The Clarion
SERVING THE BREVARD COLLEGE
Volume 72, Issue 15 COMMUNITY SINCE 1935 January 26, 2007
BC Students react to State of the Union
by David Ulloa
Staff Writer
As the Congress seats fill up,
the seats in Coltrane Commons
remain mostly empty while Bush
preaches to the nation about do
mestic issues and the future of the
war, leaving many students dis
pleased and uninterested.
It was approximately 8:58 pm
and Coltrane Commons seems to
be at its usual scene with blender
noises, random voices, and the
crumpling of sandwich paper.
What is unusual is the apparent
lack of awareness the crowd has
to switch the television channel
from the prime time sitcom to the
traditionally vital speech about
The State of the Union. As Presi
dent Bush prepared to stand be
fore Congress, camera crews,
friends, family, and the viewing
nation; laughing ensued in the back
ground of Coltrane. Throughout
the initial domestic affairs portion
of the Presidents speech, besides
the two other people watching
close to the television, the lounge
area grew decently crowded with
about nine other students. Most
students barely batted an eye at
the program and remained
undistracted as they continued
with their studies, food, and so
cializing.
When Bush dove into issues
concerning the environment’s well
being and the economy’s balance.
Sophomore, Wesley Wade from
Shelby, NC voiced his concern,” I
think it’s going to be hard to do
what he’s talking about. Most
American’s don’t care if they
waste gas and just basically care
about themselves.” According to
Wesley it seems useless to guar
antee these issues when the na
tion suffers from a large amount
of homeless and poverty stricken
President Bush addresses the nation
people. Bush segued into the war
portion of the speech, and a rather
vocal student yelled, “lies, lies,
lies!” elevating a rather apathetic
scene and non-important situa
tion.
From the obvious lack of stu
dent interest and projected ridi
cule at the speech, it made it clear
that Bush hadn’t achieved the
overall attention and respect he
wanted out of most of America’s
youth. Sophomore, Chris
Casbarro from Hiawassee, FL
made his point clear as he com
mented about Bush’s inability to
persuade him into concurrence,
“Once again. Bush recognizes
some big businesses that run our
country. If we wanted hear that,
we could have watched the stock
market report.” He claimed that
nothing has changed since the last
State of the Union address. Bush
appeared optimistic about send
ing more troops to Iraq and sup
porting the ones presently there.
After the Iraq portion of the
speech and Bush’s appreciation for
the ease of Dikembe Mutombo’s
home town of Congo, which was
granted a brand new hospital for
AIDS relief; the social scene at
Coltrane overwhelmed the televi
sion and made it difficult to hear
the conclusion of Bush’s address.
Fellow Clarion staff member. Se
nior, Thomas Cowan from New
Orleans, LA expressed his inter
pretation of the President’s expec
tations, “The only surprise was
the lack of humility and apology.
The speech seemed redundant and
as usual the support our troops
mantra to gain support for
policy’s which are failing.” Tho
mas was affected by hurricane
Katrina and was one of the last
students remaining to watch the
entire speech. “And shame on him
for not saying anything about
New Orleans!”
Bush’s optimism about domes
tic issues and war in Iraq remain
strong and expectations of a more
prosperous, united nation, drives
his strategy for the upcoming
year The future of student cha
Photo from www.state.gov
risma and political enthusiasm will
be in the hands of Bush’s comple
tion of objectives and Presidential
guidance.
What's
Inside?
Arts & Life 6
Horoscope 7
Miss K 4
News 2
Opinion 4
Weather 2