THE

hallengerA Publication of the Harper College Honors Society

May 1999 Volume 11, No. 7

Lost News Written By: Mike Miller

We depend on itfor its accuracy and rely onit for information regardingour well being. It's alwaysgoing to be there when weneed it, seven days a week.It seems to never let usdown from telling us if weshould dress warm tomor-row to telling us if ourfavorite sports teams won.Obviously by now you havefigured out I am talkingabout the news. You'vedepended on it all your life

and it's beenthere since the

moment you were born.When I think of the news Ithink of it as an officialsource that without a doubtwill give me the vital infor-mation about any relevantmatter. We ascertain newsin different forms includingnewspapers, local televisionnews, national televisionnews (CNN), and a plethoraof magazines. What is anenigma to me is why mustwe be skeptical when

watching the news?Inevitably, there are going tobe journalists with opinionsthat you will disagree with,when perusing the columnsthat are in your favoritenewspaper that land everymorning at 5 am on yourfront porch. But nonethe-less the television news ismore of a concrete displayof information, and this wemust be skeptical aboutalso.

I bet you didn'tknow that less than twenty-five corporations have halfof all the business in themajor media of the UnitedStates. For example,among our 1,600 dailynewspapers, about a dozencorporations control morethan half the circulation.Among our 11,000 individualmagazine titles, a halfdozen corporations have

continued on

most of the revenue.Among our four televisionnetworks and 900 commer-cial stations, three corpora-tions have most of the audi-ence and revenue. Thesedominant numbers showyou what type of control thecorporations can have onthe information that isrelayed to us. Apparentlywhen it comes to the news,

Less than twenty-five corporationshave half of all thebusiness in themajor media of theUnited States.

we are not dealing with acompetitive field of myriadcorporations, but it's moving

page 4

Table of Contents:Pg. 2 Leavings..from Dr. Thoreson's DeskPg. 3 Pointing The FingerPg. 8 The MountainsPg. 10 Movie ReviewPg. 12 Book ReviewPg. 12 Honor's Announcements

Leavings . . .from Dr. Thoreson's Desk

SoftballsAscendingThe question was innocent—and inevitable.

"Dad, who was the first girl you really liked?"

Unlike most questions posed to me by my children,this one took no time at all.

"Easy. Kristi Hansen. Starting in about, oh,fourth grade."

"What was she like, Dad? What did you likeabout her?"

The answer to that one: not so easy. Kristi was proba-bly not the kind of girl to turn heads: thin, almost bony, with blackhair pulled back into a ponytail, and a pleasant—not a dazzling—smile. She was fun-loving and athletic, but others were probablyprettier or livelier or more socially adept. Why, then, did I like herso much?

As I consider this now over the span of some thirty-oddyears, I realize that Kristi's special appeal had essentially threesources : 1) she was a farm girl who grew up in a home entirelydevoid of television, 2) she loved horses, 3) she could hit a soft-ball higher and farther than any of the other girls.

At first the lack of television bothered me. How couldany child alive in the 1950s and '60s function without the com-forting, all-embracing presence of "Leave It to Beaver," "DobieGillis," "Ed Sullivan," "Ozzie and Harriet," "Mighty Mouse," "SkyKing," "Andy Griffith," "Danny Thomas," "My Little Margie," theYankees vs. the Braves, John Cameron Swayze, "Axel'sClubhouse"? She had probably not seen a single episode of"Lassie" or "Howdy Doody" or 'The Mickey Mouse Club." Talkabout cultural illiteracy! On a certain melancholy morning sometime around 1960, she didn't even seem to be aware of the factthat Gramps (the kindly old patriarch of "Lassie") had died, anddidn't seem to much care. Eventually, I came to view this asstoic acceptance of a deprivation visited upon her by cruel,deranged parents, and Kristi's seeming happiness in the face of

such injustice gave her the look of a nobly suffering heroine inmy eyes.

Her love of horses was another sign of her remarkableotherworldliness. Her family owned horses, and Kristi rodethem, groomed them, took them to county fairs, named them,petted them, worshipped them. For all I know, she spoke tothem, too. Every picture in art class, when Kristi wielded brushor pen, was the picture of a horse. She was especially goodwith the manes and tails—long, swirling, swooping gushers ofhorsehair, with each strand meticulously delineated. The con-trast with me was obvious: I had interest in nothing in particularand skipped from hobby to hobby and activity to activity withheedless abandon and with no discernible skill. Kristi was thefocused specialist; I, the hapless generalist.

