6 Opinions The Pioneer Log, April 8, 2011

My Eyes Are Up Here

A weekly feminist column for everybody
Rally round the flag for 4/20
Money: Who needs it? One student offers his reflections and opinions on the administration’s handling of 4/20

BY MAGGIE HENNESSEY
Staff Writer
Recently, my housemate and
I were re-watching an episode of
“Sex and the City.” In this particu-
lar episode, Miranda (the spunky
redheaded lawyer who is chroni-
cally single) is attempting to buy
a house on the upper east side of
Manhattan.
The real estate agent keeps sec-
ond guessing her choices, asking if
she’s getting the money from her
father, whether she’s single or not,
whether she plans to have kids, etc.
What I took away from this
the number of men with the same
schooling. With such a large gap
in education (34% of women
have B.A.s, only 27% of men),
why would men be more likely to
be paid more for the same work?
Supply and demand? It makes a
feminist scratch his or her head...
But a lot of women face a
much more subtle battle when
faced with office obstacles. Wom-
en who have children are more
likely to face bias in the work-
place and be given less important
projects. More shockingly, wom-
en only make up two percent of
Fortune 500 CEOs.
BY DYLAN DISALVIO
Staff Writer
Lewis & Clark College’s han-
dling of 4/20 festivities over the
last two years has been over-the-
top, and reveals the administra-
tion’s troubled quest to change
the identity of the student body.
Those at the top don’t think
the flag pole activities on 4/20
reflect well on the college’s im-
age—but they don’t realize that
what looks worse is their draco-
nian enforcement policy which
last year involved Portland po-
lice officers and lots of yellow
tape. ILLUSTRATION BY KATE OWENS

scene (which was probably drama-
tized) was that society is a little sur-
prised at successful and powerful
women. Is it so uncommon that a
woman be in a position of power?
Obviously, I would argue that
this disparity stems from a histo-
ry of women being dependent on
men for money, but I might also
add that women have not just been
reliant on men for money, but sta-
tus as well.
I’m sure we’ve all heard the sta-
tistics on how women get paid less
money per hour than men do, but
it surprised me to learn that the
number of women with bachelor’s
degrees is significantly higher than
I guess what I’m saying is this:
anyone can be successful, and it
has less to do with what’s between
your legs and more to do with
what’s in your noggin.
Conversely, feel free to be
unsuccessful if that’s what floats
your boat after $200,000 of your
hard earned dough goes to Lewis
& Clark College.
We may not all be rich, spunky
lawyers living in New York City,
but I think we all have the right
to buy what we want and have
the jobs that we want without be-
ing judged unfairly for the wrong
reasons.
Three years ago there was a
wonderful celebration at 4:20
p.m. on April 20, 2008. Campus
Safety officers were there, but
only to make sure that no one
was hurt. Hell, a Campus Safety
officer even celebrated with the
students, getting out his tobacco
pipe and publically enjoying le-
gal tobacco products while the
student body toked up.
The administration turned
a blind eye to the pot smoking,
and of course there were no dis-
ciplinary issues: potheads don’t
fight each other or make a big
mess, leaving beer cans and emp-
ty bottles. Yes, there was a party
on the lawn, and though it was il-
legal, it wasn’t raucous or out of
hand.
On April 20, 2009, four Cam-
pus Safety officers and the director
of Campus Safety intercepted the
excited cannabis aficionados and
quickly began writing up every-
one they could get within shout-
ing range.
The next year was even worse,
with the whole flag pole area cor-
doned off by yellow crime scene
tape and Portland’s finest strolling
around.
I’m not arguing for legalization
or for campus-wide pot smoking
amnesty. The administration’s ac-
tions the last two years treated
students like criminals, not com-
munity members. I understand
that as a school that receives fed-
eral funding, LC has an obligation
to enforce federal drug laws, but
there’s got to be a better way to do
it.
Bringing in the police and cor-
nering off a section of the campus
was especially extreme and such
pseudo-fascist activities reflect
very poorly on the school.
Plus, there are a lot of wealthy,
intelligent, world-changing high
school potheads out there—don’t
we want to invite them into our
lovely college community?

