The Daily Beacon

Follow us: @DailyBeacon

Alison Krauss brings new songs, old friends to the Tennessee Theatre

Tamika Catchings nabs WNBA MVP award

Friday, September 23, 2011

PAGE 7 T H E

E D I T O R I A L L Y

Issue 28 I N D E P E N D E N T

Few Showers 30% chance of rain HIGH LOW 73 58

PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 http://utdailybeacon.com

Vol. 118 S T U D E N T

N E W S P A P E R

O F

T H E

U N I V E R S I T Y

PAGE 5 O F

T E N N E S S E E

Varsity Inn offers more upscale menu options Little-known dining location serves lobster, steak for athletes, students alike Wade Scofield Staff Writer The Varsity Inn Cafeteria inside Gibbs Hall is a somewhat unknown source of delectable sustenance on campus.

Because it is not a usual residential cafeteria, many students have never eaten there.

“I didn’t know we were even allowed to eat there,” R.J. Vogt, undecided freshman, said. “I thought that cafeteria was just for the athletes, but I hear the food is really good.”

In fact, any university student can eat at Gibbs Hall for either lunch or dinner.

Located at the intersection of Lake Loudon Boulevard and Volunteer Boulevard, The Varsity Inn’s hours are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. for breakfast, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch, and 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for dinner.

The Varsity Inn offers a variety of cuisine not found anywhere else on campus.

On one day, there were oven-baked potatoes, pork ribs, a sandwich bar, steamed vegetables, hot dogs and hamburgers, and two different types of smoothies.

“Just about every day is a specialty day,” Jacob Bouck, sophomore in aerospace engineering, said. “The cafeteria is definitely the best aspect about living in Gibbs. It’s far and away better than the food I ate all the time last year.”

Gibbs Hall is known for having more

unique food choices. For example, students say steak is served at least twice every week and lobster is served roughly once every two weeks.

“It’s easily the best cafeteria on campus,” Grant Self, sophomore in wildlife and fisheries, said. “The staff is deliberate in making the food as quickly but as well as they can. Of course, the food is topnotch. It’s the only cafeteria that served fried alligator the week before the University of Florida game.”

On tours, many students are introduced to Gibbs Hall as “the athletic residence hall,” where most of the football, basketball and baseball players live.

“Most students think that Gibbs is only for athletes,” Bouck said, “but because of NCAA rules, the building technically has to be 51 percent non-athlete.”

One can usually find the wide eatery packed with athletes and non-athletes alike, enjoying homelike atmosphere and a seemingly home-cooked meal.

“The service is great,” Self said. “For the most part, if you need something and you ask a staff member for it, they’ll get it right away. And they always serve you with a smile. It doesn’t seem like as much of a job for them.”

“I plan on going soon,” Vogt said.

“Some of my friends have gone over there in the last week, and even though I don’t have the Gibbs plan, I hear the food is absolutely worth it.”

Tara Sripunvoraskul • The Daily Beacon

Jesse Hawkins, senior in graphic design, helps himself to the buffet in the Varsity Inn Cafeteria inside Gibbs Hall on Sept. 22. Many students do not realize anyone can eat at the cafeteria for lunch and dinner. Food at Varsity Inn is more specialized and sometimes steak is served twice a week.

Latin America presents possibilities Steele Gamble Staff Writer U.S. Department of State Economic and Commercial Officer Natalie van der Horst spoke of trade policy in Latin America with UT students at the Baker Center on Tuesday.

Van der Horst stressed the importance of expanding the trade of U.S. goods and services in Latin America through free trade agreements. Two of the three current pending agreements are in Panama and Columbia.

“Right now — the United States, the White House, the State Department — we’re working very closely with Congress trying to get those agreements approved by the U.S. Congress so that they can be implemented and so that U.S. companies and U.S. workers can benefit from those agreements”, van der Horst said.

As the U.S. economy continues to decline, State Department officials are looking at growing economies to try to reverse the current recession.

“Latin America represents an already significant and a growing market for the United

States,” van der Horst said. “In Latin America, they’ve actually had GDP growth numbers that are significantly higher from the United States, and they want to buy.”

Many Americans believe that unemployment rate is one of the nation’s biggest issues.

Van der Horst sees the Latin American market as a potential catalyst to decrease these rates.

“The Latin American market is huge and they are going to be growing and growing and growing over the next couple of years,” van der Horst said. “As U.S. companies export more to this growing market, that means more U.S. jobs, more U.S. income, greater GDP growth here in the United States so directly benefits the American household.”

Department of economics professor Kenneth Baker believes the Latin American market is beneficial to Tennessee households.

“Tennessee has exported more and more and more every year,” Baker said. “That can only help people in Tennessee who are looking for a job. The more we export, the more people we need to make things here in

Tennessee. We export $27 billion from the state of Tennessee alone last year, $27 billion worth of goods and services. That adds up to a lot of jobs for Tennessee people and graduates of UT.” If the two pending Latin American free trade agreements become policy, it would increase the demand for U.S. goods. Van der Horst described the effects the agreements would have on exports.

“By signing free trade agreements with countries, we decrease the amount of tariffs that are levied against U.S. goods,” van der Horst said. “That means that our goods will become relatively cheaper compared to their Chinese competitors.”

Van der Horst also described the current demand for U.S. goods in Europe.

“Europe has been mired in the same economic woes as the United States,” van der Horst said. “They are having their own debt crises. They are having their own low growth rates. They have high unemployment rates, and they also produce a lot of the stuff themselves. Right now they are not as lucrative in the market for U.S. exports.”

Tara Sripunvoraskul • The Daily Beacon

Willow Love, sophomore in chemical engineering, ponders over what hot dog to get at the Campfire Grill on the Pedestrian Mall on Sept. 14. Campfire Grill usually has a new special every week on top of its regular options.

Questionable execution raises upheaval The Associated Press ATLANTA — Georgia’s execution of Troy Davis for the murder of an off-duty police officer has done little to resolve the debate over his guilt that captured the attention of thousands worldwide, including a former president and the pope.

Davis remained defiant even after he was strapped to a gurney Wednesday night in the state’s death chamber, declaring his innocence and urging the victim’s family to continue searching for the truth.

“I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight,” Davis said in his final statement.

Demonstrators wept during a candlelight vigil outside the prison. High-profile figures, including former President Jimmy Carter, said there was too much doubt surrounding Davis’ conviction and that his execution called the entire death penalty system into question.

Relatives of the slain officer, Mark MacPhail, said the execution marked an end to years of legal turmoil and rejected his claims of innocence.

“He’s been telling himself that for 22 years. You know how it is, he can talk himself into anything,” said the officer’s mother, Anneliese MacPhail.

Davis had been convicted of MacPhail’s 1989 killing.

Prosecutors said Davis was pistol-whipping a homeless man after asking him for a beer when MacPhail, who was working as a security guard at the time, rushed over to help.

Authorities said Davis had a smirk on his face when he shot the officer in a Burger King parking lot in Savannah.

Witnesses placed Davis at the crime scene and identified him as the shooter, but seven of nine key witnesses have recanted all or parts of their accounts. Some jurors have said they’ve changed their minds about his guilt. Others have claimed a man who was with Davis that night has told people he actually shot the officer, though state and federal judges have repeatedly ruled against him.

No gun was ever found, but prosecutors say shell casings were linked to an earlier shooting for which Davis was convicted.

Davis’ execution had been halted three times since 2007.

