THE METROPOLITAN • PAGE 20 • ANDREW FLOHR-SPENCE • SPENCAND@MSCD.
EDU
Insight “
Extracurriculariffic experience
Another semester, another year has ended. My
time as editor in chief of this paper is ending, as is
my time at Metro. Only an internship and a little
paperwork stand between me and graduation.
My time at Metro has been fantastic. I’ve
earned a degree, gained the knowledge and experi-
ence I needed to pursue my chosen profession and
I’ve grown as a person. I got everything I hoped
from college. My concern is that precious few of
my peers are doing the same.
The prevailing attitude among students at this
school seems to favor a straightforward, head-
down approach to education. Go to class, go home,
get the degree and get on with life. Involvement
with extracurricular activities is the exception, not
the rule. It may be our status as a commuter col-
lege, full of nontraditional students. Whatever the
cause, it’s a shame.
In my first semester at Metro, I read of a study
conducted at Harvard that showed students who
are more engaged and involved with their school
outside of the classroom were happier with their
college experience. My own experiences over the
past four years have absolutely confirmed this.
The students at Metro have amazing op-
portunities and considerable resources at
God save the queen, the apple regime
I was never fond of bees. After a lifetime of
being chased around by the tiny thugs, not to
mention the traumatic experience I had a few
summers ago while working as a beer-garden
waiter in the middle of a bee plague, the recent
news of their pesky population’s sudden disap-
pearance seemed, at first, a good thing.
There is something sinister about their hive-
mentality and lack of individuality – something
about 50,000 stingers under the orders of a
single queen – I just don’t trust.
On my evil-insect scale, bees are not quite
as bad as, say, the blood-sucking, disease-
spreading mosquito or the 6-inch poisonous cen-
tipede that once made me scream in Thailand.
But what they lacked in quality, they made up in
quantity. Bees are everywhere.
Or, at least, they used to be.
The honeybee is vanishing. In the last year,
beekeepers from across Europe and North Amer-
ica have reported the loss of 30 to 80 percent
of their bees. While bee populations often suf-
fer from mysterious decline, the newly named
colony collapse disorder, or CCD, is something
different altogether.
This year’s numbers are unheard of. The
timing of the die-off is irregular and the hives
are abandoned, with a starving queen and a few
workers left behind.
The creepy thing is that few dead bees have
been found. Most seem to have vanished.
CORY CASCIATO
casciato@mscd.edu
hand, but all too often, they go ignored and un-
used. Consider that Metro has a number of na-
tional-championship-winning sports teams, and
yet can’t fill the seats for a home game. Our
student government is full of honest, dedicated
people trying to make this school better, but un-
contested seats and pathetic voter turnout is the
norm in our elections. The Metropolitan receives
awards every year for excellence in student me-
dia, yet fewer than half the people on campus
ever bother to pick it up, and fewer than 50 of the
school’s 500 journalism students are involved in
ANDREW FLOHR-SPENCE
spencand@mscd.edu
According to the CCD working group – an al-
liance of scientists, beekeepers, and concerned
citizens formed to combat the problem – the
bees are wandering about their daily commute,
but unable to return home. Something is disrupt-
ing their navigation.
Possible causes of the bee’s disorder include
bacterial infection, the effects of pesticides and
artificial food, and the possibility that cell phone
technology may be interfering with their radar.
As far as I was concerned, good riddance.
There would be no more worries while running
barefoot through the grass, and no more waiting
for a mouthful of stingers when taking a sip of
soda in the summer. While nature-lovers main-
tain that bees are industrious workers who are
defending themselves when they sting, in my
experience bees are mean little fascist insects
who love nothing better than to kamikaze attack
Summer afternoon – summer
afternoon; to me those have always
been the two most beautiful words
in the English language.
its production in any given semester.
Joining a club is a great way to network, pos-
sibly opening the door to a future job opportunity.
Tutoring or leading a study group is a great way
to get letters of recommendation from professors.
