FEB 11, 2010 Vol. 45 Issue 10

Two opposing views on the recent Supreme Court ruling

From Afghanistan to Meramec

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9

Montage ReadeR Poll

A. A romantic night out with my significant other.B. A quiet night in with my cat - the perfect date!C. Valentines Day is just anoth-er commercial holiday to make you spend money.

Feb. 25 Poll Question

Does blackboard work for you?

MontageThe St. Louis Community College–Meramec

The order of the court

How do you plan to spend Valentine’s day?

A day in the life of a student and Afghan war veteran

To vote, visit: www.meramecmontage.com

A

B

Forgotten genocidecontinued on page 2

11Men’s basketball beat number 1 in the regionMagic beats Penn Valley 64-60

C

The Forgotten Genocide

When STLCC-Meramec student Ann Morrison was assigned a service learning project for her Honors Composition II class last semester, the goal of the project was to change the world. Instead of cleaning a park or holding a canned food drive, Morrison decided to expose the genocide of approximately 14 million ethnic Germans.

Morrison, with the help of several students and staff members at Meramec, has been spearheading the production of “The Forgotten Genocide,” a full-length documentary covering the persecution of Germans throughout Eastern Europe after World War II.

After the Holocaust, German descendents living in Eastern European countries were persecuted by the Communist Party, the soldiers of Josip Broz Tito and the partisan forces of Edvard Beneš. However, the targeted Germans had actually migrated from Germany hundreds of years before the Holocaust.

“When people heard German, they automatically assumed [Nazi soldiers],” Morrison said. “That wasn’t the case, so these people who had never stepped foot in Germany were paying for this stuff that happened in Germany.”

As the first American-made full-length documentary covering the subject, Morrison said

her main goal for “The Forgotten Genocide” is to tell the story of the atrocities committed, which remains relatively unknown among most Americans today.

“If you were to go and ask somebody, ‘Hey, what do you think of when you think of World War II and genocide,’ [almost all] people would say genocide perpetrated upon the Jewish people by the Nazis,” said Scott Dorough, professor of communications and editor for the film. “But not a lot of people think about this [genocide] and talk about this in that same regard.”

Morrison taped the story of Karl Voss, Ph.D., history professor at Meramec, for her film, whose relatives were directly affected by the offenses covered in “The Forgotten Genocide.”

Voss’ stepfather and his stepfather’s mother were both persecuted by Soviet and Polish soldiers as they tried to flee from their East Prussian home in 1945. Both were of German descent. They were captured at one point, and Voss’ stepfather had to witness his own mother being raped multiple times by military officers. He was 5 years old at the time.

Despite what his relatives and millions of Germans like them have endured, Voss said that many survivors are still afraid to tell their stories due to a fear of backlash from the Polish government.

Class project becomes full-length filmPHOTO COURTESY OF FILM THE “FORGOTTEN GENOCIDE”

(LEFT)Starving children in a large room of a house in one of the death camps for displaced Germans. (BELOW) Men

chained and rounded up to never be seen again. These pictures are part of the many images and articles used in

the “Forgotten Genocide” film.

Eric Aikin- Staff Writer-

REVEALING A HIDDEN PASTSee page 6 & 7

2 NEWS February 11, 2010

Students gathered for the district wide Club and Orga-nization Leadership Training (COLT), which took place in the Student Center at STLCC-Meramec on Jan. 29 and 30.

The goal of COLT is to provide students who belong to campus organizations and clubs an opportunity to learn or improve their leadership skills and to meet other stu-dents from Meramec and other

STLCC campuses. The speak-er for this year’s event, Troy Stende, three-time recipient of the “Best Campus Speaker Award” from the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities, engaged the stu-dents through lecture and fo-cused on interactive activities. Referring to this style of teach-ing as “experiential learning,” Stende says that students will learn about being a leader “on a deeper level.”

These activities focused on developing leadership and teamwork skills but also pro-vided students with an op-portunity to learn about them-selves and open up to others emotionally. “He made a real-ly safe environment,” said Mi-chael Roman, president of the Student Governance Council. “People shared a lot.”

At first, COLT was only for those who attended Mer-amec, but 10 years ago it was changed so all STLCC stu-dents could attend.

“To be able to interact with [students from other campuses] is really good,” said Patrick Peroutka, mem-ber of Phi Theta Kappa and Student Governance Council. “I think we had a really strong group dynamic.”

Though most activities had students interact with each other, Stende spent time lecturing and personally in-teracting with each student. In an activity called “Leadership

Dogs,” which was developed by his wife, Karen Malkowski Stende, he assessed their lead-ership styles, comparing cer-tain styles to certain breeds of dogs.

The point of this exercise, said Vince Hayden, vice presi-dent of communication for Phi Theta Kappa, is to “help you realize your strengths and work on your weaknesses.”

For the final activity, Stende directed each student to write an obstacle that he or she faced in life on the top of a wooden board, and the results of overcoming the ob-stacle on the bottom. He then showed students how to break through the wood using their palm. While by-standing stu-dents provided motivational support, others would break through their board– and their problems.

“You could tell people got an amazing release by break-ing the board,” said Peroutka.

Having lasted a half-hour longer than expected, the event came to a close at 6 p.m. Saturday. Whether Stende will come back for next year’s COLT event is yet to be deter-mined. He did say, though, that he had enough material to do it over without repeat-ing anything.

“The COLT thing was just too short,” said Hayden. “[Stende] knows way more. He could have gone on and on.”

STLCC-Meramec hosts leadership trainingForgotten Genocide - Continued

PHOTO BY: JOE DOUGLAS

STLCC students at COLT wrote down obstacles on a wooden board in this leadership activity. The students later broke the wood to symbolize overcoming problems.

“This history is not dead,” Voss said. “It’s still living, and that’s why Germans are very, very careful when dealing with it.”

However, Morrison said she has high hopes for the exposure of “The Forgotten Genocide,” which has sparked the interest of German societ-ies for a potential worldwide distribution. Morrison sum-marized her ambitions by say-ing that she wants Oprah to see her documentary.

“I want this to be in every history class, a part of every college, high school and mid-dle school curriculum,” Mor-rison said. “When I say I want to be on Oprah, I mean I want to be able to reach every pos-sible person in the world.”

Morrison’s inspiration for the documentary came from stories she heard from mem-bers in the German Cultural Society, a nonprofit organiza-tion in St. Louis dedicated to preserving and advancing German culture.

“I listened to these people tell stories, and over time, I started really listening,” Mor-rison said. “I kind of won-dered why nobody had ever really written about it or ever heard about it, and I started doing my own research, and when [the service learning

project] came up it seemed like somebody just said, ‘Here’s the world on a silver platter,’ and I took it.”

When the semester for her English class ended in May, Morrison continued working on her service project. Seven months later, Morrison has talked with at least 200 survi-vors about the genocide and has even traveled outside the country to meet with them in places like Canada, Europe and South America.

“It’s well beyond the scope of the class,” Pamela Garvey, Morrison’s Honors Composi-tion II professor, said. “I think it’s pretty much a full-time job at this point.”

Because the persecution occurred many years ago, Morrison said that the time for the stories of the “Forgot-ten Genocide” survivors to be heard is now.

“They’ve done their work, they’re retired – they can tell their story now,” Morrison said. “They don’t feel like there are going to be any repercus-sions and they don’t want to leave without their children or their grandchildren knowing about it. Not to mention the world.”

