a. Yes, it’s what Americans want and need.b. No, it will only damage the country.c. I’m just trying to figure out what it means.

Optimistthe

Forecast InsideCELEBRITY SCANDALS abound and their seem-ingly luxurious lives make it difficult to empathize; but should we hold them to a higher moral standard?

Page 6

Online

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THE ’CATS STRUGGLED through their Spring Break series, but finished strong at home, winning three of four games against the Eastern New Mexico greyhounds.

Page 8

Are you in favor of the health care bill?

Visit acuoptimist.com to join the discussion.

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acuoptimist.comBREAKING NEWS, VIDEOS, PHOTOS, DISCUSSION AND EXCLUSIVE CONTENTVol. 98, No. 45 1 section, 8 pagesWednesday, March 24, 2010

PAGE 5Taking It To The World

SPECIAL REPORT

HEALTH CARE 101 Elective abortion: Any abortion case not involving rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother.

Executive order: An order issued by the president that instructs executive agencies or clarifies a law passed by Congress. Although constitutionally, executive orders carry the same weight as law, the Supreme Court has ruled that presidents cannot use executive orders to create new laws. Congress can overturn an executive order by passing contradictory legislation or by refusing to provide money to fund the order.

Excise tax: An indirect tax that sellers must pay to the government. Sellers then roll the tax into the price of the product so buyers actually end up paying for it.

Hyde Amendment: A provision, not a law, that can be attached to a bill. The amendment bars federal money from being spent on abortions, regardless of circum-stance. It only applies to funds allocated to the Department of Health and Human Services by the annual appropria-tions bill. The Stupak–Pitts Amendment is similar but only prohibits funding for elective abortions.

Medicaid: Federal and state health insurance plan for

low-income people, including children, elderly, dis-abled and those eligible to receive federally assisted income, or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), ac-cording to www.ssa.gov.

Medicare: A health insurance program managed by the federal government for people 65 or older, younger than 65 with certain disabilities and people of any age with permanent kidney failure, according to www.medicare.gov. Recipients must be U.S. residents for at least five years.

Premium: The amount of money paid each month by an individual or an employer for health insurance.

Public Option: The term being used for the proposed government-run insurance system. Theoretically, a public option would be similar to the Medicare system already offered to older adults. Individuals would pay directly into a national insurance system that would then provide coverage in the same way a private in-surance provider would.

Health CareCrusade

What’s it going to cost? Who’s going to pay for it?

The health care plan, which will take effect in 2013 at the earli-est, is estimated to cost $940 billion during the next decade, according to MSNBC. This money will come from U.S. taxpayers. However, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill’s higher taxes will narrow the federal budget deficit by an estimat-ed $138 billion.

An excise tax will likely be placed on sugar-sweetened drinks, tobacco, beer and wine. Tanning salon users will also experi-ence a 10-percent increase in services as part of the “sin taxes,” according to U.S. News and World Report. These excise taxes are intended to discourage the population’s use of the products or services and therefore increase national health standards as health care reform stabilizes. Opponents of a tax increase – the majority of the American public – argue a tax increase will lead to a deficit increase as more loans are taken out and payments are delayed.

Is any part of the bill not related to health care?

An attachment to the health care bill that attempts to reform cur-rent student loan processes will change the way college students receive loans. The new bill eliminates a $60 billion government subsidy to private lenders, according to United Press. If the Sen-ate passes the amendments, the bill will create a federal lending program that the Congressional Budget Office estimates could save $61 billion during the next decade.

What do doctors think of the plan?

The public’s feelings toward the health care bill are mixed – and doctors are no exception.

The Huffington Post reported the AARP and the American Medical Association have both publicly supported the bill, but when it comes to individual doctors, the results are about 50-50.

Doctors who support the bill are focusing on better patient care. The Springfield News Sun reported Dr. Sally Abbott, presi-dent of Clark County Medical Society, as saying the new bill will encourage people to seek care as soon as they are feeling sick instead of waiting until it is too late to do anything.

Doctors opposed to the bill are mainly concerned about the increase of insurance costs for patients. According to the www.

statesman.com, the bill puts a cap on the total amount of money available for the Medicare program, and doctors already struggle with patient bills going partially or completely unpaid. Premiums are also predicted to go up because insurance companies will have to cover more people. However, some opponents argue that because the bill prevents private insurers from raising premiums too high, eventually they will be unable to compete with the gov-ernment, which will leave the federal government in charge of all personal health care.

The bill President Obama signed Tuesday has Democrats re-joicing and Republicans up in arms. No one denies the weight of the 2,700-page colossus, but the consequences are still unclear.

JOZIE SANDS Contributing Photographer

Rep. Ted Poe (’72) speaks at a protest in Washington this weekend.

Politicians and media are tossing around a lot of health care jargon, and it can get confusing. We’ve compiled a crash course to help students navigate this stormy but crucial issue.

The Democrats utilized a process called reconciliation to pass the health care bill. Reconciliation allowed the House to vote on a jointly amended Senate bill, and it requires only a simple majority, 51 votes, instead of the regular 60 votes in the Senate.

House rules also require parameters to be set for each vote, including how much time will be allocated for debate and what amendments will be allowed. The House implemented what is called a “self-executing rule”; when the House passed the reconciliation rules, it deemed, or assumed, the Senate bill passed. This allowed President Obama to sign the bill into law without a recorded Senate vote on the original bill. The Sen-ate will still debate and vote on the “fixes” to the bill, but the hardest part is over.

see page 4

The

INSIDE: Key players in health care reform, page 4

CALENDAR AND EVENTSWednesday, March 24, 2010

2CampusDay

10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Graduation Fair in the Hunter Welcome Center

6 p.m. Casanova Week activity at Brew.net

6 p.m.Casanova Week activity at Prime Time

9 p.m.Chai Cafe sponsored by the International Students Association

25 THURSDAY

The Optimist maintains this calendar for the ACU community to keep track of local social, academic and service opportunities. Groups may send announcements directly to optimist@jmcnetwork.com.

