CDcollegian iD o r i m a t A r r n l l / t M A ^of Georgia Perimeter College

Baseball & softball updates........... p. 8

MAY 5, 2011 I VOLUME 24 NO. 14 THE OFFICIAL VOICE OF THE STUDENTS FOR 24 YEARS

/

Ten years later N avy SEAL Team Six catches up with the elusive mastermindresponsible fo r the 9/11 terrorist attacksBy Adam Waldorf

Eclitor-in-Chief

Terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was killed Sunday night by the Navy’s SEAL team 6, bringing to an end to a nearly 10 year manhunt.

Bin Laden had been on the FBI’s ten most wanted list since 1999 for the 1998 bombings of U. S. embas­sies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed over 200 people.

In a statement from the White House, President Barack Obama said, “Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraor­dinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. Af­ter a fire fight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.”

In 2001, bin Laden helped engineer the most dead­ly terrorist attack on American soil in history as the leader of al Qaeda.

Bin Laden, Saudi Arabian by birth, emerged as a leader in the U. S. funded mujahideen, fighting the pro-Soviet Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. A radical Wahhabi Islamist, bin Laden advocated for the use of jihad, or holy war, to encourage the restoration of Sharia law in the Muslim world.

In an article by the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein, Daveed Gartenstein- Ross, a counterterrorism expert specializing in al Qaeda, asserted that bin Laden’s strategy of provoking the U. S. into a costly war was enormously successful. Russia’s war in Afghanistan had been a huge economic drain on the Soviet Union and led to their collapse. W ith the terrorist attacks of September 11th, bin Laden managed to provoke the U. S. into a war on terrorism that has financially drained its resources.

The future for the Middle East, U.S.Prof. Bob King discusses the significance and impact that bin Ladens death might haveBy Adam Waldorf

Editor-in-Chief

Bob King is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Georgia Perimeter College. He is a faculty adviser to both the History and Politics club and the Muslim Students Association. He is an expert on Middle East politics.What is the impact of Osama’s death on the Middle East?“He has been the guy, supreme commander [of al Qaeda] if you will, and they’ve been encourag­ing these uprisings to kill people. To make it safe for Islam and the protesters have pretty much ig­nored that. They’re interested in democracy, social rights, economic rights. That’s what their interested in, not Islamic revolutions or Mus­lim domination.”“They’re clear that they don’t like this guy. They are not extremists, especially the North African coun­tries. Tunisia took care of its own. They pretty much ruthlessly rooted out and killed their Muslim ex­tremists. Egypt did the same with the Muslim Brotherhood, made it illegal.”“I think they’re happy to get Osa­

ma bin Laden off the table, so to speak, and now let’s talk about the real issues in the Middle East and not terrorism.”What is the significance for the United States?On relief and retaliation:“I think there’s this collective sigh. We got him and now in a sense terrorism is done. We’ve taken care of the problem; we’ve cut off the head of the snake. So I think that some people will see right away the danger of retaliation. I think most people are happy and relieved.”On the military action in south- central Asia:“I think this makes moving out of Afghanistan and Pakistan more possible.”On the impact on next year’s presi­dential election:“This won’t play a role next year in the election. 9/11 was bigger, much bigger. This is the end of an era. We have two summer vacations to get through; we have Christmas vaca­tion; we have Chanukah and Ra­madan to get through. People won’t remember this next year.”

Student reactionsSomething’s amuck. It can’t take the U.S. government, let alone the world govern­ment, this long to find someone. I mourn [bin Laden’s] decisions. At the same token, this isn’t a victory for anything. This just proves how screwed up humankind really is.

Kurt Hughes

Osama bin Laden is not dead, he’s alive. Some­one who has all that kind of money just cannot be dead. If he’s dead it wasn’t because of the army or anything, it had to have been natural causes since he’s been hiding for that long. I doubt he’s dead since he has al Qaeda behind him and all of Amer­ica is nervous from what al Qaeda did in 9/11 and we don’t know how true that is since George Bush was president, nothing against him.

