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Show ion The College Times MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2008 Politics and Road Rage are (depending on who your sticker forget about meditation when you have represents), and if you're decent you The Dandy Warhols just begging to be Opinloni wiief better vote for the same candidate! played in your top-notch sound sysAs the false hope of traffic (low True, basing a voting decision on such tem. was quickly interrupted by the flashing an incident may seem ridiculous, but it Perhaps this could be transposed brake lights, I became irate with a fel- is, nevertheless, human nature. beyond the realm of politics, though. low motorist for driving, 1 felt, like an A Nader sticker may not be the best Besides something cliche like your idiot. Naturally, my initial inclination decision. Despite the guy's noble mis- favorite band, what about a bumper was to teach this person how to drive by sion, he is loathed, even by liberals, for sticker of your religion?'Well, ok, mayway of honking, giving the bird, flash- his purported contribution to Bush's be not the best suggestion, at least for ing my brights, this area. Still, something tailgating, or that would serve as an some hybrid incentive to drive a little combination of better. How about a bumthe above. per sticker that describes your most embarrassing Frustrating as moment? For some reait was, I almost son, it just seems tike that lost my cool. would slow you down a Still, in that molittle. Then again, maybe ment of anger, I it would have the reverse was restrained effect, making you drive by one thing: my like the wind for fear of bumper sticker. revealing your secret to The bumanother motorist. I don't per of my car know; this is a complex, proudly displays developing issue - one I an 'Obama 08' am pioneering with this bumper stickarticle. er. This is, of course, my own Of course, there is a minimal effort to time limit on the bumpromote the canper sticker's efficacious didate. As such, road rage limiting abiliI carry some Dave Iba/College Times ties. Assuming Barack is sense of responthe white house victor, sibility to the guy when I'm driving. 2000 election victory and Gore's de- I will haye no need to make sure he In other words, I don't want to be re- feat (although there were other factors has a good name. He is in there, why sponsible for an upset citizen casting at play as well). This is compounded should I care? If he loses to McCain, a vote based on an unfortunate driving by the fact that Nader can't and won't then I can drive as erratically as I want, experience. It would be a shame for ever make it to the white house. It's especially if McCain were to disenMr. Obama to lose potential supporters simply an unrealistic statement to sport chant Americans. I would be like those because I cut some dude off in traffic. his name. It reminds me of individu- drivers wielding a 'Kerry 04' sticker I could see it now: "I ain't voting for als shouting ''vote Ron Paul!" Yes, on their car, as if to say "yeah, great Barack. One of his crazy supporters al- he is a good candidate, but come on, job electing Bush, guys! If you would most killed me the other day!" No, that guys, he's not getting in, and we all have had the insight and intelligence is simply counterproductive. know you're going to play the whole I have, you would have voted for a Regardless of which candidate you "shou Id' ve voted Paul" card soon democrat!" support, placing a bumper sticker of enough. So even if you're driving as Either way, I can thank my bumthem on your bumper or window is if Ms. Daisy were in your back seat, per sticker for helping me to be a little a great way to stem inevitable road having a Nader sticker on your car will nicer and more conscious of my drivrage from boiling over. Hell, you'll likely make you the laughingstock of ing. Thanks, Obama. Not only are you even want to let that car cut in front the freeway. giving hope for a better foreign policy of you just to show the other motorAre there other ways to handle such for Americans, but you're also helping ists how decent and nice Obama, Mc- behavior? Sure. But come on, count- to curb road rage for this driver. Hats Cain, Clinton, or Romney supporters ing to ten? Does that even work? And off to you. Greg Witcox AYG Aft Are. Julian Cardona uncovers hard-tosee humanity Ben Paz Opinions writer RCA, Honeywell, Visteon and others, dodge paying American wages and benefits to Americans, and avoid paying American taxes on their earnings, yet the products are sold to Americans and too often are built by underage Mexican teens only too happy to make five bucks a day - vastly superior to their parents' single dollar for a day's wages. Julian Cardona shoots pictures of the cardboard and tin shacks that house families in the Mexican desert, yards away from the bubble of running water, power and sewer that the assembly plants require within their footprint. Julian Cardona gets death threats and lives day-today because the drug and human traffickers that help put politicians and law enforcement in office need him silent, lest the federal Mexican government send the army, or worse, the