The Current Online

Academic Achievement
Danielle Benedict, Sherri Berislavich, Margaret Berter, Angela Brincefield, Sandra K. Clark, Courtney Edwards, Timothy Enke, Linda Fager, Jeremy Flippin, Jennifer Giacone, Kimber Grainger, Su Hui Grondski, Andrea L. Harrelson, Christina Hatfield, Coleman Thomas Hook, Susan Horovitz, Erik Johnson, Bradley Lord, Raun Mason, Elaine Persaud, Terrie Peterson, Susan J. Probst, Jennifer Reeder, Christy Sipek, Brenda Sloane, Sally Stearley, Gary Testerman, Joshua Tucker and Robin Zeigler

Honors Program Graduates
Gina Katzer

PTK Enhanced Membership
Emily Gossage, Lois Robbins, Melissa Sutphin, Ed Wheeler and Karen Wommer

All-Missouri Academic Team Members
Gina Katzer and Deborah Madden

Shoreline Awards
Art/Photograhpy
1st Place: Gabe Corroll-Dolci, 2nd Place: Angela Bond and 3rd Place: Angela Bond
Prose
1st Place: Ernest B. Hogan, 2nd Place: Jason Wendleton and 3rd Place: Jamie Giro
Poetry
1st: Jamie Giro, 2nd: Brian Waldram and 3rd: Paul Lessane

Crystal M. Field Award for Student Writing
Jason Wendleton

Outstanding Alumni Achievement
Roy Mussett

Outstanding Alumni Service
Gail Barham

Debater of the Year
Leviticus Coppock

Individual Events Speaker of the Year
Michael Spruill

Outstanding Baseball Athlete
Skyler Stromsmoe

Outstanding Volleyball Athlete
Amy Ruff

Outstanding Student in Math, Physics or Engineering
Joshua Tucker

Outstanding Student Leader
Jason Blunk

Outstanding Contribution to a Special Interest Group
Student – Angee Mullis
Employee – Keet Kopecky

Outstanding Contribution to the College
Student – Margaret Berter
Employee – Karen Halastik

Outstanding Student Advocate
Jennifer Osterberg and Christopher Osterberg

LV security guard restores order in post-war Middle East

by JAMIE GIRO and DAVID VOGEL

For many people, the war in Iraq is yesterday’s news and they’ve already returned to regularly scheduled programming. However, for Longview employees Paul Gorham and John Thulin, the reality of war is just now making itself known and doing so in a way that most of us will never experience. Gorham and Thulin are Army reservists who have recently been called to active duty and stationed at Ft. Riley as part of the 1139th Military Police. They’re awaiting deployment to Iraq.
Long after most of the U.S. forces have left Iraq, media coverage of the conflict is out of the headlines and raging debates about the war have quieted to whisper, Gorham and Thulin will be in the middle east doing a job. With unknown enemies hiding among the Iraqi citizenry and the threat of being a sniper’s target a constant possibility, theirs is the task of helping to keep civil peace and restore order in the war’s aftermath.
While awaiting his impending “go” orders to be issued, Gorham sat down with The Current’s David Vogel for an interview concerning his deployment and his views on the war. Following are excerpts from that interview:

What are your initial feelings about heading over there?
PG: I hate it. You want to know the truth – I really do because I leave my friends and my family, especially my family, but I know that it’s a necessary evil. I mean, take a look at those buildings, (the World Trade Center in flames). You know what I’m saying? To me, it’s a necessary evil. As far as whether the president is right or wrong, all he’s got to do is say “go”. I’m a soldier. I have to go when he tells me to go. But, initially, I just hate leaving my family and friends.

What about some of the feedback you’ve received from them?
PG: They support me. They’re very supportive on it, they miss me. I’ve got a nine-year-old little girl and a son that just turned 18 yesterday. I’ve got a step-daughter that’s going to have a kid in May and I’m going to be a grandfather and missing out. But they’re all very supportive, especially my kids. I went to Kosovo in October of ’01 and stayed there until May of ’02, and they were a little bit younger, not as supportive as far as being a pain in the butt to their mom! My little girl, she doesn’t understand it, nine years old, and I don’t really know how to help her understand it. So what I do with her, she’s got a mission while I’m gone and that’s to keep my pillow warm. I just let her know every so often that I couldn’t (go over there) without her keeping my pillow warm, so that makes her a part of it.

