T r i a n g l eby KRISSY PROCTOR

STAFF WRITER

Myra Goza was happy. For 11 years she tended the girls

of the Bryan residence halls as a director: matchmaking roommates, wiping away tears from heart-broken faces and even allowing the occasional raucous pillow fight to enter her domain in Arnold Hall.

Tending to her romantic life was hardly a concern.

However, she looks back now and can see that God and friends had other ideas. At the end of this semester, the long-time staff member and friend will leave Bryan Hill for good to wed her fiancé, Bruce, and become a mother to two young children in Wisconsin.

“I’ve loved everything about Bryan,” she said Monday. “The students, the campus, the people…I planned to be here for a while. God just changed those plans.”

Goza is not the only director with a new lease on life. Kristina Anderson and

Tim Shetter, of Robinson and Woodlee-Ewing residence halls respectively, have also found that God works in mys-terious and exciting ways.

“I have no doubt that God has had me here for the last three years,” explained Anderson, “but during ‘Break

for Change’ I fell in love with the kids and the community there as well.”

Anderson submitted her resignation several weeks ago and has accepted a position with “Hope for Opelousas Ministries.” Anderson will be moving to Opelousas, La.

after graduation to take up the administrative position as the second full-time employee the organization has hired since its establishment in 2008.

Shetter is also making a big move, though the boys of

RDs 2

Two RDs say goodbye to Bryan

the bryan college

MARCH 4, 2010 VOL. XXXI • NO. 6

Two-thirds of History Dept.

to retire this yearNEWS 2

Tough loss for Bryan rugby club

SPORTS 5

Film Review: “A Serious Man”

ARTS 6

You’re BetterThan That!OPINION 8

TRIANGLE PHOTO BY STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER MADDIE DOUCETResident Director Myra Goza with Arnold Hall Resident Assistants.

Tear in banquet pond suggests vandalismby TIM BALDISTAFF WRITER

Those who attended spring banquet on Saturday will remember the small,

decorative pond located in front of the first floor entrance to Latimer Student Center. The pond symbolized the ban-quet’s theme, “A Night on the Riviera.”

However, four hours after the banquet ended at 7:45 p.m., freshman Aaron Hunt walked through Latimer and discov-ered the pond had leaked near-ly 75 percent of its water onto the floor of the Rhea County Room and part of the cafeteria.

Hunt contacted mem-bers of the freshmen SGA who organized 19 volunteers,

including 18 students and one visitor, to begin a clean-up effort. Students were assisted by Rita Hayman, the night watch official on duty, who provided them access to two water vacuums and the inside of the gated cafeteria.

The volunteers worked

from 2 to 3 a.m., moving tables and chairs, vacuuming the areas with the most water, draining the mops and buckets, emptying the pond and dis-covering the cause of the leak.

The leak was caused by a 1.5 inch vertical cut in the lin-ing of the pond. The cut was

located near the front of the pool about 10 inches from its top.

According to Hayman, it is unlikely that such an inci-sion could have been made on accident. Only a knife or some other sharp object could have made such a clean cut as tears form in a more circular pattern,and the pond lining was resting against a solid, bumpy wall of rocks.

The pond held water until 9:30 p.m. without leaking, according freshman Treasurer Kelly Findley, but it is unknown when the leak began after that.

Nothing was damaged by the leak, according to Administrative Assistant for the Office of Operations Diana Buttram.

TRIANGLE PHOTO BY STAFF WRITER TIM BALDI

Students mop up the water that leaked into the cafeteria.

Page 2 The Bryan College TriangleMarch 4 , 2010 NewsDrs. Ketchersid and Traylor to retire

by BILLY FINDLEYSPORTS EDITOR

Bryan students, faculty and staff will be bid-ding a heartfelt fare-

well to not just one but two history professors this year: Drs. Jack Traylor and Bill Ketchersid, who both plan to retire after the close of this semester.

With both professors retiring simultaneously, the History Department will be losing two of its three pro-fessors. This leaves Vice Pres ident o f Academics Bradford Sample and current Associate Professor of History Travis Ricketts with the task of finding a replacement before the fall semester of this year.

Ketchersid has worked at Bryan since 1966; Traylor since 1979. Both are confi-dent in their decisions, though neither of them say they are retiring for the same reasons.

“I am at retirement age now, and I know I will have to retire sooner or later,” Traylor

said. Traylor said that when

he came to Bryan, he had been a Christian for only six years, was unmarried and had just finished his degree at the University of Oklahoma (Tulsa). He had been working as a curator of manuscripts for the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka.

