The Wake

The number of empty civilian shoes was overwhelming, but my eyes were drawn to a tiny pair of worn-out snow boots with an attached nametag. A little girl playfully jumped over them, knocking them over. As she was carefully putting them back in place, I noticed that her shoes were about the same size. I stood speechless, ashamed more than ever of the Iraq war and tried to fight the tears.Shoes lined the “Path of Remembrance,” representing the lives of the thousands of Iraqi civilians who have been killed in the war so far. The path was part of the Eyes Wide Open exhibit on the lawn outside the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul.Photos of some civilian casualties accompanied the shoes — mostly mothers with their children. Signs posted next to the path …

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Like many U students, I voted for the very first time last November. While I had felt strongly about the outcome of the election, the actual voting experience didn’t strike me as particularly memorable. I went with a few friends, we waited in line, and I penciled in that little circle and handed over my ballot. But while some of us campaign for our preferred candidate and fret over the results, it’s easy to take the most important thing for granted – voting itself. At a time when registering to vote is so easy and encouraged that last fall a student could do it at a table while walking across the Washington Avenue Bridge, the “right to vote” is not something that has anyone concerned. In Minnesota, voters can register on the day of the …

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Coffman, Moos, Sanford, Folwell, Wilson … Yudof? The names that grace some of the University’s most frequented buildings become ingrained in the mind of every student. These names become a part of a student’s experience here; they are comfortingly familiar. So it can be a little disconcerting when a building’s name changes. After all, it’s difficult to find your class if you’re still looking for the Basic Sciences and Biomedical Engineering Building, which the University renamed after former University president Nils Hasselmo this past spring. Things can get especially weird if you actually live in the building undergoing the name change. During the first few weeks of school this year, residents of Riverbend Commons watched the name Mark G. Yudof Hall appear on their mail, on the front of their building, on the carpet in …

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While filling out my study abroad application, I started to wonder what it’s like for a student from another country to tell family and friends they’re going to study in “Bush country.” Even in northern European countries, where the popular cultures are similar, two students express their wariness of attending a university in America. Johanna Leinonen traveled from Finland in order to pursue a doctorate in history; focusing on Finnish American families. Although she had come to a different part of the world, she did not experience the usual culture shock. “American culture is everywhere back home,” says Leinonen. American television airs in Finland as well. Overall, Leinonen has had an easy time adjusting to life at the University. The most difficult part for her has been participating in class discussions when her language skills …

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At tabling events last year, amongst the Christians and conservatives, the Deltas and the Democrats, one group’s slogan stood out. “Sell your soul for an Oreo,” read CASH’s tabling signs. The group’s display of characteristic wit and a certain appreciation for shock value did indeed draw in many prospective souls. However, despite their collection of students’ souls (stored for eternity in beads, or “soul vessels”) the Campus Atheists and Secular Humanists are more concerned with students’ minds. CASH is a 14-year-old, non-profit educational and social group that emphasizes learning and debate in order to cater to the University’s community of “freethinkers” (a term which includes atheists, agnostics, humanists, skeptics, deists, Buddhists, rationalists, naturalist Quakers, philosophers, and any other like-minded individuals, regardless of religious or political ascriptions). According to the group’s website (www.cashumn.org), their mission is …

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One in four women could be the victim of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence or stalking. But whether we realize it or not it affects everyone. The Sheila Wellstone Institute led a briefing Sept. 8 at the University of Minnesota about the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The act is set to expire Sept. 30. The Institute is encouraging small group dialogue across the nation about the correlation between VAWA and safety in communities. The hope is that after the discussions, people will be motivated to contact their representatives about the bill. VAWA was first passed in Congress in 1994 as part of the Crime Bill. It addressed four kinds of violence that mostly happens to women: domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. It was renewed and revised in 2000 …

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Last week, in comments reported by the Associated Press, former first lady Barbara Bush suggested that low-income refugees housed in temporary shelters had it better there than they did before devastation visited New Orleans in the form of a hurricane.I was in New Orleans about a week before the storm hit, and at that time it seemed to me that little had changed since I lived there about four years ago. At one point, I rented a house in the ninth ward, one of the cityís poorest neighborhoods, the neighborhood where both Master P and Juvenile grew up. It wasnít the friendliest of íhoods, to say the least.The cops knocked on my door one night and asked me about a car that was ditched in my front yard. It had been reported …

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The electronic signs along the M4 were rather ominous. They usually reported any number of everyday traffic mishaps, but at the moment they simply read: “Avoid London Today.” It was the evening of July 7 and our disobedient tour bus was heading back to central London. Not knowing what to expect, my family and I were pleasantly surprised when the traffic continued to flow freely and the bus was able to drop us off just across Hyde Park from our hotel. There were a number of people out and about — jogging, sitting on benches talking, picking up last-minute groceries at the corner store, directing lost-looking tourists towards their destinations. We stopped to eat at a little Turkish restaurant near our hotel. Nothing felt out of the ordinary. Then just as we received our …

