2010_08_26

The

S TUDENT P RINTZ www.studentprintz.com

SERVING SOUTHERN MISS SINCE 1927

Thursday, August 26 , 2010

KATRINA

5 YEARS LATER

NATIONAL

Student chef makes Top 9 Samantha Schott Executive Editor

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CENTENNIAL

ORMANCE DANCE PERF

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BOOKS CHEAP TEXT

Volume 95 Issue 3

USM senior Whitney Miller reached the Top 9 on Wednesday in the new FOX series “MasterChef.” The 23-year-old from Poplarville, Miss., is the youngest contestant on the show. If she wins, she receives $250,000 and the opportunity to publish her own cookbook.

“I haven’t taken any cooking classes or anything,” said Miller, who learned her way around the kitchen at age 12, when she and her two sisters were given chores to help prepare meals.

“We all had our duties in the kitchen, and I think I enjoyed it more than any of them,” she said.

“Starting in ninth grade I cooked every night for my family.”

Despite this, Chef Gordon Ramsay, one of three judges on “MasterChef,” was hesitant to put Miller through even the first round of auditions for the show, when they were selecting 50 amateur chefs to participate in the competition.

Miller said that she has felt pressure to prove herself ever since.

“I’ve been cooking since I was young, and I’m also very competitive,” she said. “They see this sweet person on the outside but not the competitiveness.”

Whether they see it or not, the competitiveness is there. Miller has continued to impress the judges since making the Top 14.

“My proudest moment was the first time we stepped into the ‘MasterChef ’ kitchen as the Top 14—I won our first challenge,” she said.

“No matter how I did past that, I got to prove this first round that I have what it takes.”

The young chef said that when concocting new recipes and presenting her food, she utilizes the creativity she picked up from her mother. She learned the “Southern basics and Southern hospitality” from her great-grandmother.

“I try to keep to my Southern roots,” Miller said. “This past episode (Aug. 18) I cooked Southern fried pork chops.”

Miller also consulted recipe books and the Internet to help her learn, and she begged her parents for DirectTV, so she could watch the Food Network.

Now, with about ten years’ worth of experience, Miller has a restaurant in Poplarville called Glaze. She changes the menu every week, with one exception.

“The only thing that stays the same is shrimp and grits, and that’s every Tuesday,” she said. “Everybody told me that they would kill me if I took it off.”

See CHEF, 5

Greg Gayne/FOX

Contestant Whitney Miller prepares her signature dish on “MasterChef,” a new culinary competition series that continues to cook on Aug. 3 on FOX. ©2010 Fox Broadcasting Co.

PARKING

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TODAY

93/69 TOMORROW

94/66 INDEX Calendar ...................... 2 Crossword...................... 2 Special .......................... 3 News ............................ 4 Opinions ...................... 9 Arts & Entertainment 11 Dance Preview ............. 12

Faculty/staff parking dominates USM Online

Earvin Hopkins

studentprintz.com

Printz Writer Students say parking seems more congested than ever this semester.

Parking management, however, says the future of USM’s parking looks brighter.

Interim Director for the Department of Parking Management, Lucy Bowens, sheds some light on the situation. Bowens said that the future of Southern Miss parking is the parking garage.

“I am very excited about the future of USM parking,” she said.

“The parking garage is to house 1,200 vehicles which will help better serve our campus community.”

The parking garage is to be completed by March 2011 for the usage of faculty/staff and students. The parking garage will cost $15,327,000 for its total completion.

For now there are 7,015 parking

Samantha Schott/Printz

The Theatre and Dance parking lot is one of many parking lots on campus facing congestion problems.

spots on campus: 1,535 for faculty/ staff, 1,454 for residents, and 1,448 on commuters.

“The parking garage isn’t doing us much good right now,” Tashia Jennings said. “But I guess we

must suffer with the extremely far away student parking until the parking garage’s completion.”

On the other hand many faculty and staff say that parking this semester has been easier for them.

Associate Professor of English, Dr. Sherita Johnson, said that in her five-year career here at Southern Miss, this was the first year she was able to easily find a parking spot.

“This was the first time we actually didn’t have to fight the students for a parking spot,” Johnson said.

Professors must pay $135 for parking, like the students. However, they can choose a payroll deduction over 9 months as a payment plan for their parking decal.

Parking offenses are more minute for faculty and staff. They are allotted legal parking in commuter, as well as open zones and faculty/staff parking - whereas students are only allowed to park in their designated area.

