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Just thought I would write something a little different in this article.

Requiem for our special friend we should all remember


The Western Herald - Requiem for our special friend we should all remember

Requiem for our special friend we should all remember

by Duane Gundrum
September 28, 2004

It is with a sad heart that I found myself staring at an old friend of ours who is slowly passing away. He and I have known each other for a very long time, almost as long as I have been going to Western Michigan University. I’ve seen him chugging along each and every day, always there with a lit-up disposition and a friendly sound, almost like music. But today, I saw him pretty much on his last legs, and I’m fearing he won’t be with us much longer. So it comes with a sad revelation that I must bid good-bye to our good friend, the Lost In Space pinball machine in the Bernhard Center.

I remember first meeting LoSpace (forgive the abbreviation, but he and I have known each other a long time, and we’re on this kind of naming scheme — he often refers to me as Kikima, which is short for Kid who Kicks the Machine) when I had a little extra time one day in between classes. He was sitting there, alone, as students were playing with the other machines that seemed to have a little more going on with them. But LoSpace didn’t seem to have that kind of action going for him. I remember the first time I played him, he wasn’t doing very well then either. If I remember correctly, I ended up winning two games, and then at some point the ball got stuck in a broken bumper, and I couldn’t play the game again. After that day, I remember wandering by and seeing him always begging other students to play him, quite often by advertising free games to anyone who would be interested in playing him. Of course, he always offered more than he could deliver because even though he would advertise 10 free games, pressing the start button would reveal that the ball was nowhere to be found.

That was the thing I always liked about LoSpace. He always knew how to keep you guessing.

But he was a victim to that jealousy thing that happens between different video games. We always knew that Area 51 was just as old, but unlike LoSpace, Area 51 wasn’t giving up on its video-game supremacy. It never allowed itself to show weakness, and it continued to take coins one after another, often giving a short game because he was a tough game, and he let you know it. No, he was nothing like LoSpace, who wanted to be your friend so bad, he’d let you win, just as long as you kept playing. You really have to hand it to him; he was a real people-machine.

But today, LoSpace wasn’t even plugged in. I suspected this was going to happen eventually, because he was having a lot of trouble recently just keeping his power going. I’m sure people have tried to repair him numerous times in the past, but there’s only so much you can do for someone who has given up on life. I don’t think anyone ever realized it, but LoSpace was lonely. He had few friends. I mean true friends, the kind you can call up in the middle of the night and say “come on over, my bumpers are ready for scoring extra points.” I suspect I may have been his only friend, and even I was rarely around.

So I think LoSpace just gave up. I can only hope that when he finds his place in the video game heavens, he finds a little kid with endless pockets of quarters willing to play just one more game. He deserves nothing less.

Duane Gundrum, the Western Herald opinion editor, is a Ph.D. student from Santa Monica, Calif., studying political science.

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The tyranny of the majority and ultraconservatism together again...
I saw a very interesting example of the two extremes in one place at the same time. I found it very interesting, to say the least.

Michelle Malkin is a young woman of Phillipine-descent who has written a book called "In Defense of Internment". This book explains her defense of the Japanese-American internment camps during World War 2. She then makes a connection between those camps and the Guantanamo Bay internments. Her process is to show why both of these events were the right thing to do.

I saw a tape of her speaking at UC Berkeley on 9/8/04, and let's just say that it was very interesting. Throughout her speech, you can hear protesters outside of the building making lots of noise. Then, after she completed her speech, she took questions (written on index cards and then read to her). Some guy in the audience threw somewhat of a fit and wanted her to answer his questions right then and there. So she did. That didn't seem good enough for him, because he seemed to want to be able to continue questioning her, and then so did someone else in the audience.

Throughout the whole situation, she answered questions very well. I was extremely impressed, even if I didn't agree with her take on the whole issue. I did get the feeling that this is not a stupid woman by any stretch of the imagination, and I thought it might actually be interesting to be able to debate her myself (but unfortunately, that isn't something that's going to happen). Anyway, at the end of the speech, it was announced that her book signing had to be canceled due to security concerns. People in the audience applauded like this was a good thing.

