-Zach Becker, MBA

Former Editor & Publisher

MSU Class of 2011

The debate between evolution and religious creation is always fun for me to watch, perhaps because it typically leaves proponents on one side or the other with a rage-induced aneurism after choking on the bitter pill of defeat.

I fail to understand, however, why this debate repeatedly arises in our public high schools, spurred by our teachers, no less.

If you ask me, it’s a shame that the argument is even given consideration in public high schools to begin with.

Amidst the soggy clump of mail I retrieved from a severely over-crowded box after a Spring Break jaunt to Florida, I found a rather ornate invitation to a “Christian Creation Conference” right here in Springfield, which is supposed to take place later this month.

Fantastic. Here in the “buckle of the Bible Belt” as Springfield is sometimes lovingly penned, it seems that one can hardly go through the day without over-hearing (or being caught in) the argument for either creationism or the evolutionary theory.

Since and before the Scopes showdown of the 1920s, this debate has pervaded the press, the pulpit and the university without end.

Recently, this centuries-old cesspool of fury and literary styling has leaked into our courts system for it seems the 4.6 billionth time.

A lawsuit filed in the spring of 2008 against California high school teacher James Corbett was decided earlier this month. Corbett was sued by the parents of one of his students for “using his classroom as a ‘bully pulpit’ to express ‘derogatory, disparaging, and belittling’ views about religion and Christianity.”

The plaintiff student apparently recorded a series of Corbett’s classroom lectures as ammunition for the lawsuit, including one in which Corbett described the creationism story in the Christian Bible to be “religious, superstitious nonsense.”

The court dismissed both the plaintiff’s demands for damages and an injunction which would’ve prevented Corbett from expressing any disdain for religion in the classroom; however, it was upheld that any belittling of creationism by a teacher constituted an “improper disapproval of religion in violation of the Establishment Clause” of the U.S. Constitution. Apparently, both sides intend to appeal.

The argument over creationism vs. evolution being taught in public schools has drawn grievances from philosophers, scientists, parents, lawyers, preachers, teachers, and maybe even Texas, yet what the argument lacks these days is the perspective from the most novel crowd of all: the students.

I’m not suggesting that we ask students what they want to learn in school. Most would probably just say “nothing.” Let’s be honest with ourselves though—this argument stopped being about the well-being of our students a long time ago. Like any heated topic these days, what it’s really about is being right.

The creationist people are chomping at the bit for the opportunity to outsmart or humiliate the heathen evolutionists, while the evolution people are foaming at the mouth at the thought of students being told that anything but a Big Bang and four billion years of Einstein’s, Hawking’s, and Dawkin’s created the world and built the A-bomb.

Has anyone ever asked proponents on both sides, “Why does either argument belong in our public schools?” Any answer would surely have nothing to do with what is best for the students.

I mean, how exactly does evolutionary theory inform our current ninth-through-twelfth grade science curriculum?

Does it have any bearing whatsoever on chemistry? Physics? Baking soda volcanoes? By the same token, let’s face it, studying creationism likely leads into studying theology, which also has no place in public school.

As a future teacher, I’m all about prompting our students to think critically, but not over issues so trivial and useless when compared to the rest of the curriculum.

This guy Corbett, for example, was a European History teacher. European History, people. Is there not enough history to pass the day with? Must we resort instead to creationism vs. evolution? Please.

In summation, Corbett was being an ideological quack who used his classroom not as a “bully pulpit,” but rather as a soapbox on which to vent his frustrations about creationism. He apparently found this more suiting than teaching history and facilitating the learning of his students.

And this kid who recorded Corbett’s lectures so that mom and dad could swat the mean-old-teacher on the wrist with a nasty lawsuit? A quack if I ever saw one. He probably spent more time cooking up that little scheme with the tape recorder than he did on his homework.

Both sides plan to appeal. Both sides believe they’re right. Neither side really cares about what happens to our students. Let’s all just stick with what works, shall we? Readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmatic rarely cheese anyone off, after all.

Since that time, the housing market collapsed, the banks went bust, unemployment reached historical levels, and now we’re looking at huge budget shortfalls in higher education.

Missouri’s higher education commissioner warned of potential 15-to-20 percent budget cuts to state universities, possibly leading to university closures, larger class sizes and even elimination of athletic teams.

And yet, we are still chugging along about to build a superfluous facility that the majority of students will probably never use and which will cost untold amounts in the future to properly staff and maintain.

Worse yet, those who actually need it the most – athletic teams – are specifically being barred from using the facility.

The times where we could afford to lounge down the lazy river are over.

Sure, it would be nice to have another pool, an indoor track, a rock climbing wall, more basketball courts, more gym equipment, and, of course, a lazy river.

The good folks in Campus Recreation have done a phenomenal job helping plan and design this project. It looks like a beautiful building with lots of great features.