See PARKING, 5

Calendar

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The

Student Printz Serving Southern Miss since 1927

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Mark Your Planner 26 27 28 29 30

Executive Editor Samantha Schott

11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Wesley Foundation BBQ Holloway Complex, Room B

11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

100 Cities Against Stoning Outside LAB

10:00 a.m.

SPLASH Wesley Foundation Building

Web Editor Nathan Johnson

11:30 a.m.

Big Success Event TCC and Union Lobby

4:00 p.m.

W. Soccer vs. Miss Valley St. USM Soccer Complex

Managing Editor Meryl Dakin

12:00 p.m.

Lunch BSU

Art Director Bryant Hawkins

7:00 p.m.

Anime Club Meeting WSB 120

6:00 p.m.

Back to School Cookout Ogletree Alumni House Phalen Courtyard

11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Recruitment PR Shoemaker Square, TCC and Union Lobby

samantha.schott@eagles.usm.edu

nathan.johnson@eagles.usm.edu

meryl.dakin@eagles.usm.edu

john.hawkins@eagles.usm.edu

Chief Designer Christopher Bostick

7:00 p.m.

Centennial Dance Performance Mannoni Performing Arts Center

christopher.bostick@eagles.usm.edu

Webmaster Chris Greene

chris.greene@eagles.usm.edu

7:00 p.m.

Volleyball vs. Nicholls St. Reed Green Coliseum

7:00 p.m.

Centennial Dance Performance Mannoni Performing Arts Center

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

margaret.williams@usm.edu

Writers Jonathan Andrews Earvin Hopkins Stormy Speaks Ashlyn Ervin Ashton Pittman Cade Morrow Hannah Jones Mary Margaret Halford Michelle Holowach Deonica Davis Sarah Rogers Photographers Jordan Moore Adam Rittenhouse Myesha Arrington Dusty Mercier

Find us online at

www.studentprintz.com The Student Printz is published every Tuesday and Thursday during the fall and spring semesters. Signature Offset of Hattiesburg provides printing services.

Opinions expressed in The Student Printz are those of the writer and not necessarily those of The Student Printz, its publications manager, USM, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning or the USM Board of Student Publications.

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Across

1 Moved on all fours 6 “Snow” veggie

7:30 p.m.

Owen Rockwell Percussion Recital Mannoni Performing Arts Center

7:00 p.m.

Volleyball vs. Kennesaw St. Reed Green Coliseum

Publications Manager Maggie Williams

Designers Lisa Gurley Taylor Fesenmeier

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Recruitment PR Shoemaker Square, TCC and Union Lobby

9 Action film high point 14 Break off completely 15 Select, with “for” 16 Like Cheerios

17 Open-mouthed 18 Watch or clock 20 Second floor of a home, say 22 Your and my 23 John who played Basil Fawlty 24 QVC competitor 25 Town, informally 26 Animal fat 27 Keats or Yeats 29 Brighton buddy 30 Ear: Pref.

31 Ernie’s Muppet pal 32 Amt. still owed 33 With 35-Across, real McCoy 35 See 33-Across 39 Got ready for a lap dog 40 Ink stain 41 Accelerate, with “up” 42 Gets nosy 45 Bump off 46 Arrived 47 Swedish soprano Jenny 48 Tyrannosaurus __ 49 Element used in dating rocks 51 Actress Gardner 52 Where to begin adding numbers 54 Daily publication where you’d read the ends of 18-, 20-, 33/35- and 52-Across

56 Microwave alerts 58 Speechify 59 Perrier, to Pierre 60 Cybercommerce 61 Justin Timberlake’s boy band 62 AAA suggestion 63 Aromatic compound

Down

1 Civil War org.

2 Control, as temperature 3 Argentine leader played by Madonna 4 Livened (up) 5 Ancestral diagrams 6 Pans partner 7 Nickname 8 Maximally 9 Xerox 10 See 25-Down 11 Enjoyed a diner 12 Tie tightly 13 Pizazz 19 Directional suffix 21 Regret one’s sins 23 Drain obstruction 25 With 10-Down, “South Pacific” song 28 Calif. neighbor 29 Damon of “Good Will Hunting” 31 Skewed view 32 “Bucking” horse 34 Secondhand 35 Baba who stole from thieves 36 Dungeness delicacy 37 Tart dessert 38 All square 40 Costlier ballpark spot 42 Expect to happen 43 Funny Joan 44 Sort of 45 Farther below the water’s surface 46 Salad oil bottles 48 Cell “messenger,” briefly 50 “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ?” playwright 52 Oil cartel acronym 53 Nikki Sixx/Tommy Lee group Mötley __ 55 RR depot 57 35mm camera type

