The Carrier

Near the end of my college career I am finally seeing how beautiful balance REALLY is. Throughout life, and especially college, I have done a variety of things. However, I have often tended to lean into one area or another more than anything else.Through these experiences I might have gained a lot of insight about one particular area, but I often lost my ability to see how this particular area relates to the rest of my life. Some examples of this are phases in my life where I have lived, breathed and eaten Braves baseball. Or periods in life where I have done nothing but help other people. Or even periods in my life where I have stuffed myself with church.None of these things are wrong in themselves, and even short seasons of complete focus on one of these areas or many other areas can be good, but life as a whole should be composed as a balance of all the things that make up a person’s fulfillment - the fulfillment of their mind, strength, heart and soul. In Matthew 22, Jesus says that the greatest commandment in all of the law is to love God “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Mark 12:30 features Jesus saying to “love God with all our strength”). By saying this He is saying that even God wants to be close to you and wants to see you flourish in more ways than just your soul’s understanding of Him. God wants you to love Him by having a life where all of you is focused on Him, and, subsequently, all of you is healthy.It has taken me a long time to grasp a glimpse of what this means, but through the help of some friends, I have begun to let this realization set me free. I am being set free to enjoy every area of my life simultaneously instead of trying to be perfect in one exclusive area. The need for this has become convincing through the realization that my soul suffers when my body is not being taken care of or my mind suffers when my heart is not being taken care of. With this said, I see that my ability to be great in one area is limited by my greatness in all the others. So with this said, I am even more grateful for the liberal arts education Berry is giving me, and even more for the concept of the Head, Heart and Hands. I think that we should be people who grow in every area of our lives simultaneously. So I no longer want to be solely an extreme Braves fan, a great humanitarian or a fanatical church goer. I want to be a person who loves others like I love myself (as Jesus says is the second command in Matthew 22). To do this I have to first love myself by having balance in my life. Ecclesiastes 6:18b even says that “The man who fears God will avoid all extremes.” I want to trust God enough not to be an unproportional person in any area — He will take care of the rest.

 Intramurals at Berry this year have caused me more of a headache and greater frustration than the ninth hole at Stonebridge. For those of you who are not familiar with said hole at Stonebridge Golf Course, it is long, has significant hazards and is never easy. All of the descriptions of hole nine aptly fit the way that I would describe intramurals this year, except for the long part. The most serious complaint that I have had, and that I share with many other students to whom I have spoken, is the unprecedented length of intramural seasons this year. A two-week basketball season followed by a single-elimination tournament is unacceptable for the most popular, or at least second most popular, intramural at Berry. The reasons given by new Intramural Director Ricky Williams at the basketball captain’s meeting were trite and unsubstantiated. The first reason given was that he did not want us to begin the season in Richards and then move into the Cage. Richards has been and hopefully will continue to be an acceptable place to hold basketball games. I’m not sure at what point we became too good to use this perfectly good building. For goodness sake, the ice machine is still running there.The second reason, even more baffling than the first, was that the season had to be completed by a specific date so that Berry could send its champion to the state tournament. I cannot speak to the situation in women’s basketball, but for the men there were only three teams with any chance to even qualify for this honor because the champion had to come from the upper division, and there were only three teams in it. It was also troubling to me to find that the student intramural supervisors approached Williams about extending the season for the other 10 or more teams that did not qualify for the state tournament, and he swiftly rejected the idea, saying that it would be better next year. That is not good enough for this senior.I’m a senior, but not a senior citizen, and it frustrates me greatly that the intramural Web site has become what it has. As long as I have been here, schedules and statistics were posted on the site. The new system involves Microsoft Word documents and scoreboard operators/statisticians who no longer keep stats. A basic understanding of Dreamweaver, the Web page software that Berry uses, or a program like it, by someone employed in the intramural department, would at the very least provide students with the ease of not having to download a Word document in order to see when their team plays. An active page could also reflect changes in the schedule that a downloaded file cannot do. Just Tuesday, my softball team forfeited a game that we were unaware of. It was not listed on the most recently posted schedule on the page, and no one on the team was aware that we had a game. Ane-mail had been sent to our team captain, but with as much spam as we receive every day, it is easy to skip over an e-mail from an address that you do not recognize. An updated schedule online would  solve problems like this.We live in a statistically-crazed society, and while the number of points that I scored throughout the basketball season matters not, it is unfortunate when things that we have come to expect, all of a sudden, are no longer there. The final thing that I would like to address is the Intramural Golf Scramble to be held at Stonebridge. An e-mail was sent that said that the first three teams to register would be entered for free. However, if you are not a part of those first three teams, each member of your team is out $20. That is quite a difference in cost. I did not participate in the scramble last year, but I did two years ago, and then it was $5 per person. On the same topic of Stonebridge, I would like to publicly acknowledge the efforts of Brian Farrer, golf coach, and others who orchestrated the arrangement that Berry students are offered at Stonebridge. It is a great public course, and I commend those who have made it affordable to us poor college students.In closing, I understand that with new leadership any organization will experience transition pains. However, as the year closes and very little has changed since August, I am disappointed that visible progress has not been made. It is unfortunate that the program has slipped from what it once was, and I hope that next year brings a renewed effort from the intramural department, from the director down to the newest freshman official.

