(from left to right)

“I feel comfortable. They’re not really religious, but they’re beliefs. I’ll talk with anyone who’s open.”
Sammy Vanek
Third-year, Oakes
Film

“Yeah, I feel pretty comfortable with everyone.”
Tashfeen Islam
Third-year, Cowell
Business management economics

“I was born Protestant, but I don’t really care. It’s nobody’s business.”
Christy Rusk
Third-year, Merrill
Literature

“I don’t feel comfortable because I don’t want to impose my beliefs on anyone.”
Michelle Talley
Fourth-year, Porter
Theater Arts

Compiled by James Austin & Prescott Watson.

(from left to right)

“CHP is awesome.”
Rachel Levy
Fourth-year, Stevenson
Psychology

“My kid’s not an honor student, but I still love ‘em.”
Andrew Locke
First-year, Stevenson
Economics

“Live every week like it’s Shark Week.”
Zoe Toffaleti
Second-year, College Ten
Film and Digital Media

“420 percent slug.”
Jocelyn Robinson
Second-year, Stevenson
Legal Studies & Philosophy

Compiled by Molly Solomon & Asa Hess-Matsumoto.

The editors regret the erroneous reporting in Primer that stated the UCSC Student Health Center provides after-hours emergency services. The Student Health Center sees students Monday through Friday, 8 AM – 5 PM. Students with urgent medical needs after hours should seek assistance at local urgent care centers. Fliers with the hours, location and phone numbers are located at the Health Center entrance as well as on the SHC web site: healthcenter.ucsc.edu.

Photo by Rosanna Van Straten.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first heard about “The Street,” a down home DIY theater production created, directed and choreographed by local performer Shara Free. It was described to me as being geared towards a “younger generation,” whatever that means. Images of a breakdancing hip-hop-flavored love story just left a bad taste in my mouth, like the “Step Up” 3D trailer. However, what I saw wasn’t anywhere near that, thankfully.

“The Street” is a fusion of burlesque, jazz, live action play that follows a group of characters who are under the rule of gangster pimp Cirque. There’s a love triangle, outsiders, prostitutes and a fight scene or two. But easily the best thing about “The Street” is the music.

Local act Audiafauna, an indie folk band, who composed all of the music, brings the show to life. The players act as if they are integrated within the setting, reacting to the actors on stage, and playing the role of a typical street band, only with flasks and cigarettes. They pulled out all the stops and eventually introduced a washboard and banjo, immersing the audience into the rough urban setting of the play.

The music gives the play its soul. You can see in the way the band plays that its muscians are passionate about their art, and it translates over to the audience. The music moves from jazz to salsa and some honky-tonk country and all work within the confines of the show.

There was one moment during the show when the band broke it down and started singing the final few verses of song a cappella, accompanied only by the beat of themselves and the audience clapping. Diverse and original, the band sits less than 40 feet away from the audience and steals all the attention.

The production is as local as it comes, which really speaks volumes about Santa Cruz.

However some problems also arise out of that.

The venue was intimate, which works in the sense that it helps the production break the fourth wall and interact directly with the audience. Actors walking up and down the aisles, inches away from your face in some instances, allow for some laughs and direct communication between the two parties. At some point members from within the audience got up and danced along with the actors.

However, this interactivity became a problem when seeing what exactly was occurring was a stretch, due greatly to seat and stage set up and use.

Many in the crowd sat as straight up as possible and crooning their necks to see past the person in front of them, yet it was still a troublesome effort to see what was going on at these points. The fact that the audience made such an effort to do so though says a lot.

Hearing what exactly the actors were singing or speaking was equally as difficult, though the band lent itself to the plot by allowing the mood of the music to illustrate what was going on.

The storyline was confusing. I didn’t know whose story arc the play was following, and the ending came quite abruptly. There was really no character I could relate too, except the villain Cirque, who is played as if he was Samuel L. Jackson, which was both entertaining and funny.

Otherwise the main protagonist, Rose, a troubled prostitute trapped within the confines of street life until visited by a masked stranger, was too one-sided. By the end of the show she has two boyfriends, instead of the one she started out with.

