Speaker claims liberalism helps

achieve human equality

SHERIDAN STOVALLThe Oklahoma Daily

Vanderbilt University history professor Devin Fergus visited OU Thursday to discuss liberalism, black power and the influential individuals that led from times of progressive political parties to the historic election of

President Barack Obama.Fergus took members of the OU com-

munity from David Boren Auditorium in the National Weather Center on a journey of remembrance to the ’60s and ’70s to discuss the interplay between liberalism and black power. He touched on gender, economic and cultural nationalism throughout the time period, and how liberalism has reformed black power throughout the years, creating a sense of human equality.

“We need to rethink the liberalism as a political policy and whether it failed or suc-ceeded,” he said.

Fergus described the skeptical viewpoint scholars have placed on the interplay, stating scholars often ignore the interplay between the two and place them in a destructive con-text, rather than describing the institutions and visions that resulted.

“Liberalism creates a space for black

power,” Fergus said. “Amid this space, black power programs emerge.”

Fergus said an example of the space creat-ed is the efforts of Floyd McKissick, founder of Soul City, N.C., a town populated by minor-ity groups that planned to be self-sufficient by attracting industry and labor and having its own tax base.

Fergus said Soul City was a tremen-dous influence in the diversification of the Republican Party.

The goal for the town was for it to be placed on 5,000 acres of land where the economy and agriculture had been previously depressed to reach a population of 18,000 by 1990.

McKissick teamed with Richard Nixon before he took office to fund the project. In return, McKissick would help Nixon diversify his party.

Fergus said the progressive Republican Party helped Soul City and that McKissick ultimately helped Nixon win the election.

He said McKissick’s efforts eventually ended with the election of George Bush and Jesse Helms, a Republican former senator from North Carolina.

But Fergus ended on a hopeful note.He related Obama’s views of black power

to those of McKissick, saying Obama’s will-ingness to compromise is similar, and that they both make practical efforts to negotiate for causes they support.

Vanderbilt professor speaks on black power

Money, time-saving

scooter conveys class

SANDRA KUNZWEILERThe Oklahoma Daily

For some men, a mid-life cri-sis is an occasion to invest in hair dye and flashy red sports cars.

But for Vice Provost Zach Messitte, it was a time to pur-chase a sky-blue Vespa.

Vespa is a brand of two-wheeled motor scooters, popu-lar in Europe, and over the last half-century, its popularity in the U.S. has grown.

And professors, students and bystanders say there is no bet-ter place to ride one than in Norman.

“It’s not too crowded, it’s not too flat and the traffic isn’t bad,” said Messitte, director of the International Programs Center.

As the onset of scooter season begins in the spring and sum-mer, salesman Frank Felix of Extreme Auto Options said it is more likely people will con-sider buying their own sporty, wild rides, which range in cost between $1,100 to $3,000.

He said scooters have become attractive because they help save on gas expenses.

But international area stud-ies professor Suzette Grillot said she likes her scooter because it saves time getting around cam-pus, and the parking is more convenient.

Grillot is a relatively new scooter owner, having purchased hers in November. Since then, she said she has put about 210

miles on it.“I try to ride as often as I

can when the weather is good,” Grillot said. “Sometimes I pick my daughter up from school on it.”

For Grillot, being a mother

with scooter style also means having fashion sense. She said she often wears high heels when riding.

Messitte, who works with Grillot, said he can relate. Though instead of heels, he said

he prefers a suit and a briefcase.“Also, I never ride without a

helmet,” Messitte said.Messitte has had his Vespa

since last summer. He said when students saw him on it this year, he gained unexpected popularity

status.“I have one student that has a

scooter as well who wants to go ‘scootering’ with me,” he said. “I think things like this set you apart ... it’s something unique that’s different about you.”

EASY RIDERS TAKE SCOOTERS TO CLASS

Tomorrow’sWeather

ANYTIME THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT VOICE comOUDaily

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KEEP UP WITH THIS WEEKEND’S SWINE (H1N1) FLU STORIES, BREAKING NEWS AND MORE AT OUDAILY.COM/SWINEFLU.

Check out the hassle some graduate students faced when they tried to get season football tickets.PAGE 2

newsThe baseball team returns home to host Kansas after playing seven of its last eight games on the road. PAGE 5

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One night in January, there were about 600 home-less people in Cleveland County going to sleep without permanent housing.

The city just released numbers from Norman’s Annual Homeless Count, conducted each year in January but believed to be representative of homeless rates throughout the year.

Homeless people in Norman may sleep in temporary shelters, cars or parks.

“Many of these persons are no different than Cleveland County residents with permanent housing, except that when faced with a fi nancial crisis, they had neither the personal savings nor family support to enable them to maintain safe and adequate shelter,” said Lisa Krieg, City of Norman grants planner.

There are organizations working to provide tempo-

rary shelter and long-term assistance to the homeless so they can get back on their feet. Christy Blair, execu-tive director of East Main Place, said her organization works to alleviate homeless numbers in Norman.

“Our goal is to put the people that come in here in a position to support themselves,” Blair said. “They live in fully-furnished apartments and are expected to stay free of drugs and alcohol. They also meet with case managers on a weekly basis to help them fi gure out what they want and need to do.”

Blair said East Main Place officials also work to give individuals the knowledge they need to live within their means and understand the resources available to them.

“One of the biggest things we see, even nationwide, is that they tend to use the emergency room for any

kind of care,” Blair said. “Even for something like a spi-der bite, they don’t realize that you could just go to a walk-in clinic where it would cost $60. They go to the emergency room, and the bill is $2,000, and they’re never going to be able to pay that back.”

While places like East Main Place focus on helping those with deep-rooted problems, Blair said Oklahoma received about $8 million from the national economic stimulus package to help combat homelessness.

“This is going to be used as prevention money,” Blair said. “It’s for those without the deep problems, those in more temporary situations. But we’re going to have to apply for it and fi ght for it with all the other home-less shelters in the state.”

— Eric Dama/The Daily

City off ers temporary relief to 600 homeless in Cleveland County

LILLY CHAPA/THE DAILY

Zach Messitte and Suzette Grillot, international and area studies professors, show off their scooters on Buchanan Avenue. They prefer riding scooters because they are environmentally friendly, have great gas mileage and set them apart from everyone else.

EEP U INE INE (HUP WITH THIS WEEKEND’S SWISWI

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NEW SCHOLARSHIPS FROM OIL INDUSTRY HALTED

Each year OERB, an organiza-tion funded by Oklahoma’s oil and natural gas industry, offers scholarships to students from OU, Oklahoma State University and Tulsa University.

This year the organization is unable to award scholarships to new applicants. Scholarships only will be awarded to exist-ing scholars, OERB Executive Director Mindy Stitt said. This was despite the fact more than 300 new applications were sent in by Oklahoma students.

Stitt said the reason for this is due to a cut in scholarship funding.

OERB receives its funding from the oil and natural gas industry as a percentage of oil prices, she said. When oil prices dropped last fall, the amount available to OERB fell as well.

Stitt said when the organiza-tion advertised the scholarship opportunities, it did not know the funding would be cut so drastically.