An intense, passionate devotion to one wonderful thingin a world free of the gaudy seductions of television. I onlyvaquely sensed then what I know for certain now: the girl wasonto something.

But these two were as nothing compared to Krist's mostnotable characteristics: her ability to hit a softball. she was aclassic tomboy (all the boys liked this in her--l was hardly alone),and nowhere was that clearer than on the ball field. At an age,and in an era, when most girls would take a pathetic halfswing atthe ball and shyly shrug their shoulders when the dribbled weak-ly toward the pithcer's mound, Kisti would invariably rare backand smack it, hard as she could, and proudly watch the thingsail. Here, too, she specialized; Kristi hit fly balls only. Herswing was a curious, "U"-shaped affair. She would curl the bataround her head—the tip of the barrel almost touching her leftear—then jerk the bat suddenly downward with a scoopingmotion, and meet the ball with a ferocious uppercut that wouldsend it flying in a long, majestic arc. The ball always made theoutfield. In the early years, it would generally drop for a hit. Bythe time the small, terrified outfielder had gathered up thedropped ball, Kristi would be at least to third.

As the years went by and the outfielders aged, theirskills improved, and the automatic triples and homers becameless automatic. Fly balls became less fearsome, and, more andmore, Kristi was just another "out." Yet, gloriously, this trouble-some inevitability never seemed to bother her. She just went onhitting beautiful fly balls. At one point during this period, Iremember, Kristi had broken her left arm (probably from somehorse-riding accident), and it was rigidly encased in a white cast.Naturally, this didn't prevent her from playing softball. She sim-ply gripped the bat a little harder in her right hand and comple-mented her vicious uppercut with a bit of a hop, giving the balla springy, one-armed whack that sent it parabolically aloft.

All games—all human endeavors, for that matter—areultimately exercises in futility, and to see someone striving might-ily in the face of that cold fact is always an occasion for wonder.For me, then, one remembered image is all the explanation Ineed to give for my youthful admiration.

I see Kristi crouched over the plate, her one good handclutching the bat, her left arm hanging helplessly in a sling; theball begins to descend into the contested space above the plate,and she, the girl, skinny and fragile, readies herself for her swiftand joyful pounce, coiling all her energy within that one tautwrist, aiming dead straight for the clouds.

POINTING THE FINGER:

A NATION ENRAGEDBY: MEGAN COWLES

Fifteen are dead, several are still listed as crit-

ical, dozens are left wounded, and a nation is

enraged. We want facts, evidence, answers, but will

it ever be enough?The Facts:

* Two shooters, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, bothhave been linked to the Trench Coat Mafia.

* The massacre started at 11:15 a.m., April 20. The last shotswere heard at approximately 11:45 a.m., leaving fifteen dead, includ-ing the two gunmen.

The Evidence:* April 20, being the date of Hitler's birth, the German con-

versations between the two shooters in the hallways, as well as stu-dent and teacher accounts of Nazi-like behavior led the authoritiesto believe the shooters had a specific motivation and influence.

* The girlfriend of one of the two shooters may have providedtwo of the firearms used in the shootings.

* One shooter kept a diary detailing a year-long plan to mur-der classmates and destroy the school.

* Teachers and students say the two boys talked about andacted out on videotape violent crimes similar to those committed onApril 20.

* Neighbor of one of the boys reported hearing loud noises thatcould have come from the testing of homemade bombs.

* A s awed €-off shotgun barrel, shotgun shells, and materialsused in the pipe bombs were found in plain view in one boy's bedroom.

The Answers:* None

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

,:̂ C "W

toward monopoly control.Now let's examine

how well these corporationsserve their public with theircontrol of the news. Thegood news about Americanreporting is that it is thebest in the world. There isno doubt about the talentthat is possessed by thewriters of the news. UnitedStates journalists are thebest educated, far bettereducated than any earliergeneration of Americanjournalists. They operateunder higher professionalethics than journalists else-where in the world do. BenBagdikan states, "Americanjournalists lie less than jour-nalists elsewhere, fictional-ize less, and, on the whole,take seriously their duty toprovide the public withaccurate information."Then if our journalists areso good, why are things sobad? The problem lies withthe corporations thatemploy the journalists. It's

