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Show The College Times MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2008 Rewardseeking behavior Thomas Rackliffe Opinions writer I Ben Pai / College Time* Utah County's dirty laundry gets aired at The Clothesline Project in the Grand Ballroom on Monday, March 31 and Tuesday, April 1. Airing dirty laundry Jared Magill Opinions editor The pulsating groan of a gong trembles the air in the Student Center's Grand Ballroom syncopating the heartbeats of observers in attendance at this semester's Clothesline Project exhibit. Since 1998, it has been displayed here at least twice each year. The gong indicates a woman is reporting being assaulted. According to 1993 National Victims Center statistics, an assault is reported every 10 to 12 seconds. The flagrant shriek of a whistle rips through the ambiance of the ballroom like a young child's scream. There's an air of palpable reverence. Few speak. Those who do, speak in, whispers. The whistle indicates a sexual assault is being reported. According to 2002 Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network statistics, someone is sexually assaulted every two minutes. A demon wanders this space, intelligent yet degraded and animal in essence, a goat. Its presence is made known by the bell around its neck that jangles as the goat, this demon, moves about. The bell indicates a woman has been killed by her intimate partner. According to 2001 statistics from End Abuse, three to four women are killed by their intimate partners each day. When orchestrated together, as they are, at The Clothesline Project, into a sort of perverse opus, the sounds serve as an auditory reminder of violence in the United States. The clothesline project •originated in Hyannis, Mass, in 1990 when members of Cape Cod's Women's Defense Agenda learned that during the time 58,000 U.S. soldiers were killed in Vietnam, 51,000 U.S. women were killed at the hands of the men who claimed to love them. • On colored t-shirts, handwritten stories tell first-hand accounts of various forms of abuse suffered by their authors. The t-shirts are strewn upon mock clotheslines, hence the name. White is for people who died as a result of violence. Yellow is for survivors of physical assault. Pink, Red or Orange is for survivors of rape or sexual assault. Blue or Green is for survivors of incest or childhood sexual abuse. Lavender or Purple is for survivors of attacks suffered due to perceived sexual orientation. Black is for those disabled as the result of an attack or assaulted because of a disability. Grey or Brown is for survivors of emotional, spiritual or verbal abuse. Over the course of the two days that the shirts were on display, new shirts almost constantly streamed in from members of the UVSC campus community. 116 were newly recorded into the inventory; 72 in one day. Over the past years, since the displays have been on campus, the average has been 35 new t-shirts per semester. Is it a rising tide of abuse or have we just gotten better at branding ourselves? The stories told on the t-shirts range from the most unimaginably horrific forms of murder and rape to rather commonplace incidents. To those who have truly suffered by the hands and words of others-usually loved ones it would seem-my heart goes out. But those whose experience could simply be chalked up to everyday life, it's time to stop reeling and get real. The Clothesline Project is meant to be a means of healing for victims of actual violence and also a means to facilitate awareness. Stories of mundane adversity hung alongside stories of humankind's darkest deeds serves only to cheapen the objective of the exhibit and diminish the magnitude of its darkness, thus rendering the 'display a sort of perverse opus. Deport everyone, including me Diego Ibanez according to Sean Hannity, are blood-sucking criminals. Yes, I listen to Sean Hannity, and before you call me acist minutemen and a walking paradox, let me tell KKK members were you that I respect the guy benowhere to be seen when cause he's good at standing Dr. Juan Hernandez visited for something, and I am reUVU recently. He is the kind ally fond of the quote "If you of American I wish we could don't stand for something, all aspire to be like — a new you will fall for everything." and improved American, if I don't believe I could you will. He not only defends ever agree with his point of immigrants but also speaks view on immigration, though, freely of amnesty for illegal unless by some miracle he immigrants. took the time to embrace and "These are beautiful, speak with a group of illehard-working people who gal immigrants. I probably put so much money in our know of some, busy buildpension funds each year," he ing UVU's Digital Learning