“The Forgotten Genocide” will be shown Feb. 27 in the Meramec Theatre.

Students walk for life

PHOTO SUBMITTED BY: CHRIS SMITH

STLCC-Meramec club Circle of Life attended Walk for Life, an annual march held every year on Jan. 22 in protest of the Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal in the United States. Read the full story online at http://meramecmontage.com.

Paul Lauer- Staff Writer -

Until she was three, Feli-cia was a Jewish girl living in a ghetto in Warsaw, Poland. One day that changed. She could no longer be Jewish. She could no longer keep her birth name of Felicia Lederberger.

She was turned Catholic and her name was changed to Franciszka Felicja Slusarcyk. Her past was buried by the need to survive.

Now Felicia Graber, Holo-caust survivor, told her story at STLCC-Meramec onFeb. 1, 2010, to a room full of fac-ulty, students and community members.

“Faces of Israel” is an hour-long presentation Graber has shared around the United States, entailing her story of survival and spreading aware-ness of the Holocaust.

Graber’s presentation fo-cused on her life as a child in Nazi-invaded Poland, and on the other children who were there at that time.

“From the six million Jews that were murdered, one-and-a-half million were children,” Graber said.

Graber came close to be-ing one of those children.

Born in 1940, Graber lived with her parents in Warsaw. One day, they were forced to move to the ghetto. They lived in a building that held up to 100 people to hide from Nazi killing sprees. Graber said Nazi law did not allow more than one child per family, and many children had to hide in an attic for hours with no food or water.

“Some children were crammed in halls and had to learn how to walk after the war,” Graber said. “Now the very little ones could not be put in a hiding place, so many parents gave their babies up to Christian families who were willing to take them in. Some of these children were put on the steps of a church, a convent, a monastery or somebody’s home with a note saying ‘please take care of my baby.’”

Many children who sur-vived were reunited with their families. Others, however, lived their entire lives with their Christian family, not knowing of their Jewish past.

“Many of these parents would call their children on their deathbed and say ‘I have something to tell you: you are not my child. We found you on the steps; you are from Jewish parents,” Graber said. “So now we have people in their 60s and 70s trying to fig-ure out ‘Who am I?’ and trying to find somebody who might know something about their family.”

Graber said that fortu-nately for her, her parents kept her.

“I was never given away. I was never separated from my mother and both my parents survived,” Graber said.

One morning, the Nazis ordered all children to leave the ghetto to be taken “some place else.” That day, Graber’s parents made the first of many choices that would keep them and their child alive.

“There was no doubt in anybody’s mind that ‘some place else’ was not good,” Graber said. “The question was, ‘Do parents let the chil-dren go by themselves, or do they accompany the child?’ I sincerely hope and pray that no adult ever has to make that choiceless choice again.”

Graber’s parents decided that they would both come with their child.

“So together with thou-sand of thousands of other children and some adults, we were taken to a train sta-tion to be taken, probably to Auschwitz,” Graber said.

That night there were no trains, so in the meantime a Jewish councilman who knew Graber’s family convinced the German soldiers to let the fam-ily go back to the ghetto. They were saved for that night.

Upon return, Graber’s fa-ther managed to get fake doc-uments that identified Gra-ber and her mom as a German Catholics. Both mother and daughter escaped Warsaw. The father reunited with them later on.

“Every evening my train-ing was to repeat that my name was Felicia Slusarcyk, and that I was a Roman Catho-lic,” Graber said. “I was taught the Lord’s Prayer and was taken to Mass every Sunday. I became totally immersed in Catholicism and the idea that I was Jewish disappeared in my conscious mind.”

Graber and her family lived in a farm in the country-side of Poland, still under fake identities, until they moved to Ally-occupied West Germany. There she learned she was not Catholic, but Jewish, and her

name was not Felicia Slusar-cyk but Felicia Lederberger.

Graber said it was easy for her to accept the fact that she was not Catholic, but Jewish.

“It felt right. It was like a fish going back to water,” Gra-ber said.

In Germany she met a Jewish man from St. Louis. She married him and left Germany to live with him.

“I think America is just the most wonderful country in the world. It’s the only place in the world where anyone can be what they want to,” Graber said.

Graber is the founder of the Hidden Child/Child Sur-

vivor Group of St. Louis and the co-founder of the St. Louis Descendants of the Holocaust, a group of children and grand-children of Holocaust survi-vors and victims.

She is a member of the Memory Project at the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center.

Graber gives lectures at schools and universities, re-minding the public that the choices they make count in the future.

“Just remember that you can make a difference,” Graber said. “Don’t go with the crowd. Listen to your consciousness and act accordingly.”

3NEWS February 11, 2010

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Banquet Room Available

See in store for details and restrictions.

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Holocaust survivor tells her story at MeramecThe unknown Jewish children of Europe

PHOTO BY: NATE CORLEY

Felicia Graber survived the Jewish Holocaust as a child in Nazi-oc-cupied Poland. On Feb. 1, 2010 she spoke to students and staff about her experiences.

Carlos Restrepo- Editor in Chief-

PHOTO BY: NATE CORLEY

Professor Kalfus Richard, who teaches the course Life and Death During the Nazi Era, invited Graber to give the lecture.

OPINIONS February 11, 2010

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P e o p l e are prone to make mistakes, and by ruling against the Federal Election

Commission in Citizens United v. FEC, the members of the Supreme Court corrected one.

“We don’t put our First Amendment rights in the hands of FEC bureaucrats,” said Chief Justice John Roberts in defense of the 5-4 decision, which amends a series of constitutional bloopers: the Tillman Act of 1907, the Federal Elections Campaign Act of 1971, and most recently the Bipartisan Campaign Act of 2002, more commonly referred to as McCain-Feingold.

All parts of the mistake have one thing in common: each silence the constitutional privilege of free speech for the sake of campaign finance reform. This regulated behavior lowers the high level of competition that is expected of democratic political campaigns.

The First Amendment encourages the right of all people to “petition the government for a redress of grievances,” and this should be supported, rather than suppressed, with enthusiasm during an election.

Yet, it seems many Americans are infuriated with the Supreme Court’s correction. During the 2010 State of the Union Address, President Obama did not hesitate to make enemies with the judicial body when he said that “the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests.”

Obama implied that the judiciary had been taking advantage of their honorable position by engaging in inappropriate activism. In actuality, the Supreme Court had been defending its role in the separation of powers. The president’s remark, among other accusations from countless critics, is completely false.

To deny private organizations the right to political expenditures for fear

of corrupt influence is to deny the freedom of expression when no proven corruption has taken place. The accusation that the political system or corporate donations system is corrupt is too ambiguous to be substantially confirmed.

“The idea that government must approve the content and timing of political speech upon a threat of prison is inimical to America,” said David Bossie, president of Citizens United. Bossie’s nonprofit organization produced “Hillary: The Movie,” a documentary exposing negative facts regarding Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the crucial days before the 2008 presidential primary election.

Citizens United intended to show the documentary via video-on-demand, but had been prohibited from distributing the film.

“Political speech, above all else, should be protected in this country,” Bossie said.

However, private organizations and the careers of politicians are at risk. If an advertisement fails, then the politician may fail, and vice versa. This new freedom brings several gambles that all parties must be willing to take for the sake of fair competition, and most importantly for the sake of the Constitution.