 Dining Hall deserves a round of applause in light of the recent improvements and changes they have made.After making it through the surprisingly fast-moving line into Dining Hall, you make it into the dining area and immediately notice several changes. The bread is no longer kept in individual bread bags. Now, it’s kept in a breadbox that makes it easier to get to and keeps the bread fresher. Gone are the days of balancing your plate in one hand while trying to open the bread bag, reach in and grab your choice pieces of bread. Also, in the beginning days of bathing suit season, most of us are trying to (for at least a short amount of time) eat healthier. Dining Hall has catered to these needs by having fresh fruit — strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, apples, pears, bananas, etc. They have also improved the vegetable choices offered.The salads have also seen a great improvement. The lettuce is green and fresh, and Dining Hall has even instituted a delicious Caesar salad option for a change from the usual salad bar. The salad bar itself has seen a face-lift. Well, at least the dressing containers have. Now we don’t have to stand for 30 minutes waiting for the dressing to come out of the container. Instead, the dressing is in squirt bottles that make fixing your salad quick and easy.There are now more condiments available on the tables in the Dining Hall, too. In addition to the expected salt, pepper, ketchup and mustard, now you can have A-1 sauce and soy sauce whenever you want them. For those of you who choose to dine upstairs in Valhalla, you probably have noticed some changes up there, as well. There are now pre-packaged side dish options and new menu items periodically. These are also helpful if you’re trying to find a healthy meal.By polling students and taking the comment cards seriously, the dining crew has taken into account our thoughts, concerns and suggestions, and have visibly done something about them. Since all students are required by our mandatory meal plans to eat either in Dining Hall or Valhalla, we are happy to see improvements in the quality of the food. We also greatly appreciate the employees and student workers who spend hours on their feet taking care of our specific orders and making sure that everything is made the way we want it. So thank you, everyone who is involved with this process, for making dining on campus better.�

Lauren Wright, Graphics Editor

As I drive onto Berry’s beautiful campus and see the sign that says “Gate of Opportunity,” I feel thankful to be able to attend one of the most outstanding comprehensive colleges in the South, as well as a great place to give me a foundation for life. However, as a lesbian, I do not have the opportunity to fully speak my voice. 

In the early days, the conservative Protestant Martha Berry required her students to take religious courses and attend chapel service on Sundays. Although we still have the motto “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister,” religious activities were no longer mandatory as the college reformed in the 1960s. Berry is not, and never was, affiliated with any specific religion. 

Many Christians believe that homosexuality does not align with their faith. They have asked homosexuals over and over, “How can you consider yourself a Christian when you are also gay?” Although the Bible does not support homosexuality, it does not condemn it either.

I believe scriptural misunderstandings are a direct result of translation and societal changes. Out of over 31,000 verses, I can count how many times this issue appears in the Bible on one hand. There is no Hebrew translation for the word “homosexual.” In the English version, Leviticus 18:22 has changed from “Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is abomination” to “Homosexuality is absolutely forbidden, for it is an enormous sin.” But do not disregard the context of this verse. It deals with rituals in the temples. The interpretations are endless, but some religious scholars have interpreted it to mean that sexual acts, hetero- or homosexual, performed in the temple is forbidden.

