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(02/16/05 12:00pm)
Sitting behind the desk in studio 1A, "Today" show co-host Katie Couric flashes her trademark smile and reports the news, just as she does every weekday morning. However, on Feb. 9, something unusual happens: a 6 foot tall lion in a white T-shirt peeks in through the opaque window behind her and waves. On his head, he's wearing a plush cake embroidered with the words "Happy Birthday."
Unbeknownst to most of America, it was Roscoe the Lion, the College's mascot, snagging his 15 seconds of fame on national television to celebrate Founders' Day, the College's 150th anniversary.
We, two typically humble Signal reporters, were also looking for some short-lived stardom along with two busloads full of the College's students, faculty and alumni who sacrificed a full night's sleep to be in Wednesday morning's "Today" show audience. We left the College at 4 a.m. to make it into New York City before the three-hour morning news broadcast on NBC.
However, as journalism students, we weren't there just to wave to mom or wish the College a happy birthday. We were on a special, and admittedly naive, mission: to personally meet Katie, the highest-paid woman in network news.
Our bus drivers dropped us off on the empty sidewalks of Rockefeller Plaza at 6 a.m. Much of the city was asleep, contrary to the popular saying that it never does. The streets were absent of traffic jams and rushing taxis. The stores and offices were darkened and deserted inside, although neon lights and the "Today" show news ticker added some vibrancy to the pre-dawn cityscape.
We packed ourselves behind the metal gates enclosing the camera tripods and sidewalk where Al Roker gives his weather report. Students waved bright, glittery posters that shouted out to friends and screamed school spirit. Alongside those waving posters, some reading "150 years of Jersey attitude" and "Hey Mom, guess what I did for Mardi Gras beads last night?," we proudly clutched our own little message to the world.
Ours was a pink poster painted with the front page of The Signal, complete with the headline "We Y Katie," a hand-drawn portrait of her and our names in the byline of the accompanying squiggly-lined article. Journalists just love seeing their names in print.
After all the times we've reported on campus events as passive observers, this was our chance to participate. Appropriately, we were smack in the middle of the country's number one media outlet, where we dream of working one day.
Besides the signs, Janis Blayne-Paul, chief Sesquicentennial officer, led our group in donning cardboard cone birthday hats and flashing blue-light necklaces, blowing noisemakers and chanting "T-C-N-J!" and "Roscoe!" Students may complain about Carte Blanche and housing, but when it comes to national television, there's no denying their College pride.
Thankfully, the wind chill was low "in our neck of the woods," as Al would say, making the long wait for our air time bearable.
Our eyes focused intently on the outdoor monitors that captured the action within the studio, hoping after each news story it would be time for Katie, Matt and Al's segment on the plaza. But whenever the golden revolving doors spun, it was usually only a cameraman or unknown NBC employee exiting the studio.
At 7:37 a.m., Al finally made his debut, shaking our outstretched hands and greeting the enthused, sometimes starstruck fans.
After Al returned to the studio, rumors flew amidst the crowd.
"Katie will be out at 7:55," somebody promised. Later, another reasoned, "the cameras are still out, so they must be coming back..."
It wasn't until 8:30 a.m. that Katie and Matt left their anchor chairs and put on their winter coats to chat in the plaza about upcoming stories. Despite all the distractions surrounding them, the anchors carried on a conversation as naturally as they would have off camera. Katie and Matt zoned themselves out so well, they didn't even question why a bunch of college students were on the plaza and not in class. Neither interviewed the College's students. Contrary to our plan, our sign did not draw Katie toward us, although our position at the front of the crowd did land us a few close-ups when the cameraman panned the audience.
Throughout the taping, our group tried to catch a word with the expressionless cameraman, forgetting that an extraordinary day for us was just ordinary for him.
When watching the news at home, we easily forget that the cameramen's, producers' and hairstylists' careers revolve around making the anchors look attractive and intelligent. Not until you see a make-up artist spray Katie's hair or watch a young assistant carrying the camera wires (and hitting on college girls) behind-the-scenes, do you realize all the effort that goes into three hours of live morning television.