The reverse in campaign finance reform requires integrity and activism. The decision demands that individuals strengthen their political understanding during elections, while allowing corporations and politicians the fairness each deserves in the election process.

With this correction, democracy will only be more fun to play.

T h e S u p r e m e Court of the United States of

America robbed the American voter of one of their inherent rights a few weeks ago. In a 5-4 decision on Jan. 21, 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations, unions, and wealthy private interest groups would no longer be limited in expenditures related to federal elections.

The decision was backed by Justice Kennedy thusly, “The Government may regulate corporate political speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether.”

Some argue that corporations should be treated as citizens, and they may exercise their right to donate

and promote any politician or political cause that they want.

To suggest that this new decision creates equality in freedom of speech is to suggest that corporations are equal to normal American citizens.

Corporations have never before been treated as individuals. They can evade

U.S. tax law by moving their money offshore, they can undermine minimum

wage laws by sending jobs to poorer nations or hiring illegal immigrants to work for slave wages, they can be controlled or heavily influenced by foreign interests, and as was asserted in the minority position, can have interests contrary to the common welfare.

Corporations and unions boast huge bank accounts, thousands of active employees and shareholders, and often operate outside the law. By granting them “equal rights”

to political speech, we are creating unequal circumstances

for the American public.The power to elect public

officials is granted equally to all law-abiding adult citizens. These citizens have no offshore bank accounts nor do they have teams of media and advertising specialists to orchestrate massive influence through advertisement and donation.

When a private business or union begins to exert unchecked influence over public affairs, it hinders the operation of our democracy. Business owners exist to make profit and to keep shareholders happy, and will flex their new-found power to achieve these goals.

When the American voters walk into the booth to elect a president or senator, they aren’t worried about profit margins, or shareholders, or stocks. They vote for candidates based on their own private notions of effective leadership.

The hope of our nation, the promise made so many times in so many history classes, civics lessons and grandiose speeches made by men in suits, is that all have an equal voice through the power of representative democracy.

When five justices decided to hand even more power to the small percentage of our rich and influential population, they took away the power and control of the common man, and our inalienable right to seek equal protection from the government. This new ruling grants further influence to the few, and takes liberty from the many.

The steps that have been taken by the court will reduce the power of the voter to influence public elections, and is therefore a threat to everything our democracy is founded upon.

On Jan. 21, 2010, the Supreme Court made the rich, entitled and powerful more important to policy makers than the average man, and they broke the heart of the American dream.

Dollars and SenseTwo editors argue the Majority and Minority opinions of the recent

supreme court case, Citizens United v. FEC

Supreme Blunder Supreme Correction

Andrea Royals- News Editor-

Collin Reischman- Managing Editor-

GRAPH

IC BY DAN H

AND

ING

Read The Montage online for exclusive pho-tos of the ‘ChalkBoyz,’ The Improv group, and Meramec Magic wrestling.

read.think.blog.God.Music.Politics.Chants.Texting.Baseball.Smoking.Writing.Photos.Art.Bands.

Staff blogs are online. Get exclusive con-tent, photos and videos. Only at

meramecmontage.com

Opinions February 11, 2010 5SELF-HELP

PURSUITofHAPPINESS

SEX ADULTCONTENT

theAMERICANDREAM

While sitting naked in front of your partner (with the

lights on), in soft, lov-ing, or sexy v o i c e s , take turns listing the q u a l i t i e s about the other per-son that

you love or see as beautiful. Intellect, humor, kindness, patience – say anything and everything from the general attributes to specific moments or actions. If you list a physi-cal attribute, touch it or kiss it, softly, gently and with great care.

This world in-between, this world beyond, this secret world, is where truth is dis-covered and lies die. Anything is possible; two lovers have ar-rived.

It is easy to feel awkward, afraid or embarrassed in a so-ciety that trains us and oth-ers to be insensitive. We wear masks to hide our true selves, so we are not hammered into molds that weren’t measured for our hearts and souls. Even-tually we believe in the mask; as if caught by a boa constric-

tor, our infinitely free mind begins to suffocate.

Seen through each oth-ers’ loving eyes, lovers are safe, to be naked, to feel joy, to laugh, to worry, to hope, to love. They’re safe to reach out through eyes, fingers and words, saying “I am human. I need your love.”

We forget it just takes a change of mind to free our-selves; even when we know, it could be hard to let go. Muffin-top doesn’t really mat-ter, size doesn’t really matter, unless we make it matter with our point of view.

Often we associate plea-sure with being good or lov-able; repeating or continuing with these lists of positive qualities as your partner ap-proaches orgasm, even dur-ing or after, can be especially meaningful.

For some this might chal-lenge self-beliefs or habitual emotions. It is critical the speaker be sincere; the listener must be open. Even so, it may take many times to truly begin to accept what each partner has to say.

Sometimes when we let go of negative beliefs, or are chal-lenged by positive beliefs, it can open our heart and some-times we cry. Sometimes we don’t want to believe again, like a leg that’s fallen asleep.

It is a vulnerable moment; we must meet our partner’s hu-manity with our own.

Such emotionally deep moments may not be com-mon, but once passed through there is new depth.

Truly “making love,” being aroused by your part-ner’s being, the intimacy (they know you like no one else), and the pleasure given to each other, can keep sex fresh and new, because you are con-stantly discovering each other, sharing a new unique moment together, being reborn like a phoenixes out of the fire.

“Fucking” can become boring. Anyone can do it, it al-ways ends the same way, and it doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

Even so, everything has a time and place; beastly pas-sion and intimate, wild chases or competitions can be just as meaningful. Fiercely seizing the moment, can still be mak-ing love.

It is when we love that we feel happiness. In this ever changing world, where things are torn away, ready-or-not, it only takes three words to touch the sky, three words to make hourglasses freeze and clocks skip a beat: “I love you.”

Next time “Porn.” Until next time, make

love.

POLITICS

Jacob Hight- Graphics Editor -

During the winter at my old job with Wa s h i n g -ton Univer-sity, I would step out of M c M i l l a n H o s p i -

tal, shivering in the freezing weather. Every day, I saw an African American man play-ing his saxophone as pedestri-ans walked right by, occasion-ally dropping a few cents into his semi-transparent ice-cream bucket.

That day I had some extra cash in my pocket. I walked by his bucket and dropped in a $10 bill, hoping he wouldn’t notice and continue playing his saxophone. Instead, he ran after me and, with enthusiasm and gratefulness, thanked me like I’d never been thanked before.

It was extremely embar-rassing, but it made me feel re-ally good inside. To me, it was just $10! To him, it was some-thing much, much more.

In a March 20, 2008 issue of The Telegraph, the University of British Columbia discov-

ered a relationship between giving and feeling good. In the study, 630 Americans were given either $5 or $20; half of the group was instructed to spend money on others, whereas the other half were to spend money on themselves, both by 5 p.m.

“Regardless of how much income each person made, those who spent money on others reported greater hap-piness, while those who spent more on themselves did not,” said Elizabeth Dunn, Ph.D., in the article.

This is the idea behind a “helper’s high,” which is a euphoria obtained by helping someone in some way.

People often ask, “But what if I give someone money and they spend it on drugs? I don’t want them to do that.” Thankfully, it’s not necessary to give away money to make you and someone else happy.

