Western Front - 2005 April 8

              ISSUE 3
VOLUME 133 HE WESTERN FRONT
Y, APRIL 8, 2005 • WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY • BELLINGHAM, WASH. • WESTERNFRONTONLINE.COM
Neighborhood
requires service
for citations
Port to charge for moorage
CHRIS HUBER/The Western Front
Ryan Hashagan, a Western junior and Harris Bay resident, spends some time rowing his "skiff" past neighbors on
the bay Thursday. The Bellingham Port Comission will evict residents of Harris Bay if they do not comply with new
moorage regulations.
BY MICHAEL LEE
The Western Front
For more than one hundred years Harris Bay has been a
place where a tight-knit community of sailors and captains have
anchored their boats down free of charge, said Lance Amann, a
23-year native of the Fairhaven district and Harris Bay.
The Port of Bellingham commission held a public meeting
Tuesday to discuss how the port authorities want to change that.
In February, Mike Dodd, the manager of marine services for the
port, sent letters that contained an ultimatum to the registered
vessel owners anchoring in the bay — they must either use the
linear mooring system that floats upon the bay or get out.
The port will impound any boats that are not gone by the
current eviction date of May 1, Dodd said in the letter.
see FAIRHAVEN, page 4
BY KATIE ROTHENBERGER
The Western Front
Partying residents of the York neighborhood
could soon be tangled up with more consequences
for minor-in-possession and disorderly conduct
citations.
This spring, a pilot project will come into
effect with the Office of the City Attorney, The
Western-Campus Community Coalition and the
York Neighborhood Association collaborating
to penalize York neighborhood residents who
receive a MIP or a disorderly conduct charge in the
neighborhood off Lakeway.
The trial period of the program will begin in
the spring and end in June. This penalty only
applies to residents of the York neighborhood,
and the community service recipient can decide
their project from a list of options. Attending the
neighborhood association meetings is mandatory
for the offenders.
The program will require offenders to repay the
neighborhood with community service such as
cleaning around the neighborhood and attending at
least one neighborhood meeting.
"Theprogram is notineffectyet," city prosecuting
attorney Steve Kirkelie said. "It is still something
we are working on, and I hope to implement it soon.
We hope to get it up and running this spring."
The activities included in the community service
are neighborhood park maintenance, weeding
see YORK, page 3
Discussion promotes common ground on abortion
BY LAUREN ALLAIN
The Western Front
The goal was to get people
who may not agree with each
other in the same room looking
eye-to-eye and respecting what
the other side had to say, said
Jesse Moore, Western senior and
Associated Student vice president
for diversity, in his introduction
of Marilyn Cohen and Karen
Swallow Prior.
The two came together in an
Associated Students-sponsored
forum Thursday to discuss the
issue of abortion through a group
calledCommonGround. The group
specializes in presenting forums
that find issues members can agree
on regarding reproductive rights
and abortion, Moore said.
The two began the discourse by
explaining the goals of Common
Ground.
"We live in a culture and a
society that we are trained in every
way to debate," said Prior, an
associate professor of English at
Liberty College in Lynchberg, Va.
"Even when we are listening and
having conversations with people,
we are usually not listening to
what they say, but we're thinking
about what we're going to say
next. And Common Ground is the
opposite of all of that."
Cohen, who said she takes a
pro-choice stance, is the former
director of the Emma Goldman
Clinic for Women, the first
outpatient abortion clinic in Iowa
City, Iowa. She said Common
Ground works similar to a Venn
diagram. In this analogy she is
a pro-choice circle and Prior is
the pro-life circle. Finding the
common ground where the two
overlap is the purpose of the
group's discussions, Cohen said.
The two have been working with
one another since 1998, when they
published a paper together titled
"Common Ground on Abortion
Clinic Activism," which included
every issue on which they have
reached an agreement.
The issues in the paper
include ideas about services for
women such as reducing the
rate of unplanned and unwanted
pregnancies, fostering the
see WOMEN, page 4
Forum addresses Palestinian conflict
BY SARAH KUCK
The Western Front
Despondent images of children
dreaming of happiness, laborers
searching for work and women standing
at military checkpoints illuminated the
screen behind Ellen 0'Grady as she
read about her experiences in occupied
Palestine.
0'Grady's compilation of her stories
and paintings captivated the audience
during Fairhaven College's World
Issues Forum Wednesday.
0' Grady, an artist, author and social
justice activist from Durham, N.C.,
presented her new book, "Outside the
Ark: An Artist's Journey in Occupied
Palestine," at the Fairhaven College
auditorium. O'Grady was a keynote
speaker for the World Issues forum.
"Students had so many questions and
concerns about the Arab world after
9/11 that Fairhaven College decided it
was valuable to continue to offer the
class," Osterhaus said.
"Outside the Ark" is a collection
of O'Grady's paintings and writings,
which brings to life the experiences
she had while living and working in
Palestine for six years as a Middle
East Witness.- The United States sends
Middle East Witness volunteers as
citizen diplomats.
"We were to observe what was going
on and write back about what we saw,"
O'Grady said. "Then when you return
see PALESTINE, page 3
PHOTO COURTESY OF ELLEN O'GRADY
"Aseel's Dream/' is one of 22 paintings in Ellen
O'Grady's "Outside the Ark" series.
TASTY THAI
Taking a look at four
Bellingham Thai
restaurants.
ACCENT, PAGE 6
DOUBLE VISION
Western senior Rob White
has changed his focus from
football to track.
SPORTS, PAGE 8