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Special

Page 3

Katrina: five years later Gulf coast

Katie Carter/ Vicksburg Post

A young man sits on the sea wall on Front Beach in Ocean Springs only about one block from my house. Even though the water had washed away the Biloxi bridge nearby, my mother’s house miraculously survived with only wind damage to the roof.

A former Printz photo editor reflects on her experience Katie Carter Guest Writer Five years ago today, I was a sophomore photojournalism student from Ocean Springs, Miss., sitting in Maggie Williams’ reporting class in Southern Hall. The semester had just begun and Maggie was talking about what makes the news news.

She had written three names on the board and asked the class if anyone knew what they were.

At this point, I was more worried about the Andrew Bird concert I was going to at the House of Blues in New Orleans that night than any people in the news.

Someone in class raised a hand and said Katrina was a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.

I’m from the Mississippi Gulf Coast and never evacuated for a single hurricane growing up. So, I went to New Orleans that night, not realizing it was the last time I

would enjoy the city in its true form.

Thankfully, I came back to Hattiesburg that weekend. I had class on Monday, right?

Monday morning Hurricane Katrina made landfall. When we finally got the trees off the cars in my driveway three days later, I grabbed every piece of photo equipment I could get my hands on and headed for the Gulf Coast.

Although I had already had one internship and was the photo editor of The Student Printz, I realized that this was the first hard journalism that I was attempting. This was real news. Everything I had learned thus far as a journalism student was going to be put to the test.

I spent two weeks on the Gulf Coast making pictures. USM was closed during that time and returning to resume classes was pretty surreal. Trying to pick up in class where we had left off before the storm seemed impossible.

On the one hand, all of my jour-

nalism classes seemed to have much more meaning. On the other hand, they seemed so meaningless.

That semester was both one of my best and worst semesters in school.

I learned what kind of journalist I wanted to be, and I won some awards for my photographs from the aftermath of the storm on the coast. It was difficult, though, to learn how to deal with this tragedy and continue with my education at the same time.

In the end, prompted by financial problems brought on by the storm, I took the next semester off from school. I realize now I really needed a mental break as well.

When I came back to school one year after Hurricane Katrina shook up my world, I had a new perspective on my future as a student and a photojournalist.

Katie Carter graduated from USM in 2007 and is now a working photojournalist with the Vicksburg Post.

Katie Carter/ Vicksburg Post

Two pine trees fell over the driveway and covered all five cars at my friend’s house where we weathered the storm in Hattiesburg. It took us three days to trim them back enough to remove two drivable cars out so we could head for the Coast.

News

Page 4

oil spill

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Restaurants suffer from spill Deonica Davis Printz Writer Even after plugging and destroying the leaking oil well in the Gulf, people are still cautious about selecting shrimp, crab legs, crawfish and other seafood products from any restaurant buffet. Months after the oil well explosion, Hattiesburg restaurants such as Southern Seafood and Crescent City Grill, and companies like The Merchants Company are still being affected financially by customer suspicions and rising seafood prices. These factors have in turn affected how much consumers are willing to pay pay for their favor-

ite catch of the day.

Hattiesburg’s The Merchants Company suffered a drop in sales.

The company is a food service distributor, selling products such as meat, chicken, condiments and seafood in bulk to restaurants, military bases, schools and universities like USM. “Sales were down because tourism was down,” said Jarrod Gray, Chief Financial Officer of The Merchants Company. Although most earnings are generally made during the summer, the lack of tourists did not result in the same income as previous summers.

A popular seafood restaurant in Hattiesburg affected by the oil spill

is Crescent City Grill. Rather than a drop in sales, the restaurant saw an increase in sales. Because of the rigorous testing - state and federal - that Gulf seafood and all freshwater seafood undergoes, Clint Taylor, managing partner of Crescent City Grill, was confident in food safety in his restaurant and in products from the Gulf.

“Panic set in for about a month,” he said, “and people started buying differently than they normally would have.”

