Jobs Conference Drew Sheets Staff Writer

A wide variety of big names spoke on behalf of sustainable economic possibilities and the trending job market of the future at Santa Rosa Junior College’s Green Job Conference March 1.

Stas Margaronis, President of Santa Maria Shipping Company, put the conference together and provided the leadership to underscore the need for a strategic plan for the future, including a proposal of a zero-emissions economy that could produce more than 600,000 jobs in California and put America on a competitive and sustainable economic course for the future.

His website (RBTUS.com) outlines his plan, to Rebuild the United States.

Margaronis spoke about the need for investment in the right type of clean energy and infrastructure that can create this zero-emissions economy. The high-speed rail is essential to his plan to integrate local rail systems, enabling local investment and synergizing the economies of north, south and central California.

“This is the future and we need to embrace it,” Margaronis said.

Citing the Atlantic Wind Connection, an off-shore wind farm linked from New Jersey to Virginia that will provide a back up power grid for the states involved, Margaronis described how easily California could build its own offshore farm from San Francisco to the Oregon border, that could power the

entire state of California.

In addition, he included how the United States could create 18 to 20 million jobs and effectively take the country out of recession for good if this type of action was implemented across the country.

Congressman Mike Thompson, Sonoma County Supervisors Susan Gorin and Mike McGuire, major wind and solar corporate representatives, SMART Train, California High Speed Rail Authority and PG&E representatives, financiers and many more prominent individuals in business, education and government made up five panels.

The panels discussed everything from the history of WWII and local initiatives that help mitigate effects of the Great Recession, to the hard realities of climate change and finance capabilities.

SRJC’s Information Technology Director, Scott Conrad, and the Associated Student President Jessica Jones welcomed the speakers. Jones gave a short speech about how SRJC’s culture has changed, and advocated for more faculty in supporting the shift towards sustainability-focused curriculum.

Congressman Thompson discussed focusing on the current realities of the country by pointing out the economic recovery has been slow and noted that trade imbalances were a big part of the reason why.

“Foreign oil is 40 percent of our trade imbalance. We need to change the way we do things in regards to energy. Every minute of every day, we spend $200,000 on foreign oil,” Thompson said. “You want to fix a

Drew Sheets/Oak Leaf

ASB President Jessica Jones (center) and Director of Information Technology Scott Conrad (right) officially welcome Stas Margaronis (left) to the SRJC Green Jobs Conference March 1.

March 11, 2013

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Discussing the Future of an Unsustainable Economy and Recognizing Transportation Issues in California

Drew Sheets / Oak Leaf

Stas Margaronis spearheads the Green Jobs Conference March 1. Topics included a strategic plan for a zero-emission economy, learning from the history of World War II and the viability of an efficient mass transit system in California.

big part of the economic problems we face in this country? Fix that and we’ll be back on the fast lane real quick.”

Thompson emphasized the need for stronger recovery. “It is rare to see the environment and the bottomline come together. So whenever we see the opportunity to do work in that regard, I think we ought to jump on it,” Thompson said. “Clean energy will be for the 21st century what gas, oil and coal was for the 20th century.”

Thompson also pointed out the need for tax reform. “If I can use a very technical term to describe our tax policy at the national level, I’ll say that the tax code is very screwed up right now,” he said.

The congressman wrapped up his speech by advocating for economic growth and implementing some of the local programs Sonoma County has introduced at the national level, such as the Property Accessed Clean Energy (PACE) program.

This program created an option for homeowners to invest in clean energy upgrades by taking loans out against their property and paying on the investments over a 20 year time frame by adding the loan onto the homeowners’ property tax.

Jane Elias, Sonoma County Energy Independence representative, credits PACE with saving or creating more than 730 jobs in Sonoma County from the beginning of the recession in 2008 through 2012.

California’s high-speed rail

representatives, Ben Tripousis and Meg Cederoth, led a discussion on how California faces unique transportation problems. Tripousis pointed out one-fifth of the country’s most congested areas are located in California and the state is projected to add more than 19 million more people to its current population of 38 million by 2050.

Again, the correlation of moving people and goods efficiently and economic growth came to light.

Both Tripoulis and Cederoth noted moving freight is expensive and the central business districts in California are spread out over vast distances, restricting the ability of business to operate competitively and inexpensively like the rest of the developed world.

“More than five million fly from San Francisco to Los Angeles every year, more than any other,” Tripoulis said.

Later, Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) financier Tom McLoughlin described the need to link California together in order to attract investment. During his speech, Mcloughlin cited the differences between the central and coastal hubs of California. “You need to figure out to get the agriculture business involved,” he said.

California Wind Energy Association (CalWEA) asked Santa Rosa resident and 25-year wind industry businessman, Al

Davies, to represent the non-profit organization at the Green Jobs Conference. Davies explained how expensive it is to produce energy, but validated Margaronis’ idea that wind turbines, including rigs floating off of the coast of northern California, could in fact relieve America of all of its demand for fossil fuels. “It’s absolutely feasible. You can look at America as the Saudi Arabia of wind energy,” Davies said.

Davies reiterated Thompson’s demand for government acknowledgement and participation in leveling the investment playing field for wind energy, “The production of electricity is the most capital intensive business in the world. We have to be able to access conventional finance, and to do that we have to have the government’s support. All forms of electricity are subsidized by our government in one form or another, whether it’s hydroelectric, nuclear power, fossil fuels; they are all affected by whatever our government does,” Thompson said.

The second panel also highlighted local plans. Supervisor Susan Gorin discussed her passion for sustainability and promised to throw her political weight behind any effort to lobby for sustainability at any level. “I’ve had a strong streak of value of sustainability in me. How to live more simply. How to live Continued on PAGE 13

SRJC to Add 420 Classes starting Summer 2013 Thomas De Alba Co-Editor-in-Chief

Santa Rosa Junior College President Dr. Frank Chong plans to re-introduce approximately 420 new classes to the school’s curriculum for the upcoming fall 2013 semester and beyond.

“The timing is going to be better now,” Chong said. “The Doyle scholarship and the Doyle trust are coming back.”

The incorporation of new classes and scholarships targeting highdemand general education classes is

promising for future students. The scholarships are a complement to the new sections, helping students pay for their books and fees.

“I’m really happy about the new classes,” said SRJC student Scott Corder. “My major required a lot of classes that were really hard for me to get during my time here. So it will be a lot easier for me and other students in the long run.”

Despite the inherent positives from adding the new classes, there were a few drawbacks to the process.

“We have a system called ‘hits after close’ which lets us see the

most popular classes students search for after a class closes,” said Mary Kay Rudolph, SRJC vice president of academic affairs. “This helps us determine the demand for the classes, so it will help students get the classes they need.”

The system gives students more opportunities to take the classes they need to graduate, however SRJC will not see as many elective classes added.

“We are focusing on classes geared toward certification, majors, transfer, job skills and basic skills,” Rudolph said. “We will see more

classes for students, and fewer classes for the community member, such as P.E. classes.”

The new classes are a direct response to the passing of Prop.

30. The proposition passed last November, providing California schools with additional funding after severe amounts of budget cuts to education in 2009.

“We will be adding 7 percent back to the schedule, or about 420 courses, since the deficit we cut the course schedule by 25 percent,” said Associated Students president, Jessica Jones. “More courses will be

added in the basic skills section. The administrators have reviewed the survey drafted by the Associated Students on what courses students had difficulty getting in as well as reviewed the closed class report.”

The faculty executed a plan designed to help students graduate, but the student body is responsible for laying out the foundation of the act. SRJC continues to rebuild after a harsh period of cuts. The restoration of classes gives a brighter outlook on the future.

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March 11, 2013

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Intro to Homeland Security Women in Astronomy Contribute to Science Public Safety Training Center Explores New Field

Tara Kaveh

Nashelly Chavez

Staff Writer

Assistant News Editor Santa Rosa Junior College will offer the course Introduction to Homeland Security at the Public Safety Training Center this summer.

The center will be one of the first in the California Community College system to offer classes in this field.

Introduction to Homeland Security will cover basic topics involved with homeland security through a mixture of lecture and hands-on learning. According to the course outline, students will learn about the different threats, security strategies and laws involved in the field.

Employment positions available in the field will also be covered.

Brian Marvin took charge of the coordination for the course and creation of the class schedule. Marvin has worked at the Public Safety Training Center for two years as the director of both the Ranger Academy and Modular Police Academy after a 28-year career in the U.S. Coast Guard. During this time, Marvin noticed that there was a lot of training in local and regional positions but no courses exploring jobs on the federal level.

“I started to explore the idea

Women’s History Month is a time to honor all women for their accomplishments and contributions to society. In the last century, the world has seen prominent women doctors, lawmaker, scientists and even--women astronomers.

On March 12 SRJC Astronomy 3

Photo courtesy of Brian Marvin

Brian Marvin brings extensive knowledge after 28 years in the U.S. Coast Guard.

of trying to get a course here that would introduce students to more federal, national-level jobs, many of which are available in the Bay Area,” Marvin said.

According to Marvin, different adjunct faculty members knowledgeable on the topics covered will teach the class.

The three-unit class is open to all students, with the minimum prerequisite being eligibility for English 100 or ESL 100. Marvin said he expects a mixture of students to enroll in the class, ranging from students majoring in administration of justice, working police officers and firefighters to curious students interested in the course.

teacher Laura Sparks will speak about women astronomers of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Sparks will cover many of the topics she usually covers in her Stellar Astronomy class, but with a focus on women’s contributions.

Her lecture will focus on the contributions of two renowned women astronomers: Henrietta Swan Leavitt and Annie Jump Cannon.

Leavitt’s discoveries were what first allowed astronomers to measure the distance between the Earth and far-

away galaxies. Cannon is credited with the creation of the first classification scheme which organized and classified stars based on their temperatures.

Although neither woman received much recognition in her time, these women discovered much of what we know today about stars in space.

Sparks will speak for one hour in the Ellis Auditorium, followed by a telescope viewing of the starry night sky.

Bike Thefts Continue at SRJC Tara Kaveh Staff Writer

Bicycles continue to disappear at Santa Rosa Junior College for the past few weeks. On Feb. 27, a bike disappeared from the bike racks near Piner Hall, and on Feb 28, another bike was stolen from the racks by Maggini Hall. The most recent theft happened on March 4, someone stole a bike from the racks behind the library.

All of the missing bicycles used cable style locks to anchor themselves to the rack. Opportunistic thieves usually use a simple tool to snip the cables and walk away with the bike undetected. Students

are encouraged to utilize a metal Ulock style device instead to secure the frame of the bike to the bike rack. Parts of the bike that are not permanently secured like bike seats and “quick release” wheels are high targets in bike thefts. Students are advised to frequently check that parts are always properly secured and to try to avoid bringing expensive removable parts to school.

