Issue 4 | April 9, 2014

April 9, 2

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Dear readers of The Patriot,

Our first print issue in over sevenweeks is finally here! During that time, I,along with the rest of the executive staff at-tended the College Media Association’sspring convention in New York City, anevent geared toward aiding college studentshone their craft of choice. For us, most ofwhat was focused on was primarily design-based. Since returning we have put a greatdeal of hours into making a number ofchanges that I hope will push The Patriotbeyond anything our readers have seenfrom us in the past.

In addition to upping our publication’scosmetics, we wanted to pay extra attentionto the content itself. What’s the point inhaving an appealing and inviting page oflayout if the prose it is intended to help sup-port is subpar? It kind of becomes moot. So,just as much work has been put into makingeach article the bestpossible version it can be.

I know I speak for the entire staff ofThe Patriot when I say I hope that each ofyou thoroughly enjoy this new issue. It’ssomething we are proud of and hopefullyyou will be too.

Sincerely,

Timothy WyattEditor-in-Chief

A letter from the editorEditor-in-ChiefTimothy Wyatt

Managing EditorNatasha Jones

Design EditorKristina Smith

Photo EditorCarleen Fletcher

Socia l Media CoordinatorHayley Davis

Copy-EditorsJannica BradyBrandy Norman

Graphic DesignerBrad Pearce

Sta ff WritersAbbey CherryAutumn CooneyJessie EldridgeRyan Poynter

Christin RottenbergerTyler Shumate

Solomon Whitaker

Sta ff PhotographersJillian Carpenter

Chloe Gu

Faculty Adv isorJeremiah Massengale

Editor ia l Rev iew BoardLisa Bartram

Marianne Worthington

- 7609 College Station Drive Williamsburg, Ky 40769

(606-539-4172 /patriotnewspaper @UCThePatriot *thepatriot@ucumberlands.edu

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12 The girl who cried “phone”

21 How I met the woman who ultimately doesn’t matter at all

Following the right voice

McPheron on Main Street

The Patriot is the biweekly student publication of the University of the Cumberlands. Our goal is to provide timelyand original content by highlighting campus news and views.

Award-winning member of the Kentucky Press Association.

Q&A with Taylor Singleton

22 Top five games of the lastgeneration

CONTENTS

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Beginning at 5 p.m. on March 29, students, faculty, and alumni of Univer-sity of the Cumberlands began to fill the O. Wayne Rollins Center, preparingfor the next twelve hours of ’80-themed fun for Relay For Life. Each personbelonged to one of the 20 teams, each with their own master plan to raise asmuch money as possible for the American Cancer Society. These teams in-cluded the residence halls, called “The Residence Hall and Oats”, the wrestlingteam, the dance team, Student Government Association, and even a team ofWalgreens employees from Corbin. The booths varied from traditional RelayFor Life booths, such as bake sales and Relay For Life t-shirt sales, to creative,with the “jail” booth, and the ‘80s makeover booth. In addition to having theirown booth, the teams had to come up with their own ‘80s-themed activity forthe night. The teams definitely showed their creativity, one team holding a“Wheel of Fortune” game, another playing “Simmons Says” an exercise-ori-ented Richard Simmons spinoff of Simon Says.

Agnes Brown, one of the leaders for Relay For Life in the Whitley Countyarea, has been working to make Relay For Life a significant event in this areasince the opportunity arose in fall of 2010. Like many people who get involvedwith Relay For Life, or with the American Cancer Society in general, Brown'slife was affected by cancer.

"At the end of my sophomore year in college, my father passed away fromcancer. Several of my aunts and uncles have had cancer. I have had a coupleof close aunts/uncles who cancer got the better of. I also have several familymembers who have beaten the disease. I have witnessed what this disease cando to a person and caregiver and their family first hand," said Brown.

Because of this, she immediately took the opportunity to help bring the

yearly fundraiser to the area. Since then, she has been one of the main coordi-nators to get Relay For Life set up each year. This consists of ensuring thateach member is registered, setting the date on which the event will be held,and keeping track of the activities each team wants to hold so no two activitiesoverlap. Being that each task is very tedious and time consuming; being aRelay for Life coordinator is no small responsibility.

Brown even teamed up with Relay For Life and the UC bowling team tocoordinate an event that took place on March 8 at the Forest Lanes bowlingalley in Corbin called Strike Out For Cancer. People of any age were allowedto enter, being put into either age groups, or a group of people who had neverbowled competitively. Participants lined up to compete for a good cause, andto just have a fun time bowling in general.

"Forcht Bank sponsored our event t-shirts. Forest Lanes was kind enoughto help us host the event and donated bowling towels, food and shoes for thebowlers. We had several volunteers that stayed almost the whole time to helpout," said Brown. Seventy games were bowled to strike out cancer. Thesegames, combined with t-shirt sales and donations from that day, the event makeover $550 to give to the American Cancer Society.

After the money from the Relay’s fundraising activities was totaled, ex-cluding any walking sponsorships yet to be received, the event raised over$6,000, all going to the American Cancer Society. Once the money raised fromStrike Out For Cancer is added, about $7,000 has been made for the AmericanCancer Society. This is almost $2,000 more than what was raised last year.This shows a continuing upward trend toward the success of our local Relayfor Life events.

BY JILLIAN CARPENTER

Sta ff Photographer

A trip to the ‘80s to stomp out cancer

Features

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Following the right voice

“Music is my thing, andI had to sacrifice it...”

Photo by Jill ian Carpenter

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A choppy version of the piano notes of “A Thousand Miles” fills the lastpractice room on the right, where a certain music major plays his magic onthe keys. Dalton Hutton, a UC junior, yells my name as he always has, and Ireturn the favor, before beginning to question this old and dear friend of mine.The same guy who beat me in Disney Scene-It, once or twice. The same guywho helped me devour a box of McDonald’s cookies without a watchful eyein sight. The same guy who would duet a Beyonce song with me at the dropof the beat. We were in Choir together in high school, Chorale together incollege, and we’d shouted each others’ names down many a hallway. It wasbeyond a privilege to discuss with him his faith and his experience with au-ditioning for NBC’s “The Voice.”

