Iraq Veteran: "We Can Say No"

A Linn-Benton Community College student will speak about his military service in Iraq, and why he refused involuntary activation after being “honorably discharged.”

Benji Lewis, a Marine Corp veteran, who served two tours, including the first siege in Fallujah, will speak in the Board Room (CC103) on Thursday, April 30 from noon to 1 p.m. as part of his statewide “We Can Say No” speaking tour.

“The nature of my resistance was a conscious decision to no longer participate in the makings of empire, to help raise consciousness of service members as well as question the legitimacy of the largest military force in human history,” Lewis said.

Lewis looks forward to his discussion here at LBCC and feels that this is an important conversation to have with his fellow community college students because of the need to address the “realities and the questions of what we, as a society, are asking our generation to do for our interests.”

Doug Clark, LBCC Peace Studies director, feels that this will be a useful experience for students and community members who attend.

“We have a special opportunity here to listen in on and interact with a conversation that is taking place across the country, a conversation about the consequences of people enlisting and serving in the military,” Clark said.

According to a press release from Amanda Shank of the Rural Organizing Project, a co-sponsor of the statewide speaking tour, Lewis will discuss “The Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) system that allows for involuntary reactivation, GI rights, and resistance in general.”

After the event here at LBCC, Lewis will move on to speak in Ashland, Medford, Grants Pass, McMinnville, Tillamook, Portland, and Corvallis.

The event at LBCC is being sponsored by Veterans for Peace Chapter 132 and LBCC Peace Studies. For more information e-mail LBCC Peace Studies: Doug.Clark @ linn-benton.edu.

A day of democracy: the "liberty tree" festival

At the time of the American Revolution, an elm tree, dubbed the “Liberty Tree,” stood near Boston Common and became a gathering place for people to voice their resistance to British rule.

Soon, nearly every town in the Union had their own version of the“liberty tree."

Linn-Benton Community College’s Democracy Club will honor their version of the tree Wednesday, May 6, by sponsoring a “liberty tree” fair in the courtyard from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The fair will consist of different political parties, community groups, and campus organizations – some of the groups attending will be the Republican and Democratic Parties, Veterans for Peace, Habitat for Humanity, and LBCC Peace Studies. The groups will set up tables around the courtyard and offer literature, sign up sheets, and other information to students and members of the community.

According to Robert Harrison, faculty advisor to the Democracy Club, the festival is important to students here at LBCC, because it gives them a way to get involved.

“It offers students a chance to see democracy at the local level, Harrison said. “There are just tons of groups out there that are doing excellent work in their communities…we want to expand people's horizons,” Harrison said.

One of the ways some students in Harrison’s politics class can get involved is an open mic that will take place from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. The students will speak for five minutes each about any relevant political topic that is connected to a policy.

“It can be local, state, or federal, and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone takes on an emotional issue,” Harrison said.

Leah Bolger, national vice president of Veterans for Peace, feels that the open mic at the “Liberty tree” festival is a good learning opportunity for student who may be thinking of becoming activists.

“As an activist, it is important to be able to articulate your ideas in a persuasive way,” Bolger typed in an Instant message.

In addition to the open mic and group tables, the club will serve a taco lunch, including chicken and vegetarian options, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Directly after the fair, in F-113, the Democracy Club will sponsor a speech by Jim Doherty of Law Enforcement against Prohibition (LEAP).

According to LEAP’s Web site, their mission is “to reduce the multitude of unintended harmful consequences resulting from fighting the war on drugs and to lessen the incidence of death, disease, crime, and addiction by ultimately ending drug prohibition.”

For more information about the “liberty tree” festival, contact Robert Harrison at 541-917-4571.

(Photo Credit: Boston Public Library @ Flickr)

Baldemar Mendoza Jimenez

In the indigenous communities of Mexico there exists a traditional way of life. ‘You help me I’ll help you.’

Baldemar Mendoza Jimenez, an agricultural expert from Oaxaca, Mexico, stood in front of a large crowd in The Fireside room last Wednesday and told those in attendance that this way of life has been nearly suffocated by the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“The situation we find now in rural sections of Mexico, especially in
the region that I come from, we began seeing since the beginning,”
said Jimenez.

In the speech, Jimenez explained several consequences of the policy changes that have arisen since the beginning of the agreement, including the taking away of price guarantees, the promotion of the experimental planting of genetically modified corn seed, and the encouragement of farmers to depart from traditional farming methods and become dependent on pesticides.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture Web site,
NAFTA was established in 1994 to eliminate trade barriers between the US, Mexico, and Canada within 10 to 15 years.