Now don’t get me wrong — I enjoyed myself at this show. The music and the dancing were of real quality, and should make any local proud of the artistic talent pool in Santa Cruz. Anyone who enjoys movies like “Moulin Rouge,” or is just looking for something to do on a weekend should go check out “The Street,” preconceived notions be damned.

~~~~~~

“The Street” plays Oct. 2 and 9 at 6:30 and 9 p.m. at the Pacific Cultural Center. General. Admission is $19. Tickets can be purchased at brownpaperttickets.com.

Boardwalk Bombshell Lulu Lockjaw faces the full force of the OC Roller Girls defense. Women’s roller derby is a popular new sport in Santa Cruz. Photo by Nick Paris.

You probably haven’t heard of Lindsey Seiler. She’s just your average State Farm insurance salesman. She puts her shiny red booty shorts on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us.

Alright, I guess she’s not quite average.

When she laces up her skates, buckles the chin strap of her navy blue helmet and ties her American flag bandana around her neck, Seiler morphs into her alter ego Lulu Lockjaw, captain of the Boardwalk Bombshells.

“I get really heated,” Seiler said, “I yell at the refs. I yell at the other team. I want to win.”

On Saturday night, thanks to Seiler’s effort, the Boardwalk Bombshells did just that.

Seiler, who plays jammer, weaved between much larger OC Roller Girl blockers, delivering her fair share of punishing blows and scoring a game high 42 points to lead the Bombshells past the Orange County Roller Girls 95-87.

But a roller derby event is about more than just the game. The entire spectacle is what draws many to the sport, and Seiler delivered in that area as well. Attracted to her toughness, ability to dodge blockers, and fiery attitude, the crowd exploded during jams in which Seiler would skate.

One fan brought a sign that blinked the word “Lulu” in red lights and on a few occasions, the entire auditorium chanted Seiler’s derby name in unison.

Tickets for Saturday’s bout, for which Santa Cruz Auditorium was transformed into Santa Cruz Derby Girls Stadium, sold out, and the Oct. 23 bout, the final of the season, has already sold out, as well. Roller derby is a hit in Santa Cruz, but the newcomer status of the sport allows for an intimacy unattainable at most major sporting events.

During the action, announcers gave out T-shirts and interviewed fans, and a DJ played music to set the festive mood. After the bout, fans went onto the floor to chat with the derby girls and get autographs, as announcer Timothy Jordan reminded fans, “Roller derby isn’t over until last call at the after party.”

In what other sport do fans and players drink together after the game? And how many times have you gone to a sporting event dressed like Spiderman?

Saturday’s theme was superheroes – each derby bout has a theme. Fans are encouraged to dress up, and at least half of the 1,000 or so in attendance did.

Auntie Choke, whose niece plays for the Harbor Hellcats, the second of Santa Cruz’s three derby teams, came dressed as Hit Girl, a character from the movie “Kick Ass.” It might seem strange to wear a purple wig, purple tights and black paint around the eyes while standing on the Santa Cruz Fire Department’s lawn, but Choke looked right at home among the hordes of superheroes lined up an hour and a half before the bout.

“It turns out that dressing up is optional for the audience, unless you are a derby aunt. Derby aunts are required,” Choke joked, adjusting her wig, which had shifted in her exhilaration. “So here I am!”

Choke was talking with Susan Nilsson, known as Dewey Decibel, of the Seabright Sirens, the newest Santa Cruz derby team, and her friend Brian Escobar.

Nilsson wore silver booty shorts and silver knee high boots, and Escobar dressed as Shipwreck, a character from G.I. Joe.

“Dressing up to come to the events makes you feel more a part of the team and shows that you’re an absolute fan,” Escobar said. “And it definitely motivates the actual derby chicks when they see that the entire crowd is as dressed up as they are.”

Escobar is new to the sport, but he has grown to love the game and the event as a whole, he said.

“I like to see a lot of girls with a lot of energy beat the crap out of each other,” Escobar said.

Curtis and Eddie Ruth Vance, an elderly couple from Watsonville, did not dress up, but they consider themselves avid derby fans. Saturday night was the couple’s fourth time watching the Bombshells, and the two have been to Santa Rosa to watch the Bay Bombers on numerous occasions.

Asked if she would have played roller derby if it were around when she was younger, Eddie Ruth thought a second, turned toward Curtis, and grinned. Her gray bob bounced as she nodded her head and chuckled.

“You betcha!” she said.

Members of the UAW present the Chancellor’s Chief of Staff, Ashish Sahni, with a mock report card which grades the UC administration. Photo by Isaac Miller.

Teaching assistants and fellow students gathered at Kerr Hall to deliver a “report card” to Chancellor George Blumenthal, Monday while the the same report cards were delivered to UC Chancellors systemwide. The evaluation, graded and signed by 6,000 members of UAW Local 2865, graded administrators on sharing the budget crisis burden equitably, prioritizing excellent education, making the UC affordable and accessible, and showing leadership in an effort to remedy California’s budget problems. UAW Local 2865 represents 12,000 teaching assistants, tutors and readers across the University of California system. More than 300 signatures came from union members at UC Santa Cruz.

The same report card was delivered to the University of California’s Office of the President last week.

Each receipient was given failing grades in all categories but demonstrating leadership, in which they were given an “incomplete.”

“It’s horrible,” said Ian Steinmia, a third-year College Ten student, of the administration’s handling of cuts to education. “I’m in one class … [where] there are no official teaching assistants or sections.” Steinmia’s class, Bio-Molecular Engineering 80H, has over 200 enrolled students.

Students at every campus have had their student fees increased after UC Regents voted last year on a 32 percent increase.

Students protested the handling of the budget crisis with occupations, sit-ins and class boycotts.

Oct. 7 will be the next day of protest, called the National Day of Action to Defend Public Education.

According to information released by the UC in 2008-2009, Academic Student Employee (ASE) hiring decreased by 2.2 percent while a San Francisco Chronicle analysis of UC salaries showed an increase in hired executives of 6.3 percent.

“The UAW’s statewide leadership put the report card together after surveying a majority of their members regarding the budget cuts and their effects,” said fifth-year graduate student and UC Santa Cruz campus chair of the United Automobile, Aerospace, Agricultural Implement Workers Union (UAW) Brian Malone.

“[The report card] is basically focusing on the core instructional mission of the UC — prioritizing instruction, keeping UC affordable and accessible for students, and also fighting for public education at all levels in the state,” Malone said. “The Office of the President takes Chancellor Blumenthal seriously and we’re asking him to be an advocate for quality of education and for a fair contract for the TA’s.”

Though no one on campus could comment on the status of system-wide negotiations, UCSC spokesperson Jim Burns said administrators support student employees.

“The state’s decision to underfund the University of California by nearly a billion dollars in recent years has impacted employees of the 10-campus system and certainly impacted students,” Burns said in an e-mail to City on a Hill Press. “That’s why UC, including campus chancellors, have regularly advocated for a restoration of those cuts and a reinvestment in public higher education.”

The delivery of the report card coincides with the September 30 expiration of the UAW’s current contract with the UC. Negotiations over the new contract began in late June with initial salary proposals. However, a counter wasn’t offered until two months later at the end of August.

“I haven’t seen [the UC] taking it very seriously — they’ve been uninterested in meeting, they’ve canceled a number of bargaining dates … and when they do show up, they almost never have anything to say,” Malone said in a follow-up e-mail to City on a Hill Press.

Unfair Labor Practice charges have been filed against the UC for failure to provide relevant information necessary to the bargaining process and for engaging in surface bargaining.

These charges are over union members’ access to information concerning their economic proposals — childcare, leaves and fee remissions — that would allow them to assess the impact to UC. Malone said, UC representatives say they are unable to afford graduate students access to these proposals and will not reveal what the cost would be. Union representatives say this lack of transparency is holding up the bargaining process, as the UC has given increased wage proposals that are conditional on the withdrawal of the UAW’s economic proposals.

Items up for negotiation include fewer cuts to teaching assistantships, and the UC’s ability to cut teaching assistantships without first consulting the union.

“We’ve talked a lot about limits on class sizes to prevent these gigantic sections … ” Malone said. “A recent report by UC’s own vice chancellor for research and graduate studies identified that UC lags behind its peer institutions in graduate student compensation by a full 7 percent.”

The report card is the latest in many actions by students to show their opinions of the UC’s handling of the budget crisis .

Illustration by Patrick Yeung.

Growing up with a British mother, manners were a must. Good posture, minding my P’s and Q’s and demonstrating the utmost respect for adults weren’t suggestions so much as they were requirements. This emphasis on politeness has left me with, in addition to impeccable table manners, a heightened awareness for etiquette, especially in situations where it is lacking.

