A Long Few Days ...

Well, I had hoped the hoopla about Whim and Christ on Campus (see posts below) would have died down by now, but the story seems to still have legs. Rumor is that Channel 13 News out of Lynchburg/Roanoke will air a piece tonight (Tuesday). Channel 13 talked to RU students today. The Roanoke Times may have a follow-up tomorrow.

Some of the comments in connection to the article on Inside Higher Ed were pretty good. And I've heard reports of this story running in India and England. I haven't had time to check that, though.

The good news is that the University at the moment seems to be recognizing the students' right to free speech. I'll hope that stance continues.

The Buzz Continues

The story regarding Radford University, Whim online magazine and the Christ on Campus cartoon has hit the AP wire where it has been picked up by newspapers such as the Richmond Times Dispatch.

Round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows.

Oh the Fun of Student Media

Well, what excitement on the work front this week in my role as Assistant Director for Student Media at Radford University. Midweek I started hearing that a TV station from Roanoke was contacting RU students in regard to a cartoon, "Christ on Campus," published by Whim, RU's online magazine. The toon, created by RU Student Christian Keesee (yeah, his name is Christian, quite interesting, huh?) portrays Christ as if he were alive today and on a college campus. In some weeks the toon simply takes this scenario to absurd ends while other editions are savvy politically and journalistically in their satirical message. But hey, why should I speak for Christian and his toon? See for yourself.

I think that people should realize that we're talking about STUDENT media here. It is run by students. Students control the content. The editorial decisions of what runs in Whim are controlled by the Whim Executive Director in consultation with his staff.

So anyway, WDBJ7 News out of Roanoke ran a brief piece Thursday evening/Friday morning on Whim and the so-called controversy surrounding "Christ on Campus." (For the record, the Whim staff has been contacted by probably less than five people--on a campus of 9,000 students and probably another 1,000 employees--who have expressed disdain for the toon.) The wheels of RU administrators apparently began turning after the DBJ story as phone calls started coming into my office on Friday from the "higher-ups" (which, considering my paltry status, is just about anybody).

This morning I woke up and read The Roanoke Times, which has the story as its top-of-the-front-page article. Overall it was a good story by Greg Esposito, although I question the line that Christian's depictions of Christ "have sparked anger among many students, both Christians and non-Christians." MANY students? Really? First I've heard about that. Still, it was a solid and balanced article--and informative. I learned for the first time this morning that our VP for Student Affairs issued a statement that said that "the student affairs division of the university ... encourages these students to consider the tastes and sensibilities of others. ... Some of the cartoons published by Whim fall short of these standards." The statement also said that a meeting between student affairs and student media about how to balance First Amendment rights while maintaining good taste will be held sometime next week." Hmmmm. Interesting what one can find out about when reading the newspaper.

So, I'm expecting a busy week next week. What will happen? Who knows?

What do you think about "Christ on Campus?" You can comment on my page, or at Whim's Web site, or at Roanoke.com. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

And stay tuned, as this is a story that probably won't go away anytime soon.

Workin' for the Weekend

After a day with temperatures in the mid-60s yesterday, a day that I spent at work, the weekend forecast is calling for colder weather and snow. Why is that? Nice weather: working. Crappy weather: off work. Go figure. And on top of that, some out of town guests will be in the lovely New River Valley this weekend as Taryn's Rochester pals Deb and Sara come in for a visit. Should be a fun and busy weekend, and I'm ready for it. Tough week at work. Ready for a bit of relaxation.

Hope you have a good weekend!!

Drug War

There are hundreds of social/economic issues that really get under my skin. One that raised my ire today was the cost of prescription medication.

I recently had a prescription that cost $35. A couple weeks later I had to have it refilled for another $35. I thought this was a terrible injustice. So today I'm reading a NY Times article about a cancer medication that will cost about $100,000 per year. The drug, Avastin, is made by a company called Genetech, which had about $6 billion in sales last year. (The scary thing is that other drugs cost even more than this one!!)

The following is from the Times article:

"Until now, drug makers have typically defended high prices by noting the cost of developing new medicines. But executives at Genentech and its majority owner, Roche, are now using a separate argument — citing the inherent value of life-sustaining therapies.

"If society wants the benefits, they say, it must be ready to spend more for treatments like Avastin and another of the company's cancer drugs, Herceptin, which sells for $40,000 a year."

Doctors are concerned this philosophy may raise the already out of control price of other drugs. Basically more companies may say: "You wanna live? Then you'll pay whatever price we want." Like the story below on the Jacksons, I find myself scratching my head and wondering where the humanity is in the decisions by drug companies. Sure, you have to make a profit to stay afloat and keep making your product, but do you have to make millions--if not billions-in profits while many people die because they cannot afford your drug?

Another example of the heartlessness and greed of corporate America.

Oh the Humanity ...

Most of the time my blog entries are fairly light-hearted, but I had to share with you a story that literally made me cry upon reading it. This story broke about two years ago, but somehow I missed the whole thing. When I arrived to work Monday morning, I checked my New York Times headlines, which are e-mailed to me daily, and noticed a story that caught my attention. The story was about the systematic starvation and abuse of Bruce, Tyrone, Keith and Michael Jackson from the hands of their adopted parents, Ray and Vanessa Jackson.