“I wanted my career to count for something for the Lord, not just make money and have job security,” Traylor said.

While at Bryan, Traylor said he not only met his wife, Karin, but also learned that life’s greatest joys are unex-pected. He’s taught History of Western Civi l izat ion, American History, History of the Plains Indians as well as other history classes. He’s also taught Women’s Self-defense classes for several years, golf for four years and has assist-ed many of the Bryan sports teams in various ways.

“I have been praying about my decision for several

years,” Traylor said regarding his retirement plans. “It was just in recent weeks that the Lord has made it very clear to me that it needs to be now.”

Ketchersid has taught a myriad of courses over the years including History of Modern Europe, History of the Reformation, a course in the American Civil War and a course in Russian history, a subject he said he is most pas-sionate about.

Since his wife, Lee, was first diagnosed with lympho-ma, a treatable type of cancer, Ketchersid said he’s had to help her get to and from the hospital for chemotherapy. He said he feels strongly that he should retire, not only because of his age, but so that he can spend as much time as possible with her.

Ketchersid left Bryan briefly to finish his doctoral studies in 1969 and said he would have stayed to work at the University of Georgia (Athens) but was persuad-ed by the academic dean of

Bryan to come back. He left again, from 1979 to 1984, to go into the investment busi-ness, something he said that helped while teaching various business classes at Bryan. He came back to stay at Bryan in 1984.

“I missed teaching and I

Profs to retire 3

by BRITNEY WEBERSENIOR STAFF WRITER

Bryan College [Debate Team] is...a force to reckon with at tour-

naments,” said senior Tori Stewart on Bryan’s advancing to nationals in debate.

O n F e b . 2 0 , B r y a n College Debate Team took six students to the Tennessee Intercol legiate Forensics Association Tournament at Walter State Community College in Morristown, Tenn.-- seniors Tori Stewart and Natalie Henry, junior Justus Stout, sophomores Vincent Smith and Susan Wright and freshman Laura Maye.

Though Stewart and Stout had several close rounds, they did not pass the preliminaries.

Last November, Stewart and Stout won first place out of 50 teams in the Porch Swing Tournament hosted by Carson-Newman College (Jefferson,

Tenn.). Bryan was runner-up out of 12 schools, according the Bryan website.

“I joined the debate team because I had participated in debate in high school and was really interested in learn-ing a new form of debate - Parliamentary,” said Stewart. “I had found debate to be a won-derful tool to learn to commu-nicate effectively on a variety of topics, to think well and quick-ly, and to present information to a variety of audiences.”

Smith and Maye, however, advanced to the final round and finished second overall in the varsity division.

“I enjoy debate because I love to discuss important issues that affect today’s soci-ety. My favorite...is discussing the media’s role in scandals concerning famous individu-als, like Tiger Woods,” said Smith.

On March 5-7, Smith and Maye will advance to

nationals in Cedarville, Ohio, for the National Christian

College Forensics Association Tournament.

Debate Team heads to nationals

RDs, continued from page 1

Woodlee-Ewing will not have to look far to find him. As of last week, he has accepted a position as the director over Bryan’s new “transitional housing” projects.

“I’m thrilled to walk along side juniors and seniors as they make decisions and live life together. It feels like we are walking through the ‘wardrobe’ where every day will be an adventure, and I can’t wait,” he said Monday.

Discussion of replacing the three directors was postponed until after the resident assistant interviews were completed last week. Out of the 24 interviewed RA applicants, 18 were accepted, including two additional students who will assist Shetter and upper-classmen in the new apartments. Those interviewed will be notified of their acceptance within the next few days.

Meanwhile, all three direc-tors continue to prepare for life’s big changes.

“It is very exciting,” Goza said after returning from a long day of shopping for her wedding dress. “Everything has hap-pened quickly…after a friend from Bryan introduced us, we talked for a while and finally met Feb. 19. He proposed the 20th… God has just moved in this situation, and while I will miss everyone here, right now things are busy enough that I haven’t had time to think about it.” She smiled demurely, with a faint twinkle in her eye.

“I’m planning a wedding.”

Drs. Bill Katchersid (left) and Jack Traylor. Katchersid first started teaching at Bryan in 1966; Traylor in 1979.

The Bryan College Debate Team: “a force to be reckoned with.” To get involved with the Bryan Debate team, contact Smith at

debate@bryan.edu.