To ensure an item will appear on time, the announcement should be sent at least 10 days before. The Optimist may edit items for space and style.

Corrections and clarifications of published news articles will be printed in this space in a timely manner.

AboutThis Page

47Chapel CreditedChapelsto date:

Checkup 26CreditedChapelsremaining:

Volunteer OpportunitiesThe Noah Project needs volunteers to cover the domestic violence crisis hotline between 6 and 10 p.m. Monday-Friday. For more information, call Yvonne Myers at 676-7107.

Love and Care Minis-tries needs help with its clothing ministry and street feeds at 9 a.m., 1 p.m. or 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. To schedule a time to help, call Terry Davis at 670-0246.

The City of Abilene’s Adaptive Recreation Services needs volun-teers to help mentally and physically challenged adults with activities be-tween 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Activities can include arts and crafts, exercise, ceramics, bowling, field trips, etc. For more infor-mation, contact Barbara Liggett at 676-6575, or e-mail barbara.liggett@abilenetx.com.

Abilene Hope Haven needs volunteers to pro-vide child care between 6:45 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. Monday through Thurs-day. For more informa-tion, contact Kathy Reppart (before 3 p.m.) at 677-4673 or Christina Spillers (after 3 p.m.) at 437-0611.

The Betty Hardwick Center needs volunteers from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. on any weekday. For more information, contact Katie Fawcett at 325-690-5128.

Breakfast On Beech Street serves breakfast to Abilene’s homeless community and is in need of volunteers. Breakfast

is served from 6:30-7:15 a.m. at the First Chris-tian Church at 3rd and Beech Street. Volunteers must arrive at 5:30 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and 5 a.m. Tuesdays. For more information, visit the First Christian Church’s Web site at www.fccabilene.org/out-reach.html.

Meals on Wheels is looking for volunteers to deliver hot meals each week to seniors and adults with disabilities. Volunteers may work once a week between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Monday-Friday. For more informa-tion, contact Elisabeth Rodgers at 672-5050.

The Alzheimer’s Asso-ciation needs volunteers any time 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Thurs-day. Volunteers must be present for at least one hour and will perform various office duties. For more information, contact Libby Connally at 672-2907.

The American Heart As-sociation needs volun-teers any time 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Volunteers will help with general of-fice tasks and assist with mailings. For more information, contact Kay Alexander at 627-0070.

The Christian Service Center needs volunteers to fill requests for cloth-ing, bedding, kitchen utensils, etc., from the donation center. Vol-unteers may work from noon-4 p.m. Friday or Saturday. For more infor-mation, call Jim Clark at 673-7531.

The Food Bank of West Central Texas needs vol-unteers to sort and stock

food items between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. For in-formation or to schedule a group of six or more volunteers, contact Jan-ice Serrault at 695-6311, or email abfoodbk@camalott.com.

The Salvation Army needs volunteers Monday through Saturday. Volun-teers may help sort and price items in the thrift store, help in the kitchen or do yard work.

The International Res-cue Committee needs volunteers to teach Eng-lish and mentor refugees. For more information or to make an appointment, contact Daina Juryka-Ow-en at 675-5643, ext. 16.

The West Texas Reha-bilitation Center needs volunteers from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday. Volunteers will work two-hour shifts. For more information, contact Mar-jorie Cloud at 660-8338.

St. John’s Episcopal School needs volunteers from 3:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Saturday to help with sports, arts, crafts and science. For more in-formation, contact Ashley Puryear at 338-8400.

Find more volunteer opportunities by visiting the Service-Learning and Volunteer Resources Web site at www.acu.edu/slvr and clicking on Volunteer Opportunities, or visit the Service-Learning and Volunteer Resources of-fice located in the lower level of the McGlothlin Campus Center.

24WEDNESDAY 10:30 a.m.ACU Softball at the LSC Crossover

3 p.m.ACU Baseball v. Angelo State

8 p.m.Free Movie Night in Cullen Auditorium: The Blind Side

26 FRIDAY

AnnouncementsEquine Assisted Psy-chotherapy is now available to staff, faculty and students through the Counseling Center. For more information, call 674-2626.

The Upward Bound Pro-gram is in need of stu-dents to serve as summer advisers. The program is looking for encouraging, energetic and respon-sible students to assist in preparing high school students for college. For more information, call 674-2529 or 674-2514.

Registration for online summer classes is now open. For more informa-tion, contact your aca-demic adviser.

The Pete Brewer Quartet will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday in the Williams Performing Arts Center as part of the Guest Artist series. Admission is free.

HIGHway Bible study will meet at 9 p.m. Wednes-day in The Grove Club-house. All students are welcome to attend.

The deadline to register for ACU’s Springboard Ideas Challenge is Wednesday. Registrants must pay a $10 fee for each idea submitted. For more information, go to

www.springboardchal-lenge.com, or e-mail Ashley Martindale at springboardchallenge@gmail.com.

Big Brothers Big Sisters Chapel will meet the first Thursday of each month in Room 258 in the Foster Science Building. All ACU students who participate in BBBS are welcome to attend.

The Bible Bowl will be April 10 on the ACU campus.

The Meek Blood Center is sponsoring a blood drive April 16.

Beltway Park Church is sponsoring A Night of Worship with Lee-land and Phil Wickham on April 9. Tickets are $15 in advance and $10 for students or groups of more than 10; they are available at Belt-way Park, Mardel and Lifeway stores or online at www.itickets.com/events/240228/Abilene_TX/Leeland.html.

Michael Jacobs will be performing a free concert at 8 p.m. April 5 in the Williams Performing Arts Center Recital Hall.

Re-Fresh, the Fresh-man Devotional, is every Thursday at 10 p.m. in

the Beauchamp Amphi-theater. Freshmen are invited for a time of wor-ship for freshmen and by freshmen.