The U.S. Supreme Court even gave Davis an unusual opportunity to “clearly establish” his innocence in a lower court last year. But a lower court judge ruled that defense attorneys didn’t meet that standard — a higher bar than is set for prosecutors in proving guilt.

While the nation’s top court didn’t hear the case, they did set a tough standard for Davis to exonerate himself, ruling that his attorneys must “clearly establish” Davis’ innocence — a higher bar to meet than prosecutors having to prove guilt. After the hearing, a lower court judge ruled in prosecutors’ favor, and the justices didn’t take up the case.

On Wednesday night, his execution was again delayed as officials awaited word on whether the nation’s high court would take up Davis’ case. The justices ultimately declined without explaining the decision, clearing the way for Davis to be put to death shortly after 11 p.m.

Carter said he hoped the case led the nation to reject capital punishment.

“If one of our fellow citizens can be executed with so much doubt surrounding his guilt, then the death penalty system in our country is unjust and outdated,” Carter said.

Other supporters included, Pope Benedict XVI, a former FBI director, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, several conservative figures and many celebrities.

Hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions on Davis’ behalf. Supporters staged vigils in the U.S. and Europe, declaring “I am Troy Davis” on signs, T-shirts and the Internet. Some tried increasingly frenzied measures, urging prison workers to stay home and even posting a judge’s phone number online.

President Barack Obama, who could not have granted Davis clemency because it was a state case, deflected calls to get involved.

2 • The Daily Beacon

InSHORT

Friday, September 23, 2011

Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon

A student places his plate, silverware and food in a bin to be taken to a compost site near UT Medical Center during UT Parents Weekend on Sept. 13. A focus during the UT Parents Association’s lunch was “zero-waste.” Trash cans were a rare site at the luncheon to encourage recycling.

1779 — John Paul Jones wins in English waters During the American Revolution, the U.S. ship Bonhomme Richard, commanded by John Paul Jones, wins a hard-fought engagement against the British ships of war Serapis and Countess of Scarborough, off the eastern coast of England.

Scottish-born John Paul Jones first sailed to America as a cabin boy and lived for a time in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where his brother had a business. He later served on slave and merchant ships and proved an able seaman. After he killed a fellow sailor while suppressing a mutiny, he returned to the American colonies to escape possible British prosecution. With the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, he traveled to Philadelphia and was commissioned a senior lieutenant in the new Continental Navy. He soon distinguished himself in actions against British ships in the Bahamas, the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel.

In August 1779, Jones took command of the Bonhomme Richard and sailed around the British Isles. On Sept. 23, the Bonhomme Richard engaged the Serapis and the smaller Countess of Scarborough, which were escorting the Baltic merchant fleet. After inflicting considerable damage to the Bonhomme Richard, Richard Pearson, the captain of the Serapis, asked Jones if he had struck his colors, the naval signal indicating surrender. From his disabled ship, Jones replied, “I have not yet begun to fight,” and after three more hours of furious fighting it was the Serapis

and Countess of Scarborough that surrendered. After the victory, the Americans transferred to the Serapis from the Bonhomme Richard, which sank the following day.

Jones was hailed as a great hero in France, but recognition in the United States was somewhat belated. He continued to serve the United States until 1787 and then served briefly in the Russian navy before moving to France, where he died in 1792 amidst the chaos of the French Revolution. He was buried in an unmarked grave. In 1905, his remains were located under the direction of the U.S. ambassador to France and then escorted back to the United States by U.S. warships. His body was later enshrined in a crypt at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

1875 — Billy the Kid arrested for first time On this day in 1875, Billy the Kid is arrested for the first time after stealing a basket of laundry. He later broke out of jail and roamed the American West, eventually earning a reputation as an outlaw and murderer and a rap sheet that allegedly included 21 murders.

The exact details of Billy the Kid’s birth are unknown, other than his name, William Henry McCarty. He was probably born sometime between 1859 and 1861, in Indiana or New York. As a child, he had no relationship with his father and moved around with his family, living in Indiana, Kansas, Colorado and Silver City, New Mexico. His mother died in 1874 and Billy the Kid — who went by a variety of names throughout his life, including Kid Antrim and William Bonney — turned to crime soon afterward.

McCarty did a stint as a horse thief in Arizona before returning to New Mexico, where he hooked up with a gang of gunslingers and cattle rustlers involved in the notorious Lincoln County War between rival rancher and merchant factions in Lincoln County in 1878. Afterward, Billy the Kid, who had a slender build, prominent crooked front teeth and a love of singing, went on the lam and continued his outlaw’s life, stealing cattle and horses, gambling and killing people. His crimes earned him a bounty on his head and he was eventually captured and indicted for killing a sheriff during the Lincoln County War. Billy the Kid was sentenced to hang for his crime; however, a short time later, he managed another jail break, murdering two deputies in the process. Billy the Kid’s freedom was brief, as Sheriff Pat Garrett caught up with the desperado at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, on July 14, 1881, and fatally shot him.

Although his life was short, Billy the Kid’s legend grew following his death. Today he is a famous symbol of the Old West, along with such men as Kit Carson, Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp, and his story has been mythologized and romanticized in numerous films, books, TV shows and songs. Each year, tourists visit the town of Fort Sumner, located about 160 miles southeast of Albuquerque, to see the Billy the Kid Museum and gravesite.

— This Day in History is courtesy of History.com.

NEWS

Friday, September 23, 2011

The Daily Beacon • 3

UN warns against discrimination

Murder leads authorities to escapees

Despite calls for tolerance, nations battle racism, stereotypes

JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge has ordered authorities to bring two Louisiana inmates to Mississippi to face charges that they kidnapped and a killed a businessman after escaping from a prison work program.

Ricky Wedgeworth, 36, and Darian “Drake” Pierce, 34, were indicted Sept. 8 on charges including kidnapping and carjacking in the abduction and death of Ohio businessman David Cupps.

They are scheduled to appear in federal court in Jackson, Miss., on Oct. 12.

They have been held in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

There was an intense search for the men in several Southern states between the time of their March 4 escape from a Louisiana State Police compound and their capture March 14 in Memphis, Tenn.

They are charged with kidnapping Cupps from a hotel in Vicksburg, Miss., before dumping his body at a hotel in Bessemer, Ala. Cupps, who was from the Columbus suburb of Sunbury, Ohio, had been beaten and strangled to

The Associated Press UNITED NATIONS — SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon warned Thursday that 10 years after a controversial U.N. conference to combat racism, intolerance and discrimination are increasing in many parts of the world.

The U.N. chief urged all countries to “stand firmly” against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and reject discrimination against Christians. He also called for an end to discrimination based on race, color, language, political opinion, gender or sexual orientation.

The 2001 conference in the South African port city of Durban ended in fierce acrimony amid accusations that it had been hijacked to bash Israel, Zionism and Jews.

The U.N. maintains that confusion between the official gathering in 2001 and a parallel conference of non-governmental organizations “fuels many of the misperceptions about anti-Israel sentiment in relation to the World Conference.”

But the language at the official gathering — walked out of by the U.S. and Israel — was harsh on the Jewish state.

Yasser Arafat, then the Palestinian leader, described Israel as having “a supremacist mentality, a mentality of racial discrimination,” while Cuban leader Fidel Castro accused it of perpetrating “genocide against the Palestinian people.”

The final communique dropped con-

demnations of the “racist practices” of Israel and Zionism. And the conference itself quickly faded from public attention when the U.S. was hit with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

At Thursday’s high-level U.N. commemoration of the Durban event, the secretary-general said there had been progress over the past decade, including new laws to protect against genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and slavery — and people’s antennae “are better attuned to see the insidious forms of discrimination.”