Which brings me to you. Yes, you: the person on the bus who is having an embarrassingly public conversation with your buddy, who happens to be sitting six rows behind you. Here I am, stuck in the middle of your gabfest, forced to hear about the sophomoric exploits that occurred in the A-quad of College Eight last night, wondering to myself, “Where are your manners?”

Now, I am aware that I may sound a tad bitter, maybe a bit of a curmudgeon. But trust me, just as my mother used to say: This is for your own good.

During this first week of school, when excitement is high and enthusiasm for the new school year is palpable, we could all use a little refresher on campus etiquette, especially those of us that are, well, freshmen.

Let’s start with the bus. Now that you know to keep your conversations — cell phones included — to a respectably low decibel, consider this: If you are a first- or second-year student living on campus, know that most students who use the Metro buses are using them to get home at the end of the day, not to rush to the dining hall after class.

When 5 p.m. hits, and the bus stops are packed with tired and hungry students, please don’t board a city bus just to travel a few stops. Instead, wait for a campus bus and allow the Metro buses to fill up with students who need them to get home. This is especially true of bus routes that run relatively infrequently, such as the 20 Westside or the 10 King Street routes. An even better option is to take the initiative to learn the network of footpaths that serve as a far more efficient way to get around campus.

Here at UCSC, we’re a pretty fit bunch. That is largely because many students bike to and around campus to get around. That’s where you come in — usually stepping in front of a fast-moving road bike you don’t hear coming. As a pedestrian, please avoid walking in designated bike paths. When you’re walking on a path that’s for both bikers and walkers, try not to block the entire path with you and all your floor mates.

If you must walk in a group and you hear an approaching biker call out, “On your left,” that does not mean you should move to the left. It means you should allow room for the biker to pass you on your left-hand side. Follow this little rule, and bikers everywhere will rejoice.

Now let’s talk about the reason you presumably came to college: going to class. We all love the large lecture halls that allow us to do the things we could never get away with in high school, like eating, texting and updating our Facebook status during lecture.

However, eating an apple or trail mix is one thing, but choosing to unwrap your pungent chicken barbecue ranch sandwich while I’m trying to take notes next to you is downright inconsiderate. Please refrain from such indulgent endeavors.

It may seem simple enough, but just arriving to class can often lead to missteps in manners. If you must enter late — we’ve all done it — try not to distract the entire lecture hall by grabbing a seat next to your friend in the middle of the row. Sit in the nearest open seat or on the aisle, and nobody will even notice you were late.

This brings me to my last piece of decorum. I understand that some lectures may be boring, and that your budding love interest just posted a new album on Facebook, or that you must see what Kanye West just posted on Twitter. But honestly, sitting behind you and having to watch you spend the entire lecture playing Tetris on your laptop and talk to your friend about “Glee” is a disservice to those sitting around you who might actually be trying to pay attention. Or don’t want “Glee” spoilers.

For those who are new to the college experience, the positive and energizing atmosphere can feel especially liberating. So enjoy college and the freedom that it brings. But remember, just because your mom isn’t around anymore doesn’t mean you should abandon everything she taught you.

This concludes the etiquette lesson for the year. Third- and fourth-years everywhere can breathe easier knowing these codes of conduct. And now, as my mother taught me to say: Thank you for listening.

Photo by Andrew Allio.

It’s a sunny Tuesday morning in downtown Santa Cruz, and Star Sevedar is gardening in a cement lot, trying to beautify his friends’ front yard. Passersby stop and ask him questions about what he’s planting, and Star enthusiastically responds. He pushes back his fisherman’s hat, revealing piercing blue eyes that are even more striking than the enormous beard that covers most of his face.

“That’s an avocado, that’s a rosemary, and that’s a fig,” he tells me excitedly. “Figs are very interesting, because I guess they’re very ancient, like dinosaur days. Where the tree meets the earth, there are fruitless suckers that grow out, and they produce leaves, but they never bear fruit, so they’re really just taking energy from the tree. But a nursery person can propagate new fruit-bearing trees from those suckers.”

This is Star Sevedar: a vegan activist who spends his time handing out pamphlets around town, practicing “guerrilla gardening,” and waxing philosophically about his own destiny. He’s a vegan who hates dogs because they’re too rough, a would-be stereotypical hippie who can’t stand drug use, and a preacher of peace and love who can sometimes repel people with his zealous tendencies. Because he has no strict schedule, Star is free to ride the bus all over the Santa Cruz area, attempting to convert others to veganism. Asking around, it’s startling how many UCSC students are familiar with Star — and how many have less than praiseworthy things to say about a man few know much about.

Star knows and thinks a lot about nature. He also thinks about this world in general, and what’s beyond it, and what his role should be while he’s here.

As we walk towards the Metro center I remark that he’s very all-hands-on-deck, which he responds to with gusto.

“I don’t want to be a solo hero,” he says. “That doesn’t really work. Even saints and superheroes in history that are acknowledged as great, like Jesus had disciples helping him. I’m trying to get everyone to wake up to their own sainthood.”

Star grew up in the Los Angeles area, and suffered physical and sexual abuse from his family members, a misfortune that he said led him to the decision to abstain from eating animals or using any type of drugs.

“I just didn’t lose my purity. I wanted to stay pure,” he explains. “A lot of these adults around me were into various toxic addictions. I didn’t want to be like my parents — that’s why I chose to be vegan and straightedge, because they abused children and were horrible people.”

Upon reaching the age of 18, Star legally changed his name and left his parents’ house forever. He traveled around California and the world, learning about veganism and spirituality, and he ended up in Santa Cruz right after the earthquake of 1989. He stayed because he appreciated the open-minded culture and stunning visuals, he said.

About a decade ago, Star spent two years providing what he estimates to be about $200,000 worth of vegan food to the Kresge Trailer Park. He collected some of the food from farmers’ markets and grew some of it himself.

Star is passionate about guerrilla gardening, a practice which involves growing gardens in public spaces without permission, as well as veganism.

“I influence many folks to decrease meat consumption,” he said in an e-mail before we met. “If just us Americans reduced meat consumption 20 percent, all humans on earth would be fed well with grains freed up from wasteful cycling through slave animals’ flesh.”

His job handing out pamphlets also puts him in contact with a lot of students. He met world literature major Janet Ramirez — “Janet of the planet,” as Star calls her — during their commute from Bonny Doon.

“When I first met Star, his presence was overwhelming. He was in between homes and was a bit flustered with life,” Ramirez said in an e-mail. “Star and I are good friends now. He is an excellent networker and keeps up with me, though I know he is usually on the move.”

However, not all students respond to Star this way. I’ve heard tales of Star irritating and harassing students, and some students try their best to ignore him.

On our way to the Arboretum, Star hands a girl a pamphlet. She takes it, but her eyebrows scrunch together and she shoves it carelessly into her bag in a way that makes me doubt she’ll be taking it out to read anytime soon. Still, Star insists that his interactions with people are mostly positive.

“Rarely does someone make a rude remark,” he says. “I always make friends. I try to make new friends everywhere I go.”

One such friend is longtime vegan Toni Longely, a fourth-year environmental studies major. Longely said Star introduced her to vegan-friendly places around Santa Cruz during her first year here, including farmers’ markets.

“[Star] is intensely passionate about veganism and having as little negative effect on the planet as possible,” she said. “He just cares so much, and that intensity scares people a little bit … He’s a really great guy, and I sometimes wish people would see that in him.”

We arrive at the Arboretum bus stop, where Star has recently planted some trees. He shows me the tiny plants, buried under so many weeds that I never would have noticed them otherwise, and I ask him if he’s happy with his life.

“I’m a happy soul, but I’m having to pit my happiness against the unhappiness of the world,” he says. “This world is kind of warped and twisted backwards, upside down, and inside out, and opposite of the way it is supposed to be, because people are doing too much unlove.”

Star believes that humans are “what make the world horrible.”

“Human minds are full of negativity, so they create a world of negativity,” he says. “Every bit of love and kindness makes a big difference in a person’s life.”

He points to his baby oak tress.

“I’m proud of these,” Star says. “They’ll provide shade for people someday.”

