Western Front - 1998 October 2

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WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2,1998
VOLUME 106 ISSUE 2
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BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON
West urges society to empower families
Front/Jesse Kinsman
Following his message of hope and love, Cornel West hugged many audience members.
West also signed copies of his book and spoke with students at a reception after the speech.
By Mia Penta
The Western Front
Harvard professor and human
rights leader Cornel West inspired
listeners during the opening of the
Distinguished Lecture Series
Thursday.
West's lecture was based on his
book, "The War Against Parents,"
co-authored by British economist
Sylvia Ann Hewlett. Parenting, he
told the attentive crowd, "is the ulti­mate
non-market activity." He
explained parenting is the symbol of
the quality of the larger society.
"The system of caring and nurtur­ing
in society is the measure of the
kind of persons produced by soci­ety,"
West said.
West urged the audience not to
forget; not to leave the past in the
past, but to view history as a contin­uum.
The last century in America, he
said, has been a tradition of struggle,
as our ancestors dealt with such
atrocities as World War I, colonial­ism,
concentration camps, women's
oppression and apartheid, to name a
few.
Today the country is not in much
better shape, he said. Americans
need to face the unpleasant truth;
many institutions today still keep the
majority under their control. West
said 1 percent of the country owns 48
percent of the financial wealth and
36 percent of the material wealth in
this country.
Parents are getting lost in this
struggle; they are overworked and
have less time for their families, he
said. Children are being raised by
television, video games, movies and
malls, or what West calls "consump­tion
strips." The increase in juvenile
crime and the emergence of 'hoods
in both black and white communities
reflects the erosion of families today.
As the father of a 21-year-old son,
West knows the importance of par­ents.
"We need to have a public conver­sation,"
West said, urging "everyday
people" to stand up and fight against
the silent war against parents. The
21st Century will only become worse
unless people start taking charge, he
urged.
"Never give up the notion of
democracy. Everyday people can
make a difference. I am going down
fighting," West said as he closed the
See West, page 3
Police crack down
on college parties
By Nick Haney
The Western Front
Police were ready for annual back-to-school
parties last weekend as nearly
12,000 students moved back to
Bellingham and officers utilized their
new party patrol task force.
More than 10 new officers were hired
for the department's new weekend pro­gram,
the "party patrol," that goes from
loud party to loud party, handing out
minor-in-possession and disorderly
conduct tickets, Bellingham Police
Department spokesperson Dae Jamison
said.
Officers visited known party houses
and warned students of the conse­quences
of throwing large parties, but
few paid attention to the warnings and
had their parties anyway, Jamison said.
"It was a big party; the police were
nice enough to be civil about it," said
Peter Hulst, who, along with his four
roommates, got a visit from the party
patrol while hosting a get-together at
their house in the 1300 block of Ellis
Street last Friday night.
Hulst said up to 15 officers, who were
not officially invited to the party,
showed up with a "paddy-wagon style"
bus due to a noise complaint from
neighbors and reports of underage
drinking.
Two disorderly conduct and a hand-
See Parties, page 8
Vigil targets abuse
By Matt Jaffe
The Western Front
The Whatcom County Domestic
Violence Task Force sponsored a vigil
against domestic violence Thursday
night at Bellingham City Hall to kickoff
Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
The vigil included a ribbon-tying from
3 to 5 p.m., where volunteers handed out
ribbons to be placed on cars or to be
worn. An information table was set up
with brochures, bumper stickers and
other information about the issue of
domestic violence.
During the vigil, Whatcom County
Executive Pete Kremen described a new
joint city/county project against domes-
Front/Erin Fredrichs
Hanah, daughter of a battered woman, sup-
See Vigil, page 8 ported her mother at the vigil Wednesday.
Death of Western New fire station site draws fire
student sudden
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By Matt Williams
The Western Front
The plans to build a new fire station in
Fairhaven have been bogged down
amidst community controversy.
If the new District 2 fire station is built
only two blocks from its present location
at the corner of 14th and Harris streets,
the residents of an apartment complex
known as the "barracks," which currently
stands at the site, will be forced to move.
"It is a forgone conclusion that a new
fire station is imminently in need," said
Bellingham Fire Chief Jay Gunsauls at a
public meeting last Tuesday.
The current station was built in 1927,
the first to be built after horse-drawn fire
engines went out of service, said
Bellingham Fire Department Project
Manager Dave Wolf.
"(The station) is structurally unsound,"
Gunsauls said. "It's being held together
with turnbuckles in the attic. We've got
cables stretched from one end of the
building to the other to suck the walls
back in."
Wolf described the station as "very
antiquated."
The meeting took place at the
Fairhaven Middle School Commons and
featured a presentation by Wolf.
Other notable attendees of the meeting
included Bellingham Mayor Mark
Asmundson and City Council member
Barbara Ryan.
"This was a wonderful meeting, but it
should have been held before," said John
Servais.
. He has been active in the Bellingham
community for many years.
Many who attended the meeting com­plained
that they were "kept in the dark"
too long by the city.
"Democracy was side-stepped in this
process," Servais said.
The search for a new site began with
See Station, page 8