Titled “Sentenced for Life: Confronting the Calamity of Mass Incarceration,” the conference was dedicated to address a critical social justice issue: the mass incarceration of people of color in the United States. The major objective behind the conference was to advocate for and educate the community on what actions and dialogues can be presented in order to confront the issue. A limited number of Hamline students were able to attend the conference, facilitated by the Hedgeman Center.

The conference had two keynote speakers and various other intellectuals who presented workshops throughout the day. Dr. Angela Davis, a long-time social justice activist, was the main keynote speaker. Davis was a professor of the history of consciousness and feminist studies at the University of California-Santa Cruz from 1991 to 2008. She has also published several books on social justice issues.

The event began with the introduction of co-chairs of the Building Bridges conference, Rebecca Eastwood and Jasmine Porter. This was followed by a play performance from “I AM WE ARE,” a student-led organization at Gustavus created to raise awareness about a more just community by performing about social justice issues. The play reflected the injustices and criminalization of young individuals through imprisonment and the corruption of the justice system itself.

The performance depicted the lives of those imprisoned, their families and the communities affected at large.

According to Davis, social injustice and racism are seen as the building blocks of the systematic imprisonment that is continuously crippling the community. As the theme of the conference suggests, the prisons assure individuals that have once sat behind bars are imprisoned for life, due to the lack of opportunities they face after being convicted as felons.

Davis’ keynote topic concentrated on the prison-industrial complex and the need to implement a social justice strategy of not only advocating against mass incarceration, but also changing the failings of the American justice system.

“It is not enough to simply acknowledge nor comprehend the statistics, but rather to take an action about the issue,” Davis said.

Davis noted that the system has now proclaimed America a “prison nation” which is capturing the naturality of the prison-industrial complex and the assurance that the benefit of the economy is due to the statistical number of how many individuals enter or re-enter the prison system.

According to Davis, these numbers have a basis in American history.

“There are more black men in prison today than there were slaves during slavery,” Davis said.

Throughout the event Davis addressed the abnormality of the justice system by asserting that the economy is driven by racism and has roots in the history of slavery.

Davis and the event organizers greatly emphasized the need to understand what kind of bodies we imagine when we think about the prisoners behind bars and the notion of understanding the causes of imprisonment from a non-racial perspective.

Davis’ keynote speech concluded with her expressing the need for patience and the recognition that the struggle has yet to be a victory until America as a society faces the ghosts of racial injustice and the consequences of slavery on the justice system of today.

The two factions, one recognized as a nation and the other only as occupied territory, have fought on and off for over 60 years.

For many in the region, there is an ongoing bitterness that only serves to further divide the two groups. Everyone living in the region has been affected in some way, and many have lost family members or friends in the struggle.
Among the bereaved are Wajih Tmaiza of Hebron, Palestine and Roi Golan of Tel Aviv, Israel. Both have lost family members to the conflict, but rather than seeking revenge, they have partnered to give talks on reconciliation. The two visited Hamline on Tuesday, March 5 to deliver a message of pain and hope for their troubled region.

When Israeli soldiers killed his younger brother in 1981, reconciliation and peace were the last things on Tmaiza’s mind.

“I found out [my brother] was killed [by Israeli soldiers]. He was killed and another two children were killed at the same time. The first thing that I thought about it: the revenge. Of course I became angry. It’s my brother. He was 15 years old and he didn’t know anything,” Tmaiza said.

However, Tmaiza soon realized the futility of seeking revenge, and resolved to go on with his life.
“If you want revenge, you must dig two graves, one for you and the other for your enemy because the revenge is not stopped,” Tmaiza said. “At the same time, I feel that I haven’t power to do anything; I haven’t power to change anything. So I continue my life, and my business.”

It wasn’t until twenty years later that Tmaiza realized he needed to at least attempt to end the violence. The event that spurred him into action was the shooting of two more of his family members, his cousin and three-month-old nephew, again by Israelis.
“It was like a light switched on. I must do something. I must save myself, I must save my family, I must save my community, and save all the life of the people in the world,” Tmaiza said.

