o OCTOBER20.2005 THE NIETROPOLITA\
PAGEI0.INSIGHT
EYtrSICHT o bluntsch@mscd.edu ByLeoh Blunbchli
Dizzy
My litde sister's boy*iend, Troy Cobb, twirled my 4yearold niece aror:nd and amund in the air, holding her in his arms, stopping when they were both dtzy and stading again and again at her shrill, ecstatic, and seemingly never<nding request lor *More spinning!' I watched him twirl her in the light of the late day sun. Her face hrmed up to the sky. His strong arms holding her safe against his chesl Her ffne baby hair flying out behind her. His laugb of fake exasperation. It was the pichre of absolute happiness, fleeting
and rare and shockingly beautlfuI. Her life is a dark mirror image. Her Me as she once knew it is away as her parents are getting a divorce after years of misery and kying to work things ouc And the worst thing is to not be able to do anything about i! to not be able to help things go back to the way they were before everything went bad, and to not be able to comfort her as her baby-girl mind ties to deal with this life-changing event All I can do is by to give her more me ments like this.
Vouclterd,ebatedrawn at aisle I was happy to receive, by ernail last week, the first wriften responsemy column has provoked-Som one of Metro's trustee& no les. The rustee, Alex Cranberg, also sib bn the board of directon for the Alliance for School Choicg an Arizona-based organization that oromotes school voucher initiatives. Cran6erg begins his email with quasipraise, referring o my Sept. 29 column on creationism and calling the point I raise "im-
portantand uncomfortable." That opening -or line is the lastmentionof m,.r'column an!
.
of mv ideas.Insteadof actuall_v respondingto the column, c*nu"tg ;", it'* - lyri ;; his school r.'juche, A;"J;.":.;t promote ^ Voucher programs call il.'p"Uril nt"a, t be used in nti-J-g ,hr-d""b ;;;;;J"i ;t";rp tentimesreligious "i"."t.".-ri,.r" port the idea"refere".. tfr" Aqpr.q, U;hr".'. poor and .i.tr p"opl"b oppo.t ri-titL.. Vorr.h"i, *rt"y-.rt"J,r."iottJ *trla iit"a" 'poor crrildren more ,ia"."6'o-,-,J "q"fiq,. id"r a-.rt on the r".ru"", o" seemslike a good one """.rr* Wh;- ;"JJ.pd; such a democratic noUon as ;6,..#;;;
equality?t'lot -", ...tJttty. A"a y"iiJ"t:i *i fr"i" poo,.foli.s *l[-;i";;;;J A"J;; in a n"f"" til;;l;;JJJ;fi Porhrniues and adheresto * i"dilr;rlizJile;;;i -r -----glaring inequality. C"ll-;;
"
--
.),rr,.u1.
adoptjon L":t"aa, I tliir* ; il;fi; ;Ji;;;;di,rt of vouchei p-g*, qpell the endof "pruu. ,"rri.rt, r,ti "J*"u.i,," health cure, *oura ruir-pt"v -alt; ---;;;, E--r o'--- hprivatizafion equalizer: ' Cranbirg is quite the diplomat He makes it appâ&#x201A;Źar * "th..rbt rr" *a'i.rr*" *t" -;i; ..-. concer*: -the however. ;r;;;.tu c.allsfor separation of religion and govemment, while'Cranb";; - r---'d'-r'ra il"-hi"*J;di.r --poblic r.ligious frmdin;l We couldn't be mole uf oaa". But while I d. rhi"k-C;;;;s and most other school voucher proponend are moti.:.l.!li.E.:',!tll:tf:'-.|::::''.|".:'j:-'Jl.
\
.IOH\ Kt ERI-F,R j/tucble{Utr<r1.ulu by religious fervor, I don't believe it's :;ared that carpenter from Galilee, but our one g.ue God that inspires them: God Money' Puplic ^educationhas long been a thom in ., the side of conservaliveswho wish 9 phase an)' fr'rnded institution pesides :ut d- q'lPullidy smacksof socialism--efeY -tt'* F: from Medlcaid to Social S,ecurifv'They !18 argue tha.t*ithout the threat of competition, bureaucrac,vis inevitable' Notice, houe'"'er' that consen'atives are - , intercstedin competition rvhen only F"y th' q"ryot1qol' are mt ttet rnaking"ld
C&D needed for ourfuture In a decade not so long ago, a de cade commonly known as "The '90s," the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights was imposed in the state of Colorado. This constihrtional amendment reshicted state funding and govemment expaJNion. This seemingly good gesture ended up being the arch-nemesis of public higher education. Maior cutbacks were initiated. In the years 200t through 2005 alone, state spending on higher education decreased a su.ffocating21.3 percenL Now, as our class sizesswell, schoolshave not been able to hire enough full-time professors to accommodate. As schools strugle to earn money, corporations of all faces lurk in &e shadows ready to pounce on any opportunity to slap their logos on diplomas and send their CEOs to the president'soffice. Now, to fight the ratchet TABOR imposed on our stateand to remove the lead weights from our beloved insututions, lhe skangest coa.lition to date has formed. To the right, rve have Republican heavpreight and chair of Meto's Board of Truslees Bruce Benson and Govemor Bill Owens ready for trattle. Frorn the left" Senator Andrew Romanoff and former gubematorial candidate Rutt Bridges are advancing with smooth Ninia action spreading the good word of Referendums C and D on the ballot Nov. lDramatic inhoductions aside, the up comins vote on Referendums C and D holds some serious weight here at Metro, While not generally one to get excited about electoral politics, I, ZoE T. Williams, beg you, for the sake of your school, to vote for Referendums C and D. Referendum