When the prices for the pesticides rose, farmers could no longer pay for them and left their farms behind to look for work in the U.S. or one the bigger cities in Mexico. With the farmers gone, Mexico relies on the U.S. for the import of even the most staple of food items — including beans, rice, and corn.

“One of the big effects of migration is that our community values and our community structure is falling apart,’ Jimenez sad. “What is happening is that our collective sense of organizing ourselves… is getting weakened… we are losing are food sovereignty. ”

Jimenez is affiliated with the Union of Organizations of the Sierra
Juarez of Oaxaca, an organization that has set out to put an end to the harmful affects NAFTA has imposed by teaching farmers how to use traditional farming
methods to restore Mexico’s food independence.

“What is most important to us is to rescue are food sovereignty as it
is fundamental in ensuring are autonomy… are right to decide what we eat, how we organize, how we educate ourselves and protect our
territories,” Jimenez said.

(Photo Credit: Rebecca Martino)

Folk counselor: Mark Weiss Sings

There are two moments in Mark Weiss’s life that make him the person he is today.

In 1964, 14 year-old Mark Weiss stood in the crowd at the Ash Grove, a legendary folk music club in his hometown of Los Angeles, and was mesmerized watching a charismatic musician named Blind Doc Watson finger pick piano, fiddle, and banjo songs on his guitar — something that no one had done before. It was an experience that would stay with Weiss.

“I just thought, oh god, I’ve got to do something like that one day,” Weiss said.

The other defining moment in Weiss’s life occurred years ago. According to Weiss, he was a college dropout and was doing nothing. One night, he attended a therapy group of a psychiatrist he had met. Those at the session agreed that Weiss should go to college to become a therapist of some sort. He became a counselor.

Weiss's coworkers at LBCC's Career Center say that Weiss is an artist all the way and that it shows around the office. It does show as Weiss’s office is a mish-mash of the two main passions in his life. A poster displaying a Woody Guthrie quote shares the walls with his various licenses and diplomas. A guitar sits in the background. A pin with a treble clef and music notes shines on his vest.

“Music is the same as any art form and it is interesting about the parallels between art and counseling… it really is something that allows for great personal expression… and there is something in that personal transformative state that you go in when your playing well and really concentrating that is that is very therapeutic,” Weiss said.

Today, Weiss, the musician, is standing in front of a small crowd at the Benton Center’s Acoustic Showcase with his folk band MC2 and is playing “Alabama Jubilee,” a song that was played by the man who gave him his musical aspirations 45 years ago. Weiss’s fingers run effortlessly up and down the neck of his guitar— the result of a whole life of practice. He has been with MC2 for nearly 25 years, playing local benefits around Corvallis—including a fundraiser to help raise the money to build the Majestic Theater.

MC2 band members Cliff and Cheri Pereira, both faculty members at Oregon State University, say they are unbelievably lucky to have Weiss as a friend and fellow band mate.

“He is the real musician of the group,” Cliff Pereira said.

In addition to the MC2 project, Weiss also plays guitar with a group of bluegrass musicians in the area. The name of the band changes before every show and is decided by the member of the band who did the booking. Also, in 1981, Weiss recorded an album of children’s songs entitled “The Moving, Counting, Rhyming, Up, Down, Left, Right, Look what I got album.” Weiss is planning to re-release it in the future.

Today, Weiss, the counselor, works at helping undecided students choose their major or by helping grief-stricken students cope with the trauma in their lives. Folk music is said to be the music of the people and when Weiss is at his day job he helps those people.

“I grew up in a family where there was a strong value around helping other people in the world and that was one of the greatest callings you could have was to be a service to others. As a counselor, I get to do that… it feels good.” said Weiss.

State of the College Address

In her state of the college address, LBCC president, Rita Cavin, told faculty and staff that, even in the face of current economic turmoil, the college, through careful planning, would move forward.

The address, which took place Friday, April l7 in the Russell Tripp Auditorium, focused mostly on the $60 million gap in the state budget allotted for community colleges and explained that some adjustments would need to be made at LBCC. One of these adjustments includes an $8 increase in the tuition for resident students and a $15 increase for international students.

Cavin explained that, because of the spike in unemployment, the state budget gap is growing rapidly and would “swallow” all of the states community college funding and still leave a budget hole of $3.6 billion. During this time of financial crisis, the college will need to position itself for rebuilding, preserve its uniqueness and values, increase efficiency, and listen to the community for workforce needs.

“This is not a new plan,” Cavin said. “This is how we have responded all along. It’s important to identify what to protect and what needs to change.”

LBCC’s plan to “navigate the economy” will be to use reserves wisely, position for a bond campaign when the community recovers, prepare for more declines in state revenues, reduce cost increases, be selective when filling vacancies, and maintain “discipline until stability and predictability are achieved.” There will also be two budget team meetings each month to evaluate proposals for savings and to monitor finances.

