Senior Student Appreciates City College's Vast Opportunities

By Eric W. Lien
Guest Writer

The first time I attended a college it was in 1960. It was a small community college of about 1,000 students in Salinas, California. Highway 101 went straight through its downtown Main-street. I was among a dozen or so foreign students from Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, teachers addressed students by their full name, and students rose from their seats and greeted their teachers with "Good morning, Sir." I was therefore surprised the first day in college that all instructors called me "Mr. Lien." I thought that was a very respectful way to address students.

Now, more than 40 years later, I am back in school. This time I am taking a woodwind class here at City College just for fun. So far that is exactly what I'm having- fun!

On the day school started, I didn't know what class to take. I wasn't even registered yet. So I just wandered into a woodwind music classroom, not ready for anything. After some preliminary exchanges I found the instructor, Charlie McCarthy, very personable. He asked me about my interest in saxophone, and I asked him about his teaching. Before I knew it, Charlie signed an enrollment card for me to register. Register I did, on the Internet. When I delivered the signed enrollment card to the Registrar's Office, the clerk would not even accept it. He said it was not needed because I was already enrolled in the class! This sure was very different from my registration at SF State in 1962 when I waited in the registration line from 1 a.m. in order to get into the class that I wanted to take!

First Day of School

Charlie McCarthy's Monday class is divided into flute and saxophone sessions. Each class is further divided into beginning, intermediate, and advanced groups. The first class, Charlie helped me find my rightful place in the intermediate saxophone group and allowed me to sit through each group while he worked with inexhaustible patience to assess his students of various levels of talents and ability.

For the next class, I arrived early to watch Charlie work with each student. I saw students learning to play the flute, clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax, or tenor sax. Charlie, with an even level of patience, taught some students what size of reeds to buy and how to put a read on. For the intermediate level, Charlie also spent time individually with each student and encouraged each to learn one more major scale and to move to one higher level. For the advance students, I saw a spark of enthusiasm in his teaching; that enthusiasm was somehow contagious, because I felt in my heart that I wanted to be there too, someday! He asked each student what was his or her comfort level in the blues scale. He then always asks the students for one more scale than what the student felt comfortable playing. By the end of the class, Charlie played a four-riff, and each student was asked to repeat the same. Some repeated exactly, others with some difficulty. And then Charlie asked all students to extend his four-bar riff into a 12-bar blues scale at the same rhythm, but some were to start with different notes on the scale. With a dozen different instruments all playing a 12-bar blues scale in harmony, the joy to all participants was obvious. That was how the second weekly class ended on a high note.

I don't know if I can play one more scale than I can comfortably handle, but I'm sure I'll enjoy trying!

There are big changes between 1960 and 2003. The population in Salinas grew from 20,000 to about 150,000. Highway 101 is now a freeway that completely bypasses Salinas. I no longer take only "useful" math and science classes in a school with 1,000 students where a foreign student from Asia was almost a novelty. I now take a class with a Japanese, a Korean, and another Chinese just for fun, among 100,000 students- about 38 percent are Asian/Pacific Island-ers.

Any change I wish had not occurred? Yes, I wish students would still rise from their seats with "Good morning, Sir" or "Madam" and things of this sort.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Other People's Morality
Conservatives seek constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage

By Ray Deplazes
Guest Writer

The recent decision by the United States Supreme Court that sodomy laws are unconstitutional has reinvigorated the debate over same sex marriages. The Supreme Court Justices voted 6-3 on June 26 to overturn sodomy laws which still existed in several states across the country. In effect, the ruling outlaws discrimination against homosexual acts and therefore brings about the question of whether it is lawful to allow any discrimination based on sexual orientation. The victory has been hailed as a groundbreaking achievement for gay rights and has raised the hopes of activists everywhere.

Photo by Chuck Kennedy/KRT Lead Attorney for the winning side, Ruth Harlow, speaks to the media after the United States Supreme Court stuck down a Texas law that criminalizes homosexual behavior.

In response, social conservatives are now calling for a constitutional amendment to be made outlawing same sex marriages. The Federal Marriage Amendment has been reintroduced in the House. The Republican backed initiative would make it constitutionally wrong for two men or two women to enter into a legal marriage. There is a question of how valid this movement really is when you consider that Republicans consistently fight for State's rights, which currently include power over marriage issues, but are now pushing a Constitutional Amendment that would create federal law presiding over marriages. If a Massachusetts court decides at some point in the near future to allow gay marriages, then conservative groups would be forced to push their agenda with greater urgency.

One of the primary reasons that has been given in opposition to gay marriage is the protection of the conventional family structure, one man and one woman and their children. Conservatives who oppose same sex marriages argue that if gays are allowed to marry, it will destroy the family value system and lead to the deterioration of our moral foundation. They proclaim the marriage of a man and a woman as the backbone of society and declare it to be the only allowable marriage contract. In essence, they want everyone to believe that when a man and a woman marry, it is the most sacred of commitments, and we would only be trivializing that commitment by allowing homosexuals to make a mockery of marriage. This conjures up a couple interesting questions. How does the acknowledg-ment of a loving relationship between two adults, whether they happen to both be men or both women, threaten the existence and happiness of heterosexual relationships?

Environmental Policy Begins and Ends in our own Communities

By Jeffrey Blumenthal
Guest Writer

As the Bush administration taps Utah governor Mike Leavitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency, environmentalists see this appointment as yet another move in the administration's attempts to roll back federal environmental protections under the guise of increased state autonomy.

Although the federal regulatory structure is an important component of environmental protection, however, it would be a mistake to attribute too much significance to the political winds of change that blow constantly out of Washington, D.C. When it comes to long-range issues like the environment, local control advocates remind us of one important point: the greatest potential for change lies in the much overlooked power of the community.

The Bay Area is blessed by an unusually environmentally conscientious population and a wealth of citizen activity advancing conservationist goals. An example of this was recently highlighted in the media. Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ), which has spent the last year using the Yosemite Slough watershed as a classroom to teach young people about environmental issues in their own back yard. Long after the politicians in Washington have finished squabbling over fuel efficiency requirements for diesel engines, local citizens educated by programs such as LEJ will be determining how to replace aging power plants that are poisoning their communities-- such as PG&E's Hunter's Point plant.

It is undeniable that Leavitt appears to be little more than a political yes-man who will offer less resistance to the president's anti-regulatory agenda than resigned EPA administrator Christie Whitman. This is a problem for the country. whole country.