If a student received the scholarship last year, Stitt said he or she must reapply for the scholarship to be eligible for it. Scholars who no longer meet the grade point average requirement or have changed majors will lose their funding.

“We weren’t going to cut any of our scholars out, but we couldn’t add any additional scholars,” she said.

She said there currently are 147 scholars, and hopes more funding will be available to the organization for scholarships in the future. Students can apply for an OERB scholarship for the 2010-2011 school year until March 2010.

—Will Holland/ The Daily

AMY FROST/ THE DAILY

Devin Fergus, assistant professor of modern United States and African history at Vanderbilt University, and author of the newly-released “Liberalism, Black Power, and the Making of American Politics 1965-1980” speaks at the David L. Boren Auditorium inside the National Weather Center Thursday evening.

2 Friday, May 1, 2009

Some students ruled ineligible

for season football tickets

CLARK FOYThe Oklahoma Daily

The early bird gets the worm. Or so the saying goes, but that was not the

case for a group of graduate students who tried to buy OU football season tickets early Monday morning.

Psychology graduate student John Houser said he was not allowed to get season tickets for no apparent reason. Houser was one of many graduate students who were told by the ticket office they were not registered as full-time students.

“It was just ridiculous,” Houser said. “It has never been like this before. We even had to

print off copies of our schedules and prove that we were full time.”

Graduate students must be enrolled in at least six credit hours to be eligible for season tickets, and Houser said he and peers he knew who were having the same problem were en-rolled in nine hours.

“We were all easily within full time statues, so I have no idea why we were having this problem,” Houser said.

Houser and many others protested to the ticket office, where they were told they were not listed as full-time students in the Bursar’s records, he said. Everyone who had problems was asked to bring printed copies of their schedules to the ticket office.

The problem seems to be fixed now, as students were able to buy season tickets that afternoon and later in the week, Houser said. But, the students who encountered the

problem on Monday morning have not re-ceived confirmation they have tickets.

“I guess we are all just kind of assuming and hoping that we do have tickets,” Houser said. “I bet if we all hadn’t made a big deal about it, then they would not have fixed the problem.”

Athletics department spokesman Kenny Mossman said the schedule and documenta-tion were required to prove full-time status. He said the problem only affected a handful of students, none of whom were turned away from tickets.

“It happens on occasion that a student is not listed as a full-time student,” Mossman said. “It has happened before in past years.”

Mossman said anyone who encounters this problem should contact the ticket office and arrange to prove their full-time status. The process is not hard and should only take a few minutes, he said.

An employee at the OU Ticket Office said students ordering tickets at the office do not receive direct confirmation. Those wishing to check their tickets’ status can call the ticket of-fice and submit their student ID numbers to see if they have the tickets or not.

While the issue seems to be resolved, Houser said the situation was hindering and tiresome.

“It was just kind of frustrating,” he said. “They kind of weren’t answering our ques-tions and we had to go out of our way to get the tickets we wanted.”

Graduate students express anger over season ticket policy

ZACH BUTLER/THE DAILY

Fans in the student section celebrate at the OU/Texas Tech game. Some students were unable to buy season tickets this week because computers failed to recognize their eligibility.

STATE NEWS BRIEFS

ADVOCATE CRITICIZES NURSING HOMES

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma County’s top prosecutor said Thursday he supports a plan to install surveillance cameras in the rooms of nursing home residents to provide a new level of security for vulnerable elderly Oklahomans.

District Attorney David Prater threw his support behind the proposal during a meeting with state lawmakers and elderly care advocates in which the founder of a senior advocacy group said the level of long-term care in Oklahoma nursing homes falls below national standards.

The surveillance camera plan is part of legislation that would delete the minimum direct care staffi ng ratios for nursing homes and intermediate care facilities for developmentally disabled Oklahomans.

It would require nursing homes that implement a fl exible staff scheduling program to allow a resident to install an electronic monitoring in the resident’s room as a security precaution. No state funds would be used to pay for monitoring costs.

It also authorizes the nursing home to install a camera in a resident’s room, with the resident’s permission, to provide addi-tional security.

A spokeswoman for a nursing home group, Rebecca Moore, has expressed opposition to the plan and suggested that electronic monitoring devices would not provide a higher level of security.

“That’s absolutely absurd,” Prater said. “Cameras are a great law enforcement tool. I think they absolutely have a right to have a camera in their room.”

But Moore said many nursing home residents object to placing a surveillance camera in their room because of privacy consid-erations.

“We have providers that already utilize cameras,” said Moore, executive director of Oklahoma Association of Healthcare Providers. “The main objection has been from facility residents. They don’t want cameras in their home.”

Wes Bledsoe, founder of A Perfect Cause, presented statisti-cal information that he said indicates state nursing homes fail to properly care for their elderly residents.

HOSPITAL EMPLOYEE DOESN’T HAVE SWINE FLU

MUSKOGEE, Okla. — A Muskogee hospital employee who returned from a trip to Mexico with fl u-like symptoms does not have the swine fl u.

Veterans Administration Hospital spokeswoman Nita McClellan said Thursday that tests performed on the worker have come back negative for infl uenza.

She said the employee is doing well and will be returning to work.

There have not yet been any confi rmed cases of swine fl u in Oklahoma. The worker’s recent trip to Mexico, combined with his symptoms, had led to concern he might have the illness.

Meanwhile, some hospitals are giving masks to emergency room patients with upper respiratory symptoms in an attempt to minimize the spread of swine fl u.

Some of these patients are also being seated away from other patients and put in a private room if admitted.

“We are doing anything we can to minimize the contamination,” Integris Baptist Medical Center spokeswoman Brooke Cayot said. She said ventilators that help sanitize the air and hand-washing stations have been added to waiting rooms at the hospital in Oklahoma City.

At Mercy Health Center in Oklahoma City, patients with fl u-like symptoms are given a rapid antigen infl uenza test and asked about recent travel. If they’ve been to outbreak areas, nasal swabs are taken and sent to the state Health Department for additional testing.

Staff treating patients with fl u symptoms also wear masks in many cases, hospitals said.

It’s best to be overly cautious, said Brian Bradley, emergency room manager for Deaconess Hospital. “In the ER, we assume there is a gorilla in the room until proven otherwise,” he said.

Hospitals are also bracing for an infl ux of patients if the swine fl u strain is found here.

Oklahoma has a stockpile of enough anti-fl u medications for about 200,000 people. The drugs have been effective in treating most fl u cases.

—AP

“It was just ridiculous. It has never been like this before.”

JOHN HOUSER, PSYCHOLOGY GRAD STUDENT

POLICE REPORTSNames are compiled from the

Norman Police Department and

OUPD. The reports serve as a

record of arrests and citations,

not convictions. Those listed are

innocent until proven guilty.

OTHER COUNTY WARRANTHama Denver Foran, 22,

Acres Street, Wednesday

DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCEJoshua Alvin Kuder, 21, 1100

E. Robinson St., Tuesday

ASSAULT AND BATTERY WITH A DEADLY WEAPONDavid Brent Nelson, 20, 200

Vicksburg Ave., Wednesday

PETTY LARCENYChad Andrew Snyder, 20, 333

N. Interstate Drive, Tuesday

Norma Vasquez, 24, 333 N.