The Abilene Christian Opera Theater’s spring opera opens April 9-10 at 8 p.m. in Cullen Audito-rium. This semester’s show is Massenet’s Cendrillon, an interpretation of the classic Cinderella tale: a journey of enchantment, triumph and romance. General admission is $12 for adults and $5 for students.

The International Stu-dents’ Association will be sponsoring a food festival from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets will be available in the Campus Center from 11:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. All proceeds will go to Wishing Well to provide clean water for people in developing countries. For more infor-mation, e-mail Ken Lake at kxl05e@acu.edu.

The ACU Career Center is sponsoring an informa-tion session about jobs with Hawkes Learning Systems, a company that develops educational programs for mathemat-ics teachers at the high school and college levels. For more information, contact the Career Center at 325-674-2473, or email at careers@acu.edu.

The Campus Activi-ties Board is sponsoring Casanova Week through Friday. Male students can pick up two tickets for a free activity each day after Chapel in the Mc-Glothlin Campus Center.

March 24, 2010 Page 3Campus News

Whitney PuckettContributing Reporter

ACU dining is going green, replacing more than 6,500 Styrofoam to-go cartons with 500 To Go Green plastic containers.

The green initiative al-lows students, faculty and staff to enjoy take-out food while preserving the environment. After eating their meal and the extra food from the container, the participant must re-turn it to one of the drop-off locations found in the

Bean or any campus café. The container is then exchanged for a To Go Green membership card that is required for the next purchase.

“This is our first run,” said Daniela Smallwood, marketing coordinator of ACU Food Services. “At some point we would like to phase out Styrofoam completely.”

ACU looks forward to adding this initiative to the other ways it has chosen to go green in the past, said Anthony

Williams, chief auxiliary services officer. “We’ve had this program in the making for some time now, and it’s great to see it come to fruition,” Wil-liams said. “This is just the beginning; we want to continue to partner with the student body in regards to green and sustainable programs, which are an important part of supporting the 21st Century Vision.”

ACU dining ‘To Go Green’ENVIRONMENT

Alan CherryContributing Reporter

A class of only five stu-dents could have a big impact on campus in the coming months. The Mo-bile Computing class has designed and submitted to Apple an iPhone ap-plication that will allow students to vote for the Students’ Association’s proposed constitutional amendments.

The class had hoped to have an app ready that would allow students to vote for SA and class officers, but it won’t be finished in time for this year’s elections. How-ever, several other apps have been completed, including the one to vote for the SA amendments.

Students using the app will receive an e-mail with a personal code to ensure secure voting. Stu-dents who do not have an iPhone or and iPod touch can visit a student-devel-oped Web site to make their voices heard.

Brian Burton, assistant professor of informa-tional technology and the class instructor, says he expects to receive word from Apple later this week telling him if the app has been approved.

“It’s amazing how much paperwork goes along with all this,” Burton said.

The Mobile Comput-ing class is relatively new to ACU’s myriad of class selections; it was first available for the 2009 Maymester. Rich Tanner, senior infor-mation technology and computing major from West Plains, Mo., has been in the class every semester it has been of-fered and is now help-ing to teach the class alongside Burton.

“I found [application development] to be a lot of fun,” Tanner said. “If ACU is going to be a lead-er in learning technology, we need to have more student-developed apps.”

Since its inception, the class has completed

four projects for release to students and several other projects for non-commercial use within various departments.

Also in the works is a student-developed intra-mural app that will help students find information about upcoming games and team standings. The app is scheduled to be finished and submitted to Apple for review by the end of the month.

Each student in the class brings something different to the appli-cation-creating process, Tanner said.

“It was a team effort, but everyone played to their strengths,” Tanner said.

The class consists of students from the School of Information Technol-ogy and Computing but is open to any student who has completed the Programming 1 and Da-tabase classes.

Mobile Computing class creates SA voting ‘apps’

TECHNOLOGY

Shea RattanContributing Reporter

Michael Jacobs, a Chris-tian musical artist and a Cherokee, will be per-forming on campus free of charge this spring, thanks to the Office of Multicultural Enrichment.

The concert is one of the main events spon-sored by the OME this year. It will be at 8 p.m. April 15 in the Williams Performing Arts Center Recital Hall.

Jacobs has been in the music business for almost 10 years. He is known for writing and singing not just about issues facing Native Americans, but also about human issues such as peace, suffering, the en-vironment and justice.

Jacobs has performed at more than 150 col-

leges and universities in 25 states. He also has received many awards during his career. Ac-cording to his Web site, www.sacrednation.com, his debut album received the 2003 Native Ameri-can Music Award for the Best Independent Re-cording; his third album won the 2006 Indian Summer Music Award, and his latest album earned two 2008 Indian Summer Music Awards for Best Pop Recording and Best Rock Record-ing. Director of Multicul-tural Enrichment George Pendergrass commented on the novelty of Jacobs’ music.

“It’s Native American music fused with con-temporary music, and it fascinates me,” Pender-grass said.

Before his evening concert, Jacob will speak in a class and at Chapel that morning. He will also perform a concert later that afternoon, pri-marily for music majors and students interested in the music industry. Ja-cobs’ time at Chapel and his afternoon concert will include a question and answer period.

“Several students on our campus are inter-ested in music careers,” Pendergrass said. “A lot of our students want to know what that’s like; they want to see the good, the bad and the ugly.”

Pendergrass said the OME is excited to have Jacobs come to campus, since Jacobs addresses many issues of social justice, and ACU works

hard to address many of the same topics.

“Our school is trying desperately to get rid of the major polarization that exists and is try-ing to bring light to the plight of minorities,” Pendergrass said.

During his concerts, Ja-cobs almost always leaves time to address the issues he writes and sings about. Pendergrass’s graduate assistant Laza Razafiman-jato, a graduate student of higher education from Antananarivo, Madagas-car, said Jacobs’ con-certs do not have much structure.

“When he performs, he performs based on how he feels at that time,” Razafimanjato said.

Jacobs said he is look-ing forward to performing at ACU for the first time.

“I’m excited to engage people in meaningful di-alogue,” he said.