thejournal-ists thatwork forthem sothey willwrite what thecorporations wantthem to write about.Journalists have noempowerment of free-dom when it comes to theirarticles. There are 50,000print reporters and 50,000broadcast reporters in thecountry, and each day,each week, each month,they are pointed towardparticular tasks, particularstories, particular govern-ment activities, particularpersonalities, and particularforeign scenes. In theresulting mass of stories,there are often articles ofimportance and distinction,and there is a daily volumeof routine factual, essentiallocal and national informa-tion. But the problem lies insomething more than themass of useful items. Theproblem in the news todayis not what is false, butwhat is missing. Each day,editors necessarily selectsome stories for emphasis,some for de-emphasis, andsome for the wastebasket.Certain kinds of stories,certain public figures, cer-tain social data, certainanalysts of social and

political events are regularlyon the network eveningnews and the front page,while other stories,spokespersons, and ana-lysts are mentionedobscurely if at all.

Basically the newsis very selective. When anexecutive is deciding whatto run in the news a bunchof things are consideredsuch as; Will it contradictthe government? Will itoffend affluent people'sviews? Will it offend theadvertisers that contributemoney to the news? Sincemost of the revenues of thenews media are acquiredfrom advertising, and thereis an incentive to maintainan audience of as manyaffluent people as possible,news policies are designednot to offend the politicalsensibilities of the advertis-ing target audience. And Iam not saying things thatcontradict the governmentaren't exposed in the news,

but news that contradictsgovernmental versions getsinto the news with greaterdifficulty and is only men-tioned briefly. And it is notdone by official censorship,but by self-censorship.This self-censorship has nocorrelation with lack of tal-ent of the journalists, but itdoes correlate with the factthat the top editors andexecutive producers are not

goingto run

newsstories that

seriouslyaffect the owner's

interest and causethe editor problems. The

owner's interest is in keep-ing the advertisers, govern-ment, and target-affluentaudience happy. Evenmore with advertisers,wouldn't you find it a littlebit dangerous to run a storyon something negativeabout one of your advertis-

What is an enigmato me is why mustwe be skepticalwhen watching thenews?

ers? For example if yourun a story on how an air-line is dishonest you willprobably lose it as anadvertiser. The advertiserwill probably threaten toremove all its commercials.Advertising pressure can bemost detrimental to smalllocal papers that survive offthe advertisers. An exam-ple is a Pennsylvania week-ly editor who was once toldhe could run a story aboutpurse snatchings at a localhardware store, which alsohappened to be a large

advertiser. The pub-lisher warned the editor

if the store pulled itsadvertising as a result,

the editor would be out ofthe job. The editor ran thestory and the advertiserpulled its ads from thepaper because the storyswayed people to stayaway from their store.

One example of aconflict of owner's intereststhat were undermined by ajournalist just trying toexpose the truth, was anincident where a reporterand an editor at the DallasMorning News did a storyabout a bank in seriousfinancial trouble. Thereporter was immediatelyfired, and so was the editorwho passed the story.Eventually the bank did failand the story was con-firmed. So even though thestory was in search of thetruth, this type of story con-flicted with the interests ofthe affluent audience thathad bank accounts in thatspecific financial institution,and it also conflicted withthe fact that you neverhear about a bank withproblems.

Now storiesthat do affect the tar-get audience's,owner's, andadvertisers' inter-ests do appear,but appear infre-quently, and thearticles usuallyfocus on develop

ments that are, in effect,unavoidable.

It is unfortunatethat the news has to bedebunked like this, but asU.S. citizens we have aright to know about all thenews that is going on andthere should be no biaswhatsoever when convey-ing the news to the world.With people's interestsalways being protected wewill never get all the newsand it will be continued tobe missing from our lives.To this day there is a zoneof silence of negativeeffects of mergers, acquisi-tions, buy-outs, corporatedebt, and monopolistic lev-els of the market. Thereneeds to be more news sta-tions controlled by inde-pendent corporationsinstead of the whole media

ring being controlled by afew companies. If more ofthe news were controlled bymore corporations, thenthere would be a betterchance that that they couldexpose more relevant newsthat gets left out and befearless in telling the worldthe things that are missingfrom the other news sta-tions.