William Shakespeare once said, “Even the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” History has proven that. The Bible has been misused to defend bloody crusades, to support slavery, apartheid and segregation, to support Hitler’s Holocaust and to persecute Jews, to execute women as witches and even to support the Ku Klux Klan. 

Despite personal interpretations, doesn’t the Bible teach love above all commands? I believe the first and foremost truth to human life is to love one another. Secondly, questioning is the only way you can gain a higher truth. Albert Einstein said, “The important thing is to not stop questioning.” 

The Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality, states, “We are living in a time like no other for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people. Never have the stakes been so high and never have the opportunities for real change been within our reach.” Our generation is more accepting of differences than any before us. We should not just sit back and wait especially since we live in a nation that is supposed to be a free country. We should push to the very end to gain equality, especially at a college campus that is supposed to be welcoming through the Gate of Opportunity. If we can rid the bias, ignorance and prejudice that have shaken our nation for decades, then we will have a wonderful place to live freely and openly.

Before I graduate, I hope to see LISTEN, Berry’s GLBT alliance, gain official club status. Without it, students do not feel accepted to the loving community that Berry says it is. If I knew how suffocated I would feel, perhaps I would not have jumped for joy when I received my acceptance letter.

Countless schools similar to Berry give their GLBT community a voice. Agnes Scott, unlike Berry, is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, and, also unlike Berry, has a support group called the LBTQA Collective. Mercer University is Baptist and has a Gay-Straight Forum. Aquinas College, Baldwin-Wallace University and Eckerd College are four-year, private, liberal arts institutions with a religious affiliation and forms of GLBT alliance. They all focus on outreach, education, acceptance and equality on their campus. Why not Berry?

The United States Declaration of Independence states that we are given certain unalienable rights, including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” I cannot pursue happiness if I cannot be recognized for who I am and openly have a girlfriend on campus. Just because this is a private institution does not mean that it can deny these rights or my freedom of speech.  I also hope to receive full civil rights from the state, including the right to marry. 

For one person to use personal religious and moral beliefs to deny homosexuals basic civil rights and to discriminate against sexual or gender minorities is simply unjust and un-American. This is not a Christian nation. It is a nation of freedom. This is not a Christian college. Do the members of Berry really know the difference between the image it portrays and what it truly wants to be?

As the presidential election approaches, many people are growing anxious about the candidates, but none more than those in the Democratic Party.  At this point, the Republican Party has already secured its nominee and is waiting agog, like the rest of us, on who will win the Democratic nomination.  Thus far, Barack Obama is winning, but only by a modest 146 delegates. While many of my peers seem to be fascinated by Obama, I remain skeptical.  I will be frank about my conservative context. How experienced and prepared each of the three presidential contenders is, and how well equipped to deal with the incredibly complex situation in the Middle East is very important to me.Most Americans are looking for some specific, tangible answers — answers that many politicians give today.  I am critical of Obama because he hasn’t provided any precise solutions in his well-spoken rhetoric.  Unfortunately, the primary elections encourage candidates to try to keep their true views hidden and appear more to the left or the right to appeal to their base constituency. It is important that we, as responsible citizens, be critical of all the candidates and compare them to their political records. This poses a problem for Obama because he has an inadequate record with which he can be compared with Clinton and McCain.Obama might have good intentions and great promises, but what has he actually done?  Being a senator for only a few years gives Obama little to no experience in foreign affairs or economic policy, two issues that will be incredible challenges for the next president.  Until we receive straight forward questioning of Obama and specific answers, I will continue to be critical of his campaign. Another issue that needs to be mentioned is the Jeremiah Wright controversy, which began when video tapes were uncovered that exposed Obama’s pastor of 20 years as a whacko and racist in his views against white Americans and the United States. I won’t venture to say that Obama believed the vile things that were spoken in the videos, like some would.  On the other hand, I do believe in the old proverb, “You are who your friends are.” It is important for all of us to apply this principle to ourselves and, especially, those in public office, because of their position of power.  Those in power must be careful not to accidentally lend credence to those undeserving of it.  For this reason, a question is raised as to why Obama would attend a church or be married by a pastor who makes such disgusting claims?  I must ask, does the senator have good judgment?  It would appear that going to a church that preaches outright false views of whites and America for 20 years would call into question someone’s judgment. I ask you, if you heard any of those statements made in your church or by anyone in general, wouldn’t that send a red flag in the air? I would assuredly not associate myself with anyone who made those types of statements.  I have a feeling you wouldn’t either. Obama is a good man and, perhaps, will be a good senator, but I do not, at this time, believe that he has the qualifications and experience to the President of the United States.In my eyes, the threat of terrorism and views of foreign policy are the foremost issues.�

