Over the Edge « November 23, 2005

Opinion

5

REIREU
STRIES BAG

MIKE KENDRICK / THE GATEWAY / CANADIAN UNIVERSITY PRESS

“Wt

Use It or Lose It and Other Clichés

EARSON GIBSON
STAFF WRITER

I want to know why Over The Edge's
opinion section is always so shrimpy.
There are important things happening
around us, big decisions are being made
and nobody has any opinion about it?

I know you guys at OTE try really
hard to get students to contribute,
but it’s an uphill battle. Nine out of
ten UNBC students (and students in
general) are a bunch of self-absorbed,
apathetic jelly bags and trying to get
anything self-motivated out of them
is like trying to squeeze water out of a
burning bag of dogshit.

Students! Why don't you speak up
about something? Maybe stick your
necks out for a cause? Or are you

Trailhead

happy going through the best years of
your lives with your heads stuffed in-
side television land, talking to the fuck-
ing chipmunks?

Good God people, look at yourselves,
We're not living in the Third Reich here,
the war's over and we won. Do you get
it? We live in the most free age in hist-
ory and instead of availing ourselves
of that fact, we're wandering around
like bobble heads waiting for the next
global atrocity to sneak up behind us
with fuzzy handcuffs and a family sized
container of Vaseline. Whose going to
say something about it? Not us, that's
for sure. Silence kills freedom people.
We need to speak up a bit.

Unhappy about drug laws? Write
about it. Should anti-war protesters

be thrown in jail? Write about it. You
think the OC will end with Ryan and
Seth kissing on the pier? Write about
it.
We have the hard won right to make
ourselves heard, and the newspaper
is here for that purpose. Freedom
is a muscle; use it or lose it. And if I
don't see some opinions in the next
issue then I’m coming back for round
two baby, and you're not going to like
me in round two because I'm bringing
my guitar. The one that explodes with
bees.

Do what I have done and submit
your pieces to over-the-edge@unbe.ca
with Opinions in the subject heading.

Journey of an Environmental Column

TARAN RALLINGS / CONRAD BRODEUR
CONTRIBUTORS

We are in Annie Booth’s Environ-
ment and Society class. Anyone who
has taken her class knows that, unlike
most classes, in order to pass you ac-
tually have to DO something. Despite
our respect for this approach actually
doing things is an area in which we,
sadly, lack proficiency,

We were assigned an environmental
setvice project in which you had to go
out, engage the community and at-
tempt to effect some positive change.
At first we toyed with the idea of trying
to change some UNBC policy, quickly
realizing that influencing the bureau-
cracy was a little out of our league. We
followed this with a skills inventory, at-
tempting to figure out what we might
actually be able to do. The result of
our skills inventory was limited pretty
much to ranting. ‘Thus began our jour-
ney to find a junction between achiev-
- ing something and ranting at people.
This column, and the many to follow it,

is the product of that journey.

Universities should be overflowing
with debate, the more controversial the
better. Debate is essential for the refine-
ment of ideas and the advancement of
the environmental movement. A uni-
versity with UNBC’s wide range of en-
vironmental programs should therefore
be filled with environmental debate.
While it is certainly taking placing, we
hope to create more with an emphasis
on the controversial.

We have two main goals. Firstly, we
want to inform UNBC students about
environmental issues. The scope of
these issues will vary widely. The range
of topics will span the gulf between
those centered on the University all
the way to international environmental
policy. Locally we would like to focus
on the environmental issues surround-
ing UNBC. A review of PIRG's en-
vironmental programs is certainly in
order. We will also look into the goals
and methods of the new Environmen-
tal club. As far as big picture issues, we

are sure to spend some time on envi-
ronmental ideologies, environmental
organizations, and ecotage. The ide-
ologies in question will cover the range
from eco-capitalism and wise-use to
social and deep ecology. Similarly the
organizations that embrace that wide
range of of ideologies shall be exam-
ined. Lastly a subject particularly close
to my heart, ecotage. Ecotage is the
destruction of property to further envi-
ronmental goals. This subject is highly
controversial and will prove interesting
to discuss.

Our other goal, and by far the more
fun of the two, is to share our opin-
ions about these issues. We have very
different views on the reasons behind
and the solutions to environmental
problems. We present no illusions of
objectivity all things written will surely
be highly biased. Thankfully the bias is
obvious enough to not confuse anyone.
Hopefully our opinions will be both in-

formative and inspire debate.

QO Don't forget to Reduce,

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