Breaking the Mold

Tara Moreland
2/17/12

As I sat at BSA’s “Love and Soul” event Tuesday evening, listening to music and poetry presented in honor of Black History Month, I thought about the significance of this month and its place in our society today. I looked around the room at “Love and Soul” and noticed two things: first, that there were very few William Jewell students, faculty or staff at the event, and two, the audience was comprised mostly of African-Americans.
These two realizations were disappointing to me for a variety of reasons. As I have discussed in this column before, the multicultural organizations on this campus constantly struggle to garner support from this community, and that continued to be evident given the turnout Tuesday night at BSA’s event.
It seems that any event associated with a multicultural organization is written off as only being for the people who associate with that cultural group. I believe this example is one that can be applied in a larger social context as well when thinking about Black History Month.
Not to sound like Kanye West, but sometimes I feel that the only people who truly care about Black History Month are black people themselves. Others ask the question, “Why do you guys need a whole month to celebrate being black?” or “We don’t get a ‘White History Month.’” These people are completely missing the point. Just because the laws have changed since the days of Jim Crow, does not mean that the oppression has miraculously disappeared.
Discrimination and the misunderstanding of the African-American people are still present in our society, and these ideologies can stem only from one place: ignorance.
Black History Month is not just about celebrating being black, but about educating others, both inside and outside of the black community, about the struggles these people have gone through and continue to go through. It is about examining why these struggles continue. I sometimes sense that people are becoming more and more apathetic about this month and what it means for so many people.
 I think that we have adopted the attitude that there is no need to keep acknowledging African-Americans because slavery is over; the Civil Rights era took care of everything. How blind are we? Racism is just as present as it was  in the days of Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcolm X; it is just more concealed.
By no means am I blaming only white people for apathy toward Black History Month or the oppression of black people. As a part-African-American person, I know that sometimes we can be our own worst enemies when it comes to our struggle. The violence we partake in is often toward one another. We resent our own people for trying to do something better for themselves. We continue to battle with drug use and the imprisonment and gang affiliations of our young men and women. We have to want better for ourselves and for our fellow people if we want progress in our community.
However, as a society, we must also ask ourselves why the African-American people in this country continue to struggle. Is it because they have not truly been able to gain their footing and recover from the things that others believe are long in the past? Is it because they continue to be discriminated against and oppressed by a society that continues to see them as inferior? What is the deeper, swept-under-the-rug reason that they continue to struggle?
These are the questions we must ask ourselves and truly consider. The next time you find yourself wondering why an entire month is necessary to celebrate black history, think about these things. Think about the struggle. It is not over, and everyone needs to know that.

Breaking the Mold

Tara Moreland- Editor-in-Chief
2/10/12

As the 2012 Presidential election nears and the GOP candidate race narrows down, politics are a topic on the minds of many people in the United States. The increased interest in politics during an election year also seems to bring out the worst in people when it comes to hostility toward those who oppose their views.
In one of my classes this week, I read a research article that focused on a concept called Hostile Media Perception (HMP). The idea behind HMP is that a person who affiliates with a particular political party believes the media reports in favor of the opposite party. For example, a Republican may believe that certain newspapers or radio stations cater to the Democrats in their reporting, therefore causing a hostility toward that particular media outlet, or vice versa.
I am particularly fascinated by this topic because I believe it reveals something interesting about our society: We may be less concerned about informing ourselves through the media and more concerned about the media’s catering to our personal beliefs. This may be, perhaps, the reason that many of us read only certain newspapers or watch certain news networks. It is a common opinion that CNN leans more to the left side of the political spectrum, and Fox News leans more to the right, and that the New York Times is more liberal, and the Washington Times more conservative.
What concerns me about these tendencies, both on the part of the media and on the part of consumers of media, is that we can be ignorant in our politics because we are not fully informing ourselves on the issues of all parties involved.
Rather, we are more interested in the attacking and propaganda that takes place on the part of politicians.
Another quality that HMP reveals is that many of us are likely the kind of people who only vote for our own party, rather than examining the candidates and their policies closely. We are more concerned with our affiliation than with the implications of our votes.
One more facet of this topic is the media’s responsibility to report objectively. The fact that certain news networks, newspapers or radio talk shows are explicitly known for leaning to one side of the political spectrum is bothersome to me. How ethical is it for stations to selectively report in a manner which deliberately makes a certain group look good or bad for the political party with which they are affiliated?
People rely on the media to inform them about what is going on in the world from all perspectives. To do so without injecting their own biases into the information. In fact, the media may be enabling the public in their tendencies to be hostile toward everything that opposes their personal political beliefs.
Last week in the Monitor, the editorial staff wrote a column about reporting responsibly and not just trying to get the juiciest story out the fastest. I think that reporting objectively is another, actually the most important, piece of being an ethical journalist.
As college students, we are still establishing our beliefs, and these will change as we gain experience and learn more in our lives. Many of us have adopted the political attitudes of our parents or those with whom we spent most of our time as young people.
While you begin to consider for whom you are going to vote in this year’s election and as you inform yourself about the candidates and important issues you care about, I implore you to gain your information from a variety of sources, not just those that lean toward your preferences.
I encourage you not to automatically become hostile toward a medium of news just because it reports something good or bad about a candidate or party you prefer. Explore all perspectives. Knowledge is power. Make sure your knowledge is well-rounded and informed.