Taylor also said the first day of the oil spill people worried about the availability of the seafood and were in a rush to buy, causing the prices to increase. This increase caused Taylor and his management team to go through a series of menu changes to accommodate the pricing of seafood plates.

John Nguyen, store manager of Southern Seafood in Hattiesburg, talked about the days following the leaking of the oil well as a time when people were worried about eating Gulf seafood. Before the disaster, the restaurant received 85 to 90 percent of their seafood products from the Gulf. After, when processing plants shut down, the restaurant had to look to other suppliers to provide them with seafood, causing price increases.

Dusty Mercier/Printz

Shrimp sit for sale at Lil Butcher Shoppe on Broadway Drive on Tuesday. According to the shop, the oil spill has had no effect on the store’s seafood supply.

Nguyen said the restaurant had a big drop in sales and customers would ask if the products came from the coast and upon learning that they did, would choose not to buy.

Because of its reputation and backup

suppliers, however, the restaurant could remain open to customers, Nguyen said.

“I believe it will be five years before people will be more confident enough to buy.”

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News

Thursday, August 26, 2010 CHEF, from 1

A recurring menu item is “Brittyn’s Birthday Cake.” Brittyn Miller is Whitney’s younger sister and a junior at USM, studying business and marketing. “Brittyn’s Birthday Cake” consists of angel food cupcakes stuffed with cream cheese, condensed milk and strawberries, and topped with homemade whipped cream.

“She started off making it because she made it for my birthday,” Brittyn Miller said. “It was so popular when everyone came for birthday parties. People come into her shop, Glaze, and they will just order dozens of them.”

Brittyn Miller works at her sister’s shop, managing the finances

and business. She also watches “MasterChef ” at the shop with her family on Wednesday nights.

“My whole family and friends, we all watch it at Glaze every night that it comes on,” she said.

“And we watch it, and we talk, and we’re all yelling and intense.”

Brittyn Miller went with her sister to auditions for “MasterChef ” and was excited to see her make it onto the show.

“It was just something that I thought she deserved,” Brittyn Miller said. “She’s just an awesome cook. I just wanted people to know that and appreciate her.”

“MasterChef ” airs on Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. on FOX.

Page 5

Greg Gayne/FOX

Chef Ramsay, left, checks in on Whitney, right, as she prepares her mystery box dish on MasterChef which aried Wednesday, Aug. 18 on FOX. ©2010 Fox Broadcasting Co.

PARKING, from 1

Assistant professor of math James Lambers discussed the ups and downs of the abundance of faculty/staff parking.

“I am unsure of the future of USM parking, but I don’t understand why they are increasing faculty/staff parking and decreasing student parking, when they are cutting the number of faculty/ staff and are accepting an increasing number of students this year,” Lambers said. “Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”

“I personally would not benefit from the parking garage. So, I hope the parking garage is for the students,” Lambers said. “I’m not complaining; I am happy I can easily find a parking spot. However, we have an obligation as a learning institute to better serve our students.”

Construction on campus has also brought about many changes to the parking situation.

Therese Baldo, a junior psychology major from Covington, La., said because of the new Century Park dorms, there are less spaces available to commuters.

“We have to pay $135 for a parking pass now and we might not even have a spot,” said Powell.

“We’re not guaranteed anything.”

Additionally, the future of handicapped parking isn’t looking too bright, said USM student Shardae Foley.

“Parking for handicapped students and faculty should be the schools first priority,” Foley said. “I have seen so many times that just because they have a few handicap parking spots and a handicap door doesn’t mean that they’re handicap-accessable.”

Foley explained the troubles of parking for her this semester.

“Handicap parking at USM is okay for the most part, but it is bad when we have to fight other students who are not handicapped for a handicap parking spot,” Foley said. “I live off campus and I hope I can continue to park close to the LAB, because I can not walk too far when I have to carry my books to class.”

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News

Page 8

Thursday, August 26, 2010

on campus

Protest: death by stoning in Iran

USM students rally to save woman from unlawful death Meryl Dakin Printz Writer

One woman’s possible execution by stoning in Iran spawned hundreds of rallies across Europe to plea for her life. Megan Hixson has brought the campaign to Southern Miss.

On Friday in front of the LAB from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., students will pass out flyers and sign a petition to send to the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei.

Hixson, a senior international studies major, said she learned about Sakine Mohamadi Ashtiani just before she headed to London on the British Studies Program this summer.