There are numerous bike racks around campus as well as bicycle storage lockers. Students should look for areas that are well-lit and populated when securing their bikes on a rack. Bike storage lockers are easily accessible and charge only about five cents per hour for daily

Keeping your bike secure: • • •

Take removable parts with you (seats and/or wheels) Park in a visible area Wrap lock around wheels

use (prepaid cards are available).

Since thefts generally happen while the bike owner is in class, the best way to watch out for these crimes is if all SRJC students keep their eyes open for any suspicious activity around nearby bike racks. If you see any suspicious activity, call the SRJC district police at (707) 5271000. You could be saving someone’s bike.

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Sports

March 11, 2013

7

Swim and Dive Successful at Cuesta Invitational Women’s Team Takes First Place, Men’s Takes Fourth Thomas De Alba

Co-Editor-in-Chief

The Santa Rosa Junior College swim and dive team trekked to the Cuesta invitational this past weekend, and both Bear Cubs squads went home with top five finishes. Out of the 17 competing teams, the men’s team finished fourth and the women’s team won it all with a first place finish.

It was the team’s third straight invitational leading up to the Big 8 Conference meet next week, and it did not disappoint.

“What we took away from this meet was to be confident in our training and remain focused on our goals,” said sophomore swimmer Alex Xu. “Everyone is feeling really great, and the performances were phenomenal.”

Phenomenal is the perfect adjective to describe this season’s SRJC swim and dive team. In addition to the strong invitational finishes by the men’s team, it has posted a solid 3-1 conference

Men’s Basketball Blown Out in Regional Final

Photo Courtesy of Alex Xu

SRJC Swim and Dive finish in the top 5 for both the men’s and women’s teams.

record. The women’s team is even stronger this season, plowing their way through the Big 8 conference, boasting a 4-0 record in the process.

“All the girls swam fast and competed great,” said sophomore swimmer Brianna Thompson.

“Some of the women left with their best times of the season, and a good

portion crushed their personal best times!”

Competition and speed makes the women’s team the highlight of the swim and dive this season. The girl’s team won all of its matches by a margin of 61.5 points per meet, beating Shasta College 93-12, Merced College 94-8, College of the

Sequoias 89-20 and Sierra College 59-49. This latest victory is merely a testament to the potential at hand.

“Everyone was really excited to get first place and work their butts off,” Thompson said. “The girls gained confidence off each others outstanding performances, and used it in their own races. We are all really excited for the rest of the season.”

With a hot start and gaudy margins of victory, the women’s swimming team has the ultimate goal in mind: a state championship.

“I have a lot of confidence in our women’s team this year,” said team captain Alexandria Holland. “Just this last weekend we proved we are contenders for the 2013 state title.”

SRJC looks to finish a dominant stretch of invitationals March 15 when the teams travel to Pleasant Hill to compete in the Big 8 invitational. The Bear Cubs resume conference play March 22, when they take on American River College and the SRJC Alumni in Santa Rosa.

SRJC Women’s Basketball Advances to State Finals Jenna Burkman

Jenna Burkman

2: 30 p.m. March 12 vs.

American River 1 p.m. March 16 vs.

American River 2:30 p.m. March 21 vs.

Sacramento City 2:30 p.m. March 26 vs.

Diablo Valley Men’s Tennis 2 p.m. March 14 vs. Sierra

Swim & Dive 10 a.m. March 22 vs.

American River 5:30 p.m. March 22 vs.

Alumni

Joseph Barkoff / Oak Leaf

Sophomore guard Whitney Edens drives to the basket against Delta College.

Cubs’ second trip to the State Sacramento. If they win this game, Championship Finals in three SRJC will battle it out for the state years. title at 3:30 p.m., Sunday March 17.

“Making it to State is definitely something we’ve been working towards since our season ended last year,” Cramer said. “We had some losses late in our season that kind of woke us up and made us come together.”

The team knew it had the skill and ability to make it this far in Mt. San Antonio(32-0) post-season play. vs.

“I think we can win it all if Fresno(30-3) we keep playing like we have,” 5 P.M. at Cosumnes River Cramer said. “We’re playing for each other instead of playing for ourselves.”

Santa Rosa(27-6) The Bear Cubs will take on vs.

Mt. San Jacinto College (29-2), the Mt. San Jacinto(29-2) second-seed team from Southern California, 7 p.m. March 16 at @ 7 p.m. at Cosumnes River Consumnes River College in

Women’s Finals

@

Joseph Barkoff / Oak Leaf

Men’s Baseball

1 p.m. March 22 vs. Diablo Valley

March 16

Skyler Olson attempts a three-point shot against a Delta defender March 9.

Home Games

1 p.m. March 19 vs.

American River

Sports Editor Sports Editor

The SRJC women’s basketball The SRJC men’s basketball season team advanced to the 2013 CCAA came to an end after an 88-54 defeat by State Tournament Finals after a the Rams of City College of San Francisco 48-38 win over San Joaquin Delta in the Northern California Regional College in the Northern California Playoffs Saturday night.

Regional Playoffs Saturday night CCSF advanced their perfect at Haehl Pavilion. record to 31-0 and will head to the State The Bear Cubs came ready Championship Finals to play and looking for revenge In the first half, the Bear Cubs were against Delta, which defeated within two points of the Rams, however SRJC 62-49 Feb. 19. The Bear things turned ugly shortly after. At one Cubs took full control of the game point in the second half, CCSF led SRJC right away, leaving the score 21-15 by 40 points. at halftime. SRJC’s defense played SRJC’s Bobby Sharp finished the game a key role in the payback victory with 20 points and Alec Kobre with 11. over Delta.

The Bear Cubs defeated Chabot “We played one of our best College and Cabrillo College in the defensive games and really shut second and third round of playoffs but down their leading scorer,” said were unable to pull out a victory against sophomore guard Holly Cramer. the Rams to make an appearance in the “They are one of our biggest rivals state Final Four. in our conference and it felt good SRJC finished their season with a to get that win.” record of 27-6.

This marks the Bear

Bear Cub Athletics

Women’s Softball 3 p.m. March 26 vs. Delta Noon and 2 p.m. March 30 vs. Diablo Valley Women’s Tennis 2 p.m. March 14 vs. Sierra 1 p.m. March 19 vs.

American River 1 p.m. March 22 vs. Diablo Valley Polar Bears Hockey 5 p.m. March 16 vs.

Alumni

8

March 11, 2013

Sports

www.theoakleafnews.com

Bay Area Baseball With Staff Writer Patrick Dineen It’s that time of the year. The time when I start to crave garlic fries and think about every “Dodgers suck” joke I plan to use when the Dodgers come to town. That’s right, it’s time for San Francisco Giants baseball.

All die-hard Giants fans still remember Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera watching the third strike call that propelled the Giants to their second World Championship in just three years. But just as soon as thoughts of repeating as champions enter our minds, so does the memory of the disappointing 2011 season.

So what has to happen for the Giants to repeat besides the obvious answer of staying healthy? The first

thought is beat the Dodgers. Beating anyone is always the top priority, but the Dodgers appear to be the Giants’ biggest threat within their division.

It’s arguably baseball’s best rivalry and now we have a jealous championship-or-bust, moneybought Dodgers team versus the exciting, pumped-up, reigning world-champion Giants. It should be a great game every time the Dodgers and Giants face off.

The next thing the Giants need to do is solidify their pitching.

Last year Barry Zito surprised many when he became a beast in the playoffs. I doubt he can do it again. Tim Lincecum, the Giants’ former ace, had a season the polar

opposite of his dominating Cy Young years. Mr. Perfect Game Matt Cain will be consistent, Madison Bumgarner is good for 15 wins and Vogelsong is the league’s best threespot pitcher if he’s in the three spot.

Supposedly, Lincecum needs to “find himself.”

The Giants need Lincecum to finish the year with an ERA of three or four for him to get the 13 wins to solidify their playoff hopes.

Repeating as champions is always hard, but if the Giants beat Besides winning the division, the Dodgers and their pitching plays the Oakland Athletics have a lot to its potential, then thoughts of a of reasons to be happy and excited 2013 title are not far-fetched. for the future. The A’s are one of the youngest, if not the youngest, teams in baseball and they have The Oakland A’s had one memorable top-of-the-line pitching with a season last year. From the release much-improved offense. of the movie “Moneyball” to the Oakland’s biggest problem playoffs, the season was filled with is playing in a division with two excitement for A’s fans. other good teams: the Anaheim When the 2012 baseball season Angels and Texas Rangers. started, all the talk in the AL West However, to counter the teams, was about the Anaheim Angels and the division also has one team Texas Rangers slugging it out for the that’s mediocre at best, the Seattle division title.

Mariners, and a team that is worse No one talked about the than some minor league teams, Oakland A’s, until their seasonThe Houston Astros. With the ending sweep of the Texas Rangers Rangers and Angels the division crowned Oakland as the AL West is hard to win, but the A’s also champions . play the Mariners and Astros a

***

combined 32 times, or 16 times each. The A’s should win at least 20 of those games and get about 90 wins for the season, good enough for a wild card spot.

The A’s biggest problem is their hitting; they are the Giants of 2010 with slightly worse but improving hitting. But the Giants of 2010 won the World Series, which is why I believe A’s fans should like the chances of their team winning the World Series.

It should be a very good season for both teams. Maybe there will even be a 2013 Battle of the Bay World Series.

SRJC Softball Drops Two-Straight to Conference Leader Sierra Jimmy Merrill Assistant Sports Editor

Joseph Barkoff / Oak leaf

Sophomore pitcher Courtney Lucchesi throws a strike against Sierra College.

The SRJC softball team had momentum and confidence going head to head against the defending Big 8 champion Sierra College Wolverines.

The Bear Cubs played a doubleheader against Sierra College March 9 at SRJC. During the first game the Bear Cubs committed a seasonhigh seven errors while allowing 11 runs, an uncharacteristically sloppy defensive performance for the team.

“We had errors. We hadn’t made errors all year,” said head coach Phil Wright. “We waited for one game to make seven errors. We basically shot ourselves in the foot.”

SRJC looked to rebound in the second game, but errors came back to haunt the Bear Cubs. Starting pitcher Courtney Lucchesi got

into trouble early in the first inning, hitting the lead off batter and giving up a single to the next.

Catcher Megan Stroud allowed several passed balls, causing two runs to score.

The Bear Cubs answered back in the bottom half of the second inning, when left fielder Morgan Taylor hit an RBI single to right center field, trimming the deficit 2-1. In the third inning, Sierra’s Jenna Thorn hit a towering fly ball to right field that easily cleared the fence, giving the Wolverines a 3-1 lead.

No other scoring occurred until the top half of the sixth inning, when Sierra once again took advantage of the Bear Cubs’ mistakes. An error in left field by Taylor allowed the Wolverines to score four more times, pushing the lead to 7-1.