And, with any luck, the millions of people who tune into "Today," the highest-rated network morning news show, will finally realize what TCNJ stands for and that despite its widely unrecognized name, the College has a history worth celebrating.
(11/17/04 12:00pm)
When it comes to issues of race in America, it's not always so black and white.
Asian-Americans and other minorities fall victim to the same kinds of racism as African Americans, according to members of the Asian American Association (AAA), who spoke at AAA's True Colors event last Thursday night.
Though the stereotypes of Asian-Americans are not easily defined, many fall into a few categories: the "Fresh off the Boats" (FOBs) who can't speak English, talk fast and know kung-fu, the hard-working science and math geeks or the feminine homosexuals, all of which were discussed at the presentation.
"I'm limited just because of my color," Joseph Cruz, Filipino-American and freshman biology and psychology major, said. "Don't tell me that I don't have a struggle."
AAA members said that the "struggle" Cruz and other Asian Americans face is only reinforced by the media.
Take William Hung, the silly, karaoke-singing, poor English-speaking "American Idol" contestant. After his tryout, Hung became an American icon - but perhaps more importantly - a symbol of Asian culture in America.
"(Asian-Americans) do not accept him because he perpetuates stereotypes," Dennis Chin, junior biology major, said. Asian Americans "don't have any other image to counteract (Hung)," Chin said.
People need to know there's a problem, Chin said, and Asian Americans are the ones who need to tell them.
But, guided by immigrant parents who just want to fit in, many young Asian-Americans are taught not to "complain about what (they) have," Cruz said. "Now that we're here, why not fight about being American?"
Chin said he believes that his generation of Asian-Americans is ready to do it. "We have to make a concerted effort to establish what it means to be Asian-Americans," he said. "Our generation is more prepared to step up."
That's why he decided to protest a feature in Details magazine, "Gay or Asian?" that, he said, combined stereotypes of Asians and homosexuals and helped blur the line between them.
"You don't really get a very hyper-masculine image of Asians in America," Chin said. "Asian-Americans in the media - they are almost always portrayed as feminine."
Enrique Melencio, senior marketing major and treasurer of AAA, said, "If we let little things like this come out and we don't say anything, they'll just keep happening," he said. "It shouldn't be accepted."
Daniel Peres, editor in chief of Details eventually issued an apology, saying "Sometimes you set out to be funny and simply blow it," and "I'm embarrassed that it took thousands of people - including members of my own staff - to point out the hurtful and tasteless nature of the 'Gay or Asian?' piece."
That, AAA members said, is just the start to getting rid of the stereotypes.
"There's an expectation of me to be really great at math and really great at science," Noel Ramirez, sophomore communications and women's and gender studies major, said. "And it's just not there."
People aren't told any differently, so they accept it, he added.
And while many Asian-Americans do nothing about it, some, like Cruz, don't tolerate it.
Citing a recent confrontation in his dorm when he said he was singled out because of his ethnicity, he observed: "It's hard to look at somebody for their personality rather than their color. I'm the only Asian person in my group - so why would you single me out just because I'm Asian?"
He said a world without color and racial recognition is not possible, but we need to do the best we can. "Other people have their own individual identities, not just their racial identity," he said, and we need to make others aware of it.
For many Asian-Americans, it's just not that easy.
Most individuals don't see the problem because they think of racism only in terms of black and white - it's easy for them to turn their shoulders to the Asian American condition because they don't know it exists.
Some, like Chin, attribute this negligence to the perceived success of Asian-Americans. It is a fact that many Asian-Americans have done well in fields like science, math and a range of others. People are hesitant to admit that Asian-Americans are underprivileged because they're doing so well in America.
"(Asian-Americans) 'became' white people, and we became successful, learned English, got good homes, got good cars," Chin said.
He said the logic goes something like, "If Asian-Americans don't have a problem, why deal with it?"
AAA says they do have a problem - they are misrepresented and unfairly profiled - and, AAA says, it's time to fix it.
(11/10/04 12:00pm)
50 years later, and where are we?
In the eyes of Lani Guinier, a professor at Harvard Law School, not as far as we might think.