Breaking the Mold

Tara Moreland- Editor in Chief

2/3/12

On the front page of this week’s Monitor, you will find a story by Austin Baragary regarding the Student Bill of Rights, a document that was discovered by students last semester to be non-binding. Essentially, these rights that are intended to protect students do not have to be observed by the William Jewell College administration, therefore giving them full reign to override the provisions with no legal repercussions.

The Monitor covered this subject last semester, and it was implied that serious discussion would occur between Student Senate and the William Jewell College Board of Trustees regarding the possibility of making the Student Bill of Rights a binding contract between students and administration. One thing has become entirely clear to me: the Student Bill of Rights is useless.

It seems that the entire process of making these rights more than just empty pages of words has become irrelevant.  Student Senate has worked tirelessly to bring the document up to date and ready to be presented to Student Affairs and the William Jewell administration, but has been sent back and forth countless times to make clarifications or explain the relevancy of the Bill.

Instead of the revision of the document being a collaborative effort between Senate, the student body and the administration it has become a homework assignment for Senate and the students. I have been reflecting on why this is, and I can come to one conclusion: William Jewell administration is not ready to yield that much power to the student body. Giving them legally-binding rights would erase the gray area that now exists where student protection from administrative power is concerned.

Senate President Tori Odell, senior, commented that the President’s Cabinet has questioned why the document is relevant, citing the reason that because none of the provisions of the Bill have been violated, it is unnecessary to have the document in the first place.

A Board of Trustees member reflected these sentiments by adding, “I look at documents all the time and a document like this needs a purpose. I don’t know what’s going on that makes this necessary.”

These attitudes make it clear that the administration does not take this document seriously and is using the excuse that allegedly none of these rights have been violated to back it up. The fact that the Board of Trustees is not overseeing actively the revision of the document and has very little knowledge of it is further evidence that it is not an issue with which they are too concerned.

What makes this document necessary  is the fact that as students of this institution, we deserve to know that we have rights which cannot be violated by anyone—even the administration of the College. The fact that the Board of Trustees is resistant to ratifying the Bill, yet claims to abide by it, implies that they want to have their cake and eat it too—they can claim that they are recognizing the rights, yet can’t be held accountable legally if they do not. This is a dangerous line for the College to walk, but the repercussions of the situation will fall solely on the students. 

Sadly, the Student Bill of Rights remains a useless document which likely will not receive an endorsement from the William Jewell administration and Board of Trustees—at least not in the form of a ratification that is binding.
No, the provisions outlined in the Bill have not been violated—yet. But, if they are, students, think about what that means for you if your rights are violated. I am not sure about you, but that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Breaking the Mold

Tara Moreland- Editor in Chief
12/9/11

The topic of censorship has been on my mind a lot lately. As a student journalist, it is a touchy subject and a concept that, in my humble opinion, oppresses people and limits their freedom of speech and expression. As an editor, I refuse to censor my staff in the opinions they publish in the Monitor, or the perspectives given by the student body at William Jewell College. I strongly dislike censorship and what it means for people and their freedom.

With that being said, I have never wanted to censor someone more than Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Last night, I noticed that friends on Facebook were in an uproar over a new video that Perry released as part of his campaign for the 2012 presidency. Initially, I brushed it off and assumed that he had made yet another ridiculously ignorant comment or forgotten another important U.S. fact, perhaps this time how many states there are or the name of our first president. However, as I started reading my friends’ comments on the video, I realized that he had said something much worse, more ignorant and hateful than I could have imagined.

In the approximately 30-second video, Perry talks about President Obama’s “war on religion” and how absurd it is that “gays can serve openly in the military, but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.” It seems that Perry has forgotten that those gay troops are fighting and dying for our country just as the straight ones are (even though they have fewer rights) and that the United States is made up of more than just Christians. But what do you expect from a man who cannot even remember all of the programs he cut in his own state or what the voting age is?

I think what bothers me the most about Perry’s latest video is that he so clearly displays his regard for his “own kind” and disregard for others, blatantly questioning why some people have the right to do one thing, but others do not have the right to do another thing. If people had equal rights and were held to the same standards, Perry would not need to ask this question in the first place. To see this hateful speech coming so strongly from a man who wants to be the leader of our country is frightening. What would be the implications of having a person like this in charge of the livelihood of so many people?

Perhaps the strongest message that I received from Perry in this video is the importance of why we have the separation of church and state in the first place. It is so people like him do not use their personal faith as a means of oppressing other people who do not fall into that category. I have no problem with having Christians or people of any other faith in office, but I do have a problem with them so blatantly disregarding a law that says they may not oppress people through their faith. The sad thing is, this happens all of the time, and many people are denied what should be basic freedoms because of it.

So, as much as I would like to censor Perry, or at least protect myself from his ridiculous propaganda, I will respect his constitutional right to say whatever he wants, in spite of the fact that he does not feel the need to respect the rights of others. In his video, Perry says that “Faith made America strong; it can make her strong again.” I have faith that America will not vote for him.