Saeed Ahmed

I think we are going to continue with the war in the middle east, gas prices will con­tinue to go up, al Qaeda will attempt to put another hit on the US; however, this can also give Obama a political boost. He will look good not only to the US but to other parts of the world as well.

Devan Hunter

WE'VE GOT WORD HE'S IN THIS CAVE UP AHEAD.

WHAT, ITS JUST HIM? NO TUPAC, BIGGIE OR ELVIS? NOT EVEN THE ILLUMINATIS?

Q/VHAT'STHE FUN IN FINDING JUST ONE?^-

f GET SERIOUS MAN, \ WE MAY NEVER HAVE THIS V CHANCE AGAIN! J

RIGHT, LET'S END THIS ONCE AND FOR ALU

YES!!! I DID IT! I DEFEATED TERRORISM AND BROUGHT

JOY TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

IF THEY'LL EVER SOMETHING THIS

STUPID.

COLLEGIANNEW S.COM MAY 5, 2011

Osama bin Waldo?By Kyndell Mizell

Opinions Editor

After years of searching, the current hide and seek champion has been found and killed. Osa­ma bin Laden, who was hiding in a mansion in Pakistan, was de­clared dead lateSunday night.

“It’s weird how he was killed on the same exact day Hitler was found dead,” said student Devon Marcus.

M a n y faces at the Clarkston cam­pus expressed different emo­tions when Iasked them their thoughts about bin Laden.

One student expressed her concern for the safety of the United States. “Now that Osama is dead, al Qaeda might retaliate and harm Americans worse than before,” said student Laquanda Atkins.

According to Jake Tapper from ABC news, there is a 99.9 % certainty that DNA from the body in custody matches bin Ladens, but that other .1% of DNA could have showed a rela­tive of Osama bin Laden. May­be his brother or nephew. The chairman of genetic medicine

I t’s weird how he was killed on the same exact day Hitler was found dead

at Cornell University said: "The chances that they're a match are probably 99.999 percent," Crys­tal said. "The probability that two unrelated DNAs would match so closely is extremely small, but you can never be 100-percent sure."

Osama was killed along with three others by Navy Seals who planned the attack, bringing a sigh of relief to the Ameri­can commu­nity. Ironically, the relief was cut short, due to the possi­ble retaliation that could take place against Americans.

Osama was quickly buried at sea. It was stated that it was Mus­lim tradition by Tapper. However, Muslim specialists state that the burial was, in fact, not tradition. "They can say they buried him at sea, but they cannot say they did it according to Islam," Moham­med al-Qubaisi

According to Muslim tradi­tion your body is only commit­ted to the ocean when you die while traveling by sea. According to various news reports, being buried at sea stops his would-be grave from becoming a shrine.

Now that the longest Where is Waldo-like manhunt in history is finally over, what now?

Our Voice HMeet the ‘Deathers’

By Adam Waldorf

Editor-in-Chief

W hen talking with GPC students about the death of Osama bin Laden, it is hard to avoid conspiracy the­ories. You know the Birthers, say hello to the Deathers. Like Birthers, who disbelieve that Barack Obama was born in the U. S. despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary, Deathers disbelieve the proof of bin Laden’s death and instead insist on alternate theories.

In the wake of bin Laden’s death, a virtual cottage industry of conspiracy theories has sprung to life.

“Osama bin Laden is not dead, he’s alive,” biology major Saeed Ahmed said. He cites bin Laden’s wealth as a factor in his confidence that he is not dead. “Osa­ma bin Laden has a billion dollar foundation,” he said. “Someone who has all that kind of money cannot be dead,” he continued. He said that if bin Laden were dead it could only be of natural causes since he has been hiding for so long.