"Blacks and whites still live very separate lives," she said, and "essentially, legally compelled segregation gave way to socially acceptable separation."
Guinier and Michael Wenger - a former Deputy Director for Outreach Program Development on President Bill Clinton's initiative for race - spoke separately at the College last week about Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that ended legal segregation in public schools.
"If you sit here today as a white child of white parents, you are reaping the advantages incurred on your parents by the unequal treatment that occurred during the years of Jim Crow racism," Wenger, who was an activist during the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and '60s, said.
Both Guinier, who spoke Wednesday at Kendall Hall, and Wenger, who spoke Thursday at Forcina Hall, agreed that race is a charged issue in the United States today.
To Guinier, the problem is obvious, but not so simple.
Black families with incomes of $50,000 or less a year are twice as likely to live in neighborhoods with high rates of crime and poverty than white households earning less than $20,000 in the Boston Metropolitan Area, according to Guinier, who is the former head of the voting rights project at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense Fund.
As author of "The Miner's Canary," a book about racial inequality and class structures in America, Guinier compared the experience of blacks to that of the canary, which miners would send into mines to determine whether or not the atmosphere was toxic.
"People of color, especially African-Americans, are highly visible," she said, but "rather than heed the signal of people of color that there is a problem, that is potentially affecting all of us, we pathologize the canary."
We blame minorities for our problems, Guinier asserted, and rather than taking blame for our own individual failures, we look to people of color to help explain them.
As a result, when Little Rock Arkansas' Central High School integrated its student body in 1957, working-class whites were resentful. Affluent whites left the public school for the newly-opened, all-white Hall High School, leaving the lower and middle-class whites behind.
"Both schools were segregated by race, but both schools were integrated by class," Guinier said, and the whites left behind were "experiencing this not as racism per se, but as downward economic mobility."
Lower-class whites lost the opportunity to associate with the wealthier whites, according to Guinier, but they did not have the "language" to express their resentment.
"To these working-class whites, integration timed to coincide with the flight of the city's elite was a stigmatizing force that interfered with their ability to pursue the American dream," Guinier said.
Britnei Wilkins, freshman English major, agreed. "It's an economic issue that has placed not only minority people but the working-class whites into a type of glass ceiling," she said, and so "they blame other people - which is the minority."
According to Wenger, improving the situation starts with self-awareness. "Become aware of your own behavior and your own biases, conscious and unconscious," he said, encouraging a crowd of mostly students to "identify ways of channeling your energies in constructive ways to narrow our division."
Racism and racial separation are still problems, he said, as evidenced by disparities in educational opportunities, employment and income, an unfair legal system and the absence of quality healthcare for many minorities.
Wenger said he believes that we need to launch a decade of racial milestones and accomplishments similar to that of the 10 years from 1955 to 1965 that immediately followed the Brown v. Board of Ed. decision. Starting with Rosa Parks' sit-in on a whites' only bus and ending with President Johnson giving blacks the right to vote, it was an era that gave rise to leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Medgar Evers.
"But somehow and somewhere that spirit of common cause and common sacrifice died," Wenger said.
For Wenger, the problems minorities face are all too familiar. His biracial son, a producer on "The Today Show," has been dealing with them his whole life. According to Wenger, his son, who is 31 years old, has trouble hailing taxis in cities and falls victim to racial stereotypes every day.
"We're clouded by the privileged environment in which most of us live," Wenger said. "In a nation where white people will become a minority in this century, where a global economy challenges our standard of living, where recent studies indicate that our schools are re-segregating, and where unscrupulous political candidates use fear to try to provide us for their own selfish gain, we have to heed the words of Dr. King.
"We cannot rest," he said.
(10/20/04 12:00pm)
Acupuncture, herbal remedies, homeopathy - what really works? In the world of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), it just depends who you ask.
'CAM,' loosely defined, refers to any treatments - from herbs to massages - that are outside the norms of traditional medicine. Generally, they are less expensive, easily obtained and scientifically unproven.