“They shouldn’t have even

Joseph Barkoff / Oak leaf

SRJC pitcher hurls a pitch as a Sierra College base runner attempts to steal second.

scored those runs. [Taylor] drops the ball in left field on an error, she’s one of our best players. Those things happen,” Wright said. “They get a two-out rally and score three runs, and then the game gets a little out of control.”

The Bear Cubs mounted a

comeback in the last of the seventh inning, loading the bases with no one out. SRJC pushed across three more runs, but ultimately fell 7-4.

The SRJC softball team will head south to take on Big 8 Conference foe Modesto City College at 3 p.m.

March 12.

www.theoakleafnews.com

Sports

March 11, 2013

9

Tennis Player Strives for Excellence On and Off the Court Mark Williamson Staff Writer

Chase Sariaslani is the 21-yearold returning No. 1 singles player and team captain of your Santa Rosa Junior College men’s tennis team.

He was a highly-regarded soccer player at Marillo Carillo High School when he converted to playing tennis at 16.

“I literally started playing six to eight hours a day,” Sariaslani said.

“I just got really into it. I wasn’t on anybody’s radar until just recently.

It’s pretty much a near-miracle.”

Sariaslani is a natural lefty but he plays tennis right-handed, which is unusual for tennis.

Assistant coach Stewart Hutton attributes Sariaslani’s foot speed to his soccer background.

“He’s a guy that picks things up very quickly and has a lot of foot

speed,” Hutton said. “He runs down a lot of balls, and makes sure the opponent has to beat him. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes out there.”

Even though Sariaslani is considered one of the best tennis players in the Big 8 conference and the best player at SRJC, he is honest about his abilities, saying of an upcoming match, “I don’t know if I would have won my match,” but he was confident his team would win.

“Chase is coming along really nicely,” said head coach Jay Samonte. “He’s maturing at a decent rate coming from being really raw last year and inexperienced in competitions. He’s played a lot of tournaments, and I think he has the foundation to do well.”

Sariaslani is maturing as far as his tennis game goes, but he is still known as the “joke killer” by his teammates.

“Chase has the ability to kill all

Joseph Barkoff / Oak leaf

With the guidance of head coach Jay Samonte, Chase Sariaslani is playing his best tennis.

Sport Star Nolan Stimple Swim and Dive

Pat Vrba Polar Bears Hockey

Jason Alexander Baseball Michael Branch Football Brianna Thompson Swim and Dive

jokes that come his way,” Hutton said. “You can have a joke go for a little while, and it will be funny.

Chase will take it one step further, and the joke will be done. And we’re all a little disappointed that we couldn’t keep the joke alive because of Chase.”

The tennis team practices for two hours every Monday and Wednesday.

Then Sariaslani practices another two hours with his personal coach.

The team plays their matches on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If there are no matches on those days, the team scrimmages with each other for two hours. Then Sariaslani practices with his coach for another two hours. Fridays, the team practices for another two hours doing TRX. “TRX is based off of suspension cables where you do a workout that uses your own bodyweight,” Sariaslani explained. “We do an hour of that. Then we practice for two hours. Then I practice with my coach for two hours.”

That’s 21 hours of practice and training a week.

On top of that, Sariaslani starts class at 7:30 a.m. He gets out of his last class of the day at 8 p.m., and he studies between classes. Some of you may have seen Sariaslani in the math lab where he volunteers.

Sariaslani is a math major and wants to attend UC Davis. He feels that tennis is his ticket there.

“Academically I have a shot at making it to a decent college,” Sariaslani said.

He wakes up every morning between 5 and 7 a.m., Saturdays being the only day he can choose to sleep in, which he sometimes opts to do. Chase will play a match with himself, as there are no team functions on the weekend.

My teammates make Website I visit most fun of me for...

Joseph Barkoff / Oak leaf

Chase Sariaslani goes for an ace against Folsom Lake College Feb. 22.

“I don’t have the greatest diet,” Chase said. “I eat a bowl of Raisin Bran Crunch. I eat a couple of apples and a banana and lots of fruits between lunch and dinner.”

Chase works at a tennis club as a clerk on Tuesdays and Thursdays when there are no matches.

As a testament to Chase’s drive, he found difficulty when asked how he likes to relax, almost like it was a foreign word that needed an explanation. Outside of school, work and tennis, the only things he really has time for is family and his girlfriend.

“There are certain times when you play, and it’s just so heated, you’re in the zone. You get those moments, and you can think back to

_____ is my good luck charm

them, and it feels so wonderful that you were able to do that,” Chase said.

Chase wanted to congratulate SRJC Tennis Coach Jay Samonte on the women’s team and he hopes they have a good season.

Chase also wanted to give a shout out to teammate Teddy Hanford. Teddy played tennis in high school, but put that racket down for seven years. On pure happenstance, Teddy was walking by the tennis courts and saw Coach Samonte. He asked what it would take to make the team. Coach Samonte told him to come back later that day for a tryout.

Hanford made the team and is now the No. 6 singles player. So, congrats Teddy from your teammate Chase.

Plans for Spring Break

Favorite Kardashian

My huge badonk

YouTube

I have a lucky penny I stuff in my speedo for every race

Getting drunk and sunburnt

I hate them all.

They make me sick

Singing in the shower

Brazzers

My mullet

Hanging with my mom

The thick one

Chat Roullete

Siosi Poti

Work hard, play hard

Kim. She’ s my girl

For being Daddy’s boy

Being fat

My“accent”

Facebook

My white slipon vans

Absolutely nothing

Kourtney, because s h e i s a MILF

Facebook

Codie Cox

Swim, swim and more swim

Kanye

A

fter beating Santa Clara Bryan Vrba shot one past the University the day before Davis goaltender to pad the to escape elimination, lead. Davis took advantage of the SRJC hockey team took on an SRJC penalty soon after but the number SRJC’s Chris one seed UC Whitten got Davis in the the point back Championship a minute later. game.

The By the end of Polar Bears the period the handed Davis Polar Bears its only loss of extended their the season in lead, 7-4. a 7-6 overtime S R J C win Jan. 25. forward Adam It was a J o h n s o n battle from the added a Willis Swift start as both goal in the third teams came out period before SRJC ready to fight goalie Chris for the title.

Tomaszewski Davis scored let one by with first but SRJC three minutes forward Josiah to go. Davis Nikkel tied decided to pull the score soon its goalie in after. The Polar the final two Bears added minutes in two more goals hopes to make to make it a a comeback, 3-1 game at the but the team end of the first couldn’t pull it period. off. Breaking Marcel Delagnes SRJC took away from command of the scuffle on the second period as defenseman the Polar Bears’ end of the ice,

T

he hockey program started three years ago when a group of local players decided to restart the SRJC club that disbanded five years prior. After years of traveling all over the world to play hockey, the group wanted a chance to finally play in front of family and friends.

“We wanted to have fun and loved showing people our talent.

Bottom line, when you are good at something you want just to show people you’re good,” said

original member and current defenseman Bryan Vrba.

Together with coach Tom Billeter, who had played for the original SRJC hockey club, the team started independently as part of the American Collegiate Hockey Association. After earning recognition as a toptiered team, the Polar Bears were voted into the Pacific Collegiate Hockey Association prior to the 2012-13 season. The Polar Bears now own the PCHA Championship title.

As an SRJC club sport, the hockey team receives no financial aid from the college. Based

Nikkel scored an empty net goal to seal a 9-5 victory.

As the final buzzer rang, the Polar Bears’ bench poured onto the ice. Helmets and sticks cluttered the rink as the Polar Bears celebrated the club’s first ever championship.

Marcel Delagnes, Kulikouskiy, Blake Johnson and Cam Davis accepted the Adam’s Cup trophy on behalf of the team as SRJC hockey fans cheered on. Players took turns posing with the trophy, reveling in the team’s hard-fought victory.

“I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys to play and win with. Everybody worked their tails off, and it paid off,” Johnson said. “I’m honored to be a part of SRJC’s first PCHA title.”

The PCHA title is the culmination of a season full of near misses and exciting victories. With a relatively rookie team, beating a dangerous team like UC Davis was just icing on the cake.

“I’m very proud of our players because they worked so hard this season and battled through the challenges we face in the first semester,” said coach Tom Billeter, who came close to winning the PCHA title two times when he played for SRJC in the early 2000’s.

“The performance at the PCHA playffs is very sweet for our guys after all the adversity in the beginning of the season.” out of Snoopy’s Home Ice in Santa Rosa, the Polar Bears do not charge admission to home games, unlike most SRJC athletic teams. With the program costing upwards of $45,000 per season, the team relies on sponsorships, community donations, fundraisers and player contributions to offset the costs.

The program attracts players from all over the state to lace up their skates for SRJC. Since restarting the club, the Polar Bears have taken down some of the top hockey clubs, including Stanford University, Berkeley and UC San Diego.

But it is not just the team’s level of competition that has players transferring to SRJC. Besides giving guys a chance to play the sport they love, players say the team helps players to grow as individuals.

Because the team holds itself to a high standard, the program encourages players to stay in school, get good grades, get on track and find out what they really want to do in life.

“Guys want to play hockey, so they come out and join and eventually get hooked on school.

That’s what I did,” said forward Adam Johnson.“I came back

to play a little hockey and know didn’t what I wanted to do. After a year on the team I was just like, ‘Wow I’d ratherfocus on school than hockey.’”

While some career goals may have changed, hockey is still the passion. You can see it every time the Polar Bears step out on the ice. Players are focused only on hockey: the game, teammates, coaches and how much fun awaits when the puck drops.

That is what makes a Polar Bears’ home game a can’t miss SRJC event. Because there is no denying the determination and love each player has for the sport. And what is better than seeing someone fight hard for something they love?

For more information, visit www.santarosahockey. com.

** See the PCHA Champions one last time this season at 5 p.m.

March 16 for the annual alumni game at S n o o p y ’s Home Ice.

T

he Mullet.

It’s not a hairstyle you see every day, at least not in this part of the country. But as the PCHA playoffs grew closer, several

Photos Courtesy of SRJC Hockey

W

hen Polar Bears’ goalie Jacob Fitzpatrick decided to put his skates away he stepped into an even more important SRJC hockey role: director of marketing and public relations.

As an alumni of SRJC’s radiology tech program,

Fitzpatrick was asked by coach Tom Billeter to continue helping the club after his final skate in 2012. Fitzpatrick said he “couldn’t say no,” to helping with team operations and marketing.

Fitzpatrick had developed the team’s marketing guide as a player, selling it to local businesses to help bring in money to keep player costs low. The team’s accounts bring in nearly $10,000 a season thanks to Fitzpatrick’s marketing efforts.

In addition to attracting advertising for the team, Fitzpatrick runs the website and Facebook fan page, manages game-day operations, produces game programs and announces each Polar Bears home game.