Interstate Drive, Tuesday

LARCENYWaylon Gene Whitlow, 30, 1306

Northcliff Ave., Wednesday,

also municipal warrant,

county warrant and unauthor-

ized use of a motor vehicle

PUBLIC INTOXICATIONRicky Gene Toho, 33, 901

24th Ave. SW, Wednesday

Katie Louise Turley, 29, 901

24th Ave. SW, Wednesday

The Daily has a long-standing commitment to serve read-ers by providing accurate coverage and analysis. Errors are corrected as they are identified. Readers should bring errors to the attention of the editorial board for further investigation.

OUR COMMITMENT TO ACCURACY

Friday, May 1, 2009 3

State senator insists accepting

funds makes state fi nancially

vulnerable in coming years

CADIE THOMPSONThe Oklahoma Daily

While Oklahoma agencies wait to see how federal stimulus money will affect the state budget, one lawmaker thinks it is only a mat-ter of time before the federal bounty turns into a financial burden.

R a n d y B ro g d o n , R- O w a s s o, s a i d Oklahoma Legislators and Democratic Gov. Brad Henry are putting the state’s economic future at risk and avoiding state budget is-sues by accepting stimulus funds. In March, he suggested the state return the funds.

“It’s financially breaking this state, it is bankrupting our nation. We just cannot af-ford any more free money from Congress,” Brogdon said. “There’s no such thing as free money, no such thing as a free lunch. We’re putting off today what we’re going to have to deal with over the next couple of budget cycles.”

Oklahoma has about a $900 million bud-get deficit, but the state is using some of the allotted $2.6 billion in federal funds to cover some of the shortfall, Brogdon said.

According to the state stimulus informa-tion Web site, about $578 million of stimulus money will go to budget stabilization to help minimize budget cuts.

But Brogdon, who entered the 2010 race for Oklahoma governor, said he wants to pri-oritize and that using the federal money is just a quick fix to a broken budget which will have a heavy cost.

“We have the opportunity to encumber our kids’ futures for many, many years if we’re not careful on growing the budget and spending the money like we’re doing right now,” he said. “We should be about trying to protect their future economically, rather than robbing them of their future.”

But without the stimulus funds, the state budget would have to be cut even more than it already is, said David Blatt, policy direc-tor for the Oklahoma Policy Institute, an Oklahoma City-based anti-poverty group.

Cutting the budget would be devastating because many families are facing unem-ployment and difficult financial situations, and will need government programs for assistance, Blatt said. He said budget cuts also could worsen the economic climate by forcing the state to cut contracts and lay off employees.

“It’s absolutely a good thing this money is

coming. In the absence of stimulus money, we would be looking at deep cuts for public services affecting students, the elderly and the poor, the most vulnerable people,” Blatt said. “It is essential to help ride out the worst of the economic downturn.”

Mary Leaver, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Health and Human Services, said she already has seen an increase in the demand for state-provided services. In March, the food stamp program

hit a record high with more than 450,000 people participating. That number is likely to increase, she said.

Leaver said the department request-ed $630 million from the state, leaving a $19-million shortfall for the department. But without the stimulus funds the agency expects to receive, the department’s deficit would be even larger, and programs would be impacted, she said.

But even with the federal funds, OKDHS

still is working toward prioritizing the budget.

“We’re making targeted cuts, shifting funds and we’re trying to look ahead with the next budget year in mind,” Leaver said.

About $905 million of stimulus money will go to health and human services, with about $78 million of that going to low-income housing assistance and grants, according to the state stimulus Web site. But this money and other stimulus funding will not be avail-able until the end of December 2010, which Brogdon said makes the state financially vulnerable.

“The credit card payment is going to come due in the state of Oklahoma, and in the 2011 budget cycle when this stimulus money runs out, we will be forced to make the budget cuts that we should be discuss-ing today,” Brogdon said. “I think it’s impor-tant that we should be making some tough decisions today, and if we don’t we may be forced to make some impossible decisions tomorrow.”

But Michael Clingman, director of the Oklahoma Office of State Finance, said al-though the federal funds have an expiration date, it is possible that when the funds do run out the economy will be in a healthier situa-tion so budget cuts would not be as painful.

“It will be a challenge I’m sure, but the economy could take less of a hit then, in-stead of a huge hit today and worsen the re-cession,” Clingman said.

BROGDON STIRS STIMULUS CONTROVERSY

PROVIDED PHOTO

Oklahoma State Sen. Randy Brogdon, R-Owasso, debates on the Senate floor during the April 16 session. The fiscal conservative says Oklahoma should not accept funds from the federal stimulus program, saying it will create a future financial burden. Brogdon plans to run for governor in 2010.

CAMPUS NOTES

TODAYHILLEL

Hillel will host Israel

Café at 7:30 a.m. at

the Hillel center.

SCHOOL OF OPERA

The School of Opera

will perform at 8 p.m.

in Holmberg Hall.

SCHOOL OF THEATER

The School of

theater presents A

Midsummer Night’s

Dream at 8 p.m. in

the Fine Arts Center.

SATURDAYOKLAHOMA EDUCATIONAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION

OESA is hosting a

conference at 8 a.m.

in the Oklahoma

Memorial Union.

SCHOOL OF THEATER

The School of

theater presents A

Midsummer Night’s

Dream at 8 p.m. in

the Fine Arts Center.

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President Barack Obama re-cently announced plans to triple the number of Americorps posi-tions in the coming years. A couple weeks prior, I had applied to a num-ber of Americorps positions and have been interviewing for them.

A m e r i c o r p s, I t h o u g h t , w a s a good way to do some public service, pick up some marketable skills, and – in all honesty – avoid the dreadful job market after grad-uation. I imagine it still is, just not for me.

The reason? Health care cov-erage. Like 133 million other Americans, I have a chronic illness. Crohn’s disease in my case, but I am sure many of you might also suffer from another disease. As I was getting closer to accepting an Americorps position, I reviewed their health care plan and found it offers no coverage for pre-exist-ing conditions. Tough luck if your cancer comes out of remission or you need physical therapy for an ankle injury you suffered in the past. This isn’t unusual, though. OU’s student health care plan does

not offer coverage for pre-existing conditions, nor do a number of insurance plans that aren’t admin-istered through employment. It is, however, extremely unfortunate for individuals like me, and it shows how desperately we need health care reform.

Take Americorps. Although Obama has tripled the size, you still have a public service initiative that implicitly excludes more than a third of the population.

The American auto industry is in crisis mode largely because of its retirees’ medical expenses. These medical expenses forced the companies into their current posi-tion and have been responsible for much of the difficulty in pulling them out.

We spend twice as much on health care than any other nation per capita, but by most measures, our quality of care is no better, and the U.S. government pays half of all medical expenses. This makes you wonder what or whom we are paying for with our personal expenditures.