C will allow the stale to spend dre money it collects in taxes for ffve years. Taxpayen who have received deductions from pay beyond the requirement will still get their refunds, However, every Colo rado taxpayer would give up a $50 to $150 . refirrrd to the sta-te.to-use.for,K-l2 educa[on health care, and public community and state colleges and universities. Referendum D will only pass with its homeboy Referendum C. A !res" vote on Referendum D will allow monev collected to go to, among other things, repairs to state university and college buildings tlrough the formation of $1.56billion in bonds. Remember that tuition increase of 2.1 percentlast yea.r?That increaselvas to compensatefor money the state did not prodde Metro. ff Referendums C and D pass, such an increaservould not be necessaryin the future. Hear that? Tuition might not have to go up. Can I get a "hallelujah?" The board of directors for Metro's Alumni Associationreleasedan endorsementfor
parents and taxpayers think vorrchen^might shrdents a fair shake' school q]:, tot" voucher advocates like cranberg ar-egood their agenda sound like faimess' 3j T.I*C vou$er.programs ane one more hV' 1"d^ yulof "Y""tulry aleviating rich peoplet tax burdens by tuming a socialinstiurtion toward Privatizlion' I ug."" tlrat big government does invari., create bureaucracy. But.if the altema 1bly.is a nation without the vital framework of tive. social servicesand public educariorqgive me bueaucracy every time'
williarm@mscrl.e.ch the referendums based on the grounds that our schools are now receiving less than l0 percent of their frrnding from the state. Because of this, the College Opporhrrity Fund vouchers that began this year, n'hich in-state shrdents receive annuallv, may de-crease from a $2,400 annual allounent per sh:dent to $800. The Bell Policy Center estimates thal unless alloca0edmore finances, the COF stipends may tap out by the year 2015. COF is the way the state funds higher education norv. Rather than signing a check over to the school, Colorado allocates a stpend, which is tacked on to hrition payments each year. If the COF stipends suidenly dry up, our collegeswill not be receiving state fr-di"S. Welcome to the world of privafized higher education, where instead of Meho we can all do our ma.triculating at Coors C,ommrmity College. Many opponenb of the referendums will state that higher education has demonstrated no need for an increase in funding. In reali$, they could not be more wrong. 'Center The Nafronal for Public Policy ani Higher Fducation reports that in ttre l3year qpan of time frorn 200G2015,the amount of high school graduates is to increase 37 percenL Surely not all of these shrdentswill go to the schools receiving benefits from C and D, but many will. More studenb will mean there is a need for more orofessors. more classesand more employees to staff service computers in labs), not to mention basic technolory and resource updates to class rooms, the library and offices. Metro needs funds not only to serve current strdents, but also to expand for incoming students. The future of higher educalion is ques tionable at its curent standing. You have the opportunity to, with one little vote, preserve the a"fiordability and diversity of Metro. We can stop tuition inffeases and ' privatization while watching this place flourish if TABOR's death grip is pried off tax dollan. Please, do the right thing. Save your school. Join ine and give a big fat "yes" to Referendums C and D.
NfC. Wemusttalk aboutlove in silveq saying, "This is what God tended." Next
he held
the
dark
chocolate
wrapped in goid. He paused for a mo-
t:_n WhenU.S.patientssoughtout cheaper menl collecting his words carefulln gains. it wasthe conser- "This is homosexual love. It misses pharmaceuticals' -C-Ttde vatiyegw'horallied0oimposenewtariffs' the mark.' R" -o., issues, the voucher debate is -not -. entirely polarized. Many liberalminded
ZOEWII,,LL{'MS
We all miss the mark, they told me. Sex out of marriage, cheating on spouses,both sin and just as wrong as being
and prose, passâ&#x201A;Źes and prayer, we agreed that the love-honest and selfless--God intended between a man and a woman can be shared between two members of the same sex. "So, what's the problem?" I asked.*Is it the anal sex?" Both blushed and nodded. It's people like Gustman. who will be the
gav.
GLBT Community'sbiggest
I had to correct them. There is a difference between homosexual love and heterosexual chearing. I-ove isn't sex out of marriage; love isn't cheating. But two mm or rvomen pledgng a life together based on honesty and selflessnessis love. By now, it was just Gushnan, Lagerborg and I. After a merry-gerotmd of propositions ;.L3-.":.3.
r.
n l a i t r a r:
!1f ::,:-::l:c
allies. He and Lagerborg admit to not undentanding all the issues surrormding us 'mos, but they assured me that they, and others like them, are willing to learn and dialogue. They want to talk about it. "We should care about the person first," Gusfrnan said. "Sexudity is a piece of a persorL but it doesn't make the whole picture."
i J a r a r r:5
3 : : 1 1: : r
!.F,-q"!nc rt!
cll:
r.:
Ea I, i+9:
{.i