Page 3BryanTriangle.comMarch 4, 2010 Features

Guess Who.This week’s Guess

W h o p r o f e s -sor is a former

Bryan student who grad-uated with the Class of 1986. He continued in his education at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to gain a Master of Science degree in Communications.

A l t h o u g h b o r n i n V e r m o n t , t h i s p r o f e s -sor spent h is chi ldhood years in New Hampshire as well as Massachusetts

and attended a Christian boarding school in North Caro l ina . Even though he originally planned on being a high school histo-ry teacher, God had other plans and used his natu-ral curiosity and hobby of photography to introduce him to his current profes-sion.

S p e a k i n g a b o u t h i s wife of 20 years he said, “ [She] i s my par tner in a l l things , including my business.” Together they have four chi ldren, ages 10-17, who are all home-schooled.

As for the future , he w a n t s t o “ c o n t i n u e t o s e r v e G o d a s b e s t [ h e ] can” and doesn’t plan on any changes in his voca-tion.

“I love what I’m doing now,” he said.

T o h i s s t u d e n t s , h e might be known for say-ing, “Is i t true? Is i t accu-rate? Is i t fa ir? Is i t lov-i n g ? ” o r “ W h o ? W h a t ? W h e r e ? W h e n ? H o w ? ” and “So what?”

If he could meet any p e r s o n i n h i s t o r y , t h i s professor would want to be introduced to William

B r e w s t e r , r u l i n g e l d e r and spiritual mentor for the Pi lgr ims, as wel l as his grandfather, 11 times removed.

Some of his personal favorites and preferences include: “Les Misérables” a n d “ C r i m e a n d P u n i s h m e n t ” ( b o o k s ) ; Keith Green and Nickel Creek (music) ; reading, g a r d e n i n g a n d r a i s i n g chickens (hobbies).

by TIM BALDISTAFF WRITER

Pianists from Bryan College and UTC held Chopin Celebrations

this weekend to honor the 200th anniversary of Frederick Chopin’s birth.

UTC students Priska Senana, Alex Ridder, Yeaji Lee and Johan Sentana per-formed Chopin’s ballades. They were followed by Bryan College’s junior Jarod Soltis, junior Natalie McGehee, senior Kimberly McKennett and Bryan and UTC alumnus Jason DuRoy who performed Chopin’s four scherzos.

Ballades are instrumental performances that suggest that a story is being told. Scherzos are lighthearted and playful

musical compositions.T h e f i r s t C h o p i n

Celebration took place Feb. 26 in Rudd Auditorium from 7:30 to 9 p.m. On Feb. 27, the second concert was held in the Roland Hayes Fine Arts Center at UTC.

The identical performanc-es, which were free and open to the public, celebrate the 200th year since Chopin’s birth.

Frederick Chopin was born in Poland on Feb. 22, 1810 and was regarded as a prodigy from a young age. He immigrated to France at age 20 and eventually became a French citizen. Though skilled at piano performance, Chopin is most remembered for his attributions to musical com-position and the invention of the musical ballade.

T h e p e r -f o r m a n c e a t B r y a n College was t h e s t a r t o f UTC’s s e r i e s o f c o n c e r t s tha t they will be per-f o r m i n g through the fall of this year.

Profs to retire, continued from page 2

loved it so much,” Ketcher-sid said.

Sample and Ricketts have posted the position opening on www.cccu.org and have already received a few applica-tions.

Sample will be teaching the senior seminar next semester. Ricketts said that at this point, they will try to keep the course load for the new professor as general as possible.

For next semester, Ricketts

said they will need some-one who can teach History of Western Civilization and the History of Modern Europe classes.

“We’re hoping the Lord will provide our ideal candi-date, and we’re content that He will provide His,” Ricketts said.

Chopin Celebration

by CATHERINE ROGERSSTAFF WRITER

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

SNAP SOME SWEET PICS?

show us your work.triangle@bryan.edu

ANSWER TO FEBRUARY’S GUESS WHO:

DR. TRAYLOR

photo by Junior Chelsea Parham.

SPEAK.launching 3.19.10

broadside@bryan.eduTRIANGLE PHOTO BY STAFF WRITER TIm BALdI

Kim McKennett performs her Chopin scherzo.

Page 4 The Bryan College TriangleMarch 4, 2010 Features

“Well, at least there’s Las Vegas!”