“I saw the story break right before I left and it wasn’t really big, but it got huge in Europe,” she said.

Hixson attended numerous rallies in Europe, organized by the group “100 Cities Against Stoning.”

Currently, there are 103 cities involved, and 11 are in the U.S. According to the Amnesty International website, Ashtiani was convicted in May 2006 of having an “illicit relationship” with two men and received 99 lashes as her sentence. Despite this, she was then also convicted of “adultery while being married,” which she has de-

nied, and she has been sentenced to death by stoning.

Since this sentence, the Iranian government has stated Ashtiani would not die by stoning but may still be hanged for her crime. However, what in America would be called “double-jeopardy” (being tried for the same crime twice) holds in Iranian government as well. Therefore even by their laws, Ashtiani’s second punishment is illegal.

Dr. Benjamin Harding, professor of religion at USM, said, “There’s something else at work here, and it’s pretty scary in a sense.”

He said the problem with this case is that “we’re dealing with an injustice perpetrated by a criminal regime.

“The traditional Shiite idea of justice is perverted madly in this regime,” Harding said. “The Iranian people have a strong sense of justice, but they also have people who are manipulated easily.”

However, Harding warned against vilifying the Iranian people as a whole.

“What I fear to come out of this is stereotypes,” he said. “And if there’s anything Mississippians should understand, it’s a negative stereotype.”

Harding said that if the current regime were dismantled, “Iran could be a very dynamic country.

They’re not evil people, they’re just an unfortunate people at this point.”

The Amnesty International group on campus is supporting Hixson in her cause. Co-chair Dylan Harris said one of Amnesty’s functions is to support individuals in their campaigns. He said many don’t know stoning still exists as a method of punishment.

“A seventeen-year-old girl in Afghanistan was stoned because she had a baby outside of marriage,” he said. “They buried her up to her neck but they only threw pebbles so they wouldn’t kill her. She died 48 hours later of starvation.”

The gruesome case made Harris aware of the brutal punishments still in use around the world.

At the rally Friday, Hixson’s main goals are to alert people of situations like Ashtiani’s and to have people sign the petition.

“Even if we only get 100 signatures, that’s still another hundred that will go to the supreme leader.”

Even though Hixson is passionate about Ashtiani’s case, she said she knows it’s just a drop in the bucket of hundreds more.

“As idealistic as I’d like to be, I know this case won’t change any future cases in itself,” she said.

However, rallies and protests should not be discounted in importance to policy changes. Harding said that the Iranian government has responded to the volume of these worldwide protests, and con-

AP/Amnesty International

Iranian Sakine Mohamadi Ashtiani sentenced to death.

sequently, several sentenced to execution by stoning have been spared.

“It’s important to be aware that things like this happen around the world,” Hixson said. “We’re more concerned with nuclear threat than

human rights issues. There’s no separation based on race, creed, religion, clothing…. We’re all humans.”

For more information about the rally, search “against stoning Hattiesburg” on Facebook.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

TECH

Opinion

Page 9

SOAR flies over our heads Ashlyn Ervin Printz Writer In an age where young people are more adapted to the Internet than ever, it seems absurd to think that a website designed for students’ benefit could cause them such trouble.

USM’s SOAR is a website designed to help students manage their grades, monitor their progress, track their billing and create a schedule.

For a site so necessary, its layout and overall navigation should be clearer.

Upon logging into the site, students are brought to a page with sparse design, few buttons and strange words: “Favorites,” “Self Service,” and more. Immediately, students might notice this site is a drastic change from the busy USM home page. The lacking design suggests that not much thought was put into the aesthetics of this site for students (the ones who allow USM to exist).

The fact that students initially have trouble with SOAR is understandable; its layout and word usage seem strange and unclear. It’s also understandable, however, that after a while of attending USM, students will grow accustomed to the site they need to get through the year.

It’s astounding that Facebook can change its layout twice a year and,

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while upset by it, young people can adapt and occasionally figure out a way to reinstate the features they enjoyed from the previous version.

However, SOAR, which seems to stay somewhat static, still gives students trouble. With this student site, it seems students are learning to navigate it - but just enough to get by.

Students themselves have nearly become web designers. Enter Myspace, the blog, the Wordpress, the Formspring - young people are not, for the most part, technologyilliterate. Perhaps if the site offered more creativity and options for students, they could design a SOAR that fit their needs.