“He does wonders for our club,” player Cam Davis said.”We would have an extremely hard time being a team without him.”

With a passion for hockey and talent for marketing, Fitzpatrick is a big reason why the team is successful. He may not have been in the net in the championship game, but he sure helped save the team this season.

team members decided they needed something to bring them a little more luck. Something that had a little old-school hockey feel to it.

“The mullet is an old-school hockey tradition. Some super stars have rocked the mullet in the past,” said forward Cam Davis, who was one of the first team members to cut his hair. “We went with the mullet because it shows we are dedicated to our sport and our team.”

Joining Davis were brother Sam Davis and teammates John Keshishian, Pat Vrba and Matt Schaben. Several other players, including Chase Bierbower and Steven Dempsey, took clippers to their short hair in support.

“At first I didn’t want to get it cause my hair wasn’t long enough,” Keshishian said. “But when there’s four other guys with mullets you make it work.”

Even though only a few players rocked what is sometimes referred to as the Confidence Cut, it helped unite the team in its playoff stint.

“Mullets go back a long time. We needed a tradition to keep us going into the playoff, to keep us on our toes,” said Alexi Kulikouskiy. “These guys committed to it. There would have been a lot of others but some of us couldn’t do it because of work. If I didn’t have to worry I would have done it too.”

Forward Adam Johnson did not cut his hair, but said the mullet is a respected part of hockey culture and a sign of intimidation. He said it gives the impression that, “If I look this ugly with my hair, imagine what I’ll do with my face to block a shot.”

It seems like a ridiculous superstition, but the Polar Bears’ PCHA title shows sometimes a superstition is what you need to bring home the cup.

“The best mullet always wins.

Because you put on your helmet and you’re ready for business, then you win the championship game and you’re ready for the party,” Cam said. “But what is really great is when you stand for the national anthem and get to take your bucket off and you just have this disgusting mullet.

It’s really what you live for.”

While several players put away the mullet for the season, a couple are still rocking the cut as a reminder of their championship run. “I’m keeping it for as long as I can,” Schaben said.

So if you see a group of guys with mullets walking around SRJC next season, chances are they are members of the Polar Bears hockey team and it’s playoff time.

Matt Schaben

John Keshishian

Sam Davis

Pat Vrba

Chase Bierbower

Cam and Sam Davis

12

March 11, 2013

Features

www.theoakleafnews.com

Cuba For All Americans Bringing Cuban Culture to Santa Rosa Andrew McQuiddy Features Editor

The relationship between the Cuban and the United States governments weaves a tangled tapestry through history, yet relations between the peoples of each country are smooth as silk.

Professor Gino Muzzatti hopes more new connections beckon at the Santa Rosa Junior College Cuban Film & Music Festival, March 27 – 30, with events on both the Santa Rosa and Petaluma campuses.

Teaching English as a Second Language at SRJC, Muzzatti harbors a deep curiosity about other cultures. He’s travelled to more than 40 countries on family trips, but developed a special fondness for the Cuban people upon first visiting there two years ago. That trip inspired this month’s celebration.

“We lived with a family; they have ‘casas particulares,’” Muzzatti said, “and we lived like Cubans.” He rhapsodized over all aspects of the 11-day experience, from the food to the music to the indomitable spirit of the island’s populace.

“Maestra,” Catherine Murphy’s documentary on the Cuban Literacy Campaign of 1961, displays such spirit that Muzzatti built the Cuban Film & Music Festival around the nascent idea to showcase Murphy’s film along with a lecture.

Enter Dr. Orlando E. Raola, Chemistry professor, who overheard Muzzatti mention Cuba while discussing his plans with colleagues during a professional development appraisal meeting.

Benefitting directly from the 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign, Havana-born Raola jumped at the chance to promote his homeland.

Raola and Susana Ackerman share their stories via “Cuba’s Literacy Brigade: Women on the Frontlines of Transforming a Nation”, 12:001 p.m., March 27, Newman Auditorium.

He also suggested Muzzatti screen “Lucia” (6:30-10 p.m., March 28, Newman Auditorium), an episodic drama exploring the lives of three different characters named Lucia during the pivotal periods surrounding the years 1895, 1930 and 1968.

“I have a very long list of wonderful [Cuban] movies,” Raola said. “It was very hard to boil it down to one.”

Muzzatti’s “partner in crime” coordinating the festival, Extended Opportunities Program & Services Counselor Rhonda Findling also chairs the Women’s History Month Committee. She points to the importance of Cuba’s ongoing political changes within the country and gradually improving relations between Cuba and the U.S. “My personal interest is the music,” Findling said, a musician herself. “Cuba is known for its multitude of rhythms that are popular world-wide.”

Rebeca Mauleón specializes in Cuban music, although her accomplishments define the term “Renaissance woman.” A tenured Latin American music professor at City College of San Francisco since 1998, Mauleón authored books and articles, composed and conducted music from piano to symphonic to

game soundtracks (Sims 2 and 3), received the 2008 San Francisco Jazz Festival’s Beacon Award and the next year garnered a Latin Grammy nomination as producer on the album “It’s About Time” by Orestes Vilató.

Mauleón’s own compositions reflect the merging of cultural influences from around the world, just like Cuba’s own musical history.

“You had the fusion of European and African rhythms and melodies,” Mauleón said, “and of course, that was done by force. So, what largely emerges is a blending of African and Spanish music over centuries, with influences from other parts of Europe, and North American influences such as jazz and rock.”

Cuban songs spread globally, impacting the technical structures of other cultures’ music.

“It’s a music that’s steeped in African polyrhythm,” Mauleón said.

“Think of the mambo and the chacha-cha and the conga,” she said, noting that Ricky Ricardo’s Cuban bandleader character on “I Love Lucy” deserves some credit for moving Cuba’s music further into mainstream society.

“Cuban music is important because it’s part of our American history,” Mauleón said. “And I mean ‘American’ as in not just the U.S., but as in all of the Americas.”

At the festival, she will speak about Afro-Cuban music (12:301:30 p.m., March 29, Forsyth Hall Room 105), then teach a twohour master class on Afro-Cuban rhythm (2-4 p.m., Forsyth Hall Room 115). The day culminates with Rebeca Mauleón & Her Cuban Collective performing live on the

Petaluma campus (8:30-10 p.m., Carole Ellis Auditorium). Class space is limited, though tickets are free and available at the Student Affair Office.

Grants and contributions freed organizers from commercial sponsorship and ensured the vision of a no-cost admission for attendees. Funding came from the Randolph Newman Cultural Enrichment Endowment, the

blackberries.

The U.S. Patent Office did not originally extend its protection to new plants, but after Burbank’s death in 1926 his friend Thomas Edison appealed to Congress to fix this oversight. Burbank was posthumously awarded nine patents, six for his plums.

Scott Posner, a docent at Luther Burbank Home & Gardens, spoke to volunteer gardeners on Feb. 15 about new and upcoming changes at this National Historic Landmark. The museum changes its look every two or three years and this year’s facelift showcases Burbank’s Prunus salicina ‘Santa Rosa.’

The Santa Rosa Plum “remains a world favorite today,” Posner said.

The new display features copies of Burbank’s six plum patents, as well as the Gold Medal earned for his Santa Rosa Plum at the 1905 Lewis

and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon.

Another new addition is a piece of furniture belonging to Burbank, a display shelf called a whatnot. Posner said that the walnut whatnot, rescued from the attic of the carriage house after 50 years, received careful renovation by volunteer staffers before being installed as a centerpiece in the new display.

Located across Santa Rosa Avenue from Julliard Park, the Home & Gardens also requires renovations. The original picket fence surrounding the gardens spans 750 feet and contains about 2,250 pickets. Repairs on the fence are complicated by two factors. First, original historic landmark original structures, like the picket fence, cannot simply be swapped out for new ones. Second, toxic lead paint covers the original pickets, which complicates the renovation process

since paint chips can contaminate the ground or poison workers. The fence repair, estimated costing $150,000, should begin later this year.

Burbank’s greenhouse also needs repairs to part of its roof. It survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake without breaking a single pane of glass. In contrast, the quake leveled Santa Rosa City Hall just a couple blocks away.

The Luther Burbank Home & Gardens at 204 Santa Rosa Ave. are free and open to the public every day of the year from 8 a.m. until dusk.

The museum and gift shop opens from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Guided tours run from 10 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. and cost $7. Free cellphone tours are available before 10 a.m.

Photo Courtesy of Erik Jorgensen and after 4 p.m. Luther Burbank is The Luther Burbank Home and Gardens, buried in the front yard, next to his home of Luther Burbank’s 800 plant beloved greenhouse. inventions, needs renovation.

Photo Courtesy of Chuck Gee

Rebeca Mauleón performs with her band, 8:30-10 p.m. March 29, Carole L. Ellis Auditorium on the Petaluma SRJC campus. Mauleón will teach at the festival.

SRJC Women’s History Month Committee, Multi-cultural Events Committee, Associated Students, Bertolini Fund, Petaluma Campus Trust and the ESL, Music and Modern and Classical Languages Departments.

“Overall, we’ve had a lot of support,” Muzzatti said. “I think it’ll be a gem of a festival.” (For festival programming go to: http://www. santarosa.edu/insider)

New Facelift for “Wizard’s” Museum Erik Jorgensen Staff Writer

They called him the “Wizard of Santa Rosa” and he changed the way the world ate. Luther Burbank’s most famous invention, the Russet potato, is the most planted food crop in the world. He sold his discovery to a seed company and used his profits to move to Santa Rosa in 1875. The remodeled museum at Luther Burbank Home and Gardens now showcases one of his 800 plant inventions, the Santa Rosa Plum.

“Pursuing the Perfect Plum” not only names the new museum display, it also describes Luther Burbank’s long-time quest. Burbank’s experiments to produce bigger and better fruit also produced interesting specimens like stone-less plums, spineless cactus and white

www.theoakleafnews.com

Features

Legalizing Cannabis: Is California next?

Houston Smothermon Contributing Writer

The voters of Colorado and Washington recently passed initiatives that legalize cannabis for recreational use, leaving many Californians wondering how they got left behind. After all, California led the country in cannabis policy reform in 1996 when voters passed Proposition 215, legalizing the plant for medicinal use for the first time since prohibition laws were established in the 1920s. Some Californians say legalizing cannabis for recreational use on a state level would solve a mess of problems associated with the industry. Others are less optimistic.

The problem is making it equitable, said Margaret Swearingen, Santa Rosa Junior College administration of justice and public safety instructor. Swearingen said California’s Proposition 19, designed to legalize cannabis for recreational use in 2010, failed to outline a reasonable system for regulating the industry it would have created had it passed.

“Any time you decriminalize something you have to set up a regulatory agency. The question is, how do you get that level

of regulation in a recession?”