- Sophomore David Skinner on what there is to do in

Nebraska

“You looked like you needed a bag of salty encour-

agement.”- Sophomore Anissa Meberg, offering a friend some Chex

Mix

“I’d trade a cup of coffee for multiple wives any day!”

- Freshman Thomas Burton on hearing that Mormons

supposedly don’t drink cof-fee.

“A waist is a terrible thing to mind.”

- Dr. Whit Jones

“When you’re really competi-tive but you’re not very good at anything you just end up

sitting around doing nothing.”- Senior Aimee Crotts

“I wouldn’t buy that model.” - Freshman Jonathan Neal, after hearing his father com-pare his daughter to a Ferrari

“I take, like, 1-hour showers. But that’s because I go to the

shower to think. Because that’s the one place no one’s going to bother me. I’m wet and naked, and no one wants

to deal with that.”- Senior Justin Winters

SEND YOUR QUOTES!triangle@bryan.edu

by LANA DOUGLASSTAFF WRITER

Vickie Gesellschap did not attend the Bryan v. Sewanee rugby

game last Saturday afternoon with the intention of cheering on either team. She and her dog Haka were there to cheer on another vital participant: the referee.

The referee is her husband Mike, who she met 17 years ago.

Mike Gesellschap is a former rugby player. When they were first dating, Mike Gesellschap took Vickie to the St. Patrick’s Day Rugby Tournament in Savannah, Ga. to be sure that she could han-dle that vital part of his life.

“Once the guys on Mike’s rugby team found out I liked it [rugby], it was like I gained 29 brothers,” said Vickie Gesellschap.

Unfortunately, after a

motorcycle accident, Mike Gesellschap was no longer able to play his beloved sport. Now he referees for high school and college rugby matches.

“I have the hardest posi-tion in the match: the referee’s wife,” Vickie Gesellschap said from the sidelines of the game. “I always get to hear everyone complain about the calls.”

“It’s a hard job b e c a u s e i n r u g b y there is only one ref-eree ,” sa id Vickie Gesellschap about her husband’s job. “That’s one set of eyes for 30 guys.”

Whether it be on the sidelines or in the middle of the game, rugby is big part of the Gesellschaps’ lives. Even their dog, a New Zealand shepherd, was named after a dance the New

Zealand rugby team (The All Blacks) performs before they play to evoke fear into their opponents: Haka.

T h e m o n e y M i k e Gesellschap gets from referee-ing is barely enough to cover gas, but he loves every minute of it.

For the love of rugby

Off the record ...

Off the record. . .

TRIANGLE PHOTO BY STAFF WRITER LANA DOUGLAS

Referee Mike Gesellschap at last Saturday’s rugby game

Page 5BryanTriangle.comMarch 4, 2010 SportsVarsity Basketball falls to Reinhardt 68-61

Lions Rugby clashes with Purple Haze

by ERICKA SIMPSONSTAFF WRITER

The Bryan College men’s basketball team suffered a defeat to

Reinhardt College (Waleska, Ga.) 68-61, ending their season. The Lions hosted the Eagles on Wednesday, Feb. 24 in the quarterfinals of the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) tourna-ment.

Going into the tourna-ment, the Lions were in a four-way tie for first place in the AAC with an 11-5 confer-ence record. They tied with Bluefield College (Va.), Union College (Barbourville, Ky.) and The University of Virginia’s College at Wise.

The game plan was not much different than any oth-er game, according to Head Coach Don Rekoske.

“Playing good defense and rebounding is where it all starts for us,” Rekoske said, “And I don’t feel like we did either of those things that well.”

In the first half of the game, the Eagles pulled ahead 16-6 with the Lions struggling to regain ground. At half time, the Eagles still held the lead 35-29.

Junior forward Keith Bauer, who has been having shoulder trouble for the last three weeks of the season, said

that the defense played irre-sponsibly.

“People did not always do their job,” Bauer said. “There

was a lack of trust.” The Lions played hard the

first 13 minutes of the second half, according to Rekoske, and were gaining momentum. They took the lead 52-50, with junior forward Scott Newton scoring 30 points for the game.

With eight minutes left to play, freshman guard Tyler Clark collided with Reinhardt senior guard Kordel Alexander.

The players were close to each other and were moving fast when they both turned at the same time, and their heads cracked together, according to Head Athletic Trainer Scott Landis. Both players received a similar cut just above the eye-brow.

“It was one of the most substantial cuts I’ve ever seen in eight years of athletic train-ing,” Landis said.