There are things about the website that could be made better with little to no effort. When asked, USM students said they’d like to see more helpful links, such as to their USM

email. Confusion over billing was also mentioned.

Overall students seem to be concerned that they aren’t doing what they need to do to stay on top of things at school. When questioned about concerns, students often offered suggestions - going more in-depth about holds, explaining what they are; making the site more “freshmen-friendly.” USM’s students don’t want to complain, they want to do what needs to be done to do their best - and SOAR should help them do that, not hinder it.

SOAR is clearly not a front-burner issue for officials, however. The site is running fine, iTech is available for questions, students have the option to make an appointment and have someone do all the things they would need to do on SOAR - but that’s not the point.

The website exists for the students’ convenience. It would seem that a college tries to do this as a sort of “thank you” to them for tuition money, an assistance to aid their life, which was made more difficult upon paying to go to said college. SOAR, contrarily, seems to make students feel unappreciated, unsupported and confused.

This was an article of opinion by Ashlyn Ervin, a writer for the Student Printz.

Email questions or comments to ashlyn.ervin@eagles. usm.edu.

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Opinion

Page 10

RELIGION

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Moderate Muslims not the enemy Ashton Pittman Printz Writer

President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “All we have to fear is fear itself.” He was right: left unbridled, fear will erode our commitment to freedom and coax us into exchanging liberty for safety, even to the point of disregarding the rights of our fellow citizens.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt succumbed to the very fear he warned of when he suspended the rights of 120,000 American citizens; for no other reason than their resemblance to our aggressors, Japanese Americans were rounded up and placed in internment camps. That national sin remains a stain upon our history.

Today, America’s politicians are willing to cede our founding principles to irrational fear once more. This fear targets Muslim Americans and their religious liberties. The fact that radical Muslims destroyed the World Trade Center, some say, is reason enough to deny moderate Muslims the right to build a Muslim

community center two blocks from Ground Zero.

Often erroneously called the “Ground Zero mosque,” the planned community center, Park51, will include a theater, fitness center, basketball court, swimming pool and prayer room.

The sponsors of the project hope to use the center to promote tolerance and interfaith dialogue.

Politicians hope to use the proposed center to promote their own careers. Obviously pandering for votes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated his opposition to the project last week. But Reid, a Mormon, should understand better than anyone the need to protect even the rights of those whose religious views do not procure popular favor. Perhaps not.

Initially, President Obama expressed support for the project.

Once his statement began to attract the ire of popular opinion, however, he retreated from the issue and made a half-hearted attempt to retract his prior endorsement.

On the other side of the political spectrum, many in the Republican party are resorting to all out demagoguery. Playing on raw emotions left over from 9/11, some in

the GOP have begun demonizing even moderate Muslims. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich went as far as to argue that the United States should not allow a mosque to be built in Manhattan “so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia.”

This absurd moral equivalence contends that the United States should bestow only as much freedom upon its Muslim citizens as Saudi Arabia bestows upon its Christian and Jewish citizens—in other words, none.

If they were smart, Republicans would model their approach after President George W. Bush’s unwavering support of moderate Islam. By treating the attacks of 9/11 as an attack on Muslim Americans as well, Bush drew a fine distinction between radical jihadists and peaceful Muslims.

“They love America just as much as I do,” he said of Islamic leaders days after the attack. He had his flaws, but where Obama wobbles on the rights of Muslim citizens, Bush stood resolutely.

Not only did Bush champion the dignity of Muslim Americans, his vision for Iraq meant the establishment of a government that

offered freedom to its Muslim citizens in place of despotism.

At the time, most Republicans hailed the liberation of millions as a milestone in the struggle for democracy. This month, the final combat brigade left Iraq, still a fragile nation, but far more free.

Yet the same people who sent our men and women to die for the liberation of Iraqi Muslims now wish to deny American Muslims their constitutional guarantee to religious liberty.

They would deny Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man behind the plans for Park51, the right to build on private property too. Critics of the project have accused Raul of everything from harboring antiAmerican sentiments to sympathizing with terrorists. Rauf, however, has only ever sought to mend relations between Islam and the West.

In 2003, Rauf spoke at a memorial service for Daniel Pearl, a journalist who was killed by Pakistani terrorists. There, he affirmed his admiration for the Jewish and

Christian faiths: “If to be a Christian is to love the Lord our God with all of my heart, mind, and soul,” he said, “and to love for my fellow human being what I love for myself, then not only am I a Christian, but I have always been one.”

