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