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ART REVIEW The science of the surreal

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The most surprising thing about “Enrique Chavarria: Journey into the Subconscious” isn’t the surfing demons, the sensual imagery, or the over-the-top natural symbolism; it’s that this exhibition is being held at the Miami Museum of Science. Yes, that Museum of Science, and in the same space that housed last year’s horribly disappointing “City of Wonders.”

Walking into this small gallery is like entering every Myst clone-simultaneously. One frame shows a two-headed snake and flying oxen, and another shows a sensual forest inhabited by some rather frisky woodland sprites. Then, upon closer examination, one can see the natural world interwoven with the fantastic elements to create a colorful and imaginative set of symbols that soar far over the heads of the museum’s pint sized visitors. These symbols range from physical freedom and mental captivity to the interconnectedness of man to his environment.

This exhibit for the most part lives up to the press kit with the included picture being one of the more banal exceptions. The exhibit is actually worth a late afternoon visit since it is located away from the main gallery and has a much quieter, more adult atmosphere conducive to pondering the bizarre and finely layered meaning of it all.

“Enrique Chavarria: Journey into the Subconscious” is on display at the Museum of Science and is co-sponsored by the Miami Consulate General of Mexico. The museum is located at 3280 South Miami Ave. and student admission is $8, but is reduced to $6 after 4 p.m.

>> For more information visit www.miamisci.org or call (305) 646-4200.

Jonathan Twiggar can be contacted at j.twiggar@umiami.edu.

MOVIE REVIEW Questioning reality, films start a revolution

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There’s a new movement in film that questions the reality of the world depicted on screen. It’s not about being realistic or being in a dream, but filmmakers are starting to learn that realism does not always equal quality in modern movies. At the head of this new venture into questionable reality in film is writer Charlie Kaufman, whose movies Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind all take place in a surrealist dimension not conforming to all the rules of the real world.

The latest is an indie drama/thriller called Rhinoceros Eyes, coming from David Cronenberg’s nephew, first-time director Aaron Woodley. The film deals strongly with a tone of anti-realism seen most recently in Donnie Darko, and succeeds in expressing unusual ideas effectively.

Rhinoceros Eyes features Michael Pitt (The Dreamers) as a slow-witted young employee at a prop house whose simple life is upended by love-at-first-sight. He spends his days and nights rummaging through cool old movie props, and even sleeps in various places around the massive warehouse. The only reason he has to leave the prop house is to see horrible old movies at a local theater.

The life of this character is interesting enough as is, but it takes an unexpected turn when a friendly, attractive woman comes to the prop house looking for strange, specific props for a film she’s designing. This is where the bizarre title comes from, as the woman’s first request is an authentic set of rhino eyes.

The plot turns out to be unpredictable and sprawling, as Pitt’s dreams sometimes mix with reality. The story of the film is interesting, but the best parts lie in the look and feel of Rhinoceros Eyes. Woodley has a great sense of visual direction, especially for a first-time filmmaker. The prop house is one of the great all-time settings for a film, and the cluttered frames are so visually enriching that there’s always something interesting to look at.

Pitt has cornered the market on no-name indie film acting, and he does a good job as usual. He’s probably just a little too weird to break into the mainstream, but seems content to be a more versatile version of longtime cult-favorite Bruce Campbell. The supporting acting is nothing memorable, but doesn’t distract from the overall style of the film.

Rhinoceros Eyes was shown at the Cosford in October, followed by a panel discussion with professors from the film, philosophy, and psychology departments. The film will be released in South Florida on Nov. 5.

Shawn Wines can be contacted at s.wines@umiami.edu.

CONCERT PREVIEW Here in November

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“Gone ’til November” may be one of Wyclef Jean’s most famous songs, but for UM he’ll be anything but gone tonight.

Sponsored by Hurricane Productions and the concert committee, Wyclef Jean will perform on the green in front of the library tonight at 9:45 p.m., accompanied by the Refugee All-Stars. The show promises a solid finish to a dynamic evening on campus.

