Construction inconvienience angers injured student
I wish I had known The Signal was doing an article on transfer house parking being taken over by construction. I live in the same building as Brittany Chadziutko and have another problem. In December 2007 I was in a fairly horrific car crash in which I broke my collarbone and suffered internal damage.
While my injuries have healed about as much as they are going to, I still suffer from pain and cannot carry heavier items over an extended distance.
As such, the closing of the drive behind my house has forced me to carry my things from the parking garage, around the other houses and to my building. This causes a great deal of pain for me.
When I called Campus Construction, who then redirected me to someone else, and told them of my problem, their solution was for me to move, which is interesting since my problem is that I cannot move things. They maintained this stance even after I explained that all of my family was injured during, or shortly after, the accident. Basically, I either had to move or just deal with it.
There is little that is as frustrating as coming through this horrible experience, all the physical therapy, all the treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and all of the pain from the actions of one person. Yet now I am being treated as though none of that matters in the face of the College's apparent addiction to construction projects.
If The Signal could further pursue this or at least get some kind of answer from the College, I would be extremely grateful.
Terri Bielski
Marxist review of Spring 2009
We kicked off the year with high hopes and despair. We had high hopes because we left behind eight years of a callously inhumane administration.
On "hope and change" we swept in the first black president, Barack Obama. Our hope diminished with his recent $21 billion war budget increase.
We had despair because 2 million jobs had already disappeared and 3 million more were gone by April.
The College may cut $1.7 million from its budget. Teachers in New York and Los Angeles led the fight back against budget cuts.
The College community argued over Ann Coulter, a writer who represents the slowest end of public consciousness, the bitter people who can't understand why times are changing and who can't keep up.
The Signal claimed Coulter made the College think. The minds of the College only activated because Leftists protested. Otherwise it would have been another quiet event. We were infuriated by financial bail-outs while harsh bankruptcy measures befell car manufacturing.
Republicans denounced the bail-outs as "socialism," forgetting that socialism takes wealth from rich to poor, whereas the bail-outs took wealth from taxpayers to banks. A thousand well paid mouths shouted down the Employee Free Choice Act.
The peace movement watched one major war become four wars.
We also learned that the Cold War never ended in Korea, which means that Russia, China, and the United States of America were never fighting over communism but simply trying to be the biggest empires - and still are.
Despite crisis and unemployment, or because of it, people fought for civil rights. There is a groundswell for gay marriage and several state-level victories.
The media half-seriously discussed legalizing marijuana, at the very time the War on Drugs is "justifying" a militarized border. This will worsen the difficult lives of immigrant workers, just when the government appears more immigrant-friendly through legislation.
These civil rights issues are the same as the cause of workers, whom the Right tries to divide over "morality."
Finally, the College's left-wing groups grew more active. PRISM is making GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender) people visible.
Its bravery deserves applause. Student groups could improve. They still revolve around popularity because of insufficient discussion of political issues and the news.
This may be fixed by debates, if not by influence from the nationwide wave of change from below.
Even if groups aren't guided by theories which could truly liberate them (gays) or complete their goals (ending war), interest in such ideas increases in the College and everywhere.
A Rasmussen poll said that only 53 percent support capitalism. It's a great time to be Marxist.
People always said capitalism is stable, nobody will embrace socialism and nobody will hit the streets to change anything. So far 2009 has only proved Marx correct.
Matt Hoke