Jacobs said he thinks many sensitive issues in our culture are the ones that need to be discussed the most and loves to do his part to make a difference.

“People don’t realize the wealth of different cul-tures,” Jacobs said. “I’m just trying to do my part in affecting social change.”

Native American artist to perform on campusCULTURE

Photo courtesy of www.reverbnation.com

Michael Jacobs writes and performs contemporary Native American music that often deals with issues of social justice.

contact Puckett atoptimist@jmcnetwork.com

contact Cherry atoptimist@jmcnetwork.com

contact Rattan atoptimist@jmcnetwork.com

March 24, 2010Special ReportPage 4

Speaker Nancy Pelosi Rep. Bart Stupak

Rep. John Boehner President Barack Obama

Sen. Scott Brown U.S. Constitution

The 60th speaker of the House of Representa-tives and the first female to serve in that role. As the Democrats’ key spokeswoman in Congress, Pelosi was an important figure in the health care debate. Pelosi has represented the eighth con-gressional district of California since 1987.

The House minority leader and the voice of the Republican opposition. Boehner addressed the House on Sunday before the vote and implored members to reject the bill, saying it did not rep-resent the interests of the people. Boehner has represented the eighth congressional district of Ohio since 2007.

A Republican senator from Massachusetts. Brown was elected to the Massachusetts Sen-ate in a special election to fill the seat of the late Ted Kennedy, a Democrat. Brown elimi-nated the Democrats’ filibuster-proof 60-40 supermajority in the Senate.

One of several pro-life Democrats in Congress. Stupak nearly derailed the push for reform with his demand for stronger language on abortion. His efforts forced President Obama to promise an executive order banning federal funding for elective abortions. Stupak has represented the first con-gressional district of Michigan since 1993.

The 44th president of the U.S. made comprehen-sive health care reform a major part of his platform during his candidacy. Obama worked in conjunc-tion with Speaker Pelosi, campaigning largely for a public option early on but eventually compromising with moderate Democrats and Republicans in an effort to push reform through Congress.

The ultimate law of the land, as interpreted by the Supreme Court. Bills passed through Congress cannot contradict constitutional law, and the con-stitutionality of any bill can be challenged. Ten state attorney generals, including Greg Abbott from Texas, are appealing the new health care bill, and some predict the vote may reach the Supreme Court.

Why the rush to pass a health care bill?

Why does health care reform seem to be the most im-portant issue to legislators and the administration?

Until Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts, Democrats claimed a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. They still claim a supermajority in the House of Representatives, which means if every Democrat – or even a few less – votes in favor of a bill, Republicans don’t have enough votes to stop it. The president, the attorney general, the speaker of the House and dozens of others in high offices are all Democrats.

Health care reform was a major platform is-sue during elections – one of several elements of “change” desired by the majority of voters. Eighteen months later, that change had not come. Discontent was growing among Democratic voters who believed the leadership was failing to follow through on its promises. To the Republicans’ advantage, Democrats

also had advertised bipartisanship as a priority dur-ing campaign season, but the debate at President Obama’s health care summit made it clear Republi-cans were not interested in what the Democrats had to offer. They would only vote for health care reform if Democrats trashed the bill and started again – from the beginning.

The clock was ticking, and Democratic voters were growing increasingly impatient. They wanted more than health care reform, but at this rate, no time would be left for anything else. And a displeased constituent is likely to elect a new leader the next time around.

How polarizing of an issue is health care?

The Democrats needed 216 votes to pass the health care bill, and they barely made it. The final vote was 219-212, a narrow margin of victory, and those seven votes weren’t clinched until Sunday after-noon, just hours before the vote. Seven pro-life Democrats, led by Rep. Bart Stupak from Michigan, had resolved to vote against the bill unless language

prohibiting federal funding for elective abortions was strengthened, according to www.washington-post.com. To win Stupak’s votes, President Obama signed an executive order reaffirming the govern-ment’s commitment to prevent federal funds being used for elective abortions, an issue covered by the Hyde Amendment and the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

In addition to the 178 “no” votes from the Re-publicans, 34 Democrats jumped the fence to vote against the measure. Most of those, including Rep. Chet Edwards from Texas, are from conservative districts where the majority of their constituents opposed the bill. Several of them argued the execu-tive order regarding elective abortions still was not strong enough. A majority of independent voters also opposed the bill – 54 percent according to a recent poll for CBS News – in part because of the cost of the bill.

contact Staff atoptimist@jmcnetwork.com

Who’s who in health careA look at the key players in the reform process

Continued from page 1

FocusMarch 24, 2010 Page 5

Springing Into Action

Ten zealous Spring Break campaign-ers left a massive impact on the city of Trujillo, Honduras, this year. Through-out their stay, the group was involved mainly with Little Hands, Big Hearts, a community development organization. Little Hands, Big Hearts works to serve the people of Trujillo by providing them with necessities such as beans, rice and prenatal vitamins.

When the group arrived, though, they were informed that due to a surplus of funds, their main project would be to build a house for a family with a special needs child. During the course of the week, the campaigners accomplished a great deal. They dug footings for the house and laid six layers of building blocks. Along with this, a group of girls taught Bible class to a group of 65 children.

According to SBC leader Daniel Burgn-er, there were many other opportunities, such as passing out food to the commu-nity. Overall, it seems God worked in a big way through this campaign.

“God used everybody’s gifts and tal-ents,” Burgner said. “He showed me that you can serve God in any capacity.”

Little Hands, Big Hearts was so pleased with the overall campaign they offered four campaigners jobs and in-ternships with their organization.

Although they faced some deep is-sues, these 12 campaigners served wholeheartedly. The group worked with Impact Church of Christ, an inner-city ministry that focuses on helping those in need.

Campaigners intended to work with the church’s Vacation Bible School but ended up serving in other areas. Painting an older woman’s house, spending time with the junior high school ministry and working along-side the homeless – who preferred to be called “outdoorsmen” – were just a few of the things students did.

