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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 5, 2010)
2 the clackamas ori Wednesday, May 5, 2010 Students forfeit freedom for foo Students and staff participate in the First Amendment Free Food Festival outside of the Bill Brod Communuty Center on April 21. Ci and veteran, reacts to theater student Annie Scharich (right), who is representing journalist and ex-political prisoner Roxana Saberi By Travis Hardin The Clackamas Print “Your civil liberties are worth more than food. I mean there’s hundreds of thousands that have died for those rights, and free food is not worth it,” said Clackamas student Roland James Fomatero III as to why he didn’t sign his First Amendment rights away in exchange for free food. On April 21, The Clackamas Print held the first ever First Amendment Free Food Festival, at Clackamas Community College outside the Bill Brod Community Center. The concept was simple: Students, as well as instructors, could sign away their First Amendment rights, and in return, they were allowed in to a sectioned-off area where they could feast on the likes of 22 boxes of free pizza, eight dozen Voodoo Donuts, multiple boxes of cookies and three bowls of fresh fruit. Before I go any further, I have to mention that I am a staff writer on the newspaper. I helped set up the-event as well as participated in the event as I covered it for the purpose of this article. Freshmen student Mason Brown-Roberts was the first stu dent to sign his First Amendment rights away at 11 a.m., the offi cial start time of the event. Brown-Roberts walked right up and received one slice of pep peroni pizza. — staff— the clackamas print When asked why he signed away his First Amendment rights, Browh-Roberts replied, “Because I was hungry.” What participants were not expecting was the constant harassment that they faced from the five people that made up the security detail. These security members were played by some students on the newspaper as well as students from the theater department. Students who were with friends in the area were separated and forced to sit apart. The stu dents had no freedom to assem bly, which is one right granted by the First Amendment. When asked if he felt it was worth it, 21-year-old fresh men student Cody Foote said, “I kind of miss sitting next to my friends. That was pretty lame. Then I was asked to move over here which was inconvenient.” By 11:10 a.m., 14 people had signed away their rights and that number grew as the lunch hour neared. By the time 11:45 a.m. rolled around, 72 signatures were on the sign-up sheet. With so many people par ticipating in the event some of those individuals went unrec ognized. That was not the case for Clackamas basketball’s very own Jeff Dorman and Chehales Tapscott. Dorman signed away his rights just after noon and received one slice of pepperoni pizza. When asked why he did it, Dorman simply responded, “For a slice of pizza.” Co-Editors in Chief: Ad Manager: Kayla Berge, John Hurlburt Meredith James Kelsey Schneider from The Clackamas Print convinces Chehales Tapscott and Lance Richardson to sign away their exceptions to rules. Only democ racies would rather the people have more rights than less.” When the event ended at 1 p.m., 138 people had signed away their First Amendment Steven Weldon Arts & Culture Editor: Web Editor: Annemarie Schulte Brian Steele News Editor: * Erik Andersen Associate News Editor: Sports Editor: Mark Foster Associate Sports Editor: rights for some free Asked why he in the event, 18-year-i Christopher Talor Gib® said, “I was high. I wai gry” Staff Writers/ Photographers: Production Assistants Joshua Baird, Brian Baldwin, Copy Editor: Michael Bonn, Hillary Cole, Al Kayla Calloway exandria Coover, George Craig, Associate Copy Editor: James Duncan, Cody Ferdinand, John Simmons Travis Hardin, Brad Heineke, Design Editor: Neil Lundin, Javierh Montero, Kelsey Schneider Robby Morrison, Mark Sunder Photo Editor: land, Kitty Suydam John Shufelt Jaime Dunkle 19600 S. Molalla Ave. Oregon City, OR 97045 503-594-6266 According to Dorman, he thought this event was kind of a cool thing to have because it brought awareness. For Tapscott, when asked why he signed away his First Amendment rights, the basket ball standout said, “I’m just try ing to eat. I’m a starving kid out here.” While most of the participates in the event openly admitted that they did it simply for the food, there were others who thought that free food and civil rights were not a fair trade. Take Stephan Wilkes for instance, a student here at the college. When asked what he thought about the First Amendment event, he respond ed, “I find it kind of funny and enjoyable. I’m here early on campus, so it’s nice to have something a little entertaining. Other than that, signing away your First Amendment rights for something like food when you can go across the street or in a building just to spend a few dol lars together is not even a fair trade.” Sophomore student Sean Richard Aurion Huggins had a unique take on the event- in which he did participate. When he was asked why he signed away his First Amendment rights, Huggins said, “Free food and I still have amendment rights under the Oregon Constitution.” When asked if he would do this event again the 21-year- old sophomore replied, “Yes, a strong government relies on less Bethany Jackson, Ty- 1er Kern, Tiffany Myers, Wesley Northcutt, Tom Redick, Steven Riley, Co- rey Romick Journalism Adviser: Goals The Clackamas aims to report in an honest, 1 professional Content pubi Print is not subject to Melissa Jones E-mail comme. chiefed@clackanj