Speaking of which, he had a good amount to say. He talked about his tripto “The Voice” in February the first of this year.Honestly, his biggest hope was that the experience wasn’t like “AmericanIdol” where he had previously auditioned. To his surprise, he went and prettymuch immediately realized how amazing it was. “It was at a different level,”says Hutton.

Dalton got an audition pass about a week before, on a Monday, and theactual audition for “The Voice” was that Saturday. Talk about a nerve-wrack-ing week. The entire week was spent in oodles of prayer. Dalton wasn’t eventhinking about doing it by the end of January, since he had filled out the pro-file and applied way back in December of last year.

But the email he received changed everything. From that Monday to Fri-day he says he was asking, “God do you want me to do this? Is this a thing Ishould do?” all day, all night. He was trying to hear from God but God reallyjust wasn’t talking.

Plus, over Christmas break, he “misplaced” his wallet. Was this God hint-ing that he shouldn’t go, since you have to have an ID and he didn’t?

So, naturally, he decided to give up on this, the night before the auditionwas scheduled. God had just recently told him that He wanted to take him tothe next level, which, could mean a lot of things, from Dalton’s perspective.He had heard God say that he wanted to take him deeper in Him. Spiritually?Musically? Who knows?

According to Hutton, reading, praying, and fasting, that whole week washard.

“Music is my thing,” said Hutton, “And I had to sacrifice it. Kind of likeAbraham. I had to be obedient to the voice of God.”

On Friday he decided to step out in faith and just do it, knowing that Godwould bless it if it was His will.

Saturday morning he woke up about 6:30 a.m. and sat on the bed bentover praying to God. He asked God to send him so much confirmation thatit would be evident whether he was supposed to be there. Once he got toNashville, the anxiety came in like a wrecking ball. Just the 2 p.m. showingline was wrapped around the center twice; that’s how many people were au-ditioning for the NBC singing competition.

A group of 10 people go to different rooms with a judge and in five min-utes, you’re done. You either get it or you don’t. Dalton, all wide-eyed andhead nodding, said, “It’s cut throat. I was as nervous as heck.”

As any good fellow would, you make friends with those around you.Standing in line for three hours, Hutton met the guy behind him who hap-pened to be a musician in Nashville that was a little older than him. Thisstranger had the same music taste, was a Christian artist, had his own recordlabel, dressed the same as Hutton, acted the same, and was even affiliatedwith Church of God. This certainly made Dalton feel comfortable in an un-comfortable spot.

Hutton said, “People thought we were a duet because we instantlyclicked. Singing Kirk Franklin and old school black gospel.” Out of thou-sands of people, they happened to be in the same room. God-send?

To add a cherry on top of affirmation, a high school senior from Lexing-ton was also in his group and was a prospective student considering UC. So,Dalton got to put a positive plug in for his university, getting to help her out.

Jeff, the guy he met, went first and sang a NeedToBreathe song. Jeff wasfollowed by a duet, and finally, it was Hutton’s turn. Hutton said, “The judgelooked up at me and was all confused. He sang a NeedToBreathe song,‘Washed by the Water.’ At the end of the ten people, we got a red ticket for acallback.” Apparently the judge thought she was being pranked because bothvoices sounded exactly the same.

“There were amazing people in there that didn’t get through,” Huttonadded.

The judges loved Dalton. He ended up getting to sing with a famous per-son, too. In the end, though, Hutton was cut from “The Voice,” but frankly,he felt far from a failure by that point. It is safe to say that Dalton’s trip toNashville was more than a success.

BY HAYLEY DAVIS

Socia l Media Coordinator

AFeatures

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Q& She’s wearing thepants now

Taylor Singleton, asenior theatre major,wore the “pants” in themost recent spring mu-sical here at UC. Shewas cast as EdwinDrood in The Mysteryof Edwin Drood, sonot only was she thelead role, but sheplayed a “pants” role—meaning that her char-acter is a man who issupposed to be playedby a woman. Since herlast interview, the playhas taken place, andnow she has taken thetime to sit down andgive some insight tohow her experiencewent with her leadrole in the musical aswell as what laysahead in her future.

Eldridge: How was being in Drood?Singleton: It was amazing! It was so much fun. Thecast members were really fun to work with. I hon-estly can't think of a better way to end my actingcareer on the stage of the Kohn Theatre.

Are you glad that it’s over?It's bittersweet really. I'm glad in a sense that I'llhave a little bit more free time to focus on planningthe next step for my future, but sad because it wasmy last show acting wise as an undergraduate.

Do you feel like you learned a lot from thisrole? Certainly. Considering the fact that I didn't think ofmyself as much of a singer, with the help of Dr.Etter, I learned how to belt and in turn proved my-self wrong, every night. Aside from that, I had tolearn appropriate stances for males in the Victorianera. Then there was walking around and dancing inmen's dress shoes, that was a fun one. Haha

What could to apply to other role that youlearned in this one?I think learning to belt will definitely come inhandy in the future.

Tell me about the play.It's called "The Whole Shebang". The premise ofthe show is what if the world was created as a sci-ence fair project? A student is trying to earn hisMaster of the Universe degree. To earn this degree,they created the earth and all that inhabits it. Aspart of their presentation, two perfect examples ofthe human race were intended to be interviewed,but in an unforeseen event, the wrong two humanswere brought. And, well, the rest is downhill fromthere for the student. There's a lot of laughs to behad.

When are you showing it?The show is Thursday, April 17th. There will bemore information posted around the campus closerto the show date.

What are you doing to prepare for this?Reading to the script over and over and over andover again, thinking of where people should be ats certain post. Also, working with the productionteam to help create my vision for the show.

Once you graduate what are you planningon doing? A Theatre internship for props somewhere out ofKentucky (Hopefully.) I've recently talked to quitea few people at the South Eastern Theatre Confer-ence about prop internships and the future lookspretty promising

Are you going to continue acting are yougoing to force on behind the scenes?Of course, I'll still act! It's something I'm reallypassionate about as well, so why not both propsand acting?

Are you going to move to New York or L.A.or someplace like that?Eventually, I'd like to travel all over before I plantmyself in one place.

What would be your dream role to have? As cliché as it may be, Elphaba from “Wicked”would be my dream role.