Through their experience, cam-paigners were exposed to the reality of inner-city life. Many of the people they came into contact with suffered in various ways: children who were physically abused and individuals who suffered from mental illnesses because of drug addiction.

Campaign leader Brit’ny Spain said she believes Impact is an amazing min-istry because “people dedicate their lives to working in a hard environment.”

“Half of Impact is about serving others,” she said. “The other half is about becoming transformed.”

The 20 campaigners to Huntington Beach, Calif., affiliated themselves with Young Life and Habitat for Hu-manity, where they worked quite a bit with youth. They held a dodgeball tournament, which gave them an op-portunity to interact with high school kids. Their interactions with the kids allowed the Young Life leaders to spend time with their groups.

According to campaign leader Kevin Riley, one of the group’s rich-est experiences occurred in Watts, which is the poorest part of L.A. They worked with Powerhouse Church, go-ing door to door sharing the Gospel with members of the community. De-spite the bad reputation of the area, the group swallowed their fears and immersed themselves in the neigh-borhoods. Fortunately, the campaign-ers connected with the community. Riley said he found the experience to be extremely fulfilling.

“It was a lot of fun, but we were still serving,” he said. “The group jumped in to serve.”

The Manchester Area Conference of Churches (MACC) in Connecticut pro-vided the 12 campaigners with a vari-ety of ways to serve. MACC serves the community by providing crisis assis-tance, food and clothing for the needy and a warm bed for those who have no home.

Campaigners split up to do differ-ent jobs throughout the day; several campaigners worked in the kitchen, while a few others worked in the pan-try. A typical day for the group began at 5:45 in the morning.

During their stay, the group paint-ed and thoroughly cleaned the facil-ity’s kitchen. Along with all of this, the campaign met and interacted with the homeless and the needy.

Campaign leader Laura Holt said the part of the trip that had the great-est impact on her was meeting a for-mer student at MACC. Originally from Manchester, this student found him-self without a home and was staying in MACC’s shelter. Holt said meeting him was a reality check; anyone can end up in that situation.

“We were all impacted by this homeless guy that went to ACU for one year,” she said. “We were in disbe-lief and wanted to help.”

Honduras Texas California Connecticut

Manchester, Connecticut

Campaign Leaders:

Worked with Manchester Area Conferences of Churches

Campaigners: 12

Population: 56,385

Laura HoltTim Jones

Houston, Texas

Campaign Leaders:

Worked with Impact Church of Christ, an inner-city ministry

Campaigners: 12

Population: 2,144,491

David McMichaelBrit’ny Spain

Trujillo, Honduras

Campaign Leaders:

Worked with Little Hands, Big Hearts, a community development organization

Campaigners: 10

Population: 9,646

Daniel BurgnerMary Tomkins

Huntington Beach, California

Campaign Leaders:

Worked with Young Life and Habitat for Humanity

Campaigners: 20

Population: 189,594

Kevin RileyChelsea Johnson

Whether Spring Break Campaigns traveled near or far, they all made an impact through serving others. Four of the 19 groups are profiled here.

Hannah Barnes, Features Editor

By Hannah Barnes

OpinionPage 6 March 24, 2010

Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Optimist and may not necessarily reflect the views of the university or its administration.

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Optimistthe

By Lucas WrightPears

Somewhere between non-chalant indifference and judgmental superiority lies a position of under-standing – neither con-demning nor condoning.

The last few months have created a link between athletes and scandal, and attention is increasingly directed off the field. Con-versations about sports now revolve around sex and drugs instead of the game itself. The question now is how we respond as fans and fellow humans.

Earlier this month, for-mer ACU offensive line-man and current NFL pros-pect Tony Washington went public with his status as a registered sex offend-er. Washington committed the nonviolent offense as a 16-year-old student in New Orleans, but his mis-take is still haunting him seven years later.

Not even “big-name” athletes are immune from scandal. Some of the world’s most popular and seemingly clean athletes have found themselves mired in scandals involv-ing sex and narcotics. Mi-chael Phelps was caught smoking marijuana, and Tiger Woods has gained at-tention for his infidelity.

The scandals are cap-tivating. They have hi-jacked the tabloids and dominated dinner con-versations. The antics of these athletes have divided the fan base and American culture in general, and almost ev-eryone has an opinion about the issue.

When The Huffington Post posted a story online about Washington’s sex offender status, the story prompted quick and di-verse reactions from read-

ers. The comments at the end of the story ranged from compassion and un-derstanding to hate and anger. Others responded with racism and bigotry.

Washington’s bad de-cision seven years ago was – and is – unfortu-nate. He broke the law in his teenage years, and he’s been paying for it since. Actions always have consequences, as they should. Washington will most likely lose his NFL draft position as a result of his actions.

Our response as fans to situations like Wash-ington’s is tricky to say the least. We should never condone illegal or immor-al actions, but we are not in a position to condemn either. Chances are our inferences and conclu-sions about scandalous situations are glaringly

incomplete. We only hear part of the story.

In Washington’s case, many will view him sole-ly as a sex offender, but that is nowhere near the whole story. His actions were not violent, and he’s committed no crime since. Despite this, many will cast judgment on Washington as a deviant, which is not only unin-formed, but unfair.

Athletes’ positions in mainstream America makes their slip-ups more noticeable but no more offensive than any other individual’s. The idea that public figures should be held to a higher standard is absurd and an abdica-tion of personal respon-sibility. This mindset is simply an easy way out of our own personal scan-dals, and the idea is il-logical. Why should Tiger

Woods be held to different standards than his fans?

Disappointment is, however, a perfectly legiti-mate response. Athletes should not be held to high-er moral standards, but they do face the increased pressure of serving as role models. When athletes do stumble, they at least owe their fans an apology. But that same standard should apply to everyone.

Being in the public eye can most certainly be a burden, but higher moral standards should not be

among those burdens. Ex-pectations of perfection are unreasonable when movie stars, athletes and politicians are just as hu-man as we are.