As a matter of fact, giv-ing a compliment can be more valuable than the value of any dollar bill.

According to Jack Can-field, self-esteem expert, the average child hears 432 nega-tive statements per day to every 32 positive statements. As most people can attest, a compliment can really make

someone’s day. How about volunteering? Allen Luks, au-thor of “The Healing Power of Doing Good,” studied more than 3,000 volunteers across the United States, looking for the benefits of doing good deeds. He discovered that 90 percent of the group reported volunteering relieved the ef-fects of stress, chronic pain and insomnia.

Not only does the organi-zation benefit, and those the organization supports, but dedicating time to other peo-ple’s causes improves mental, spiritual and physical health, and even turns all of your ex-periences into strong resume material.

The Dalai Lama once said, “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

Interested in discovering your own helper’s high? Have a few extra dollars? Donate it or buy someone a small gift. If not, do someone a favor or vol-unteer with church or school. Even if you don’t have much money or time, compliment-ing someone is a great way to lighten up everyone’s day.

You have the right to pur-sue happiness. Give it. Live it. Be happy.

Joe Douglas- Jr. Copy Editor -

Penetrating the Heart

The Gift of GivingMy, what a lovely tea party!

T h e N a t i o n a l Tea Party C o n v e n -tion was held in Nashville, Tenn. this past week, when the

moderates, centrists and inde-pendents of the country sighed a deep breath of frustration and disbelief.

There’s nothing wrong with good ol’ fashioned pro-test. It is a part of our history. Things like dissent and revolu-tion are in the blood of Ameri-ca’s citizens, and we know this well.

The Tea Party knows this better, and has not hesi-tated in exploiting our love of unconventional methods and allergy of large government influence.

The Tea Party-ers may not have an official platform yet, and no official policy book, but their message is clear: we don’t like President Obama, and we will fight his admin-istration and government on every issue we can because we don’t understand the defini-tion of things like “socialism” and “patriotism.”

The “teabaggers,” as they hate being called, paint themselves as heroes -- patri-ots who are protecting their nation from a socialist agenda that wants to steal their guns, abort their children, impreg-nate their daughters, and hand the nation over to dangerous terrorists.

Sarah Palin graced the convention with her unusual style of eloquence, jabbing at Obama’s “hopey-changey stuff,” and reminding us of that classical liberal mantra, the government that governs least, governs best.

Finally, we understand why she left the Governors Mansion of Alaska: she didn’t want to govern too much! Sar-ah Palin. Hero.

This is a party which un-derstands that the government needs to keep its hands off of their health care and medical procedures! Unless, of course,

that procedure is an abortion. This is a party that knows

socialist programs and gov-ernment handouts are a bad thing. Unless of course, it’s to build public libraries, police stations, interstate highways, or clean energy products for new jobs.

These patriots won’t stand by while a terrorist is read his or her Miranda Rights like a typical citizen; unless that terrorist is the “shoe-bomber” and George Bush is still president.

This is a party whose keynote, Mrs. Sarah ‘American Maverick Hero’ Palin, knows of the importance of offshore drilling and perusing nuclear energy, unless it’s President Obama who proposes it, at the State of the Union.

This is a party for the everyman, as long as those ev-erymen could pay hundreds of dollars at the door to attend the convention.

Perhaps it was said best by Palin: “We need a Commander-in-Chief, not a professor of law,” thundered Palin. Of course, Palin is right. We don’t want some fancy-schmancy law professor in charge of the country. Those Harvard elitists and their big words, fancy speechs and com-plex understandings of the in-ner workings of the legislative process -- we need less of them and more Sarah Palin.

We need more women like her; women who have left their only major elected office position to pursue a career as a Fox News contributor.

We need more people willing to abandon these pa-thetic “public office” and “elected” positions and will simply go on the lecture cir-cuit. If only more of today’s minds would abandon their constituients to be famous and haughty in front of like-mind-ed individuals.

Palin knows that real leadership is not found in leg-islation or public office.

She knows that real cour-age, real leadership, comes from being elected governor, leaving the office and making unchallenged and unchecked remarks about the opposi-tion’s lack of Commander-in-Chief’ness.

Collin Reischman- Managing Editor -

In-Depth

On Feb. 25, STLCC-Meramec will be unveiling the forgotten genocide of ethnic Germans to the world.

Ann Morrison, Meramec student and event coordinator, is the mastermind behind The Forgotten Genocide Conference, an event revealing a part of German history forgotten, but not abandoned, by the modern world.

“Everybody thinks this is the Holocaust; it’s not the Holocaust, but over twice the amount of people were affected,” Morrison said.

Speakers will be coming to Meramec from around the United States and outside nations in order to share their experiences and their own pieces of history. On Feb. 25, speakers will give one-hour presentations from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Student Center, Room 200/201, and on Feb. 26 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Meramec Theater.

“It was time. These people who have survived this are now in their 70s and 80s. What they didn’t want to talk about before, they want to talk about now. They’ve raised their families; they’ve done their jobs, and it’s their turn,” Morrison said.

This large event began as a little project in Pam Garvey’s Composition II class. The assignment required students to work with Service Learning, and Morrison wanted to do her project on the German genocide. At first Garvey didn’t believe it happened, but was willing to work with Morrison on the subject. Morrison was able to bring in substantial evidence to begin, and from there it has developed into something much more.

“There have been many people who have written essays about this, and turned in stories on this, and got Fs because the teachers did not believe this happened,”

Morris said. “[Garvey] was the first person who took me seriously about this, and backed me

up 110 percent.”Morrison then met with Donna Halsband, Service

Learning coordinator, and was introduced to Scott Dorough, mass communications instructor, who worked with Morrison to

develop a team to create the documentary.“This is a wonderful example of what can happen when a

faculty member recognizes the potential of a student’s work and provides encouragement and support for the student’s continuing

quest for knowledge,” Stephen Petersen, Ph.D., vice president of student affairs, said.

Paul Pai, Ph.D., said he hopes the students are inspired by this event to take on challenges that may seem out of reach. “…When we work as

a teaching/learning team, we can accomplish anything.”

Revealing a hidden past

Ann Ahks a

nd her

two

daughters

are mem

bers of

the Germ

an Cultural

Society,

located in South St.

Louis City

.

The organizatio

n began in 1945 as

the Ameri

can Aid Socie

ty, an agen

cy

committe

d to preserv

ing the cu

ltural

heritage

of ethnic

Germans fro

m Eastern

Europe.

The organizatio

n cu

ltivates

Germ

an

traditio

ns through cu

ltural acti

vities,

including

bastelgru

ppe (a group fo

r arts

and crafts

), damen

chor

(a ladies ch

orus),

and natur- und wanderg

ruppe

(a

backpack

ing and hiking group), as w

ell as v

arious f

olk

dancing groups fo

r child

ren and adults

. For im

migrants, th

e

organization offe

rs a se

nse of c

ommunity in

a new co

untry.

Although Ahks fo

und freed

om in St. L

ouis, sh

e said her

past

still h

aunted her,

as it d

id for t

housands of e

thnic Germ

ans who

escaped

from Europe t

o the U

nited States

after W

orld W

ar II. A

hks,

93, finally

feels

she c

an tell h

er sto

ry with

out the f

ear of p

unishmen

t.