Golan comes from the other side of the conflict as an Israeli, but shares the same pain of losing a family member to senseless violence. His brother was killed fighting in the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

“He was shot and killed on the spot, 19 years of age. A bit younger than you guys [Hamline students]. The impact was terrible on the family,” Golan said. “Being a teenager, you know, having to bear that kind of burden on you, it’s not so easy. You want to go back into normal life. You don’t want to be known or pointed out.”

Through many years of service in the Israeli military, Golan saw firsthand the conflicts that led to constant loss of life. All young Israelis are required to serve in the military during their lives, and Golan witnessed them being made to make life and death decisions in battle.

“It opened my eyes…seeing the difficult situations that young recruits found themselves in, having to take responsibility and make decisions about things that are almost impossible for anybody, let alone for kids, immature kids,” Golan said. “So I knew I wanted to do something, as Wajih said, to bring an end to that state.”

Tmaiza and Golan both joined an organization called Parents Circle — Families Forum (PCFF). The PCFF was formed in 1995 in Israel by several bereaved families, who wished to meet Palestinians who had also lost loved ones. They hoped to prevent future violence by establishing dialogue, tolerance, peace and reconciliation.

The group has no political agenda, and feels that any solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict “must be based on free negotiations between the leadership of both sides to ensure basic human rights, the establishment of two states for two peoples, and the signing of a peace treaty,” according to their website. The group includes over 600 families and is led jointly, with headquarters in both Israel and Palestine.

“We use our pain, both of us, and all of the members in our forum, to build a bridge over the blood valley that began many years ago for this conflict,” Tmaiza said.

“Maybe our children, and all the Israeli and Palestinian people…can cross this bridge to another life. We use our pain to change, not to go down the side to revenge. It is not easy. Never. We want to stop this blood.”

According to Golan, one of the most important ways of doing this is simply for the two sides to meet each other, to dispel stereotypes promoted by the local media and provide ways for them to relate rather than resent each other. This is a large part of what the PCFF does, by bringing young people from both sides to visit each other’s schools.

“It’s the first time they face a Palestinian as a human being. He talks to them, looks them in the eye, is willing to take any difficult question asked and answer it. He doesn’t back up. He shares and describes the same feelings as an Israeli guy,” Golan said.

Golan sees this as an especially important experience for young Israelis to have before beginning their mandatory stint in the military.

“It could help to reduce tension and violent acts,” Golan said.

The two men agree that no change will come from political or military action. The only true change can come through personal reconciliation. For outsiders interested in the conflict, they stressed the importance of reading and thinking critically, and not accepting media coverage as the only truth. Overall, they closed with words of hope.

“We believe that all the people have the big power,” Golan said. “Everyone can help in his way…we’re all human beings.”

It’s a unique cultural experience. Lavvu is named for the traditional dwellings of the Sami people that call northern Scandinavia their home, and the coffeehouse is the only Sami-themed coffee shop in Minnesota.

The coffeehouse was previously located in the Northtown Mall, but owner Chris Pesklo decided to relocate his shop to the Dinkytown area because business at the mall was in decline. The Lavvu Coffeehouse opened the doors of its new location in February of this year.

“Swedes have the American Swedish Institute, the Norwegians have the Sons of Norway, the Finns have many other organizations for themselves, but the Sami really haven’t had their own cultural center or other type of gathering area. So this is what I was hoping this place to envision,” Pesklo said.

The indigenous Sami live in the Sapmi, which spans across Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. They are renowned as fishers and reindeer herders.

Like the indigenous population of North America, the Sami have long struggled because of a governmental desire to push assimilation. Pesklo, who is Sami himself, wasn’t aware of his heritage until he began looking into his genealogy. Pesklo’s situation isn’t uncommon.

“Now we have a lot of people who came here [to the United States] under Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian or even Russian passports. They’re finding out now that we were actually Sami over there [in Sapmi],” Pesklo said.

“There was a lot of hidden identity and a lot of people are discovering their Sami heritage right now.”

It wasn’t until the 1980s that Norway finally stopped all assimilation processes after plans to build a dam in the midst of a Sami town was met with great protest and pushback from the Sami community. In the 1990s, His Majesty King Harald V of Norway made a public apology to the Sami people and the Norwegian government began funding Sami schools.

