Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 1996)
______________ __________ 2%-______ The Clackanjas Print J“'***V Wednesday, FeWaary ÌM, 199W . ....................... * 1 X * Opinion Changing image of cowboys Laney Fouse Staff Writer It’s the American way. It’s the way the West was won. It’s my all time hero, the cowboy, turned spokesman for cigarettes. Thanks, Phillip Morris for the Marlboro Man, that strong silent type, reminiscent of days long gone, who changed as the years went by. As a child of the fifties and sixties, I remember him as more of the John Wayne type. In the seventies and eighties, he was rather like the guy next door. The nineties version, seen on t-shirts and billboards across the country, doesn’t even have a face. He’s basically cast as a black and white shadow figure. My heroes have always been cowboys, but they didn’t include the Marlboro Man. Besides, he’s not real. He’s not John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. Or is he? They will probably be best re membered as America’s all-time cowboy heroes, due to the popu larity and success of westerns. It’s no wonder the makers, Phillip Morris, of Marlboro cigarettes de cided to cash in on the image of these cowboy heroes. We were a young America, still unsophisti cated and unsuspecting. The ad vertising geniuses preyed upon our adolescent minds, thereby roping us into thinking smoking was okay. After all, look how great the Duke looked sitting astride his horse or going after some bad guy with a cigarette in his mouth. Let’s talk about a smoke screen. Or better yet, how many bad guys did Eastwood gun down without once getting smoke in his eyes from the cigarette dangling from his lips? These cowboy he roes made fending off the bad should have been canceled Karin Redston Staff Writer guys look so simple. Just light up, take a puff, sit back and look cool, you could be a hero, too. At least that’s what the Marlboro people would like for us to think. Unfor tunately, some of us fell for it. American teens of the fifties and sixties grew up and moved away from home. It was time for the Marlboro Man to move on too. All that smog in LA was getting to him. Besides, he wanted to find himself. So where does he relo cate? Montana, of course, Big Sky country, clean air, cattle ranches, where a man can be a man. He doesn’t need a nine-to-five, a mortgage or a three-piece suit. He is free to roam the countryside on his faithful horse and breathe the clean mountain air. Did you ever notice the commercials never showed us the poor man hacking and coughing each morning? The only time we ever saw him was out riding the range or branding the cattle, all the while cigarette smoke was whirling about his cowboy hat. These two earlier images of the Marlboro man appealed to an older and whiter (yes, whiter) Corrections: February 7 issue, Bassett: The name of the belief was supposed to be Baha’i Institute. January 24 issue, Manufacturing program expands '.Brian Newton was the designer of the nozzle. The Clackamas Print Staff Editor-in-Chief: Chad Patteson (Ext. 2576) Managing Editor: Amy K. Hanson (Ext. 2576) Feature Editor: Jon Roberts (Ext. 2578) Sports Editor: Jesse Sowa (Ext. 2578) Photography Editor: Josh Kehler (Ext. 2578) Copy Editor: Vicki Welch (Ext. 2578) Opinion Editor: Brendon Neal (Ext. 2576) Business Manager: Cori Kargel (Ext. 2578) Assistant Opinion Editor: Ryan Humphris (Ext. 2309) Assistant Feature Editor: Brad Zimmerman (Ext. 2309) Assistant Photo Editor: Lora Wahrgren (Ext. 2309) News Editor: Pamela Sirianni (Ext. 2309) , Staff Writers/Photographers: Eric Eatherton, Megan Friedow, Paul Ulmen, Andrew Beck, Laney Fouse, Damon Fouts, Joel Gunderson, Tarah Nimz, Karin Redston, Joel Shempert Secretary: Joanne Gale (Ext. 2309) Advisor : Linda Vogt (Ext. 2310) The Clackamas Print aims to report the news in an honest, unbi ased, professional manner. The opinions expressed in The Clackamas Print do not necessarily reflect those of the student body, college adminis tration, its faculty or The Clackamas Print's advertisers. Products and services advertised in The Clackamas Print are not necessarily endorsed by anyone associated with The Clackamas Print. The Clackamas Print is a weekly publication distributed every Wednesday except for finals week. The advertising rate is $4.50 per column inch. All signed letters to the editor will be considered for publication and must be submitted by 1 p.m. the Friday prior to the next issue. Clackamas Community College, 19600 S. Molalla Avenue, Oregon City, Oregon, 97045; Barlow 104; (503) 657-6958, ext. 2309. E-mail: cccprint@clackamas.cc.or.us America, unlike Joe Camel, who brings to the party an invitation for members of the younger and hipper generation to light up. As noted in Wanda Coleman’s essay, “Say It Ain’t Cool, Joe,” Joe Camel’s life-style appeal for the younger generation is that he’s rich and famous no matter what he does. The Joe Camel ads make it appear that this goal can be achieved just by smoking. With the success of Joe Camel, the ad people decided that the Marlboro Man needed a change in image with a broader audience appeal. They accom plished this task by getting rid of the real person, who portrayed the Marlboro Man. What you see gracing the billboards today is not a real person but merely a black and white shadow of a guy sport ing a Stetson. He has a broader appeal because you don’t know whether he’s black or white, brown or yellow, young