“Yet we must acknolwedge that intolerance has increased in many parts of the world over the past decade,” Ban told the General Assembly. “The resurgence and persistence of such inhumane attitudes and detrimental practices indicate that we have not done enough to stem the tide.”

The United States, Israel and a dozen other countries announced that they were boycotting Thursday’s commemoration.

A competing parallel event was held at a hotel across the street, featuring speakers including former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.

“You don’t have to be a human rights activist or a Harvard Law professor to understand that the Durban Declaration has been contaminated by the taint of

racism that it claims to fight” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor said at the opening of the parallel gathering.

In anticipation of possible outbursts during the official meeting, the secretary-general stressed that its aim was to further the fight against racism and “we should condemn anyone who uses this platform to subvert that effort with inflammatory rhetoric, baselss assertions and hateful speech.”

Ban said “the stakes are high” because ignorance and intolerance are among the root causes of conflicts, and racism and discrimination are major obstacles to economic development.

He urged governments to ensure that unemployment and deteriorating living standards aren’t used as excuses for attacks on migrants and other vulnerable groups.

Taking aim at political parties preaching xenophobia, Ban said: “We must resist polarizing politicians who play on people’s fears and use stereotypes to gain electoral advantage.”

Ban’s warning of escalating discrimination and intolerance was echoed by General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser who called the continuing scourge of racism and xenophobia “one of the most critical challenges of the 21st century.”

“Racist atttitudes and hate speech can be found in many countries and the Internet provides a new vehicle for their proliferation,” he said.

The Associated Press

death. Authorities have said he was in Mississippi to inspect the Grand Gulf nuclear power plant.

Wedgeworth and Pierce escaped from a Louisiana State Police compound north of Baton Rouge.

Wedgeworth was serving time for armed robbery, and Pierce was locked up for attempted seconddegree murder.

Authorities said the men were caught after crashing a pickup truck in Memphis. Police said that before their capture, the men tied up a county park worker in Jackson, Tenn., and stole a government truck that had markings for the Madison County parks department.

4 • The Daily Beacon

Friday, September 23, 2011

OPINIONS

Better

Than

Reality T.V.

Snapshot of fall TV’s new prospects Robby O’Daniel Recruitment Editor There are so many new fall television shows to try out, with such little time. As a result, this column will break it up into three mini-reviews. This column will first shine a light on sitcoms for at least the next two weeks.

“New Girl” (Fox): The ads made this show look horrendous, and the pilot was just about as awful as expected. In the show, Zooey Deschanel plays Jess Day, which is essentially a microcosm of every annoyingly quirky character she has played in movies.

Her boyfriend just cheated on her in the most hilariously apathetic way possible. Jess comes back to their apartment, naked under a trenchcoat. She, then, takes it off and starts dancing with a pillow, while singing about being sexy in such a way that one nearly understands the cheating. (Hold it, readers. Don’t email yet. I said “nearly.”)

So the guy and his mistress just come out, not trying to hide at all, and the guy has this look of bewilderment, like he is far more embarrassed for her than for himself.

And, indeed, that is the intention the show is going for. Yet he was the one caught cheating!

So Jess decides to find roommates via Craigslist because that’s what hip, young single people do, I guess.

She thinks she is interviewing for an apartment with three girls, but it happens to be three guys instead. And, of course, outside of one innocent joke at the end, the guys are completely platonic, supporting friends almost immediately. Because that’s what would happen in the real world.

You see, she has models for friends, so THOSE are the people the roommates are interested in. Because plenty of people only have models for friends, while being completely out of the industry themselves.

Deschanel then spends the rest of the pilot alternating between crying during “Dirty Dancing” viewings and making up her own theme songs. It’s the worst of the “quirky” genre all at once.

To make the show even worse, the supporting characters are either two-dimensional, like the physically built Coach, or almost as annoying as Jess, like fraternity-

brother-in-training Schmidt. The other characters make fun of Schmidt for his idiotic sayings in the pilot, but somehow that’s just not enough. He should be banished from the show. Skip this.

“Up All Night” (NBC): Will Arnett and Christina Applegate play new parents getting used to the fact that they can’t stay “up all night” drinking and dancing with a kid at home. The premise is extremely one-note, and the pilot does nothing with it to make it more interesting or funny.

“Up All Night” is largely without laughs. Why do people keep casting Arnett in the straight-laced role?

He is so good at the egotistical jerk role, exemplified in “Arrested Development” and “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.” Seeing him as a boring goofball in the canceled “Running Wilde” and now “Up All Night” is just depressing and a waste of resources.

Even worse, the show writes Arnett into a corner by having his character stuck with the baby during the day, while Applegate goes off and has a “30 Rock”esque work plot with Maya Rudolph as a talk show host.

The show feels extremely bifurcated as a result. The talk show seems like a completely different show than the new-parents angle.

The show tries, but its jokes are more miss than hit.

After the pilot, even an Arnett loyalist like myself is left wondering if he should even bother with episode two.

“Free Agents” (NBC): Hank Azaria from “The Simpsons” gets a shot as the lead on a live-action sitcom, and it mostly works out. What makes “Free Agents” stand out from “New Girl” or “Up All Night” is the fact that “Free Agents” manages to establish a decent supporting cast within the span of just 22 minutes. Cutthroat Emma, night clubbin’ Dan and especially fundeprived Gregg populate a public relations office and give the show a boost of adrenaline that only a wellworking ensemble can.

The show follows recently divorced Alex (Azaria), as he hooks up for the first time with co-worker Helen (Kathryn Hahn), who lost her husband a year ago.

Azaria is a little drab in the lead role, but the two have an undeniable chemistry. This show has been lost in the shuffle of the fall TV hype, but seek it out on NBC Wednesdays. Next week this column will look at three more new sitcoms: “How To Be A Gentleman” (CBS), “2 Broke Girls” (CBS) and “Whitney” (NBC).

— Robby O’Daniel is a graduate student in communications. He can be reached at rodaniel@utk.edu.

SCRAMBLED EGGS • Alex Cline

The Great Mash-Up • Liz Newman

Columns of The Daily Beacon are reflections of the individual columnist, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Beacon or its editorial staff.

Moving beyond ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ T he Bur den o f I n fa l l i b i l i t y by

Wiley Robinson Is the abolishment of “don’t ask, don’t tell” last Tuesday even newsworthy at this point?

I’m just asking. It’s not a loaded question. I’m just trying to have a conversation, why don’t ... oh, come on. No, I’m not dismissing ... no, gays’ rights are ... dude. I’m not homophobic. Some of my best friends ...

Of course I think how a culture as a whole treats its homosexuals is a fair criterion for moral progress. It’s an important issue and many sociologists would be out of a job if homosexuality ever became totally uncontroversial, which itself is impossible without the improbable task of significantly changing culture or the human genome. All I’m saying is that perhaps, in this specific situation, that master satirist George W. Bush and his existential Mission Accomplished banner are not — entirely — inapplicable to the issue of the gaysserving-openly-in-the-military-debate.

Now, you may interpret that as me saying we still have a long, long way to go in the face of scattered, guerrilla opposition before we see this gay rights thing through.

But what I really mean by the allusion to that silliest of aircraft-carrier-mounted banners is that DADT being considered a significant civil rights benchmark is ridiculous.