The proper response to athletes and scandals may vary from situation to situ-ation, but at the very least, consistency is necessary. If we try to hold athletes to higher standards, it is only going to lead to disappointment.

Fans hold athletes to impossible standardEDITORIAL

Crazy relatives keep things excitingCOLUMN

Hacked OffChelsea Hackney

The phrase “all-American family” conjures images of grills and puppies, hap-py mothers and fathers and two-a n d - a -half chil-dren in c l o t h e s f r o m B a b y Gap – all of the t h i n g s my fiancé’s family is not.

I’ll admit I have crazy relatives. Some of them have married into the family, and some of them are unfortunately and un-avoidably related to me by blood completely against my will. I do my darndest to avoid these people at family reunions for fear they’ll tell some really em-

barrassing story about me – most likely at a volume more suitable for a cattle auctioneer.

But even with years of experience, meeting some-one else’s crazy relatives is intimidating. So it was with trepidation I went to meet my fiancé’s grandparents for the first weekend of what I had hoped would be a stress-free Spring Break.

Grandpa Fred – or Grampuhfred, if said with a genuine East Texas ac-cent – lives with his wife by common law and two dogs in a doublewide in Gun Barrel City. Whatever picture just popped into your head, that’s exactly what it looks like. We pulled into the driveway Friday night – a decision I’m now certain was a clev-er ploy to keep me from getting a good look at the place, which happens to

be bedecked with antique knick knacks of all shapes and sizes.

After introductions and hugs all around, the conversation turned to sleeping arrangements. My fiancé and I being pretty conservative, I foolishly assumed he’d make himself comfort-able on the couch while I slept soundly on the absolute opposite end of the trailer – perhaps behind several doors. To my red-faced embar-rassment, they had some misguided perceptions about our relationship. After a few awkward laughs, I asserted my good ol’ Church of Christ

upbringing and set the record straight.

That was in the first half hour.

However, during the next two days I decided it didn’t matter if they were a little strange. Just because they weren’t like my family didn’t mean they weren’t worth getting to know. We all have a batty great-aunt who our families warn us about, and most of us, if we’re honest, kind of like her. At least she always makes holidays at Grand-ma’s a little more exciting.

And that’s before the eggnog.

THE ISSUEPeople tend to hold figures in the public eye to an impossibly high standard.

OUR TAKEWe shouldn’t hold public figures to a higher standard than we hold ourselves and we shouldn’t expect perfection.

Christians should advocate justice

COLUMN

LIttle LindaLinda Bailey

I hopped off the plane at Logan International Airport with a dream and my cardigan.

A f t e r being in B o s t o n for no m o r e than 30 minutes, all of my previous p e r c e p -tions about the city had been washed away by Boston’s largest rain-storm in 50 years.

After three days of con-stant rain and wet socks, the sky cleared, and I was finally able to see the beau-ty of the city. I basked in the sun and stared open-mouthed at skyscrap-ers, Fenway Park and the numerous historic sites around the city. I was also able to see – and meet – many Bostonians devoting their lives to social justice in the city and the world.

Our group of 14 stu-dents of many ages and majors filed into a build-ing at the heart of China-town on the first day of sunlight. We toured the facilities and met An-thony Zuba, organizer for the Massachusetts Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, an organization devoted to standing up for the rights of all people being treat-ed unfairly in the city. At the building, we listened to a woman tell her story of injustice. In August, the Hyatt Regency in Boston fired almost 100 housekeepers who had worked for the hotel for

more than 20 years. The workers who replaced the veteran employees were paid half as much for doing double the work. The Hyatt claims the cuts were necessary due to the economy; however, it found enough money to buy another multimil-lion-dollar building. Also, no other hotel in the area had to take such drastic measures to save money.

Basically, the work-ers were treated unfair-ly, and they were unable to find jobs that would match their previous salary. Zuba and others are working to get their jobs back while also working with current hotel employees, teach-ing them English, show-ing them how to make a bed without hurting their backs and teach-ing them cooking skills if they wish to move up to a position as a cook.

Zuba said faith can take you on an incredible journey if you let it. He chose a path devoted to social justice instead of a life devoted to a wife and two-and-a-half kids.

During Justice Week, I heard a lot of speakers tell me what I should be doing or what they were doing, but nothing really sunk in until I met Zuba and saw what he was do-ing – devoting his whole life to justice. I’m not sure his path is one everyone should take, but I do know as Christians we have a responsibility to help the poor, oppressed and aliens throughout our cit-ies, countries and world.

Email the Optimist at:optimist@jmcnetwork.com

contact Hackney atceh05c@acu.edu

We all have a batty great-aunt who our families warn us about, and most of us, if we’re honest, kind of like her.

contact Bailey atljb07a@acu.edu

Hackney

Bailey

March 24, 2010 Page 7From Sports

ENMU: Wildcats score 43 runs in four-game seriesBASEBALL

game that started on Fri-day. The Wildcats began the game swinging, scor-ing eight runs in the sec-ond inning to take an ear-ly lead. Calhoun pitched a complete game, allowing only five runs, and the Wildcats won the game 15-5 via the run rule.

The second game Sun-day began with a solo home run by Aaron Oliver in the first inning, put-ting the Wildcats in the lead. The Greyhounds scored two runs in the second and another run in the third to take away the Wildcats’ lead, but ACU got back on track af-ter a three-run hit in the fourth. The Wildcats con-

tinued scoring from then on and defeated the Grey-hounds 12-5.

The last game of the day and the series started slow. The Wildcats trailed the Greyhounds 3-1 until

the bottom of the fifth in-ning when Clint Bawker hit a two-run triple. Tra-vis Latz followed his lead, with a two-run home run.

The Wildcats con-tinued their consis-

tent scoring, and in the eighth, Calhoun hit a two-run home run to end the game 13-3 via the run rule.

“When you are play-ing a tripleheader and you get two 10-run rules, you get two games that you shorten up because you scored a bunch of runs, that is huge for our pitching staff,” Bon-

neau said. “It was a good day for us offensively and defensively.”