Do you think you'll ever become a directorof plays or musicals?Directing is also something I enjoy doing (obvi-ously, otherwise I wouldn’t be directing a show),so I could see myself as a director as well.

BY JESSIE ELDRIDGE

Sta ff Writer

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In a classroom in a dimen-sion far beyond ours, a stu-dent completing his MU,Master of the Universe,presents his final projectfor the term using two or-dinary human beings. Thefate of the Earth, and thestudent’s grade, rests on heshoulders of John andMary Doe. What will bethe fate of humanity itself?“The Whole Shebang” onApril 17th at 8:00 PM inthe Kohn Theatre.

Come see“TheWhole

Shebang”-a

one-actcomedy

Features

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Roaring cheers, vibrant lights, blasting music, and hopeful hearts are justa few things The Spotlight, UC’s annual singing competition brings to Gatliffchapel every other Tuesday night of the spring semester. In addition to thesethings, a few mishaps and epic fails are bound to happen along the way.

The Campus Activity Board coordinator, Lisa Bartram and a couple ofher CAB students definitely had a few stories a to tell about the tragic butsometimes entertaining mess ups that have happened when preparing for thecompetition.

Lights out

In season 5, right before “Cumberland Idol” switched to “The Spotlight”,during the duet nights the sound board blew right after the very first groupperformed.

“That was the biggest uh-oh in my opinion. We didn’t know what to do.We didn’t plan for that,” said Brad Pearce, Spotlight host and former Cum-berland Idol.

The sound board was going to take about twenty minutes to reset itself,the CAB crew scrambled to send members down to the CAB office in thelower BCC to grab the smaller one. Luckily the upcoming pair had plannedto sing a cappella and they just urged audience members to be very quiet,which did turn out to be successful.

After the performance, they were still waiting on the board to repair itselfand the CAB members had not yet returned with the smaller soundboard. BradPearce and his co-host, Chelsea Hill came out and sat on the edge of the stageand talked back and forth to keep the audience entertained for what seemedlike an excruciating amount of time to the crew.

“I actually talked about how I skipped Dr. Dickman’s class that day, andeverybody laughed because he was one of the judges,” admitted Pearce. By the time the CAB members had arrived back with the small soundboardthe bigger one had finally successfully reset itself. The night wasn’t a totaldisaster but definitely a huge hurdle for the crew.

Duet Nights

Duet Nights are the first round of Spotlight (and was back when it wascalled Cumberland Idol) which of course means there are going to be a couplebumps in the show.

For one, duet nights used to always be hosted in the music building’s re-hearsal hall which seats a significantly smaller amount of people comparedto the Gatliff chapel.

“I don’t really know why we did it, it’s just one of those things you thinkis going to be a good idea. It did work for a while. When you’re in a smallerroom with a big crowd it creates a much different atmosphere, but of coursewe eventually outgrew that,” said Bartram.

Spotlight judge Michael Dickman said, “It worked and had to stop for thesame reason, the crowd size. At first it was nice to have a very full room.But, as the show became more popular and drew in more and more people itbecame overcrowded. It got to the point where we were beyond safe capacity.So we moved the whole thing over to Gatliff where it has been ever since.”

Testing one, two,three…..

Before every show, the sound team runs through a rehearsal and soundcheck with each contestant to plan out how the actual performance is goingto go.

Spotlight host, Brad Pearce described these to be an especially frustratingpart of preparation. They have to take precautions to make sure everythingruns smoothly and the sound board doesn’t get blown. In addition to the nat-ural slight mess ups that are bound to happen, dealing with a performer’s anx-ious nerves, that are extremely focused on making sure they sound good onstage can also make this a much longer process.

Brad Pearce said, “All these contestants want to be the next Spotlight win-ner, and they're all super nerve wrecked about how they sound on stage. Soit's frustrating, we're like; you're done, you sound good, get off stage.”

BY NATASHA JONES

Managing Editor

Recapping Spotlight blunders from years past

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CAB’s graduate assistant, Johnathan Law-son had to scramble to askJonathan Carmack,who is a musician as well as a CAB memberworking with the sound for the production, tocome down from the sound team and performa few songs on stage with Pearce to help stallthe show till judges voting were done.

“I have this ear piece in my ear, and I runbackstage where there are 22 contestants, andI'm trying to talk to Carmack and tell him tocome down. Then, I ask one of the contestantsif I could borrow his guitar. I tell him I'll takegreat care of it,” said Lawson.

There happened to be a chair by the stagedoors and as Lawson turns around, his earpiece falls out of his ear and he tries to catch itwhile accidentally and simultaneously ram-ming the guitar in his hands into the chair.

Lawson admitted, “It was the loudestsound backstage and every one of them (con-testants) were staring. I just handed it back tohim so he could check it out. It turned out befine but, it was a thousand dollar guitar andsuper nice. I texted him four times that nightto check on it.”

Rock and Roll nights

For this competition today, CAB has cer-tain rules and limitations they have to givetheir contestants. Before a specific themedRock and Roll night contestants were allowedto bring in full bands and on a particular nightin history many contestants did just that.

“Everybody wanted a full drum set, so welet bands come in, which is what banned hav-ing a full band from now on and there wasn'tenough room and nobody could share drumsets because apparently drum sets are very per-sonal to the drummer,” said Bartram.

That night they had three drum setsstacked on stage across from each other, anddifferent amps and cords scattered all over the

stage. Bartram said, “Now, everything has to be

acoustic and you can only have two instru-ments. It was just so frustrating for us to setup.”

Backlash

When dealing with a group of young, com-petitive singers you’re almost always askingfor there to be a dispute about what is consid-ered “fair”. Imagine if there was one contestantwho took a rather unconventional way to getahead in the terms of votes.

"We had a backlash and uproar one time,cause there was one contestant once that wascaught in class, voting for herself over andover again. Students were so mad, they cameand complained to us and there was nothing wecould do about that,” said Bartram.

“It’s not against the rules,” said Lawson.Bartram said it was definitely a new and

unexpected scenario to be found in and therewas literally nothing she could for either sideof the confrontation.

Billy Joel and Elton John night

One of the themes for a performance nightin the past was a night contestants had to singalong to only songs from Billy Joel and EltonJohn, in the opinion of Spotlight host BradPearce he considered this a disaster. Pearce said, “Slow music makes for a terribleshow.”