How do you feel the war has gone thus far?
PG: I’m not surprised. I’m actually kind of glad it’s like this. As far as how the war was going to go, the only thing I’m concerned about is Al-Qaeda. I’m sure they’re going to have something to say about this as time goes on. It’s kind of hard getting a terrorist organization as compared to a government. The government I knew was going down. We did this once before, they folded underneath us. Nothing seems to have changed their frame; they’re fighting for a guy that they’re afraid of. You know, for some reason, when you’re afraid of somebody and you’re fighting for them, it’s not the same thing as something you can get behind and really believe in.

Do you think we’ve hit Al-Qaeda significantly, or are they still in full force?
PG: My opinion is that we’ve hit them significantly. Everywhere that we’ve gone they’ve crumbled in a matter of days. . . . The guys I’m with, they’re a bunch of great guys. It’s funny because when we were in Kosovo it was the same thing. When I first hooked up with these guys, it was like, “Man, I have to put my life in the hands of these guys!” By the time we got over there, I realized that that was a good thing, that they were capable of holding up. That’s what I feel about the Army – we take people from all walks of life and turn them into a team.

How is the military prepared to fight an underground force?
PG: We’ve done this once before in Vietnam. They didn’t fight in conventional ways and actually Saddam’s troops didn’t fight in conventional ways, either. There are rules of engagement and laws of war that you have to go by. The United States is very good about training us on those and they do let us know that if you cross one of them, you will be prosecuted for war crimes violation. We wouldn’t sign the U.N.’s treaty on that because we prosecute our own and because of our constitution, we don’t want them coming in and just yanking our people out.

How do you feel about us fighting on several different fronts?

PG: It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve done that – it looks like it’s not going to be the last. I figure sooner or later they’re going to have to start the draft in order to do that, though. My line of thinking is that they would have to start the draft in order to fight on [different fronts]. I hate that because my personal feeling, having an 18 and 19-year-old, is that I don’t think anyone under the age of 25 should have to meet their first, youngest adult years in life on a field of combatÖ As far as multiple fronts, it’s possible to do. Like I said, we’ve done it before, so I think we can do it.

How much longer do you think we’ll be in Iraq and do you see a significant need for policing?
PG: Yeah, we’re going to have to. This is what we did to them last time: went in, got them to rise up against him, left them alone. Same thing with Afghanistan; went in, helped them get the Russians out, left them alone, let the power back in there. We’ve got to make sure that they can pick themselves a leader under whatever form of government they choose, and get a government set up, but it takes time. Kosovo has proven that. We’ve been there for four years, almost five, and they’re just now getting government set up. It takes timeÖ I picture we could be there, my guess would probably be ten years. But then as soon as we get [the job completed], we need to get out.

Do you think we should use the U.N.?
PG: In Iraq? No. I’m against it. They sat there on our soil and talked us down like dogs. I’m absolutely against the use of the U.N. The nations that went in there and volunteered, the coalition of the willing, should be the ones to help set up the government. My line of thinking is that if they didn’t help us with it, they don’t need to be involved with it. I believe that the U.N. proved that they are an irrelevant government body by choosing to do what they did. The people of Iraq proved to me that we need to be in there when they were jumping on that statue of Sadaam. That validated to me us being there.

by JAMIE GIRO

Early on in Laurel Canyon, there’s a scene in which Alex (Kate Beckinsale) sits in on a recording session of a band that’s trying repeatedly to nail the final track of their oft-delayed new album. As she blankly stares at the performance, Jane (Frances McDormand), the album’s producer, turns to Alex and asks for her outsider’s opinion about what’s “missing” in the song. To this Alex replies, “I don’t know I don’t really feel it.” Then she motions to the musicians on the other side of the glass, “And I don’t think they do, either.”
This comment describes Laurel Canyon itself. It’s fine in many areas, but it doesn’t seem that writer/director Lisa Cholodenko (High Art) was really feeling it while penning the script, which led to my not feeling it as a viewer.
From the outset, the film is on a mission to set up its chosen conflicts, contriving plot points to ensure that they happen. It opens with an awkwardly passionless sex scene between the uptight-by-upbringing Alex and her fiancÈ, uptight-by-choice Sam (Christian Bale), in which she keeps her shirt on and he asks her things such as, “Are you okay?” at obviously ill-timed moments.
Soon, they’re off to California where psychiatrist-in-the-making Sam can start his residency at a nearby mental hospital and Alex can continue her own doctoral studies. The plan is to stay temporarily at his “really weird” mother’s “empty” house in the hills until they find a more permanent place to move into.
However, to Sam’s disgust and Alex’s dismay, they walk into the exclusive hillside pad to find Sam’s mother, Jane, getting high with a little help from her friends in the band. Instead of leaving, though, Sam and Alex attempt to coexist with the party animals.
Soon, Jane’s world piques Alex’s curiosity and she forgoes planned apartment searches and her studies to get a taste of that world. And what a world it is. Jane is the mythical unicorn of what yesteryear’s hippie kingdom strove to be: a fully-functioning and highly successful member of society that she lives in on her own terms, and without ever having sold out. Besides her home in the canyon, she has a beach house that she loans to her ex-husband solely because “he needs it.” She smokes pot, makes records pretty much on deadline, loves whoever she wants, never takes insults seriously and enjoys every moment in the process of life.