Yes, not too long ago people were all up in arms about DADT. It was a stain on free speech; a constant reminder of real oppression towards a legitimate, homogeneous social identity desperately trying to find a place in a mean, old culture. I mean, how incredibly demoralizing is institutional discrimination? However far we’ve come it just doesn’t seem to freaking go away.

It’s like people just won’t grow up and let people be people. The police were encouraged to shut down gay bars and beat or arrest patrons in all kinds of cities until late in the Cold War, i.e. recently. Hostility towards gay marriage remains a publicly asserted, viscerally held political distinction whenever the conservative lip-service really gets relevant and persuasive by showing its commitment to the universal moral principles of maintaining subjective cultural norms, generally at the expense of human rights, through intolerance and xenophobia; yet these are the behavioral norms to be expected of a political entity whose only real purpose is to freeze literally all government spending that isn’t directly going to subsidize elite financial interests, like the guys who spend all day thinking of ways to mathematically abuse their monetary gate-keeping and de facto regulatory responsibilities. If financial firms

are too big to fail, then they are by definition state-run in every way save public acknowledgment. It’s not socialism if we only help those who can help themselves by manipulating other people’s capital.

But other than the Republican Party and the inability to get legally married, “don’t ask, don’t tell” represented something more. Institutional discrimination of the highest degree: the denial of free speech of a specific minority group, punishable by dismissal.

Truly, DADT could have been as classically intolerant as segregation if the military were not already completely backwards, which ends up being the military’s defense for a lot of things. For the most banally utilitarian of reasons, nobody really has complete freedom of speech in the military, and the idea behind DADT was no less utilitarian. By basically admitting to the backwards nature of its own recruitment and conditioning practices, military wisdom predicted that sexual identity was both a strong and involuntary enough social binder that asserting an identity in distinct contrast from the statistically prevailing one (straight male) was only going to cause more harm than good. Recent polling data shows that DADT was probably more of a self-fulfilling prophesy than anything, but also that outspoken intolerance in regards to non-binary sexuality is a constant, if thankfully minority, reality.

But the fact that the military by near definition suppresses personal liberties of all kinds is secondary to the fact that actually nobody has the right to kill other people for their region’s resources. Yes, al-Qaeda, a somewhat organized and extremely fundamentalist shadow organization, tried once unsuccessfully and once successfully to destroy our largest buildings. But about 99.9 percent of the folks we’ve killed over there are bored, economically troubled locals who find our unannounced presence a slight to their sense of territory and autonomy, distinctly not members of a clandestine terror group.

Is that so hard to sympathize with? What would you do if some foreigners dropped bombs all over America and then occupied us like we were nothing? Did we not cause more instability than we created? Avenge our dead with the blood of exponentially more civilian lives like fascists? Did we not call it Operation Iraqi Freedom yet stand dumbfounded and even denounce democracy movements spontaneously erupting all over the region? We’re practically terraforming parts of Afghanistan with the 100,000+ troops that remain overseas in the areas we didn’t politically have access to play prospector before 2001.

With regards to the military, homosexuality is a luxurious media pop-issue. The real issue continues to be America and its attack on global moral progress with thinly veiled neoimperialism.

— Wiley Robinson is a junior in ecology and evolutionary biology. He can be reached at rrobin23@utk.edu.

Fiction shows humanity’s continuity Chao s Theory by

Sarah Russell

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Blair Kuykendall MANAGING EDITOR Preston Peeden CHIEF COPY EDITOR Robbie Hargett COPY EDITOR Will Abrams DESIGN EDITORS Emily DeLanzo Abbie Gordon PHOTO EDITORS Tia Patron George Richardson NEWS EDITOR Kyle Turner STUDENT LIFE EDITOR Lauren Kittrell ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Jake Lane SPORTS EDITOR Matt Dixon ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR Clay Seal RECRUITMENT EDITOR Robby O’Daniel

To visit the Daily Beacon online, scan this code with your smartphone QR Code APP.

ONLINE EDITORS Jake Lane Liz Newman ADVERTISING MANAGER Shannon Thomas ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Brent Harkins Nick Marchant Adrian St. Amant Lauren Wilson ADVERTISING PRODUCTION ARTISTS Krystal Oliva Anna Simanis EDITORIAL PRODUCTION ARTISTS Alex Cline Brittany Coggins Liz Newman CLASSIFIED ADVISER Xiaoxiao Ma

To report a news item, please e-mail the stories1@utk.edu or call the managing editor at 974-2348.

To place an ad, please call retail advertising at 974-5206.

To place a classified, please call the classified manager at 974-4931.

If you think something has been reported incorrectly, please contact the managing editor at 974-2348.

Advertising: (865) 974-5206 Classifieds: (865) 974-4931 Editor: (865) 974-2348 Main office: (865) 974-3231 Managing Editor: (865) 974-2348 Newsroom: (865) 974-3226 Newsroom fax: (865) 974-5569 Photo: (865) 974-5212 E-mail: stories1@utk.edu letters@utdailybeacon.com

The Daily Beacon is published by students at The University of Tennessee Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and Tuesday and Friday during the summer semester. The offices are located at 1340 Circle Park Drive, 5 Communications Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-0314. The newspaper is free on campus and is available via mail subscription for $200/year, $100/semester or $70/summer only. It is also available online at: www.utdailybeacon.com.

LETTERS POLICY: The Daily Beacon welcomes all letters to the editor and guest columns from students, faculty and staff. Each submission is considered for publication by the editor on the basis of space, timeliness and clarity. Contributions must include the author’s name and phone number for verification. Students must include their year in school and major. Letters to the editor and guest columns may be e-mailed to letters@utdailybeacon.com or sent to Blair Kuykendall, 1340 Circle Park Dr., 5 Communications Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-0314. The Beacon reserves the right to reject any submissions or edit all copy in compliance with available space, editorial policy and style. Any and all submissions to the above recipients are subject to publication.

I am taking the time in this article to admit, once and for all, one of my deepest and innermost secrets: I am a closet sci-fi fan.

Yes, it’s true. I am absolutely addicted to “Dr. Who” and “Firefly,” I buy and pore over Orson Scott Card and Douglas Adams novels, and recently I willingly spent $10 to see “Apollo 18,” which incidentally scared the living daylights out of me. I am by no means an expert in all things sci-fi — I am still way behind on my “Star Trek” knowledge, and no, I have not seen the three “Star Wars” prequels, thank you for asking — but I am quite a devotee of the series that I follow and the books I read.

I was fairly surprised to discover my love of science fiction. I grew up reading historical novels and watching Disney movies, and I certainly have not abandoned those beloved genres. But I certainly never would have pegged myself as a sci-fi fan growing up — at least, not until the day we read Ray Bradbury’s short story “All Summer in a Day” in my seventh grade English class. From there, I could not get enough of the genre. I read “Brave New World” in one day and discovered the joys of the “Chronicles of Riddick” series.

Their story lines are captivating, and the worlds that the authors and directors create pull you in and don’t let go.

But science fiction goes beyond the fanatics who dress up as Storm Troopers and go to Comic Con every year. Science fiction — in fact, almost every genre of fiction — is intended to stretch our imaginations and make us see our world in a new way. The advantage of sci-fi is how it puts our own world into perspective. The expansion of the universe in these movies, books and shows puts the planet earth into a context where it is not the dominating force, a thought that can be both tantalizing and terrifying. The possibility of extraterrestrial life, of the expansion of the

human race onto other planets, and the exploration of the outer depths of our galaxy are all prospects that could very well happen in our lifetimes, and yet no one knows when or if it will.