Americans start paying attention. Even before we can consider why the immigrants don't follow the rules of lawful migration, we need to address the fact that a Mexican that can get a job doing whatever in Mexico is a Mexican that won't have an incentive to come across the desert, wife and children in tow. Julian Cardona is a fearless photographer based in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, across the border from El Paso, Texas, who for many years has documented the exodus of the Mexican peasant into the land of the free and wealthy to the north. Why exodus? For starters, it sure is not a trickle. But exodus from what? It's Mexico draining its poor and hungry masses northward because only the connected, already wealthy, and educated have a country there. The Mexican economy is not able to employ or utilize millions of citizens that have only basic pluck and raw humanity as their claim to existence. The rest see a place up North where they can make a life, if they are gutsy enough to risk everything and reach for it. Jul ian Cardona sees hordes of people trampling each other to death to cross, many thousands dyi ng in the attempt, helplessly, with no one to mourn or give them a second thought. What is the reason a Mexican can't hope for a comparable lifestyle in that chaotic country? My first guess blames the corruption that puts handpicked people in poA Mexican that has a litical office for life, where fighting chance to be in the they entrench the wealthy middle class, I propose, in their place and squeeze will stay there and grow out any attempted forma, that economy -, not ours. r tion of a middle class. We can armor the border America often forgets and require more of our we have here something law enforcement, but anyrather rare, a class of peo- one that looks hard at this ple that are neither wealthy issue notices that to stem nor destitute; we read the the tide, law enforcement news on laptops and pay is a finishing touch, not a taxes, abiding by the law in comprehensive strategy. all things mostly because Back to Julian Cardona we're idealists or risk- he is at risk because, like averse. all good journalists, he Julian Cardona ex- sacrifices personal safety plains that the Mexican to expose the corrupt and economy collapsed to a make their bloody deeds new low post-NAFTA, to known. In Mexico, the the point that the Mexican mafia deals swiftly and efcorn tortilla that they're ficiently with those people so fond of is now made that don't play the game. with cheap American corn. The game rules are that the NAFTA, the North Ameri- mafia does what they want can Free Trade Agreement (be it move drugs, people, signed into law in 1992 murder, whatever), and all by the Clinton administra- that see it or suspect it retion, made it possible for main silent. American corporations to We Americans have no set up assembly plants on concept of fearing to slow the Mexican side, they call our car for a red light before them "maquiladoras" there, having a police car pump it but in all aspects make them full of bullets, while people replicas of what would've drive by in horror. been crazy expensive to Julian Cardona listens put, say, in Utah County. These corporations, like See CARDONA * A6 B Money in the house Diego Ibanez Opinion* witter It was during a committee meeting last Tuesday that I met for the first time Mr. B Money. He walked in as we were concluding plans for the month, carrying a large, dark gym-bag. The first thing you would notice about him is his dollar bill jacket partially covering the words "Don't Hate" on his red T-shirt. At first it seemed awkward, as none of us knew who he was. He spoke slowly, asking us if we would buy one of the T-shirts he was selling. Nobody was really convinced until he told us to check out his music video on YouTube. All I can say is that B Money is surely en- tertaining. It was like watching a serious Weird Al with his music video portraying B Money as a rapper with cash, cars and, most importantly, confidence in his rhymes. Sure enough, we felt as if we had just met a celebrity and quickly took a picture with our new rapper friend. We all decided to go along with his sales pitch when he mentioned that for every shirt or CD - yes, he has his own CD - that was sold, two dollars would be donated to any club who would sponsor him. So he laid out all of our choices of T-shirts that were for sale: blue, red, white or black all with different sayings on the front, including one with what seemed to be an im- age of Tupac with the words "Thug Life" printed on his knuckles. B Money was talking business. That much was obvious when he informed us that his CD was copyrighted and that we would get in big trouble if we made copies. "Remember what the lord said about stealing," he told us. "Thou shall not steal/" Soon enough, committee members suggested a rap battle between B money and Richard Portwood, an assistant to the vice president of student life known to have rhymes by some of his friends. So, on .came the instrumentals as 6 money tried to intimidate his oppoDiego Ibartez/CollegeTlm« BMONEY. A6 Richard Postwood and B Money after an emotionally charged freestyle battle |