The day-to-day, practical experience of working in
student media, student government, marketing or
any of a dozen other areas provides hands-on ex-
perience that not only buffs a résumé, but hones
the skills learned in class and exposes how things
really get done.
Just as rewarding is the sense of accomplish-
ment and satisfaction that comes from helping
someone in need, supporting and recognizing oth-
ers for their accomplishments, working toward
something larger than yourself, or even just mak-
ing a new friend.
Don’t take my word for it; try it yourself. Come
and write for The Metropolitan; we’re losing half
our staff to graduation. Meet the newly elected
SGA, share your concerns and resolve to run your-
self if they aren’t addressed. Go to a sports event,
join a club, attend a student concert. Make the
most of your time here; get everything out of it you
can. You’ll be giving this school, and yourself, a
tremendous gift.
when least expected.
Obviously the servant life has made them
edgy, ready to snap and attack at the slightest
provocation. And now, the bees are suffering
from the same problem humans have with driv-
ing and cell phones. Karma is a bitch.
My schadenfreude at their demise was short
lived, however, when my wife reminded me of
the important role the little bastards play in our
food chain.
If the bees don’t come back, not only is the
future of honey in doubt, but the job of pollinat-
ing a large part of our crops will urgently need
to be filled.
According to a study done at Cornell in
2000, honeybees pollinate $14 billion in seeds
and crops in the United States alone. About 90
different crops, including apples, zucchini, avo-
cadoes and almonds wouldn’t be around without
bees. The American Beekeeping Federation es-
timates that every third bite in our diet is depen-
dent on bee pollination.
So while I still believe that the devil bugs
are up to some evil plot – either hiding some-
where drinking Kool-Aid under the influence of a
Jonestown suicide cult, or gathering somewhere
preparing for a final assault on humanity – the
reality is we need to find out what is messing
with the bees, even if it means shutting off our
cell phones, or changing the way we treat them.
Our food depends on it. And, perhaps, so do we.
”
– HENRY JAMES
ZOË WILLIAMS
williamz@mscd.edu
Liberation now
This is it: my last hurrah.
After filling this column space for three
years, this is the most difficult column I have
had to write. With little effort, I can think of doz-
ens of disasters worth opining over.
Bloodbaths prevail in Iraq, Palestine, So-
malia, Darfur and Afghanistan. U.S. officials are
knee-deep in corruption. Immigrants face grow-
ing injustice from the government. Scientists es-
timate that the oceans will be dead in 40 years.
Cell phones are driving bees to extinction. More
than one million children die every year due to a
lack of clean drinking water.
The world is a scary place right now. Any-
one who tells you otherwise is probably trying
to get you to invest.
Movements to deconstruct this paradigm
are nascent at best. We donate money, volun-
teer, write letters, sign petitions and vote, all
in hope of bringing about the slightest change.
Nevertheless, we are too distant from power and
too bogged down to manifest even the smallest
bit of evolution. Welcome to politics at its best.
Meanwhile, CEOs, politicians, lobbyists and
media moguls roll in wealth and power. If you
relate to my point, you are probably adjusted to
despair. I can’t promise much hope, but I can
say there is another option.
Official titles, leadership positions, money
and laws only have as much power or legitimacy
as we give them. It is a radical idea, and the
time for such ideas has come.
We can walk away from the status quo. We
depend on the same system that wreaks global
havoc to provide our food, medicine, shelter,
education and safety.
Angela Davis said radicalism is the idea
of “grasping things at the root.” Let’s learn to
feed ourselves, take care of our basic health,
maintain our homes and defend ourselves. Let’s
share our skills of teaching, healing, construc-
tion or farming in exchange for our other neces-
sities. This isn’t Communism or hippie jive, but a
way of life that does not involve mass suffering.
It is inevitable. By the consequences of our
actions or by natural causes, our world is going
to change drastically. The planet is suffering and
its people are getting restless. Mass consumption
and global domination cannot carry on forever. As
much as I wish there was an easy way out, anyone
wishing to change this paradigm better prepare for
a fight. My wish for the future is that I will see you
there, dear reader. Onward to liberation.