To me, this was probably a very good example of Aristotle's fear of the mob ruled democracy. This woman came to Berkeley (hostile ground) and was speaking in a venue that was obviously hostile towards her, and she was handling herself well. Yet, the people who would probably never read her book in the first place, and think of her as some right-wing ideologue (from the San Francisco Chronicle the day before saying pretty much just that), didn't see anything wrong in the fact that their hostility to someone's ideas and thoughts, pretty much drowning them out with hostility, occurred in their own backyard.

This is the same crowd that would go nuts if anyone decided they wouldn't get a chance to speak their minds, yet seem to have no problem making sure those they disagree with are unable to speak their minds as well.

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CNN's 24 Hour Coverage of a Hurricane
I have my TV set on CNN right now with the sound off while I study, but I'm coming to the conclusion that they're milking this hurricane in Florida WAY too much. Yes, there's another big hurricane coming to Florida. Yes, it's really big.

But do they REALLY need to have no less than three on air reporters in the street being blown across the screen with the storm coming down all around them to convince me that there's a bad storm going on in Florida? This so much reminds me of local news stories that show fires. A fire is really not a story; it's an opportunity to point a movie camera at the fire and show flames without actually having to do any work at getting an actual story during that time.

What happened to the Woodward and Bernsteins? Okay, they were newspaper guys, but still, at one time TV news used to be about actually going out and getting good stories. How come the one station (CBS) that used to be known for hard-hitting stories is now such a disgrace that we'll probably never see a hard-hitting story from them during the next decade? And no one else seems willing to pick up the slack. The news on television these days tends to camp out at the White House and take any morsel of fake information as a big news story because it's being spoonfed to them rather than requiring them to actually go and get the news themselves.

The only positive aspect of massive coverage of a non-story like this hurricane (which can easily be covered with a briefing the next day if it got really out of hand) is that we don't have to see 24 hours of Kobe Bryant or Scott Peterson.

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The Western Herald - Introducing democracy to hostile environment requires time, effort

Introducing democracy to hostile environment requires time, effort

A Western Herald Editorial
September 22, 2004


One of the largest issues facing our country has been cloaked in partisan debate throughout this entire political, presidential season. It’s one of those subjects that is talked around by both the Democrats and the Republicans, but in the end, the argument goes back to the differences between the two parties, and the issues faced instead are minor ones that touch more on character and personality than on the real issue itself. If you looked at the issues being fought over this election season, you might come away from the debate believing that Vietnam, terrorism, the economy’s highs or lows and military power being used overseas are the most important concepts our country is facing. However, what is possibly the real issue is one of simplicity, made complicated only because of how no one wants to deal with it. That issue is whether or not transplanting democracy is really a viable issue for our country.

On Tuesday, President Bush spoke before the United Nations General Assembly and stated: “Iraq will be a free nation. And as a free nation, our world will be safer and America will be more secure.” Presidential hopeful John Kerry responded: “I think this president has actually lost credibility with the international community.” From there, it is easy to fall into a political camp and then make arguments based on political ideology.

However, what is probably more important is the issue that no one is discussing, and that is the idea that the United States is working under a policy of believing that it can install democracy in countries where democracy has not existed before. While this might be a wonderful and lofty goal, it is important to point out that our current policy, which is actually not partisan at all, but seems to be accepted by both sides of the U.S. political spectrum, is an offshoot of a lot of Western philosophy that accepts without much argument that democracy is the end goal for all societies and that once introduced to the concept, democracy will come naturally.

Most Western countries have had the luxury of growing up in an atmosphere of evolving toward democracy. When Eastern European countries dropped communism, there was already a tendency to accept democratic institutions that were curtailed during the Soviet expansion period. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, countries re-introduced to the concepts of democracy moved immediately to create democratic institutions in their own countries. Some faltered, but for the most part, there was eventual progress after several struggles.

But creating democracy in an environment that is hostile toward anything involving democracy is another matter. It is a nice belief to think that countries like Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia would welcome democracy if they just had it brought to them, but our experience so far has not been all that successful in making that happen. There are still many countries in the world that view the United States, capitalism and Western democracy with hostility. Before attempting to force democracy on one of these countries, perhaps it might be more conducive to develop an intelligence service that actually understands these countries and then make sure the administration listens.