“Since I opened up here we’ve had massive support from the American Swedish Institute. We’ve had a number of Scandinavian clubs approach the coffee shop and the response has been overwhelming. It’s been ecstatic. I haven’t had a single negative complaint or anything derogatory,” Pesklo said.

True to its Sami theme, the Lavvu Coffeehouse takes its name from a Sami staple: the Lavvu.

“It looks like a tipi but it’s actually very, very different,” Pesklo said.

The Lavvu are ideal for the Sami people because the lightweight design is easy to carry and to set up quickly, offering refuge from the cold winters of the Sapmi that put even our bitter Minnesotan winters to shame.

Lavvu Coffeehouse clearly prizes its namesake. The corner of the shop is occupied by a spacious Lavvu – stuffed with cozy cushions and a fake fire – which is open for customers to sit in and enjoy a cup of coffee. Pesklo has been making and selling Lavvu since 1995.

“I’ve been selling Lavvus through my website and over the years I’ve always been asked, ’Do you have a showroom or something like that?’ and I never had,” Pesklo said. “So the coffee shop also suffices as a showroom for the Lavvu that people are interested in.”

While the Sami-inspired coffeehouse is unique in that regard, Lavvu Coffeehouse is also a rare treat because of its specialized drinks and menu, which ranges from Snickers-flavored coffee to Swedish jams.

In the future, Pesklo plans to offer traditional Sami coffee, which is made through a multistep process that involves swinging a kettle over an open fire.

“My insurance isn’t thrilled about having an open fire in the store,” Pesklo said with a laugh.

Because of its proximity to the University of Minnesota, the shop has quickly become a popular place for students to grab a cup of coffee or a snack while studying. Lavvu Coffeehouse even offers special hours around midterms and finals for weary students. Within both the Sami community and the larger St. Paul community, the shop has made an impact.

“[There has been a] very, very positive response from a number of different communities,” Pesklo said.

Even though the coffeehouse has only been open for about a month, it’s well on its way to being a popular local hangout.

Unfortunately, the event is once again dull and hardly the international celebration of baseball that MLB so desperately wants it to be. The games are mostly boring; so far, the most exciting moment of the tournament has been a bench-clearing brawl between Canada and Mexico that inexplicably erupted over a sacrifice bunt attempt.

The tournament is a great premise that is executed horribly. The idea of different nations competing with each other is exciting, but it only works if everyone takes it seriously and plays as if national pride is on the line, like in the Olympics.

That kind of thing does not happen in the WBC. The United States team is mostly comprised of players who were begrudgingly willing to take the time out of spring training to play. The pitchers are on strict pitch counts to avoid injuries, so starters only go for a small number of innings, another way in which the event does not resemble actual baseball.

Then there’s the goofiness of some of the other rosters. Due to a rules loophole designed to add MLB players to international teams, Nick Punto and Drew Butera are randomly representing team Italy.

Things like this add up to destroy the legitimacy of the event. The WBC still functions as an amusing baseball exhibition, but it could be so much more if there were any real stakes.

When NHL players participate in the Winter Olympics, they take a break from their season and all the players who are healthy participate. The nature of the MLB schedule makes that extremely difficult, which leads to the awkward timing in spring training when most players are still rounding back into form.

WBC is additional baseball, so I can’t complain too much. But finding a way to maneuver it into the middle of the regular season would make it infinitely better. So would adding some sort of compensation or incentive to ensure that the best players are there and free of pitch counts and other limits that detract from the game.

Unfortunately, these changes seem unlikely. In four years, more columns like this will surely be written.

Too often, Hollywood magic in the form of cliched inspirational storylines and manufactured drama is used as a substitute for actual knowledge of sports, in order to make the film appeal to the widest audience possible.

However, some movies are able to break the mold, and are a reminder of how powerful sports can be. A lot of the time, these are documentaries — the natural drama of sports is often far more exciting and engrossing than the stuff that screenwriters can come up with. These are some movies available on Netflix streaming that I think are worth your time.