He who makes a beast of himself gets

CASSIE BERNALL

STEVE CURNOW

COREY DEPORTER

KELLY FLEMING

MATTHEWKECHTER

DAN MAUSER

DANIELROHRBOUGH

WILLIAMSANDERS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

SEND CONDOCOLUMBINE HIGH SHO(c/o JEFFERSON COUNTPO Box 4001GOLDEN, CO 80401-OC

What could have driven the boys to commit such a heinous crime?What were they thinking and feeling when they put broken glass andnails in their pipe bombs? How could they laugh at every pointblank shot they fired, joking about always wondering "what niggerbrains looked like"? Or hysterically sorting through students, tak-ing shots at well-known jocks and random students wearing sportsrelated attire. Look down at what you are wearing right now as youread this article. Is it sports affiliated? BOOM! you're dead. Oneof the sickest aspects of this case, in my opinion, is the dedica-tion, intelligence, and execution of a plan that had been in theworks for over a year. High school is a gossip box, and while nowseveral students recall hearing them talk about it, obviously noone took the Honor Roll boys seriously. There was such a devotionto such a sick belief that it kept a horrifying plan among a hand-ful of people, plotting every day, smugly determining the fate oftheir fellow classmates. It suggests a level of insanity I can notfathom.

As a society, we start out wanting to blame something or some-one. Movies, video games, and the recent media coverage and atten-tion given to the past school shootings undeniably influence socie-ty; why else would writers write? But they are not to blame.Violence in the media dates all the way back to medieval literature.It is a symptom of society, everybody is exposed to it, and the'majority of us come out okay. It is your attitude, mindframe, andupbringing you experience before you are bombarded with a societyentertained by violence that determines the level of violence atwhich you will operate, what is appropriate, and what is acceptable.A child not properly raised, a child without discipline, a childwithout family values, a child without coping or communicationskills, a child who i§ not heard or is given no attention (or maybeonly negative attention) is a child who has the potential for irrev-ocable hate, anger , and rage. It is a child whose only outlet forthese feelings p violence. The amount of exposure to violence ontelevision does not latter;it is a psychological reaction. Violenceis a symptom of society, not some foreign concept magically implant-ed by various forms of media into an otherwise healthy child thatcauses him to terrorize an entire high school.

rid of the pan n of bei nq a man.D CONDOLENCES TO:IGH SHOOLN COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

0401-0001

Dr. Johnson

Then are the parents to blame? This is a tricky one, too. I,personally, am beginning to lean towards holding the parents respon-sible. The parents of the shooters could face criminal charges ifthe Governor of Colorado, Bill Owens, gets his way, and most likelythey will face numerous civil suits filed by the parents of the vic-tims. It is hard to go back fifteen years and examine the way thetwo shooters were raised, looking at whether or not the parentsignored them, did not discipline them, did not instill morals. Mostparents feel they are doing the best they can in raising their chil-dren. Aside from any obvious trauma that could have affected theboys, like an abusive father, etc., child-rearing does not come witha set of instructions; it is a hard job and every parent makes mis-takes. If the parents were grossly incompetent In raising theirchildren then they should join the club. Incompetent parenting isa huge problem that affects both our present and future society.Children who are poorly raised now will go on to raise their chil-dren poorly, and so on. The fact is that we can not hold every par-ent responsible for every crime committed by children under seven-teen, nor can we forbid irresponsible and unstable people from hav-ing children. (But imagine if we could!). The only comprehensiblesolution is to educate future parents, and that is an endless taskthat can not possibly reach everybody. Hopefully the disaster atColumbine High has encouraged parents, teachers, and the communityto pay attention to these children that will someday be our future.It is hard to say how the parent of the two boys could not have knownwhat their children were doing. Had they tried to get involved, metresistance, and given up? Then yes, they are entirely responsible,but I know how easy it is to hide things from your parents, and Ipersonally know several of my friends who could have built pipe bombsin their garages without interference from their parents. The par-ents trusted them, and let's face it, parents "ain't gonna learn whatthey don't wanna know." While it all raises some serious questions,I do believe the parents of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold should beleft alone. The anguish of parents not only losing a child to sui-cide, but also knowing that their child took fourteen other childrenwith him is a punishment that will last a lifetime.