Swearingen said.

“Legalizing cannabis would reduce the resources used by law enforcement and the courts prosecuting or pursuing cases, but it’s not going to eliminate jobs. It would be a re-allocation of resources.”

Opponents of Proposition 19 argued that legalizing cannabis in California would have numerous negative consequences, citing current federal laws that ban the drug without exception, and criticized the measure for failing to include accompanying tax proposals.

The general estimate for an average felony marijuana prosecution is around $10,000, said The general estimate for an average felony marijuana prosecution is around $10,000, said Dale Gieringer who has a doctorate from the Stanford Department of Engineering-Economic Systems and works as director and state coordinator of California NORML. The state would save more than $200 million in law enforcement costs for arrest, prosecution, trial and imprisonment of marijuana offenders and generate between $770 and $900 million per year in tax revenue Gieringer said. “We still have to see what the federal government will do in response to

Green Jobs...

Continued From PAGE 4 throw her political weight behind any effort to lobby for sustainability at any level. “I’ve had a strong streak of value of sustainability in me.

How to live more simply. How to live healthier lifestyles. So it is my job and has been my job as a city council member, a mayor and now a supervisor to provide the glue to the community conversation and to look for those opportunities to link our efforts directly to sustainability and healthier living,” Gorin said. “Always it has been my dream to look at environmental initiatives and to push our cities and county to green our operations.”

Representing Sonoma Marin Area Rapid Transit (SMART), John Nemeth gave a backdrop on Northern California’s rail systems.

“We’re going to be meeting the state of the art, Tier 4 forms of locomotives,” Nemeth said.

“All together, when you do the math, we will be reducing carbon emissions by 31 million pounds per year. That doesn’t include any of the bike paths at all.”

SMART is under construction right now and Nemeth cited 2012 as creating more than 550 jobs. The fiscal year 2013 will be “creating more than 2,000 jobs with 60 percent of these being local jobs. Altogether nearly $6 million is being pumped into local businesses,” Nemeth said.

“Most of the stuff we use is built in the USA. The rails in Colorado, the ties in Washington and the trains are assembled in Illinois, and we’re actually bringing this stuff to the site via rail. It’s kind of like a stimulus starting last year.”

Nemeth explained how the rail naturally promotes economic development because hauling via rail is cheaper than trucking, meaning businesses will be able to operate more cheaply. “Most start-up businesses aren’t deep-

March 11, 2013

13

Colorado and Washington.” customers on the safe, effective and The voters of Sebastopol recently The answer to that question may responsible use of this medicinal elected Robert Jacob, owner of Peace be coming soon. plant,” said Johnny Nolen, general in Medicine as vice mayor. In an “We’re still in the process of manager of Peace in Medicine. email correspondence, Jacob said reviewing both of the initiatives “We understand that the greatest he’s hopeful that patients’ rights will that were passed,” said Attorney danger associated with cannabis be expanded on a state or even a General Eric Holder at a morning use is incarceration or legal federal level in coming years. appearance, answering a question prosecution, and recognize that Jacob recently visited from Colorado Attorney General legalization would save millions of congressional representatives in John Suthers. “I would say, and I dollars in local, state and federal Washington D.C. to advocate for law enforcement expenses as well as HR 710 and HR 689, legislation that mean this, that you’ll hear soon.”

The medical marijuana industry thousands of individuals from the could end the federal conflict with in California serves an estimated legal nightmare that comes from a state medical cannabis programs.

750,000 patients, or 2 percent of the cannabis infraction.” population, according to California NORML. Even higher numbers were reported by the Peace in Medicine collective in Sebastopol, California whose members make 3.6 percent of local residents. How would legalizing cannabis for recreational use affect the medical cannabis industry?

“If legalization were to occur, Peace in Medicine would certainly welcome non-medical users Photo Courtesy of Rolling Stone Magazine while maintaining our Eighteen states have legalized cannabis for medical use. Two of those have now made cannabis current dedication to legal for recreational use. California could make the change in 2014. helping educate our

pocketed, so having the rail available to them makes them more competitive and will look better to investors,” Nemeth said.

PG&E representative Justin Real explained how welders and people with math skills will be in high demand in the future. He encouraged young people to look at PG&E’s website to get the education they will need to meet the job market’s demand.

Jim Eyer of E&I Consulting discussed how power will be generated at the point of consumption in the future, which means solar and wind energy will have to be developed right here at home and our places of work. He briefly discussed some new technologies in energy generation and storage.

“Think beyond the obvious,” Eyer said.

“Due to the size of the components, they have to be made in the United States,” Margaronis said. “We have heard about the challenges. We have to start to believe that the zero-emissions economy is something we can see in our lifetime. We need to support a strategic vision in public education and politics to create this strategic vision. At the national level we have to stop denigrating education and we need to stop putting the interests of tax evasion over the interests of the public.”

SRJC President Dr. Chong spoke last. “Today has been very inspiring. This is exactly why I wanted to come to SRJC. To have this adult conversation about what is possible. It’s through the leadership of Scott Conrad, who approached me and said that we had this visionary who wished to come here and have this discussion we’ve had today. It is very, very inspiring and we are making baby steps in an industry that is moving very quickly. We need leaders that know how to think and developing those leaders is the goal of this institution. They are going to lead the way for the next generation. This is not the end point, but the starting point.”

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March 11, 2013

Features

www.theoakleafnews.com

Kimchi, Pickles and Sauerkraut

SRJC Alum “Preserves” Old Tradition in New Company Cassidy Mila Features Editor

Wildbrine is bringing the age-old practice of live fermentation to the shelves of natural food stores across the country.

Founded by former Santa Rosa Junior College student Chris Glab and his business partner Rick Goldberg, Wildbrine produces kimchi, pickles and sauerkraut. They offer food produced with ancient processes and all the benefits the health food craze desires. In our age of light-speed convenience, we can forget how our ancestors spent centuries developing practices naturally superior to modern chemical preservation methods.

After 15 years spent building G and G Foods, a business producing salsas, dips and cheese spreads; Glab and Goldberg decided to sell the business. During his newfound free time Glab took a few SRJC classes in 2008. At first the classes were in the fields of sustainable agriculture, soil/ plant sciences and horticulture.

“I just wanted to learn how to be a better gardener, but soon what I was learning piqued my interest in American agriculture and the future of sustainable agriculture,” Glab said.

Glab looked about his surroundings inside Wildbrine’s facility as if trying to tie everything

together.

“Really this whole new business venture and my skills learned at the JC came together out of dumb luck.

I stopped taking classes after the JC ran out of courses that interested me, then my business partner and I came together with this idea and started the business in summer of 2011.”

Wildbrine tries to create a closed sustainable circuit using only natural practices and wasting nothing.

“We get our cabbage from local farmers and source our other vegetables from the closest places possible. All our unusable produce goes out to hog farmers in Windsor and all our methods leave no byproducts as long as the consumer recycles the container, so we give a wonderful product and leave no waste behind,” Glab said.

Wildbrine is tapping into a market with few competitors. While the beneficial effects of probiotics is well known, kimchi, sauerkraut, pickles and other live-fermented foods are just beginning to gain the fame needed to bring them to our supermarket shelves.

Most kimchi brands that you do see make the product overseas with an unnatural method. Wildbrine is produced in Windsor and its sustainable practices and quality vegan ingredients create a delicious and healthy food. Most kimchis have added MSG and protein-like fish sauce

Marisa Corley / Oak Leaf

SRJC Alum Chris Glab hopes his kimchi, pickles and sauerkraut, made using ancient processes will capitalize on new trends.

or dried shrimp to help activate the fermentation process, but Wildbrine’s recipes are gluten-free, GMO-free and vegan.

The product is as raw as possible without a single chemical preservative.

Wildbrine’s products are preserved naturally using an ancient method of fermentation. Fermenting preserves and flavors the vegetables. The “live” fermenting products are still active on the shelves of grocery stores, though refrigeration slows the process down considerably.

“Preservation has become a nasty word these days. Of all the things on ingredient labels, those involved in preservation are the most mysterious, unpronounceable and often unnatural,” Glab said. “That all has to do with the state of American agriculture, which excludes the natural and time-tested methods we use here in lieu of big bucks. The reason fermentation has been used for thousands of years is because it’s safe and good for you.”

The fermentation process begins

as the probiotics begin to break down the food and create a natural lactic acid byproduct. As the lactic acid and probiotics take over, they leave no room for bad bacteria and mold to grow and taint the product, leaving it safely and naturally preserved.

Wildbrine is still in its infancy, yet already successful. They appeal to a specific market and deliver a high quality product that few can compete with. It seems Glab and Goldberg have hitched a ride with the health food craze and are set to follow it to the top.

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March 11, 2013

15

Newman Auditorium Welcomes the Rossetti String Quartet

Vital Force Resonates at SRJC Drue Dunn

Staff Writer

The Rossetti String Quartet played a chamber concert in Newman Auditorium, revitalizing the spirit of those in attendance March 3.

Named after the Victorianera artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the four-person ensemble, armed with two violins, a viola and cello, impressed and dazzled spectators with their potent music style.

Betsy Roberts, director of community education for SRJC, greeted the crowd to this edition of the chamber concert series, welcoming veterans and newcomers alike getting the evening underway.

As the foursome of musicians took their seats on stage dressed in shimmery black, they blended in with their black chairs as they disappeared behind black music stands, leaving their sleek polished wooden instruments to appear as floating apparitions against a black background.

With ease the power of music filled the room. Immediately the stringed instruments delivered the finest quality of dynamic tonal reverberations to the crowd. The first piece was a Mozart selection written for the quartet in C major.

As the group fluttered through the notes, their mastery of musical craft was evident. For the audience, there was only music. It grabbed their attention while the quartet swayed gently, exerting notes with

deceptive ease. The room seemed to hunger for every note.

The super group weaved a sonic tapestry of vibrant detail.

The complex, shifting rhythms of Mozart took the audience for an adventurous ride to far-off lands with exotic companions. The music of these chamber musicians created a space through which the mind’s eye could see into eternity.

The soothing, calm tones emanating from the cello provided a grand backdrop upon which the two violins romped and frolicked, while the viola sprinted and darted with the high energy of a hummingbird.

Any troubles or stresses people brought in were banished while the music compelled the listener’s attention to center stage, engaging their imagination.

The Rossetti String Quartet, co-founded in 1996 by violinist Henry Gronnier and violist Thomas Diener, takes its name from the 19th century Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, for his artistic sense of color, poetry and naturalism, ideals embedded in the group’s own dynamic and masterful musicianship.

During the performance the crowd didn’t stir in their seats for fear they would break the music’s spell. Only in the brief pauses between movements did they collectively swoon, creak and shift to regroup as the masterful guides of harmony launched into the next leg of the journey.