~~~~~~

To contact Star, call him at (831) 425-3334 or e-mail pureveganstar@yahoo.com.

Illustration by Ramille Baguio.

Hundreds of cyclists will take off Sunday, racing to raise funds for the Santa Cruz AIDS Project (SCAP). The tenth annual ride kicks off at San Lorenzo Park, where there will be live music, food and HIV/AIDS education booths.

The Surf City AIDS Ride, which has been under the direction of SCAP for five years, has revamped the event to attract a diversity of attendees.

“Our intention is not just to attract people who can ride 60 and 100 miles; it is to attract people in the community,” said event co-chair Trevor Davis. “My best-case scenario is that a family who has never been on a bike before will drop by.”

The ride began in 2000 with a group of cyclists who created the event, originally called the Santa Cruz Century Ride. After five years with nearly 700 cyclists participating and fundraising, the cyclists who started the ride decided to turn it over to Santa Cruz AIDS Project (SCAP).

When the ride came under SCAP control the group took a one-year hiatus, and as a result of the break and a higher participation fee, the number of riders declined. However, each year since, the ride has gained more riders and SCAP Executive Director Merle Smith expects that there will be a turnout of between two hundred and four hundred riders on Sunday.

The increase in participants comes at an important time for SCAP. Two years ago, the program was dealt a crushing blow when funding for HIV/AIDS education and prevention was cut completely from the state budget after California slashed $85 million from AIDS programs.

Event organizers changed the venue of this year’s ride in hopes of attracting a larger and different crowd than in years past. By bringing the event to downtown Santa Cruz from Cabrillo College, where it was previously held, and making it an all-day festival, SCAP expects that attendance and awareness will increase. The group has focused its efforts on making the day a family event in the hope of attracting a more diverse audience.

“We want to get the families involved,” Smith said. “While the riders are out, the family can be involved in the festival.”

The group wants to reach a younger audience with their message by making the event more family-oriented. SCAP hopes to become a trusted resource in the community for condoms, information and HIV testing.

Registration cost for the event varies – participants must pay $20 to race in the 12 mile ride, $60 for the 30 mile ride and $90 for the 60 and 100 mile rides. Riders can choose to fundraise and pay a reduced registration fee. Online registration closes at 12 p.m. Friday, but riders can register on the day of the event.

As the faintly yellow glow of Thursday’s sunset seeps through the windows, five students sit around a table in a rented room above the Bay Tree Bookstore. One tosses out a topic: the teaching of evolutionary biology in public schools. First there is the quiet hum of minds at work, and then the conversation escalates as the students respond, contributing their personal experiences and anecdotes like logs to a fire. One thing is absent from their forum: belief in a higher power.

The Secular Student Alliance (SSA) provides a refuge for UCSC students who identify as atheist, agnostic or secular. Students are welcome to show up anytime, whether their approach is outspoken or tentative, militant or casual.

The SSA is one of 10 national 501(c)3 organizations under the umbrella of the Secular Coalition for America (SCA), a 501(c)4, and it reflects a growing population of young atheists.

Most Americans who describe themselves as atheist are young. 55 percent of them are under 35. Agnostics tend to be older than atheists, although still younger than the general population.

Ultimately, this means secularists and nonbelievers are steadily emerging from the American population by the generation, and, now, they’re identifying in more absolute terms: Younger generations are opting for the “atheist” label, which denotes a concrete disbelief in a god, whereas “agnostics,” who express doubt of divine existence, are becoming less common.

If this trend continues as projected, issues of separation of church and state may be amplified and U.S. legislation will need to adapt to the public view.

With the help of donations from the Secular Humanists of Santa Cruz County and some funding from the SCA, the SSA has brought in guest speakers like well-known atheist blogger P.Z. Myers and SCA executive director Sean Faircloth. Community support endures even if the group hasn’t exactly provoked a whirlwind of participation at UCSC. Its weekly meetings usually feature a motley crew of five to eight members.

But the students keep coming in spite of the low attendance. For them, the SSA is an important resource, politically and socially.

“There’s something political and engaging about being an atheist,” said SSA advisor and former president Nick Conrad, a graduate student and PhD candidate in history. “We’re trying to foster an environment for atheists [and] freethinkers to come together and talk about issues.”

Secular on the UCSC campus

Although there is a wide selection of religious organizations for UCSC students to participate in, there are significantly fewer nonreligious options.

The University Interfaith Council (UIC) collaborates with other universities to coordinate the activities of various on-campus religious groups.

At UCSC, the UIC is home to the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, the Muslim Student Association, Santa Cruz Hillel, and about 20 other religiously affiliated groups. While secular students are welcome to attend, there isn’t a UIC group designated for them.

“The meetings are open to [secular students] but we haven’t had anyone coming of that sort,” said Pamela Urfer, president of the UIC at UCSC. “To join the council, people have to make an application for membership … But we are open to all sorts of groups as long as people are willing to participate.”

Urfer said that “it would be good” to welcome any nonreligious students interested in creating a dialogue, and to “see what dialogue they would like.”

While the university does provide such channels for atheists to express their views and engage in discussion with others, the SSA is the only exclusively secular environment for students on campus.

Accepting the nonbelievers

Since atheists don’t pray, they don’t need a congregation. That doesn’t mean they don’t need a community.

Atheists are often subjected to a double-standard that makes it difficult for them to express their points of view to those of the religious persuasion, said Michael Fantauzzo, a second-year politics and history double major.

“I had a friend who tried to insult me and say, ‘You know what, you’re an evangelical atheist,’” Fantauzzo said. “We’re in the middle of having this discussion about our religious beliefs, and now all of a sudden I’m an evangelical? Like, you can express your belief and I can’t?”

Fortunately for people with experiences like those of Fantauzzo, the issue of discrimination against atheists isn’t an unrecognized one. An international organization called the Out Campaign encourages outspoken atheism with the help of its emblem, a scarlet “A” printed on T-shirts, pins, hats, and other merchandise. Its goal is for the nonreligious to gain respect and visibility in society.

Within the last few decades, debates over atheism have managed to permeate the political sphere. At a 1987 public press conference then vice president and former U.S. president George H.W. Bush, said, “I don’t know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic. This is one nation under God.”