And even as members of the medical community remain skeptical of their usefulness - and sometimes of their safety - more and more people are willing to try them. The Wall Street Journal reports that 36 percent of American adults are using some form of unconventional medicine, spending about $30 billion a year. And the industry is only growing. Today, Americans spend nearly as much out-of-pocket money on CAMs as they do on traditional medicines.
Kathleen Warren, director of Media and Community Relations at Bastyr University in Washington State, said in a "culture that's quick-fix oriented," people are beginning to look deeper into their physical problems, asking "What's going on with my life and my body?"
Bastyr is one of the nation's top natural science schools, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in naturopathic studies and other fields of CAM. Founded in 1978, it is a leading researcher in a field that, according to Warren, is "based on the body's innate powers to heal itself."
The effects of CAMS are visible at the College as well. Just look at Jesse Maline, a freshman art education major who takes Echinacea to better deal with cold symptoms.
Cindy Neely, a Hopewell Township resident, credits intravenous glutathione - one of the more popular CAMs on the market - with changing her life and boosting her energy levels. "Our bodies are phenomenal things," she said. "God made our bodies to repair themselves."
In 1992, responding to the growing popularity of CAMs, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) formed the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM). With an initial budget of $2 million, the OAM began researching and testing the validity of CAMs.
And two studies reported in The Wall Street Journal are showing the results. One found that selenium, previously used to prevent skin cancer, actually helped in the prevention of prostate cancer; the other showed that acupuncture may increase a woman's chances of fertility.
Still, the conventional science community remains largely unconvinced.
"It has not been scientifically tested and its advocates largely deny the need for such testing," Marcia Angell, M.D., and Jerome P. Kassirer, M.D. said, in their 1998 editorial in the "New England Journal of Medicine," widely renowned as one of the most reputable scientific publications in the world.
Though the article is six years old, it underscores the disparities between traditional and non-traditional physicians that remain at issue today.
One study reported in the Wall Street Journal showed that beta carotene, once thought to prevent lung cancer, actually increased its likelihood in those who used it.
And in any study, scientists must consider the placebo effect. Most drug studies include a control group whose subjects take a placebo, or sugar pill, rather than the drug being tested. Invariably, 30 to 40 percent of those taking the 'placebo' get better simply because their minds tell them that they should.
Scientists must ask - are people getting better because they're taking herbal remedies or are they improving because their minds are playing tricks on them?
"What about the FDA? Shouldn't it be monitoring the safety and efficacy of these remedies?" Angell and Kassirer asked in their editorial.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) currently classifies herbal remedies - the most frequently used CAMs on the market - as dietary supplements. Because of this they are not subject to the same testing, safety evaluations and general scrutiny as over-the-counter drugs like Tylenol or Aspirin.
In part, that's why the market is flooded with herbal remedies that either don't do what they say or don't do anything at all.
St. John's Wort, for instance, often used to treat depression, can cause severe adverse reactions. It speeds up metabolism, diluting the effects of other drugs in the human body. So, if a patient suffering from HIV took St. John's Wort to combat depression, his or her HIV medications might be rendered ineffective.
More research needs to be done. And the OAM, renamed the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) in 1999, is trying to do it. It is spending $117.4 million in 2004 and will spend an estimated $121.1 million in 2005 on just that.
Modern medicine is evolving to include unconventional methods and, as Warren said, those who don't accept it are "dinosaurs."
(10/13/04 12:00pm)
Mommy's not tucking me into bed anymore, and I'm tired. College moves pretty fast, and before you know it, it's 6:30 in the morning, you're still awake, and you have class in two hours.
Unfortunately, hitting the hay early isn't easy - so many things affect our sleeping patterns, and the college atmosphere makes it difficult to remember all of them.
According to Fitness Magazine, when we're overtired or stressed out, sleep is harder to come by.
If we watch television before bed, we are unknowingly giving ourselves a jolt. If we drink caffeine within seven hours of bedtime, which is often necessary to finish an assignment, it's likely to have an effect on us.
And if we work out late at night - sometimes the only time we can - our raised heart rates will make it difficult to sleep.
So, every Monday and Thursday, I stumble out of bed - my hair sticking up, pillow lines on my face - and stagger to the Social Science building.