Combined with Hurricane Howl, the concert is the cap to the Homecoming festivities. Starting with the homecoming parade that snakes down Stanford Drive, the pep rally led by the Band of the Hour and the Sunsations, fireworks and, of course, free food, this is the night to chill on campus.

With events happening all over campus, don’t pass up the opportunity for some free and fun entertainment when you know you all are starting to expend that cash flow.

A Side Note…

The lead Fugees rapper guitarist Wyclef Jean has seemingly become hip-hop’s multicultural conscience. An activist and successful solo artist Wyclef has been in the charts as an artist, producer and noticed political speaker, participating in many high-profile charity events. But despite his activism Wyclef is a dynamic performer with strong lyrics and an amazing message for the youth. It’s a free concert, go.

Jacki-o ‘Madam of Miami’

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Lil’ Kim. Foxy Brown. Eve. Trina. All of these female rappers, at one point in time, have been the queens of their domain. Using their sex appeal to their advantage to sell records, they have become the prototype for the next wave of female rappers. In the vein of these superstars, newcomer Jacki-O has a strong resemblance to those mentioned above but there’s more to her than her provocative poses or sexual verbiage. With her debut album, Poe Little Rich Girl, Jacki-O takes you into the realities of Angela Kohn and explores her serious, playful and sexual sides.

Despite the Liberty City neighborhood, Jacki-O took what was given to her from her youth and transformed it into something positive, crediting part of her success to the community. “There are a lot of projects around the world, but my hood has taught me my survival skills. The same hustling skills that I had in the hood, I used it toward my future in the music industry.”

Her survival skills paid off in 2001 when she released her first single “Pussy (Real Good),” produced by Timbaland to create an early buzz for her album.

Rapping about the power of sexual gifts, Jacki-O gained comparisons to Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown for being raunchy and overly provocative but understanding the true value of shock, Jacki-O knew that this song would gain her the attention she needed.

“Once you hear the word ‘pussy,’ people really take notice. The word as strong as ‘pussy’ gives people the tendency to want to listen to what it is that’s going to come after that word. So it definitely was a song that I wanted to do for the empowerment of women to give people a chance to know that women are powerful.”

After a year and a half between labels and her controversial single, Jacki-O finally released her album on TVT records earlier this month. Off the album, she shows how much she believes herself when asked to speak on the album. “Poe Little Rich Girl, it’s different. It’s a hot album. It’s a solid album.” The 15-song album finds Jacki-O rapping about the harsh realities of Liberty City on “Ghetto World,” how “Fine” she is with the Ying Yang Twins, and even finds her singing on the track “Pretty.”

Compared to her fellow stars, one female rapper that Jacki-O bares resemblance to is Miami’s “Diamond Princess” Trina. While Trina has held it down for Miami since her 1998 appearance on Trick Daddy’s hit single “Nann,” Jacki-O’s arrival has caused the media to speculate of a feud between the two stars. On the album, there are a few tracks that make you wonder if Jacki-O is indirectly taking a stab at Trina.

Both hailing from Liberty City, Jacki-O’s presence has become a form of territorial invasion. “If Trina thinks I am taking a stab at her, then so be it. I’m not being apologetic. Everybody knows we ain’t the best of friends and if we were cool with each other, we would be doing music with each other.”

“[One of the most difficult things I’ve learned about the music industry is] that everybody don’t love you. Everybody is not going to believe in you. You are going to have people that want to see you fail.” For Jacki-O, failure is not an option. With a solid debut album, Jacki-O’s career is promising and reassuring. With a follow-up album on the way, Jacki-O is definitely someone to look out for.

Marcus Washington can be contacted at m.washington2@umiami.edu.

Hurricanes setter wise beyond her years

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Women’s volleyball setter Jill Robinson is living proof that age has nothing to do with ability.

Robinson began her career on the ‘Canes as a true freshman last year and wasted no time showing exactly what she was made of. She consistently led the team to victory and earned Big East Rookie of the Week honors on four separate occasions during the 2003 season.