On a recent television show, famed conspiracy the­orist Alex Jones said he believes that bin Laden has been dead for years and that the government has been waiting to “kill him.”

Why would the government he about killing bin Laden? Many say it’s an effort to get Barack Obama re-elected over a year and a half from now. GPC business major Andy Fulchur explained, “I think he was dead a long time ago, I think it’s a scheme to get Obama re-elected.”

The Obama administration’s desire to avoid alien­ating the Muslim world is inflaming conspiracy theo­rists. Thus far, the administration has been unwilling to release graphic visual evidence of bin Laden’s death and has dumped his body in the sea. The reasoning that bin Laden needed to be buried within 24 hours in ac­cordance with Islamic law, that other countries would not take the body and that visual evidence would be provocative has done nothing to placate the Deathers.

Bin Laden’s death does not mark end of terrorismBy Andrew Park

Contributor

“Osama is dead.” This phrase could be heard in the midst of ex­citement between people as they began talking about this momen­tous occasion. But what does this phrase, ‘Osama is dead,’ actually mean? In a literal sense, it means that the U.S.’ ten-year manhunt for its public enemy number 1 has ended. The bigger question is, what about its affects on the War on Terrorism?

Bin Laden’s death will hardly affect al Qaeda structurally and will not mark the end of terror­ism. As we have seen in the past, al Qaeda will simply replace any of its fallen leaders with one of many other high-ranking offi­cials. Speculation is that Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s right- hand man and chief al Qaeda strategist, is slated to be their next leader.

The assassination, however, should still be marked as a suc­cess, as it will greatly hinder the cause of al Qaeda with the loss of its most ‘charismatic’ leader. It appears al Qaeda is losing mo­mentum. They are greeted with far less support in the A rab world. Al Qaeda’s attacks not only claim

the lives of many American troops, but also the lives of inno­cent Arab bystanders.

Another positive is that the U.S. has gained valuable intel­ligence data in the form of hard drives and disks from bin Laden’s compound in the raid, which could hinder al Qaeda move­ments even further.

The U. S., and the world, can chalk up a win for the recent op­eration to take out bin Laden. It will be interesting to see what the future holds as history is made with the achievement of one of the U. S.’ most sought after goals. How this will change the face of the War on Terrorism and whether we will continue to fight al Qaeda in Afghanistan or shift our efforts to Pakistan is to be determined. W hat is sure is that this occasion marks an important milestone being met and hope­fully signifies the world nearing the end of terrorism and the con­clusion of a too long chapter in history.

Andrew Park is a veteran of the United States Navy. He was enlist­edfrom 2005-2009 and served two deployments to the Arabian Gulf in support o f Operation EnduringFreedom and Operation Iraqi Free—dom.

BAM BAM BAM BANG BANG BANGBAM BAM BAM BANG BANG BANGBAM BAM BAM BANG BANG BANGBAM BAM BAM BANG BANG BANGBAM BAM BAM BANG BANG BANG BAM BAM BAM BANG BANG BANGBAM BAM BAM BANG BANG BANG BAM BAM BAM BANG BANG BANGBAM BAM BAM BANG BANG BANGBAM BAM BAM

BANG BANG BANG BAM BAM BAM BANG BANG BANGBAM BAM BAM BANG BANG BANG BAM BAM BAM BANG BANG BANGBAM BAM BAM BANG BANG BANG BAM

BAM BAM BANG BANG BANG

Jlteep your campus in the loop.contact gpc.collegian@gmail.com

the Collegian

America disconnects, becomes apatheticBy Sabastian Wee

Contributor

Osama bin Laden (not to be confused with American president Barack Obama), the notoriously elusive mastermind of the 9/11 at­tacks was shot dead by U.S. forces earlier this week. And I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’m sure you aren’t either.

I mean, this is the guy who took the lives of thousands and whose actions triggered a ripple effect on a global scale. Nobody since Hitler has had that kind of effect on the world. Yet I still shrug. And I don’t think I’m alone.