We are pulled into the world of science fiction for the very reason that it is close enough to reality to be plausible, but far enough to still force us to use our imaginations to envision a world with aliens and intergalactic battles. It serves not only as an escape from our daily lives, it takes us into a world that we could possibly be a part of one day, a world that extends far beyond the reaches of what we can even imagine.

So what, then, is the appeal of historical fiction? If we are so enticed by exploring the future of our world, why would we choose to read about things that have already happened?

Historical fiction is certainly less imaginative than science fiction, as it is limited (at least to a certain extent) by a historical precedent. So perhaps the appeal of a historical novel is the fact that it embodies the way we were, instead of where we are headed.

People have been writing and reading historical fiction since at least 1800 B.C. when an anonymous Egyptian wrote a manuscript called “The Tale of Sinuhe,” which was set a few centuries prior to its publication. Something about the past fascinates a part of all of us, whether it is re-imagining the military battles of World War II, envisioning the beautiful dresses of noble women in the court of Louis XIV, or reading about the romantic escapades of Henry VIII. But unlike sci-fi, the draw of historical fiction does not result from the imagining of what could be; it focuses instead on what we once were. We imagine what it would have been like to be there, we understand how different things were, and yet we realize that those people are not too unlike us.

Fiction is a mirror of reality, but what we see in the mirror has entranced us for millennia and will continue to do so as long as people are writing books and making movies and television shows. It shows us what we were, what we are, and what we can be. We love these stories because they show us the one thing we can count on: the continuity of the human race.

— Sarah Russell is a junior in history. She can be reached at srusse22@utk.edu.

Friday, September 23, 2011

The Daily Beacon • 5

ARTS&CULTURE

Country idol Alison Krauss sells out Tennessee Theatre Chris Flowers Staff Writer This Saturday and Sunday, Alison Krauss and Union Station will play back-to-back shows at the Tennessee Theatre.

Unfortunately, if you haven’t already gotten your ticket, you’re out of luck. According to the Tennessee Theatre box office, tickets to both nights were sold out by July. Krauss has always proven popular in the Knoxville area — of the 63 stops on her latest North American tour, eight of them are in Tennessee, more than any other state.

Krauss began her musical career early in life. After picking up the violin at age five and forming her own band at 10, she soon began attending bluegrass festivals across the Midwest. It was at these festivals she met the members of what would become her backup band, Union Station. Krauss found critical success early, receiving her first Grammy nomination at 19 and first Grammy win at 20.

This began her historic series of Grammy wins, most recently in 2009 with her Robert Plant collaboration “Raising Sand,” which netted her five wins, including Record of the Year and Album of the Year. Those wins brought her tally to a staggering 26, placing her behind only Quincy Jones (27), and Georg Solti (31). This year with the release of her newest album, “Paper Airplane,” Krauss is assured of moving up that list.

Allmusic Guide called “Paper Airplane” “a melancholy

record, (whose) songs largely revolve around themes of trial and perseverance.” The title track, penned by frequent Krauss collaborator Robert Lee Castleman, is the album’s first single and easily the most radio friendly song on it. Dan Tyminski’s guitar glides along with Krauss’ voice as she laments her fading love and ends the song with the ever-so-hopeful line, “Our love will die, I know.”

The track “Dust Bowl Children” serves as an example of the album’s overall tone as it explores the life of a depression-era farmer whose entire way of life has collapsed, and love has become all he has left to hang on to. It’s an album that is full of mourning and despair, slow and droning strings, and no percussion. After her more mainstream success with Robert Plant, some fans were concerned that Krauss may stray from her bluegrass roots to appeal to a broader audience, but those fears have been proven unfounded with “Paper Airplane.” A refreshing change from the majority of modern country which owes as much to Britney Spears as it does Hank Williams, Krauss’ voice is as pristine as ever.

“Her vocal technique is very clean and light without any intonation issues and almost no vibrato,” said Mariel Westervelt, senior in vocal performance. “Her resonance is pure and her timbre is almost innocent, yet sincere.”

Krauss’ old-fashioned style will fit perfectly with the nearly 100-year-old Tennessee Theatre when fans descend on Gay Street this weekend, who can expect to hear plenty of her older material along with her new album.

• Photo courtesy of alisonkrauss.com

Poet Terrance Hayes overflows venue and has the ability to write and speak in their language as well. He was won many honors and awards and is now a professor of creative writing at Carnegie Mellon University.

Hayes began with the first poem in his latest book, “Lighthead,” called “Lighthead’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The poem set the stage for the rest of the reading. It was light and humorous at times but there were also moments of incredibly deep emotional thought. He took the audience on a ride.

Up and down he went, from serious to funny over and over again. It was a little disorienting but also enjoyable.

For the entire duration of another of his poems, “26 Imaginary T-shirts,” no one stopped laughing, including him. While he read “Arbor for Butch,” however, the room was silent. Everyone was hanging on his every word as he told the audience what it was like to meet his father. His poems let everyone listening into his head.

If he was feeling funny, we laughed, sad we sighed or flirty we flirted back.

This poetry reading is part of a series called the “Writers in the Library,” which has been a part of UT’s history since 1994. The next night in the succession is on Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. in the Hodges Library auditorium.

The evening’s theme is French and it will feature Brad Anderson, Darren Jackson, Marilyn Kallet and Rose Becallo Raney. French artists and their interpreters will read poetry and the event will end with French cuisine outside the auditorium. More information about the “Writers in the Library” program can be found at http://www.lib.utk.edu/writersinthelibrary.

Brittney Dougherty Staff Writer On a daily basis, UT hosts a number of lectures, culture nights, poetry readings and festivals. At many, the attendance and engagement can be quite lacking as can the entertainment value of the event. Wednesday night’s poetry reading with Terrance Hayes was the exception to this rule.

The reading was held in the Hodges Library auditorium at 7 p.m. and the entire place was packed. There were people standing up in the entryways as well as people lining the walls and sitting next to the rows of seats. A few minutes before Hayes was scheduled to begin, Steve Smith, the dean of libraries, announced the existence of an overflow room. Besides the auditorium, an entire other room was dedicated to Hayes that night because of the amount of interest people were showing in him. His reading was being podcasted as well.

The night’s high attendance spoke strongly in favor of Hayes. Not only were there hundreds of people there, but they were also highly engaged. No one was on their phone playing a game or experiencing the newest unwanted Facebook update. Most people even had one of Hayes’ books or a notebook of their own poetry in their laps.

Right on time the director of the creative writing program, Dr. Marilyn Kallet, began her introduction. Hayes is originally from Columbia, S.C. His Southern roots certainly influence his poetry. For instance, he uses the word “skrimps” among other Southern lingo. Now, however, he lives in Pittsburgh

SERVICES

EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYMENT

FOR RENT

HOUSE FOR RENT

Booking mixers, parties, events inside or out. Hottrods 2909 Alcoa Hwy. 5 minutes to UT. Call now to plan an event (865)680-1899.

Caregiver/ companion for adult female with Parkinsons disease in West Knoxville.

Flexible hours. (865)588-1010, leave message.

First Baptist Concord/ West Lake FT/PT positions avail.

Teacher asst./Floater. Professional Christian working environment.

Call (865)288-1629 or email

Cherokee Country Club now hiring experience full-time and part-time service staff.