“It seems like I’ve always been the youngest person on the team, so I don’t really look at being 18 as an obstacle. Every teammate is equally important and we treat each other in a way that reflects this attitude,” Robinson said.

Robinson’s serious approach to volleyball is balanced by her fun-loving nature that has given her the reputation of being the comedic relief on the team. She is admired by her peers for being able to combat a stressful situation with a smile and a laugh.

“She always seems to handle the stresses of being a student athlete with as much skill as she shows on the courts,” Head Coach Nicole Lantagne Welch said.

Originally from Merced, Calif., Robinson is no stranger to athletic competition, having come from a family of athletes. Her father, Jerry Robinson, played football at UCLA and was selected to the NCAA College Football Hall of Fame before spending 13 seasons in the NFL. Robinson’s sister, Jacque, played volleyball at the University of Florida.

“Jacque has been the most influential person in my life in every aspect and especially when it comes to playing volleyball,” Robinson said.

Robinson certainly has made her own name in the world of sports, currently ranking second in assists in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Twice this season she has reached a career high of 67 assists in a match.

“Jill basically runs our offense. The team responds well to her and wants to work hard for her,” Lantagne Welch said.

Robinson receives a great amount of encouragement and advice from Lantagne Welch, who was a setter for the University of Maryland. Lantagne Welch’s previous experience as a top player in the ACC enables her to give Robinson the guidance she needs to lead the team on the court.

“I chose UM for two basic reasons: to be close to my sister and because I really liked Coach Welch because felt I could grow under her,” Robinson said.

The Hurricanes are currently on a five-match winning streak, placing them at No. 2 in the ACC. Robinson and Lantagne Welch emphasized that the goals for this season are to define the ‘Canes as leaders of the conference and improve in every area as a team. The climactic event of the season could be the match against current conference leader Georgia Tech.

“Jill has the potential to become the best setter in the ACC and will without a doubt strive to improve every year,” Lantagne Welch said.

Robinson and the Hurricanes return to action Friday at home against Maryland.

Stacey Arnold can be contacted at s.arnold@umiami.edu.

Defense, running game at fault for loss

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The first time that North Carolina defeated Miami in one of the major sports should have been Jan. 22. That is when the Tar Heels will play the Hurricanes in men’s basketball.

However, on Saturday, Oct. 30, Miami was defeated 31-28 by UNC in football.

The loss can be attributed to two main factors: Miami’s problems running the football and the fact that the Hurricanes could not stop the Tar Heels on defense.

Let’s start with the offense. The Tar Heels had the 116th ranked defense in the country entering the game and had allowed over 1200 yards of offense the past two weeks. They had given up over 500 yards of offense in every game this season except for one, when Georgia Tech gained 493 yards.

On Saturday, Miami gained 415 yards, the lowest output against the Tar Heels this season. William and Mary had more yards of offense against UNC than Miami did. Also, William and Mary scored 38 points on the Tar Heels defense compared to just 28 for Miami.

The problem was that the Hurricanes were never able to establish the running game. Miami rushed the ball 23 times for only 74 yards and did not have a running back gain over 30 yards on the ground.

Perhaps the most surprising thing is that despite the running game struggling, this loss falls squarely on the shoulders of the defense. At the beginning of the season, the defense looked phenomenal. Miami’s pass defense was one of the best in the nation before the Louisville game.

However, in what has become a common theme in the last three games, the Hurricanes defense struggled again. I gave them a free pass for a couple of weeks because they started out so well the first few games. Now, let me be the first writer to come out and state the simple fact that our defense stinks.

The Tar Heels actually out gained the Hurricanes with 551 yards of offense. They ran 85 offensive plays and held the ball for almost two-thirds of the game.

The most telling stat of the game was the difference in rushing yards. UNC had 176 yards rushing in the first half and ended the day with 287 in 50 attempts.

The saddest thing about the loss was that it did not seem like a fluke. The Hurricanes lost on the last play, but they were lucky to be tied at that point. They were outplayed throughout the game on both sides of the ball.