He estimated they would each have to get seven to eight stitches.

Rekoske said the game stopped for 10 minutes for Landis to tend to the injuries and clean up the blood from the head wounds.

The collision killed the Lions’ momentum, according Bauer.

When play resumed, the

Eagles took back the lead. Rekoske said that it hurt

the Lions when junior forward Astral Guerrier, who scored 16 points in the game, fouled out with 5 minutes left.

With a minute to go, the Lions were trailing by two points.

Rekoske said that there was a scramble for a loose ball, and a foul called on the Lions, which was a “game clincher.” The Eagles padded their lead with five free throws, outscor-ing the Lions by five points from the free throw line for the entire game.

“ T h a t h a s b e e n o u r Achilles’ heel all year,” Rekoske said. “We have not been good from the free throw line.”

Bauer said that overall, it has been a good season and “that the program took steps in the right direction.” The loss to Reinhardt was disappointing, but they will have the top sev-en players returning next year, and some good redshirts.

“We are anticipating a great year next year,” Reksoske said. “Our fans were great the last two games, and we want to thank them and tell them to be ready to see a special team on the floor next year.”

by LANA DOUGLASSTAFF WRITER

I t’s the barbarian sport played by gentlemen,” said Vickie Gesellschap,

the referee’s wife, at Saturday’s rugby game between the Bryan Lions and the unde-

feated Sewanee Purple Haze (Sewanee, Tenn.). At halftime, the score was 15-7 in favor of Sewanee. Vincent Smith, sophomore and weak side wing, scored a try towards the end of the first half when Sewanee failed to gain control of the ball after

the kick-off. Smith ran up the field and caught the ball on the bounce and then ran it into the try zone for the try. The final score of the match was 42-7. Injuries prevented four of Bryan’s starters from playing. However, Bryan was still able to score more points that any other team Sewanee has played this year, said senior Phillip Kohler, president of the Bryan College rugby football club. According to Kohler, the struggle to get possession of the ball coupled with multiple smaller penalties made it dif-ficult for Bryan to advance on the field. “We played very competi-tively,” said Kohler, “I was hoping the score would be a little bit closer.” After the match, Brian

Stringer, Sewanee’s head coach, complimented Bryan’s progress as a team. “I remember the first time we played Bryan College, when they were a ramshackle bunch,” said Stringer, “…they [Bryan] are a very competitive team…and I have nothing but praise for them.”

TRIANGLE PHOTO BY STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER MADDIE DOUCET

Junior Forward Keith Bauer goes in for layup during Wednesday night’s game against Reinhardt

TRIANGLE PHOTO BY STAFF WRITER LANA DOUGLAS

Senior Philip Kohler tackles a member of Sewanee Purple Haze.

TRIANGLE PHOTO BY STAFF WRITER LANA DOUGLAS

Bryan Lions team up to take down a Sewanee team member.

Check Out

BRYANLIONS.COMfor the latest sports updates,

statistics, rosters and much more!

Page 6 The Bryan College TriangleMarch 4 , 2010

Cinexcellence: ‘A Serious Man’by PHILLIP JOHNSTON

BRYANTRIANGLE.COM

I’ll admit from the start that I don’t quite know how to write about Joel

and Ethan Coen’s new film A Serious Man (newly released on DVD), but I’ll begin with a few things I know for sure. I know that this is a hysteri-cally funny movie and that it made me laugh so hard that my stomach started to ache. I know that it is very personal on the part of the filmmakers and that it is perfectly executed for just that reason. I’m confi-dent that it achieves a polished completeness and finality that many directors only dream of.

But do I understand it? I wish. Here’s the rundown: life is

unraveling for physics profes-sor and generally good man Larry Gopnik. His wife Judith is having an affair with an aloof family friend and wants a divorce. His brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is emotionally and physically incapable of liv-ing alone and spends his nights in Larry’s living room.

The Gopnik children, Danny and Sarah, are pilfering cash from their father’s wal-let to buy pot and save up for a nose job. There’s an anony-mous person writing nasty let-ters to the university to tarnish Larry’s good reputation and destroy his chances at tenure. An unhappy graduate student is attempting to bribe him for a better math grade with an envelope of large bills.

Distraught and terribly confused, Larry sets out on a quest to find some balance to the chaos. A devout Jew, he’s advised by his friends to talk to the Rabbi. He consults three and they all have different non-answers. Temptations arise, questions go unanswered, doors get slammed in his face, and Larry is confronted with many a harrowing choice, each one compounding the mystery of the Coen brothers’ latest existential riddle.

