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Raise your hand if you are a heterosexual female and have hooked up with another woman. A lot of us have had our taste of the risqu with the same gender and thought it was just a part of college life, but according to the latest polls, those of us that just raised our hands are far fewer in number than once expected. Recently, the National Survey for Family Growth has found that women with bachelors degrees were less likely overall to have had a same-sex relationship than women with only a high school degree. Personally, I think that everyone has the right to an exploratory phase without
I always thought that patriarchy was something to be fought with strikes, union meetings and feminism, not secret smooches.
Where did we get this saliva swapping wet tee-shirt contest stigma? My first impulse is to say that society presumes women are sexually experimental because of
Daniel Ellsberg, the keynote of last weeks International Affairs Symposium, and the people following his tradition are American heroes. Ellsbergs historic whistleblowing on the Vietnam War left an important mark on our social history, which needs to be emulated and replicated into the future. The enemies of free speech complain that the actions of Ellsberg and other whistleblowers are immoral because they violate the law. This ignores the fundamental philosophies underlying the Constitution of the United States, which provides for open resistance to the government in lawless ways when there is tyrannical overstretch. James Madison and John
Mill, two philosophers who are central to the formation of American political thought and firmly believed in the rule of law, also recognized that citizens will naturally break the law when it is perceived to be unjust. Lawlessness is a healthy and active part of the legal system, because it is the first and most important step towards changing a law. When a law is unjust or protects an injustice, a responsible citizen has the right and obligation to break that law, clearing the way for it to be removed. This is the core of all civil disobedience. One does not demonstrate the flaws of a law by following it. If laws were just, they would not be broken. This is a critical American ideology, especially in times of war, because those
in power cannot be trusted to police themselves. Again, as Madison said, Those who are to conduct a war cannot in the nature of things, be proper or safe judges, whether a war ought to be commenced, continued, or concluded. Rulers need to be removed from power, especially when they are incompetentand there is no way to judge their incompetence without transparency. Responsible citizens are compelled to break the law for the sake of transparency and the functionality of democracy. Dr. Ellsberg has said that, were he to release the Pentagon Papers today, he would be called a terrorist and and accused of aiding terrorist enemies; and here we see history rhyme. In his own time, Ellsberg
was called a communist for his actions and dedication to free speech. Thanks in part to his work, a cruel, evil, and unjust war was ended. Given these cycles of vilification and vindication, I would assert that, these days, if you are: a) working to protect life and free speech, and b) are called a terrorist by the U.S. government, then c) what you are doing is most likely a noble thing, and d) you should continue doing it. Protecting free speech is not terrorism. While the word terrorism is being gravely misused, being mislabeled a terrorist is at the very least a sure sign that what you are doing threatens some very powerful interests. Todays activists-calledterrorists have a huge debt to Dr. Ellsberg. I thank and applaud him.
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We represent a few Christians at Lewis & Clark, and we wanted to respond to the article about the separation of church and commencement from April 8. First, we acknowledge that many people at LC have had negative experiences with Christianity, and this may lead them to think of Christians or the church as backwards, bigheaded, and arrogant. There are often good reasons for people to feel like this, and we apologize as representatives of the Christian faith for any part we may have had in hurting people this way. While we acknowledge that people have many valid reasons not to subscribe to a certain religion or to any religion at all we wanted to explain why prayer is important to us as a part of commencement at LC. LC prides itself on tolerating and promoting diversity. For a lot of students like us, however, the spirituality that is so central to our identities often goes unacknowledged. We know that people frequently associate Christianity with proselytizing, but we find the logic that we should avoid the ideas of a minority in the ceremonies of our school somewhat dangerous. The chance to express this part of our iden-
tities is very meaningful to us, and we would hope that others would at least be tolerant while we do that. The intention of the invocation is not to marginalize community members who are non-religious or non-Christian. Mark Duntley always opens the invocation by saying, I invite you to join me in the spirit of prayer. This invitation is intended to recognize the many ways that people connect to the larger world around them as they move forward from college. Mark is indeed a Presbyterian minister, so his prayer is framed by his background. We would hope, though, that our peers would be willing to listen to a persons message regardless of his or her religious framework. The invocation is not intended to be exclusive or mandatory, and we truly apologize if it comes across that way. It does mean a lot to us. Jennifer Schildmeyer Matt Karsh Fred Demien Carolyn Worthge Andrew Schnell Kayla Aaronson Eleanor Taylor CAS Students
The Pioneer Log accepts and encourages letters to the editor from all students, staff, faculty and community members. Submissions should be kept under 350 words and sent to piolog@ lclark.edu by Monday at 6 p.m. for the following issue.