December 2007 Issue is Out!

November 30, 2007 - 2:50am — voicesweb

Articles in this issue include:
Dairy Industry Forces rBST-Free Label Ban
Electricity Deregulation Intensifies Energy Crisis
AIDS Project Hampered by Delayed State Payments
After Oil Peaks, Adopt Precautionary Principle

Cover, Editorial, and Table of Contents
Politics and Economics
Community and Lifestyles
Environment
University
Arts and Entertainment
Opinion and Back Cover
Pick it up at a distributor, or at our online archive.

Comments

Wednesday night weekly vigil to protest the war/prevent new wars

carol gold - 12/02/2007 - 11:08pm

We are now meeting from 5 PM to 6 PM at College and Allen, rather than from 5:30 to 6:30. Hope to see more of you there. Needless to say, the more there, the greater the impact on the consciousness of those who pass us in cars, buses, on bikes, and on foot. PLEASE spend a few minutes with us on Wednesday night. It's ok to just stay for a little while.

Thanks for your support!

Carol Gold

"We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, &a;

More farm animals? Come on now.

squealearlysque... - 12/13/2007 - 1:44pm

Now, I've read the article relating to the cover, I can appreciate the cover only for its relation to the article on labeling bans in the issue - and the only thing that makes the cover controversial are the words that accompany the picture: "Are they on drugs? You'll never know under Pa.'s new ban on food labels". I like that. I do think that the verbal insert juxtaposed with those cute moo-moos does bring up an important point - it's milk we're talking about here, and with the new labeling, we really won't know, we'll just be ignorant. All's I'm trying to say is, please, please, try to keep making these covers controverial, edgy - heck, get people angry! People should be incited to feel something over these issues. You know what, people really seem to feel like it isn't okay to get angry about things, ranging from the big corporations keeping us ignorant of what we put into our bodies and the bodies of our children, to the war "over there" in Iraq, which apparently, college-aged people seem to be forgeting more everyday. (We're going through some amnesia I suppose - but how many more of our own and how many more Iraqi's need to die because we didn't get a wake-up call earlier?) See, people need to be awoken from their slumber and moved from their apathy - I swear, Americans are today looking like the biggest flock of sheep in the world - so, why not do something at the local level to get people stirred up? And, one of the easiest ways to do that with the (hopefully, only) seemingly mindless, visually driven youth in this country is to print a thought-provoking cover, which will only serve to better get people's attention around here.

I agree with both points, the cover and the war

Bill - 12/13/2007 - 6:03pm

Regarding the cover, from what I understand there's an ad hoc designers committee working on creating a new concept for covers - so I think we can look forward to more punchy and controversial and readable and attractive covers in the future. Which is way cool.

I would have liked to have seen the "Is This Cow On Drugs?" title line in a much bigger and more striking font. It's the "hook", the emotionally charged critical phrase, and it doesn't stand out enough.

And, like you say, a picture of cows isn't exactly a big attention grabber. ;-}

But, constructing the final version of a paper like this is always tough and rushed. Right now there are some great things going on in the background, new ideas and new energy and new support, 2008 should get more exciting, and just in time for the big election, too.

I also agree with you about "the War that Wasn't". Personally, that is. The situation with the war(s) is so ambiguous (I spend a fair amount of time discussing the war in other places on the net), and the american people are so afraid and confused and repressed about it, that it's hard to address. It's the elephant in the room that nobody wants to touch.

I'd like to see more writing about the war here on the website - but I get so burned out, writing about it in other places, and my perspective is so jaded, because of the oil, that I haven't wanted to "rile things up".

Anyway, good critiques, and I agree with you.

My Next Protest Idea

squealearlysque... - 12/13/2007 - 7:33pm

...Maybe this will get some people riled up. Centre County could certainly use it.

Okay, what I would really like to do is, get - what is it now, 3,800, or 3,900 something Americans who've died in the Iraq War - about 3,800 students to commit to my idea: which is the following

I'd like for all protestors to wear muted-color clothing (military-oriented, we don't have to be wearing camo necessarily to get the point across), to be covered in what looks like blood, and to just lay out in front of Old Main, on Pattee Mall, to represent each fallen soldier. Now, I realize, this would be quite a task to organize, especially at this time, it's just too cold for most people...but then again, we don't hear the soldiers complaining about how horrible the conditions are over there and how they suddenly want to go home just because it's uncomfortable.

Perhaps, it would be an eye-opening, very emotional experience, to lay 'bloodied' in Pa snow for an hour, in complete silence. I actually think it would be very moving.

------

My father once said to me, to keep people from trampling all over you and taking advantage of you, what you got to do is squeal early and squeal often.

That would make for a heck of a photo

Bill - 12/15/2007 - 12:53am

That would be an impressive visual feat, if you could do it and take a picture of it. That photo might go around the world.

But it sounds pretty hard to do. That's a pretty big chunk of the student population. Organizing something like that is a tough job. I'm not sure it would be possible without some celebrity help. Or maybe a precipitating event.

There used to be student organizations with budgets, that might have been able to pull such a thing of, probably by hiring a band to play and making it part of the band event. I don't know if they still exist, I've fallen out of touch with that scene.