At the current moment, that process has led Jane to take up with Ian (Allesandro Nivola), lead singer for the band and roughly the same age as Sam. And before you can say “Jerry Springer” Alex is in the middle of a sexual awakening with Jane and Ian.
Sam, though, is having an awakening himself in the form of the hospital’s second-year resident, Sara (Natascha McElhone, with an annoying – how do you say? – accent).
All of this is the springboard for the characters’ leaps through the emotional wringer, which supposedly makes them stronger when they emerge on the other side.
The undeniable strength of this film is the wonderful acting. McDormand is superb as she shows her range to be almost infinite. Up-and-comer Nivola steals practically every scene he’s in, though part of that may be attributed to the fact that McDormand let him have a few of them. And it’s fun to watch the steady Bale and Beckinsale, if only to monitor their career paths.
But most people aren’t endeared to films with great acting and unresolved storylines – which is exactly what
Laurel Canyon is. After the film winds itself as tight as Sam, just when it seems that the tension in the film will explode in the form of some sort of catharsis for itself and its characters, it instead throws its hands in the air as the end credits say “thanks for coming”.
It’s the type of vague ending that many directors will defend as being “artistic”, though the word they’re probably looking for is “lazy”. The only thing that salvaged the finale from being a complete disappointment was that I was never pulled in in the first place.

by JAMIE GIRO

While in a bookstore one day, I ran across a coffee mug with a quote printed on it that was attributed to a famous author. It read, “It’s not what you write, it’s the way that you write it.” As I watched Bend It Like Beckham, those coffee mug words kept coming back to me.
Beckham exists in its own world, a land that borders contrivances, stereotypes predictability, but never allows them a passport for free reign. Yes, plot devices tend to be a bit forced at times. Yes, the film placates to audience expectation. And, yes, there is a predictability to the unfolding of scenes, as well as to the film as a whole. But, somehow director/co-writer Gurinder Chadha pulls it off with charm to spare.
Jess (Parminder Nagra) is an immigrant Sikh raised in England with her parents, who are devoted to traditional ways, and her promiscuous sister. And as if it wasn’t hard enough growing up in such a clash of cultures, Jess developed a love of playing football (soccer to you and me) at an early age, an unstoppable love that’s put her passion on a collision course with her past heritage, present home life, and future ability to be her own person.
She tells her worries to a poster of football superstar David Beckham, which hangs on her bedroom wall in the middle of a shrine to the man. The poster acts as a diary of her thoughts, a diary that will never tell the secrets it’s been told to her family.
Despite the consternation of her parents, especially her hilariously rigid mother, Jess does manage to get into a few pick-up games against the “boys” in the park between cooking lessons and training sessions on how to become a suitable wife.
While playing in the park one day, Jess catches the eye of Jules (Keira Knightley), a football player on the local women’s team who also has to fight the expectations her mother has put upon her.
Seeing Jess’ obvious talent, Jules gets her to play on the local team coached by Joe (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), an ex-football player who’s still coming to grips with being relegated to coaching women after having his career ended by injury.

This sets up a genuinely funny, appealing tale of misunderstandings (usually playing on the stereotypes of the sexual affiliations of women athletes), honoring family, and chasing one’s dreams, all centering around a girl who’s trying to define her own life through the chaos.
Bend It Like Beckham isn’t without flaws, though. It seems that it could’ve been about ten minutes shorter without losing substance, and some of the filming of the football sequences isn’t nearly as convincing as what American audiences may be used to in seeing in terms of how sports are depicted on the silver screen.
However, the movie’s strengths make these flaws easy to overlook.
Beckham is a crowd pleaser in the purest sense. It’s more than a just a film about female empowerment, it’s about personal empowerment, in general. The film is a rarity in that it refuses to yield to mean-spiritedness as a source of humor, as is so commonly done in our age of irony. It displays and revels in goodwill, making no apologies for it. And, in doing so, it wins over the viewer the entire way.