In a dream-like state, I spend the class staring blankly at the blackboard trying to listen but not really taking anything in.
Apparently, I'm not the only one. The guy in the back of the class is sleeping, and the girl next to him is getting there too.
Clearly, the campus is a graveyard until 11 a.m. every day of the week. And, generally, if anyone's awake before then, it's because they haven't gone to sleep yet.
Go to Eickhoff Dining Hall during peak dinner hours and you can barely hear yourself think - breathe too loudly during breakfast and you'll be strangled. This is assuming, of course, anybody has the energy to do it.
The truth is, sleeping a few hours a night, as many of us do during the week, doesn't cut it. William Dement, Ph.D., a professor at Stanford University, in his online article "Sleepless at Stanford" insists that the average college student needs eight hours of sleep and most kids just aren't getting it.
An on-campus study at Stanford revealed that 80 percent of students, both graduate and undergraduate, were seriously sleep deprived. And it's not easy to play catch-up.
As the same study concludes, tiredness accumulates. If we need eight hours of sleep a day, we also need 56 hours a week. So, if you were to sleep five hours one night, you'd have to sleep eleven the following evening to make up for it.
But, as many of us have discovered, that isn't possible.
Dorm life just doesn't lend itself to nursing home hours. In high school, we'd wake up our parents if we were too loud.
Now, it looks like we'll wake them up anyway. Loud music, shouting partygoers - even behind closed doors - are the dorm noises that carry for miles.
Or, at least, it seems that way when I'm trying to go to bed Sunday and Wednesday nights.
And, when we don't sleep, our bodies suffer. James Maas, Ph.D., told Fitness Magazine, "Being tired affects everything - concentration, mood, judgment, coordination." Furthermore, Maas asserts, it weakens our immune system. In our fatigued state, our bodies are less able to fight off diseases, both non-serious and deadly, he said.
Sociology's interesting, but it's not worth dying for!
So, I petition the College: throw away the early morning classes. I'm tired, cranky and not alone - just look at all the droopy eyes and confused expressions. Our beds are calling us so loudly we can't even hear our professors lecture. "Just a couple more hours, just a couple more hours ..."
(10/06/04 12:00pm)
Sipping their morning coffee and flipping through Newsweek, parents around the country are gasping at the revelation of the 'hook-up.'
"One-time sexual encounters, and not even a phone call?" they'll say, crossing the College off their younger children's list of college options.
Yes, fresh off our upgrade to "Most Competitive" in admissions rankings, the College has been thrown right back into the spotlight - not because of its academic superiority, but for its research involving on-campus sexual promiscuity.
The hook-up. Our very own chair of the psychology department, Elizabeth Paul, who headed a study on the subject, defined it in the magazine as "one-time sexual encounters - anything from kissing to intercourse - between acquaintances who have no plans to even talk afterward, let alone repeat the experience."
One of the College's biggest challenges is gaining national recognition. And, with the admissions ranking upgrade, we seemed to be on the right track.
Now, we're famous for something more grand - 78 percent of our students have hooked up, and with an average of 10.8 different partners each.
Clearly, with Paul's discoveries comes a stigma that is greatly undeserved. No doubt, all over campus, kids are explaining to their parents the nature of the 'hook-up.'
And no doubt, at home, parents are drawing up images of a campus gone wild, littered with beer bottles, used condoms and foggy memories.
It's time to reassure the concerned adults. Our school is no different from any other - it just happens to be the location where the study took place.
Students at the College tend to be fully clothed in public places and usually don't bring alcohol to class.
Most of us are good people with decent morals, and the College's growing academic reputation is indicative of our intelligence. And yes, we do 'hook-up' with one another from time to time.
I remember the evening my own father learned what the term meant. A friend of mine was pursuing a girl with the sole intention of 'hooking up' with her and was seeking out father's advice.
Naturally, my father assumed the term was synonymous with dating, so he gave him all sorts of typical suggestions. "Tell her you like her - ask her out to a movie," he said.
What he didn't understand was that all my friend wanted was an occasional physical relationship with as little emotional attachment as possible. "No, I just want to hook up with her," he said, spending the next half hour explaining the term.