“Hey Billy Joel and Elton John and greatand I’ll stand by that,” defended Bartram.

“Okay I’ll stand by the choice that it’sgood music but doesn’t make for a good show.Unless you actually are Elton John or BillyJoel,” replied Pearce.

Not so smooth moves

During this year’s Duets Night the CAB crew hadplanned to have two past Spotlight winners come outand perform during the time frame where the judgeswould be making their decision on who should stay andwho should go hoping that it would fill up the time that elimination decisions were taking place. However, it

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The girl who cried “phone”

Have you ever spent more than one hour on your phone? Everfelt that weird sensation that your phone vibrated in your pocketeven though it didn’t? Have you ever felt the compulsion withinyourself to share or post something in the social media world? Doyou believe that you spend entirely too much time on your phone?

It was Steven Spielberg who said, “Technology can be our bestfriend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of ourlives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have athought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, becausewe're too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the of-fice on the cell phone.” Is Spielberg’s statement true or false?

In most cases those who reply false are the ones who normallyspend too much time on their phones. I myself will place myselfin that category. But have you ever wondered if you’re missinganything in the word as your eyes are focused on the entertainingyet seductive screen of a smartphone? Spielberg’s statement makesme wonder if I really spend that much time on my phone, and if itis really interrupting my lifestyle. So I came up with an idea – for24 hours, I decided to go throughout my day without my phone.Yes, twenty-four hours. This, I hoped, would allow me to see fromthe eyes of someone not distracted by their phone, and to see if Ireally was that addicted to technology.

On March 8, I decided to go an entire 24 hours without myphone. Yes, a Saturday without my phone! It was my idea that the24 hours would fly by and I would prove that if I could go a daywithout my phone, then anyone could. If the experiment went sim-pler than planned, I would be all the more grateful.

There were some rules involved. Living so far away fromhome I kept in contact with my family and friends on a daily basis,and was fearful that something would happen while I was on hiatus.So I wanted to keep in contact with my family back home. There’salso my social contact with my friends here on campus as an un-dergraduate, I didn’t want them to think I was ignoring them foran entire day. So, I needed to set the following ground rules:

BY AUTUMN COONEYSta ff Writer

Photo by Timothy Wyatt

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1.) My phone would be on silent the entire 24 hours. No beeps,no vibrations, just silent.

2.) There must not be any social media sites (even on the com-puter), games or music for the entire 24 hours.

3.) The 24 hour clock would begin the exact second woke up onSaturday.

4.) I am allowed to tell my friends and family that I am not al-lowed to use my phone for an entire day, that way there’s no miscom-munication or anger throughout the day.

These rules, however, required amendments. To allow me to staysane throughout the day, I chose to make two exceptions to these rules:

1.) I am allowed to check my phone every four hours just to makesure there’s no emergency or problem back home or on campus. WhenI checked my phone it can only be to check for text messages andcalls. I was not allowed to respond to any calls or messages unless Ideemed it an emergency.

2.) I am allowed to keep my phone on my person but I cannotcheck it or look at it until it is my said time.

The first four hours were literally as bad as I thought it would be,all I did was just go about my day. It was easy to stay distracted withhomework, doing laundry and cleaning my room. By the time the firstfour hours were up, I just looked at my messages and put the phoneback in my pocket.

By the time my second set of four hours began it was aroundlunchtime, which is when the inconvenience set it. I had no way toget in touch with my friends to go to lunch. I walked over to my clos-est friend’s dorm but even then I still had no way to get to her room.Since I did not live in her dorm I didn’t have a key to get past the doorthat allowed you to get to the rooms, I had no way of contacting hereither so I had to wait patiently for someone to let me in. By the timeI reached her room I had to wait 45 minutes to go eat since everyonewas still working on homework.

Before 1 p.m. came around I was much more eager to check myphone. But with the lunch fiasco I realized I had to set plans up with

my friends and exact times so that way we could all be ready andknow the time of what was taking place. The entire situation was frus-trating. I sat down I wanting to get my phone out and text people orscroll through social media. I had to stay busy! So for this next set Idecided to go on an hour-long run. I hadn’t been on a run this semester,so it was a little refreshing. I found myself among beautiful scenerythat both amazed me and confused me. I can’t understand why I wasjust now seeing these places because I drove by them numerous timesthroughout the semester. It was then that Spielberg’s statement madesense to me, during that time I would either be texting or scanning so-cial media. This realization made me less interested in checking myphone.

By 6 p.m. it was dinner time. At dinner I was informing somefriends about my experiment and how it was going. At first all of themwere intensely listening but then slowly one by one their eyes turnedtoward their phones. This kept happening many times throughout din-ner, it was awkward and I truly felt left out. Countless times I noticedthat I had to keep my hands busy by playing with my hair because Iwanted to text. Or thought of something I needed to share within socialmedia. But at times, I truly felt like an addict, I could’ve sworn I feltmy phone go off my pocket even though I knew it wasn’t. I seriouslyfelt the strong need to yell “Phone!”

By the time 10 p.m. came around I had been more than 12 hourswithout my phone. My mood once again was back to normal as myfriends and I decide to go to the movies. On the way there everyonestayed off their phones, opting to talk the entire way instead. As wetook our seats in the theater I laughed at the irony of the screen askingus to turn off or silence or cell phones.

Before my last set had arrived early in the morning, I was too tiredand had no desire to check my phone before I went to sleep. I sleptthrough the rest of the experiment.

The most ironic part about this experiment is that when I wokeup, went to breakfast and went to work with my friends on homework,it was not until noon that I realized I left my phone laying in my room.So not only did I go without my phone for 24 hours, I had gone anextra six hours beyond that. For this experiment I went a total of 30hours without my phone. Yes, there were complications and yes, cellphones make communication 1,000 times easier, but at the end of theexperiment I truly felt that I gained a realization that I use my phoneentirely too much throughout the day. I encourage you to take the chal-lenge I did, who knows, you may have a similar experience.

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I saw her from the corner of my eye, poised as ever from the blazerdown to her Oxfords, as she rushed into the BCC to stand next to me. Shejuggled the numerous items in her hands: keys, Libertarian paraphernaliaranging from buttons to pamphlets, and a Starbucks mug wafting thearoma of fresh coffee through the air. Without missing a beat she hopedright into conversation with the Matt Bevin’s field representative on Thurs-day, March 6th. Busy as ever, and getting it all done, that is Bethany Williams.