RACHEL SCOTT

ISAIAH SHOELS

JOHN TOMUN

LAUREN TOWSEND

KYLE VELASQUEZ

SUSPECTSERIC DAVIDHARRIS

DYLAN BENNETTKLEBOLD

Originally the Turkish coined the name of the region atthe southern crossroads of Europe and Asia which weknow today as the Balkans. The term Balkans is Turkishfor "mountains," and throughout history these mountainshave served to help preserve serious political, religious,and ethnic differences. The actual histo-ry of the land dates back thousands of years andmajor fighting has been the only consistent rulerof the Balkans for hundreds of years.

by Matt Schiemann

As far back as 7000 B.C., hunters began populating the Balkan Peninsula.Around 1200 B.C., the Illyrians, who were ancestors of the Albanians,began to arrive in the region and, today, Albanians in Kosovo use thisancestral claim to say they arrived before the Serbs. So began one of theethnic aspects of the continuous fighting in the Balkans that still existstoday. Settlers continued to move into the Balkans throughout medievaltimes. From about 500 A.D. to 700 AD, the Slovenes arrived in the Balkansfollowed by Southern Slavs, Croatians, Serbs, and Bulgarians. Two of the

Germany and Turkey, and instead of allowing their economy to becrushed, this actually caused their economy to boom. Further ten-sion began when a Serbian nationalist assassinated the Austro-Hungarian Empire leader Archduke Franz Ferdinand. After allthis, more conflicts arose which very quickly turned into World

War I. An interesting quote from Otto von Bismarckcame about when he wasasked what would start ageneral war in Europe priorto the start of World War I.

To this he replied, "Some damn foolishthing in the Balkans." Today, the use ofthe phrase "Crisis in Kosovo" is scaryin a way because it was crises like theones just mentioned that led to WorldWar I. It is for this reason that somepeople worry about what crisis in theBalkans may lead to World War III.

TheMountains

Balkan states are Macedonia andBulgaria, which were both settled An interesting quote from Otto vonin around 600 AD. Today, both Bismarck came about when he was askedSerbs and Bulgarians claim right- what would start a general war in Europefui nationality of Macedonia. prior to the start of World War I. To this he

replied, "Some damn foolish thing in theThe fighting that continues today BalkanS.doesn't stop over issues of ethnicity and nationality. Religion also plays avery big role in the confused minds of people living in Croatia and Serbia.Beginning in the 800s, the Croatians in the Balkans came under the controlof the Holy Roman Emperor. Soon after, missionaries arrived and began toconvert Croatians into Catholics. Eventually, Croatia became entirely aCatholic country. During the same time, Serbia's religious beliefs devel-oped, too. Because the Serbs were closer to the Byzantine Empire, theybecame Orthodox Christians. In the year 1054, the Roman Catholic Pope inRome and the Greek Patriarch in Constantinople finally split over issues ofdoctrinal authority. This historic split in 1054 caused the church to divideand still weighs heavily on relations between Orthodox Serbs and CatholicCroats today.

Being that all of the Balkan countries that exist today can be compared, inarea, to small states in the United States, it might seem hard to believe thatthese countries can cause as many problems as they do for the entire world.In fact, Serbia, which is a little bigger than Kentucky, actually contributed alot to the start of World War I. In 1906, the economic shutdown betweenAustria-Hungary and Serbia, known as the Pig War, created tension betweenthese two countries when Austria-Hungary tried to crush Serbia's economy.However, Serbia was able to open up new trade with countries like8

An even better understand-ing of the current "Crisis inKosovo" comes from theevents around World War II.In 1941, Nazi Germanyinvaded Yugoslavia, whichwas occupied by Germanyand its Facist allies;Bulgaria; Hungary; Italy;and the puppet state ofCroatia, which was underthe control of CroatianFascists, known as theUstashe. All of the stateswere responsible for exter-minating tens of thousandsof Serbs, Jews, and Gypsiesfrom 1941 to 1944. In fact,the Ustashe is credited with calling this process of ethnic repres-sion "cleansing," thus giving us the term ethnic cleansing that we

use today. It wasn't until 1944 that the Communist leader Josip Broz Tito,the British, and the Red Army pushed Germany out of Yugoslavia. At theend of World War II, in 1945, Tito and his Communist partisans took power.Because Russia didn't help back Tito, it was in 1948 that Joseph Stalin pro-posed a union between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. However, Tito didn'taccept this union and Tito's Communist regime continued to rule theRepublic of Yugoslavia, without help from Russia, for the next forty years.In this time, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, andMontenegro were all kept intact, and any rise in nationalistic-democraticmovements that threatened the Communist monopoly were all suppressedby Tito's threats and interventions.