But not here and not now.

Not in these economic conditions.

This project should be re-evaluated immediately. We should not be stuck constructing a building just because students four years ago voted to approve the project. It might have made sense then, but certainly not now.

Let students vote whether they think this is a good idea going forward given the current economic situation.

Student fees already paid into this project could be diverted to other, more vital projects, or perhaps just held in a fund. When economic conditions and higher education budgets improve, this idea is certainly still worthy of consideration.

Now, though, is not the time.

-Zach Becker

For the Editorial Board

If you are against construction of the University Recreation Center, join our Facebook group, “MSU Students Against Construction of the University Recreation Center.”

The story of Mary Jean Price was never forgotten, but failed to receive much attention over the years.

Dare To Excel, a promotional publication that reviews the history of the Missouri State University, mentions Price as the first African American applicant to Missouri State – and her rejection – but fails to detail the situation.

In light of the resurgence of interest in her story, students are surprised to learn about this forgotten part of the school’s history.

“She really needs to be brought to the limelight instead of being brushed off into history,” said Jeremy Fain, a member of the Delta Tau Christian fraternity. As far as recognizing the past, he said the school should at least do something to acknowledge her, because we all make mistakes. Still, he wonders, “Should we be responsible for the wrongs of the previous generation?”

But Terry Walls, son of Price, is very insistent on the need for reconciliation.

“If this is what we’re learning, we need to start re-learning,” he said. “It’s a sad commentary this type of apathy exists in 2010. You can’t rectify what you don’t recognize.”

Other students agree as well. Nursing student Stephanie Neuman suggested the school at least say something, maybe apologize outright.

Since the renewed interest in Mary Jean Price, Missouri State officials are still trying to figure out how to deal with this issue.

“Several individuals at the university have seen this story and found it historically interesting and personally inspiring,” Chief of Staff and Assistant to the President Paul Kincaid said in an emailed statement. “The university is still determining an appropriate response.”

Wes Pratt, Coordinator for Diversity Outreach and Recruitment, emailed that, “the best apology for any racial transgressions of the past” was to continue to improve diversity and provide and increase opportunities for all students at Missouri State.

Although diversity on campus has increased 36 percent in the last two years, African American students still only constitute about three percent of the student body.

And despite the assurances of university officials, Walls remains unimpressed.

When he found the letter, he says he was holding a piece of history, which was “no longer a mystery,” forgotten in the years of neglect.

“We have to learn from the past,” he said. “More things change, more things remain the same.”

His concern is that the mindset and apathy towards the issue perpetuate themselves for future generations. To hear students on campus say they have never heard of this story and see how racism continues to be an issue today brings legitimacy to his worry.

“An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere,” Walls said, citing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

To know that injustices have occurred is only half of his concern.

He believes Missouri State must come forward on the issue publicly to bring closure to the issue.

In the music industry, having the “edge” is everything. The “edge” could be anything: having exceptional skill, knowing the right people, possessing in an incredible work ethic or simply having great timing.

Of course, it always helps to have a combination of all of the above, such as rock industry producer and native Springfield resident Brandon Mashburn.

Mashburn is known nationally as one of the creative minds behind works by such artists as Breaking Benjamin, Shinedown, DC Talk, and Papa Roach. Mashburn works his edge from the friendly confines of his own home recording studio in Springfield.

Brandon Mashburn

Mashburn’s passion for music started at the age of 10. At the time, his parents moved a 95-year-old piano into his room because they simply had no other place to put it. This served as the catalyst in him spending many of the sunny days of his childhood in the house, learning chords and dominant sevenths and playing the tunes of all his favorite records by ear. At 15, he was doing professional recording gigs.

A few years later, he was doing some production for national acts such as Hootie and the Blowfish and DC Talk, among several others, and in 2004 he met two other musicians from Branson, Missouri, and eventually came to be the bassist in Starlume, a band in the vein of Coldplay and The Fray. He spent several years with Starlume, until he decided that his life’s work was meant to be behind the scenes producing.

“I kind of fell in love with it,” Mashburn said of producing. “I never thought I would do it. I never wanted to really do it, but I kind of fell in love with the process.”

Mashburn is thankful for the many people who helped him get started in producing.

“I was always eager; I never gave up,” Mashburn said, “I had a lot of lucky breaks, with people setting me up early in life, letting me be a part of things. It just kind of grew from there” .

Apparently, the breaks just kept coming, as Mashburn eventually came into contact with industry powerhouse Tom Whitlock through a mutual friend. Whitlock is best known as the songwriter and producer for the multi-platinum Top Gun Soundtrack and engineer for the classic movie Scarface, as well as the winner of a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. After several collaborations on different projects, they decided to officially work together as a team in the music industry.

