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Since 1960 Volume 83, Issue 19
The Tall and Short of It
Voters Will Decide Cigarette Tax
Writers share the ups and downs of being different heights OPINION, p. 5
Proposition 86 could burn a hole in smokers’ wallets NEWS, p. 3
Daily Titan
Wednesday October 4, 2006
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Mesa Cooperativa Hosts Music and Dancing for Hispanic Heritage Month
Student Adapts To Life After Accident Peter Neal designed his own artificial arm complete with attachments By Kevin Cole
Daily Titan Staff
news@dailytitan.com
By David Osborne/Daily Titan
Heating It Up - Morena Santos (front left) and Maria Elisa (right) brought the Brazilian samba to students and faculty in the Quad on Tuesday in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. The half-hour event was hosted by Mesa Cooperativa.
Feathers, Beads and Samba By Florance Chung For the Daily Titan
news@dailytitan.com
Tiffany Kasinger just finished with her class when she heard the loud music in the Quad. She followed the sound and saw two samba dancers twirling to the music from a percussion band. “It was just the music. It was loud, nice,” said Kasinger, a kinesiology major. The sight and sound drew a crowd to the Quad at noon Tuesday. Hosted by Mesa Cooperativa, the half-hour event featured the percussion band and samba dancers as a showcase of Hispanic Heritage Month. Given by Lila Productions, the performance started with the fiveperson band whose loud and fast
beats drew the attention of passersby. Led by Lui Rodriguez, the band played Brazilian instruments known as zurdo, caixa, agogo and repique. “The sound of the drums is so powerful. It captures everyone’s attention. You can hear it through the buildings,” said Berenice Dimas, a political science and Chicano and Chicana studies double major. Dimas is the Chair of Mesa Cooperativa, an umbrella council representing CSUF’s Hispanic organizations. The two samba dancers, Maria Elisa and Morena Santos, came out in traditional Brazilian carnaval costumes in pink and green, respectively. Every part of their bodies was in motion when they came out shaking and swaying to the music. The
intensity of their movements even caused feathers to fly off their outfits. As more and more students came up, some joined the dancers in the center of the Quad. The dancers gently encouraged some of the participants to join while others voluntarily danced right in. Janet Perez, a human services major, was pulled into the dance by Santos. “It’s very exciting. You can see the culture. It was very fun but I was very embarrassed,” Perez said. At the end of the celebration, all the dancers formed a conga line and circled the Quad, eventually ending in a circle around the band. “It was fun. I’m Mexican so it was something different. My legs and hips are sore. It was a good
workout,” Carlos Reyes said, an international business major. With this event, Dimas hopes to gain awareness for the Brazilian community. Though she is not Brazilian, she wants students to know that Brazil is more than “just about mariachi and salsa dancing.” “The culture is really exotic and people are interested in that,” Dimas said. “Students don’t always go out looking for it so we bring it to them.” According to World Music Central, an online resource for music, “samba has come to symbolize racial and social harmony.” Samba came from African slaves who brought the dance with them to Brazil and it is a representative of “the multicultural aspect of Brazil.”
Peter Neal, a senior business major at Cal State Fullerton, sat behind the wheel of his Land Cruiser and examined his altered car. “In order to adapt the car for me, the key is on the left side of the steering wheel, as is the air conditioning,” he said. “The parking brake is between the seat and the door.” Neal said everything was moved to the left except for the gear shift on the floor. An accident in 1993 left Neal without his right arm as well as full use of his left hand. He has had to adjust to more than the location of the controls on his car. He’s had to adjust to life without his right arm. His left wrist was shattered and is full of steel pins, so he can’t fully extend his left hand, either. “He did a lot of volunteer work with the disabled prior to becoming one himself, which says a lot for the man,” said Elisabeth Colcol, coordinator of support services for CSUF Disabled Student Services. Before the accident, he learned sign language at his church and got to the point where he taught sign language classes. He can’t anymore. He was also the activities coordinator for the Oral Deaf of Orange County, worked as a coach for the challenger league of handicapped baseball teams and was involved
with a special kids’ bowling league in Yorba Linda. Neal talked about one little kid on his baseball team that was “pretty much born into a wheelchair.” He was never able to run or play, but he was always positive. He figured if a kid could go through that, survive and come out happy, there was no excuse for him not to be productive after his accident. Neal said he learned about hard work as he grew up in construction, building custom homes. He said people came up with odd things that they wanted him to build. Since they handed him a paycheck to go do it, he would just make it happen. This background of building odd things served him well. Neal designed his own artificial arm and is on his fourth prototype. He came up with a double-back hook design for ease of opening doors, while also making a better pry bar and chisel. Neal added a hammerhead for driving small nails, he said. The California State Department of Rehabilitation has a grant with CSUF and the Workability Program. The program works with the department’s clients in helping them ease into employment. This benefits anybody at CSUF with a disability who is able to work with the department of rehabilitation. “Peter Neal had great success with the program because he put in a lot of effort, that is key because people have to put in the effort,” said Leslie Broyhill, a job developer for the Workability Program. Neal said workability is one of the SEE NEAL - PAGE 2
OC Prostitution Sting Targets ‘Johns’ World’s oldest profession may seem lucrative, but it’s packed with dangers By Amanda Beckman
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
Solicitation was the name of the game last month for three female Costa Mesa police officers. In an attempt to battle prostitution in the area, the department had the undercover women entice locals for their annual “John Sting,” according to The Orange County Register.
This year’s sting reeled in 10 male solicitors, almost a third of the 28 reported by the department at last year’s sting. The issue of prostitution seems to have been cleaned up in this neck of the woods, said Sgt. Linda King, Public Information Officer of the Fullerton Police Department. “We have not arrested anyone for prostitution in the last year. We just cracked down on the massage parlors and that solved the problem,” King said. In the past, the department received complaints that illegal prostitution was occurring in the oncenumerous massage parlors located
within the city of Fullerton. To catch any possible prostitutes, the police department instituted sting-like operations, but they were not as successful as police had hoped, King said. The aim of the department is to catch the prostitutes working as masseuses, not their patrons, King said. To do so, they “cracked down on the testing and certification process” for the masseuses and massage parlors. This, she said, seems to have solved the problem. “We saw a trend that cities with larger numbers of massage parlors had more complaints about illegal prostitution and solicitation,” King
said. Professor of criminal justice Max Dery sees the biggest downfall of prostitution as the potential dangers of the world’s oldest profession. “I see it as more of a social issue where people in a financial situation are risking their health and physical safety,” Dery said. More importantly, these acts do not display favorably on a person’s record. “Certainly you wouldn’t want to have a record with anything involving decency or morality,” Dery said.
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ANTI-Hate Rally
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Student organizations unite in the Quad to speak against hate in the community.
SEE STING - PAGE 2
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By DAVID OSBORNE/Daily Titan
Still Truckin’ - Peter Neal, senior business major, doesn’t let a artificialM arm get in the way of living his life to the fullest. He’s seated on the grill of his 1987 Toyota Land Rover that he loves to get muddy.
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