argued on the Bill O'Reilly Center. show. How many of us actuDon't misunderstand; just ally see it this way? because someone is brown Whenever I debate immiand working construction gration issues — a common doesn't mean we have unoccurrence for people in my covered some legal infracsituation - I try not to bring tion. I'm only expanding on up the word "amnesty." That what Hernandez said about word by itself is very taboo, the type of crisis the U.S. even poisoned, thanks to would face were the people extremist minutemen and who are working the toughvenom from biased media est jobs to vanish one day. like Fox News. Instead, I try Do you know how many ilto point out certain inequilegal farmers there are? How ties suffered by particular many construction workers, groups, like the young chilwaitresses, factory workers, dren brought here by their parents ~ human beings who, See DEPORTED • AS f you've ever envied the wealthy or worried about the "plight of the poor," chances are you understand on some level a concept most people refuse to believe: Money buys happiness. Nothing secures a smile on a child's face quite like a shiny new toy, nothing promotes an ecstatic response quite like a big cash prize, and nothing means true love quite like a diamond ring. You may have heard that the best things in life are free, but have you considered the costs associated with even the most trivial of small joys? Principally, currency is responsible for everything you eat, the roof over your head, and the ways you interact with other people. Picture yourself without any money, and if the image doesn't bleakly resemble every rotten stereotype you've heard about the homeless, your imagination is sorely lacking. Beyond staving off les douleurs de la mort, though, every purchase - no matter how unnecessary for simple survival needs -- is a direct withdrawal from your bank account that is then deposited directly into your happiness. While it is immediately evident that buying a sandwich to satisfy your hunger is going to make you happy, it may be less clear that watching TV on a bigger screen, driving a faster car, or dressing more R Nothing secures a smile on a child's face quite like a shiny new toy, nothing promotes an ecstatic response quite like a big cash prize, and nothing means true love quite like a diamond ring. But if the tendencies of consumers are taken as any reliable indication of how our society functions, it seems patently obvious that MasterCard should adjust its advertising slogan: There's nothing money can't buy, and for anything at all, there's spending. As long as our Pavlovian benefactors continue to ring the bell, we'll keep drooling over whatever tantalizing, surrogate satisfaction they put in our bowls — because we know what makes us happy, and that's buying things. Letters to the Editor I was bored. "Hey, maybe I'll check out The College Times online," I thought. The headline "Advantages of summer session" on the main page of The Times caught my eye and I decided to check it out. So I clicked on the link, and whatayaknow, a Hooters ad loads on the page along with the article! "Do you have what it takes?" (to be a hooters model), it inquires. After thinking about the question long and hard, I decided that I probably don't "have what it takes". Partially because I'm a guy, partially be- Opin-oris v fashionably would also facilitate a positive demeanor; if you believe, though, that more expensive, better products aren't ultimately going to yield more happiness than their inferior counterparts, then I'm sure you don't waste your time working hours unnecessary for the fulfillment of basic, physical necessities. cause I just don't have curves in the right places. I tried to continue on and read the content I originally sought out, but with that amazing Hooters model sitting there on my screen, my reading ability suddenly digressed to a primitive and/or non-existent level. Needless to say, I never did find out the advantages of the summer semester at UVU. Maybe someday. Taylor Van Sickle tayvsickle@gmail.com Letters to the editor requirements opin ions ©itvsc.edu • Letters must be turned in on Wednesday by noon in order to be primed in the next edition. • We make no guarantee that letters will be printed. • Letters 300 words or less have a greater chance of being published - anything longer will be edited for content. Photo courtesy: samford.edu A former aid to Mexican President Vicente Fox, Juan Hernandez proposed five criteria for the rectification of illegal immigrants' transgressions in a speech at UVSC on Friday, March 28, 2008. • Please provide an electronic copy regardless of whether or not you wish to submit a hard copy. • All letters become the property of The College Times as soon as they art submitted. |