Mashburn continues working hard behind the scenes. He is the mastermind behind a new album by alternative metal outlet TRUST Company, who are recording in Springfield, and he is also working with a band called Machina, which features members of Evanescence and Future Leaders of the World.

Learn more about Mashburn at www.myspace.com/brandonmashburn.

Haiti. It’s all over the papers, the news, and the internet. You don’t need to hear any more stories about what’s going on, what you need to do, or how you can help.

You’ve heard it all already, and are probably getting a little sick of having it thrown in your face constantly. That’s not what this article is about.

A man searches for his belongings in a restaurant in Haiti after a major earthquake caused massive damage to Port au Prince, Haiti, on Jan. 12. Photo courtesy Marco Dormino/United Nations

Instead, I would like to take to task an opinion article written by Gabriel McLaughlin published Jan. 19 in Missouri State’s The Standard. In it, McLaughlin questions whether taxpayer resources should be given to Haiti without the citizens voting on it and whether we should even maintain our relationship with Haiti at all.

I’m sorry, but what? I couldn’t believe I was actually reading the words printed there.

The author compares the aid to Haiti to America’s past experiences with “propping up other governments.”

Now, let me get to the heart of the issue. This is real life. There are human beings. Dying. Daily. People who are just trying to live their lives as best they can, who share the same ground as we do.

If something of this magnitude happened in our country, we would be outraged if another nation as rich as ours (or nearly) decided to take a vote on whether we should receive aid. I’m sorry, but McLaughlin needs to take another look at our system of government.

The length of time it takes for a bill to be passed is staggering. At this very moment people are dying of heat exhaustion and starvation and lack of water there. They needed help weeks ago, not in two years.

McLaughlin says we need to focus on our own country right now, seeing as we’re in an economic slump.

Well, I have a thought: instead of jumping on a cause that’s saving lives, why not talk about corporate bailouts, the healthcare reform laws and other countless pork-barrel policies running rampant through Congress?

We are the richest nation in the world. Think about the magnitude of that statement – there are seven billion citizens of our planet.

People in America throw away pounds of food daily, when the majority of people in the world don’t have enough to eat for each meal.

We don’t have the option to be selfish in this situation. Lives are at stake. I just hope more people start caring.

Students volunteered their help to many local non-profit and service groups present at the 9th Annual Community Volunteer Fair held on Jan. 27 in Plaster Student Union.

About 50 groups representing a myriad of causes set up booths at the event.

Lori Street, representing Ozarks Public Television, said she spoke to around 40 students during the fair about her group.

“We need volunteers primarily to work during pledge drives to answer telephones,” she said, adding that students can also help with bulk mailings to existing donors and other special events as need.

Ozarks Public Television provides PBS content to the Ozarks area and is funded through donations.

Karl Schmidt of the Southwest Missouri Region of the American Heart Association also was pleased with student interest in the volunteer event.

“Students are interested in not only helping us, but the community as a whole,” Schmidt said. The group had signed up six students during the three-hour event.

Schmidt was primarily working to promote the upcoming Heart Walk, held April 10. The five kilometer walk is a national campaign to promote healthy living through exercise. Groups participating gather donations, with the money going towards medical research and educational programs.

“It helps save lives,” Schmidt said.

Tiffany Warriner, representing the Alzheimer’s Association, found that many of the students who visited her group’s booth knew someone who had suffered from the disease and either wanted to help the cause or wanted more information on Alzheimer’s.

“We can always use volunteers and extra help,” Warriner said. About 20 students had signed up for information at her booth.

The event was sponsored by Missouri State’s office of Citizenship and Service-Learning (CASL).

Service-learning links “academics to the community (in order) to develop the skills, sensitivities, and commitments necessary or effective citizenship in a democracy,” according to the CASL website.

More information can be found at www.missouristate.edu/casl.

Smokers endanger not only themselves, but the health of all those around them.

SMASH – Students of Missouri State Against Smoking Hazards – hopes to minimize those risks through anti-smoking advocacy.

“Everyone knows there are hazards of smoking, but some don’t understand that there are just as many with second-hand smoke,” said Sarah Durnbaugh, graduate student in public health and advisor for SMASH.

According to a 2006 Surgeon General’s report, secondhand smoke contains hundreds of toxic chemicals and even short term exposure can cause adverse affects, while long term exposure can prompt heart disease or lung cancer.

“We would like to see Missouri State have a stronger tobacco policy that is just simple and fair so that we can create a healthier campus and environment for everybody,” Durnbaugh said, adding that smoking can trigger allergic reactions in some students causing a disruption in learning.

She believes the main flaw in the current tobacco policy is a lack of enforcement to contain smoking to designated areas. She would also be in support of recent talks of a campus smoking ban.

“Whatever provides a healthier campus is ideal,” she said.