or old. Why should the tobacco com panies be prejudiced and exclude anyone from the opportunity to get hooked on cigarettes? Not only does this new “shadow” fig ure of the Marlboro Man appeal to different races and ages, but he bears a striking resemblance to one of country music’s favorite performers—George Strait. Is it any wonder that Phillip Morris went after this audience too? The popularity of country music has grown tremendously during the past 10 years and people from all walks of life now claim to be fans. A lot of country-and-western con certs, as well as rodeos, are spon sored by Marlboro. I agree with Coleman’s as sessment that Joe Camel is offen sive, but so is the Marlboro Man. The plain and simple fact is ciga rette smoking is slow death. Per haps the tobacco companies feel it their duty to help control over population. Or maybe, all the clean air was just too much to handle. They couldn’t possibly be thinking only of their bottom line. Hats off to you, Phillip Morris, for destroying the image of my hero, the American cow boy. Now, along with Willie and Wayion, I’ll be singing, “Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys.” The recent decisions on Clackamas school closures due to weather, have been distinctly confusing. When we had the threat of freezing rain, the college was closed. When our county, one of 13, was under a state and fed eral disaster emergency, the col lege was still open. After speaking with Gary Dirrim, dean of college services, the decision-making process on when to close CCC has now gone totally above this writer’s head. The fact is that 13 coun- ti e s in Ore go n, Clackamas County being one were declared federal disaster areas by Presi dent Bill Clinton. We were asked not to be on the roads and not to be on the phones. As of Monday, we were asked to con serve water unless we wanted to boil water contaminated with sewage. Our college was still open. For the students whose grades are affected by not at tending classes, not cancelling was a hardship. Many whom I talked to were worried about getting home. As it turned out, their concerns were justified. Many were unable to get home. The call for volunteers through 13 counties was unher alded. From what this writer saw, the high schools had a strong volunteer effort. The Or egon City Shopping Center had many volunteers sandbagging and directing traffic. As did all of the flood affected areas. Many students and employ ees, myself included, were not happy with the decision to keep CCC open. Hopefully, the ad ministration will review the de cision-making process for clos ing the school in a federal state emergency. Exposing small town reality Joel P. Shempert Staff Writer In the column, “Making par ents take responsibility for their children’s criminal actions,” which appeared in the Jan. 31 is sue of the Print, Eric Eatherton conveyed, as a major point in his argument regarding juvenile crime, the idea that small towns and communities are close-knit, friendly and uncorrupted. I would like to take issue with this erroneous idea, through the voice of personal experience. I submit that the myth of the Typical American Small Town is a stereotypical concept fostered by ignorance; That the denizens of small communities suffer from the same human flaws, immorali ties and sources of corruption as anyone else in our country, or indeed, our planet. Let me tell you a story. It’s a true story, one that marks a turning point in my life and one about which I could write a thou sand columns. It is the story of shattered innocence, of corrup tion and betrayal and of thè un just fall of a noble man. It is the story of Logan. Logan is a small commu nity—as small as they come, in fact, in the Estacada area. It is a sprawling vista of rolling hills, winding roads and scattered houses and farms. Nestled in this landscape is historic Logan Com munity Church, a modest, pictur esque white building set off by mammoth pines. It is here in the very house of God that the con flict of good and evil was played out, where ambition and petty guile crumbled a congregation’s very foundation, where siege was laid against the office of Pastor. That pastor was my father. My dad pastored at Logan for nine years, and in all that time, I never suspected the two-faced church politics that existed be neath the congregation’s cheery surface. The corruption was there, however. It was present in enough members, some possess ing positions of power in the church, to devastate the lives of my family and those who stood by us. I’ll probably never know the full extent of the hidden corrup tion, and I’m not sure I want to. But I do know that it all came bubbling up to the surface when my father attempted to make a public apology for some griev ances expressed by a church leader. The response was less than ideal. The man and his wife be came fiercely indignant and stormed out of the service. You see, they didn’t want things out in the open. They preferred to gossip and complain in secrecy, and my father’s attempt to get matters resolved only enhanced their concept of him as an upstart and troublemaker. In any case, the angry couple left the church and it seemed that the crisis had passed. However, a few months later, the deacon board surprised my father with the recommendation that he resign, TOWN on Page 3 The faculty, staff and stu dents of CCC extend their condolences to Lisa Garza and family for the recent loss of her father.