At the evening’s end the

March 12

Women’s History Month Event: Women Astronomers of the 20th Century Lecture Carole L. Ellis Auditorium, Petaluma 7 p.m./ free

March 13

Spring Cinema Series Event: “It Happened One Night” Carole L. Ellis Auditorium, Petaluma 6 p.m./ free for ASP members

March 14

The Diversity of Cuba: Images of Today Mahoney Library Art Gallery, Petaluma 8 a.m.-5 p.m./ free/ Gallery runs through March 29

March 15

Drue Dunn/ Oak Leaf

The Rossetti String Quartet awes spectators with a grand performance reaching new heights of musical ability on the stage at the Newman Auditorium.

artists elicited a partial standing ovation, and they responded with an unexpected piece by Felix Mendelssohn. A full standing ovation followed.

The concert in Newman Auditorium gave a tremendous value compared to a night in the city. It was intimate with nary a bad seat in the house, featuring quality performances easily rivaling the city without the expense, hassles or stuffiness.

The Rossetti String Quartet

has a delightfully composed and refined sound quality, and as one might expect from classical players, they are easily marked as being of the highest caliber upon hearing them play. Clearly SRJC knows grand entertainment and has only the best performers showcased in this concert series, which will enjoy its final performance of the season April 12.

One last word of advice for any classical music setting: never be the first one to clap.

Oak Leaf Critic Run For Your Life

“21 & Over”

Walk Away

OK

Check it out

Steal it ‘n Run

“21 & Over” is a good college movie. Sex, drugs, pep rally brawling and stray animals are all here as part of the stereotypical college life that we are used to seeing on the screen. The movie could have done without a few scenes and certainly could have used a little more Jeff Chang, who is mostly unconscious throughout the movie but is hilarious when he is conscious.

If you liked movies such as “Pineapple Express” and “The Hangover,” then “21 & Over” is right up your alley.

I give it 3.5 out of 5. It’s a funny Photo Courtesy of AceShowBiz In “21 & Over” college student Casey, played by Skylar Astin, and his friend movie and the characters are well Miller, played by Miles Teller, help birthday boy Jeff Chang, played by Justin rehearsed, but the crude humor has Chon, have the time of his life as he turns 21. a tendency to go over the top and it isn’t a movie everyone will enjoy. with a simple goal going through a movies of its kind.

“21 & Over” is the tale of a college student hitting that magic twenty-first birthday. It is a special day for most Americans. You can drink, own a gun and mock the bouncers. Jeff Chang (Justin Chon) and his friends Miller (Miles Teller) and Casey (Skylar Astin) do all these things in “21 and Over.”

“21 & Over” isn’t the most wellwritten movie I’ve ever seen, but the little depth given to the characters is still meaningful. Teller and Astin have good chemistry together as a comedy duo.

Subtle racial humor, college The music in “21 & Over” is parties, some nudity and a lot of series of unfortunate events isn’t a drinking games make up the core new story concept, but “21 & Over” party music that fits the scenes it’s of “21 & Over.” A group of friends has a little more to it than other in and isn’t overdone.

- Jeremy Hoskins, Staff Writer

Bennett Friedman Jazz Quartet Newman Auditorium, Santa Rosa 8 p.m./ $10 general, $5 students and seniors

March 26

Women’s History Month Event: Women’s History Oral History Projects Call Room 656, Petaluma Noon/ free

March 27

SRJC Music Department Concert Choir and Chamber Singers Presents: Verdi’s Requiem Burbank Auditorium, Santa Rosa 7:30 p.m./ $10 general and $5 students

March 27

Arts and Lecture Event: Cuba’s Literacy Brigade: Women on the Frontlines of Transforming a Nation Newman Auditorium, Santa Rosa Noon/ free

March 28

“Lucia” (Film Screening) Newman Auditorium, Petaluma 6:30 p.m./ free

March 29

Rebeca Mauleon & Her Cuban Collective: Live Afro-Cuban Jazz Concert Carole L. Ellis Auditorium, Petaluma 12:30 p.m./ Free ticket vouchers needed to enter event

March 30

Carlitos Medrano y El Sabor De Mi Cuba Live Concert Bertolini Student Activities Center, Santa Rosa 8:30 p.m./ Free ticket vouchers needed to enter event from SRJC Student Activities Office

16

March 11, 2013

The Still Point Anna Hecht Staff Writer

The Robert F. Agrella art gallery ended its exhibit, The Still Point, with an in-depth discussion by a panel of the exhibit’s artists.

Connie Goldman, Emily Lazarre and Judith Foosaner spoke candidly to an audience March 4 about their opinions, inspirations and history of the artwork composing the exhibit The Still Point, curated by Suzanne Lacke.

An enthusiastic audience quickly assembled before the panel discussion began to walk through the exhibit and view the artwork once more before listening to the creators themselves.

Petaluma campus librarian Karen Peterson moderated the discussion and asked several questions of the artists, beginning with their interpretations of the exhibit’s title.

Judith Foosaner explained that by cleaning out her studio space and clearing her mind, she successfully found her ‘still point.’

“You hold the brush to your center and only when you feel that the brush exerts no movement and is perfectly still, then you are ready to make the first line. That is what I would call the still point, for me.

No fixity; it’s a vibration that comes through you,” she said.

Emily Lazarre added, “We went back and forth for a long time about what we should call the show and it seemed like a wonderful way to join the three of us. It’s been a real wonderful experience to know these artists.”

These answers led to the discussion of the artists’ journeys to abstract art.

Connie Goldman described her move from figurative painting to lyrical and organic abstraction, but said that she has continually worked with pieces involving multiple squares and panels.

These aspects of Goldman’s art can be viewed in her Doublet series featuring squares with folds.

On her own path to abstract art, Lazarre believes her passion started from a young age.

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Artists Lead Panel Discussions at SRJC About Gallery E xhibit

Lazarre connected childhood memories to the relational space in her art, stating that she was always more interested in creating houses for her paper dolls than playing with the dolls themselves.

She loved puzzles as well, “not to complete a picture n e c e s s ar i ly but to have that satisfaction of the interlocking shapes,” she said.

During the panel discussion, the artists also explained the inspirations for their artwork.

Whereas Goldman cited famous sculptors as influencing her work, Foosaner credited dance, music and her love for reading.

“My first degree was in literature.

I generally assume that when I’m

working well, they’re all in the room with me; Shakespeare and Chaucer and Henry James,” Foosaner said.

Her first visit to the Museum of Modern Art in New York at the age of 21 also greatly influenced her art.

“I went up the escalator and the first painting that greeted me was Rousseau’s Sleeping Gypsy, and it’s huge and gorgeous and sexy and I just wanted to fall into it, so I did and I never fell out,” she said.

To close the discussion, the artists spoke to the audience about how to approach something new, such as viewing the exhibit’s pieces for the first time.

Goldman began by saying that the most logical way “is to break it down into its formal components, especially if it’s something that you absolutely don’t understand.

“I would just encourage everybody when they walk into a show like this... to try not to ask themselves what it means.”

-Emily Lazarre

Take one of my pieces that nobody understands and I would look at the color, I would look at the surface and I would look at the various components and how they relate to one another. That, basically, is what my work is about.”

In Lazarre’s response, she discussed her experiences teaching at the College of Marin and learning her students’ individual premises and influences for their artwork.

“I would just encourage everybody when they walk into a show like this, which can be daunting, to try not to ask themselves what it means. Don’t worry about it. Act as if you were sitting at the symphony and take it in and then allow it to later start giving you associations,” she said.

Whether in music, literature, dance or art, Foosaner concluded, “Let it move through you and don’t try to pin it down. Don’t try to analyze it. See if there’s something there that you can hang on to. Let it work through you. Over a period of time, if it’s valid, it will.”

Baking with Alex Alex Pozzi Contributing Writer I was recently online looking for some new St. Patrick’s Day recipes to test out, and stumbled upon (quite literally) an article attacking the Guinness, Bailey’s and Whiskey trio, more commonly known as the Irish Car Bomb. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this drink, a car bomb consists of half to three quarters of a pint of Guinness, with a shot of Jameson and Bailey’s dropped in from the top. The article went on to say how ignorant Americans dare drink something so faux-Irish with a name

Photo courtesy of Alex Pozzi

Making Irish Car Bomb Brownies is easy as 1-2-3.

that references political turmoil.

For half a second I found myself agreeing with the article, and thought maybe it isn’t such an appropriate drink to drink... then I snapped out of it.

Having been to Ireland twice and having been awake during a majority of my history classes, I am aware of the violent history Ireland had throughout the 1960s all the way to the 1990s. The IRA committed acts of terror and often used car bombs to do it. July 21, 1972, 22 car bombs were set off in Belfast, a day known as Bloody Friday. Ireland has had a sad history, like many other nations. I am not glorifying or condoning any of these acts when choosing this drink.

But to say I have poor taste and am ignorant for ordering an Irish car bomb is taking it a bit too far. Don’t forget the many other drinks named with politically incorrect names, such as the Kamakazi, Agent Orange, or the Pearl Harbor. To each their own.

So I say raise a glass, remember history, and don’t be the last one to finish your car bomb.

Don’t be that person who puts on green beads and walks around drinking green beer this St. Patrick’s Day. Instead, make these brownies!

They’re chocolatey, tangy and packed with a punch.

Irish Car Bomb Brownies Recipe courtesy of A Spicy Perspective

Ingredients:

Brownies: 1 cup flour 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1/2 tsp. salt 8 Tb. butter, melted (1 stick) 12 oz. chopped chocolate 1 cup sugar 4 eggs 10 oz. Guinness Beer Bailey Irish Cream Swirl: 8 oz. cream cheese, softened 1/3 cup sugar 1 egg 1/4 cup Baileys Irish Cream and another splash to go in your coffee while baking Whiskey Ganache: 16 oz. chopped chocolate 3/4 cup heavy cream 2-3 tsp. Irish Whiskey, and another one for good measure

Photo Courtesy of Alex Pozzi

A delectable St. Patrick’s Day treat, Irish Car Bomb Brownies are sure to set the mood just right this holiday. Whether you’re sharing with friends or simply by yourself, these brownies are sure to be this year’s pot of gold.

Directions: Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a 9-by-13 inch baking dish with foil, fitting it around the sides.

Cream the cream cheese and 1/3 cup sugar together until completely smooth. Add 1 egg and 1/4 cup Baileys Irish Cream and beat until smooth. Set aside.

Mix the flour, cocoa powder and salt in a small bowl.

Then melt the butter and 12 oz of chocolate together in the microwave, in 30 second increments, stirring each time.

Beat 1 cup of sugar and 4 eggs together until light and fluffy. Then slowly add the melted

chocolate to the egg mixture while the mixer is running.

Slowly add the flour mixture. Scrape the bowl and mix in the beer, very slowly as to not create a foamy batter.