Apply in person Tuesday Friday from 2-5. 5138 Lyons View Pike.

westlakewee@fbconcord.org

STUDENT AUDITOR PT (20hr/wk) Soph or Junior.

Business/ Accounting major a plus. Apply at Audit and Consulting Services. 149 Conference Center Bldg, or call 974-6611.

THE TOMATO HEAD MARYVILLE Hiring all positions Full and part-time. No experience necessary. Apply in person.

211 W. Broadway, Maryville, TN (865)981-1080 or online www.thetomatohead.com.

1 FULL BR CONDOS Security/ Elevator/ Pool 3 min. walk to Law School. $520R, $300SD, No app. fee.

865 (4408-0006 , 250-8136).

Get your reserved parking space just 3 blocks from campus. Call 525-7413 for details and rates.

PPG / Pittsburg Paints Part Time Inside Sales Associate.

For more information call (423)987-3933 or email cdavenport@ppg.com. Apply online at: www.ppg.com/corporate/careers.

3BR 2BA house includes living room, kitchen, CH/A, W/D, dishwasher, private parking, fenced yard. Walk to UT. Available now. 1533 Forest Ave. $1000/mo (865)522-3325.

Psychic readings by Rose Renee. $5.00 reading with UT ID. Call for appt.

(865)983-9945.

TUTORING TESTPREP EXPERTS GRE/ GMAT/ LSAT For over 30 years, Michael K. Smith, Ph.D., and his teachers have helped UT students prepare for the GRE/ GMAT/ LSAT. Our programs offer individual tutoring, practice tests, and computer- adaptive strategies at a reasonable price. Programs can be designed around your schedule, weekdays, weeknights, or weekends.

Conveniently located at 308 South Peters Rd. Call (865)694-4108 for more information.

EMPLOYMENT Afternoon respite provider needed. 5 days a week for emotionally disturbed child.

Pay negotiable. Call Kristin at 470-4937.

COLLEGE STUDENTS FLEXIBLE WORK Entry-Level Customer Sales and service simple and fun work and no exp necessary. $15 base-appt.

Internships and Scholarships possible. All ages 18+, conditions apply. Call (865)329-7509. Apply online at knxwork.com Customer Service Representative $12.00 per hour.

Serve customers by providing and answering questions about financial services. You will have the advantage of working with an experienced management team that will work to help you succeed. Professional but casual west Knoxville call center location, convenient to UT and West Town Mall. Full and part-time positions are available. We will make every effort to provide a convenient schedule.

Email: hr@vrgknoxville.com Fax: (865)330-9945.

Global Research Consultants, LLC. is a boutique information brokerage serving a select group of multinational corporations with information to help drive their strategic business decisions through a targeted “crowdsourcing” methodology.

GRC will hire students on a contract basis, and is prepared to pay up to $1000.00 per contract assignment.

More about this opportunity: www.grcknows.com Internship with cash bonus potential for business/marketing/communications students. Call 1-888-665-1107 or email contactus@storeurstuff. net.

Progressive Preschool in Bearden is looking for energetic, professional, positive and dependable aftercare workers. M-F 3-6p OR MWF 3-6p and once a month until 7:30p. If you enjoy young children and have the energy, patience and creativity needed to lead them through an afternoon of discovery and play, please email resume to mschweitzer@jewishknoxville.org.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH CHILDREN A MUST.

Massage Therapist in Farragut Chiropractic office. 10 hours minimum, more hours can be available. Call (865)966-5885 or fax (865)966-5995. Email volrehab@hotmail.com.

PT kennel worker and grounds maintenance. Early morning hours and weekends. Cleaning and assisting kennel manager in a variety of duties. Must love dogs and be capable of hard work in all weather. 10-minunte drive from downtown. References required. Start immediately.

(865)705-8146, ace@mbkennel.com.

No nights. No weekends.

Looking to fill one counselor position for school year at Bearden School-age Program. Call Micki if interested. 588-6717.

Seeking delivery/ warehouse person .

25-35 hrs/week. Base hourly plus incentive pay. Apply at World Futon or worldfutonknox@gmail.com

Read the Beacon Classifieds!

UNFURN APTS

THE TOMATO HEAD KNOXVILLE Now hiring dish and food running positions. Full and part-time available, no experience necessary. Apply in person at 12 Market Square or apply online at thetomatohead.com.

1 and 2BR Apts. UT area and West Knox area. Call for appointment (865)522-5815.

South Knoxville/UT downtown area 2BR apts. $475.

Call about our special (865)573-1000.

Broadway/ close to campus.

4BR 2BA. All applicances inlcuding W/D. Large fenced in yard. Clean carpet, new paint. $1200/mo. 363-9190.

MERCH. FOR SALE New electric bike for sale.

Includes extra seat on back and large basket. Please call (865)385-9585.

AUTOS FOR SALE

Clinch at 14th St. Evian Tower. 1BR 1BA with parking $495/mo. Howard Grower Realty Executives Associates.

(865)588-3232 or (865)705-0969

100+ vehicles $5,995 or less. Specializing in imports. www.DOUGJUSTUS.com

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD • Will Shortz ACROSS 1 Actual title of the 1979 #1 hit known as “The Piña Colada Song” 7 “Family Guy” mayor, or the actor providing his voice 15 Dump truck filler 16 Deliver 17 Shameless yes-man 18 1984 film starring Tom Selleck as a jewel thief 19 Front covers 20 Fashion magazines, e.g.

21 Trespasses 22 Higgins’s pupil in elocution 23 Abbr. rarely seen at the start of a sentence 24 One rudely put out?

25 Satellite community?

28 Small brawl 33 Removes from a spool

34 Ignoring copyrights, say 35 “In the Night Kitchen” author 36 Lady famous for piemaking 37 Cash in 39 Vegas hotel that hosts the World Series of Poker 40 Nighttime assignment, often 44 “Star Trek: First Contact” villains, with “the” 46 Girl’s name meaning “messenger of God” 47 Second run 49 Foot-stomping music 50 Unfazed by 51 Top-quality 52 DVD box set purchase 53 Wild West show headgear 54 Place to sit, ironically

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE O B I P A C T H E H MA I O N K P A G E N F O R E S S E T S C MD R R A I M A S T E W H E N L E S S S S T A

I C O N A S I M E R C E R

M A C S C A BFA R E D B B I T S E E A P L T R A N I S O P O E E R E F X D E G R E C I R B E O N A C O N T R Y E O V O N JD S A L E R A S L A S Y E T I

R E L A I D

A N A R M BA

Z E D I R O MBA N G L E S I S T S T A T O R

E S A S T I T H R O O U S E R D I N G E N E P S R A

E W E R I G

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

15

16

17

18

19

20 21

9

10

11

12

13

14

29

30

31

32

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

33

34

35

36 37

40

8

41

42

38

39

43

44

46

47

49

50

51

52

53

54

DOWN 1 “___ in Berlin” (1960 live album) 2 Mineral used as chalk by tailors 3 One born on Christmas Day 4 Enlargement 5 Unskilled laborers 6 Newton-meter fractions 7 No more 8 Kind of box for input 9 Moral theory that doesn’t allow for shades of gray 10 Old-fashioned letter opener 11 You might keep a watch on it

12 Weird Al Yankovic’s first Billboard hit 13 What tuning forks are made of 14 Clipped 22 Sleep, in British slang 23 Skinny-legged trotters 24 Had one do through persuasion 26 Outlaw Kelly of Australian legend 27 Like Lincoln before his presidency 29 1950s-’70s senator Ervin 30 Added to the soup, say 31 Pressed one’s suit?