The most recent events in the Balkans are with the southern Serbianprovince of Kosovo and the Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. AfterTito died in 1980, many Serbs began protesting against what they calledanti-Serb policies in Kosovo that existed during Tito's rule and continuedafterwards. The Serbs continue to claim that the Albanian majority inKosovo represses the Serb minority. In the mid 1980s, Serbs wanted tosolve this problem by creating a separate Serb state. This is the time whennationalism began rising again in Serbia and produced its leader, Milosevic.

Now, Milosevic is enforcing a policy of ethnic cleansing and trying to ridKosovo of all Albanians and Muslims. This is the reason NATO has

"Crisis in Kosovo"stepped in to try to stop the ethnic cleansing. In reality, Milosevic probablyisn't really a nationalist, but he is interested in having power for himself.Milosevic and his wife fire up Serbians to fight by telling them that they'refighting over religious matters. One reason we see Serbians burningAmerican flags is that sometimes when we bomb, we destroy the land andrelics that Serbians see as very holy. However, Milosevic is really interest-ed in creating power for himself in Serbia. He and his wife are good at dis-torting the facts of all the conflicts, and most people in the Balkans thinkthey're fighting for one thing when in fact they're fighting for another. Ona smaller scale, what's happening in Kosovo right now is similar to Hitler'sexecutions of millions of Jews. Right now, NATO feels the actions they aretaking will stop the ethnic cleansing and restore some sort of peacefularrangement in the Balkans.

All the ethnic, religious, and political differences that are causing all the tur-moil in Kosovo and the Balkans may seem like fighting over childish mat-ters. Basically people are claiming their group was here first or that onereligion is better than the others. Everybody wants land and control overland. It's similar to the way our country pushed aside and killed NativeAmericans to take control over land in North America.

While some people support NATO in trying to stop the ethnic cleansing inKosovo, others are upset that we even get involved. It is true that in thepast two world wars, the Balkan region played significant roles in causingthe wars to start. Also, the brutal killing based on religion and ethnicity is ahorror that causes massive amounts of innocent people their lives. In addi-tion, all of this is happening right next door to Europe. Any way that othercountries can get involved to help stop this killing is beneficial to our coun-try and the world. If the Balkans are left alone, problems would mount sohigh that, eventually, we would be forced to deal with them anyway.

Woody Allen doesn't make Hollywoodmovies - and most of his movies don't havehappy endings. But in Allen's world, thatdoesn't necessarily make for an unhappyending.

Despite the joyous, hopeful, upbeatclimax of "Hannah and Her Sisters," most ofAllen's films over the past decade haveended with characters who are resolved tothe consequences of their lives - they haven'tnecessarily gotten what they wanted, and ifthey have it may not have been the best thingfor them. Such is life, and such are Allen'smovies.

"Crimes and Misdemeanors," Allen'sfilm, which he wrote and directed, and inwhich he has a prominent starring role, fitsinto this motif, and though the picture rings

10

clearly with Allen's style, in many ways it is astartling departure. To put it in frivolous movie-critic terms, some might dub this "FatalAttraction" meets "Annie Hall." And yet thatdoesn't come close to scratching the surface ofwhat "Crimes and Misdemeanors" is all about.

Basically there are two parallel stories atwork here with their own sets of ensemble char-acters and one (Sam Waterston as a rabbi) whocrosses over into both. Then at the end of thefilm they all converge at a wedding where dan-gling storylines are resolved. One story hasMartin Landau in a magnificent, dignified,restrained portrait of a man about to breakunder stress; he is the fellow in the "FatalAttraction" relationship. Actually, his mistress(Anjelica Huston) does not seem violent, butshe's still lethal in Landau's eyes because sheis hysterical and threatening and about to blowthe whistle on their two-year affair and Landaucan see his entire life crumbling as a result.