The answers to our conflicted feelings or general apathy are not black and white, nor is our true grasp of the man responsible for one of America’s most tragic

»events. Yet here was this discon­nect, this sense of a growing my­thology—of the bad guy, a bogey­man, a metaphor of evil in the 21st century. And it’s not ju s t in N Y C . I t ’s everywhere.

The Collegian attended the 2011 College Media Association convention in New York City ear­lier this semester. After three gru­eling days of 10-hour sessions, we took a trip to Ground Zero for a few hours before jumping on a flight back home. We wanted to do some on-site reporting, to reflect on the upcoming 10-year anniver­sary of that fateful day.

Along the FDNY Memorial Wall, a bronze tribute to the NYC firemen who lost their lives in the tragedy, there were tourists—about

our age—posing in front of the me­morial to get a snapshot that will surely find its way into a Facebook album. I can only imagine what the caption for that photo would be...

About 20 feet from those tour­ists, stood a man with a U.S. flag shrouded over his shoulders. He had been there since the day after the towers fell. Every day, he stood on that same corner, at the same time, to tell the stories of that day. His eyes were weary, but his speech bristled with enthusiasm and it drew the out-of-towners’ ears. Gather round, and hear these tales of horror.

All this against the backdrop of chain-link fences 15 feet tall, sur­rounding the once-majestic Twin Towers. I t’s just one giant con­struction site now, causing traf­fic headaches for everybody—or at least that’s what it looks like to anyone who’s not paying attention.

If you weren’t there that day, well, you weren’t there that day. To you and me, it will always be that im age on T V , th e sam e kind o f im ­age w e would g e t in a M ich ae l Bay movie. We even had our ominous supervillain—a Lex Luthor or Jok­er—who always eluded capture.

And now that he’s captured, and killed, how do we actually feel? Many refuse to believe bin Laden is even dead (because if Freddy and Jason can keep coming back to fife, so can bin Laden), and some cling to the idea that he’s been dead for years (because conspiracy theories are as addicting as porn). O th­ers cheer his death. Good has tri­umphed over evil. Forget the cost, this is sweet vindication. Even if it’s

for a moment.Because after this party wears

down, it’s back to the financial cri­sis, soaring gas prices, foreclosures, unemployment, Republicans versus Democrats—and for us students: higher tuition, lower financial aid and job security.

At least we have our distrac­tions. Thank you, Steve Jobs.

Back in NYC, it’s easy to dis­tinguish between the tourists and natives; natives never look up. To them, 9/11 happened, and while it will continue to haunt those who were there on that day and suffered tragic losses, they have no choice but to move on. In fact, they want to move on.

We visited a Brooks Broth­ers across the street from Ground Zero. The saleswoman, who de­clined to be named, was more upset about the poor sales than the psy­chological aftereffects of the trage­dy. She wanted the construction to finish as soon as possible, and com­pared the store to one across town, w h ich was apparen tly flooded w ith customers.

She proceeded to give us the scoop on a Snippet that was left out of the news. The smell. The stench of sulfur and dead bodies had en­gulfed the city—even passengers riding the subway could not escape it, with many of them vomiting where they sat. We asked her what enduring that was like, how she managed to cope with it.

“I don’t know, I wasn’t here at the time,” she said. “I t’s what I heard.”

(Above) A kid trying to decipher what he’s actually seeing in front o f him. To him, the tragedy will always be a bronze sculpture on a wall; (Right) Without history, this comes across as just the construction another corporate building caus­ing traffic headaches (Photos by Sabastian Wee)

(Left) Photo by Seymour Levy; (Below)With the U.S.flag draped on his shoulders, this man valiantly tries to rescue our obliviousness on a daily basis. (Photo by Sabastian Wee)

Tracking Osama bin Laden1979-1989

The United States, through Opera­tion Cyclone, provides funding and training for the Mujahideen led by Osama bin Laden.