Hoop Dreams

When people walk up to me on the street and ask me what the best sports movie of all time is (which they do, frequently), my answer is always “Hoop Dreams.”

The 1994 documentary, directed by Steve James, follows the lives of two Chicago high school basketball stars, Arthur Agee and William Gates, as they try to make it to the NBA.

While initially intended as a short film, the movie ended up becoming a three-hour epic, as James and his team followed the athletes for five years with an incredible amount of access.

Along the way, the film studies the effect basketball has on class, poverty, race, competition, and seemingly a million other themes. The movie also has plot twists and memorable characters that no writer could ever come up with.

The running time is a pretty big investment, but it’s worth it: “Hoop Dreams” is a thought-provoking documentary that remains the gold standard for sports films.

Ballplayer: Pelotero

A small documentary project that was quietly released last year, “Ballplayer: Pelotero” is sort of baseball’s answer to “Hoop Dreams.”

It follows two 16-year-old Dominican prospects, Miguel Angel Sano and Jean Carlos Batista, as they look to bank a big contract with an MLB team that is their ticket out of poverty.
“Ballplayer: Pelotero” shines a light on the often unsavory practices that take place in the Dominican Republic, as scouts and agents maneuver to try to find ways to sign the players for as cheaply as possible.

The age of both players also comes into question when the league investigates both to make sure they are actually 16, the minimum signing age that also leads to the biggest contracts.

Miguel Angel Sano’s name may be familiar to some Twins fans: he is currently one of the top prospects for Minnesota. That makes this worthwhile viewing for Minnesota fans, but also really to any baseball fan.

June 17, 1994

ESPN’s “30 for 30” series had several great documentaries, but “June 17, 1994” is my favorite.

Like the title suggests, the film is simply the events of June 17, 1994, told in an experiential style that eschews the usual talking head segments in favor of actual media footage from the day as it unfolded.

The day is memorable first and foremost because of OJ Simpson’s infamous white Bronco chase, which hangs over the other day’s proceedings, including the World Cup, the New York Rangers’ championship parade, game five of the NBA finals and Arnold Palmer playing his last round in a U.S. Open. The filmmaker, Brett Morgen, weaves together all of these events with media clips and other footage, letting most of what happens on screen speak for itself.

“June 17, 1994” ends up being something of a takedown of the 24/7 news cycle, but it also perfectly captures what it must have been like for a sports fan channel-surfing during that day. Sports is often about those memorable moments as you see them, and this film understands that perfectly.

The Two Escobars

Another “30 for 30” entry, “The Two Escobars” tells the story of Colombian soccer player Andres Escobar and drug lord Pablo Escobar, a pair whose lives intertwine in the lead-up to the 1994 World Cup. Colombia’s drug cartels (including Pablo’s) helped turn the nation’s soccer program, led by team captain Andres, into a powerhouse. But eventually, it ended in tragedy for both men.

“The Two Escobars” tells a story that I was not too familiar with, and it does it in an engaging way, with many interviews and even-handed portrayals of both men.

No Crossover: the Trial of Allen Iverson

In yet another “30 for 30” entry, “Hoop Dreams” director Steve James returned to his hometown of Hampton, Va. to look back at a 1993 scandal that rocked the town. High school (and future NBA) superstar Allen Iverson was accused of throwing a chair in a bowling alley riot that allegedly was sparked by racism.

That becomes the predominant issue in the ensuing trial and media coverage, and James does a good job covering both sides of the issue, as well as bringing in his own experiences along with his mother’s.

Iverson was not interviewed for the documentary, but that actually helps make it more about the town and its reactions than just about the superstar himself.

The film also does not tell you what to think and allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions on the incident, similar to how all the people of Hampton decided to think what they wanted about it. “No Crossover” is a balanced documentary that tells a good story from a unique perspective.

Sophomore Derrick Mora said that preparing for nationals is about staying focused and working hard through practice. His goal as a competitor is to one day finish first in the long jump.

“I would love to get first in long jump one of these years. I think next year there’s a really good chance as long as I stay healthy,” he said.

Prior to nationals, Mora competed at the regionals and earned third place in the long jump.