After the game, Head Coach Larry Coker said that the defense’s inability to get a stop was “mind boggling,” but it really should not have been that surprising. They haven’t stopped anybody for three weeks now. Offenses have figured out how to beat the Miami defense.

The Hurricanes have had injuries, but this is UNC we are talking about, not FSU. Even a banged up Miami team should have been able to handle the Tar Heels.

Saturday marked the first time FSU, Florida and Miami lost on the same day since 1978.

Miami’s loss to UNC has eliminated them from national title contention. Let’s make no mistake about that. Winning the ACC is the best that the Hurricane fans can hope for. The only way that will happen is if the Hurricanes fix their problems on defense. A defensive stand against Clemson and holding them under 500 yards would be a good start.

Darren Grossman can be contacted at d.grossman@umiami.edu.

Etc. Dear V Soul mates, or something like it: Big hearts and big-breasted girls

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Dear V,

Do you think that it’s possible to be in love with two people at the same time? Is it possible to have more than one soul mate during one’s life? I’m trying to decide if either is possible, and I would appreciate a little direction.

Sincerely,

In love with two many

Dear In Love,

Without delving into some type of existentialist, not-relevant-to-your-existence as a human being diatribe, yes, I absolutely believe that it’s possible to be in love with two people at the same time. It would be very biblical and idealistic if we chose to believe that human beings were programmed to be on a strictly monogamous path, but the truth is, not everyone can submit to absolute monogamy. Granted, being in love with two different people, and screwing around with two different people are not equal situations, but is it not possible to be in love with someone’s personality while simultaneously being in love with someone else’s physical body? Of course it is.

As for the second question, searching for love is very much a search for personal completion, thus a true soul mate is very much like the perfectly fitting, missing piece to your puzzle. I do believe in soul mates, but I do not believe that it is possible to have more than one true soul mate; a lover and a soul mate are totally different. People spend their entire lives sorting through lovers, trying to find “the one,” but quite often, and if this isn’t bleak reality I don’t know what is, people settle because they are tired of searching and tired of being alone. So without getting too spacey on you, no, it is not possible to have more than one true soul mate, but it is quite possible to lead a fabulous life with a fabulous lover.

A tidbit for you – “Soul mates only exist in the Hallmark aisle of Duane Reade Drugs.” – Miranda Hobbes, Sex and the City.

Lots of Love,

V.

V, darling!

I started dating this guy a little over a month ago. We get along great and I have grown closer to him than any other boyfriend in this short amount of time. There is one issue about this guy that has been bothering me. You see V, every other girl he has dated and all his ex-girlfriends have been your typical blonde-haired, big-breasted girls. Here I am, brunette, tan skin and without a full chest. I can’t help but feel a bit insecure when I see pictures of him with his exes all over his wall. I know I should be confident in my own skin and great personality, but I have this feeling deep down inside that he sometimes wants what has always turned him on in the past. He told me once, “Some guys are all about legs, some guys are all about ass, but I’m all about tits.” That’s great considering my legs and ass are my best physical features! I really want this to work out with him…please help me get over this!

Insecurely yours,

Brunette and Flat

Dear Brunette and Flat,

Oy, these boys who make us feel so damn insecure with ourselves. First, he obviously finds you to be very attractive the way that you are, or else he would have no business dating you (that is, unless you’re wonderfully wealthy, just kidding!), and second, I think that it might be high time for your boyfriend to take down all of those pictures of his ex-girlfriends and completely litter the walls with pictures of you. There is absolutely no reason why he should have pictures of other girls floating around. I’ve heard all of the excuses; “But, we’re still friends” is garbage. Likewise, if he dares mention his cute little words about which parts of the female physique he finds so lovely, tell him to zip his lips because it makes you feel iffy. If you can’t confidently confide your insecurities to him, you might have larger problems at hand.

Best Wishes,

V.

A thought to ponder while you’re voting… According to the Kinsey Report, the first in depth, scientific study on the sex habits of Americans, a 20-year-old man takes two to three minutes after penetration to ejaculate whereas a woman of the same age takes 15-20 minutes to achieve total arousal…discrepancy much?