45 48

32 Return a call?

34 Little game, perhaps 36 Falling rocks 38 Company behind the 1960s yo-yo craze 40 Fishing hooks 41 Dark 42 Mesoamerican plant 43 Ran into again 44 Hemmed in 45 “No good ___ plot can be sensible …”: W. H. Auden 47 Former Wisconsin senator Feingold 48 Dispose of

6 • The Daily Beacon

ARTS&CULTURE

Friday, September 23, 2011

Islamic cultural center opens doors The Associated Press Va. approves formerly error-laden history books RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia Board of Education has signed off on overhauled versions of two textbooks that initially were riddled with factual, grammatical and typographical errors.

One contained a claim that thousands of black people fought on behalf of the Confederacy.

The board on Thursday approved new, corrected editions of “Our Virginia: Past and Present” and “Our America to 1865,” published by Five Ponds Press. The publisher turned in its revised textbooks after they underwent a more rigorous state approval process this summer.

The books were reviewed by a state committee that included a teacher, a content specialist and a subject-matter expert. The public also weighed in, and some pointed out remaining errors and expressed concerns about the books and their author.

Los Angeles fire truck used as porn film backdrop LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman says the department is investigating allegations that some firefighters allowed porn producers to use fire trucks in adult films.

KNBC-TV reports that a Los Angeles fire engine was used as a backdrop for a porn film shot at Venice Beach. Footage aired on KNBC showed a topless woman sitting on the apparatus.

Captain Tina Haro told the station that the department has “zero tolerance” for the alleged misbehavior. She says Fire Chief Brian Cummings has ordered an investigation into the allegations because they clearly violate department policy.

WikiLeaks chief memoir published, against his will LONDON — A long-awaited memoir by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is finally being published — without his approval.

British publisher Canongate says the book, billed as an “unauthorized autobiography,” will be for sale in stores and online Thursday.

Last year Canongate paid Assange a large sum for the rights to the memoir and Assange began working with a ghostwriter on the book.

But the publisher said Wednesday Assange became increasingly troubled by the prospect, and declared that “all memoir is prostitution.”

Canongate says Assange tried to cancel his contract, but since he has not repaid his advance it is publishing the first draft that Assange delivered to the publisher in March.

WikiLeaks did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

NEW YORK — An Islamic cultural center near the site of the terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center held its first exhibit Wednesday evening, the enthusiasm at the opening belying its troubled beginnings.

As a small orchestra played traditional Middle Eastern instruments, people crowded into the center, where a photo exhibit of New York children of different ethnicities lined the walls.

Sharif El-Gamal, the center’s developer, said the biggest error on the project was not involving the families of 9/11 victims from the start.

“We made incredible mistakes,” El-Gamal told The Associated Press in an earlier interview at his Manhattan office.

The building at 51 Park Place, two blocks from the World Trade Center site, includes a Muslim prayer space that has been open for two years. El-Gamal said the overall center is modeled after the Jewish Community Center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where he lives.

“I wanted my daughter to learn how to swim, so I took her to the JCC,” said the Brooklyn-born Muslim.

“And when I walked in, I said, ‘Wow. This is great.’”

The project has drawn criticism from opponents who say they don’t want a mosque near the site of the Sept.

11 terrorist attacks.

The center is open to all faiths and will include a 9/11 memorial, El-Gamal said. He called opposition to the center — which prompted one of the most virulent national discussions about Islam and freedom of speech and religion since Sept. 11 — part of a “campaign against Muslims.”

Last year, street clashes in view of the trade center site pitted supporters against opponents of the center.

When the center was first envisioned several years ago, activist Daisy Khan and her husband, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, played a major, vocal role. But they soon left the project because of differences with the developer.

El-Gamal, 38, confirmed Wednesday that they parted ways because “we had a different vision.” He declined to elaborate.

The couple said they had discussed plans for Park51, as the center is known, with relatives of 9/11 victims, first responders and others, including the possibility that it could become a multifaith center focusing on religious conflict. But El-Gamal wishes victims’ families had been involved earlier — before the center became a point of

contention.

“The biggest mistake we made was not to include 9/11 families,” El-Gamal said, noting that the center’s advisory board now includes at least one 9/11 family member.

At first, “we didn’t understand that we had a responsibility to discuss our private project with family members that lost loved ones,” he said, and they did not “really connect” with community leaders and activists.

But today, “we’re very committed to having them involved in our project. ... We’re really listening,” he said.

Pointing to the inclusivity of a center that critics feared would be polarizing, El-Gamal noted that the featured photographer in the “NYChildren” exhibit is Danny Goldfield, who is Jewish.

The Brooklyn photographer was inspired to create the exhibit by the story of Rana Sodhi, a Sikh who emigrated from India and settled in Arizona. His brother Balbir was killed in a retaliatory hate crime four days after Sept. 11.

Sodhi made the trip to New York for the opening and wore a tie decorated with heart-shaped American flags.

He still runs the gas station where his brother was killed.

“My heart is so warm when I hear Danny is doing this exhibition in Park51,” Sodhi said.

Goldfield said he has photographed children with roots in 169 countries since 2004. He hopes to find subjects representing 24 other countries to complete the project. Some of the photographs had been exhibited elsewhere, but the opening marked the first time all were shown together.

He said there was a synergy between the themes and spirit of his project and those of the center, particularly with regard to community participation and openness.

“They want to build a center for everyone that’s represented on the walls here,” he said.

Recalling the controversy over the center, he said he didn’t want to pass judgment on its opponents. But he said he’d like them to see the show “more than anyone.”

Afsana Khundkar, a native of Afghanistan whose 12year-old son, Waseem, was one of the children photographed for the exhibit, said her family was honored to participate in the project.

“It’s promoting good things in the world,” she said.

“The most important thing is to involve the children in the good things.”

The space had been cleared out and the walls painted a stark white for the exhibit. The renovations were funded with $70,000 raised on the website Kickstarter. The modest first-floor space is intended to function as a temporary center until groundbreaking on an entirely new building.

El-Gamal told the AP that fundraising is under way to complete a 15-story building that will also include an auditorium, educational programs, a pool, a restaurant and culinary school, child care services, a sports facility, a wellness center and artist studios.

The mosque is especially needed in lower Manhattan, he said, because thousands of Muslims either work or live in the neighborhood, “and in our religion, we must pray five times a day.”

At the opening, an ebullient El-Gamal told reporters the project had been framed by others throughout the debate over its existence.

“Today, for the first time, everyone gets a little bit of a glimpse into the future of what Park51 is going to offer New York,” he said.

Friday, September 23, 2011

SPORTS

The Daily Beacon • 7

Lady Vols hoops TV schedule released Former Lady Vol Catchings Staff Reports named WNBA MVP for first time The Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Tamika Catchings of the Indiana Fever has been selected the WNBA’s most valuable player for the first time.

Catchings averaged 15.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game this season and is among the league’s top 10 in scoring, rebounding, free-throw percentage and steals. The 32-year-old forward had finished in the top five in the balloting eight times and was runnerup in 2009 and 2010.

Indiana finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference, giving the Fever homecourt advantage in the first two rounds of the playoffs. The Fever will play Atlanta on Thursday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Connecticut’s Tina Charles was second, followed by Chicago center Sylvia Fowles, Seattle’s Sue Bird and Minnesota’s Lindsay Whalen.