It would be nice to see the world turn to democracy, but it’s not going to happen with happy thoughts or tanks. We have to convince them to want it first, and that takes a lot more work.

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The Western Herald - Citizens become worthy only as mass consumers

Citizens become worthy only as mass consumers

by Duane Gundrum
September 21, 2004

The other day I was watching the news on television, and the story was about the Iraqi War, and for some reason I started thinking back about the days when we were debating this action that we took to attack another country. I thought about the many debates, the heated speeches in the halls of the Senate, how Republicans and Democrats spent weeks presenting their cases to the American people with intricate case studies and proof, and I felt a wave of nostalgia run over me as I realized I was remembering what I wished would have happened, not what actually happened. I remember at the time listening to a few speeches from those in our government who pretty much told the rest of the American people that this war was going to take place, and then it did. I remember people trying to create an atmosphere of debate, but for the most part, that’s where it ended. Protesters were called “focus groups.” Fast-forward to today, and we’re embedded in a war that really was the result of a one-sided debate.

Now, the logical next step of an article like this, and I’m suspecting you already suspect it, is to then go on the warpath about the evil Mr. Bush, his personal war to get vengeance against the guy that tried to kill his daddy, the evilness of all things government, and then a diatribe about how the only way to save America is to vote for Kerry in 2004, because only a Vietnam veteran who has been there turning his boat and running away from the enemy as fast as possible is capable of truly understanding the enemy. Well, if that’s the case, I guess I should be president because I think my purple hearts were from running away from the enemy as fast as possible, too; it might come as a surprise to find out that a lot of purple hearts are given out to people for being shot in the behind or anywhere on the backside. But wait, that’s another story, and actually not the purpose of this article.

So, what is the purpose of this article? Well, believe it or not, it’s about consumerism.

I don’t exactly know when it happened, but I feel I stopped being an American, and I became a consumer. Now, if you’re the owner of a big corporation, this is probably a good thing; but because most of us reading this article, including you — that guy who always complains about my articles — are not owners of big corporations, this should come off as one of those little bad-news things that we don’t like to talk about. We all like the idea that we’re all important to the big picture, that each of us contributes in a way to make a difference, but I’m going to let you in on a little secret: You’re only as important as what you can purchase through your existence.

Let’s unpack that a bit. I realize you’re probably thinking: “Duane, does this mean I’m useless?” No, grasshopper, it does not. What it does mean is that as soon as you stop consuming the products that our American system produces for you, then you become useless, and America won’t like you anymore.

Economically, it’s pretty easy to make this argument because in a consumer-based economy, we’re the definition of what our economy stands for. People with large corporations make products for us, and we consume them. We, in turn, work for these corporations, or we provide the supplies or logistical support (by being the eye doctors, the strippers, the newspaper reporters and all sorts of other supporters). Now, we don’t like paying big prices for our products, so the corporations show that they have our best interests at heart, and they fire all of our local producers and go to countries where we can have our products produced cheaper. Understandably, the people who lost their jobs will have to find other jobs, or die, to make room for the rest of us, but under our capitalistic happy system, everything works itself out. In the end, as long as we continue to get those cheap prices at Wal-Mart or Meijer, we’re OK. Sure, eventually we’ll run out of places to exploit labor, and we’ll have to start paying our people here again, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem if any of them are alive when it finally comes around to getting them back to work again. The point is: We’re happy consumers, and as long as those with economic clout are able to make more money and buy the good things in life, why should we care about those who were “displaced” by this very fair system?

Okay, so how does this translate to politics? Well, I’m glad you asked. As Americans, we are part of the ultimate capitalistic system where everything is part of the consumer package. As a consumer, you buy products, and usually buy the cheapest or most attractive product. Unfortunately, our political products are shrink-wrapped and untested, which means that we’re the guinea pigs for most of what we get in the political process. Political parties “sell” us candidates, and we, as good consumers, “buy” which candidate is packaged most attractively. Our consumer reports usually come from the opposite side, so it’s like shopping for Pepsi and being told by Coca-Cola that Pepsi only wants to kill us. That’s a lot like our political system today.