My father was surprised - most parents are. Apparently, when they were younger, physical intimacy actually implied a relationship - imagine that!
So, please, call your parents. They're worried. As you read, they're at home reading too - about our school and our students, and all the crazy things we're doing.
The cat's out of the bag. Our parents know our big secret.
So, as your father chokes on his morning coffee, reassure him with a phone call, and tell him you're in the 22 percent who didn't hook up, and you have no idea what all the fuss is about.
(09/29/04 12:00pm)
Love him or hate him, at least give him a chance. When Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 comes out on video Oct. 5, the controversy will start anew.
What's fact and what's fiction? Better yet, what's completely true and what's carefully fabricated?
For many Americans, it's easier to just close their eyes. "Michael Moore is a left wing nut-job," they'll say, shushing us as they turn up the volume of "The O'Reilly Factor."
Well, maybe there's less truth in Bill O'Reilly's programming than there is in Michael Moore's.
And, if you've never seen his latest film, how can you argue?
The problem in our country isn't a lack of information - instead, it's a lack of open-mindedness.
People watch what they want to watch and hear what they want to hear.
And, unfortunately, many are so caught up in their own tunes they forget that there are other composers as well.
Moore is just another face in the crowd - a little fish in a big pond with a lot on his mind. And the least we can do is hear what he has to say.
Carefully crafted and meticulously researched, Moore's film is a deeply moving commentary on the current state of our Union.
Through the victims of Sept. 11, the words of our Head of State, the testimony of concerned politicians and images of our own conflicts throughout the world, Moore has created a piece that - if nothing else - makes you stop and think.
Many have been quick to point out the errors in his work. And while there are a few, to focus only on them would be to blind yourself from the bigger picture.
Democrats and Republicans alike should be asking the questions Moore poses: Was there really evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?
What is the link, if any, between Saddam Hussein and Sept. 11? What is Bush's connection to the Bin Laden family, and how have his business ventures influenced his presidency? What role has the media played in the events of the last few years? How do the Iraqi people and the soldiers fighting in the Middle East feel about their cause?
And what really happened in that 2000 election anyway?
The American people have the right to hear all sides of the story - if they want to, of course.
Sadly, people on opposite sides of the fence are reluctant to listen to one another. Just as Republicans are unlikely to pay mind to Moore, Democrats are probably not going to tune in to O'Reilly.
Everybody thinks everyone around them needs convincing, when perhaps they're the ones who need to be persuaded.
The release of Moore's documentary signifies a unique chance for everyone - an opportunity to see one side of a very big story.
So go rent it. Make up your own mind and believe what you want based on your interpretation of the facts.
Clearly, Moore is hoping for an administration change, and his film is a propaganda piece slanted in that direction.
More importantly, however, it represents a political viewpoint shared by many.
So give it a shot, and who knows - you might just become one of those people. Or perhaps, at least a bit skeptical.
(09/22/04 12:00pm)
How can we make a home in a place that feels so foreign?
We're not in Kansas anymore - and we're certainly not in high school either.
Yes, we would be shut off and unaware, but at least we'd have a place - at least we wouldn't feel so small.
And this is why for many freshmen, the first few weeks of college life are among their most difficult.
Stripped of our protective shells, we feel anxious, awkward and insecure.
For many, the answer is simple - make a photocopy. Turn your new life into your old life in all the ways you can. Turn your dorm room - or at least your half of it - into a shrine of your past life, with photographs of old friends, posters that hung in your home bedroom for years and stuffed animals from your childhood.
Find a group of friends and shelter yourself from the outside world.
And, if you get really lonely, go to a frat party and drink it all away.
For others, there is no answer, and it becomes too much.
Students drop out, fail out or wait around for something to happen. And when nothing does they'll give up, curl up and long for the past.
For others still, the answer is bigger - and it isn't even an answer, because it denies the question as a valid one.
College is not our home. It is not about finding our place in an exclusive society.
Instead, it's about preparing to find our place in the world. It's not about recreating our past. It's about forging our future.