The Coens know how to harvest the hilarity out of life’s absurdity and A Serious Man is a movie for those of us who can laugh at exaggerated char-acters put in situations that easily reach a level of gleefully deranged poeticism. Here we have messages written on the back of people’s teeth, a Rabbi

who quotes Jefferson Airplane, and a perpetually drained cyst all working to prove yet again that these filmmakers special-ize in their own brand of niche comedy.

N e w c o m e r M i c h a e l S tuhlbarg imbues Larry Gopnik with a jittery, painful unease that makes his strife even more relatable. His char-acter shares many similarities to William H. Macy’s character in the Coen’s Fargo, but where-as Jerry Lundegaard caved to criminal activity under the crushing weight of self-pity, Larry Gopnik chooses to fight it out and make the most of his ability to choose. It’s a delicate balance and Stuhlbarg pulls it off beautifully.

In typical Coen fashion, the supporting characters nearly steal the show, particu-larly Fred Melamed who plays Sy Ableman, the agonizingly serious and overbearing family friend who has stolen the heart of Larry’s wife. Sy Ableman is the kind of friend who thinks it advantageous to uncork a Bordeaux chat politely with Larry about how his marriage should end. His throbbing, earnest insistence is complete-ly riotous as he suggests that Larry move out of the house to a local motel called the Jolly Roger. “Larry, Larry, Larry,” he intones, “I think, really, the Jolly Roger is the best course of action. It has a pool.”

The story is set in the 1960s

and lensed in sharp focus by vet-eran cinematographer Roger Deakins. Nothing is amiss in

this film. Each dramatic and comedic note is pitch-perfect. The characters in the absurd world fit the structure like puz-zle pieces.

And that may be the great-est mystery, because when we step back and look at the whole puzzle, it’s hard to be sure what exactly it is. If you took one piece away, the whole struc-ture would fall, but like any truly great piece of art, ques-tions are necessary to interpret why everything fits.

For example: Why does Larry Gopnik suffer so much? Is it as a result of something he’s done? Does he need to make better choices? What does it mean to be a good man? Could Larry ever achieve it? Is it possible for anyone to be truly good?

What can we make of the film’s spare hopeful moments, including a startling intrusion of grace just before the final act? Are these tiny shreds of common grace sufficient to make life worth living? And

how does that darned Jewish fable at the beginning of the film relate to the rest of the story?

Much has been said of how A Serious Man is a retelling of the Biblical story of Job, that pitiable saint put to the test by the devil to see if he would deny God. Nearly drowned by an undertow of uncertainty, Job had the courage to say of God, “Though he slay me, yet I will trust in him.” Whether you think this wise or foolish, the Coens appear to have a more secular course of action in mind.

The film begins with a proverb from Rashi: “Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you.” Is this the blanket answer to all the ques-tions of A Serious Man? I think the auteurs behind it would say yes – and even though it seems like a terribly simplistic retort, they can be applauded for finding a strangely funny, very dark, and surprisingly humane way to announce it.

Arts & Entertainment

Page 7BryanTriangle.comMarch 4, 2010 Opinion

Dear Editor,

O n e of the fun-d a m e n t a l characteris-tics of lead-e r s h i p i s

that it is impossible to change anyone’s heart. All that a lead-er can do is provide a system that will allow for the desired change to occur.

With this in mind I watch every incoming freshman class and wonder if we, here at Bryan College, have set up a system that allows for stu-dents, over the course of four years, to have their minds and hearts refocused toward Christ. I believe that we have accomplished this. I, myself, have been drastically changed by my experience here at Bryan. As I look back on my time here, I can see that it was the people, not the institution that changed me. I have come to believe that the systems we create must be ones that con-nect people with people. We need a system that allows for seniors and juniors to reach out to freshmen and sophomores, and allows for faculty and staff to reach out to students. Every sophomore, junior and senior on campus can think of at least one or two people (students or faculty) who have influenced them in this way.

Although this has been true for all of the upper class-men, I wonder if it will be true of the future freshman classes.

Next semester 66 upperclass-men will move down to the new town homes. Most of those students will choose a meal plan that will have them only on campus for classes and possibly one meal a day in the cafeteria. I am left wonder-ing if, when this happens, the freshmen will lose their oppor-tunity to experience what so many of us upperclassmen have come to value so highly: our relationships with one another.