The Wildcats will play another home series next weekend against the An-gelo State Rams.

The four-game series is scheduled to begin at 3:05 p.m. Friday.

That just shows you that this is a league with a lot of good teams in it.BRITT BONNEAUHead Coach

Continued from page 8

contact Bailey atljb07a@acu.edu

by about half a foot over Kiara Jones of Pittsburg State.

“We really felt he could win the jump,” said Head Coach Roosevelt Lofton. “He was the guy to beat all along.”

Defending indoor 60-meter hurdles cham-pion Andrew McDowell missed a repeat title by two one-hundredths of a second when he was caught at the line by Jeremy Jackson of Pitts-burg State.

McDowell and Sparks had some help from sprinter Desmond Jack-son on their way to third place. Jackson finished third in both the 50 and 200-meter sprints, earn-ing ACU 6 points for each finish.

Traditionally a long-distance powerhouse, Adams State took home the National Champi-

onship, despite scor-ing in only six of the 16 events. Adams had run-ners place in the top five positions in the mile, and in the 5,000-meters, they took first through seventh place with the exception of third – ACU’s Amos Sang stole that spot. Those two events earned Adams State enough points to grab at least second, and points in four other events secured the first-place victory.

The ACU women weren’t nearly as suc-cessful, with only three athletes earning points: Wanda Hutson finished fourth in the 60-meter dash, Jessica Withrow

finished sixth in the triple jump and Jessica Blair took home fourth in the pole vault. Lin-coln won its second con-secutive women’s indoor championship by edging Ashland and Grand Val-ley State in the last event to win the title.

ACU track will have another shot at a nation-al title when it competes in the NCAA Division II outdoor championships.

“We are definitely go-ing to have a better shot at winning outdoor,” Har-din said. “We are a whole different team when it comes to outdoor.”

Sparks: Wildcats place third at indoor title meet

TRACK AND FIELD

Continued from page 8

contact Gwin atagg07a@acu.edu

ketball, the tournament is split into two leagues: Recreational and Cham-pionship. The majority of the teams are in the Championship League, al-though 20 teams are com-peting at the Rec level.

The Champ League, as in the other sports, will be highly competi-tive and sure to attract many onlookers as the championship game ap-proaches. Teams will play practice games for three to four weeks until the actual tournament – and elimination rounds – begins in mid-April.

The Rec League is popular with many so-cial clubs because of its laid-back atmosphere. Morgan Davis, junior information technology major from Frisco, plays for the Trojans Rec team. This is his first time playing with the Trojans, and he said he is looking forward to having a good time. He said he isn’t

counting on making it to the championship.

“I don’t think it’s too likely that we are going to win much,” Davis said. “It’s just all of us going and being goofballs.”

The turnout for intra-mural volleyball is typi-cally lower than basket-ball because students want to enjoy the warm weather instead of sit-ting inside, said Kenli Edwards, director of in-tramurals. But Edwards said she doesn’t think that makes volleyball any less exciting. Al-though no faculty teams are registered for vol-leyball, almost all of the clubs have teams signed up. Even GATA, which hasn’t had a team in any sport this year, put to-gether a team.

The next games will be Thursday in Bennett Gym beginning at 7:30 p.m.

April will be one of the busiest intramural months of the spring. volleyball wraps up mid-month, and is followed

by four new sports.Softball sign-ups be-

gin April 5, and the first tournament is sched-uled to begin April 19. The deadline for tennis signups is April 14, and the ACU Rodeo is sched-uled for April 22. The intramural season ends April 29 with a softball tournament.

For information on how to get involved in intramurals at ACU, visit their website www.acu.edu/campusoffices/intramurals/index.html.

Volleyball: Champ League draws fierce competition

contact Goggans atzdg08b@acu.edu

Continued from page 8

of the first. They added a run in the third to make the score 4-1, a score they maintained for three innings. In the top of the fourth, though, the Pio-neers got back two runs, cutting the deficit to 4-3. The Wildcats answered with three runs in the bottom half of the inning and then another run in the fifth, bringing the score to 8-3. TWU retali-ated with three runs in the sixth and then again in the seventh to come from behind and win 9-8.

In the second game, the Pioneers leapt to a

2-0 lead in the first in-ning, but the Wildcats came back when Bri-anna Fowlkes hit a solo home run in the second inning. The Wildcats were able to tie the game when Stephanie Tingle hit an RBI single to score Shawna Barrow. The game remained tied until the seventh inning when Billie Callahan hit a triple-scoring run; Callahan was then bunt-ed in on the next at-bat. The Pioneers held on at 4-2 to complete the sweep of ACU.

The Wildcats will be back in action this week-end in the LSC Crossover

Tournament in Durant, Okla., where they will play Southeastern Okla-homa, Cameron, East Cen-tral, Central Oklahoma, Northeastern State and Midwestern State. The games will start at 10:30 a.m. Friday and continue throughout the weekend.

“We haven’t been play-ing bad; we aren’t mak-ing errors,” Wilson said. “We just haven’t had our pitching and batting on at the same time. Hope-fully with six games this weekend we can get them both going.”

NUMBERS GAMERamon Sparks’ distance on the triple jump at the indoor national

championship meet. 52-3 1/4

Sweep: ’Cats fall to TWUSOFTBALL

Continued from page 8

INTRAMURALS

contact Cantrell atjrc07f@acu.edu

SportsPage 8 March 24, 2010

Standings

TUESDAY

BaseballACU 11, Texas-Permian Basin 4

MONDAY

SoftballACU 8, Texas Woman's 9

ACU 2, Texas Woman's 4

SUNDAY

BaseballACU 15, ENMU 5

ACU 12, ENMU 5

ACU 13, ENMU 3

SoftballACU 1, Texas Woman's 9

HOME GAMES LISTED IN ITALICS

Scores

SOFTBALLTeam Div.