“I think a lo

t of p

eople

are afra

id to co

me out o

f the w

oods,” sa

id

Katherine O

chs,

72, explaining th

at many d

isplaced

Germ

ans still

feel

threaten

ed by Russi

an influen

ce.

Although sev

eral ref

ugees met

through the Germ

an Cultural Socie

ty,

most ref

use to sp

eak about their

shared

postwar e

xperien

ces, s

aid John Pappert

,

presiden

t of t

he organizatio

n. “The G

ermans w

ere afra

id of rese

ntmen

t. They

had

just lost

a war. T

hey w

ere not in

a good position to

make a

big deal about it

,” Pappert

said. “Peo

ple wanted

to fo

rget.”

Pappert, li

ke the A

hks family

, had also

fled fro

m Europe afte

r World

War II

and arrived

in the U

nited States

as a ch

ild. A

lthough he s

poke littl

e Englis

h, he s

aid he was a

ble to

“soak up the l

anguage.”

While

German im

migrants fel

t intimidated

in Europe, Pappert

said his

experi

ence

in the U

nited States

was d

ifferen

t. “Ameri

can people

are forgiving,”

he said.

However

forgiving Ameri

cans have been

to the Germ

an people,

many postwar e

xperien

ces are

still n

ot typica

lly disc

ussed. F

or Ralph

Hoffarth

, a mem

ber of th

e socie

ty whose

ancestors

had immigrated

to the U

nited States

during th

e 1840s,

the test

imonies

of Ahks

and others in

his community

are co

mpletely

new to

him.

Although Hoffa

rth has

been involved

with the

German C

ultural s

ociety fo

r the p

ast 10 y

ears, h

e

learned

of the ethnic

German cle

ansing peri

od

last sp

ring through the

production of “The

Forgotten G

enocid

e.”

“We all

have losse

s, but t

hese are

of a diffe

rent k

ind. They

deal with

it

every

day and it doesn

’t go away,”

Hoffarth

said. “We need

to

know these

storie

s.”

The STLCC-Meramec student-produced documentary "The Forgotten Genocide" has peaked world-wide

interest into the exposure of 15 million ethnic Germans expelled after World War II.

Russian troops invading East Prussia, killing civilians after Prussian soldiers were gone.COURTESY OF FILM “THE FORGOTTEN GENOCIDE”

Story by Joe Douglas- Jr. Copy Editor -

February 11, 2010 7

Ann Ahks was one of approximately 14 million ethnic Germans

displaced at Stalin’s request after World War II. Ahks’ family had lived in

Romania for five generations, and apart from living in a town primarily

populated with German descendants, she had little to do with Germany

and nothing to do with the Nazi regime.

“I was young,” Ahks said, “I had my own property, my own self. I

did what I wanted.”

Based on her cultural background, Ahks was targeted as an enemy of

the Soviet empire. After the war ended, police visited her home and asked

her to come to Russia to work in a labor camp. If she refused, Ahks said, the

police threatened to take her parents instead.

Leaving her family, 28-year-old Ahks and 350 others from her village

boarded a train of 55 cars, 40 people to each, headed for Russian

internment. “Twenty people sat against the wall, and 20 sat in the

center,” she said, as she described the excursion that took more than

two weeks to complete.

“We were lost,” Ahks said, remembering the anxiety she

faced as she was separated from her family and on her way to

an unknown destiny. “No one was with me.”

Ahks said she was forced to live in a one room barrack

with 200 other women, receiving only portions of soup for

nourishment, while enduring hours of strenuous labor

each day. “We worked day and night. We worked only

for our food,” Ahks said.

Waking up in the morning, Ahks said she would

look up at the sky and yell, “My God, why have

you taken everything from me?” During her

most uncertain moments, however angry, Ahks

said she never doubted her belief in God.

An estimated 3,000 German workers

were employed at the camp facility, which

made cement bricks and mortar mixtures

that were used to rebuild much of

the damage the Soviet Union had

collected during World War II.

Each day, Ahks and the

other women in her barrack

carried large cement blocks

from the factory to train

cars to be transported for

reconstruction projects.

“We carried them in

snow and in ice. My

hands were always

frozen,” said

Ahks, recalling

the bitter, cold

weather that

b l a n k e t s

northern

Europe.

“The work made us strong women, but we had no

food,” she said. “I had to steal for food and every time I

had it, I thanked the Lord for it.” Ahks learned to befriend

the Russian women guards, who would occasionally slip

her milk and bread.

The guards would count the workers in the morning,

lead them to the worksite, and then count them at night

and lead them back to the barracks. They were strict, but

Ahks said she never saw them shoot anyone.

Ahks remained at the camp for two-and-a-half years, and

was released in 1947. Reparations were nearing completion

and ethnic Germans from Central and Eastern Europe were

being sent to Germany. Ahks could not return to her home in

Romania, where her family remained. “I had nothing,” she

said, “I only had my body.”

West Germany was in ruins and quickly became

overcrowded with small shanties and refugees, Ahks said. She

found a job as a housekeeper in Munich, and was reunited with

her husband, a Romanian soldier, through letters.

One evening, Ahks decided to stop by the train station on

her walk home from work, overhearing that German children

from Romania were expected to arrive that week. She had not

seen her children since she left her home, but as she neared the

station Ahks immediately recognized her two daughters.

“Who is that?” said her daughter Katherine Ahks, 7, to her

older sister, pointing to the woman looking at them. Katherine

Ahks was three-years-old when her mother had left, and did not

remember what she looked like.

The four-year separation of the mother and her daughters ended

as Katherine Ahks’ sister, Eva Ahks, said to her, “That is your ma.”

The family remained in West Germany until 1955. “We were

lucky because we lived with farmers and we had food,” Katherine

Ahks said, “but we were not happy in Germany.”

Ahks realized the strain German settlement had on her daughters.

“Their childhood was nothing,” she said. In 1955, Ahks decided to

move her family to the United States, hoping to start a new life in St.

Louis, Mo.“A lot of people came here with no place to go, but we did,” said

Katherine Ahks, whose aunt had left Europe for the United States in

1911. She agreed to sponsor the Ahks family and help them escape the

prejudice they faced in Europe.

Ahks and her family said they remained optimistic throughout their

burdens. “Stay with your faith,” she said, attesting that despite her losses,

faith was the only possession no one could take from her. “Even when you

are lost and have nothing, you should believe and trust in God and in

your faith.”

Ann Ahks a

nd her

two

daughters

are mem

bers of

the Germ

an Cultural

Society,

located in South St.

Louis City

.

The organizatio

n began in 1945 as

the Ameri

can Aid Socie

ty, an agen

cy

committe

d to preserv

ing the cu

ltural

heritage

of ethnic

Germans fro

m Eastern

Europe.

The organizatio

n cu

ltivates

Germ

an

traditio

ns through cu

ltural acti

vities,

including

bastelgru

ppe (a group fo

r arts

and crafts

), damen

chor

(a ladies ch

orus),

and natur- und wanderg

ruppe

(a

backpack

ing and hiking group), as w

ell as v

arious f

olk

dancing groups fo

r child

ren and adults

. For im

migrants, th

e

organization offe

rs a se

nse of c

ommunity in

a new co

untry.