I humbly suggest that instead of letting this happen, those 66 of you who will be descending halfway down the hill next year will decide, right now, that you will use your new housing not as an opportunity to “get away” from campus, but as an opportunity to min-ister to the rest of the school. I’m talking BBQs in the park-ing lot before soccer games, Super Bowl parties, and Bible studies. Open up your homes and give the underclassmen next year an opportunity to learn from your success (and failures). If we fail to establish this as a pattern next year, it will be much harder to make it happen in the future. This is your opportunity to play your part in continuing this com-munity that has been such an essential part of each of our lives. I sincerely hope that we will all rise to the challenge.

Sincerely, Andrew McPeak

Dear Editor,

Olivia Pool’s let-ter to the e d i t o r (published

February 4) is a well-inten-tioned commentary, but I must respectfully disagree with her regarding some of her comments about racial equality. I assert that Olivia’s remarks are uninformed at best and could be deemed as racially insensitive at worst.

I first must clarify my position: I was not an Obama supporter. However, I can easily recognize the signifi-cance of his election as presi-dent.

Olivia, I submit that you have asked the wrong question. A better ques-tion would be, “Do the many African American children in this country now have an undeniable example that they really can achieve what-ever they want? “ My answer is, “Yes! Absolutely.

Surely, you cannot deny that the election of President Barack Obama confirms that things have indeed changed in the 50+ years since the Civil Rights movement offi-cially began– that regardless of political motivation, this country took an unprec-edented step forward in its long journey from yester-year, where a 14 year old black boy could be beaten to death for whistling at a woman. Is it an important step? Yes.

You are not old enough to fully grasp the history of the Civil Rights struggle in our country. You are literally a generation removed from the emotion, violence and hatred that swept the coun-try during the battle for civil

rights. How can you begin to understand the turmoil that gripped the country a gener-ation ago, or the sentiments held by many who grew up in a different world? How dare you pass judgment those you call “mistaken?”

• Have you ever hadto live through the unlawful killing of an aging relative by the predominantly white police force charged with caring for him?

• Have you or yoursibling ever been wrongful-ly harassed by a policeman because you were admittedly profiled…or had to question whether you were given a job interview simply to “meet a quota” in a hiring policy because of the color of your skin…or refused an oppor-tunity because of the color of your skin or your ethnic heritage?

• Doyouhave to livewith the knowledge that you father, a ranking enlist-ed naval career man, was refused the right to go to officer school for more than a decade because he was black?

• Haveyoueverhadtowrestle with the question of whether or not your grades were low perhaps because of your color?

Welcome to my reality, and yet I was raised in a good family in middle-class sub-urban, predominantly white communities.

Olivia, your reality is far different than mine. You grew up in a very different world:

• where a TV showabout an upper middle class black family was the top show on the air

• wh e r e a p r om i -nent African-American had already run for the president

• Wh e r e A f r i c a n -

Americans are a part of every portion of politics, sports, and entertainment.

That was NOT the reality of the world back then, nor the reality of an African-American.

Perhaps you should do an in-depth study of the Civil

R i g h t s m o v e m e n t …take a trip to Birmingham, Alabama and stand on the grounds of the 16th Street Baptist Church, where 4 young African American girls were killed in a bomb blast in retaliation for the work of SCLC leaders cam-paigning to register African Americans to vote. Perhaps you should take a trip to Memphis to the Lorraine Motel where Dr. King was killed on April 15, 1968 – the hotel where my family was forced to stay only six weeks before that date because we were black.

I do agree with your assertion that Obama did nothing to earn the acclaim as “the man who changed history “– he is simply in the right place at the right time when our nation chose to make history.

I also agree with you that ideally, there should not be a separate scale in hiring prac-tices, enrollment and other areas.

However, the principles the government felt com-pelled to implement over 46 years ago were a necessity because the American soci-ety in general – businesses, schools, churches, organiza-tions – refused to grant equal rights to African-Americans. Did the government make mistakes? Of course. Only Christ can truly eliminate the consequences of human

Sayles 8

Letters to the EditorReader response to

“Not a question of race”

THOUGHTS? let your voice be heard.

triangle@bryan.edu

To next year’s town-house residents:

Our opportunity

Page 8 BryanTriangle.comMarch 4, 2010 Opinion

You’re better than that:

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THE TRIANGLE STAFF31st Year of Publication

by JOHN MOORESTAFF WRITER

Last week iTunes sold its 10 billionth song.