You cannot take an unbiased look at the numerical arguments and conclude our system is supe-rior. Yet we continue to stick with it. Why? Our society’s fear of the socialism plays a crucial role, and I

believe it is evidenced by the Band-Aid proposals of the last election cycle. It is beyond me why we lack a collective fear of job lock, medical expense-induced bankruptcy and wasteful spending.

I have personal experience with “socialized” medicine, so I think I am qualified to compare it with the current U.S. health care system. I have been hospitalized for extend-ed periods on multiple occasions, had a couple run-ins with emer-gency rooms, had close to a dozen outpatient procedures and more doctor visits than I can count. This is average for those with chronic conditions, but I would wager that I have a lot more experience being poked, prodded and sick than 90 percent of those reading this paper.

I spent four days in a German hospital and a couple hours in a Dutch emergency room last sum-mer for a condition that was eerily similar to a flare up of my Crohn’s Disease. I think it’s important to note that I have a very good idea of how American doctors go about assessing these cases. I know what tests they run, and I have a good idea of how to interpret the results.

In the Netherlands, I saw a doc-tor within 15 minutes of arriving to the emergency room. I didn’t even need to fill out forms. I just handed

over my passport to be photocopied and told the intake nurse my symp-toms. The doctor ran tests, asked the right questions, and, in response to my question about a missing test in the blood work, politely told me why the test they used was superior. He offered to run the test and e-mail me the results. I declined. We de-cided it was probably not a flare up from my disease, but a nasty stom-ach bug. He gave me his personal e-mail in case I had any questions. I left without signing a single docu-ment or spending a dime.

Two days later, I found myself in Berlin, sick as ever. I went to the hospital, saw a doctor within 15 minutes and was admitted within the hour. I shared a Spartan room with four others, but the quality of care was excellent. After a round of invasive tests, the culprit was still unknown, but their combination of IV fluids and medicines seemed to do the trick. I signed my name a couple of times and left with my medications and records. Again, I didn’t pay a thing.

When I returned home, I saw my specialist at the OU Medical Center. He was just as puzzled by my symptoms. I found my way back to normal health within the month regardless.

The medical care I received in

foreign countries was as good as what I have experienced here, and in some respects, better. There was less hassle, but I didn’t have my own room, television or room ser-vice menu.

I wanted to share my experienc-es because I feel it would erase so much of the hypocrisy our society has toward medical care. In time most of you will have your own sto-ries to tell as well, but it will likely be when you are old and retired. It will be when you are on Medicare, on the government’s dime and on your way out.

For individuals and policymak-ers to wrap the health care issue in stigmatizing terms, like “socialized medicine,” is ignorant of our cur-rent system and of what “socialized medicine” entails.

We cannot continue to let health care reform be defined by tired ideologies and arguments. Doing so is not only ignorant of the true nature of the issue, but of great consequence to many like myself. I am glad that many Americans can take their health for granted, but it is deeply insulting when it is mani-fested as nonchalance toward the millions of us for whom it is one of the biggest issues in our daily lives.

Jacob Jones is an economics senior.

Meredith Simons Editor-in-ChiefNijim Dabbour Managing EditorJamie Hughes Assistant Managing EditorMack Burke Night EditorRay Martin Opinion EditorZach Butler Photo Editor

Dane Beavers Senior Online EditorWhitney Bryen Multimedia EditorSteven Jones Sports EditorLuke Atkinson Life & Arts EditorJudy Gibbs Robinson Editorial AdviserR.T. Conwell Advertising Manager

The Oklahoma Daily is a public forum and OU’s independent student voice.The opinion page is produced by a staff of columnists and cartoonists who are independent of The Daily’s news staff. Letters to the editor are welcomed. Letters should concentrate on issues, not personalities, and should be fewer than 250 words, typed and signed. Letters may be cut to fit. Students must list their major and classification. OU staff and faculty must list their title. All letters must include a daytime phone number. Submit letters to dailyopinion@ou.edu or in person Sunday through Thursday in 160 Copeland Hall.

Guest columns are encouraged. They can be submitted to the opinion editor via e-mail at dailyopinion@ou.edu. Comments left on OUDaily.com may be reprinted on the opinion page.’Our View’ is the opinion of majority of the members of The Oklahoma Daily’s editorial board.Editorial Board members are The Daily’s editorial staff. The board meets Sunday through Thursday in 160 Copeland Hall. Columnists’ and cartoonists’ work is representative of their own opinions, not those of the members of The Daily’s Editorial Board.160 Copeland Hall, 860 Van Vleet Oval

Norman, OK 73019-0270 phone:405-325-3666

e-mail:dailynews@ou.edu

contact us

Ray Martin, opinion editordailyopinion@ou.edu • phone: 325-7630 • fax: 325-6051

COMMENTS OF THE DAY »In response to a Thursday news story about possible higher edu-cation tuition increases.

YOU CAN COMMENT ATOUDAILY.COM

“Has there ever been a year where there wasn’t a tuition increase? This is to be expected, I thought. Not that it’s right... I think it’s pretty clear how Oklahoma feels about education by the way they treat and pay their teachers.”

- cketrick

“With inflation and decreased support from donors, this is inevitable. Sure, we can complain all we want, but that isn’t going to make the money tree grow any faster... In addition we already have one of the lowest rates of tuition in the country.”

- delayed

4 Friday, May 1, 2009

In March, State Sen. Randy Brogdon, R-Owasso, suggested Oklahoma give the $2.6 billion it’s set to receive from the federal stimulus package “back to Obama and Congress.”

This is a foolish example of political posturing by Brogdon, who has said he is planning to run for gov-ernor in 2010. See page 3 for more details.

We understand why Brogdon says he wants to give the money back. There are some strings attached to the money, but the money will benefit Oklahoma, even if the state doesn’t get to decide exactly how it will be used.

For example, $465 million of the stimulus package has been allocated specifically to improve roads and bridges in the state.

But is this a bad thing? Hardly. Oklahoma is near the bottom of national rankings

in several categories, including income, health insur-ance, high school education, college education, good nutrition, tobacco use, mental illness, diabetes and heart disease.

And Brogdon’s solution is to refuse money that Oklahoma could use to actually help its people?

If the state is being given this money, government officials might as well use it. If Oklahoma uses it wise-ly, a chunk of money this large could spark real prog-ress in Oklahoma, which is something that should reach across party lines.

If Oklahoma were to decline this money, it most likely wouldn’t go back in the Federal Reserve. If the Sooner State doesn’t take it, another state will. Those millions will be used to benefit Texas or Kansas or Missouri, but not Oklahoma.

The state has a budget shortfall potentially as large as $900 million, and the money would help al-leviate state income issues while giving the govern-ment the opportunity to improve the quality of life in Oklahoma.

If Brogdon really wants to help the state, he will stop his political grandstanding and recognize that, whether he initially supported the stimulus or not, it’s on its way, and Oklahoma should benefit from it.

STAFF COLUMN

STAFF COLUMN

OUR VIEW

JACOB JONES

State senator wrong on returning $2.6B in federal stimulus funds

IT’S NOT EASY BEING MODERATE

US health care system should be revamped

STEPHEN CARRADINI

It has never been easy to be a moderate in America; our two-party system is set up against people who are in the middle. But the difficulty of being a moderate has greatly increased in the past 20 years, and this trend worries me.