Not your typical freshman here at UC, a transfer student fromDelaware State University, her schedule consists of a full load: 19 credithours for this political science major, a member of the debate team, stayingactive in her church, and now she’s adding president of Young Americansfor Liberty (YAL) to the list.

For those of you who don’t know, YAL is a libertarian-based campusorganization. Williams elaborated greatly on the subject, saying “It’s basedon the principles of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, but also thefreedom to do what you want with your money.” Essentially it’s the beliefto do what you want, but with limitations. “You can’t hurt people,”Williams said with a laugh, “it’s really a laissez faire government kind ofthing.”

Officially made a group on campus in February, meetings usuallyfocus on the group going into detail about what’s going on in the worldbased on politics from their points of view. “We have people that are statistand anarchists and other things, so we let everybody chime in,” Williamssaid.

She went on to add that many people are libertarian and don’t evenknow it, saying “At one of my last meetings we had a survey to see wherepeople stood on the political scale and a lot of people were libertarian anddidn’t realize it until they came to the meeting, so that was pretty cool.”Meeting activities can vary a lot, sometimes even to hold debates, such asthe debate the group hosted over the legalization of marijuana.

As big of a feat as it is to begin any group from scratch, this isn’t evenWilliams’ first time founding a chapter of YAL; she left a previous chapterat Delaware State University where she was cofounder and vice presidentof the group.

“I think the biggest difference between my last school and this schoolis that people seem to be more politically aware here. In Delaware, politicswasn’t as big of a thing because it was more of a beach atmosphere andpeople just weren’t really into politics. People here in Kentucky reallyseem to care about politics, especially with Rand Paul being a representa-tive of the state, that’s a really big deal.”

Apart from how amazing it will look on her resume, Williams hadother reasons for creating the group. She said, “The main reason I starteddoing Americans for Liberty was because we have a Young Democratsand Young Republicans, but there wasn’t really anything for people whoaren’t Republican or Democrat. Young Americans for Liberty pertains toanybody.”

Williams really wanted to emphasize that you don’t have to be intopolitics to be in this group. Within the short amount of time that the grouphas been established here at UC, Williams has had accounting majors, jour-nalism majors, psychology majors, and many others join.

“When she was at Del State, she was in YAL too, and I wasn’t reallyinterested in politics at all,” said Kiersten Mason, a freshman member ofYAL and also cousin to Williams, “but when she came here she would tryto talk to me about it and I would be like ‘I don’t want to hear about that,’the more she talked about it though, and the more determined I saw herwith all of this stuff, the more it inspired me.”

Williams added, “We have people in this group right now from everymajor and they are all helping in their own way. Our treasurer is an ac-counting major, and I dunno how she feels about politics, but she is doingit because it looks good for her resume and Young Americans for Libertyreally helps build resumes.”

Bethany Williams for President 2034Founder of new chapter of Young Americans for Liberty at UC

BY CARLEEN FLETCHER

Photo Editor

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Williams will definitely be taking advantage of all of the opportunitiesto perfect her resume, as she is planning for an important career path withjust a little bit of a title tweak from President of YAL at UC; somethingmore to the tune of President of the United States of America.

“I want to be president because I want to make a difference in theAmerican government and I feel like government doesn’t handle things theway they should today. I want to properly enforce human rights; freedomof speech, freedom of religion, things like that, and I want to reform taxlaws,” Williams said as she gave me a brief overview of her political reformpath.

It may seem like a large goal, but others aren’t surprised at her zealand feel she is more than capable of accomplishing what she sets out to do.

Mason said, ““She is inspiring, influential, and really determined, def-initely determined above anything else, especially as a freshman. I am a

freshman too, and I work and focus on school work, but she has all of thisother stuff going on and that is inspiring to me.”

For now, however, she will stick to President of YAL here at UC andhopefully a great summer job with the Illinois Policy Institute. This semes-ter, however, she has a great game plan mapped out, consisting of, well,fun and games. The group recently had a Valentine’s Day bake sale, all ofthe proceeds going toward the fun activities YAL will be offering later onthis semester, such as the Liberty on the Lawn event coming up on April17.

Williams hopes to host the event on the lawn in front of the game roomand CAB office. The fundraiser event will include a showing of “Frozen,”a free speech wall, a dunk tank, Liberty Pong, a corn hole tournament, anda raffle for prizes including two movie passes and a gift card to the theater,a McDonalds gift card, and a copy of the movie “Frozen”.

Admission to the event is completely free and gains you access to themovie showing as well as the free speech wall and trying your hand at Lib-erty Pong. The corn hole tournament is open to anyone, but you must besigned up by April 14th by emailing Williams at bwilliams5375@ucum-berlands.edu. The tournament has a $2 entry fee and the winners will re-ceive a cash prize. The dunk tank will feature the notorious Ezra Andersonand Dr. Pilant. Spectators can take a throw for $0.50 or three for $1. Anyonewishing to participate in the raffle can purchase three tickets for $1, whichcan gain you an entry for all three prizes or you can place them all into oneprize option. Liberty on the Lawn will begin at 5 p.m. as well as the cornhole tournament, and the movie will begin at 8 p.m. Feel free to bringsnacks, blankets to sit on, or chairs, however if you bring charis, it is en-

couraged that you sit in the back so others can see. All proceeds go towardthe club and other activities they plan to host, including a huge end of theyear event.

Young Americans for Liberty meet every Tuesday from 5-7 p.m. inBennett 221. At the same time, don’t forget to keep a lookout for BethanyWilliams on those election ballots in the not so far off future. Bethany Williams: Prez 2034.

Photo by Carleen Fletcher

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1. Jessie Eldridge and Tyler Ward rehearse the Rumba.

2. Eldridge has voice lessons with Dr. David Etter.

3. Eldrige and Ward practice their duet.

4. Eldrige during her senior recital.

5. Eldridge is congratulated by friend Whitney Johnson after her successful recital.

Hitting the high notesBY CARLEEN FLETCHER

Photo Editor

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10 tips on how to ace a recital hearingBY JESSIE ELDRIDGE

Sta ff Writer

1.)Make sure you practice for at least an hour five or more times a week.