1997

The Soviet Union invades Afghani­stan in the name o f protecting the Marxist-Leninist Democratic Re­public of Afghanistan. The mujahi­deen, o f which Osama bin Laden is a member, resist the invasion with sup­port from the U.S., U.K., China, and Saudi Arabia among other nations.

Funded by Osama bin Laden, on November 17, Deir el-Bahri, Egypt, the Jihad Talaat al-Fath ("Holy War o f the Vanguard of the Conquest") execute the brutal murders of 62 tourists. The tragedy comes to be known as “the Luxor Mas­sacre.”

Sept. 11,2001On September 11,19 al Qaeda operatives hijack four commercial jet airlines. In this series of suicide attacks, two planes are crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, destroy­ing the Twin Towers. Another plane strikes the Pentagon. A fourth is retaken through the valiant efforts of the passengers and crashes in Shanks- ville, Pennsylvania.

2001December, The Coalition Forces (including the U.S., U.K. and anti- Taliban militia) corner al-Qaeda militants in an old Mujahideen military base (partially funded by the CIA) in Tora Bora, Afghanistan. The al Qaeda militants surrender, buy­ing time for their leaders to escape. Osama bin Laden is thought to be among these leaders.

2009Secretary of Defense Robert Gates claims that the U.S. has received no reliable intelligence concerning bin Ladens whereabouts for years.

Bombing o f the Gold Mi- hor Hotel in Aden, Yemen, killing two.

20011998

In February, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri co-sign a fatwa (a state­ment of religious and philosophical belief issued by an Islamic religious authority), declaring that slaughter­ing Americans and their allies is the duty o f every' true Muslim.

October 7, the U.S. invades Afghani­stan with the goal of annihilating al-Qaeda. The U.S. initiates the largest manhunt the world has ever known for the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. A 25 million dollar bounty is promised for information leading to the capture of the man responsible.

Following the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003), Osama bin Laden claims personal responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.

2011In April, President Obama authoriz­es an operation to capture Osama bin Laden. On May 1, President Obama releases a statement declaring that U.S. forces have killed Osama bin Laden.

Reporting by Adam Waldorf, Chris Schultz, Ricky Riley, Antonio Garay, Joji Castillo

Name: Tim Walters Major: Business

Administration

“I didn’t know we were still looking for him, but it feels good to get the guy who supposedly planned 9/11.”

Name: Andy Fulchur Major: Business

Administration

“I think he was dead a long time ago; I think it’s a scheme to get Obama re­elected.”

Name: Josh Allen Major: Business

Administration

“I thought it was a Disney Weekend,the prince got married and the villain was slayed.’’

Name: Brandon Shannon Major: Unknown

“This had to be done, but the way the U.S. handled the aftermath of the situa­tion was a strategic mis­take because of how fast everything happened.”

“It’s good that we got him, because that was our goal. Will it really make an impact on America? No, I don’t think it will make an impact.”

Name: Lamine AscofareMajor: Business

Administration

Name: Talia Ash Major: Business

Administration

Name: Tamunoomie Fyneface

Major: Nursing

Name: Malekett Israel Major: Undecided

“A lot of people feel clo­sure, but gas prices still might be high. I was very surprised and skeptical about his death.”

“I’m glad we caught Osa­ma bin Laden, but we have to be careful because we might still be attacked.”

“I thought he was already dead. I’m not a news per­son, so hey.”

Name: Alana James Major: Undecided

“I was really shocked. My mom was like, ‘they killed Osama bin Laden.’ I was like, ‘wait, they just found him? They actually found him?’”