We’ve had polarization of outlooks from the get-go; the loyalists wanted to stay with Britain, the revo-lutionaries wanted to form America.

B u t o n c e g e n e r a l Americans (i.e. moder-ates) sided with the revo-lutionaries instead of the loyalists, the American revolution got going (and Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” then as now, resonated with the aver-age American citizen).

Once it became time to write the Constitution, there was conflict in many

areas. States’ rights, slavery — it’s all fifth-grade American history now. But current Democrats and Republicans seem to have forgotten that the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Great Compromise were two of the most important moments of the Constitutional Convention. We wouldn’t even have a country without compromise. Once the founders got past the whole loyal-ist vs. revolutionary thing, they realized they had to work together or they were all going to get killed individually. Their loyalties to their states were not forgotten, but instead com-promised, for the better good.

It saddens me that Americans have fallen so far from the celebration of compromise, that “compromise” has an almost entirely negative connotation in our culture.

“Don’t compromise your morals!” “This mission has been compromised!” These are familiar statements. The word compromise has been associated with “weakness” in a ter-rible way. It’s not weakness. It’s diplomacy.

It’s strategy. It’s a necessity. This is due heavily to spy movies, for the

second sentence and the polarization of the culture. While the biases of various news networks are the most obvious display of polarization, I don’t fault the media. They only show what people will watch. If nobody watched the polarized media, media would shift back to actually reporting in an unbi-ased way. But unbiased news is boring. We don’t like boring.

This polarization of culture is damaging to America. Instead of being able to come up with solutions in which one party gets some things and the other party gets other things with neither getting all of what they want, the party in power jerks around the minor-ity party for as long as it can, knowing that it will eventually get jerked around when it be-comes the minority. Instead of taking some losses while in power to ensure that they have some gains while not in power, they just take everything they can get while they’re in

power. This caused, is causing and will continue

to cause a stalemate in America. If we don’t remember how to compromise, then we’re going to have a long period of Democrat action replaced by subsequent Republican action, which is then nullified by more Democrat action. The country will never go anywhere and will never be as prosperous as it could be.

It is a good thing not to have rock-solid beliefs on everything. It allows compromise, which is pretty much the only thing separat-ing this country from tyranny, monarchies, despotism and oppressive ideologies.

Unfortunately, it seems that oppressive ideologies seem to be taking over American politics, and moderates have no place in that system. I hope that we re-learn to compro-mise so we don’t have to work backward down the list.

Stephen Carradini is a professional writing junior.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

STUDENT CONGRESS NOT FOLLOWING CODE

On Wednesday, The Daily fea-tured a small report about Student Congress passing a bill to elect Kely Van Eaton as CAC chair. The same report also mentioned that Student Congress approved the cabinet mem-bers for the Executive Branch for the 2009-2010 school year. Sadly, what The Daily did not report was that the cabinet members were approved in clear violation of the UOSA Code Annotated, the second highest gov-erning document that establishes the rules for the University of Oklahoma Student Association.

When Student Congress is asked to provide advice and consent on appointments made by the UOSA president and vice president, the UOSA Code Annotated, UOSACA, clearly states that the people who the legislature is providing con-sent on must be present at the

meeting. At the Student Congress meeting on Tuesday, only six of the 11 appointees were present at the meeting. When a member of Student Congress brought up the point that Student Congress could not offer its consent on the appointees without all of appointees present, the Vice Chair of Congress, Matthew Gress, as well as several others, advocated for continuing with the consent process even though it was in clear violation of the UOSACA.

While this may seem like a trivial matter, this process also applies to several other high profi le positions including UOSA general counsel, UOSA superior court justices and the election chair, all of which can have a major impact on the students at the University. If Student Congress was willing to violate the law now, what is to stop them from doing it later?

Joseph Ahrabizad, political science

junior and Student Congress represen-

tative, Social Sciences District

Steven Jones, sports editordailysports@ou.edu • phone: 325-7630 • fax: 325-6051

Friday May 1, 2009 5

ROWING

OU COMPETING IN FIRST EVER BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

Rowing is heading to Kansas Ci ty, Kan. Saturday to par-ticipate in the inaugural Big 12 Championships.

Prior to this season, OU’s fi rst season of rowing, the Big 12 only had three teams, so they did not have a championship.

Junior Chelsea Moore said she’s looking forward to see how the Sooners match up against the Big 12 teams.

“I’m interested to see how we stack up against the competition,” Moore said. “I think it will be really fun because all the schools, you hear about them in football and stuff like that so it will be fun to take that into rowing.”

The other schools competing this weekend are Texas, Kansas and Kansas State. Moore said she is hoping for a top three fi nish.

“I want a medal,” Moore said. “First, second or third, I really just want to show them that we can do it and that it is possible. I think it would set us up for future years because we’ve got such a small program that we’ve set a standard for future years.”

The Sooners varsity four and two novice eight teams will com-pete this weekend. Sophomore Megan Harrell said she’s hoping for a good showing in Kansas.

“We’ve worked our butts off to get where we have been so far,” Harrell said. “I’m just looking for-ward to trying to go out there and win it, really.”— Steven Jones/The Daily

OU hosts Kansas for

three-game series after

lengthy road trip

JONO GRECOThe Oklahoma Daily

Two weekends on the road dur-ing Big 12 play can be tough for any team, so returning to L. Dale Mitchell Park is exactly what the No. 9 baseball team needs.

OU welcomes the Kansas Jayhawks to Norman for a three-game set starting 6:30 Friday evening.

The Sooners (33-12, 11-9) went 3-3 in two road series against No. 8 Texas and No. 17 Baylor. They were swept by the Longhorns and took all three games from the Bears.

OU is 19-2 at home this season, the only losses coming against Nebraska and Texas Tech by a combined differential of six runs.

“This is where we play the best,” sophomore left fielder Casey Johnson said. “It’s tough to beat us here and we’re happy to be back.”

In those 19 victories, the Sooners averaged 9.8 runs per game and have outscored oppo-nents 187-77. In addition to hold-ing opponents to a mere 4.1 runs per game in Norman, the pitching staff has recorded three shutouts – one against Houston Baptist March 10 and two against Texas Tech in back-to-back games April 10 and 11.

On the other hand, the Jayhawks (31-15, 10-8) post a less-than-stellar road record. Away from Lawrence, they are 8-12, including a 2-5 record in Big 12 play.

OU head coach Sunny Golloway said despite the lackluster road record, he expects this week-end’s series to be a tough one, but being at home gives his team the advantage.

“We expect nothing but their best effort, but we are playing at home,” Golloway said. “We’ve been very good at home, and we are a very good team. So we expect to play well and we expect to win.”

Junior pitcher Andrew Doyle said all he has heard about the Jayhawks, who swept Texas at home this y ear, is that they have struggled on the road this season.

“I haven’t heard too much about [the Jayhawks] outside the fact that they’re better at home and not as good on the road,” ju-nior pitcher Andrew Doyle said.