2.) Don’t over-sing because that can be just as bad as under-singing.

3.)You should really practice.4.) Listen to your vocal coaches; they know their stuff.5.) Practice.

6.)Make time with you accompanist to get your emblemtogether. 7.) Schedule practice time.8.) Find professional recording of your songs being per-formed and listen it to get a feel for each song.9.) Pick the right songs for your voice that you can livewith for a semester.10.) PRACTICE!

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E-cigarettes, or e-cigs for short, have started to slowly appear in thehands of students across campus. A number of students have begun switch-ing from traditional cigarettes to battery powered, flavored vapor e-cigs.It would not be surprising if these started to outnumber normal cigarettesin the next few years.

The new e-cig trend started in part because of it being overall healthierfor the user. Typical everyday cigarettes run many health issues such aslung cancer and heart disease among many others. When a person uses ane-cigarette, they aren’t getting any of the tar and toxins that they would

receive if they smoked a tobacco cigarette. Tiramasu, a brand of e-cigaretteflavors, carries non-nicotine options if someone wants to use one withoutthe nicotine addiction. Using an e-cig also gives the user the freedom tosmoke wherever they want, although they should still be considerate ifsomeone wishes to not have someone smoking around them.

So why are people making the switch? UC senior Dillon Proctor says,“E-cigs taste better [than tobacco] and you don’t have the bad smell,”.Proctor smoked traditional cigarettes for a year and a half before quitting.

Clearing the airBY CHRISTIN ROTTENBERGER

Sta ff Writer

Why students are making the switch from tobacco to vapor

Once he quit he began to use the e-cigs and has been using them for thelast year and a half. The e-cigarettes have a wide variety in flavored liquidsthat the user can purchase. Different flavors include different fruits, cin-namon, mint, a variety of candies, and even popcorn, just to name a few.Using an e-cigarette, as Proctor stated, eliminates the unflattering smellof tobacco cigarettes. More often than not, the flavored liquid omits apleasant smell relating to the specific flavor being used.

However, not every student is favor of this new trend. Senior NickiHoward says, “I don’t really like them. I think they’re just as pointless as

typical cigarettes,”. There is a fair share of students that believe smokingthe e-cigs is a silly concept. “Even though the vapor isn’t as strong as reg-ular cigarettes, I feel overwhelmed by the smell and the vapor being blownin my face,” says junior Logan Reynolds.

The trend of using e-cigarettes in place of traditional tobacco is a trendthat could possibly stay around campus for a while. If it does, it couldmake for healthier students and more peaceful walks across campus with-out being bothered by the smell of tobacco blowing in the wind.

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In recent months, we as University of the Cumberlands studentshave been served by arguably one of the most polite, courteous, and sin-cere gentlemen ever. Yes, you know, the man who has been dubbed as“the nice Grill man.”

Upon entering the Grill, Dale (yes, he has a name) greets his cus-tomers with a humbling smile, followed by a statement along the linesof, “Hello ma’am/sir, how are you doing today? How may I serve you?”Within those few moments that we all share daily with Dale, no matterif the day has been really good or just downright bad, there is somethingbeautiful about someone being intentional with you.

One thing that Dale so wonderfully encompasses is having a humbleservant’s heart. We have all seen people who serve and do so with apoor attitude, but through Dale we also have seen what serving with asincere heart looks like.

A few weeks ago, I did an unofficial survey of people's thoughts ofDale's kind, serving heart. I simply put out on Twitter, "In all seriousnessUC people, what difference has the kindness of the overly polite andkind Grill man made in your life? I'm interested." I received an unbe-lievable amount of response from this tweet. I'm talking 10 retweets, 47favorites, and 14 responses.

Sophomore Jacob Ratliff stated, "Honestly the way he lives his life

and serves others in his job is such a great example of loving your neigh-bor." Senior Cassie Riffe responded, "He makes me feel like I'm doinghim a favor by him serving me."

Junior Sarah England said, "It's so refreshing to see someone notonly love their job, but genuinely love people. So encouraging!" Somany comments similar to these continued to roll in. Even if commentsweren't noted, the fact that so many people “favorited” the tweet, is justa further testament to people acknowledging the kindness of Dale.

I am reminded of Philippians 2:5-7 which says, "Your attitudeshould be the same as Christ Jesus had. Though He was God, he did notdemand and cling to his rights as God. Instead of this, of His own freewill, He gave up all He had and took the nature of a servant."

Now, I'm not comparing Dale to God my any means, but I am say-ing that he has every right to simply take orders and send students abouttheir business, but he doesn't. He is intentional with every person thathe comes into contact with, making sure that he does whatever he canto serve those around him.

With all this being said, I challenge each of us to take example ofpeople like Dale. I challenge us to have a servant’s heart, even when wefeel that we don't need to. When we follow these examples and serve asChrist served with humility, the impact we will have is boundless.

BY ABBEY CHERRY

Sta ff Writer

Lessons learned from The Grill: How to be a servant

Photo by Abbey Cherr y

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inistryIf you were to walk Main Street Baptist Church on a Sunday you’d no-

tice there’s a white banner strung to two white columns. Light blue letterson the banner read “Impact Worship, Sunday Nights at six.” Enter throughthe white doors behind the banner and there is a foyer that leads into theroom. The room is two stories tall and very wide, having a wood floor. Ontothe gray-carpeted stage, the members of the band file out. The worshipleader, with an acoustic guitar, in the center of the stage asks everyone tostand. The whole room stands and starts singing a song along with the band.The song begins out quiet and then builds to a crescendo in the chorus. Somepeople raise their hands, while others simply stand and take in the scene; agreat amalgamation of worshipers together in one mind. Impact Worshiphas begun.

The man in the center of the stage is Jake McPheron, the worship leaderfor Impact worship. McPheron is a junior at UC and is Youth and FamilyMinistries major. He won The Spotlight singing competition in the springof 2013. Now he helps lead worship for the Impact services at Main StreetBaptist Church.

