Western Front - 2003 February 14

              Dykstra's dedication
Western freshman lives up to
a family legacy.
See Story, Page 10.
Vialentine vaginas
"The Vagina Monologues" explores
sexuality and empowerment.
See Story, Page 9.
FRIDAY^ February 14, 2003
Western Washington University The Western Front Volume 124 Issue 10 Bellingham, Washington
Jury finds local protester guilty of trespassing
By Shauna Bakkensen
THE WESTERN FRONT
Friends and family started pooling
money for an anti-war demonstrator
after she was found guilty of second
degree trespassing and sentenced to pay
$320 in fines in Bellingham Municipal
Court on Thursday.
Ellen Murphy, a retired English
teacher and chemical dependency coun­selor,
was .charged with second-degree
trespassing, for ^demonstrating at the
Bellingham ,' U. S; Army - ^Recruiting
Station on:Npy;ll2V;. x>;-v..
Police issue a'secorid'-degree trespass
when an mdiyidli&L"refused -to leave an
outdoor private^ :pi6perty, Bellingham
Prosecutor Jeff Lustick faid. ;•-•' ' - ;
After a year of retirement from her
position at St. Joseph Hospital, Murphy
said she wanted to do something special
for the veterans she has treated
throughout the years.
"There is something particularly
impactful about a great big man falling
on your office floor sobbing," Murphy
said. "My feelings have deepened because
the nature of war has changed to the
extent that people are no longer wounded
in war. The bajtle is when they come
home — (the battle is) in their bodies."
Murphy arrived at the recruiting office
the day after Veterans Day to inform
recruiters and potential recruits of the
dangers of depleted uranium, she said.
The anti-war demonstrators were armed
with signs and a papier mache puppet
depicting-, an Iraqi mother carrying a
dead child, she said.
Depleted uranium is the remaining
toxic waste of solid 10-pound, 18-inch
uranium rods shot from a tank, said
Doug Rokke, a major in the army
reserves and a nuclear, biological and
chemical warfare specialist.
Although Rokke was Murphy's expert
witness, he was not allowed to testify in
front of the jury. The court decided his
testimony was not relevant to the case,
Lustick said.
Sgt. John Sieverts, the highest ranking
officer in the recruiting office at the time,
said he told Murphy, "You guys can't
block the door; you have to move down to
the public street corner."
Murphy said Sieverts never directly
told her to ieave the building, and she
was therefore within her rights to stay.
She said she decided to rest in front of the
door due to lack of seating and never
intended to block anyone from coming
into the office. •£'
"She couldn't block the door because
it's a business," Sieverts said. "I have no
animosity toward her; I commend her
for fighting a good fight. But there's a
way to do things legally while getting
Peter Louras/The Western Front
Bellingham Prosecutor Jeff Lustick (left) questions the accused Mary Ellen
Murphy on Wednesday about her actions shown in a photo taken Nov. 12
in the doorway of the Armed Forces Recruitment Center in Bellingham.
your point across."
Once Murphy stepped outside, the
police arrived and asked if she intended
to leave the property, to which she
responded no, she said. She was not
aware police were charging fellow demon-
Terrorism, Iraq overshadow Bush's environmental policies
Environment
By Annie Johnson
THE WESTERN FRONT
With the fear of a pos­sible
war with Iraq con­suming
the thoughts of
many Americans, a
number of »the Bush
administration's recent
nonmilitary policies
have gone unnoticed.
Many Americans are not
aware of Bush's recent deci­sions
that affect the environ­ment.
Last year on April 22,
Earth Day, President Bush
said Americans have a duty to
make sure the land is pre­served,
the air is clean and the
water is pure. But critics of
Bush's environmental record
suggest his actions so far do
not match his words.
"I think the Bush adminis­tration
is determined to sub­stantially
reduce regulations
and to weaken almost all of the
environmental laws," Huxley
College of the Environment
professor Lynn Robbins said.
"If they had their way, I think
they'd abolish the National
Environmental Policy Act and
the Endangered Species Act."
Since his election in 2000,
Bush has tried, without success,
to allow drilling in a part of the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
in Alaska, one of the nation's
largest wildlife sanctuaries.
In a recent appearance at the
Nisqually National Wildlife
Refuge outside of Olympia,
Interior Secretary Gale Norton
called the Arctic Refuge "one of
the most environmentally
appropriate places we can look
for energy."
Norton said the United States
must continue to look at the
Arctic for oil, keeping in mind
that the drilling would be done
with the most stringent environ­mental
requirements ever.
Although Norton advocates
drilling in the Arctic, oil com­panies
are looking elsewhere.
"The oil companies are not par­ticularly
enthusiastic about
drilling there," Robbins said.
"First of all, there's no guarantee
there is oil. The probability is
pretty high, but oil companies are
doing better investing in west
Africa and Indonesia. Oil there is
pretty much guaranteed."
In addition to supporting
See BUSH, Page 4
Complaints regarding controversial,
sexual advertisement concern AS
Photo courtesy of the Women's Center.
The AS has found the recent photos adver­tising
the upcoming Toys in Babeland
workshop to be too sexually aggressive.
By Abiah Weaver
THE WESTERN FRONT
Displaying a box of vibrators and dildos
and the phrase "Cum One, Cum All," the
handmade advertisements for the upcom­ing
Toys in Babeland workshop created
controversy within the Associated
Students organization this past week,
said Western sophomore Emily McMurdo,
an employee of the Women's Center.
"Our adviser (Viking Union associate
director of activities Kevin Majkut) said
the AS was concerned with the graphic
nature of the advertisement, especially
the word 'cum' and the dildos," McMurdo
said. "He said it was sexually aggressive
and that he was concerned people would­n't
want to see it on campus."
The Women's Center, an office of the
AS, distributed approximately 50
posters advertising its annual sex toys
workshop scheduled for Feb. 20 through­out
campus earlier this week, ignoring
the advice of Majkut
"He couldn't really restrict us,"
McMurdo said. "As our adviser, (Majkut)
told us what the concerns are, but we
chose to distribute the posters anyway."
Ben Carroll, AS vice president of activ­ities,
said the organization received com­plaints
from students, faculty and com­munity
members after the Women's
Center first distributed the advertise­ment
earlier this month.
"There are a lot of people inside the AS
and outside that have complained about
See ADS, Page 4
strators with trespassing, she said.
Murphy has been an activist for more
than 20 years ever since reading Hellen
Caldicott's book "Nuclear Madness: What
You Can Do," which describes the dangers
See TRIAL, Page 4
Judge finalizes
name, wording
of the 'Horse's
ass'initiative
By Cate Weisweaver
THE WESTERN FRONT
At a hearing in Thurston
County, the court decided a
name for Initiative 831, a reso­lution
to legally declare Tim
Eyman, the sponsor of tax ini­tiatives
such as 1-695 and 1-776,
a horse's ass. Judge Gary Tabor
rejected the sponsor's and attor­ney
general's suggestions.
Senior Assistant Attorney
General Jim Pharris said the
official title is "Initiative mea­sure
number 831 concerns
adoptions and transmittal of a
resolution about Tim Eyman."
David Goldstein, the sponsor
for the initiative, said he
requested the title "Tim
Eyman is a horse's ass." But
the attorney general reworded
the initiative to "a named indi­vidual,"
and the initiative
would label him a disparaging
term for a "self-important, silly
or stupid person." V
Eyman is a Mukilteo busi­nessman
who has sponsored
four initiatives in the last four
years. Three out of four of
these initiatives were found
unconstitutional, including
Tuesday's ruling of 1-776, the
See INITIATIVE, Page 4
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