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” When Abraham Lincoln spoke those words in 1861, the country was preparing for a war that would split the nation. The house in question now is Oak Hill, the heartbeat of our heritage at Berry. Recently, College President Stephen R. Briggs hosted a dinner in Oak Hill to raise money for the Cage. While I have been a huge supporter of him in the past, Briggs’ decision to have the dinner at Oak Hill, at Martha’s table no less, may have cost the school more than any donations it received. Briggs ignored the requests of Oak Hill’s curator, Jennifer Dickey, to not hold the dinner there as well as the tenants of common courtesy and respect by having the dinner there. As a result, Dickey post-dated a resignation. Hopefully, the administration will pay attention and she will not have to go through with it.It is not as if Berry is lacking in beautiful reception halls to impress wealthy donors (House of Dreams, anyone?). The dinner, along with the disrespect shown Dickey, culminated in her resignation. The situation may have cost Berry a valuable resource in Dickey. Dickey, or Jennifer as she is known by all who work for and adore her, is not some random and expendable part that can be replaced. She is a legacy at Berry, one of the few remaining who went through her entire scholastic career, from grammar school through college, here. Her family helped make Berry into what it is today, and her mother authored the definitive book on Berry’s history. Dickey has a wealth of knowledge and a passion for this school unattainable by any mere faculty or staff member. She is an inspiration and a friend to those who work under her. Her class in Public History reminded me why I chose my major. Losing her would be an unacceptable blow to this school.Like the furniture put at risk in Oak Hill, Dickey is irreplaceable. I came to Berry because of the message behind the school, one that hard work and a creative mind could help anyone rise to the loftiest of heights. That was Martha’s message. With tuition and boarding increasing annually, that message is increasingly coming with the addendum that only the wealthy can attain their dreams. $30,000 a year for school will alienate most Southern kids, those that Martha sought to help. I suppose if our message is no longer worth holding on to, then neither is our heritage. But I reject the asserted worthlessness of either, and say that together they are what make Berry unique. Without them, we are just another exclusive private school. I understand the need for fundraising. Berry students benefit greatly from the generosity of others. Fundraising, perhaps more than anything else, was Martha Berry’s greatest contribution to the school she built. But Oak Hill is a museum, and to endanger the artifacts and history of that house to raise a little money is unconscionable. No amount of money is worth prostituting our heritage. I don’t care if someone wrote a million dollar check because of the dinner. It is not worth our soul, and it’s not worth Jennifer Dickey.