Seventy-one year-old Lou Sulcer from Woodstock, Ga., paid 99 cents for an all but tangible commodity: a digi-tal audio file. Johnny Cash’s “Guess Things Happen that Way,” was the magic purchase. With this news we witness the marriage of the new and the old. Others have noted the irony. I guess things happen that way.

There is something to be said about the technological tools and toys that decorate, infiltrate and mitigate our lives. Upon my knees rests a rapidly aging Macbook Pro. Open on my computer are two Word documents, a web browser sporting multiple opened tabs giving me the news, and my iTunes library. Our lives are intertwined with these things and they flow together seem-ingly in a forward sprawl. It is hard to separate our lives from technology these days, and it is tough to actually live with-out being controlled, at least a little, by it.

There i s a l so some-thing to be said for books. Staring me down from the desk opposite me sits a two-volume set of Solzhenitsyn’s monolithic work, “The Gulag Archipelago.” The weighty

chapters collect dust, as the heavy books remain inani-mate. It could be said their sto-ry is anything but inanimate. To me and to my culture, they are all but useful—they are all but used. They weigh heavy, but we do not read them.

As time progresses, it seems that our lives become more and more distant from classic stories, both true and mythical. I do not overempha-size the importance of such sto-ries in a culture, but it may be worth a mention. As the focus of our popular art becomes less and less a great story and more and more an animalistic side of humanity, one might think a show of concern to be an inad-equate response. Of course, that depends on the story.

Burrowed deep in our industrial-sized iTunes librar-ies, I think we often feel tech-nology— with a little money—will bring us all the security we could ever need, often equat-ing a sense of security with a vague idea of salvation. For Sulcer, happening upon the 10 billionth song purchase from iTunes won him a $10,000 iTunes card. For most of us, had this been our fate, it would seem that we’d witnessed sal-vation materialize.

A few critics and proph-ets may tell us we are damned because of our heavy tie to technology, that we should fast from all technological toys and tools. Reality, however, beck-

ons us forward. Neither salva-tion nor damnation directly flows from technology. Some levelheaded thinking about books and good and even true stories that technology often distracts us from may bring us closer to a better life and a clearer picture of reality. (con-fusing sentence) If nothing else, better stories. But in the end, none of these things will deliver us from death or grant us some pardon at a final judg-ment.

The books staring me in the face right now are not being read. Maybe that is because I do not make time to read them. Perhaps that is because technology distracts me. I do, after all, enjoy surfing the internet in my multi-tab browser, I enjoy watching cool videos and listening to music on Pandora. These things can be a distraction or a draw.

Life is not in books. Life is not in technology. Life is not in community. As one author once said, it is “hidden in Christ.” I begin to guess that Christ is quite large, and that life is not any one thing but a hundred things; a thousand things; 10 billion things. For the one with true hope, it is a story held together by a savior.

Technology has carried us a long way, but I don’t think it can sustain us as we often ask it to do. The richest life, if that is what we are in search of, I think is found in sitting still

while listening.W h a t i s

human? Maybe we are too dis-tracted to really u n d e r s t a n d . Perhaps we await the answer to come from tech-no logy as we search for what it means to be human. Still, we are left unsatis-fied.

To technol-ogy and any story too small: we are better than that.

A story too small

Sayles, continued from page 7

failings. However, political and civil rights leaders did the best they could to try to provide equal opportunity.

Many people understand that Obama himself does not deserve to be credited with improving the world. But, we do note the significance of his election and see the greater implications.

Olivia, you write pas-sionately about some won-derful ideals – and I want you to know, I wholeheart-edly agree with you. But, it is easier said than done.

I again encourage you to spend time digging into the history of the civil rights movement. Take the time to watch the series, Eyes On the Prize, and read some of the great historical books about the movement. Read through the writings and speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King. Read his words from his “I have a Dream,” speech, which he declared almost 50

years ago on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

I seek to live that dream every day…and the election of a black man as president IS a step closer to the full real-ization of that dream. Don’t belittle what you cannot understand. Don’t marginal-ize what it means to minori-ties of many colors and eth-nic backgrounds.

There is so much more I would love to write, but I will close by answering your final point – when an African American child looks at the presidency of Barack Obama, one more excuse for failure has been taken away.

I assert that race IS still part of “the question”. If you still do not understand this perspective many of us hold, I encourage you to come to my office and let me share with you some experiences that perhaps will help you understand the significance of a black man being elected president.Respectfully submitted,Leo R. Sayles