The story intrigued me because I was once again stunned at what humans are capaple of doing to other humans. While the apparently well-fed Vanessa Jackson fed herself and other children normal food, the four brothers ate such things as raw oatmeal and Cream of Wheat. What really made the tears come to my eyes, for some reason, was reading the 911 transcript of when a guy, Mike Byrd, first found 19-year old Bruce Jackson rummaging through the garbage at 3 a.m.

Byrd's call, fortunately, marked the beginning of the end of the Jackson brothers in that household. And it also marked the beginning of a massive investigation of the New Jersey child welfare system where numerous failures to monitor the kids occurred.

The facts of the case and the statements from the boys themselves speak more loudly than I ever could about this matter. And there have been editorials on the topic as well.

Unforrtunately, the "father," Ray, died of a stroke before he could be sentenced in this atrocity. I hope he's enjoying his new home. Vanessa was sentenced to seven years in prison. The kids got several million dollars from the state. But how does one put a monetary value on a tortured childhood? A lost childhood?

Best of luck to the Jackson brothers as they try to get their lives back together. And Vanessa Jackson, have fun in the slammer. I hope you meet some, um, interesting friends.

Post-Super Bowl

Thanks to the gang who came over on Sunday to watch the big game, socialize and generally have some fun. My Seahawks lost the game, but I've always had respect for the Steelers, so I wasn't too crushed to see Pittsburgh take the victory.

A word about the Super Bowl commercials: Most, I thought, were fairly lackluster. I'm not sure about the big winners for the night, but the big losers in my book were Pepsi and Burger King. First with Pepsi: Brown & Bubbly?!?!? What the ... ? For me, brown and bubbly doesn't conjure up a delicious soft drink, it conjures up the END result of about three bowls of black bean chili. Seriously, no one in the board room at the time they were brain-storming on this idea chimed in and said, "Hey, maybe we don't necessarily want to be associated with brown and bubbly?"

Then there was the Burger King commercial starring the "Whopperettes." What? Women dressed as lettuce, onion, tomatoes, pickles ... and a meat patty? And then the freaky Burger King guy? Is there anyone in America who is NOT creeped out by that plastic-faced Burger King?

Until next time ...

I'm Back

After criticism from my adoring fans (OK, so the two people who actually read this) regarding my lack of blogging of late, I decided I needed to take action and get something posted. Because it has been a while, this entry will recap some highlights of the past couple of weeks and perhaps offer a preview of the weekend ahead.

My first rant is about people in professions such as doctors and attorneys (particularly attorneys!) who think their time is so much more precious than ours. My now former attorney stood me up for a couple of phone conferences, ignored two faxes, failed to do the tasks that I asked and generally refused to call me back, which forced me to can him and get someone else. Of course, that required a couple days of having to take time off work in the afternoons to go down and meet with him at his office, which is about an hour away. So far, the new guy is showing more resolve than the former guy, but the jury is still out, so to speak.

Since returning from the trip to Massachusetts in mid-January, I had a fairly tight deadline to turn around a package of writing to my mentor professor for the semester. In addition, I have a tight reading schedule this semester. I finished "Indecision," a novel by Benjamin Kunkel, less than a week ago and have started "The Master" by Colm Toibin. "Indecision" was a good and fairly quick read that was mostly predictable but did have an interesting twist at the end.

Speaking of writing and MFA programs and such, which I sort of was, the entire James Frey incident of the past few weeks has been interesting to watch. No need for me to spend the time blogging about it because Taryn did a great job in her most recent blog entry, so check that out!

As for the weekend, big plans are in the works. Later tonight, Taryn's long-time friend Charles makes his first foray into the depths of the New River Valley of Virginia. While Taryn and Charles get the day off tomorrow, I will be working hard, as usual, but then we will attend a play on the RU campus, "Diversions & Delights," in which the star is a fellow University of Alabama graduate.

Speaking of Bama grads (boy, my transitions are genius, aren't they?) Shaun Alexander and his Seattle Seahawks face Deshea Townsend and his Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday in the Super Bowl. So whoever wins, a Bama alum will be wearing a Super Bowl ring. Taryn and I will be hosting a Super Bowl shindig on Sunday and I will be rooting for the Seahawks, considering I lived in Seattle for a couple of years and the Seahawks headquarters was probably less than a mile from where I worked in Kirkland. And a little-known fact, Shaun and I both went to Seattle at about the same time. When I got there, I wrote a letter addressed to Shaun and sent it to the Seahawks headquarters. Basically it was a "Hi Shaun, I'm a Bama alum and I've just moved here, too, and I hope we both do well here" kind of letter. Like a paragraph long. Shaun actually called my house on a weekend I was in Canada and left a message. So, yeah, I'll be pulling for the Seahawks.

Also on tap this weekend is a 40th birthday bash for Dr. Theresa Burriss. Should be fun celebrating the big 4-0 with Theresa.

Well, I suppose that should be about all for this entry. Perhaps early next week I can blog about how the weekend actually turned out. Until then ... .