Impact Worship was conceived during the summer of 2013. AlbertJones, the youth pastor at Main Street Baptist Church, approachedMcPheron about the idea of starting a worship service called Impact Wor-ship. “He wanted it to be a contemporary service for youth and college stu-dents,” states McPheron. Jones wanted him to be the worship leader for thisservice. After much prayer and consideration, McPheron accepted the po-sition. He then went about recruiting the other members of the worship band,Chris Lowrie on drums, Jimmy Deaton on lead guitar, Trey Bryant on bassguitar, and Nick Monroe on acoustic guitar.

For McPheron, the opportunity to lead worship has been both amazingand a blessing. “The fact that Albert came to me and trusted me with thatleadership, it’s humbling,” states McPheron. It can be stressful being theworship leader of Impact as the band practices a few hours before the serv-ice. Having only those few hours makes practice very imperative and in-tense. Also, the songs have to be prepared prior, so Jake also has to findwhat songs they are going to play during the week. However, for McPheronit is all worth it when everyone comes together to worship. “I look out andsee everyone having a worshipful heart and no one not into it,” he says.McPheron has been a worship leader for eight years and he says that thisworship service is unlike any he has ever done.

To those who are interested in becoming worship leaders McPheron has

some advice. He says to stay in the will of God and to not get discouragedwhen it seems like there isn’t an opportunity because God will make oneavailable.

McPheron is very thankful to all the people that come to and supportImpact Worship. He would liketo see it outgrow the building itis currently in and be able toworship in an even biggerplace. Just like Jake got in-volved with Impact worship,so can anyone else. Theyare always lookingfor small groupleaders or anyministry some-one would loveto start.

Making an impact through worshipBY SOLOMON WHITAKER

Sta ff Writer

McPheron on Main Street

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Kari Jobe has done it again with her newest re-lease Majestic. It’s no surprise that this albumholds a beautiful collection of praises that willsurely make worship come alive in the hearts of lis-teners. Majestic is more than just an album ofpraise, but a newer, deeper, more passionate soundand delivery than what we’ve heard from Kari Jobein the past. This album contains single “Forever”which is a phenomenal ballad about the power andbeauty of God’s glory being shown when Jesus rosefrom the dead and proved that He would reign vic-torious for eternity. The album also holds a quieter,more meek collection of songs like “Holy Spirit”(originally written and recorded by Brian and KatieTorwalt) and the spontaneous “When You Walk inthe Room”.

Kari’s soft but powerful sound has captured lis-teners for years, the power and passion behind hergifts has not changed at all, but Majestic is proofthat this artist’s musical ability is growing about asrapidly as her zeal and love for the Lord.

This album will not disappoint. It’s evident notonly in the words to the songs or her beautiful puretone, but the passion in her worship that this albumis a testament to Kari’s growing, deepening love forGod. This remarkable collection of songs is a beau-tiful worship experience.

“God’s Not Dead” has set a new standard forthe Christian film industry, appealing to the cu-riosity of non-Christians with its unique and un-precedented storyline, as well as the attentionChristians who, no doubt, have had their faithreaffirmed and are rejoicing at the success of thismovie. In spite of several weak acting moments,(a result of a small budget and a few inexperi-enced actors), the well-written storyline keeps theviewer engaged and intrigued throughout the film.This move is nothing less than a roaring successfor the Christian community, has been packing thetheaters since the day it hit the big screen. It hasattracted the attention of both Christians and Non-Christians due to its bold and successful attemptto answer a question that has been asked since thebeginning of time: Is there a God?

The movie features actor Kevin Sorbo (mostfamous for his role in “Hercules, the LegendaryJourneys”) as professor Radisson, a smug anddogmatic professor of Philosophical thought, whois a devout atheist. On the first day of classes, heurges his students to deny the existence of God bywriting on a piece of paper “God is Dead”, signingtheir name for a grade. All of the students proceedto do just that, except first year freshman Josh

Wheaton (Shane Harper), whose refusal to re-nounce his faith in such a way results in the centerconflict of the story. Wheaton is then challengedby his professor to either convince his classmatesof God’s existence by the end of his next threeclass meetings, or fail he class entirely putting hisacademic career in jeopardy. As if the fact that thisis a movie finally addressing what billions of peo-ple have wondered throughout the ages doesn’tmake it a worthwhile enough watch, it also fea-tures “Duck Dynasty’s” Willie and Korie Robert-son as well as a famous Christian band, “TheNewsboys.” This movie has done something thatno other movie in the Christian film industry hassucceeded to do; it educates, informs, and couldeven inspire those who haven’t given God orChristianity much thought to explore what theybelieve.

The makers of the movie went above and be-yond with the creation and completion of themovie, creating one of the most interesting andeye-opening films to have hit the theaters in years.The movie’s captivating main plot, as well as theintricate and interwoven stories that connect andmake up the rest of the film, make it a must-seefor believers and non-believers alike.

BY KAMRYN OLIV IER

Guest Writer

BY SYDNEY FREEMAN

Guest Writer

Majestic makesworship come

alive Compelling and powerful:‘God’s Not Dead’

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Let’s start this off with a giant disclaimer: if you have yet to see the seriesfinale of “How I Met Your Mother,” or have yet to watch the show what-soever and possibly plan on it anytime in the near future, you may wantto stop reading now.Also, if you happened to watch it and somehow like theoutcome, kindly disappear forever.

“HIMYM” came to an end last Monday night, bringing a close to the sto-ries of Ted, Marshall, Lily, Barney and Robin. For nearly nine years this showkept viewers guessing who Ted’s hopelessly wayward journey for love wouldfind him at the altar with. For the 22 episodes leading up to the finale, Tedand the rest of the group’s entire world revolved around one single weekendas Barney and Robin prepared to say “I do.” Then, in 44 minutes, all that timespent crying, laughing and caring for these characters was flushed away.

Not even a quarter of the way into the finale Barney and Robin revealthey got divorced (merely three years into their marriage), blowing up a wholeseason’s worth of work, and everything derails from there. The entire basisof the show, the apex, the “mother” for whom the show even existed, becomesa meaningless plot point; a surrogate to bear Ted’s children, become “sick”and die, leaving him to end up with Robin six years later, essentially erasingnine years of character development and making the pilot episode the onlyone that even matters: Ted sees Robin across the room, falls instantly head-over-heels in love with her, decides he wants to marry her. That’s effectivelythe entire series wrapped into one ill-written sentence.