Although Ahks fo

und freed

om in St. L

ouis, sh

e said her

past

still h

aunted her,

as it d

id for t

housands of e

thnic Germ

ans who

escaped

from Europe t

o the U

nited States

after W

orld W

ar II. A

hks,

93, finally

feels

she c

an tell h

er sto

ry with

out the f

ear of p

unishmen

t.

“I think a lo

t of p

eople

are afra

id to co

me out o

f the w

oods,” sa

id

Katherine O

chs,

72, explaining th

at many d

isplaced

Germ

ans still

feel

threaten

ed by Russi

an influen

ce.

Although sev

eral ref

ugees met

through the Germ

an Cultural Socie

ty,

most ref

use to sp

eak about their

shared

postwar e

xperien

ces, s

aid John Pappert

,

presiden

t of t

he organizatio

n. “The G

ermans w

ere afra

id of rese

ntmen

t. They

had

just lost

a war. T

hey w

ere not in

a good position to

make a

big deal about it

,” Pappert

said. “Peo

ple wanted

to fo

rget.”

Pappert, li

ke the A

hks family

, had also

fled fro

m Europe afte

r World

War II

and arrived

in the U

nited States

as a ch

ild. A

lthough he s

poke littl

e Englis

h, he s

aid he was a

ble to

“soak up the l

anguage.”

While

German im

migrants fel

t intimidated

in Europe, Pappert

said his

experi

ence

in the U

nited States

was d

ifferen

t. “Ameri

can people

are forgiving,”

he said.

However

forgiving Ameri

cans have been

to the Germ

an people,

many postwar e

xperien

ces are

still n

ot typica

lly disc

ussed. F

or Ralph

Hoffarth

, a mem

ber of th

e socie

ty whose

ancestors

had immigrated

to the U

nited States

during th

e 1840s,

the test

imonies

of Ahks

and others in

his community

are co

mpletely

new to

him.

Although Hoffa

rth has

been involved

with the

German C

ultural s

ociety fo

r the p

ast 10 y

ears, h

e

learned

of the ethnic

German cle

ansing peri

od

last sp

ring through the

production of “The

Forgotten G

enocid

e.”

“We all

have losse

s, but t

hese are

of a diffe

rent k

ind. They

deal with

it

every

day and it doesn

’t go away,”

Hoffarth

said. “We need

to

know these

storie

s.”

“I had nothing.

I only had my

body.” - Ann Ahks,

German held

captive in Russian

internment camp.

One W

oman's Story

Hidden Pasts and Promising Futures

Design by Anna Now

otny

-InDepth Editor-

Stories b

y Andrea

Royals

- New

s Edito

r -

MeraMec

MOntage.cOMVisit

For full it

inerary of

“The Forgotten Genocide”

Conference

February 11, 2010ART & LIFE

transfer to Rockhurst. transform your life.

www.rockhurst.edu/transfer(800) 842-6776

“I chose to transfer to Rockhurst because of the Helzberg School

of Management and the fifth-year MBA program.”

A great education paves the way for tremendous opportunities, and Rockhurst University offers the knowledge you’ll need to find them. So if you’re ready for a degree that will do more for you, transfer to Rockhurst.

More than 98 percent of our students receive financial aid. And with transfer scholarships ranging from $1,500 to more than $12,500, you’ll find Rockhurst surprisingly affordable. To learn more about transferring to Rockhurst, join us for Transfer Day on Wednesday, March 3, or Thursday, March 25.

We’ll be there to answer questions about a Rockhurst education, transfer credits, financial aid and your major. Bring your transcripts to apply for on-the-spot admission and scholarships.

Rockhurst University admits students of any race, color and national or ethnic origin.

Heather Newton, psychology major Turney, Mo.

CUSUMANO’S7147 Manchester Rd., Maplewood

314.645.5599 Photo ID required

College NightsCheck out all the college specials

at myspace/cusumanos

Sun - Thur10PM - 1AM

$5.00 cover

Pool Tables Games Disc JockeyCollege Music

Karaoke Sunday and Wednesday

Plenty of parking! Groups and bus loads welcome!

Book a Free PartyNo Rental Fee

We clean up the mess

MovieREVIEW:Dear JohnIn the novel “Dear John,”

Nicholas Sparks delivers an-other inspired story of love, life, and overcoming the odds. Unfortunately, director Lasse Hallstrom turned an ef-fecting book about sacrifice, once-in-a-life love, and self-lessness into a fairly predict-able, throw-away romance.

The movie follows a young soldier as he comes home for leave, falls in love, and has to return to the Middle East in a pre-Sept. 11 world. The stresses of fam-ily, long-distance love, and the unpredictability of world events take varying tolls on the budding romance be-tween two endearing, well-crafted characters.

“Dear John” is neither as relatable as “The Notebook,” nor as heart-wrenching as “A Walk to Remember,” which is truly unfortunate for the two lead actors Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried who deliver the performances of their young lives.

Tatum manages to trans-form into both a sex symbol and a mature lover; a hard-

working soldier and a dis-connected son. Through his portrayal of Sparks’ dynamic character Tyree, Tatum is able to put his emotional range on display as the war-hardened soldier and the confused, at times broken hearted, man.

For fans, this is the movie to see starring the handsome up-and-comer.

Seyfried is equally charm-ing in a role that taps into her natural allure. Tyree had no choice but to fall for Seyfried’s character Savannah Curtis.

Calm confidence, grace, and purity pour from Seyfried in every scene.

Although the movie does not live up to the intricacies of the book, “Dear John” cer-tainly has beautiful moments. Besides displaying the ever-

expanding talents of Tatum and Seyfried, director Hall-strom managed to capture the chaos, fear and confu-sion surrounding the attacks of Sept. 11.

The scene is both unex-pected and brief, but realis-tic and serves as a dynamic reminder of the emotional impact of that day in his-tory.

Many illnesses and struggles are also depicted in a movie that can leave viewers feeling emotionally drained. However, Sparks’ consistent message that life is complicated and love re-flects all our many complexi-ties is present and powerful.

However, as is usually the case, the book portrays a much deeper, more so-phisticated plot with charac-ters that are less focused on summer romance and more focused on becoming com-plete individuals through all the struggles life presents.

Overall, the movie serves its core purpose. It is entertain-ing and emotional. The story is touching and could not be more perfectly executed.

“Dear John” runs 105 min-utes and is rated PG-13.

Julie Wells- Sr. Copy Editor -

Dear John, directed by Lasse Hallstrom, knocked Avatar out of the top grossing movie spot in its open-ing weekend, bringing in $30.5 million.

COURTESY OF IMDB.COM

/5

A double Whopper with cheese and a large chocolate shake is what STLCC-Meramec student Richard Rhodes Sr. said he missed the most while serv-ing four and a half years over-seas.

“You just couldn’t get that over there,” he said while laugh-ing, “and of course, I missed my children.”

Rhodes describes himself as family-oriented; he has four kids: Richardo, 24: Brandi, 19: Richard Jr., 17: and Celeste, 15; two grandkids and a one-year-old Shih-Tzu named Nacho Li-bre.

“My favorite part of being a dad is knowing that my children know that they can come to me,” Rhodes said. “When I look into my children’s eyes, and when I hear them talking about me, I hear them being proud of what I did for my country.”