SMASH was founded in 2007 and is funded by a grant. It is a division of the Ozark Public Health Institute. SMASH not only distributes information about the dangers of secondhand smoke, but also provides assistance for students looking to quit smoking.

“The goal of SMASH is really not to hinder the rights of people, but to be respectful of other people on campus,” Durnbaugh said.

To get more information on SMASH, go to www.facebook.com/smash.msu.

I wrote an article on the Duggar family, stars of TLC’s 18 Kids and Counting, and felt I needed to follow up after comments indicated a misunderstanding of my thoughts.

For one, the original article was not intended as an indictment on the Duggars, but rather ABC.com for bringing in environmentalism as an argument against having a large family. I thought the authors strayed far from the topic at hand (the birth of the Duggar’s 19th child) and inserted their own tilted perspective onto this so-called news article.

Actually, it is kind of scary to think that with the EPA’s declaration of carbon dioxide as a pollutant (don’t tell that to plants), some might try to use this as a justification to institute population controls like we see in China. Obviously, that is the general idea the author’s of that article were taking when they discussed “carbon legacies” when citing the tons of carbon dioxide those children will emit in their lifetime. Very scary, indeed, but this is a topic for another day.

Getting back to the Duggar’s, though, after watching several episodes of the show, they seem like good people; perhaps a bit odd, but then again they do have 19 children (and live in Arkansas). Of course, we all know how “real” reality television is (see divorce of Gosselin, Jon, and Gosselin, Kate).

That said, while I think they originally had good intentions when they started this huge family, I think at some point they quit worrying about what was good for the children and started worrying about how they could get more viewers (and thus more money and fame). The more children they produce, the more popular they become.

According to a Dallas Morning News Article, the Duggars were first noticed by the national media in 2003 when an AP photographer snapped their picture as the parents lugged their 14 children on their way to the voting polls. The picture ran on the cover of the New York Times.

In 2004, the Duggars starred in a USA channel documentary (child count at that point was 14 with the 15th on the way). They appeared in numerous documentaries as they cranked out two more babies before landing their own reality program 17 Kids and Counting in 2008 (changed to 18 Kids and Counting for season 2 and sure to be 19 Kids and Counting soon).

Since gaining media popularity, the Duggar’s moved up to a 7,000 square feet house. All of the appliances were provided by TLC and other sponsors. They appear to live frugally (at least when the cameras are rolling), but despite claims of success in real estate, it is doubtful they would enjoy the same standard of living had fame not supplemented their income. I also find it interesting that they seem to spurn watching television, yet parade their children in front of the cameras daily.

I do not think the Duggars are inherently bad people; quite the contrary. However, they did seize an opportunity for fame and fortune and continue to crank out child after child to feed the media beast. They can claim to be extolling the virtues of large families, but perhaps they should take a look at what their actions are doing to their own children. Beyond the traditional challenges of living in a huge family, their children are also being put behind a camera for a national audience to sit and gawk at. Only a fool would say that this will not have unintended consequences at some point.

Reality television has enhanced the lives of the Duggars by providing a comfortable standard of living. However, it has also spurred the perhaps harmful expansion of their family size and put the lives of 19 children under a spotlight which could prove psychologically damaging.

I was shocked after reading a controversial USA Today article discussing the quality of meat served in America’s public schools. Would someone tell me when, exactly, did they started serving meat in school lunches?

Meat must have been added to the menu in the last few years, because the only thing I tasted in those “hamburgers” as a kid was soy. Smother them in ketchup, though, and they didn’t taste half bad. Oh, who am I kidding?

It wasn’t just the hamburgers that were awful, though. They screwed up every variety of potato ever made; (instant) mashed potatoes and gravy, tator tots, potato wedges, french fries, hash browns, and the famously derivative tri-tator (a hash brown cut in the shape of a triangle).

They earned extra points with all the kiddies when they’d bring out the broccoli or worse yet, breaded okra.

Main dishes weren’t any better. Squares of Tony’s pizza with toppings such as imitation pepperoni were bad enough. Those things were so dry, there is no way any bacteria could live there.

Worse yet, though, were the turkey and noodles. This thick substance had a greater resemblance to vomit than food, easily served up via the versatile ice-cream scoop. USA Today noted that many of today’s schools are serving birds that would normally go to pet food, but I think they literally had cooks working the sides of the roads searching for the foul fowl that went into the turkey and noodles. But what did you expect for a buck a meal?

Of course, once a month they would roll out their specialty; crunchy munchy chili with a cinnamon roll. The crunchy munchy part really just meant they put a few Fritos on top, but it sure made it sound fancy. Compared to the normal menu, the chili was a real treat. Sadly, though, you also knew that within the next week they’d reheat the decaying remnants of that great meal, add some soy and call it a sloppy joe.

Schools didn’t have a problem with meat when I was a kid. The solution is soy-mple.