Doyle is scheduled to be Friday’s starter, a role in which he has ex-celled this season. He has started each Friday series opener during Big 12 play, excluding two times when the openers were pushed to Saturday due to weather.

In 10 starts, Doyle posts a 6-3 record and has a 3.76 ERA. In 69 1/3 innings he has struck out 48 and has walked only 12 batters.

In his last start against Baylor, Doyle went eight innings, allow-ing two runs, six hits and striking out six Bears en route to a 4-2 win.

“I’m expecting a hard-fought series [this weekend],” Golloway said. “They have a winning re-cord right now in the Big 12, and I’m sure they’re looking at it like,

‘Man, if we can win this series against a nationally ranked, top-10 team, what can that do for us?’ They’re going to be fired up and ready to go.”

BASEBALL

Sooners heading home

ELIZABETH NALEWAJK/THE DAILY

Freshman catcher Tyler Ogle rounds second base against Wichita State April 22 at L. Dale Mitchell Park.

WHO WILL HAVE A BETTER POSTSEASON?FRIDAY FACE-OFF

I t’s been a great year for OU athletics. As we reach the end of the regular season, it seems both baseball and softball

have the potential to complete a booming year of Sooner sports.

Yes, softball is having a great season that suggests a significant post-season journey,

but it doesn’t feature any aspects that stand out.

Sooner baseball has a potent offensive attack this season, one that leads the Big 12. The Sooners offense dominates the conference, hitting .329 as a team.

A team that tops con-ference rankings in every offensive category is enough to indicate a spot

in the College World Series alone, but the Sooners are leading one of the toughest conferences.

The baseball team has highlighted a consistent offense — something the soft-ball team needs in order to go as far as baseball will in postseason.

Looking at the entire span of the season, OU softball is less dominating because of inconsistency in series play and offen-sive performance and the lack of a truly

dependable pitching staff.The softball team peaked at a critical

time to claim the top rank in the Big 12; however, stability will be crucial to post-season success.

OU baseball has been reliable with its unshakable offensive talent. The Sooners have homered in 18 of the past 22 games. Before losing to high-ly-ranked Arkansas Tuesday, the Sooners won 10 consecutive mid-week games.

The road loss in Fayetteville wasn’t a heartbreaker, though. It was a non-con-ference game in front of 8,000 spectators.

Before that, the Sooners swept Baylor — the first time in 11 years that the Bears saw defeat in a homestead. Sitting at No. 2 in the Big 12, the Sooners have an optimistic future of improving, and moving on to regional and national championship appearances.

The Sooner softball and baseball teams are both having exceptional sea-sons and are destined to have post-season success. I see baseball making it further because of their dominating offense and consistency.Claire Brandon is a journalism sophomore.

I f you are expecting to head out to the baseball diamond to catch the men in the postseason, you might want to

think again.The only Sooner squad with a legitimate

shot at doing damage on the diamond in the postseason is the OU softball team.

While the men struggle in their fight for the top spot, the softball team finished its

season as the Big 12 regular season champions.

OU softball and head coach Patty Gasso have a winning

tradition, unlike a Sooner baseball team that has not

proved itself as a pres-ence on the national

scene for years.Sooner softball has

attended a Super Regional the past

nine years and participated in the Women’s College World

Series five out of those nine years.

The baseball team has not seen a World Series in years and has not been of the same caliber since it claimed the

national championship in 1994.Softball has a winning program and

Gasso continues to run successful teams through a postseason full of Pac-10 powerhouses.

This year’s team has the possibility to be just as successful. It is peak-ing at the most oppor-tune time.

When Sooner softball is at its best, there are few pitchers who can stop the hot bat of Amber Flores.

Hitters also struggle against OU’s reliable pitcher D.J. Mathis.

Baseball has the ability to play at a high level just like their female counterparts, but softball does it on a more consistent basis.

Baseball showed a glimmer of excel-lence when it swept Baylor this month, but it also struggled losing three games to Big 12 powerhouse Texas.

Sooner softball faced the Big 12 leader Missouri on the road and stole the Big 12 title from the Tigers.

That is the kind of gumption that is going to take a team far in the postseason.Annelise Russell is a journalism and political sci-

ence junior.

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OU faced Oklahoma State Thursday night. Read the story online.OUDAILY.COM

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MORE SPORTS ONLINESee more sports content at OUDaily.com.

Senior catcher J.T. Wise

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6 Friday, May 1, 2009

Previous Answers

8 2 94

2 5 3 7 14 3 5

7 94 3 6

7 8 6 1 27

9 8 3Instructions:Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box.

Previous Solution

Monday- Very EasyTuesday-EasyWednesday- EasyThursday- MediumFriday - Hard

9 8 1 5 2 7 4 6 34 7 2 1 6 3 5 8 96 5 3 8 4 9 2 1 73 2 9 7 5 8 1 4 65 4 8 6 3 1 7 9 27 1 6 4 9 2 8 3 51 6 4 3 7 5 9 2 82 3 7 9 8 4 6 5 18 9 5 2 1 6 3 7 4

Universal Crossword

“SHH!” by Marsha Fowkles

ACROSS 1 Trellis piece 5 Kind of

equity 10 Austin

Powers euphemism

14 Diamond feature

15 What cover letters spell out?

16 Unaffected manner

17 “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men” author

18 Enlarges, as a hole

19 Piece of a floor plan?

20 “Shh!” 23 Equipped,

as with talent

24 Underdog’s win

27 Two year old 28 Columbia

Pictures co-founder Harry

31 Prefix with “athlete” or “angle”

32 TV schedule letters

34 Type of barrier or boom

35 Black gold 36 “Shh!” 40 ___-mo 41 Paints

messily 42 Meditation

syllables 43 Simile center 44 Swirl of

water 45 Wasn’t

brave 47 One-third

of a phrase meaning “etc.”

49 Start of play, in tennis

53 “Shh!” 57 Booster Club

member 59 Cowboys

vs. broncos event?

60 Acquires in the end

61 Frolic 62 Type of

circle 63 Trunk site 64 Some kennel

cries 65 Billy goat

feature 66 Underworld

riverDOWN 1 Sahara

shortage 2 Enter

cyberspace 3 “FoxTrot”

cartoonist 4 Stay on the

wagon 5 Drive way 6 Handle

skillfully 7 Substitute for

unmentioned text

8 “Mater” lead-in

9 Roman-directed film?

10 Reverse of 24-Across?

11 Bit of

unusual weather

12 Communica-tion for the deaf (Abbr.)

13 Wally’s exclamation

21 Jefferson bill 22 One-eighth

of a cup 25 Iroquois

enemies 26 Use a lance 28 Cheese type 29 Keys with “!” 30 Common

possessive 32 Oklahoma’s

second- largest city

33 Track meet event

34 Vertical post 36 Opening

words at a ball game?

37 Notions 38 Wee fellow 39 Sisters’

accommo-

dations 45 Phrase

differently 46 Is for many

people? 48 Refuse sites 49 Range rover 50 Sluggish by

nature 51 Charmingly

attractive person (Var.)