“It was good and at the same time kind of frustrating,” Mora said.

He said he felt they didn’t finish as strong as they were capable of finishing.

“There were definitely a few things that we could have [done] better, maybe doing some stuff in training that we didn’t do as much this year as we did last year,” he said.

However, Mora did acknowledge that the team has accomplished some great things at the regionals.
“Overall, I feel good about our performance,” he said.

Last week at nationals, the women’s track and field team put on a show. Both sophomore Shawny Kramer and senior Becky Culp earned All-American honors, with their impressive performance at the meet.

Kramer threw her career best at the weight throw with a 57-9, which is the seventh best throw by any athlete in Division-III this year, and earned fifth place in the weight throw at nationals.

Culp received her third All-American honor after recording a 46-0.50 in the shot put, which placed fifth at the nationals. That was Culp’s second personal best behind her 47’3.5 effort that she did prior to this meet at the MIAC Indoor Championships.

Both performances were crucial to the Pipers at the NCAA D-III Indoor Championships, as they tied for 23rd place at the meet.

The men’s and women’s track and field teams don’t have another meet until next month. However, their season is a long way from over, and they will continue to train to prepare for the next part of their schedule.

“It’s mainly about staying focused. Even after you do conference, you still need to do the little things because those little things are going to help you. Every day in practice you got to work hard,” Mora said.

The next meet for the men’s and women’s track and field will be the Hamline Invitational on April 6. Last year at Klas Field, the Pipers had some success. The Pipers won a total of five events. The men’s won three as the women’s won two along with several other strong finishes.

As a sophomore, it has earned her a top spot on the Hamline women’s tennis team, playing double duty with a singles and doubles game each meet. Duwearatchi is aware of her constant determination and uses it to the best of her ability.

“I always go for every ball no matter where it is,” Duwearatchi said.

Her doubles partner, junior Lee Manthe, agreed.

“Shamara is the definition of someone who hustles and works for every point. She rarely, if ever, gives up,” Manthe said.

After a tough season last year, Duwearatchi and her team are ready for the fresh start this year. Duwearatchi and Manthe both agreed that improvement on the court needs to be day in and day out.

“We want to work on improving every single practice and every single match,” Manthe said.

Duwearatchi, a former Bloomington Kennedy Eagle, said she is working carefully on her serve, hoping more spin will earn her more aces.

There is one area from last season the team wouldn’t mind repeating. Last year, the Hamline women’s tennis team was named to the International Tennis Association All-Academic team for the third year in a row. The team achieved the requirements of a combined 3.2 GPA or higher.

As a first-year, Duwearatchi gained individual recognition as well, clinching a spot on the ITA Scholar Athlete team which requires a GPA of 3.5 or higher.

Unfortunately, the women haven’t started the season out as they’d hoped. Besides a solid win over Bethany Lutheran on Feb. 23, the season has stayed in the loss column.

Junior Carissa Wallerich and sophomore Rachael Barnes also took on double duty, winning at doubles and singles in the 8-1 win over Bethany Lutheran, but it was Duwearatchi who earned the recognition as Hamline’s woman Athlete of the Week. She was excited to hear the news.

“It means that not only I know I’m working hard, but [other] people are also noticing,” Duwearatchi said.
One person that notices every day is her doubles partner, Manthe. Although their styles differ, they use it to their advantage by keeping Duwearatchi near her comfort zone on the baseline while Manthe charges the net and tries to finish the point.

“Our styles work well together because we feed off of each other’s energy,” Duwearatchi said.

Both agreed that they are a good pairing.

“I think we play extremely well together,” Duwearatchi said.

The partnership is still young, and therefore, a lot of work still has to be done. Although Duwearatchi mentioned their excellent communication, the duo has only played six matches together.

When they get the chance in practice, they work on what is known as the “10-foot rope,” meaning when one player moves to get the ball, their partner stays within 10 feet of them.

“No matter where she or I go, the other follows within 10 feet. It’s crucial in doubles to stay and move together with your partner and to know where they are on the court,” Manthe said.