Rhodes, an Afghanistan war veteran, returned to his children and life at home from his second tour of active duty in Afghanistan in 2006, and this semester is his first at Meramec. Although he said that it’s been hard adjusting to life back in the United States, what Rhodes learned in Afghanistan is some-thing he wants to share with ev-eryone.

“I have a real love for the American life: a true love. I want people to appreciate the life they have because it can be taken away so quickly.” Rhodes said, “The death, the chaos and the gore that I have witnessed, you can’t possibly imagine. I just want to help people to ap-preciate the life that they have.”

Rhodes was medically dis-charged in October of 2007 from the Army. He also spent six years in the United States Ma-rine Corps and then three years in the Missouri National Guard where he was wounded in ac-tion. Because of his experiences in Afghanistan, Rhodes came back more appreciative of his homeland.

“The first thing I did when I got back was kiss the ground,” Rhodes said. “When you are over there, you see so much

and you do so much. The im-ages ring in your head. So, the first thing I wanted to do was kiss the ground and thank God for America because this is a blessed country.”

Rhodes said he joined the Marine Corps as soon as he graduated high school in 1983 to live up to his full potential.

“As a young kid, I wanted to be the best. I grew up in an abusive home, and I needed a way out, and the Marine Corps was my way. I’ve always been the kind of person that likes to be with the best organization possible, and that’s why I chose the Marine Corps,” Rhodes said.

He completed his training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego and was sent to Lebanon after the U.S. Embassy was bombed. Rhodes said that he felt the same way going to Afghanistan as he did first go-ing to Lebanon.

“I just graduated from in-fantry training school and was sent to Lebanon so I was scared to death. I experienced the same feeling when we were told we were mobilizing to go to Af-ghanistan,” he said.

Within Rhode’s time in the armed forces, he has always been enlisted as active duty. He said his role while in Afghani-stan was in infantry as a gunner on operations in provinces.

“Basically we did control missions, military tactile mis-sions in and out of civil prov-inces in East and West Afghani-stan,” Rhodes said.

When Rhodes went to investigate damages made to an American-built school by the Taliban in Khost, Afghani-stan, Rhodes and his unit were bombed in their Humvee.

“I was literally blown out of the Humvee, and I landed on my head, and I suffered trau-matic brain damage,” Rhodes said.

After returning home, Rho-des spent more than a year in rehab to recover and was diag-nosed with post traumatic stress disorder, a disorder that affects some war veterans. He said he saw that people weren’t ap-preciating their lives and even

wanted to return back to war. “When I first got back, I

spent six weeks in the mental ward because I was diagnosed with post traumatic stress dis-order, and I struggled with that big time. That’s why it took me a year or two of rehab. When I came back, I saw was civilians of our country taking life for granted,” Rhodes said. “The smallest things over here are huge to people over there. There are people living in mud huts, kids walk to school, and women have no rights over there. When I come back here, I listen to what people are saying and I got so angry because I just couldn’t deal with the lifestyle here. I wanted to go back.”

In an effort to reintroduce Rhodes to American culture, his counselors recommended that he slowly expose himself to the culture by going back to school and using that environment to slowly amalgamate himself.

Rhodes is going to school full-time and intends on work-ing for the two-year mass com-munications degree.

“I would like to go into broadcasting; some form of me-dia. Right now, the government is really big with supporting the troops and pushing us to go back to school, and that’s what I chose to do. I’m still a little nervous about big places and big universities since I’m still in my adjusting period. Meramec is right here. I live in Eureka, and it’s the perfect timing. Right now, I am excited. This is new for me,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes said he is still get-ting used to the motions of everyday life and is taking his time. He said he hopes to use his degree to help other veterans adjust back to the American life just like other veterans helped him get through it when he was struggling the most.

“As I sit back, I think, ‘What can I do to communicate with people to make them truly un-derstand the life that we have?’ I want to say , ‘If I did it, you can do it. Don’t allow yourself to get pulled down by the drinking and the drugs. Been there, done that, got a T-shirt. Come on, you can do this.’”

ART & LIFEFebruary 11, 2010 9

A hero among usA day in the life of Richard Rhodes Sr., Afghanistan War Veteran

“The first thing I did when I got back was kiss the ground...”

-Richard Rhodes Sr.

PHOTO BY: JEANETTA ROBERTS

Richard Rhodes Sr. smiles during his interview. Rhodes said he describes himself as funny, family oriented and adventurous.

Steph Stough- Art & Life Editor -

COURTESY OF RICHARD RHODES SR.

Rhodes has four children and two grandkids. Top: Brandi, Rich-ardo, and Celeste. Bottom: Richard Jr.’s wife, Richard Jr and their son.

Joseph Bassa, 20, lead singer and acoustic guitarist of Surtsey and a Meramec student says Surtsey can be found at any bar in Cape Girardeau, coffee shops and at Off Broadway in St. Louis. Their music consists of a folk rock “Americana” sound.

“I guess you could compare it to the Rolling Stones verses The Beatles; taking the complete opposite of what’s in right now and seeing if it will catch fire. We’ve had good luck with it,” said Bassa.

Surtsey is a 3-piece band playing only acoustic music. Anyone inter-ested in hearing their music can visit http://www.myspace.com/surtsey, featuring their first album “Broken Beds.” They are currently recording a new album; “It’s gonna be a lot more down-tempo, slower, gushing with re-verb,” said Bassa.

Aaron Essner, 20, plays drums as well as the keyboard and xylophone while Drew Koepell, 20, harmonizes and plays the bass. Surtsey is adamant about having constant harmony.

“Our songs can be commercial, friendly; they’re catchy enough to where people could get into it, but it’s a stripped-down basis. There’s no auto tune; there’s no pre-production. Any-thing done on the computer, you prob-ably couldn’t do with us.”

The band plans to begin another tour at the beginning of the summer.

10ART & LIFE February 11, 2010

Everyday life serves as inspiration for the rock metal band, Man Eating Tiger. This five man band consists of Jason Simpson on drums, his brother Owen Simpson on bass, Ryan Metz on lead guitar, Jason Emerick on second-ary guitar and Robb Martinez on vo-cals. Martinez says that “life, technol-ogy and politics” are what lead these musicians to create the tunes that they do, which Martinez said sounds simi-lar to Thrice.

They have been a band for about

a year and since have had two shows, one at Lemmon’s and the other at Fubar. They have also released a demo and are currently putting together more music.

“We are working on a sev-en song EP and we have put it out a three song demo that we recorded at our drummer’s house. It’s all D.I.Y.,” Martinez

said. Martinez says he enjoys perform-

ing for people. “[My favorite part of being a band is] just being able to ex-press myself while playing live and being on stage,” he said.

Man Eating Tiger’s next show is Feb. 18 at Fubar where they will be playing with Vanna.

Tracks by the band are online at http://www.reverbnation.com/ma-neatingtiger.

When recording, The Mussy Cluves consists of a mere two members, Matt Heitman and Danny Barton. They play experimental grunge rock with inspira-tion from blues music.

Though various close friends and trusted artists perform with them live, Barton and Heitman play all the instru-ments during recording sessions and sing as well.

“We tend to stray toward the bi-

zarre forms of expression by being very experimental in our creative process and not limiting ourselves.” said Bar-ton and Heitman.

Heitman and Barton have been playing music together for nearly a de-cade.

“Many of our songs were written from weird experiences we've had, and lots of them are kind of ’inside jokes,’ among the band and our group of friends,” said Barton.