52 English county

54 Chicago paper, familiarly

55 Treat for Marmaduke

56 Author Ferber

57 An end to honor?

58 Mauna ___

PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

Edited by Timothy E. Parker May 1, 2009

© 2009 Universal Press Syndicatewww.upuzzles.com

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Friday, May 1, 2009

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) -- If you don’t want to be labeled the culprit who puts everyone in a bad mood, don’t be heavy-handed or domineering. You can change the entire atmosphere by smiling instead of snarling.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) -- It might be diffi cult to own up to your shortcomings. Remember, you can skillfully defend them, but it won’t alter the lack of results you get from a poor performance.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) -- Don’t be stupid about insisting on doing things others can afford, but you can’t. There is no shame in frugality and prudence, but there will be in self-infl icted bankruptcy.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) -- It’s unlikely those who are usually helpful will be of much assistance if you are too self-centered or self-involved. Don’t take on any airs, and make it a point to be congenial.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) -- Instead of learning from painful past experiences, you are likely to repeat an old mistake. Unfortunately, nothing has changed, and the same penalties will be in effect.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) -- You’re an individual who likes people and usually gets along with just about everyone. Yet, unless someone is carved in your own image, no one will be perfect enough for you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) -- Generally, your likes and dislikes are exacting, but the inability to make a decision could hamper you greatly. Instead of being namby-pamby, get back in character and take a stance.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) -- Adopting a negative attitude will only amplify what you consider to be undesirable tasks that have been assigned to you. It is a misuse of your imagination and makes everything harder.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- Unless you guard against a tendency to take everything too seriously, you will end up having an unhappy day. With the exception of serious issues, relax and let things roll off your back.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- Everything will go smoother if you show a willingness to compromise instead of being stubborn and hardheaded. Steering a middle course will not endanger your effi cacy.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) -- You will get a lot further when dealing with underlings if you are tactful and patient. Being pleasant will turn away wrath, lessen dissension, and spawn allegiance.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) -- If you fail to manage your resources with the same prudence as someone who is well off, you might discover why he or she is successful and you’re not. Learn from observ-ing, not from harsh lessons.

HOROSCOPE By Bernice Bede Osol

Copyright 2008, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.

is in your hands

More than 80% of germs are spread by the hands. Wash your hands to stop the transmission and kill the most

common germs that may make you sick.

Other ways to prevent the spread of common germs:• Cover coughs and sneezes

• Eat a healthy diet

• Exercise regularly

• Get enough sleep

• Frequently disinfect shared objects

• Avoid touching the face, eyes, nose

and mouth until hands are washed

• Do not share cups, plates, utensils,

make-up.

• Avoid close personal contact with

an infected person

• Stay home when sick

Your best defense against contagious illnesses, including colds and fl u

your health

The University of Oklahoma is an Equal Opportunity Institution.

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DOWNTOWN EDMONDF R I D A Y , S A T U R D A Y & S U N D A Y

MAY 1st, 2nd & 3rd

7 Friday, May 1, 2009

Luke Atkinson, L&A editordailyent@ou.edu • phone: 325-5189 • fax: 325-6051

BEERoftheWEEK

LOOK OUT FOR SHARKSWell dear readers, I’ve hit a huge bump. This bump is a fi-

nancial one. This is ironic, because my huge bump is actually my small amount of cash.

So, due to the current state in the econo-my (I have about $20), I decided to save that money and just drink a beer that I had in my fridge. The beer I pulled from my arctic bev-erage sanctuary was Land Shark.

I first discovered the existence of this awe-some “Margaritaville” product several years ago when I saw a shark-bitten surfboard advertisement in a Tulsa bar. Since then it’s become a staple of my beer-drinking repertoire.

Let me tell you folks, when it comes to weak beachside beer, it doesn’t get much

better than Land Shark brew. The light, gold coloring and slight wheat taste of this crisp cool summer treat is the Clint Eastwood to Corona’s pre-pubescent boy.

The smooth, easy feel of the beer makes it perfect for any recreational binge drinking you might have planned. Also, it’s great for those wild Jay-Z-style summer parties on your 80-foot yacht at Lake Thunderbird.

Check out Land Shark as soon as possible and start stocking up for those dog days of summer.Brand Rackley is a journalism senior.

BRANDRACKLEY

L&A BRIEFS

MISS CALIFORNIA TO CAMPAIGN AGAINST GAY MARRIAGE

NEW YORK— The reigning Miss California has gone to Washington to help launch a campaign opposing same-sex marriage.

Carrie Prejean told NBC’s “Today” show Thursday she’ll be working with the National Organization for Marriage to “protect tradi-tional marriages.”

The 21-year-old says that marriage is “something that is very dear to my heart” and she’s in Washington to help save it.

She says many people have thanked her for stand-ing up for traditional mar-riage.

P re jean was named the fi rst runner-up to Miss North Carolina in the Miss USA pageant April 19. Her response to celebrity blog-ger Perez Hilton’s question about legalizing same-sex marriage may have cost her the title.

DISNEY JOINS NBC AND NEWS CORP. WITH ONLINE HULU

LOS ANGELES — Disney movies and ABC TV shows will be available on Hulu.com now that Walt Disney Co. is taking an equity stake in the popular video stream-ing site, joining its founders, NBC Universal and News Corp.

The deal announced Thursday will bring older Disney movies to the site, along with ABC and Disney Channel shows such as “Lost,” ‘’Grey’s Anatomy” and “Wizards of Waverly Place” after they run on TV. Disney hopes to gain new online viewers that it does not already capture on ABC.com and pick up new income from sharing ad rev-enue on Hulu.

The ne w setup a lso brings the owners of three of the four major broadcast networks — ABC, NBC and Fox — into a fi ght for online viewers.

–AP

NATASHA GOODELLThe Oklahoma Daily

Despite potential bad weather, artists and craftsmen prepare for the 2009 May Fair Arts Festival this weekend as usual.

April Ayers, 2009 May Fair Arts Festival Chairwoman, said they are pre-pared for the rainy weather but are hop-ing for the best.

From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, the 35th Annual May Fair

Arts Festival will be held at the historic Andrews Park in Norman.

Andrews Park has a covered amphi-theatre this year in case of potential rain.

The Norman community can im-merse themselves in the artwork pro-vided by nearly 80 artists and craftsmen at the festival.

The Assistance League of Norman hosts the festival each year as a way to expose the Norman community to vari-ous artworks and gather together for a

weekend of community events. “This is truly a community event,”

Ayers said. “It’s not a fundraiser; it is simply for the community.”

Ayers said it takes the league an entire year to prepare for this event, but after 34 years, it gets easier.

Although lacking in artwork by stu-dents, the May Fair Arts Festival in-cludes about 80 artists and craftsmen.

Ayers said there isn’t a lot of participa-tion from the students despite continu-ous invites; they just haven’t submitted anything to the festival.

“We would love to have their work in the show though,” Ayers said.

The artists in the show mostly are re-turning artists that come from all over the country, Ayers said.

Awarded best in glass at last year’s festival, stain glass craftsmen Hank Barnes, from Rogers, Ark, is returning for his second show.

“I just took a shot and came to this last year and I was pleasantly surprised,” Barnes said. “As far as promoters, these ladies go above and beyond.”