TWU

TAMU-K

4-2

4-2

Angelo St. 5-0 26-2

BASEBALLTeam Div. Cameron 16-6

Angelo St. 13-11 19-14SE Okla. St. 15-7 19-19

TAMU-K 13-11 17-13

ENMU 12-12 14-15

Tarleton St. 0-3

19-8

12-1311-13

17-9Ovrl.

Ovrl.

ACU 0-3 9-17

ACU 14-6 23-7

ENMU 0-5 7-20

Northeastern 11-13 13-17

WTAMU 4-2 22-10

Central Okla. 6-14Tarleton St. 10-14 13-16

WTAMU 5-12 8-12

Southwestern 11-10 16-13

8-14

East Central 5-12 8-12

WEDNESDAY

Women's TennisACU vs. NW Mo. St., 3 p.m.

Men's TennisACU vs. NW Mo. St., 3 p.m.

FRIDAY

SoftballACU vs. SE Okla. St., 10:30 a.m.

ACU vs. Cameron, 12:30 p.m.

Games played in Durant, Okla.

BaseballACU vs. Angelo St., 3:05 p.m.

ACU vs. Angelo St., 7 p.m.

Track and FieldACU at LSU Relays

Women's TennisACU vs. East Central, 6 p.m.

Men's TennisACU vs. East Central, 6 p.m.

SATURDAY

SoftballACU vs. East Central, 10:30 a.m.

ACU vs. Central Okla., 2:30 p.m.

Games played in Durant, Okla.

BaseballACU vs. Angelo St., 3:05 p.m.

ACU vs. Angelo St., 7 p.m.

Women's TennisACU vs. Central Okla.,10 a.m..

Men's TennisACU vs. Baylor, 2 p.m.

HOME GAMES LISTED IN ITALICS

Upcoming

Ryan CantrellAssistant Sports Editor

Texas Woman's Uni-versity swept the Wild-cat softball team in its opening Lone Star Conference series. The sweep drops the Wild-cats to 0-3 in confer-ence and 9-16 overall.

“I think we got comfort-able with the lead we had, and our bullpen struggled late in the game,” said Head Coach Chantiel Wilson. “We did not play through all seven innings, and we need to learn how to close out a game.”

In Sunday's game, the Pioneers jumped ahead

of the Wildcats early, scoring three runs on five hits in the first inning. ACU got one back in the

bottom of the inning to make the score 3-1, but TWU added three runs in the third and two more

in the fifth. A home run clinched the game for the Pioneers as they cruised to a 9-1 victory.

In the first game of the doubleheader Mon-day, the Wildcats found their bats early, scoring three runs in the bottom

SOFTBALL

Pioneers sweep struggling Wildcats

n Former lineman Tony Washington was in Abilene on Monday, trying out for a Dallas Cowboys' scout.

Briefs

see SWEEP page 7

We just haven’t had our pitching and batting on at the same time.CHANTIEL WILSONHead Coach

KELSI WILLIAMSON Chief Photographer

Junior Brad Rutherford delivers a pitch during the Wildcats' 12-5 win against Eastern New Mexico on Sunday. Rutherford gave up two runs in two innings.

Linda BaileyOpinion Page Editor

The Wildcats began Spring Break in Du-rant, Okla., playing two doubleheaders against Southeastern Oklahoma. During the first double-header March 12, the Savage Storm narrowly swept ACU 1-0 and 11-10. The next day, the Wildcats split the dou-bleheader, winning the first game 8-2 and losing another close game 10-9

Before returning home, the Wildcats trav-eled to Cleveland, Miss., for a midweek series against the Delta State Statesmen on March 16-17. They split the two-game series, losing the

first 5-8 and winning the second 5-4.

After the break, the Wildcats finally returned home for a weekend se-ries against the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds, where they won three of four games.

“We came out today just trying to get some wins,” said pitcher Will Calhoun. “We hit a little bit of a slump over the break, but it is good to get back home and have that home-field advantage. I think that was a big part of the day, just us being comfortable, being home and having fun.”

On Friday, the Wild-cats lost their first game to the Greyhounds 4-3. Game Two of the double-

header started but was postponed because of inclement weather condi-tions that lasted through Saturday, forcing the teams to complete the series in a tripleheader Sunday. But that didn’t stop the Wildcats from winning all three games on Sunday.

“We had a real tough game Friday with a 4-3 loss,” said Head Coach Britt Bonneau. “That just shows you that this is a league with a lot of good teams in it, and we’ve just got to keep working hard.”

During the first game on Sunday, the Wildcats finished the nine-inning

BACK ON TRACKBASEBALL

Rocky Spring Break ends with series win against ENMU

KELSI WILLIAMSON Chief Photographer

Senior outfielder Travis Latz reaches up to make a catch dur-ing the Wildcats' 12-5 win against the ENMU Greyhounds.

Zane GoggansSports Reporter

Intramural volleyball made its debut in Ben-nett Gymnasium on Monday on the heels of the Championship League basketball tour-nament – Kojies and AD sealed the victory in the women's and men's championship games.

A total of 57 teams are playing in the vol-leyball tournament this year, and just like bas-

Volleyball matches begin INTRAMURALS

KELSI WILLIAMSON Chief Photographer

Kyle Yarbrough, freshman business finance major from San Antonio, jumps for the ball during a Welcome Week game. see VOLLEYBALL page 7

’Cats impress at championships

TRACK AND FIELD

Austin GwinAssistant Sports Editor

Ramon Sparks triple-jumped his way to vic-tory and propelled the ACU men’s track team to a third-place finish at the NCAA Division II indoor championship meet.

While the men en-joyed success in Albu-querque, the women came away disappoint-ed with a 13th-place finish at the meet.

“Even though we wanted to come out with a victory, we are happy with a third-place finish,” said senior heptathlete James Hardin. “We only brought six guys, and they got all-American."

Sparks’ first jump put him in the lead, where he stayed for the rest of the meet. His fifth jump of 52-3 1/4 was enough to win the triple jump

see SPARKS page 7

see ENMU page 7