Despite Rauf ’s reconciliatory overtones, fear mongers would have us believe him to be a supporter of unholy jihad. Such fearengendered slander serves only to distort reality. Compassion and understanding should be shown to the families who lost loved ones on 9/11, but at the same time, we must never permit sensitivity to return us to the mistakes of our past. So basic a right as the “right of the free exercise” of religious worship should never be surrendered to fear.

This was an article of opinion by Ashton Pittman, a writer for the Student Printz. Email questions or comments to ashton.pittman@ eagles.usm.edu.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Arts & Entertainment

Page 11

music

Colour Revolt plays at the Hippo Stormy Speaks Printz Writer Get ready for a revolt.

Colour Revolt, a self-proclaimed indie rock band from Oxford, Miss., will be playing at the Thirsty Hippo in downtown Hattiesburg on Saturday, Aug. 28, at 9:00 p.m. The band is on a nationwide tour to promote the Aug. 10 release of their second album, The Cradle.

According to the band’s MySpace page, The Cradle is a story of rebirth. In July 2009, Colour Revolt experienced the debilitating loss of band members and faced financial trouble. But the surviving members, Jesse Coppenbarger and Sean Kirkpatrick, were unwilling to give up. They recorded The Cradle with three other musicians in 2010, making the album a testament to the band’s resilience and determination. “‘A lot of it is just kind of the heartbreak of losing the people who are like your family, your brothers,’” quoted the article of Coppenbarger.

“But [there is] also the sense that this thing is going to keep going.’”

Since their formation in 2004, Colour Revolt has toured with well-known indie rock bands, including Anathallo, Explosions in

the Sky, and Manchester Orchestra.

The band has also played at several prominent music festivals, including Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, and opened for renowned alternative rock band Brand New in 2006. Most recently, they have formed their own record label, New Fear.

Colour Revolt has performed at the Hippo five or six times over the past five years, said Brad Newton of the Thirsty Hippo. He said the audience always gets excited and sings along when Colour Revolt performs, and he expects nothing less this time.

“We’re expecting a healthy, en-

thusiastic crowd that better not stand around with their arms crossed,” said Newton.

Paul West, a sophomore entertainment industry major from Jackson, Miss., has attended previous Colour Revolt shows and has always enjoyed them.

“They have a different sound that they pull off well,” said West. “I am looking forward to see how their music has changed since there are only two members now.”

Young Buffalo, also from Oxford, will be opening for Colour Revolt.

The show is slated to begin at 9:00 p.m. Tickets are $8 at the door.

The Buzz in the Burg The Thirsty Hippo

Thurs. Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears Fri. Jukejoint Duo Sat. Colour Revolt

Benny’s Boom Boom Room Thurs. Rollin in the Hay Fri. Flow Tribe Sat. Wrangler Space

Mugshots Bar & Grill

Thurs. Acousta Crunk Fri. Dirty Play Sat. Southern Sauce

Keg and Barrel Thurs. n/a Fri. n/a Sat. Natalie Kirk

FRESHMAN Lead

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Make a difference during your first year at USM by trying out for Freshman Associates, the renowned government branch for Freshman!

Come out for our Priority Application Night for the “Golden Ticket” on Friday September 3rd at 9:00pm at the HUB! Regular applications go out that night and will be due on September 10th.

This is your chance to leave your fingerprints on USM!

Arts & Entertainment

Page 12

ON CAMPUS

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Have You Passed Through This Night?

Sophomore Tyler McCants, left, and USM alumna Shelley Manry Bourgeois, right, dance during dress rehearsals for “Have You Passed Through This Night?” on Tuesday.

When: Aug. 27 and 28 Time: 7:30 p.m.

Where: Mannoni Performing Arts Center Auditorium Ticket Information: Adults: $15 Faculty/Staff/Seniors: $10 Students: $6

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studentprintz.com Photos by Bryant Hawkins/Printz

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Left: Tyler McCants and Christina Kelly dance during dress rehearsals.

Top: USM alumna Shelley Manry Bourgeois performs during dress rehearsals on Tuesday.

Bottom: Alumnae Christina Kelly, left, and Shelley Manry Bourgeois, right, dance with sophomore Tyler McCants during dress rehearsals.

Bottom: Sophomore Tyler McCants, bottom, dances during dress rehearsals for “Have You Passed Through This Night?”