When I tell people that I am an English major with a concentration in literature, invariably the first question they ask me is, “Are you going to be a teacher?”  After I reply in the negative, the next question they ask is, “What else is an English major good for?”  This exchange can probably be applied to history and philosophy majors, as well, although sometimes people might substitute teaching with practicing law.  I’m so tired of hearing these questions, but I know that people have good reason to ask them.  Unlike other majors, such as public relations or accounting, the English department offers no practical classes that prepare us for anything aside from going to graduate school.  What do I do when I don’t want to go to graduate school, but I’m not prepared for anything else?  What if, as a freshman, I only knew that I wanted to be an English major and that I didn’t want to teach, but felt that teaching was my only option?  Or, what if I knew that I wanted to be a book editor, for example, but didn’t know how an English degree would prepare me for the practical side of publishing?  I don’t suggest adding more practical classes to these majors, because, as Whitney Crouch, a junior history major said, “One of the neat things about getting a humanities degree is your resulting versatility…The department could run the risk of pigeonholing people into only a narrow selection of jobs if it got too involved in career development.”  That’s why I’m so excited about next year’s implementation of the Quality Enhancement Plan, Plan4ward.  Incoming freshman who wish to major in more theoretical areas like English, philosophy and history will have a much better guide for laying out their career development practically.According to the plan, students will work closely with their advisers “to create a working plan of curricular and experiential choices for their four years at Berry….The plan that they create will be a first attempt to think through what they want to do at Berry and how those steps will help them clarify and advance beyond their goals at Berry.”  The administration plans to create a database on VikingWeb that will include “out-of-classroom resources and opportunities at Berry.”  This way, students will know which on-campus experiences would best supplement their classroom learning.  My favorite part of the plan is that advisers will receive extra training to prepare them for helping students figure out how to reach and exceed their career goals.  They will be even more informed than they are now about what kind of internships we need to apply for, or what our post-undergraduate plans should be to maximize our job opportunities.With the implementation of Plan4ward, there will be hope for us impractical English majors yet.

In last week’s Campus Carrier, there was a well-written, well-thought out, supportive article titled “Berry not as welcoming as its motto suggests.”  

In her article, junior Amanda Powers supports the rights of the campus GLBT support group LISTEN and encourages students and the administration not to discriminate based on a person’s race, gender, religion or sexual orientation.  

A reader need only to flip the paper over to encounter the exact opposite of what Powers was writing.  

“There’s no such thing as a pregnant man” has a catchy title and an interesting subject, but that’s about its only redeeming qualities.  

I found it funny that while an article on one page advocates understanding of the GLBT group on campus, an article on the other page calls a transgender man “an attention-starved individual thriving on the constant coverage of what would be regarded as a circus sideshow 30 years ago.”  

I actually heard about Thomas Beatie through my conservative, Christian mother who deemed him a “strong individual who’s made good life choices.”  

Now, if my conservative mother can consider Beatie a ‘strong’ man, why is it so difficult for Post?  Perhaps he’s never actually met a transgender individual and discussed with them how difficult it was to decide to go through transition and to lose family members or friends because of that decision.  

As for the “attention-starved” bit, I don’t recall ever hearing about Beatie thrusting himself into the limelight.  Oprah isn’t exactly a tabloid or the freak show stand.  

Perhaps Beatie saw this attention as a way to get more representation for a group of people that doesn’t get a lot of (positive) representation.  I see him as a man—notice that I continue to address Beatie as a ‘he’—who has made many difficult choices, however unusual they may be to the average American, but ended up in a very positive place.  

And since when has pregnancy had something to do with a person’s identity?  

Pregnancy is a way of bringing new life into the world.  You know, I’ve heard of ‘punk,’ ‘prep’ and ‘goth,’ but never a social group called ‘pregnant.’  It’s a stage of life, yes, but not an identity.  

Kyler, did you ‘choose’ to be a man?  No.  That’s the whole ‘transgender’ deal.  A transgender person is someone who feels that they’ve been born in the wrong body, the wrong gender.  

To go through transition is to completely change a person’s life.  It takes courage and a lot of support.  

I respect Thomas Beatie’s choice to become pregnant for his family’s sake, and I also respect his right to be called ‘him’ if that’s who he feels he is.  He isn’t in an “in-between state”—he seems to be right where he wants to be.  

I don’t mean to be rude, but it takes a lot more to be a man than God making you one.  

So please, before you accuse someone of simply being the latest freak who’s limelight will fade and give rise to the next, consider what it took for that individual to have the courage to be in the limelight in the first place.