Pour half of the brownie batter into the prepared pan. Top with the Bailey Cream Cheese mixture, then add the rest of the brownies batter. Use a spatula to swirl the two mixtures together.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a tooth pick inserted into the middle comes out clean. All ovens vary, but mine took about 38 min.

Allow the brownies to

cool completely in the pan.

Then pour the heavy cream, Irish whiskey and 1 lb. of chopped chocolate in a bowl.

Microwave for 1 minute, the stir until smooth. Microwave another 30 seconds if needed.

Pour over the top of the brownies and smooth with a spatula.

Place in the fridge for the ganache to set.

Using the foil edges, carefully lift the brownies out of the pan. Cut and serve.

www.theoakleafnews.com

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March 11, 2013

17

Low-Level Radiation: Risk and Reality Gary Baker Assistant A&E Editor Nuclear research has long been a polarizing issue in America: one side claims it’s the godsend of sustainable energy to save the world and the other points out possible meltdowns and radiation poisoning.

Most sources regard radiation as having a low-dose point where people no longer need to worry.

Gayle Greene, professor of English at Scripps College and the author of a biography about Alice Stewart, warns that this is not the case.

“Radiation science has largely been kept under wraps,” Greene said during her lecture on Alice Stewart, the forerunner of the anti-nuclear movement. “You won’t read about it in mainstream media unless you go online.”

Greene’s lecture, held March 4 in Newman Auditorium, didn’t quite fill the house and most students appeared to be there because of a class requirement, yet the topic was certainly something everyone should be aware of.

Greene worked feverishly with Alice Stewart to finish her biography before Stewart’s death in 2002 after decades of radiation research and

study at Cambridge University.

Stewart started out brilliantly successful, one of a small handful of women attending Cambridge at the time, and was the only one with kids and a working family.

“She managed to combine family with her field of science,” Greene said. Stewart, a physician and epidemiologist, connected her family with her interest in radiation and disease in children.

After her sponsors dropped her because of her interest in proving low-dose radiation is just as harmful, if not worse, than high-dose, she became an independent scientist with no preliminary direction for her study. Greene pointed out that most scientists don’t have this luxury, having to conform to what their sponsors want out of the data versus what the scientist believes is important.

The consequences of her research from that point led to what has brought modern doctors to “ask if you might be pregnant when you get x-rays of any kind,” Greene said.

She gave insight into the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs that devastated Japan in 1945 and the subsequent research the American government dictated on the aftermath. American researchers treated the Japanese survivors “as a sort of living laboratory,” and were

Drue Dunn/Oak Leaf

Gayle Greene, author of a biography about Alice Stewart, talks to SRJC students about the risks of low-level radiation in today’s world.

there “to study, not to treat.”

Greene said how the research was a “highly politicized body of knowledge,” with indications that they had been looking into highdose radiation when they should have been looking further into low-dose. “That’s not the kind of radiation we are subjected to regularly,” Greene said as she turned the topic to focus on the Fukushima disaster just under two years ago.

On March 11, 2011 a powerful 9.0 earthquake hit the Fukushima nuclear reactor in Japan and created

a disaster the likes of which Japan had not seen for 50 years.

Disabling the reactor-cooling systems, the earthquake and subsequent tsunami led to releases of radioactivity and triggered a 30-kilometer evacuation zone surrounding the nuclear sites.

On April 20, 2011 the Japanese authorities called the 20-kilometer evacuation zone a no-go area that could only be entered under close government supervision.

When referring to this incident, most people end up citing

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “but Chernobyl is the one to look at,” Green said.

This connects back to Stewart’s research.

“I’m sure she would be testing the area around Fukushima if she was still alive,” Greene said.

“What I wonder of course is what’s coming up,” she said. “I mean, one wonders if it’s safe to eat fish anymore from the Pacific.

There have been some real scare stories about radiation levels and what’s been swept out to sea.”

Performance Jazz Takes Root at SRJC Francisco Mendez Staff Writer

at San Francisco State University, where he served for eight years. He has been an instructor at SRJC since 1977, where he was previously chair of the music department.

Friedman graduated from Boston’s Berklee College of Music and received his Master’s Degree in Music from San Francisco State

University. He is currently the head of jazz studies at SRJC and was recently featured as a performer at the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, The Kuumba Jazz Center in Santa Cruz and the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Friedman has been described as a “San Francisco Jazz Legend” by fellow saxophonist Tom Alexander.

The Music Department at Santa Rosa Junior College will host the Bennett Friedman Jazz Quartet in concert March 15. The concert will feature talent including saxophonist and SRJC teacher Bennett Friedman, pianist Larry Dunlap, bassist Andrew Emer and drummer David Rokeach.

Friedman, who coordinated the concert and chose the performers, hopes that this performance will lure more people to jazz and inspire his students.

“I make it work so it’s worth somebody’s while. I get the best people I can and the people I think I can have fun with,” Friedman said.

The performance will feature original pieces by Friedman and some audience suggestions he has worked on. The guest invited aid immensely to the preparation.

“You can accomplish your goals pretty fast, you have to. What happens is you have maybe a twohour rehearsal and then you’re playing for the public, so you need to be really sharp on your skills,” Friedman said.

Joseph Barkoff/ Oak Friedman is a National Endowment for the Arts recipient Bennett Friedman, lead saxophonist, performs with the Bennett and former Jazz Ensemble director Friedman Jazz Quartet in Newman Auditorium 8 p.m. March 15.

Leaf

Dunlap, a San Francisco local, has been praised as “remarkable and versatile” and “one of the best jazz pianists around” by the San Francisco Chronicle. Since 1983 Dunlap has served as pianist for the British diva Cleo Laine. His collaborations include works with Mark Murphy, Joe Williams and Sheila Jordan as well as jazz instrumentalists Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer and Marc Johnson.

Dunlap also frequently performs with his wife, vocalist Bobbe Norris, who’s known for drawing the best notes out of songs. Together they have toured the U.S., Japan, Canada and other countries.

Emer is an adjunct faculty member at SRJC as a string bass and electric bass instructor.

Although Emer is a San Francisco local, he recently spent 10 years in New York working with a variety of artists including Lee Konitz, Donald Byrd, Jason Moran and Jeff Ballard. In 2007 Emer worked with Michael Cain to score a play for the Labyrith Theater Company with co-artistic directors John Ortiz and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The play, “A View From 151st Street,” ran for a successful 38 shows. Emer has toured since then with various jazz acts and several educational programs including the Lake Tahoe Jazz Camp for Kids.

Rokeach is a longtime Bay Area resident, known for playing with well-known artists like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. His television appearances including The Rosie O’Donnell Show, The View and Good Morning America. He’s recently played for the Broadway shows “Jersey Boys,” “Les Miserables” and “Ragtime.”

Rokeach worked with Bay Area Composer Joel Evans to record for numerous shows and motion pictures including “The X-Files,” “Sex and the City” and “The O.C.” Rokeach currently teaches at the Berkeley Jazz School and has also been a regular faculty member at the Stanford Jazz workshop and at the Rhythmic Concepts Jazz Camp West.

Friedman has gotten to know these artists over years of being in the music industry so the chemistry on stage will be stunning. The show will start at 8 p.m. in the Newman Auditorium on the SRJC campus.

General admission is $10 and $5 for students and seniors. Parking is not included.

For more information on this event and future music performances please visit the concerts calendar at: http://www. santarosa.edu/music/concerts.php

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March 11, 2013

In My Black Bubble Peter Njoroge Opinion Editor

Racism is very much alive in America, and I dare say in Santa Rosa.

In modern day form, it’s dressed in a nicely-fitted suit called subtlety with an ignorant tie to match its puzzling layers of absurdity.

Last weekend reminded me just how absurd racism is. I was directly involved in a situation where my skin color was of great significance. I am Kenyan, and from what I can tell my skin color is black, whatever black means. Regardless, I walked into an affluent neighborhood in town with a friend, who’s white, to get some food.

Throughout the whole situation that unfolded, one thing remained clearI was immediately put in my own predetermined bubble. The looks on people’s faces reminded me I was black and I was to remain in my own stereotypical black bubble.

The atmosphere changed once I walked inside the store, which I will omit naming. It’s as if an alien from a distant galaxy had parked its spaceship outside and walked in a store full of unwelcoming humans.

In this case, I was the alien and the humans were particularly keen on every move I made and every distinct word I said. The fear and prejudice in their eyes were unbearable as their gazes bore through me.

The situation spoke volumes as to how far behind we truly are as people. Assumptions were made about me without a proper inquiry into my value system, life history, character, philosophy, I.Q. and everything else that counts as a way to understand another person.

As this went on, my friend remained unaware of what was happening. He was ecstatic about the food while I was in the midst of a psychological, social and cultural war that has raged since before my existence.

Racism, in this case, was subtle because nothing was said directly to me. However, everything was implied by the facial expressions and the suspicious attitude towards the bubble I was in. I was among the countless young black males constantly thrown in the dark, painful and abysmal bubble on a daily basis by a cruel society. The only way to describe the bubble is by calling it by its real name: fear in its most vicious form. Those within are sometimes aware of the animosity, while those outside sometimes perpetuate the prejudice, ignorance and irrationality of the bubble itself.

All a person can do is hope for people who are prejudice and absurd to find a deep inner peace from understanding those who are thrown in the painful stereotypic black bubble, and vice versa.

Opinion

www.theoakleafnews.com

“There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.”

- Jiddu KrishnamuRTI

EDITORIAL The inflated egos of some people who attend a four-year college are infuriating. They smirk after hearing someone goes to Santa Rosa Junior College as if paying more for their classes at a high-status institution somehow guarantees their own intelligence.

Going to SRJC doesn’t relegate a person to being stupid, lazy or inferior to another attending a four-year college which, by the way, has no relationship on one’s actual intelligence outside academia.

Belittling a person on the basis of not attending a four-year school right after high school is childish and shows how unsophisticated you actually are.

If a student goes to a four-year college and another student goes

to SRJC, they are both learning the same things from equally educated professors who care deeply about the subjects they teach, just in different environments.

Ask someone if there’s a noticeable difference in the material from UC Berkeley’s intro to psychology class and the same class here at SRJC. They might take a minute to actually ponder the possibilities, but will inevitably come to the conclusion there is little difference.

Those unable to think outside the box may unfortunately respond with a defensive dissertation in an attempt to digress circuitously through ridiculous tangents, inundating you with a closedminded barrage of verbal diarrhea

Drone Wars: Drew Sheets Staff Writer

In 2008, American citizens had the pleasure of witnessing the most progressive and contested primary in our country’s short history. The heavy-weight favorite going in was the ex-first lady, then New York senator Hilary Clinton facing off against a seeming nobody; a one-time senator from Illinois not too far-removed from being a community organizer named Barack Obama.