Name: Ariel Turk Major: Art

“I’m happy, but today it’s not going to change much. It’s good closure for the people who need it, but his death hasn’t changed America. We’re still screwed. We're still in a recession. We still have bills to pay, things to do"

6 COLLEGIANNEW S.COM MAY 5, 2011

Photo courtesy o f Antonio Molina

Finding unity and closureBy Adam Waldorf

Editor-m-Chief

W hen the day of September 11,2001 began, Anto­nio Molina was in the Navy under FPCON, or threat level, Alpha. By the end of the day, after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the entire military was under FPCON Delta and a new era had begun. “It said threatcon Delta through­out the base and we were like ‘what’s going on? Hold on, you got Alpha, you got Bravo, Charlie. You skipped a couple levels,’” he said.

He spent six years in the Navy. “We were in that mission from the very beginning,” he said, referring to the military. “There was a unity with all of us saying ‘let’s go, let’s go kill whoever we gotta kill to take care

of this1”Molina did tours around the world, including the

Persian Gulf, where he helped out with reconnaissance in the war in Iraq.

Now, nearly ten years later, Osama is dead. “In a way, it’s like a closure to that book. Alright bin Laden has been taken care of.”

Still, Molina wonders what the next leader of al Qaeda will do. “They might not do it the same way. They might not think things through; they might just wanna act without planning,” he said. He continued, “[That] makes it really hard to get logistics about it. W hen you do heavy planning, eventually somebody slips.” Less planning, he explained, would make it harder to gather intelligence.

Student veteran does not rejoice over bin Laden’s deathBy Chris Schultz

Dunwoody News Editor

Cristiano Silva is a GPC stu­dent who has contributed his fair

- ’ share to the US military. From 2001-2005 he was actively serv­ing as a Marine: one of his mili­tary endeavors was serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.Silva is currently treasurer of the Dunwoody SGA and is pursuing an Associate of Science in Pre- Med.

Given that Cristiano has been very active in the US mili­tary, one would think that he would be ecstatic to hear about the death of Osama Bin Laden. Although he is very

, patriotic, he is in no way excited about the death of another human,

regardless of how evil he was. “It is very sad that it had to come to this”, said Silva, “It had to be done, but it is still unfortunate that Bin Laden was evil enough to make this necessary”

Now with Osama Bin Laden gone, there are many possi­bilities. “A lot of people are going to put a check on it and say ‘okay it’s done’ and move on”, explains Silva, “let’s not forget that Bin Laden had very limited com m unication with Al Qaeda because he was being hunted so fiercely. Since this made them i n d e p e n d e n t from him, we can not fool ourselves

into thinking that the danger is gone. I believe the US military should and will continue the effort to defeat terrorism.”

Photo courtesy o f Cristiano Silva

Alpha Beta Gamma announces GPC student as National PresidentBy Joji Castillo

Alpharetta Managing Editor

Alpha Beta Gamma, the in­ternational Business Honor Soci­ety for two-year colleges, recently named Nathan Singleton as the National President during the or­ganization’s leadership conference in Cozumel, Mexico, a recent press release from Roger Barnes said.

“As president of the national organization I’ll be in charge of developing the national commu­nity service project guidelines,” Singleton said. “Service is central to everything we do. W hen you think about it, when you go to col­lege and graduate you then go into the world to help people no mat­ter what your degree is. Life is all about helping people. I t’s all about service.”

Singleton also won the Paul V.

Cunningham Essay Competition for his essay “The Lost Paradigm” and was also awarded the O ut­standing Service Medallion for Chapter service.

After Singleton graduates from GPC in December, he plans on pursuing a degree in constitutional law and then going to seminary school to become a pastor.

G PC Faculty also won awards at the conference. Clarkston Al­pha Beta Gamma adviser Debora Constable and Dunwoody adviser Beverly Lee were awarded for Outstanding Service. Constable was also awarded best Faculty Pre­sentation.

“We are extremely proud o f Na­than Singleton for being named national president of Alpha Beta Gamma,” said GPC President Dr. Anthony S. Tricoli, “We are also honored that the excellent work of our advisers has been recognized.”