The pair will be looking for a win this weekend as the Hamline women’s tennis team travels to Winona to take on Saint Mary’s.

You might think those are all jokes, but this stuff can happen.

This is the reality of renting in a metropolitan area. On one hand, you’ll run into great, accommodating landlords willing to help shovel the walk free of snow and fix the faucets at a moment’s call; and then you’ll also run into potbellied scumbags with bedbugs crawling in their hair.

As a first-year trying to find off-campus housing, this can all be scary and foreboding. On top of that, for some of you, it might be very necessary. Off-campus living is the only way to escape the nosy RAs on patrol and the weird kids huffing glue and laughing until four in the morning every night.

So, in the spirit of student housing solidarity, we at The Oracle have assembled a list of helpful tips to aid in your search for off-campus sanity:

• Ask the landlord about bedbugs. It can cost thousands of dollars to eradicate them from a house, and you could potentially be obligated to pay for it.

• It might seem minor, but check all the water fixtures to see how long it takes for hot water to come out. This shower is going to be your wake-up buddy for a full year, you want it hot.

• Ask the landlord about previous housing violations. They are legally obligated to tell you.

• Find out what utilities you will have to pay and which the landlord will pay. In St. Paul, landlords are legally obligated to pay your garbage bill. Also, make sure to find out from your landlord what day your street does recycling.

• Is there on-site laundry? Is it free or coin-operated? Are you sharing the facilities with other tenants?

• What sort of maintenance is provided by your landlord? Do you have to shovel your own snow and mow your own lawn or will that be taken care of for you?

• Be sure that there is a mutual understanding between tenants and landlords about proper notice for entering the home. In Minnesota, landlords are only required to give “reasonable notice” before entering a property. This ambiguity leaves a lot of uncertainty, so make sure you know how much time you have to hide the evidence from last night’s party before your landlord shows up.

• Once you have your sights set on a property, contact the previous tenants about potential problems. They’ll be the most knowledgeable — and honest — about renting there.

• Take caution when reviewing leases online. Some landlords will claim an e-signature as a binding agreement.

• Obtain the real address of the landlord, not just a P.O. Box. That is a legal obligation. If they dodge this one, you know you’ll be working with somebody shady. While you’re at it, Google search the landlord’s name, just in case something bad comes up.

• Once the deal is set in stone and the lease is signed, take pictures of the property! Otherwise, your landlord can claim all sorts of damage when you move out, leaving a serious dent in your security deposit. The burden of proof is on you for this one.

• Finally, though it may be awkward, somebody must bring up the party factor: how much noise is too much noise? Maybe you aren’t a party person, but this is still important to know, because landlords can range from “Yeah, y’all can host the occasional kegger, just don’t sell cups,” to “If the neighbors complain I will evict you.”

We wish you the best of success in finding off-campus housing. Living independently will teach you a lot of things about life which the classrooms and the dormitories will never be able to fulfill. Oh, and you better learn how to cook something besides chicken nuggets and Ramen. Mommy Anderson won’t be there to make you burgers anymore.

A 2009 survey done by the American Council on Education (ACE) was designed to measure college campus readiness to serve student veterans and military students. In the wake of the passage of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the updated survey was presented at the Department of Defense Worldwide Education Symposium held last year in Las Vegas.

The survey assesses the current availability of specialized programs and services for these students at responding institutions and measures the progress made over the past three years according to ACE.

Responding institutions have improved in meeting the needs of veteran and military students in a number of ways, including:

• 71 percent of institutions that offer programs and services for military and veteran students have a dedicated office serving those students, up from 49 percent in 2009.

• 84 percent of the institutions that offer services for veteran and military students provide counseling to assist with post-traumatic stress disorder, compared to 16 percent in 2009.

• 55 percent of the institutions that offer services for veteran and military students have staff trained to assist with physical disabilities, up from 33 percent in 2009, and 36 percent have staff trained to assist specifically with brain injuries, up from 23 percent in 2009.

• 47 percent offer a veteran student lounge or gathering place, up from 12 percent in 2009.

As a student veteran attending Hamline, I can say the university is veteran-friendly.