Please submit all questions, comments or concerns to DearV@hotmail.com or to the Dear V box in the offices of the Hurricane. All submissions are strictly confidential. Dear V. is published on Tuesdays and Fridays, and yes, V will respond to almost (don’t push it) anything.

Report Card

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Offense: B
It seems like the Hurricanes are creating their own version of the movie Freaky Friday because the offense and defense have completely reversed roles. I am not sure which unit is Lindsey Lohan or Jamie Lee Curtis, however.

Quarterback: B+
Brock Berlin actually played well in the losing effort. He was not responsible for any turnovers and did a good job of utilizing his receivers’ speed by throwing high-percentage passes.

Running Back: D
Frank Gore and Tyrone Moss simply did not give the Hurricanes what they needed Saturday. The tandem is too strong for a 16 carry, 57-yard performance.

Wide Receivers: B
Twelve different Hurricanes caught passes Saturday, including Berlin, who caught his own pass after it deflected off an offensive lineman. It is hard to complain about that kind of distribution.

Offensive Line: C+
The loss certainly was not the o-line’s fault. They did a solid job protecting Berlin, but the run blocking was not where it needed to be.

Defense: D-
This is the point in the report card where I will begin to get harsh. The defense has been atrocious for three weeks. This is not Miami football, and Defensive Coordinator Randy Shannon must unleash the fury on his unit this week because this loss was humiliating.

Defensive Line: F
We haven’t heard Orien Harris and Baraka Atkins’ names being called in a while, and that is because they haven’t made any plays in a while. The d-line got no pressure on Darian Durant, who looked like the second coming of Steve McNair in this game.

Linebackers: F
A third-string running back gained 175 yards against this defense. This is inexcusable, and the truck-sized holes Chad Scott ran through can be directly attributed to a horrifying performance by the linebackers.

Secondary: D
The only reason I am not giving the secondary an F is because it came through with a couple of nice stops when they needed to. However, Antrel Rolle and Greg Threat can’t do it by themselves, and the zone coverages have been abysmal.

Special Teams: C
Jon Peattie missed his only field goal attempt of the game and Devin Hester didn’t even get a chance to return a kick for a touchdown. Hester’s days of being kicked to are probably over.

Coaching: D
I know Head Coach Larry Coker is a mild-mannered guy, but this was the most embarrassing loss of his tenure. His coaching mettle will be tested in the coming weeks as the Hurricanes attempt to salvage a season that has quickly gone awry.

Carolina blues

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The Miami Hurricanes’ national championship aspirations have vanished into a sea of powder blue.

Freshman Connor Barth kicked a 42-yard field goal with no time left to give North Carolina (4-4, 3-2) a shocking 31-28 upset over Miami (6-1, 3-1) in Chapel Hill, N.C. on Saturday. The victory is the Tar Heels’ first against a top five team in school history.

Quarterback Darian Durant led UNC by going 21-for-29 for 266 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Third-string tailback Chad Scott gained a career-high 175 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns on 25 carries.

Miami quarterback Brock Berlin went 20-for-35 with 338 yards passing and two touchdowns and overcame a vicious hit early in the second half to lead the Hurricanes on a game-tying touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter.

The problem for the ‘Canes was the running game, as Frank Gore and Tyrone Moss combined for a mere 57 yards on 16 carries against one of the worst defenses in the country. Head Coach Larry Coker had no explanation for ESPN why his running attack was silenced.

“It’s mind boggling,” Coker said.

North Carolina wasted no time letting Miami know it was in for a dogfight, as Durant connected with Mike Mason on a 35-yard touchdown pass on the first possession of the game. The Hurricanes responded quickly thanks to a 27-yard touchdown pass from Berlin to freshman Lance Leggett, who finished with three catches for 72 yards, evening the score at 7-7.