Students awarded at ( elebration of ExcellenceGPC held their second annual Celebration of Nursing

Excellence awards ceremony on April 14. Students Eric Lovelaceand clubs were honored in recognition of outstand-ing accomplishments. Physical EducationAmerican Sign Language/Interpreting

Hannah Eriksen Physical Sciences

Jones Yuvonda Daniel FriedmanBehavioral Studies U.S. StudiesAmanda Browning Tiffany JanisseBiological Sciences Regents’ Outstanding ScholarDonghan Kim Amanda Browning | Clarkston Campus and col­Business Administration legewide

representativeYohannes Smith Joshua Karl | Dunwoody CampusCommunications

Joanne Butler | Decatur Campus Natalee Dukes 1 Newton Campus

Kelli LankfordComputer Science

President’s AwardJulian Traas | Alpharetta Center

Jihoon Lee Samuel Molina | Clarkston CampusDental Hygiene

Lydia Kamau | Decatur Campus Nathan Singleton | Dunwoody Campus

Ana Castillo Tomeka Nichols | Newton CampusEngineering Student Leadership Excellence AwardDante Dimenichi Jae Yoo

Daniel FortEnglishLinda Shaw Fine Student Service Excellence AwardArts

Warren Bray Hazel Douglas

Nathan HesseForeign Language

Advisor of the YearEric Kendrick, Dunwoody

Miah de Graft-BineyGeneral Humanities

Student Club/Organization of the YearThe Colleeian

Kerlern TuittMathematicsCourtney Lemon

Join the investigationgpc.coliegian@gmail.com(678)891-3380

MAY 5, 2011 COLLEGIANNEW S.COM 7

1st Place Best Web Site

1st PlaceBest Photo Essay

1 st PlaceLayout and Design Excellence

1st Place Best Features/Editorial1st Place Photograph

General Excellence1st Place

General Advertising Excellence PlaceBest News Article Based on

Investigative Reporting

Work with The Collegian

{W in awards}

æASSOCIAI FD COLLEGIATE WIKS

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFAdam Waldorf

PRESENTATION EDITORHilary Coles

ALPHARETTA CAMPUSManaging editor: Joji Castillo

CLARKSTON CAMPUSManaging editor: Ricky Riley

DECATUR CAMPUSManaging editor: William Pauldo News editor: Antonio Garay

DUNWOODY CAMPUSManaging editor: Melissa Wong News editor: Chris Shultz

NEWTON CAMPUSManaging editor: Victoria Healy

COLLEGEWIDE

Opinions Editor: Kyndell Mizell

CONTRIBUTORS

Sabastian Wee Julian Traas Andrew Park

The Collegian is the student newspaper of Georgia Perimeter College, and is a des­ignated public forum for students, faculty and staff to share their opinions. The comments and views expressed herein are those of the individual writers, and not those of the college or the paper as a whole. We strongly encourage students to submit articles and artwork for publication. Single copies are free. More than three copies per person are one dollar each.

Editors reserve the right to edit for gram­mar, space, appropri­ateness and length. Not all submissions will be published. To speak with a staff member, please call 678-891-3382 or e- mail us atgpc.collegian@gmail.com.

From the newsroom...Dear readers,On Sunday night the world received the shocking news of Osama

bin Laden’s death. The Collegian staff immediately asked, “How does this affect the students of GPC?”The answer is, like so much of this story, complicated. For many of the students at GPC, bin Laden has been a fact of life for most of their life, a presence almost taken for granted.

As we walked the various campuses, asking about reactions to the news, many of us were surprised by the answers we got. Many students were indifferent to his death. Others were disbelieving, insisting that Osama was alternately still alive, long dead or not the person killed in the U. S. government’s military operation.

Even on The Collegian staff, opinions differed. Some saw no reason to disbelieve the report, others were skeptical of or indifferent to it, and still others delved frill bore into conspiracy theories.