That’s why I was a little shocked when I picked up the Star Tribune and saw the story, “Veterans recruited for MBA programs at University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.” The Star Tribune story said, “The school is launching what it sees as a unique initiative to recruit and support veterans for its master of business administration (MBA) program–selling itself as military friendly with the marketing slogan ‘Change your stripes.’”

There were talks between Hamline veterans with representatives from Hamline’s business school, more specifically the MBA program, about getting some outreach done for the college, but talks stalled in December 2012.

Also in 2012, a few undergraduate student veterans organized the Hamline University Veterans Affairs Organization. The student veterans group’s mission was to duplicate local successful veterans models like the ones at Metropolitan State and the University of Minnesota and at some point collaborate with the organization Student Veterans of America (SVA).

Student veterans felt it was important to solidify a veterans organization at Hamline after discovering there was no visible active undergraduate veterans group on campus, according to HUVAO president Lora Nichols who said, “The core membership in Hamline University Veterans Affairs Organization have a combined experience of over 40 years in the military and understand the needs of most veterans.”

Another important item to veterans attending Hamline is getting credits for military experience. It helps veterans pinpoint the educational path most relevant to their experience.

Most veterans at Hamline are non-traditional students with families, mortgages and full-time jobs. A shorter stay at Hamline, depending on the degree makes all the sense in the world.

This has been a hurdle not easily overcome by veterans on campus.

Currently, HU directs veterans to the American Council on Education (ACE) to have military experience processed and evaluated, then returned for an evaluation on the number of credits each veteran will receive.

It is the opinion of many veterans at Hamline that while ACE does a great job, Hamline University could probably handle processing veteran credits without an outside evaluator. Hamline must now decide how they will handle veterans and credit for military experience.

Chasen Crowsen, Voc-Rehab Counselor at Fort Snelling said, “It’s up to [Hamline] how they want to issue and handle credits for veterans based on their military experience. The Department of Veterans Affairs has nothing to do with it.”

Unfortunately, courting veterans and retention might be a little harder, and easier to put on a back burner.

On Friday, March 8, 2013, active duty Army personnel who currently attend or plan on attending college were dealt a serious blow when the Army announced the suspension of military benefits.

The military news authority, Stars and Stripes announced that the Army is suspending its tuition assistance program for soldiers newly enrolling in classes due to sequestration and other budgetary pressures. Army spokespersons say that the Army administrators understand the impacts of this action and will re-evaluate should the budgetary situation improve.

Supporting veterans in college and active duty military in the Army, Air Force, Marines, National Guard and Navy who seek higher education seems to be an honorable thing to do. Some of them have been permanently injured, disfigured, maimed (mentally and physically) and many who served will never see a college campus, or their families.

We have given up our time and lives to uphold the honor of a country that seeks to correct inequalities in other countries. Unfortunately, the country, which we serve, does not seem willing to correct the inequalities here at home.

Hamline is hosting an event this Wednesday called “Harlem Shake as Blackface: A Critical Look at Cultural Appropriation.”

To those supporting this event: your intentions are honorable, but you are confronting the wrong problems. There are bigger fish to fry. Any educational progress which you successfully pander will stay cloistered within your own politically correct community.

For the cultural hermits out there (I applaud your dedication), here’s what I’m talking about: “The Harlem Shake” is, according to the internet, a 30-second dance video based on the same-titled song by some random DJ from Brooklyn. It borrows the name from a dance actually originating from Harlem. But this new version is totally different.

It begins with a crowd of humdrum boring people doing boring things like staring at computers, reading books or talking on their phones. Then, as the song begins with a vocal “Con Las Terroristas,” one individual stands up and starts dancing obscenely, usually with some amount of air-humping involved.

Nobody seems to notice this first dancer, but suddenly, with a quick splice of video, everyone previously being boring is in colorful costumes, dancing mob-like, breaking free from their previous monotony to dance, seemingly without rhyme or reason. Easy to make, easy to edit and easy to upload. That’s the new-fangled Harlem Shake.