The problem is that we’re so used to this system, we no longer see anything wrong with it. We have two parties that compete for consumers, and they have so cornered the market that we don’t even know how to look for new products. It’s like Microsoft and Apple telling us all is OK as Linux is screaming in the background for attention. But it’s okay because the market takes care of everything.

I wish I had more space to expand on this further, but I’ll just leave you with the thought that during the next big issue to come up before the country, remember that as a citizen you are guaranteed accountability; as a consumer, you are guaranteed that the market corrects itself only when it stops profiting.

Duane Gundrum, the Western Herald opinion editor, is a Ph.D. student from Santa Monica, Calif., studying political science.

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Comprehensive Exams
At the time, I was kind of kicking myself for deciding to do it, but last week I decided to take my comprehensive examinations in October. This meant I had about three weeks to get ready for these tests.

I am taking Political Theory and American for my Comps, and the way the schedule works out, I will be taking my Political Theory exams on October 4 and 6, and then two weeks later, I will be taking my American exams. It seems that only Melanie and I are going to be taking our Comps during this period, and the only one we're sharing is American.

So, I've been doing nothing but studying theory since I made my decision. I have about two weeks to go before the first exam, and let's just say that I'm starting to finish off the list of things that really needed to be reviewed. The American part of my preparations appears to be the tougher avenue to take as I'm starting to realize I still need to read a bunch of books I haven't read yet. But I'm working on it.

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Proof that I was once less cool than I am now, but not by much...

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Run, Delicious Milkshake, Run!
There's a commercial for the Comedy Central show Reno 911 that shows a guy in a milkshake costume running from the dorky cops on that show. The announcer then comes over and says: "Run, Delicious Milkshake, Run!" I don't know why but this line makes me crack up every time I hear it.

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Every hero has his Lex Luthor...
I discovered the evil archenemy of the lego spaceman.

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This is reason 37 why I don't date...
I was watching The Player on UPN this evening, and let's just say that I think TV has reached a new low. Okay, maybe not. There's probably worse. But this one guy named Chino was playing the hot model (who is the deciding person on who gets eliminated), and she still wanted to keep him in the game. He was cheating on her with her best friends, and she still wanted to keep him in the game.

I guess the important thing to point out is that I realize that I just don't understand women. AT ALL.

I give up. I'm dating sheep.

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Continuous fears of teaching
I just finished preparing my lesson plan for tomorrow's morning class, and every time I do this, I feel like I'm really not preparing enough. It generally goes over well, and I end up with too much information for too little time (I teach for an hour and a half), but it never feels that way when I'm preparing.

I find myself really busy these days, much busier than I thought I would end up being. Between the Western Herald, teaching and just trying to come up with a reading list for Dr. Corder (which I probably should have had to him last week), I don't seem to have time to do anything else, and I feel like I'm supposed to be doing so much more. I'm trying to manage time to study for the Comps, but I'm not finding the time.

I will say one good thing about time, though. I am not playing any online games (like I used to do), so that time suck is completely gone. I can't believe how much time those games take away from you where you end up accomplishing absolutely nothing.

My new car is great, by the way. I bought a 1998 Saturn SL2 (the sportier of the two models), and I'm very happy with it. It runs so smoothly in comparison to the loud, muffler-missing car that I traded in for it. I do miss my old car sometimes, however, but now that it's started to rain, having a car that doesn't leak all over the driver is a lot better, no matter what else one can say.

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:: how jedi are you? ::

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Bought a new cellphone
I'm still with the same cellphone company (Virgin) who made my Party Animal cellphone (part of one of my earlier articles with the Herald where I questioned whether or not I was deserving of a party animal phone). Anyway, I discovered I was having problems getting a connection at KVCC, and as I am there at least two times a week, this was not a good thing. The network supposedly connects just fine there, so I figured it was probably the old phone.

I have a flip phone now, and it has a few new features to it, but it's essentially the same service, and my phone number is the same.

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My latest article

The Western Herald - Playing blame game only avoids solving problems

Playing blame game only avoids solving problems

by Duane Gundrum
September 02, 2004


Whenever a horrible situation involving young people happens in America, after the shock wears off, I immediately start fearing the natural tendency of the mainstream press and adult advocacy groups to blame specific targets. When a few kids at Columbine High School went nuts and killed fellow students and their teachers, it didn’t take long for the recriminations to begin. In practically every example I can think of, it didn’t take hardly any time whatsoever for the hype to begin, blaming activities of children for their eventual misdeeds.