In August 2009, Iowa governor Chet Culver claimed to be “disturbed” by Iowa bus ads with the message, “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.”

He refused to speak to the question of whether atheists are entitled to free speech, instead saying it was “a great question for the attorney general and for legal scholars.”

Kyle Jones, president of the SSA and a fourth-year majoring in ecology and evolution, said that the SSA is an important outlet for atheists to express themselves freely, in response to attitudes like those of Bush and Culver.

“People are not used to … hearing non-believers express their points of view,” Jones said. “And so when they do, it seems like it’s strident, when really they’re not. They’re just expressing what they think. I think a big part of this group is making it OK for us to just be who we are.”

A forum for free thought

At their Thursday 6 p.m. meetings, the SSA discusses topics relevant to the secular community as well as the interests of the individual students. It also hosts special events. In spring quarter of 2010, the organization presented on-campus screenings of short films of talks by Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, two prominent atheists.

On May 20, the topic of discussion was Draw Muhammad Day, an unofficial, Facebook-hosted, international holiday intended to counteract the Muslim prohibition against drawing Muhammad. In light of the attacks and death threats against those who created images of Muhammad, the event encouraged free expression as an alternative to religious oppression. It also inspired controversy among the Muslim population and resulted in the Pakistani ban of Facebook.

Countless other issues of social justice are all part of the forum due to their relevance to religion. One of these is gay rights. During a regular discussion at an SSA meeting, one student asked whether religion lay at the root of homophobia.

“There’s really no logical reason to be against gay people unless it comes from religion,” SSA participant Fantauzzo said.

A few seats away at the table, second-year psychology major Anisha Mauze, who manages the SSA’s finances and budget, agreed.

“A lot of these issues about society and how it should be are very influenced by religion,” Mauze said.

A self-described “agnostic in theory, atheist in practice,” Mauze was raised Hindu. Today, she lists comedian George Carlin as one of her favorite atheists.

“I think I was about 14 when I decided … I shouldn’t be going to temple all the time if I don’t actually believe in this stuff,” she said. “It’s like lying to myself, lying to everyone else.”

Education is also a regular topic of discussion at SSA meetings, especially science education in religious schools. SSA event coordinator Mat Furman is a third-year ecology and evolution major, so the matter is of particular relevance to him.

“As a Texan growing up in Houston, I had almost no touching on evolution in the classroom,” Furman said. “They just skimmed over it, mentioned it once. [But] I just think it gives you a much better perspective on life, and it’s a thorough understanding instead of a painted picture that has nothing to do with reality.”

The community conscience

Raised in Georgia and Florida by a fundamentalist Christian family, Sonya Newlyn now lives in Santa Cruz and actively participates in two local secular organizations.

Recently, Newlyn spoke with Mayor Mike Rotkin to change May 6 from the National Day of Prayer to the Day of Reason in the city of Santa Cruz.

“There should not be a National Day of Prayer where people are encouraged to go out and pray,” Newlyn said. “I’m a political person. That [holiday] excludes me.”

Following their discussion, Rotkin issued an official proclamation encouraging “all citizens, residents and visitors to join in observing this day.”

Newlyn participates in both the Secular Humanists of Santa Cruz County (SHSCC) and the Santa Cruz Brights. While these groups only meet monthly, they keep in touch online and the SHSCC provides support for the SSA on campus.

Newlyn said another problem with the enforcement of religion in Santa Cruz’s public sphere takes place during the holidays, when the Downtown Association’s “community tree” and a large menorah provided by Chabad by the Sea are displayed at the end of Pacific Avenue near Water Street.

Although Newlyn has spoken to the organizations responsible for the placement of these religious symbols, there’s no sign that plans will be changed for the 2010 holiday season.

For now, the SHSCC, Santa Cruz Brights, and SSA will be represented on a decorative banner that members of the groups will carry while marching in the downtown holiday parade.

“We’re not trying to be grinches,” Newlyn said. “We’re trying to give our point of view.”

A secular nation

Although Newlyn works locally, the issues she deals with are also present on a national scale.

Advocating for the separation of church and state, the Secular Coalition for America functions like the ACLU for secularists’ civil liberties by lobbying in Washington D.C. and meeting with White House representatives.

Sean Faircloth, executive director of the SCA and a former legislator for the state of Maine, said the intermingling of religion and government has been exacerbated in more recent years.

“There’s always been that strain of religious thinking, no doubt about it,” he said. “What has changed significantly about the nature of government has been over the last 30 to 35 years, because the religious right made a concerted effort to organize.”

Faircloth, who spoke at UCSC on May 17, said that secular Americans need to engage in lobbying in order to keep religion and government in separate spheres.

“There is a reason that secular Americans must unite, must organize, and speak out unless they want to end up in a theocratic society,” Faircloth said. “We need to organize, or we’ll get the short end of the stick.”

The SCA also sends action alerts, political news updates, straight to subscribers’ e-mail inboxes. One of the most recent Action Alerts expresses concern about pharmacists denying birth control prescriptions on the basis of their own religious beliefs. In four U.S. states, pharmacists are entitled to make that very refusal, even if the patient is a rape victim.

Another action alert opposed the potential incorporation of religious material into public school curricula by the Texas State Board of Education, calling the prospective additions “a telling of U.S. history that is based in extremist religious ideology.” However, this idea was challenged when a resolution to support “academically-based social studies curriculum standards” was introduced and referred to the United States House Committee on Education and Labor in late July. This was a small but pertinent victory for the secular cause.

“Now science and history are [deemed] ‘controversial,’” Faircloth sighed. “Things like evolution and Thomas Jefferson — that would never have been so, 40 years ago.”

Constructing the future

Back in the SSA’s meeting room above the Bay Tree Bookstore, in the dimming sunlight of a Thursday evening, students remain concerned about these social action issues and what they see as the threat of theocracy, but they won’t give up without a fight.

“The misperception of human nature, of human essence, by religion is one of the things I certainly fight for all the time,” said SSA’s Conrad.

Jones, the current president of the SSA, references one of the films the group screened last spring.

“Richard Dawkins was talking about how science is corrosive to religion,” Jones said. “I think that was definitely a main factor of why I rejected religion to begin with.”

As the group nods in agreement, Conrad sums up its raison d’être.

“Religion just kind of makes inquiry go dead,” he said. “I mean, if it provides all the answers, we don’t need to look for anything. We just need to save our souls.”

Although some see religion as a source of meaning, Conrad and his peers at the SSA work to deconstruct the influence of religion, focusing on challenges to American civil liberties and isolating the solutions. In the search for meaning, these nonbelievers have found their alternative.

Pro-life demonstrators hold vigil behind the downtown Planned Parenthood, as a part of the international 40 Days for Life campaign. Photo by Molly Solomon.

A pro-life prayer and fasting vigil outside the Cedar Street entrance to the Planned Parenthood downtown began Sept. 22.