Barnes said he is hoping for clear skies this weekend, but is glad to have the tents staked down into the ground unlike other festivals he has attended.

By recommendation, photographer Bill Wright from Fayetteville, Ark, is at-tending the festival this year.

“In today’s economy, you always look for a place where you can sell whatever you make,” Wright said.

Wright said he has been doing shows with Barnes for several years.

Hand craftsman Filiz Sprouse said she really enjoys the festival despite her tent being blown away last year.

“I hope the weather will be nice,” Sprouse said. “But I’m ready for a weather challenge.”

Sprouse is displaying jewelry, hand-made bags and potpourri from her fam-ily’s business LizBel in Moore.

Ayers said there will be live entertain-ment ranging from kids dancing their spring recitals to church bands to indi-vidual soloists.

NATASHA GOODELL/THE DAILY

Bill Wright sets up his display Thursday in preparation for the weekend festival.

Residents prepare for fest

Gold CrownSooner 2008/Crimson Traditions 2007 and OUDaily.com

Pacemaker Sooner 2007/ Crimson Traditions 2006

Pacemaker fi nalistOUDaily.com and Sooner 2008/ Crimson Traditions 2007

Honor Roll Yearbook AdviserLori Brooks, associate director

Designer of the YearJohn Salvie, Advertising design manager

Admiral William J. Crowe AwardMeredith Simons, The Oklahoma Daily editor

DID YOU KNOW?OU Student Media is among the nation’s best.

21Professional Awards

59Collegiate Awards

3 Best in Show

7 Best of Collegiate Design

4 SPJ Mark of Excellence Awards

2 Hearst Awards

42 Gold Circles

27 Sooner and Crimson Traditions

13 Oklahoma Daily

2 Sower Magazine

1 CNBAM Award

Visit www.studentmedia.ou.edu for more information on all the awards listed above.

The University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution. Student Media is a department within OU’s division of Student Aff airs. SOWER

THE OKLAHOMA DAILYSOONER YEARBOOK

V I S I T O RG U I D E

S T U D E N T

M E D I A

P ixar’s 10th feature film, “Up,” tells the story of 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, who heads off on a journey by tying thousands of balloons to his house. Little does

he know, a curious 8-year-old is going to be his accidental companion for the trip.

Pete Docter directed “Up,” his second directorial effort after 2001’s “Monsters, Inc.” The Daily’s Dusty Somers partici-pated in a conference call with Docter.

HOW DID THE CONCEPT FOR THE FILM ARISE?

I’m not an extrovert, so by the end of any given day, I just want to crawl under my desk and rock quietly in a corner or something, so the idea of getting away from it all is really ap-pealing. We were thinking of tropical islands and stories like that. And I think I just drew this picture of a house floating with balloons, and something about that just seemed very evocative.

DID YOU FIND DIRECTING TO BE EASIER THE SECOND TIME AROUND?

Well, I was hoping it would be, but it didn’t end up that way. “Monsters, Inc.” was more difficult – physically, emotionally, personally demanding and taxing. There was a point where you start to think, “I’m going to die.” Which sounds weird. You’re working on cartoons – happy, fun Pixar la la land – but you come to a place where you start to think of yourself as a failure if you don’t get this done. These things are so personal to us, you begin to identify with the film, and if the film is fail-ing, I am.

So, the second time around, I knew that was part of the road that happens with every film. It’s no reflection on me, necessarily, and knowing that helped a lot. I didn’t take it as personally. It was definitely just as demanding, though.

EVEN THOUGH THE CHARACTERS AREN’T RELATED, IS THE IDEA OF A GRANDFATHER AND GRANDSON RELATIONSHIP IMPORTANT HERE?

Yes, I think so. There are things that we set up in both char-acters – holes in their lives – that the other character can ful-fill. It’s even beyond the grandfather and grandson relation-ship, which is sort of an archetypal relationship that you don’t see a lot of.

ARE YOUR FILMS MEANT TO BE ESCAPIST, AND IS THAT SOME-THING IMPORTANT IN A TIME OF RECESSION LIKE THIS?

As a filmmaker, and even as a filmgoer, what I want is yes, escapism, but on some fundamental level, [I want] an emo-tional truth and a reality that resonates with my own life. So even though we’re watching a film about toys or monsters or fish or whatever, there’s something about them and the way they’re acting that speaks to my experience. Something we work really hard on at Pixar is finding the foundational the-matic elements that relate to all of us in the audience. That’s not easy to come by, but I think it’s pretty fundamental to what we do.

Dusty Somers is a journalism junior.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Carl Fredricksen (right) and Russell (left) take in the sights of distant lands in Pixar’s “Up.” The film opens May 29.

Upcoming Pixar fi lm takes to the skies

Google is taking over the world.

Do you need directions to your cousin’s birthday party? Google Maps can show you.

Do you need to know who won the World S e r i e s i n 1 9 7 2 ? G o o g l e c a n t e l l you (the Oakland Athletics won, by the way).

Do you need to find a cartoon pic-ture of a monkey eating a banana? Yo u g u e s s e d i t . Google Images has it.

And now, in an age where Web sites, like Facebook, reign, set the tem-plate and the tone of social networking, Google – albeit under our noses – has taken a swing at that, too.

You may not have noticed it, but with Google’s relatively new iGoogle feature, you can set up a homepage in which all of your favorite news sites and RSS feeds are consoli-dated into one area. You can check your e-mail, add a pic-ture, a short profile and you can chat with other iGoogle users in real time. There also are status updates. These features ring heavily of so-cial networking, and it’s no doubt on purpose.

And so here we sit, at the very beginning of a techno-logical revolution that 30 years from now will likely be unrecognizable to us. We are only witnessing the very tip of an iceberg that proves to show humanity the vital sig-nificance and implications of an interconnected world. We now live in a world where Google is a noun and a verb, and concepts like social networking and instanta-neous access to informa-tion threaten to completely reinvent the way in which

people think, communicate and share information.

As Google spreads further into our consciousness like slowly expanding ooze, in-filtrating the way we inquire

about information and now each other, something eerie is happening.

Does the future involve a world in which everybody sees everybody else and conversations and human interac-tion are mediated by a Google logo and the lights of a computer monitor?

Only time will tell. But I think it’s important

to take a look at what Google is doing by introducing so-cial networking features. They are infiltrating popular culture in a subtle way, slow-ly becoming so ubiquitous that they are engrained in the very fabric of American culture.

My iGoogle has RSS feeds from Wired, Digg, NPR and the Weather Channel (I’m a nerd, I know). It’s conve-nient, and fun, but it leaves me wondering about the implications.

How interconnected are we? What does the cul-ture surrounding Google, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace say about our generation?

Is the future a gloomy re-ality in which every piece of information about us is vis-ible and up for criticism by all, or a dawn of an new era in which access to information and communication reach monumental heights, where instant access to figures, news and people become a state of normalcy?

Not even Google can an-swer that yet.

Tyler Branson is an English senior.

iGoogle replacing human interactions

TYLERBRANSON

8 Friday, May 1, 2009