The other story has Allen as a documen-tary filmmaker with a conscience trying to makea film about an intellectual philosopher no onehas ever heard of. When he gets an opportunityto do a film on his superficial, self-absorbedbrother-in-law (Alan Alda), an enormously suc-cessful television producer, Allen at first balks.But then he decides to do it for the money, sohe can fund his own movie. During the processhe meets a PBS producer (Mia Farrow) who isbright, intelligent and witty. Allen falls in lovewith her, but while she's divorced, he is stuck ina loveless marriage. Meanwhile, Alda begins topursue Farrow, and Allen does everything hecan think of to keep them apart.There are some great surprises here as Allenmixes up his characters with drama and humor,his own hilarious one-line zingers providingmost of the comedy. In this context, however,even they have a bitter edge. (Even the film'smost hilarious scene, as Allen shows his movie

about Alda to Alda, ends with Allen gettingfired.)

This is by far the most stark blend-ing of humor and tragedy to come to themovies in some time - complete with mur-der, romance, suicide, pathos - and it'sexhilarating. The stories are strong, thecharacters very realistic, the dialogue con-vincing and the performances superb -Landau is a standout, but Alda and Hustonare also quite memorable.

This film takes a glance at differentmoral worlds people see themselves in.There is the world of structure and good-ness, which the rabbi lives in. There is thereal world where bad things happen whichJudah's brother Jack lives in. Then thereis the world of luxury where nothing badever happens and this is the world Judahis in. This movie offers a salacious anec-dote to the millions of people in this worldwho are carrying around sins in this world.The anecdote is how one can justify hiswrong actions and live with what he hasdone. Apparently the wrong action in thisfilm is Judah's affair and how he manipu-lates himself to freedom from the guilt.But "Crimes and Misdemeanors" is stillanother great accomplishment for Allen, anartist whose films are vastly under appreci-ated by American moviegoers at large.

By: Mike Miller

Megan's Book Reviewby Matt Schiemann

IOSHLIA

A Pa

JOSEPH EGIRZONE

Joshua is a fictional story written by Joseph F. Girzone. Thestory takes place mainly in the small town of Auburn. Auburn ismade up of people who live fairly simple lives and, for the mostpart, have a close relationship with God. However, many of thereligious leaders and followers in town don't quite have a solidunderstanding of the message Jesus brought when he was onearth.

The story begins with people of the town wondering who thenew man is that lives at the edge of town in an old cottage.Everyone is talking about him and nobody knows just what tomake of this man. His name is Joshua (which is another namefor Jesus), and he appears to live a very simple life as a carpen-ter and woodworker.

Slowly throughout the story, some people in town get to knowJoshua a little better each day. Most people in town really likeJoshua and are amazed by his insight on religion and God.There are some people who really don't like Joshua, though. Alot of people are scared by the ideas he talks about and feeltheir religious beliefs threatened by Joshua.

The story follows the life of this unusual and simple man. Ittakes us through the way he is able to help solve people's prob-lems and even perform unbelievable miracles. The story takesmany twists and turns as Joshua is harshly confronted by manydifferent people about his teachings. It's interesting how Joshuais able to deal with the threats and hatred that he is confrontedwith.

Joshua is based on an accurate reading of scripture and allowsus to get a better understanding of what Jesus might be like ifhe were on earth today. How much have people changed sinceJesus last walked the earth? How do they deal with this simpleman who loves to talk about God and helps people who are suf-fering. In Joshua, can this man really be who people think heis? How will his life end up when even the highest religiousauthorities don't like him and feel threatened by his words?Joshua is a book for anyone wanting to better understand Jesus'true message.

Honor/Happening/

Honor/ SocietyLooking Ahead

First Honors Societymeeting of Fall Semester: L323

September 1,1999

Summer session course:Linked Class: JNM 130 (Fund, of Journal ism)

M & W 9:00-11 :30 a.m.wi th CIS 118 ( Intro to In te rne t )

T 9:00- 1 1 :30 a .m.

fldopt-o-llighuiciijDate: May 22

Meeting Place: Parking lot 12(Near building L)

Time: 10-11:30 amBring gloves and thick-soled shoes

FLANAGAN'S WAKE

The e n d - o f - s e m e s t e r trip into Chicago to

see Flanagan's Wake, a hilarious theatrical

experience based on our supposed atten-

dance at an Irish funeral.

WHEN: Saturday, May 22Meet in parking lot 3 (near the Roselle Rd.

entrance) @ 3:45

We will take the Harper van to Chicago and

dine at a nearby restaurant.

Honor/ Society Officer /Pfe/ic/ent- Sandra Schroodor

Vice P/e/idenl - Cry/lal Smith- Kcuey Bo/ciek

- li/ci lectritt

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