The band offers any of their seven demo CDs for free to someone interest-ed in hearing their sound.

“Playing music for us is a form of expressing what we feel and what we go through and how we live. Our mu-sic is important to our daily life because it’s a way to vent all the weird [stuff] that happens, whether good or bad.”

Skyscraper, a melodic hardcore band with a strong work ethic and a love for vintage vinyl, combines a New Age genre with a classic touch. Sky-scraper consists of Drew Maxey, 22, as lead vocalist; Keith Canady, 19, the bass player; Sean Myers, 22, on lead guitar; and James Carroll, 20, plays the drums. When Skyscraper chooses to play in town, they play at Fubar, a lo-cal venue in the city. The band joined forces in mid-August 2009 after two

bands decided to split. “We don’t really play in town

that often. We try not to. We try to branch out and play other cities more,” said Carroll.

“When we started this band, our goal was to be as far away from St. Louis as humanly pos-sible,” said Carroll.

Skyscraper’s demo can not only be obtained on a CD, but is in the process of being pressed onto cassettes. They are currently writ-

ing and recording an LP that will be released as 7 inch records and have written a compilation song which will be featured on a12 inch record. The band works with 11th and Bleeker re-cords to produce their vinyl and Listen Up Tapes to produce classic cassettes. To get a taste of Skyscraper’s sound check out http://www.myspace.com/skyscraperhc or http://www.twitter.com/skyscraperhc .

Surtsey

Soundscape says they have a deep love for art, not just in its musical form, but also for the practice of abstract canvas paintings as well. As a strictly instrumental band with a progressive and psychedelic sound, Soundscape is distinguished by their use of a live painter instead of a lead vocalist.

“Music is everything. It is what the three of us want to do with our

lives: live as performing artists,” said Kevin Danneman, Meramec student.

Danneman, 21, plays the guitar; Taylor Perkins, 20, the drums while “Gecko” performs live canvas art painting with inspiration from the music and vibe of the crowd. Sound-scape gains much of their inspiration from the band TOOL but feel they have an original sound and say they do their best not to sound generic.

“We hope to create original music from the depths of our souls to show the commercial world what real art is all about,” said Danneman.

Soundscape is currently writing and hopes to record a full album later this year. The band appears online at http://www.myspace.com/sound-scapestl.

The spring semester has official-ly kicked off and without hesitation teachers are piling on the readings, pa-pers and projects. Overwhelmed yet?

Though the homework may not get any easier and sleep may become

unobtainable, one thing is certain: en-tertainment is on the horizon.

Battle of the Bands applications will be available in nearly three weeks. Starting March 1, anyone interested in participating in the Battle of the Bands can pick up an application in the Cam-pus Life office located on the 2nd floor of the Student Center. According to

Justin Allen, president of the Activity Council, applications are due on April 1, and 10 bands will be chosen to par-ticipate on April 30th in STLCC-Mer-amec’s gym.

“First place will receive $700, 2nd place, $500 and 3rd place, $300,” said Allen.

There are many opportunities and

outlets for students at Meramec, and for some, music has become their outlet. Some bands to look out for at Meramec are Surtsey, Skyscraper, Soundscape, The Mussy Cluves, Granite Cloud, and Man Eating Tiger. Whether these bands will make it to the Battle of the Bands is uncertain, but their love for music and entertaining is inevitable.

Skyscraper

Granite CloudMan Eating Tiger

Bands on campus prepare for Battle of the BandsEmily Hertlein

- Staff Writer -

Soundscape

Granite Cloud, a young, energetic group of guys, is an alternative, hard rock band with a hint of metal. They compare their sound to a mix between Story of the Year and The Foo Fighters.

With five members including, Matt Bo-nacsh, 17, on drums; Jackson Frazier, 20, lead guitar; Daniel Blume, 20, gui-tar and keyboard; Blake Boyster, 20, on bass; and Drew Lance, 17, on vocals.

The band does its best to high-light each member’s talents with a wide range of solos. “Most alternative music seems to be vocal based whereas we try to balance everything out, a lot of instrumental; precision is involved,” said Frazier.

Though they’ve never been on tour outside of Missouri, Granite Cloud can be found at many venues within the St. Louis region. Some of their most visited spots are: Pops, Firebird, Fubar, and Cicero’s. Granite Cloud also has a website, http://www.myspace.com/granitecloud which houses a demo and a variety of merchandise.

The Mussy Cluves

PHOTO BY: STEPH STOUGH

COURTESY OF SURTSEY

COURTESY OF MAN EATING TIGER

COURTESY OF GRANITE CLOUD

COURTESY OF SOUNDSCAPEPHOTO BY: DAN HANDING

The 64-60 win over Penn Valley on Feb. 6, showed that the STLCC-Meramec Men’s Basketball team had the will and inspiration to come from behind and pull out the win-ner. What the score doesn’t show, is the inconsistency of the team throughout the sec-ond half.

Coming into Saturday’s match, the Magic were 15-9 with a 3-1 Region XVI record, according to National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). Penn Valley, their rival across the state in Kan-sas City, had sole possession of the lead for Region XVI. The Magic rank second in de-fense in their region, accord-ing to the NJCAA and Mer-amec guard Dietrick Sooter, is eighth in the NJCAA in free throw percentage.

The Magic started the game out strong and had a good lead going into halftime, 30-21. After halftime, their lack of control of the ball was a big problem, leading to turn-overs and missed rebounds. Meramec coach Randy Al-brecht expressed his opinion about the turnovers.

“We’ve worked on it all year. Part of our problem is we have all freshman guards. We have no players that are experienced well enough in this to know how to get strong

with the ball. And the only way you learn, unfortunately, for a lot of people is that you have to make a few mistakes to figure it out. You know, we have to get better at handling the ball. That’s probably the weakest part of our game right now,” said Coach Albrecht af-ter the game.

Justin Henderson of the Penn Valley Scouts scored 26

of his 32 points in the second half to put the Scouts out to a 56-48 lead. Henderson kept draining 3’s to really push his team in front, and Meramec wasn’t shooting well from the field. The break point for the

boys was when center Dallis Johnson had a breakaway and took it in for a slam dunk to move the momentum over to the Magic. After the dunk, the crowd start-

ed to get into the game and as it seemed that the Magic may still be in the game. With less than 30 seconds left in the game, Josh Dale took the ball to the hoop and missed. He followed the miss with a re-bound, which sealed the vic-tory for the Magic.

There was one chance left for the Scouts to tie the game, but then Sooter came away with the steal from Hender-son, who led his team with 32 points.

The Magic have five more games remaining on their schedule, including a match-up against Forest Park on Wednesday, Feb. 10. After the final game, they start Region XVI Tournament play. The win put the Magic at a 16-9 record and a 4-1 record in the region, which clinches another winning season for Albrecht.

Albrecht commented after the game on the exciting fin-ish, “The kids had a lot of resil-ience there. We were 10 down -- could’ve given up, but we kept fighting. We stayed posi-tive. You got to play it all out,

all 40 minutes of the game. I thought we had some good heart there at the end.”

SPORTSFebruary 11, 2010

Joe Ray- Staff Writer -

Men’s Basketball pulls off Magical Win

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Meramec Magic center Dallis Johnson goes up for the basket against Penn Valley defenders. The Magic beat the Scouts, 64-60.

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