The group, affiliated with the international 40 Days for Life campaign, will continue the 40-day vigil through Oct. 31. The aproximately 10 participants, gather daily from 8 a.m. to around 7 p.m.

“We are pro-life, which is not a popular position, but I’m not here because it’s popular,” said participant Jeff Norman. “There is a difference between pro-life and anti-abortion … Pro-life is a sanctity-of-life ethic. If, for example, the pregnancy places the mother’s life in danger, we believe the decision is to abort the child and save the mother, to avoid losing two lives.”

The current campaign is the second of 2010 with participants in 238 locations across the United States, Canada, Australia, England, Northern Ireland and Denmark. Santa Cruz is one of the 25 locations where 40 DL demonstrations have been held in California, joining San José, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego.

“There is a small group of dedicated people who have been praying here every Saturday for a year, and we decided to do 40 DL,” said Rev. John Warburton of the Shrine of St. Joseph. “We are trying to help people who have been touched by this evil.”

More than 1 out of 3 women in the United States will have an abortion by the time they reach age 45, according to Planned Parenthood’s website.

While Planned Parenthood supports the 40 Days participants’ right to freedom of speech, their presence at the Pacific Avenue location is “unfortunate,” said Fran Linkin, associate director of public relations at Planned Parenthood Silicon Valley/Coastal Region, which includes Santa Cruz.

“That location is a health center — families go to the center for pediatric care and have to take their children in past the protestors outside,” Linkin said.

The Health Center Planned Parenthood office on Pacific Avenue offers a range of low- and no-cost services, some of which include general health care, HIV and STI testing, patient education, birth control and emergency contraception and LGBT services.

“[Planned Parenthood] does more for abortion prevention each day than the people protesting,” Linkin said. “Ninety-nine percent of what we do is sexual education, contraceptives and medical services.”

The pro-life proponents have also set up community resources, including maternity houses, post-abortion services and counseling and other medical assistance.

“We are trying to provide a future based on hope,” Norman said. “We’ve got support in place — is it complete? No. Is it state funded? No. But it is a start.”

As someone who was adopted into a loving family, Norman said it is one of his goals to educate women about abortion alternatives without passing judgment.

“We do not judge or condemn women who have had abortions, nor do we condone people doing that,” Norman said. “If anything, I would apologize to those women for not having been there for them to talk to and help them. If my mother had chosen to have an abortion instead, I would not be here today … No one can look into the future and say, ‘This child will have a difficult life, so it should be aborted.’”

The prayer vigil has been met with mixed response from the Santa Cruz community, Norman said. While some people have stopped by to offer support, the group has also received criticism.

“The other day a lady drove by and yelled, ‘Eff you’ out the window and flipped us off,” Norman said. “As she drove away I noticed she had a ‘tolerance’ sticker on her bumper. We live in a community that preaches tolerance, so let’s discuss the issues instead.”

Santa Cruz community member and UCSC alumna Gabriella Ripley-Phipps, who attended the first evening of a three-day counterprotest, said she would prefer to have a thoughtful conversation with the pro-life demonstrators. However, the polarization of the issue makes such a dialogue challenging.

“I hate that it becomes ‘us versus them,’” Ripley-Phipps said. “Everyone is doing what they feel is right, so we should have a real conversation about it, not just yell over each other. It’s hard to have a conversation about something you have a fundamental disagreement on. I think we should focus on education before abortion even becomes an issue — let’s use our energy and passion that way.”

Providing resources for the community should be the real goal, Linkin said.

“We are trying not to focus on the protests too much,” Linkin said. “Our focus is on being there for the people who need us and providing affordable help to everyone who comes to us.”

Illustration by Patrick Yeung.

A dance party of approximately 125 people at Porter College was shut down early when three participants were arrested last Friday. Charges included carrying a weapon, assaulting an officer, resisting arrest and attempting to free someone under arrest.

The party, which began at 9:30 p.m. in the Porter Quad, ended just a half hour later when three individuals unaffiliated with the school were arrested by UC Police Department officers who had been observing the gathering.

Samm Gee*, who attended the dance party, said the response from police was abrupt and without warning.

“It was pretty unnerving seeing the police just start grabbing random folks,” Gee said. “If we’re talking strictly about dance parties, we’ve never seen a reaction like this.”

The gathering followed several similar dance parties in the last academic year, including the Jan. 28 “Life Sucks, Let’s Dance” party and Oct. 15 dance party last year during the occupation of the Humanities 2 building. Both parties were held in response to fee increases, layoffs and furloughs for staff and what occupiers called the “privatization of the UC system.”

UCSC staff members observing the party contacted UCPD after participants violated university policies, said Jim Burns, UCSC director of public information.

“The arrests occurred after police were called to the Porter Quad shortly before 10 p.m. when staff [in Porter quad] observed alcohol being distributed and consumed at an outdoor gathering,” Burns said in an e-mail. “College staff members also reported to police that they had been confronted by several of the people there, and that one unknown person in the crowd had struck a college staff member.”

While fourth-year student Bryan Brown appreciates the support from those unaffiliated with the campus, actions that result in violence are bad for the campus community, he said.

“I think it’s great that we have the support of off-campus communities for public education, but when stuff like this happens it is dangerous for the people they are fighting on behalf of,” Brown said.

Ben Chapman, fourth-year student and dance party participant, said the event was intended to be peaceful and fun and likened it to the campus annual 4/20 event.

“While the police were legally in the right for arresting people … the person standing to my right was tackled by the police,” Chapman said. “There is something wrong with any policy which would call for that and the UC should take responsibility for it. The dance and 4/20 are both unauthorized, unsanctioned events, but the police would not have just started walking up to people at 4/20 and arresting them for smoking pot.”

Gee said that the dance party was similar to those held last year but received a much different response from UCPD.

“Last year there were plenty of people with alcohol, and no one checked anyone for weapons. It’s about intimidation,” Gee said. “[Campus administration] won’t stand for this kind of disobedience this year.”

While UCPD was reportedly contacted because of the presence of alcohol, none of the participants were arrested on alcohol-related charges.

Burns refuted speculation that campus administration is taking a stricter stance on actions such as the dance party in the wake of last year’s protest. It was a natural response, he said.

“I suspect that similar behaviors last year would have elicited a similar call to police from college staff members,” Burns said in an e-mail.

For Gee the dance party was an act of civil disobedience aimed at having fun and reclaiming university space.

“Public education and public property are actually just private [because] they’re under the control of UC administration and the state,” Gee said. “This was a party, not a protest. It’s an illegal dance party, and the point was to redefine public space for common use and to take back our leisure time.”

While participants intended to have fun, their tactics, which are loud and disruptive, can be counter-productive, Brown said.