Regardless of how long you’ve been walking around campus, you can’t help but notice the grounds. And recently, they’ve been looking especially good.While our lungs are yellow with pollen, let’s take a minute between sneezing fits to give the grounds crew and physical plant a round of applause. It seems there is always a grounds crew student worker hard at work with a rake, lawn mower or weed eater. They take good care of the grass and flowerbeds. Pulling onto the campus, you will notice the flowers that decorate the Gate of Opportunity. Nothing spells “Berry is opportunity” to visitors like a nice flowerbed. But our physical plant didn’t stop there. They spelled “BC” with the flowers. Most people can’t even keep topiaries alive, so that was pretty impressive.Once out of you car and walking around, you will be even more aware of their hard work. If it weren’t for the grounds crew, we would each need our own machetes to make it through the lawn in front of the library. Not only is this lawn well cut and cared for, it looks like the grass itself is in excellent shape. They have done an exemplary job to prepare this grass for the hundreds of feet that will walk on it come May 10. All of the other grassy areas are beautiful as well—this one is, just perhaps, the sod more trod. We are perhaps most thankful that despite everything else they do, they still have time to pour ant-killer on the abnormally large anthills that dot the campus. We’re afraid to stand in one place for more than two seconds for fear of a repeat experience of ants in our pants. For those of you who have never suffered this, you cannot fully appreciate the white powder that you see on the anthills, but trust us—you’re glad it’s there.Several weeks ago, a strong line of thunderstorms came through and knocked down two trees — one in front of Evans and the other behind Green. You might not have even seen the one in front of Evans because the grounds crew had it cleaned up and cleared away before people could even take notice.Consistently during storms and rain showers, grounds people are always clearing out gutters knee-deep in rain water so that our roads don’t flood and so our sidewalks don’t look like small lakes.They change tires, clean up road-kill and do everything they can to keep Berry looking like it does on all of the promotional materials. These heroes of our 26,400 acres go the extra mile to protect our environment. They work in conjunction with the push to recycle and they are responsible for putting out the bins and then collect and weigh recycled materials for the Recycle Mania contest. Without all of their hard work, our campus would not be what it is today.

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled on a special “The Dank” segment senior Keith Brooks made and posted on YouTube. The video was “Hey, Ben Folds, watch this.” But this is not about Ben Folds, so it’s OK to keep on reading. I promise I won’t mention him again. Brooks’ point in his video was that freedom of speech is one of the most important things to fight for. But he goes on to say, “Where were these freedom fighters when the papers were stolen? Where were they when plays were being censored or art wasn’t allowed to be shown on campus because it was too controversial? Where were they when books were banned or when Listen wasn’t allowed to be a club for so long?”He also says that every opinion counts. And I couldn’t agree more.

Why are some voices on campus being heard, but not others? Why are groups such as Listen or the much less controversial Churchill Society denied official group status, even after, in the Churchill Society’s case, they’ve met recommendations and been approved by the Student Life Council? Why hasn’t anyone said anything lately?I had been thinking about this a lot when I read the letter to the editor in last week’s Opinions section from College President Stephen R. Briggs and Vice President of Student Affairs Debbie Heida.  In the letter, they wrote, “… we value freedom of expression because we value the dignity and worth of individuals. At Berry, as at most every college, members of the community are not permitted to denigrate or disparage others because of personal attributes—whether gender, race, religion or sexual orientation.” What kind of message is being sent to students when a few years ago, students who covered dorm rooms with  “Dirty f*g lives here,” were condemned for being hateful and demeaning, but a gay and lesbian alliance won’t be recognized or funded on campus? Isn’t it just as demeaning that those victimized by this kind of graffiti don’t have an official group through which to voice their opinions?According to junior and Listen supporter Becky McDaniel, Listen’s goals “are first to provide a safe and non-judgmental place on campus for LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender], questioning students and their allies. Second, to foster understanding among Berry’s LGBT community and other communities. As a group, we’re not religiously affiliated, but as individuals, many of us are, and we identify strongly with the Berry ideal of being ‘Christian in spirit.’”So, what does it mean to be “Forever Christian, Always Welcoming” as the Berry motto says?  It certainly means, as Briggs’ and Heida’s letter said, that Berry does not discriminate in any way against anyone based on race, gender, religion or sexual orientation. I hope no one disagrees with that. So, why no club? Why no school funding or vote in the student government? Why isn’t Berry more welcoming of Listen?   I don’t know about anyone else, but I want a real reason why Listen isn’t a real group. Until Berry truly becomes “always welcoming,” there will be some opinions that just don’t count.