The worst part about it is that you can see it coming. Robin removes her-self from“the gang” early in the episode because she can’t handle the dynam-ics of the group anymore. The main one being—as she tells Lily—is herhaving to see “the guy I probably should’ve ended up with, with the beautifulmother of his child.” Oh, OK. It became painfully obvious, especially oncethe mother was out of the picture, that Ted would end up outside Robin’s win-dow holding that stupid blue French horn—basically recycling a scene fromseason one.

However, there was one scene redeeming enough to almost let the rest ofthis drivel pass off as an actual finale. Almost. We all know Barney as theshady, deceitful lothario who only cares about himself (except for that shortperiod of time we thought him and Robin might actually make it together).So, the thought of him being a father seemed…well, let’s just say it felt likea less than favorable situation for the child. But after all the moaning and

groaning and talking about how his life was over, he stood alone in the nurseryholding his baby girl Ellie in his arms for the first time and said to her, “Youare the love of my life. Everything I have and everything I am is yours. For-ever." So. Many. Tears. For real, I needed to be swaddled after watching that.A nice bottle and a nap wouldn’t have hurt either.

After such an uninspiring finale, it’s hard to say where “HIMYM” ranksin the history of sitcoms. Re-watching old episodes, while still entertainingand enjoyable, now feels a little tainted, and as a viewer, I feel a little cheated.Ted was such a compassionate character who was ultimately robbed of theending he deserved. It’s as if he just skipped ahead to the end of the book.That’s how his great romantic quest comes to an end; him just disappearinginto someone else’s failed marriage? That’s not Ted Mosby.

BY TIMOTHY W YATT

Editor-in-Chief

how i met the woman who ultimatelydoesn’t really matter at allReviewing the series finale of “How I Met Your Mother”

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The next generation of gaming hasbeen in full swing since November, andalongside the release and development ofthe Playstation 4 and Xbox One hardwareis sure to come a slew of games with un-precedented visuals, complex charactersand new gameplay mechanics. But beforewe get too invested in the future, I’d like tobriefly revisit what we’re leaving behind.The last generation of consoles was in-credibly kind to us. As a sort of tribute toconsoles gone by, here are my top fivegames available on the Xbox 360 and/orPlaystation 3:

#5 Dark Souls (PC, Xbox 360, PS3): Last generation was filled with over-

bearing, motherly-type games. We sawtitle after title full of hand-holding tutoriallevels, quickly regenerating health metersand satellite GPS-guided objective mark-ers, because heaven forbid you ever de-termined for yourself where you needed togo next.

“Dark Souls” is not that kind of game.Instead, “Dark Souls” is in the business ofteaching valuable life lessons. Did you justmiss a block or incorrectly time your dodgemechanic, thereby rolling into the path ofyour enemy? Congratulations -- you’redead. Progression in “Dark Souls” is ameasure of mastery, asthe game demandsthat, through trial-and-error, you approacheach enemy as a puzzle, trying over andover until you learn both your foe and yourenvironment enough to finally move on.And there is no reward more satisfying.

#4 Minecraft (PC, Xbox 360, PS3): “Minecraft” isn’t just a game anymore -

- it’s a cultural phenomenon. My dad plays“Minecraft” (he owns two different ver-sions!). You can buy “Minecraft” action fig-ures or pixelated pickaxes modeled aftertools in the game at Walmart now. Thereare Minecraft-themed shirts on sale at de-partment stores -- and people buy them.This game has gone nuclear in a way thatno one could have predicted.

But at the core of the “Minecraft” brandis still one of the greatest games I’ve everexperienced. This is a game that activelyencourages creativity and rewards playerswith a unique vision. People have builtspaceships, entire cities, and even func-tional computers inside the world of“Minecraft.” It isn’t just a game; it is a giantfoundation yearning for player expression.I’ve owned “Minecraft” since October2010, and I haven’t stopped playing itsince then.

#3 Bioshock (PC, Xbox 360, PS3): “Bioshock” is great for a lot of reasons.

It’s got one of the most unique and beau-tifully-realized settings in gaming in Rap-ture, a fallen underwater utopian city builtby the industrialist visionary, Andrew Ryan.It’s got tight gunplay, which combines withthe use of Plasmids (superhuman geneti-cally-modified abilities) to create one of thebest and most varied combat systems oflast generation. Simply put, it’s fun to play.But where this game really shines is in itsnarrative; it incorporates the ideas of ob-jectivism and dystopian versus utopian so-cieties into a beautiful game world andtops it with a climax that makes the playerquestion the ideas of choice, free will, andhow much we really have of either.

BY RYAN POYNTER

Sta ff Writer

TOP FIVE GAMES OF THE LAST GENERATION

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#2 Journey (PS3): “Journey” is the most unique and re-

freshing experience I had all of last genera-tion, and one that is difficult to describewithout spoiling it for any future players.Here’s what I will say, though: This game willconnect with you on a very primitive, almostinnate level. The game has been totally sim-plified; the controls are limited, and there isno HUD and no dialogue. There are only twocharacters, a destination, and the simpletask of getting from point A to point B. Thisis a game everyone, even non-gamers, de-serves to experience, and a compelling casefor video games as a respected art form.

#1 The Last of Us (PS3): It’s fitting that “The Last of Us” came to-

ward the end of the PS3’s life cycle, be-cause this game is the culmination of everygood thing video games have done in thelast generation. Gaming’s swan song, so tospeak. First of all, it is visually beautiful. Thegraphical prowess that Naughty Dog, thegame’s developer, managed to squeeze outof seven-year-old hardware is absolutely un-matched. The gameplay, both in and out ofcombat, is weighty and brutal, and it’s all in-credibly animated. “The Last of Us” is atechnical feat.

The best part of it all, though, is that thisall comes together in a way that comple-ments the narrative. The game itself is agreat experience, but it takes a backseat tothe development of two very compellingcharacters and the story they tell. Rarely in“The Last of Us” do you feel like you’re play-ing a game; Instead, you’re participating inthe journey of two very real, suffering peo-ple. This is, without a doubt, the best gameof the last generation.

This is, without a doubt,the best game of the lastgeneration.

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