“Rules can be broken in protests and civil disobedience — that’s a part of it, but the tactics annoy too many people across the campus and it’s detrimental,” Brown said. “It’s terrible that this sort of thing would happen at something that really is for a good cause: supporting public education.”

Despite some students’ concerns about dance party tactics and the police response, it is important to continue activism on campus, Gee said.

“We pay so much money to go here and we are continuously asked to give up more and more,” Gee said, “yet when we try to have fun and relax, we are shut down. We shouldn’t stop organizing though, just because the [campus administrators] feel they’re right and have the authority.”

~~~~~~

*Names have been changed.

Allison Galloway was elected the new campus provost and executive vice chancellor Sept. 16. She says she hopes to bridge the divide between the administration and students. Photo by Prescott Watson.

Chancellor George Blumenthal appointed Allison Galloway to the position of executive vice chancellor (CP/EVC) Sept. 16. Galloway enters the position at a fiscally challenging time for UC Santa Cruz.

Blumenthal selected Galloway and she was subsequently approved by the UC Regents. Galloway succeeds David Kliger, who stepped down after a five-year term as CP/EVC. He has returned to his former position as chemistry and biochemistry professor.

Galloway has previously served in several administration positions at UCSC, including University Extension (UE), a program that required extensive budget restructuring. This year is the first time in over a decade that UE will be filing no deficit.

As CP/EVC, Galloway is responsible for academic and administrative operation of the campus, including budget planning. Since her appointment, Galloway has met with the departments on campus and made it a priority to grant more teaching assistantships and make classes more accessible for students, she said.

“That’s probably the [complaint] I hear the most, that classes are too full,” Galloway said. “We gave extra money to the divisions at the beginning and end of spring quarter with the contingency that they increase capacity.”

The school does not plan to cut any programs within the coming year, she said, though planning for the future of the community studies program is ongoing. Despite the failure of both the UC Regents and the state to release their budgets, UCSC is prepared for the potential outcomes, she said.

“Even if the state budget for education is less than we expected, we will not be taking back money from any of the departments,” Galloway said.

Galloway emphasized the importance of maintaining open communication with the university community.

“I want to bring a lot of communication and honesty to the position,” she said. “When people understand why a decision is made, they accept it a lot easier.”

In addition to managing university funds, Galloway will also manage day-to-day university administrative duties. Former CP/EVC Kliger was often the target of media attention and student action. Though Galloway said she will “definitely be the enemy” at times, she will attend the day of action to defend public education on Oct. 7.

“We all need to defend public education,” Galloway said. “It’s not the responsibility of one or the other.”

Though it is hard to hear news of the difficulties UC campuses face, Galloway said, working at UCSC makes her optimistic for the future of public education.

“The faculty, students and staff — they bring in the best minds and encourage great work,” she said. “That gives me hope and is something that has to be defended.”

Many of Late Artist Charles Griffin Farr’s masterpieces are currently on display in the Sesnon Gallery at Porter College. The artist, who donated his private collection to the university, is famous for his unique use of a “magical realist” style. Each piece in the collection was selected by UCSC students. Photo by Morgan Grana.

If it weren’t for Charles Griffin Farr leaving his private collection to UCSC in his will, his artwork might not be exhibited at Porter College’s Sesnon Gallery this quarter.

Farr was active from the 1930s through 1980s, and his work is characteristically described by some as “magic realism.” In his early years, he worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, restoring ancient pottery. After serving in World War II, Farr moved to San Francisco and remained there until his death in 1997.

Farr’s work includes a multitude of portraits, still lifes and figure drawings. UCSC owns the entire archive of Farr’s works, and the “Reimagining American Realism” exhibit represents “the most comprehensive exhibition of drawings by Farr that have ever been assembled,” according to the press release from the Sesnon Gallery.

“The great thing about this exhibit is that it was selected by some [UCSC] students who took a summer course on realism and Farr’s work,” said Emily Warmedahl, a Sesnon Gallery employee.

The exhibit will run from Sept. 3 through Oct. 1 and includes pieces done in a variety of media, such as ink, ink wash, charcoal and graphite. Among the works on display are scenes of everyday life, self-portraits and a variety of figure drawings, all of which showcase Farr’s artistic prowess.

“The students were able to select pieces that went well together,” Warmedahl said. “This particular exhibit has a theme of war years and figure drawings.”

Third-year Jacob Graham helped select the themes and the works of art displayed in the exhibit.

“When choosing the theme and title of the exhibit, our goal was to incorporate, clearly, Charles Griffin Farr’s unique American realist style, while also making the exhibit relevant for students,” Graham said. “We worked towards reinterpreting a genre that may otherwise be irrelevant for the current generation of students, and especially artists, on campus.”

Racers in wetsuits run into the open arms of the ocean. Photo by Asa Hess-Matsumoto.

A participant races toward the finish line. Photo by Asa Hess-Matsumoto.

Runners pace themselves as they move through the day’s course. Photo by Rachel Edelstein.

A child holds a handmade sign that says, “Go Daddy” and squints in the morning sunlight as she scans Monterey Bay. She peers about her grandmother’s legs, stands on the tips of her toes, and leans out as far as she is able to over the wharf’s edge in order to get a better view around the other onlookers. Suddenly she cries out, “Here they are! There they are!” as the first triathletes come into sight, swimming around the wharf.

For the 28th year in a row, the Annual Santa Cruz Triathlon, as presented by the Santa Cruz Sentinel, brought a diverse crowd of people out to the beach Sunday morning. The diverse crowd featured everyone from surf shop locals to overseas visitors, well-conditioned veterans to first-time attendees.

While some of the registered triathletes flew in from as far as Switzerland and Russia, most of the competitors getting ready on the beach came from various parts of California. The triathlon boasted a sizeable turnout of nearly 900 competitors at the start of the Sunday race.

Emerging fresh from a preliminary dip in the ocean’s 60-degree water, Mark Lenz, a San Francisco resident, was thrilled to be competing on Sunday.

“I just finished the triathlon in the Gay Games VIII in Cologne, Germany,” Lenz said. “I’ve got a friend from New Zealand here cheering me on today, but what’s important is not to take the race too seriously.”

The triathlon, a difficult competition, includes a 1.5k swim around the wharf, a 40k bike ride from the boardwalk to the city of Davenport and back, and a 10k run along West Cliff. However, it was clear from the smiles of the crowd that the Santa Cruz Triathlon meant far more than medals and race times. To most people, it was about fun.

With the crowd cheering on the athletes, vendors handing lemonade to thirsty passersby, and the athletes themselves giving the occasional thumbs-up between heavy breaths, the morning’s good mood was infectious.

“The Santa Cruz Triathlon is definitely one of my favorite triathlons,” said John Jeha, a 20-time competitor of the Santa Cruz Triathlon. “It’s well-organized, beautiful and really enjoyable. Today’s weather’s looking good, the ocean’s not rough, and the bike route’s OK. Great day to enjoy my life’s sport.”

Kim Jackson, a relay team member of Team Tripod from Palo Alto, participated just for fun, she said.