Catchings is a four-time defensive player of the year who has led the Fever to the playoffs seven straight years, the Eastern Conference Finals four times and the WNBA Finals once. Earlier this year, the WNBA selected her among its 15 greatest players of all time.

While the humble Tennessee product has often said she’s mostly concerned with winning a WNBA title, her teammates were vocal about their belief in her tal-

ent.

Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird, who had campaigned for Catchings, said she deserves the award.

“Everyone here at Pacers Sports & Entertainment is not only happy to have an MVP, but also a quality person who is not only great on the court, but in the community as well,” he said.

“This is very deserving, as Tamika fits the true description of an MVP. It’s another in a long list of accomplishments, all of which we’re extremely proud for her.”

Fever COO and General Manager Kelly Krauskopf was emotional when she heard the news.

“I just got big tears in my eyes,” Krauskopf said. “I was so happy and thrilled for Tamika.”

After Catchings tied a career high with 32 points in a win over the Liberty on Aug. 13, Fever coach Lin Dunn started an unofficial campaign.

“Catch is a multidimensional player,” Dunn said that night. “I think sometimes she’s not given enough credit for all the different things she can do.

She gets assists, she gets steals, she gets rebounds, she scores and she defends like nobody else in the league. It’s unfortunate that so much emphasis is put on ‘Who’s the leading scorer?’”

Krauskopf said Catchings’ versatility and work ethic deserved to be rewarded.

“I never gave up hope that at some point the

media and the folks who voted on this would see the effect she has,” she said.

Pat Summitt, Catchings’ coach at Tennessee, said the forward is an MVP in every way.

“She totally symbolizes every aspect of what a most valuable player should be through her leadership and everyday excellence on the court,” Summitt said. “I am, and always have been, extremely proud of how Tamika goes about her business. I have been fortunate to coach a lot of great players but there has always been a ‘specialness’ between Catch and I because she is so real.”

The Southeastern Conference unveiled the 2011-12 women’s basketball television schedule this afternoon and the Tennessee Lady Vols will have 22 television appearances.

In the third year of the SEC’s agreement with ESPN, a total of 57 SEC women’s games will be televised live.

Once again, Lady Vol fans will see every SEC game televised both at home and on the road. Additionally, out of conference, Tennessee has television dates on ESPN with Baylor (2 p.m., Nov. 27); ESPN2 with Miami (Fla.) (6 p.m., Nov. 15), at Notre Dame (7 p.m., Jan. 23); ESPNU versus DePaul at the Maggie Dixon Classic (1:30 p.m., Dec. 11), at Rutgers (7 p.m., Dec. 13) and on Comcast Sports Net at Stanford (7 p.m. PT, Dec. 20).

Additional TV games may be added with seven opportunities still open on the Lady Vol non-conference schedule.

Overall, 15 games that involve an SEC

team will be distributed nationally with ESPN or ESPN2 televising eight contests and ESPNU also showing eight.

Regionally-syndicated games will be televised on the SEC Network as part of ESPN Regional Television (ERT). The SEC Network will televise eight intra-conference games while Fox Sports Net (games shown on SportSouth, FS Southwest and Sun Sports) and Comcast Sports Southeast will show 16 games each.

The majority of games not televised nationally will be available as a part of ESPN Full Court, the pay subscription college basketball out-of-market service, and on ESPN3.com.

The 2012 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament will once again enjoy national television coverage. FSN continues its dedication to SEC events by televising all first and second round games. The semifinals will be aired on ESPNU for the third consecutive year, while the championship game will again be televised on ESPN2.

8 • The Daily Beacon

THESPORTSPAGE

Friday, September 23, 2011

Vols focus on run game in bye week Sam Scott Staff Writer

1 1 1 4 4 6

FIRST PLACE: 11-4 (.733)

The Volunteers (2-1, 0-1 SEC) have a bye week coming off their 33-23 loss to Florida last Saturday.

Matt Dixon Sports Editor “We had a pretty good spirited practice today and not so Oklahoma 38 - Missouri 17 good yesterday. And I think a lot of it had to do with us being a LSU - West Virginia young team, and not really understanding the expectations of Oklahoma State - Texas A&M the open week,” UT coach Derek Dooley said after practice on Florida State - Clemson Wednesday. “I talked to them today about defining a standard of Arkansas 13 - Alabama 30 who you are as a man and who you are as a competitor, and challenging yourself every day to meet the standard.”

FIRST PLACE: 11-4 (.733) The offense gets a much-needed chance to work on the running game, which struggled against the Gators, rushing for -9 Brent Harkins Ad Sales yards in the Swamp.

“I thought up front we didn’t do a very good job, and I don’t Oklahoma 38 - Missouri 17 know that we ran the ball very well,” offensive coordinator Jim LSU - West Virginia Oklahoma State - Texas A&M Chaney said. “So, I think that they had something to do with that, and we did too.”

Florida State - Clemson Chaney believed that many of the issues on the offensive line Arkansas 20 - Alabama 31 were simply situations where the offensive linemen were not coming off the ball.

FIRST PLACE: 11-4 (.733) “We’re not being physical enough in the run game to be able to get what we want to against good opponents,” he said. “So Preston Peeden Managing Ed. that’s a point of emphasis this whole bye week, is to get our pads

Oklahoma 31 - Missouri 14 LSU - West Virginia Oklahoma State - Texas A&M Florida State - Clemson Arkansas 10- Alabama 24

down and go hit somebody in the mouth.”

The Vols lost wide receiver Justin Hunter to a season-ending injury when he tore his ACL in the first drive against Florida.

The bye week offers a good chance for freshmen wide receivers DeAnthony Arnett and Vincent Dallas and sophomore Matt Milton to step into a primary role in the offense. Arnett had eight receptions for 59 yards Saturday.

“Ultimately, the biggest change that we’ve got to do is, we’ve got to run the football better, with or without Justin Hunter,” Chaney said.

The bye week is also a good chance for the defense to improve.

“We’ve done a pretty good job at times when we’re settled in and get our eyes in the right spot,” defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox. “What we have to avoid is the three plays a game that are catastrophic.”

One of the back-breaking plays for the Vols was an 83-yard touchdown off a screen pass to Florida tailback Chris Rainey in the third quarter that gave the Gators a 30-7 lead.

“You’re going to give up a play now and then but you’ve got to get the guy on the ground and play again,” Dooley said.

“We’re a little dinged up, so the open week has been good to help some of the guys that have been playing a lot, and to give some of the young guys a lot of work. So we’re getting a lot of reps with some of the younger guys who haven’t played as much, and they need it.”

FOURTH PLACE: 10-5 (.667) Will Abrams Copy Editor Oklahoma 28 - Missouri 17 LSU - West Virginia Oklahoma State - Texas A&M Florida State - Clemson Arkansas 24 - Alabama 35

FOURTH PLACE: 10-5 (.667) Robbie Hargett Chief Copy Editor Oklahoma 28 - Missouri 17 LSU - West Virginia Oklahoma State - Texas A&M Florida State - Clemson Arkansas 17 - Alabama 28

DEAD STINKIN’ LAST: 9-6 (.600) Clay Seal Asst. Sports Editor Oklahoma 38 - Missouri 21 LSU - West Virginia Oklahoma State - Texas A&M Florida State - Clemson Arkansas 21 - Alabama 28

Joy Hill • The Daily Beacon

Fans escape the rain before the Montana game on Sept 3. The game was delayed 93 minutes before the Vols were able to kick off. The Vols ended up beating the Grizzlies 42-16.