College presents opportunities, and we should consider ourselves lucky. Meet new people, try new things, travel and see the world.
Up until now, our lives have been laid out for us by teachers, parents and bosses. Now it's our time - we can do whatever we want, take the classes we never could, study abroad in places we never knew about and meet people from all walks of life.
Talk to your professors, learn from your upperclassmen and make the most of the resources available to you.
Doors are opening all around us, and there are so many things we can do - go to an off-campus film viewing, poetry reading, seminar or discussion.
If you want to learn to defend yourself, join the Martial Arts Club. If you've always wanted to do something for the environment, join Water Watch or Students Acting For the Environment.
If political activism is your thing, get your friends out to vote.
Make time to try things you wouldn't otherwise and don't be afraid to take a few chances.
Our settings have changed, and the thing that makes it difficult is that our perspectives take longer to grow.
In times past, we saw pictures in 4-inch-by-6-inch frames - now we see poster size. Now, in fact, there is no frame. It's just the world, and no place or thing in it is too far.
The magnitude of this is frightening - but it shouldn't be. Our pasts are still there, and they're not going anywhere. We'll always take the important people, things and memories with us.
The important thing isn't letting go, it's expanding - removing our seals and exposing ourselves (metaphorically) to the world.
The scary part is taking the plunge, but the reward - or life waiting on the other side - makes it all worth it.
In his inaugural speech in South Africa in 1994, Nelson Mandela said: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
Life is too short to waste locked up inside yourself - so come out of your cage and you'll find that the world is a lot clearer from the outside looking in.
(09/15/04 12:00pm)
It's a perfect time for imperfections. Gimpy legs, heart murmurs, poor vision - if you have any physical problems to speak of - now's the time to get it on record.
Because when the election rolls around in November, whether you vote for Sen. John Kerry or President George Bush, you'll have to wonder - are you voting for a military draft?
You'll have to wonder. When does "mission accomplished" turn into, "the war has barely just begun?" You'll have to wonder. When does "We need more troops," turn into "We need you?"
These are scary times.
Our country is involved in two very distinct wars. One, the war against terrorism, centered in Afghanistan. The other, the war in Iraq, seems further from conclusion now than it did when we started.
If you believe that we need to see these wars through - either to justify the deaths of the soldiers already lost or to eliminate terrorism and promote democracy throughout the world - then you must also believe in the possibility, or even likelihood, of a military draft.
It's heavy stuff, and the possibility can seem remote if you live your life the way I do.
This past summer, I spent time with my girlfriend, my friends and my family and got ready for my freshman year of college.
I might not be a child, but by most practical standards I am not yet an adult. I am only in college because my parents can pay for it.
When I'm not in school, I live at home and expect my parents to provide me with food, shelter and premium cable channels.
And there are many of you who are undoubtedly in similar situations.
And so it is frightening - to me at least - to think that this time next year I could be tiptoeing through a mine field somewhere in the Middle East.
It is frightening to think that this time next year my friends could be dead or dying.
As young Americans, this possibility should be getting us into the voting booths.
But it isn't. Young adults don't vote for a variety of reasons - a lack of knowledge and awareness or a general disinterest.
But perhaps most important - as this presidential election illustrates perfectly - candidates don't attract our generation's attentions because they refuse to address the issues that are most pressing to young Americans.
Will the wars continue? Will there be a draft? Will I be put in harm's way?
In politics, questions this direct are not often answered.
So, which presidential candidate believes what?
Your guess is as good as mine. Bush says we need to see it through and Kerry says we need more troops.
Bush said there were weapons of mass destruction, and Kerry voted for war before speaking out against it.
Both the incumbent and his challenger walk the fine line between fact and fiction. Bush lies, Kerry can't make up his mind. Or vice versa.
It is a sad fact in politics that the general public cannot predict definitively what it is voting for.
Perhaps you think I'm just a coward, afraid of dying. Just a scared kid who doesn't want to see any bloodshed.
And I wouldn't argue with that. But so are many of you.
So think about that. Think about what you're doing now. Think about what you did this summer.
Because you never know - in a short while, you could be packing your bags and kissing it all goodbye.