“I’ve done this race entirely by myself before,” Jackson said. “But this time, it was actually my foot surgeon and his wife that were looking for a third teammate for their relay team this year.”

Hearing her wave called, Jackson turned, lined up with the other competitors and was then lost in the crowd of wetsuits and neon caps disappearing into the ocean surf.

Race coordinator Nick Alaga walked his dog along the bike route, and volunteers from Harbor High School’s girls’ basketball and boys’ wrestling teams could be heard laughing at what one another had to say.

Ed Ferrell, founder of the famous 24-hour Ferrell’s Donut Shops, smiled as the leading triathlete, James Duff, came running past aid station B15 only minutes before completing the race.

Ferrell summed up the day’s experience: “It’s a good race for a great day in Santa Cruz.”

Illustration by Bela Messex.

Nasser al-Awlaki, the father of U.S. citizen and assassination target Anwar al-Awlaki, appealed to the American Civil Liberties Union to seek a federal court order restraining the execution of his son.

This plea, made in early July, comes in light of the Obama administration’s practice of assassinating U.S. citizens considered potential enemies of the state.

For a party that has condemned the Bush administration for unconstitutional imprisonment and eavesdropping, as the Obama administration has, this is a significant step backwards. Why, even during an effort to push our country forward in foreign relations, are we still able to maintain domestic inequality so openly? And since when are constitutional rights up for debate?

“There is very little information available to the public about the U.S. targeting of people far from any battlefield,” according to the ACLU website. “A program that authorizes killing U.S. citizens with disclosed standards is unconstitutional, unlawful and un-American.”

As of now, the ACLU is arguing that the law it invokes for such authority — the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — holds no cemented power within the legal system.

The suit asks the courts to consider prohibiting unjustified assassinations of U.S. citizens and require full disclosure in regard to the criteria used to assess whether a given citizen is, in fact, a terrorist.

When the ACLU took the al-Awlaki case, regulations implemented by the Treasury Department several years ago dictated that any U.S. persons engaging in any transactions with “specially designated global terrorists” were barred legal representation, making any act of protection on their behalf a criminal offense. Roughly two weeks later, Anwar was officially labeled a global terrorist. The ACLU submitted a request, urging the Treasury to consider the imperativeness of quick action, but the Treasury Department never responded.

More and more, our paranoia over hot-button words like “terrorist” is leading us astray from upholding national promises. These assassinations, which involve the dropping of a bomb over a confirmed target, unquestionably risk and ignore the lives of surrounding civilians. Furthermore, this act denies the right to an attorney and due process of the law, which should under no circumstances be denied to any citizen.

And despite his alleged terrorist status, rest assured that al-Awlaki is in fact still a citizen.

Even if Congress had granted the Treasury the power to decide, without any consultation or judiciary process, who is and is not a risk to American safety, it is blatantly unconstitutional to deny American citizens the right to have a lawyer, and “to deny American lawyers the right to freely represent clients without first obtaining a permission slip from Executive Branch officials.” On its most basic level, the decision reeks of illogic.

Even if denying American citizens deemed terrorists the right to an attorney can somehow be justified, what factors determine who is a “global terrorist”? And why isn’t it public knowledge? We should never stop asking these questions. As American people, we need to be concerned about our collective rights.

Government can make troubling decisions, and at times the most drastic changes in our country’s infrastructure happen under our nose and behind our backs.

What it comes down to — what it has always been about — is citizen-to-citizen awareness.

We need to make a conscious effort to not brand any Muslim with a “funny” last name a “terrorist.” Citizens should exercise their right to criticize the powers that be. The purported risk is that global terrorists threaten the American way of life. But abandoning our rights in times of crisis is a far greater risk.

Illustration by Louise Leong.

The current political climate — a dysfunctional one in which comedians are journalists, nearly one in five Americans think President Barack Obama is Muslim, and fringe political parties become mainstream overnight — got even more bizarre last week. This time, though, it came at the cost of an important issue, one that affects thousands in Santa Cruz and neighboring towns like Watsonville and Salinas.

At a congressional hearing called “Protecting America’s Harvest,” comedian Stephen Colbert was called as an expert witness by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) to testify in front of a House subcommittee on a new immigration bill.

The invitation was extended to Colbert after he spent a total of one day in August working in the fields of upstate New York picking beans and corn. The stunt was part of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union’s “Take Our Jobs” campaign, which invites U.S. citizens to try their hand at the hard agricultural work that only migrant workers are willing to do.

The idea that Colbert could possibly be an expert on the plight of migrant workers after spending only one day doing their work is ridiculous and insulting. Colbert appeared to recognize this himself, ironically stating, “I believe that one day of me studying anything makes me an expert.”

While Colbert’s musings were indeed funny and attention-grabbing, they hardly progressed migrant workers’ rights. Rather, they made a farce out of the entire proceeding.

Prior to the hearing, it was unclear whether or not Colbert would stick to the extreme Republican persona he embodies on Comedy Central. Well, stick to it he did.

In one display of absurdity, Colbert expressed his intent to submit video footage of his colonoscopy to the Congressional Record, to demonstrate the vegetables and fruits are an important source of “roughage.”

It is unlikely that Colbert, who has used his comedic persona outside of his show prior to this, would want to make fun of an issue as serious as the plight of migrant workers. In his defense, Colbert’s testimony was quite earnest at times, stating at one point, “I like talking about people who don’t have any power, and it seems like one of the least powerful people in the United States are migrant workers who come and do our work but don’t have any rights themselves.”

While Rep. Lofgren’s decision to invite such a non-expert to testify may have been well intentioned, it was certainly misguided. Assuming her intent in inviting Colbert was to elicit mass media attention around this issue, the attention came at too high a cost.

It’s unfortunate that Lofgren felt the need to rely on theatrics to push her legislative agenda, especially because it didn’t work. The media’s coverage of this event has hardly centered on the real issues of migrant farm workers, focusing instead on the strange blurring of the line between fantasy and reality.

Congress is not Hollywood. Staging media spectacles fit for public relations offices in Beverly Hills should not be a part of the policy-making process. Colbert’s testimony undoubtedly overshadowed that of other witnesses at the hearing, such as UFW resident Arturo Rodriguez and chairman of the U.S. Apple Association, Phil B. Glaize, both of whom lent more credibility to the hearing than Colbert ever could.

And, of course, those affected most by this issue, migrant farm workers themselves, were absent from the entire proceeding. If Congress really wanted to gain an expert understanding of the poor conditions, low salary and health dangers migrant farm workers face, why not actually call one of the migrant workers to testify? It may not have been as funny, but at least it would have been real.