The Tern
A weekly column dedicated to social justice issues

Setting the record straight: Anarchism is about heritage

BY ADRIAN GUERRERO
Staff Writer
The teenage anarchist—
that black-hooded window-
smashing darling of corpo-
rate media—is often called
a walking enigma. Middle-
class white kids planting
bombs and talking about
“smashing the state and
capitalism” have become the
archetypal “rebel without
a cause” (read: “obnoxious
brat”) in the mind of most
Americans.
In contrast, last Tuesday
was the Day of the Youth
Combatant in Chilé, an an-
archist family holiday com-
memorating the assassina-
tion of the Vergara brothers
and Araceli Romo by Pi-
nochet’s military. I’d like
to honor them by setting
the record straight on anar-
chism and talking about two
things: family and tradition.
Anarchism in the U.S.
has always been about heri-
tage. The first U.S. anarchists
were Jewish, Italian, German
and Mexican immigrants
who had brought the writ-
ings of Bakunin, Kropotkin,
Proudhon and Magón with
them into the cities and fac-
tories of capitalist America
in the early 1900s.
These anarchists were
the backbone of the la-
bor movement, and gave it
teeth. They organized the
first unions and died for the
8-hour working day and a
minimum wage. They were
vegans and feminists and
supported queer sexuality.
If you go to Haymarket
Square in Chicago, you can
find a statue to the anarchist
martyrs for which both Mex-
ican and American labor ac-
tivists celebrate May Day.
Actually, these days, most
people you’ll see marching
on May Day in Portland are
Mexican-American, because
most Euro-Americans have
forgotten their own holiday.
The first U.S.
anarchists were
Jewish, Italian,
German and
Mexican immi-
grants.
In Latin America, an-
archism has always been
about tradition and con-
nection to community. In-
digenous people through-
out the Americas feel deeply
connected to the values of
anarchism (egalitarianism,
freedom from state and cor-
poration, decentralized and
localized rule in a tight-knit
community) because these
values fit well with their
struggle as a people. In Bo-
livia and Peru, where my fa-
ther is from, this holds true.
In Mexico, the Zapatista
movement (a successful
Mayan rebellion) is heav-
ily influenced by the writ-
ings of Práxedis Guerrero
and Ricardo Flores Magón,
two Mexican anarchists who
were national heroes.
Furthermore, anarchism
is a tradition that is very
much alive in Latin Ameri-
ca. In Chilé, entire families
and towns celebrate their an-
archist heritage in their con-
tinuing struggle against neo-
capitalist exploitation.
Many of these older
folks, both urbanites and ru-
ral indigenous, were mem-
bers of the MIR (Revolu-
tionary Left Movement) and
Mapu-Lautaro, two anar-
chist organizations that or-
ganized and fought during
the U.S.-backed dictatorship
of Pinochet, who tortured
and butchered hundreds of
thousands.
Anarchism is
about family.
Today, I hear the new
environmentalists talking
about localization, decen-
tralization and community
autonomy.
What’s both appalling
and sad is that many of these
same folks, who draw their
ideas and organizational
structure from the anarchist
movement and anarchist
environmentalists like Ed-
ward Abbey, will be the first
to condemn and misunder-
stand anarchism. I find that
these same folks often have
very little understanding of
their own heritage.
I don’t think that many
white Americans can under-
stand this because their cul-
tural heritage is not steeped
in a history of struggle. For
Latin Americans, it is differ-
ent. To quote Chicano anar-
cho-punk Martin Sorrende-
guy: “For us, it didn’t mean
letting go of these ties that
we had to our parents, to
our family, to our language.
It didn’t mean breaking away
from that. It meant work-
ing with them to try to get
somewhere, to get to a new
level.”
For myself and anarchists
throughout the Latin Ameri-
can diaspora, anarchism is
about family. We are the re-
birth of anarchism in Amer-
ica.

Word on the Hill

BY BEAU BROUGHTON AND JULIA STEWART
Every week Beau and Julia set out with a fresh question for y’all.
What is your favorite springtime campus activity?
Joe Yuska Vicky Foster Chauncey
Teddy Styenmark (‘13) Sage Coy (’14) (College Outdoors Director) (Director of Mail Services) Ahmed Almansoori (AES) Wheeler-Scott (’14)

“Frisbee on the lawn. “Chillin’ in trees on “Watching the pileated “I’d probably go “I’d walk by the flag- “Painting my body and
Any lawn, they’re all South Campus.” woodpeckers. They home.” pole. But you should be streaking in the
good.” have a really distinct careful because I saw a sunshine.”
call.” snake there.”