Opinion
Pg. 3 The Clackamas Print
o©
Invasion through Dy nix revolution:
automation vs. manual
Voyeurism
■ Video mongers exploit private sex lives
"On The Street"
By ¿0. Wiseman
■ byXn.wiseman
Public Safety Supervisor
Gang Members: who
are they and what arc they about?
Tbesearetbcwstiohs
that I am asked all the túne.
member,” quickly targets most
people’s deepest source of fear
and instinctive feelings of self
pmmdfiBu But remember,
these may be .our own laved
ones.famiiy members or friends.
When. we hear about
gangs, it is usually through a
dramatic media story which
tends to focuson the killing and
street violence of black or
híspante gang members. The
fact is, that in the ‘90’s all so
cial, economical and ethnic seg
ments of our society have gang
membershipsconducting crimi
nal activities such as drug deal
ing»murder,extortion, robbery,
theft, assaults a»d prostitution.
Joining a gang prd-
vides some people with needed
personal acknowledgement, a
shallow exciting feel of social
connection, physical and eco
nomic security, and a sense of
“family.” This is based on a
rigid set of gang values and a
personal behavior code which
is often enforced by threats, in
timidations,and fear of death or
injury/ •
Forthescpeopie.be-
ing a gang member may offset
their own tragic personal fam
ily situation, w hich may include
a poor education, low self-es
teem, physical and emotional
violence or sexual abuse, pa
rental neglect and drug and al
cohol ¿juse.
A“typical”gangmem-
ber profile is sometimes diffi
cult to identify, but here are
some typical behaviórs to which
foe
:. Bcaware óf aperson’s
lackofpositive social, school or
recreational áptreifies»./Also
watch for poor progress or
achievemeníM school or on the
job. Other things to watch for
are frequent negative contact
with law enforcement, friends
wearing the same hair styles
and clothing and the use gang
jargon, drawingsi or symbols,
usually: displayed: In public
places. Remember, one of the
aforementioned observations
does: not make a gang member
but may be an indication of
personal change to come. / ••• •
. Sou nds kind of over
whelming doesn’t it? Well,
there issomethmgyoucan do as
afriehdof familymcmbcr. First
of all, show a personal interest
in them. Keep tell ing them that
you love and care about them.
basic results of belonging to a
gang are prison and death. En
courage them to seek personal
help and group support and get
straight with the world. ’
____ ________________Wednesday, January 26,1994
by Christopher Haberman
The Print Staff
Two people have sex in
their own bathroom with the shades
barely drawn, and a man in flow
ered shorts stands at pool side
with his video camera buzzing.
The home video world
has expanded. Simple bystanders
in Disneyland are now unofficial
deputies to any crime or scene able
to be recorded on video cassette.
Anyone with a video camera can
make their living by filming news
worthy events and selling it to
news stations.
Decency and freedom
aside, where is the line drawn?
Why does violence fuel the news
everyday? Death is the battle we
all fight, so we like to know about
otherpeople’s pain, without expe
riencing death ourselves.
A woman falls from a
ferns wheel at an amusementpark
and is suspended 80 feet above the
would say they wouldn’t want to
see it, but they would probably
watch it in anticipation. How
many people wanted to see Dodd
hung on television, or Bundy elec
trocuted? If someone could have
taped the executions I’m sure they
would have.
Censorship is still the
worst evil, but some things are
only common sense to not show on
TV, especially poorly-made video
tapings.
The man sits silentin the
comer of the courtroom accepting
book offers and movie deals of the
footage he has shot. The real hero
in the case is always the nothing
creep that filmed the incident sell
ing himself like anyone on the
street, trading in his morals for
cold, hard cash. The man that
caught someone else’s personal
life on video, and gallantly sold it
to the highest bidder. A true text-
bode voyeur claiming himself to
IVe are a paranoid civilization chained to
couches across America in search of the
next big scandal.
ground by her broken leg which is
wrappedaroundapieceofsteel. A
video camera was present while
the woman waited for rescuers.
Fires blaze, and the Earth quakes,
and skaters clash, but the video
camera is always there, filling the
news with emotion, death counts
and personal life. Invasion' of
personal life.
Take someone on film
andreplay their humiliation. Take
them as a subject and tear them
apart before an audience of mil
lions. A man jumps from a sky
scraper over New York and
bounces several times as he
smashes into the sidewalk. Does
it make the news? Yes, but the
video footage does not. It is sold to
make a compiled video cassette of
strange deaths. But when will it
make the news? I’m sure people
be God’s answer to public de
cency.
“Paranoia will destroy
you,” the song lyrics repeat them
selves chanting in my ear. We are
a paranoid civilization chained to
couches across America in search
of the next big scandal. It is the
paranoia that makes us lock our
doors and pull back the shades on
windows, closing ourselves in to
watch CNN for the next 12 hours.
Our pain is great, but others must
be worse.
Video clubs that run
across the country ask for film
footage on important events that
may be newsworthy. Peopleacross
the nation, marching toward a
worse tomorrow, armed only with
open eyes, closed minds and video
cameras with little red lights, the
signals of organized invasion.
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by Christopher Haberman
The Print Staff
Since the beginning of
technology things have become
popular and then replaced. Com
pact Discs annihilated the vinyl
record industry almost entirely,
thrusting records into second-hand
shops and county libraries. Now
the precious manual card-catalog
system has been upgraded.
The Clackamas Commu
nity CollegeLibrary has doneaway
with the old and has installed
Dynix.anautomated on-line com
puter card catalog system.
Dynix replaces the old
card catalog. The instructions
are clearly presented before the
computers andon-line instruction
is only abuttonaway, but personal
assistance isavailable forthecom-
puter illiterate.
“It’snotthatldon’tknciw
how to use computers, but this
system is just not user-friendly,”
SaidstudentTony Batchelor. ‘Plus
the fact that there is a lot of in
structions, and the lights are kind
of dim, and I look behind my
shoulder and there is nothing to go
to, nothing to turn to if I can’t
figure the computer out. I feel
trapped.”
All the sessions in el
ementary school spent in the li
brary learning to use the index
system arecompletelyuseless now.
The crisp folds of cards rippled in
eager fingertips, searching for the
perfect title, not knowing the au
thor or the subject, just .searching
for the perfect read. The times
have changed and once again the
computer has taken over.
Dynix will help you find
the books. Quick and easy, fast
and no hassle, clothes will drip
dry in spin cycle. Thebooksareall
there on computer, waiting for
someone who can use a simple
program to stagger through the
maze and check them out. Well,
it isn’t that easy, the knowledge of
the book is needed and the re
peated library tours will most likely
include instruction on the Dynix
system. Subject, author and series
are also present in the filing sys
tem.
“I like it,” said student
Scott Ransom. “Anything beats
the card catalog. It makes using
the library easier, and cuts down
the time spent in the library.”
Dynix will help you find
what your looking for. Everyone
looks for different things in differ
ent ways. Some people like com
puters, and some do not. Not
everyone likes to ask for help after
they have spent 15 minutes trying
to figure out how to work a com
puter. The card catalog is the old
stand-by, the spare tire, the old
buddy that will always get you out
of a jam. But not now. That “old
buddy” has been traded in for a
new model, easier, smaller, more
complicated.
As Big Brother looks on,
just cupping his hands over pup
pet strings, computers slide easily
into libraries, slowly killing the
card catalog system. Computers
are the wave of the future, but not
everyone surfs.
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