“Doing less and having less money does not mean we need to have less quality,” Cavin said.

Cavin reminded the crowd that money that has been spent cannot be saved and, because the college has used reserves and temporary savings to offer a path for change, the cutback periods would last longer but would also reduce the need for dramatic layoffs.

According to Cavin, this was not the first time the college has faced an economic crisis and that a $53 million cut in 01-02 took four years to recover from. “We are staring at a $60 to $70 million cut,” Cavin said.

The news in the address was not all bad, however, as Cavin pointed out some progresses that have been made at LBCC including efforts made towards environmental sustainability, the approval of a grant to provide health care for low income students, improvements in distance learning programs, and reduced child care and transportation costs for LBCC students.

In addition, the American Recovery and Investment act, a stimulus package that was signed into law by President Barack Obama on February 17, would mean increased funding for Pell grants and Perkins loans as well as $2500 tax credits for tuition and related expenses.

(Photo Credit: Gregory Dewar)

Visions of the Holocaust

Linn-Benton Community College’s Diversity Achievement Center brings the horrors of the Holocaust out of the textbooks and on to the movie screen for Holocaust awareness month.

The films, which are part of DAC’s Movie Mondays, will be shown in F-221 on Mondays from noon to 1 p.m. They are free to students, staff, and the community, and will focus on a different theme each month.

DAC Coordinator, Toni Klohk explains that the movies, which are selected from LBCC’s student library, are shown to provide an opportunity for students to socialize with their peers during their afternoon breaks and to learn something new. Free popcorn provided.

“(The movies) are for educational purposes and, although the holocaust is a very heavy subject, one that is emotional, we would like students to come in, relax, and bring a lunch,” said Klohk.

According to a press release, next Monday’s movie, “One Survivor Remembers” is a story about Gerda Weissmann’s survival and liberation after six years of Nazi rule.

Jeff Silverman, in a review for Variety, referred to the movie as “A beautiful story, filled with hope and triumph and (with) an ending that soars beyond imagination.”

Also,on Monday April 20 and 27 the DAC will show “ The long Way Home,” a film that chronicles the personal reflections of the challenges that holocaust survivors faced while trying to rebuild their lives.

“Most people don’t realize that after the people in these camps were liberated they had no where to go,” said Klohk

In addition to the Monday movies, the DAC will also recognize Holocaust awareness month by sponsoring a speech, Alter Wiener, as well as speeches from LBCC faculty Callie Palmer and Robert Harrison.

For more information, contact the DAC at 541-917-4461.

(Photo Credit: Max Brown)

Self Injury

A couple of weeks ago at my work (a drug and alcohol rehab for adolescents), A boy named p___ asks to use the bathroom, and I nod that it’s ok and begin going about my usual task of trying to get the kids calmed down and ready for bed.

So, after what seems to be awhile I'm wondering what is taking P___ so long, I walk over to the bathroom and,right as I'm about to knock, the door swings open. He’s standing in the doorway with a pencil in his hand. The eraser has been chewed off and the metal end is flattened down and shaped into a jagged point. His eyes widen in surprise when he sees me and there is a blood-soaked tissue wrapped around his forearm. Tears are streaming down his face. I am speechless.

P__ is a cutter.

The Mayo Clinic explains that cutting (self injury, self mutilation) is not an attempt at suicide or an “artistic expression." Most cutters cut because they are trying to release some sort of negative emotion, such as anger, fear, or frustration. The sensation of cutting themselves brings a temporary state of calmness and is a temporary coping mechanism for psychological pain. Other times cutting is done for manipulation or to get attention. After the act has been committed, the cutter often feels guilty, humiliated, and the negative emotions return.

According to Mental Health America’s website, of the 2 million people in the US who “Self-injure,” the majority are “teenagers or young adults with young woman out numbering young men.” These numbers only represent the people who have chosen to admit their problem. There are many more out there.

After his wounds were properly dressed and he had spoke to his counselor, P__ laid in his bunk and sobbed. I could hear him asking himself why. I could hear him calling himself names . I could hear the soft undertones of the other boys whispering about what had happened. They were looking for answers. I did not have any. I wanted to help. I didn’t know how.

If you or someone you know suffers from the desire to “Self injure,” there are a number of resources out there that can help. One of the of the more specialized Websites that I found is www.selfinjury.com or S.A.F.E Alternatives. This site offers a lot of information about treatment options and also provides an avenue to a lot more information on the topic in general. The site also directs visitors who may need help to the national “Self Injury” hotline (1-800-Don’t Cut)

(Photo Credit: learnsomethingnew @ flickr)