The heated primary was to see who would get the Democratic nod for president. The two fought ferociously over who was more liberal, both swearing to reverse the Patriot Act. We know the outcome of that primary, and less than two weeks after Barack Obama’s swearing in as president he re-signed the Patriot Act, but not before strengthening it with an even more aggressive attack on our Bill of Rights.

President George W. Bush put the Patriot Act into law, and although Democrats want to claim they are the anti-Bush party, the fact remains that their progressive agenda took us deep down the rabbit hole. The slippery slope ends when Alice is found guilty and sentenced without trial. This is essentially what the president did in legalizing the assassination of Americans around the globe.

By nominating John O. Brennan, a former Bush agent, as CIA director, the president made it abundantly clear that he will not

stop attacking our Bill of Rights until it is rendered completely useless. The National Defense Authorization Act includes the ability to kill Americans anywhere in the world and legally turns the United States into a battleground.

Feb. 22, a lone senator from Kentucky swore to the American people that he would do everything in his power to stall or stop the appointment of Brennan unless Obama came out and declared that they could not kill Americans on U.S. soil with a drone missile attack.

March 5 the senator got his answer from the Department of Justice, and it was bad news for liberty.

The attorney general, Eric Holder, sent the senator a letter saying that the law did in fact protect the president’s ability to use lethal force, with drones, against Americans on U.S. soil.

So March 6, just before noon Eastern Standard Time, the Kentucky senator, Republican Rand Paul, started talking on the floor of Congress and he didn’t stop for nearly 13 hours. For almost 13 hours this man stood for individual liberties and the Constitution. He stood, by himself

about trivial topics that have nothing to do with the matter at hand.

Additionally, the stigma of going to SRJC for your freshman and sophomore years follows you to a four-year college, regardless of how smart you are. The minute you say you went to a particular community college, you are immediately considered an inferior learner.

The relationships people form with a school during their freshman and sophomore years can inflate their ego, fusing an unhealthy attachment to their school.

This annoying, useless and condescending attitude some college students have in relation to their four-year institution and the

perceived inferiority of community college students is both illogical and ignorant. People who have gone to one or multiple community colleges have worked as hard, sometimes even harder, to get through the transfer process and acclimate to a new environment.

We’re all students working toward our individual goals, and there’s nothing to be ashamed of. In fact we should be proud, because not everyone is fortunate enough to attend college in the first place.

Just because you go to SRJC doesn’t mean you are less than a person who goes to a fouryear college. It’s time to drop the attitude and get real.

The War Against America and Human Rights might I add, for the rule of law, the magna carta, habeas corpus, but above all he stood for all the best values western civilization has produced since declaring we wouldn’t just let the king round us up and behead us out of sheer boredom.

Forget about Bush, Republicans and Democrats. Forget about the Patriot Act and the elimination of the Fourth Amendment via unwarranted wiretaps. Forget about Citizens United and money’s corrupting influence over federal policy. Don’t think about social and economic injustice, monetary p o l i c y , inflation, deflation, the Federal Reserve, gun control, abortion or anything else.

Right now, just focus on the concept of allowing a politician to kill a citizen without a trial: no due process, no jury of peers, nothing but a whim or an itch in the pants and bam, you’re dead.

My question is: where the hell are all the liberal leaders, the socalled “liberal” media and the independents? It seems they have forgotten the words of their late,

“There comes a time one must take a position which is neither safe, nor politic, nor popularbut one must take it because it is right.”Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King

great leader Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “There comes a time one must take a position which is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular—but one must take it because it is right.”

The legislative branch makes the laws, the judicial branch interprets the laws and the executive branch enforces the laws. So I ask, if the executive branch is making the laws, interpreting the laws and enforcing the laws, with no checks or balances, why even pretend the other branches matter? They are irrelevant.

If a judge can’t interpret the law, what makes us believe a politician can? Where does society make that leap? Laws are supposed to protect the citizens, not grant the government authority to execute citizens without a trial.

This country’s direction reminds me of another Reverend Dr. King quote, “Everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”

“I’m not saying that anyone is Hitler, don’t misunderstand me.

But what I am saying is…when a democracy gets it wrong, you want the law to be in place,” Rand Paul said on Tuesday during his historic filibuster.

I tip my hat to the man from Kentucky, but unless the president comes out and contradicts his Department of Justice, there can be no doubt that we are bearing witness to the death of the American democratic experiment.

www.theoakleafnews.com

Opinion

March 11, 2013

Oil and Water Don’t Mix

Dirty Words and Early Birds

Drilling too Deep for the Bottom Line Nathan Quast Web Manager

Numbers never tell me enough of the story.

The trial to determine British Petroleum’s accountability for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig catastrophe began Feb. 25. 2013. I’ve put quite a bit of time into reading investigative reports from BP and the Deepwater Horizon Study group, and it all comes back to the numbers.

The budget-slashing tactics BP used to garner higher profits for its shareholders. The ratio of chemicals in the cement slurry mixture intended to maintain the well’s integrity. The pressure readouts the rig’s crew appears to have misinterpreted when they chose to proceed with the operation at depths no one had attempted to drill before.

The timeline of the last minutes before two explosions killed eleven people.

Numbers riddle the statements about the accident’s aftermath as well: the months before the well stopped spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, the miles of coastline saturated with oil and the people unable to work for fear of fishing up contaminated animals. Never mind the monetary figures as to what BP, Transocean and Halliburton might pay out in fines or settlements for the environmental

damage and lost revenue caused by the spill.

I’ve had my fill of the numbers, and I’m not going to regurgitate them in hopes they might help me prove something.

An obsession with numbers caused this catastrophe – specifically, the obsession with profit. The Deepwater Horizon rig attempted its operation with faulty equipment and materials. Attorneys will eventually distribute liability for those oversights amongst the parties involved, but none can claim innocence that their fixation on attaining higher profit figures helped facilitate this catastrophe in some form.

Modern life would collapse without the oil industry. It’s easy to fail to appreciate how many applications petroleum has beyond filling up a gas tank. We use plastics and other materials manufactured with petroleum daily. It would be a fool’s errand to call for abandoning all oil usage. The oil must flow, but the private interests supplying it continue to prove their disregard for the responsibilities required to steward this vital substance.

The for-profit business model has failed. The oil industry has not maintained safe environments for its employees, nor has it maintained a reliable stream of the oily lifeblood that keeps the world operating.

I don’t want to hear the numbers –

E T IQUETTE

W ith E rik Jorgensen

Over the years, I have observed the proper way to behave in a coffee shop: • Wait until you are at the front of the line to decide what you want.

Reading the menu is just too much work if you are second or third in line – and almost impossible when you first walk through the door. The people behind you will admire you

for taking your time to make such an important decision. Bonus points if you make the barista wait for you to finish gossiping on your cellphone.

• ‘Regular’ coffee is for chumps. To show people behind you how cultured

19

Darcy Fracolli Copy Editor

Cartoon by Daniel Barba

how many billions BP will pay out in over who can be trusted to oversee reparations to the Gulf Coast states, harvesting this resource without fines to the federal government or bowing before the bottom line. compensation to individual citizens.

Speaking of fool’s errands.

Make damn sure someone takes and sophisticated you are, order the drink with the most complicated name – even if you have to make one up. Latte? For losers. Espresso?

Especially so-so. Cappuccino? Pfft – amateur. A real pro orders a doubledecaf white chocolate soy latte with whipped cream and dark chocolate sprinkles. The key here is to take longer to name your drink, much less make it, than it would take for the guy behind you with exact change to complete his “regular” coffee transaction.

• Wait until the end of the transaction to start looking for your wallet. This demonstrates that you are so rich and successful and don’t bother yourself with trivial transactions. “Forgetting” where you keep your money gives you that “je ne sais quoi” that really separates you from the common

rabble. This trick also works at fast food franchises.

• Block the cream and sugar while waiting for your fru-fru drink, preferably with an inane conversation.

This establishes your dominance over the plebian “regulars.” The tingle of control throbs harder when commoners have to ask your permission for the condiments. “Oh *gasp* - am I in your way? Here, I’ll let you use the cream and sugar!” But make sure you let the cretin know how inconvenient it is to acknowledge their mere presence.

• Most importantly, make sure you do all this when you see me standing behind you with exact change in my hand, trying to jumpstart with a quick jolt of coffee in-between my morning classes.

Student on the Street

What, if anything, is too serious to joke about?

Valerie Archer

Tim Kuo

Maegan Gomera

“There’s always a way to laugh abut something.”

“Someone’s family- you can joke about me, but not my family.”

“It’s good to respect other people’s religions.”

Jojo Balliao “Don’t mess with diseases.”

Feminist is an ugly word. At least that’s what people tell me. I used to agree with them, but I don’t see it anymore.

I used to think feminism was an exercise in futility. ‘Feminist’ was an epithet for angry old women and bitter young ones. What was the point? I never felt oppressed. I could vote, own property, go to school, drive.

We’ve been exploited for labor and denied suffrage, property rights and education for thousands of years. We’re still exploited. Saudi Arabia- where women can’t even vote or drive- Israel and other fundamentalist states aside, we’re still exploited right here at home.

It’s difficult to delve into the subjugation of 51 percent of the population in less than 500 words, so we’ll keep it short and sweet.

Women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. A big reason why is that in this country the federal minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13 an hour. It hasn’t been raised since 1991, 22 years ago. Only seven states require the same minimum wage for tipped workers and non-tipped workers. Fortunately, California is one of them. Unfortunately, according to Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, two-thirds of restaurant workers earning sub-minimum wage are women. Restaurant workers account for the two lowest-paid jobs in America.

We’re not done. The fight isn’t over. It’s not even close. And every time I laugh at some douche bag’s dumb joke about how ‘ladies be talkin’ or ‘ladies be in the kitchen,’ a small part of me dies. I used to laugh at those jokes and genuinely find them funny. But they’re not.

Put aside for a moment the fact these idiots haven’t come up with a new joke since I was 10, and think about a few things. We’ve had 43 men who’ve held the office of President of the United States of America. No women have held that office, or the office of Vice President, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Treasury, or Chief Justice. I could go on. According to “The Unfinished Revolution,” 70 percent of men would like an equal marriage, but would want their wives to give up their careers if an equal partnership was unattainable. 75 percent of women said they’d rather get divorced than be a homemaker.

I can’t even tell you how many men have walked up to me, identified themselves as a co-conspirator and proceeded to tell me a truly horrifying joke. I’m not saying this generation’s men are the source of the problem.

We’ve been indoctrinated into a culture of misogyny passed down from generation to generation since man first saw the plants growing from his own feces and realized he could farm (Jared Diamond, “Guns, Germs, and Steel,” Ch. 7). Today’s generation, yesterday’s generation and tomorrow’s generation of men and women will choose to be part of the problem or part of the solution.

I am a feminist. You should be too.

© 2013 EWC

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