Personally, having seen the terrorist attacks of September 11,2001 on television as a 22 year-old and paid close attention to the politics and theories borne out of those events, I probably should have been expecting the conspiracy theories permeating the populace. I never could have anticipated the apathy I encountered, though.

Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda had a huge influence on the poli­tics and culture of the United States over the past ten years. Before 9/11, President George W. Bush was an unpopular president and there was wide speculation that he would not be elected to a second term. As has been said countless times before, 9/11 changed everything. The U. S. entered what would become its first long-term war since Vietnam. An unknown person sent anthrax to media organizations and U. S. Senators offices, killing five people and terrifying the nation. The newly formed Department of Homeland Security suggested we use duct tape and plastic sheeting to protect ourselves from chemical attack. So-called “enemy combatants” were denied due process and imprisoned without charge. And air travel. Osama bin Laden forever changed air travel. Before 9/11, passengers could bring full bottles of liquid through security check points, didn’t have to take off their shoes and weren’t asked whether their bags had been in their possession at all times. George Bush was elected to a second term. Finally, Muslims weren’t as widely seen as targets of hate and suspicion.

We put this paper together in order to document this occasion and help put in perspective these events. We think it’s important, maybe you will too.

Sincerely,Adam Waldorf, editor-in-chief

I « »

BASEBALL UPDATE

Felton James steps up to bat, James has been a home run hitter during the last few games. (Photo by Victoria Healy)

Jags look forward to post-season

SOFTBALL UPDATE

Erin Wilson, right, congratulates Sophomore right-hander Christina Ezell (Photo by Bill Roa)

Heartbreaker for Jags softballBy Victoria Healy4 ...........................................................Newton Managing Editor

W ith a sweep over South Geor­gia College last week, the Jaguar baseball team is two games up and two games away from being con­ference champions.

The Jags faced Darton College - on Tuesday May 3 pulling out a

5-1 win.“There wasn’t really a lot of

pressure on me,” Tuesdays start­ing pitcher Antonio Allen said. He continued, “I knew my team would back me up in defense so all I had to do was throw strikes.”

Felton James has been a home run hero in the last few games, knocking out yet another one in Tuesday’s game. “I t’s a great feeling being able to open up the game like

that”James said.The series with Darton con­

tinues this weekend at Jaguar sta­dium..

The team is looking ahead to playing in the region tournament that will take place in Tennessee. The Team hopes to be Colorado bound to play in the Junior College World Series. “W ere pretty excit­ed,” Assistant Head Coach Stewart Bailey said, “but we still need to concentrate on the little things and executing hoping that will bring us to it and through it.

Among the hot bats this week against Darton have been Felton James, Scott King and Christian Van Camp. They are heavy hitters that the team will be counting on throughout the end of the season.

BY THE NUMBERS

8Number of home runs by

Felton James

36Total number of wins

in the 2011 season

(Statistics as o f press time)

Staff Reports

The Jaguar softball team lost by one run on Saturday and missed making the National Junior Col­lege Athletic Association softball playoffs. Darton College (47-9) defeated the Jags 2-1 and advanced out of the Georgia Junior College Athletic Association tournament.

The Jags finished the season with a 30-13 record. “We had an­other 30-win season. That’s one of our goals every year and we accom­plished it,” head coach Ed Schutte told the Georgia Perimeter College

website. “But I told the team, ‘I ap­preciate what you did, but we can’t be satisfied. We accomplished one goal, but we fell two runs short of accomplishing the other.’”

Ace pitcher Christina Ezell ac­counted for 20 of the Jags 30 wins in a dominating season. An injury to their second pitcher, Lauren Bell, forced Ezell to pitch four times in three days. Though she never gave up more than two runs in any game, the heavy workload may have affected Ezell’s perfor­mance. “She pitched through it with a lot of heart, but her game wasn’t on,” Schutte said.

This is your blank canvas.

J design fur Tl îe Collegian

contact: gpc.collegian@gmail.com