The Tar Heels got the ball back and mounted a 13 play, 60-yard drive, but were unable to score as Barth missed a 39-yard field goal attempt wide left. Minutes later, Berlin hit Roscoe Parrish for a 26-yard touchdown one play after Sinorice Moss hauled in a 22-yard reception. The two receivers combined for six catches, 124 yards and a touchdown in the loss.

The teams traded three-and-outs before North Carolina embarked on an 11 play, 80-yard drive, including a 12-yard run by Madison Hedgecock on fourth-and-one, ending in a 15-yard touchdown run by Scott to make the score 14-14.

After a missed 51-yard field goal attempt by Jon Peattie, Durant completed an 18-yard touchdown pass to Scott Brumett to give the Tar Heels a 21-14 lead late in the first half. UNC had a chance to extend its advantage before halftime, but Durant’s third down pass from Miami’s two-yard line was picked off by Greg Threat as time expired.

Both squads stalemated for most of the third quarter until Moss scored an eight-yard touchdown with about three minutes left in the period to tie the score at 21.

North Carolina continued to not be fazed when Miami scored, as Scott gained 33 yards on the Tar Heels’ first drive of the fourth quarter with nine coming on a touchdown run, giving UNC a 28-21 lead.

With 5:25 left in the game and the Hurricanes still trailing, Berlin led the offense on its most impressive drive of the night, completing a 24-yard pass to Gore and 22-yard strikes to Leggett and Parrish. Devin Hester finished the nine play, 89-yard drive with an 11-yard touchdown run to make the score 28-28 with 2:25 remaining.

All Miami’s defense had to do was stop UNC to force overtime, but Durant would not let his team lose, hooking up with Scott for a 12-yard completion and finding Jon Hamlett for 22 yards. Barth atoned for his early miss by confidently drilling the 42-yard game winner.

The wild finish left the Hurricanes wondering what went wrong, and no one seemed to have a concrete explanation.

“There’s no rhyme or reason,” Antrel Rolle told ESPN. “It’s just a gut check. They wanted it more than we did. There’s really nothing technical to it.”

Eric Kalis can be contacted at e.kalis@umiami.edu.

Immigration and lessons learned from the Klondike

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Liberal orthodoxy holds that culture, religion and ethnicity don’t matter. Sure, most of the major conflicts of our time center on these three things, but the United States is different. The U.S. is free society, built upon the idea that humans of all backgrounds and creeds can come together and build their own destinies.

Yet there are limits to the notion that “diversity is our strength.” Firstly, it is not entirely clear that the U.S. always has been what the American Civil Liberties Union makes it out to be. As the Rockford Institute’s Paul Gottfried points out, “Up until well into the twentieth century, wide popular support and even Supreme Court decisions favored the view that the U.S. was a Western Christian country” (or perhaps Judeo-Christian) in character and culture.

Secondly, culture and ethnicity can be more divisive than one might expect, even in a free society. As immigrants from Southeast Asia pour in, Asian Americans, once thought among the best integrated of minorities, are slowly beginning to form their own spaces in society. Counter-assimilative forces are even more noticeable when language is a factor. The sheer number of Spanish-speaking Mexicans to (legally or otherwise) to southwestern U.S., plus its close proximity to Mexico, makes that group difficult to assimilate.

The potential this creates for ethnic tension should not be underestimated. One need only look to our bilingual northern neighbor, where francophone Quebec functions largely apart from Anglophone Canada and has on occasion sought full independence. Keep in mind that, apart from language, British and French Canada have much in common: Both are European and Christian and their peoples could, at least at a glance, be mistaken for one another.

At least, they were European and Christian. Canada, like the U.S., has begun to witness a massive surge in levels of third world immigration and, except for language, is not even trying to assimilate its newcomers (if they did try, they would fail due to numbers alone). It should also be pointed out that, after several decades of trenchant secularization, Canada – especially Quebec – boasts a severely depressed birthrate and distressingly high abortion and suicide rates.

Americans should not ignore the message here, as we are also relinquishing enough of our identity to endanger our survival as a coherent nation. For the sake of our posterity, and ourselves, let us decide once and for all who we are and form our policies accordingly.