However, it’s not just a dance anymore. The viral video concept has spread across the state, the country and the globe. Eden Prairie, Wayzata, and Mound Westonka high schools all had incidents where students were punished; in Westonka’s case, police issued $75 citations for “riot-like behavior,” and the hockey players who instigated the “riot” missed the most important game of the season (which they lost). Suspended for dancing — oh, oops — “rioting.” In Eden Prairie, they even overturned a lunch table: those blasphemous “terroristas!”

As expected, Hamline’s branch of V.O.P. (Very Offended People) has concluded by nodding heads with each other that this supposed appropriation deserves the heavy hand of censorship. It makes fun of the real Harlem, they say. It’s a mockery of African-American culture.

Seriously? This is where you funnel your political energy? How about the real issues facing African-Americans: How about our corrupt justice system (highest incarceration rate in the world), which disproportionately jails minorities?

African-Americans make up 12.6 percent of our population but 38 percent of our prisons, according to the New York Times. Or how about our segregated public education system: 55 percent of all African-American students graduated from high school on time, compared to 78 percent of whites; almost half of the nation’s African-American students attend schools where graduation is not the norm, versus 11 percent of white students; and a major player in these educational disparities is that in the 49 states studied, the high schools with the highest minority enrollments received an average of $877 less in funding per student from government aid (source: Alliance for Excellent Education).

Please, focus your energy on something that matters. I guarantee you that the stereotyped “single black mother surviving off food stamps” cares much more about holding a steady job than about some young rich white kids producing cultural trivialities.

As Tom R. Kovach of Nevis, Minn. wrote to the Star Tribune on the topic of political correctness, “Enough is enough! Everything we say now is offensive to someone. Yet we overlook real problems, like unemployment, terrorism, climate change, etc. etc. Gee, did any of the words I used offend anyone?”

I appreciate the honorable intentions, but there are bigger problems: remember, flying robots with the potential to kill citizens still hover overhead across the continental states (and the government is now legally allowed to kill American citizens abroad who are only “suspected of terrorism”). On March 5, The Atlantic reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its highest point since 2007 while median household income in America hit a record low.

So yes, the Harlem Shake is a stupid video fad. Okay. But that’s what makes it so smart. That’s why it’s popular and why you’re…well…not.

Any form of art can be stupid or smart. What it seems to say and what’s it actually saying can be two very different things.

A good example of a “smart” Harlem Shake was one filmed in Egypt, where Islamist leadership continues to stifle free speech. The participants start in normal clothes, but once the bass drops and the video splice comes in, their outfits all morph to a poignant collective message. One man wears a Abu Ghraib-style bag on his head, another crossdresses, the third wears an 80s rock wig, and the guy in front dons a red-white-and-blue jacket. Another famous Harlem Shake incident in Egypt came when citizens danced in colorful costume outside the presidential palace in Cairo, the Islamist rulers’ headquarters.

Maraun Youssef, an Egyptian Harlem Shaker, explained on YouTube: “That’s the point! Just get crazy! Do something you wouldn’t do!”

Students in Tunisia did just that with their own Harlem Shakes, broadcasting their dissidence with Islamist censorship. As a result, they’ve received death threats from religious conservatives and one Shaker got his head beaten in, requiring 12 stitches.

Within this trend is the seeds of social revolution. Communications technology always holds the answers to social change. Lenin overthrew the Russian aristocracy with the newly-invented telegram.

“Anonymous,” which is often featured in Harlem shake videos, uses the corporate technique of branding, the diffusal of blame common to bureaucracy and their self-taught computer expertise to broadcast the flaws of our modern political system. The Harlem Shake, like Anonymous, is surprisingly smart; but it’s not the type of “smart” which old people bore you with in the classroom.

Appropriation like the Harlem Shake is the aesthetic future that modern technology is steering us towards. Sorry, Professor Bookworm, but plagiarism is smart; “critical dialogues” are not. Think it’s just a stupid video? You’re right. But stupid videos are effective, and funny. Get people laughing: that’s why Jon Stewart gets more views than NBC Nightly News.

I leave you with a quote by Don French of Edina, who wrote to the Star Tribune about the Harlem Shake: “Even at my advanced age of 69, I can still remember the exuberance of youth. I try to recapture it as often as I can.”