In the Columbine case, almost immediately, there were reports that these kids may have done their horrible deeds because they played computer games called Doom and Diablo; there was also a series of reports casting blame on that most evil of games, Dungeons and Dragons. In other incidents, I’ve seen blame cast upon rock ’n’ roll music, violence in games, movies, television, and on so many other types of casual entertainment that one would think that our society is nothing but a bastion of evil, training our youth to become psychotic killers.

What has never ceased to amaze me is that no one ever seems to cast blame inward, coming forward and saying, “You know, perhaps it was my bad parenting that might have caused a problem here.” Or maybe it’s even simpler than that. Perhaps the blame can be cast on the individuals themselves without a single influence from any of these sources whatsoever. During the Columbine situation, the investigation turned up that these students were ridiculed during their school years by other students, but to this day, I have yet to see any attempt to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. Oh, they made all sorts of other changes, like making sure students didn’t wear trench coats, but honestly, how much safer do you think that really made high school environments? For a short while, things will appear safe, and then yet another huge story comes out about some kid or group of kids that just went nuts, and the blame game starts all over again. This goes on until we forget and then a new one starts up after that.

I’m going to go out on several limbs here. First, I don’t think computer games, porn, music, Satan, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or non-stop karate movies can turn someone into a violent individual, ready to kill at a moment’s notice, unless that person was already unstable to begin with. I’ve played a lot of these games, listened to a lot of this music, dated Buffy (okay, in my fantasies only) and watched non-stop karate movies, and I’ve found such exercises great moments of enjoyment. Not once have I ever thought of hurting another person because of these activities. Now, cut in front of me on the highway, and you’re toast, but that’s another story. Everyone knows getting behind the wheel of a car is allowed to turn you into a raving lunatic. That’s socially acceptable, from what I can understand. In the same vein, I don’t think these activities turn individuals into bad people unless they were bad people to begin with.

The second limb I’m going to go out on is what I suspect the real problem is: accountability. No one wants to take responsibility for any situation when things go bad. From politics to personal daily actions, no one is responsible for anything. Presidents aren’t responsible for wrong decisions that might bring us to war because they were given faulty intelligence; political front-runners aren’t responsible for their actions after wars they’ve fought in because they were young; you’re not responsible for being late turning in your last paper because your printer wasn’t working; the media isn’t responsible for crappy reporting because they give us what we “want;” and parents aren’t responsible for the actions of their children because of the influences of evil entertainment.

Our country has reached a point where we don’t seem to be accountable for anything we do. We’re always right, and if someone figures we’re wrong, either that individual is biased against us, or the information we used was flawed in some way. Unless someone is misunderstanding me, I’m completely right on this issue. Either that or you’re disagreeing with me because you disagree with my political beliefs. I know this because I can’t be wrong.

I was reading an article about the music industry bringing lawsuits against people for downloading illegal music, and the article indicated that people were settling with the music companies because they couldn’t afford lawyers to fight back. And for a moment, I was thinking, “Man, those music companies are taking advantage of poor people and ...” right before I realized that I’m falling into the exact same trap. People who aren’t downloading illegal music aren’t being brought into litigation, but those that did download illegal music seemed to have a whole lot of excuses (”my kids did it,” “it shouldn’t be illegal,” and “they shouldn’t have access to my account to find out I was stealing”). Does anyone see a trend here? The solution was kind of simple. Don’t do it.

But no, nothing we do is wrong. There is always an excuse.

To sum up, I would just like to say that as citizens of the most powerful country in the world, we need to start taking some responsibility for ourselves and our actions. Next time you’re fishing for an excuse, just say you did it, you’re sorry and it won’t happen again. I know it won’t happen, but it would sure be nice to see it more often.

By the way, if there’s anything about this article you don’t like, I’m blaming the copy editor. It’s all her fault.

Duane Gundrum, the Western Herald opinion editor, is a Ph.D. student from Santa Monica, Calif., studying political science.

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