e4 Opinion Editorial February 26, 2001 Criticize This, Lefty This week a student sub- mitted a cartoon that really made me think. This student has come to the conclusion that we here at Over The Edge are not willing or per- haps unable to give her everything she wants in a paper. By her cartoon | sup- pose that she is trying to send us the message that she wants us to stop ignoring events around town or per- haps that we have a narrow view of what UNBC students might want. Maybe this car- toonist is right. Maybe we here at Over The Edge don’t know what students want. The big problem is that no one seems to ever tell us what students want. Often the only submissions we get pertaining to news are from the Women’s Center and PIRG, so that is what we run. Our News Editor is the only constant reporter that we have, and we have been working here at Over The Edge with less than a fair chance for a long time. Our handful of dedicated mem- bers can only do so much. Maybe Over The Edge does need to address issues of quality, and community, but first | think we need to address the problem of stu- dent apathy. Everyone that | talk to about the paper seems to have way too much to do these days to help in any way. Everyone it seems has way too many classes or obliga- tions or homework or whatev- er to do that is more impor- tant to them, but that doesn’t stop those very same stu- dents from criticizing those who try to make time to be a part of their school. Everyone who works at Over The Edge has a lot else on their plate. Almost all of our editors are taking full course loads or even graduating this year, but this doesn’t seem to hinder them from giving their time and energy to something that they think is worthwhile. Meanwhile, as we have no reporters our news section suffers, and more people crit- icize, because they have nothing better to do because they are so very busy. In the fall semester there was one kindly student who seemed to feel it was his or her duty to fill us in at the paper on what we had failed to catch upon editing it the week before. This person would go over the paper In the aftermath- By Carolyne Blachet Most of us take things for granted. Jezebel’s Jam, for instance, is just one of those things that happens once a year at UNBC. It’s just there, like the Women’s Centre, most people don’t even know it’s there, what it’s for or where it’s going. Let me try to refresh your memory on some issues. Jezebel has been _ infa- mously portrayed throughout humanity's history, as a “she devil” who was a powerful and wicked manipulator that would use any vices to get what she wanted and would hesitate to use her legendary seductive beauty to achieve her goals. She figures in the Bible as an ambitious, unscrupulous ruler who dom- inated over her husband and imposed her pagan religion on the Hebrew kingdom that was Israel, 800 BC. The name “Jezebel” was then | synonymous — with debauchery, decadence and all the immoralities associat- ed with abandoned sexuality. exhaustively in order to find spelling or grammar mis- takes, then write at the very top of the front page ATTEN- TION EDITOR, and slide the paper under the door while no one was in the office. I’m not sure which editor this per- son intended this for, as we have several. Also, as much as this kindly editing was a help to us, we found it rather mysterious that this unknown copy editor enjoyed finding our mistakes so much, and yet never came in on produc- tion nights in order to help edit the paper then. Another thing that we found mysteri- ous was that this unknown editor never seemed to notice that in the credits that we did not regular copy editor. Over the years Over The Edge has tried to give the stu- dent body an insight into what is happening around them in their school. We feel that our first mandate is to report on things that pertain directly to UNBC students, as there is no other media that generally reports on school activities. If students have a_ burning desire to find out about gen- eral events in and around Prince George, we have also tried to incorporate news Opinion who was Patriarchal civilization demanded order and restraint. Therefore anything that would threaten the stabil- ity of the man-dominated rule was condemned, reprimand- ed and tamed to man’s rule. “Fallen” women, “evilly” trying to abash men’s “weak” true nature were to be put under control or destroyed. | remember reading the acclaimed novel by John Irving “The World according to Garp” at a young age and at that time, having trouble identifying with its feminist Editors note: “Lefty Magoo” submitted this fabulous artistic rendition of Over the Edge. While we do appreciate submis- sions of all forms, we especially appreciate the thought required to “conveniently” leave off the real name! Thanks, Coward! about events that pertain to students as well. One thing we do not do though is report on general news that main- stream newspapers cover in Prince George. The Prince George Citizen does an excellent job of covering news that all residents of Prince George may be inter- ested in. If only we could get past the whole student apathy issue, we may be able to get some reporters who are interested in reporting on student issues both at UNBC and around Prince George. | have a dream that someday students will look at our paper and think, “Wow | would like to be a part of this.” Until then | hope that we continue on to do our best in the face of UNBC’s student's incredible lack of interest in anything resembling extra work. | hope that | might be here when we becose something to be proud of. Jezebel anyway? heroine. Nurse Jenny, who had a rather blunt way to describe women, “A women can either be the wife or the whore of a man.” It was too disturbing for me to accept but as | grew-up and found myself confronted with the experiences of reality; | became quite aware of the possible truth of such a state- ment. In fact, | believe it often underlies contemporary debates. The Jezebel per- sonification shows that there has been historical deficien- cies in the position that women could assume. Feminism is all about defining new roles. Anyone feeling threatened by “feminine” ideas, or any other way of thinking, conversely embraces autocratic domina- tion and a Victorian definition of women. Why would men (or others) fear the endless possibilities of relations that women can have between each other or the opposite sex? What is so scary about the deep bond (continued on page 5)