Nicholas G. Moses can be contacted at n.moses@umiami.edu.

We’re the land of hypocrites regarding elections

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First off, I am very proud to be an American. However, I am tired of the hypocrisy involved in being one. We, as a nation, enjoy telling others what to do, but it is time for us to take a look at what is going on here in the United States.

The U.S. wants elections in the Middle East to be transparent and free for all, but we aren’t even close to having those ourselves. This nation is over 228 years old and women were not allowed to vote until 1920, 144 years after the nation came into existence and two years after Kyrgyzstan allowed women to vote. Kyrgyzstan! In 1866 the Civil Rights Bill was passed in Congress and gave blacks full citizenship, but we all know that did not happen regarding voting until the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. Blacks were allowed to vote 189 years after we became a nation. God bless America.

In the last presidential election many former felons were disenfranchised, and the list was disproportionately black, though their rights were legally restored before the list was printed. International observers chastised Florida and the U.S. for the way in which the recount took place and are predicting even more problems this year because of faulty machinery, intimidation of minorities and the elderly, and disenfranchisement of a few more felons. We would expect a nation with democratically elected officials to be able to figure out a simple problem over four years, but this has not happened.

There was another felon list used by Gov. Jeb Bush to strike voters off the register this year, and the only reason we know anything about it is because a judge ordered that it be released to avoid more mistakes and embarrassment.

There is a legal system felons have to go through to make certain that their rights are restored. First they have to find out if they are on the voting list in the first place and then go through the arduous task of having their rights returned through a system that does not favor them because, in the U.S., our legal system is not fair for all. I break it down into three categories: Rich/poor, white/nonwhite and famous/anonymous. Individuals may be in more than one of these groups but because they are felons, there are two strikes against them: They are not white and probably poor.

I say before we decide to tell another group of people how they should be more like America, maybe we should actually try to live up to the ideal America all of us would like to live in.

Vontilla Steven can be contacted at v.steven@umiami.edu.

Democrat sanity is what’s at stake in the election

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Last week I had the opportunity to be interviewed by a writer for TIME magazine about the election. The focus of the interview would be about the viewpoint of staunch partisan activists like myself. I’d been thinking about this topic anyway, so I was interested in doing the interview.

This is a topic I’ve discussed with a few people on both sides of the Bush/Kerry divide and I generally get what at least appears to be an acknowledgment that the position I’m taking has some merit. In the interview I was asked how, as a Bush activist, I would deal with the situation if Bush lost the election. My response to the question was that in the specific case of a Kerry victory (perish the thought) I would most certainly exile myself into the endless and uninhabitable Rub al Khali desert in Saudi Arabia, never to be seen again.

Just kidding.

While I’ll certainly be disappointed and unsupportive of the inevitable U.S. admission into the European Union and the absconding of U.S. foreign policy by the French that a Kerry presidency would precipitate, I’ll ultimately just have to get on with my life just like I did when my chosen candidate in the 1992 election, Ross Perot, revealed to everyone that he’s actually an evil dwarf sent here by those aforementioned French. “Perot” is actually French for “schizophrenic midget who jumps in an out of a presidential campaign in the same manner that most of us jump in and out of the shower…when we’re drunk.”

For the Democrats this election has always been about getting rid of Bush, not electing Kerry. They’ve put their hearts, their souls and even the kitchen sink into dispatching Bush and if it doesn’t work, they will have bet everything and lost. If Bush loses that’s an unhappy situation for me and mine, but we’ll move on because a Kerry victory is only a repudiation of Bush, not of us or the Republican Party. A Bush victory, on the other hand, is a repudiation of all of Kerry’s supporters, since they’ve made this their purpose in living. If the Democrats lose, they’ll start drinking very early in the morning. If I lose, I’ll be sad but I’ll move on. If they lose, they’ve got Hillary. If I lose…I’ve got McCain. Doesn’t sound so bad after all.

Scott Wacholtz can be contacted at s.wacholtz@umiami.edu.

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