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In the back of my mind, I always wonder. The University of Minnesota campus seems relatively safe, but there are times when paranoia and news reports of sex offenders moving in to my neighborhood lurk large in my mind after I pull an extra late night working or hanging out with friends. Will I be safe in my walk home tonight? And if I won’t, is there a way to undo the damage? If I really needed emergency contraceptive, could I get it?The answer is that at the national level it hasn’t become any easier to obtain the pill. The highly controversial emergency contraceptive, also known as the morning-after pill, could become an over-the-counter medication if approved by the Food and Drug Administration; it is now available by prescription only. Commissioner Lester Crawford released a …

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This column is the result of an awesome new relationship between KUOM and the Wake. In each issue, we print an excerpt from an upcoming Radio K News Day broadcast. In turn, Radio K airs “The Wake Up” the following Friday morning at 8:45. “The Wake Up” is a five-minute, This-American-Life-style news feature from the Wake.Under & AloneWilliam Queen, a veteran of the Vietnam War, spent twenty years as an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. He went undercover for two years as Billy St. John to infiltrate the Mongols, a violent motorcycle gang. He now lives in an undisclosed location as part of the Witness Protection Program. His new book, “Under and Alone,” is published by Random House Press. Mr. Queen recently spoke with Radio K’s Nathan Hall about witnessing a …

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Candace Bushnell is living the American dream, or at least the 21st-century female version. For many of us, Bushnell’s success and her column-cum-TV show “Sex and the City,” looks an awful lot like what we dream about on cold, dreary days hours before a term paper is due and the motivation to write it hasn’t yet surfaced.Shod in deep periwinkle, diamond-encrusted Manolo Blahnik mules, Bushnell swept into Coffman Union April 26th for an hour of “Sex and the Twin Cities.” Bushnell, with her signature raspy voice, instantly charmed the overwhelmingly female audience.“Minneapolis is known to us [New Yorkers] for a couple of things — good-looking people and rehab places,” Bushnell said. Bushnell moved to New York in the 70s, leaving Rice University in Houston after discovering feminism hadn’t reached the south yet. Motivated …

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Jan. 2, 1905 visitors at the Capitol “drank in the beauties of the decorations, and grew enthusiastic over the wonderful mural art which adorns the halls and legislative chambers,” the Minneapolis Tribune reported at the building’s opening more than one hundred years ago.The Minnesota Historical Society commemorates this year’s centennial celebration with an exhibit at the Capitol. The exhibit includes an oil portrait of architect Cass Gilbert and another of his wife on loan from the Smithsonian. They hang on either side of the entrance to the Minnesota Supreme Court chambers.In March, Rep. Phyllis Kahn, the “U’s” representative, introduced a bill to the House that announced Minnesota would just keep the portraits. It passed in the House unanimously. A companion bill was also introduced in the Senate.At the request of the MHS, Kahn backpedaled on …

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Dozens of well-dressed men at a The Saloon dance club in Minneapolis stand in a semi-circle around a glass-encased shower elevated a few feet off the ground, effectively turning the shower into a stage. Thunderous dance music pounds off the nearby dance floor, but none of the men look like they’ll be moving to the dance floor any time soon.The dim lights explode to life, bathing the shower in light. The water sprays. An emcee babbles on about the show, but the men don’t seem to be listening. They’re waiting for the next performer.It’s 1 a.m. on a school night and the next performer, University of Minnesota freshman Chris Jackson, is ready to take center stage.“Here’s Flip!” the emcee yells into the microphone.Jackson, whose stripper name is Flip, appears from a curtain behind the shower …

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On October 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard was severely beaten by two young men in a hate crime that shook Laramie, Wyoming, and attracted the attention of the nation. By the time Matthew succumbed to his injuries and died on October 12, 1998, news of Matthew’s beating and death made headlines around the world.Since Matthew’s death his mother, Judy Shepard, travels the nation speaking about hate, intolerance, and a vision for a better future.The number instances of hate and intolerance because of sexual orientation on the University of Minnesota campus was 10 times higher from spring 2003 to fall 2004, as reported to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Programs Office on campus. B David Galt of the programs office attributes these figures to the controversy over legalizing gay marriage.Judy Shepard came to the …

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It all used to seem so simple. We were all taught some of the most valuable life lessons in kindergarten: if you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all, play well with others, and treat others as you wish to be treated. But where along the way do people forget these and start hating others?While tolerance may be the word of choice for most people, Dr. Stephen Feinstein, director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the “U,” much prefers the term coexistence. ”Tolerance,” says Feinstein “can really mean intolerance at the same time. Coexistence, means live and let live.” For this reason, he was intrigued by an outdoor art exhibit he saw in Berlin in 2002. Giant posters filled the Platz der Republik in front of the German Reichstag, each …

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