SEPTEMBER 17, 2008 | THE MEREDITH HERALD • Educating Women to Excel I VOL XXVI • ISSUE 2 KICKOFF FOR HABITAT (SEE PAGE 2) 2 News , Kickoff Cefebration Held Meredith’s Habitat.Effort 3 Events Do You Know What ! a Convocatfdn Is?.,- • . , tA Science & Technology • i Speedo Aquabeat Waterproof f MP3 Player; ii ■ ' ■ |5. Arts & Humanitii>s Enter Edwin McGair Sports , ■ Sports Week^ndb • A Weeke^d-'fot'Tri^ » On The_ Right JracK 7^8 Opinion &jCampu ■ No. Mprfe “Rbwer Ov ■ PallnHas WhatitT{_ ■ A Chill Pepper Dream Realized Photo courtesy TheWusKn Chronicle When reporter on major news networks ask Obama about his predilection for boxers or briefs, are we supposed to consider it a serious issue ^and measure it against our does-this-help-or-hinder-my-plans- for-the*future scale? If we are, I guess we would have, to wait and see which brand he prefers in order to come to .a well-infomied decision.. But lately the media.has become less Obamaniacal, and these daily style “briefs” have alWbut disappeared. But not because they’re devoting these last weeks of campaigning to hot-button issues like the economy, education or Iraq, but because his reign as media dar ling has been usurped by Republi- THE MEDIA’S SKEW ON TODAY’S POLITICS by Melissa Santos Staff Writer Many voters see this year’s historic election as a crucial, what-col- or-wire-do-I-cut event; choose the wrong . candidate, and America self-destructs—or continues to self-destruct, depending on your outlook. But what is that outlook, and is it even yours? Or is it a patchwork of beliefs stitched together from episodes of The Daily Show or the hand-me-down politics of our parents? Unfortunately for voters, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to come to anything more than a superficial understanding of a candidate—and virtually.impossible to obtain a complete, factual descrip tion of his or her policies. After all, most of our information is gleaned from tvvo-minute news media reports. can vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Historically, with the excep tion of Lyndon Johnson- in 1960, running mates haven’t mattered. They’re essentially an innocuous representative of their political par ty’s platform and have minimal im pact on the Presidential candidate’s current rankings. At least that was the case during the pre-Palin era. ■ This year, people are gaga over the GOP’s “ it” girl. But why all the fiiss, when Palin had always been on the radar as a potential running mate and had made it onto nearly every politico’s short list? Because Palin isn’t Milhouse to McCain’s Bart, to paraphrase the VP nominee her- See MEDIA SKEW, PAGE 2 Photo courtesy wmv.Oonteytf/sft.com JOHN PASSACANTANDO VISITS MEREDITH by Courtney Angers Staff Writer On Sept, 9, 2008, a full audience of students, faculty, staff, and commu nity members welcomed John Pas- sacantaqdo in Jones Auditorium as the first speaker for the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Presi dential Lecture Series of the 2008- 2009 academic year. Passacantando is the executive director of Green peace, USAi. an organization that Passacantando refers to as “Quakers on steroids,” that is dedicated to ad dressing environmental problems in the United States arid finding ways to combat them. Last Tuesday night, Passacantando spoke to the gathered audience about the situation of the environment today and how we can and are fighting to preserve it. Passacantando began his lecture by touching on a few of the many success stories that Greenpeace can claim. Some of their efforts include protecting the whales in Alaska, tak ing a stand against the big oil com pany Exxon Mobil, and helping put. polar bears on the endangered'spe cies list. But not all of their efforts have been so easy. Recently, Green peace was indicted for violation of sailing laws while protesting illegal shipping into Miami. Passacantando and other Greenpeace leaders knew that a failed lawsuit could ruin the reputation of Greeiipeace, but they Photo coufias)' wm».aWfte-Ceacfiaa«wy.cwn did not let this roadblock stop their commitment to preserving the environment. While Passacantando’s lists of Greenpeace’s accomplish ments were impressive, he es pecially invigorated the audience when he spoke of the status of America today: a presidency that has given America a “bleak eight years” concerning environmental issues. Although he stressed non- partisanship, Passacantando did See PASSACANTANDO, PAGE 2 Green Tip for the Week of September 15 Encourage your pro fessors to open the blinds in classroonns instead of having the lights on during class. During the 2008-09 academic year, Meredith College’s cam pus theme is “Sustaining our Environment: Developing our Greenprint.” To help the Meredith community make daily choices that are ben- eficiafto the environrhent, Angels for the Environment have compiled a year’s worth of tips for greener living. To vievtf green tips from previous weeks, visit www. meredith.edu/campus-theme/ environmental-tips.htm.

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view