Did you know that there is an independent film being shot right here in Kokomo? No? Well, that’s okay, because I’m going to fill you in on the basics of it and treat you to my two cents on the whole thing.

The movie being filmed is called County Line. The basic premise for this movie—get ready, because it’s a shocker—is a zombie outbreak in a small town. Now, I know what you might be thinking, because I thought the same thing when I first heard about it. A zombie film? That’s so original! I don’t think there’s that many zombie films out there, right? Oh, but this one is in a small town— not a big city, like those other films. Oh right, Night of the Living Dead happened in a tiny town. Let’s not forget about The Return of the Living Dead. If you think about it, County Line is almost identical to that movie. The only difference is that a deadly gas wasn’t what caused the zombie outbreak…that and it’s in a different town.

I’m not one to talk badly about independent films. I know what goes into them and how much hard work it takes to get everything just right. I don’t understand why another zombie film needed to be made. I honestly don’t think there are any other directions left that you could go with a zombie movie. I know it’s being made because it is a fun idea, and everyone would like to do a zombie film. But I think that’s where it should stay: just a small film that you do sort of off-the-cuff and throw it up on Youtube when it’s finished.

The original interviewee for this article, who is taking part in this film, told me that before I could even do the interview, the “higher ups” had to be notified since they’ve apparently had a few other stories written about them before, which ended up being too shady for their tastes.

I can’t really see this movie going anywhere other than perhaps to a small film festival and some recognition in a few local newspapers. But that’s just my opinion on the whole thing. Some of you reading this may be part of County Line and totally disagree with everything I’ve just said, and that’s fine. We are all entitled to our own opinion.

Micah Taylor

We have to accept the fact that we live in a society that is stressed out and so fast paced that sometimes we feel like we are running in place and not able to keep up. We have all felt overwhelmed and have subsequently developed coping techniques to deal with our stressors. If you were to ask the person next to you what they do to release that built up stress at the end of the day, common answer would include spending time on Facebook, calling a friend, listening to music on an iPod, etc.

Take a moment and try to decipher the common element in each of those answers. That common element that seems to be the glue that holds our social and personal lives in tact is technology. While it is excellent that most people (especially the teenage generation) are available twenty four/seven, is our society abusing the power and the ease of correspondence?

For people who claim to be “best friends,” most exchange I see is between two screens of a computer rather than a face-to-face conversation. I understand that it is not uncommon to go out of state for college and that using a computer is the only option that is available, but what about those that live in the same neighborhood or city, or even on the same street, that chose to tip-tap away on their phone or keyboard rather than having a real conversation?

I got my first phone at 14 and was giddy with excitement. I was about on par for the average age to get a cell phone and could barely contain myself yet again a few months later when I sent my first text. I felt so cool because it was the new to me at the time and was genuinely appreciative for what I had available.

Now I walk through the aisles of Wal-Mart, or any store for that matter, and see kids that cannot be older than the age of 11 with nicer phones than I even have now! Okay, maybe I really am just jealous, but this truly does concern me. What is to become of the next generation whenever they aren’t forced to have the experience of personal interaction with the person they are conversing with because it is so much easier to text?

Do not misunderstand me, it is imperative for functionality to have technology like smart phones and Facebook for businesses to survive, and for those in long distance relationships to converse. However, I implore you to take a second and pause the next time you prepare to send a text. Could you call that person and talk and hear them instead, or better yet invite them for coffee or dinner to catch up? Don’t sacrifice personal interaction with fellow friends or colleges just because it might be easier or more convenient.

Story by Bobbie Jo Ridenhour, Staff Writer

Hindsight is always in crystal-clear, twenty-twenty vision. This is not exactly a new concept, for everyone at some point or other in their lives has regretted a decision and thought, “What was I thinking?”

I very recently learned the hard way that when it comes to picking your professors or a class, even for a required pre-requisite or general education requirement, it is important to think long and hard about whether or not this is the right fit for you. If you go ahead and take the decision lightly, like I did, and chose not to ask around and get a feel for a certain professor’s teaching style, you could find yourself out a lot of money and facing the possibility of needing to pay again and retake a class at a time that is much less convenient for you.

I was able to remedy the situation with my wonderful advisor and drop the class that was giving me trouble; however, some aren’t so lucky and this is reflected heavily in their GPA  

This idea of doing your metaphorical “homework” and taking the time to research the major, career, or any other life changing decision, will pay off in ways you cannot even imagine. Choosing to do simple acts like shadowing someone in your prospective career to see what a real day in the life of what you want to live is like can be extremely eye-opening.

From the time I was six years old up until my senior year of high school, I wanted to go to law school. I was dead set on it and nothing could change my mind. I felt that way until the day I decided to take my high school up on the offer to go to the city and spend some time at a law office. I saw the legal system at work, and in horror, realized that my whole perfect life plan that I had was not going to work out at all. I realized couldn’t stand one second more in that office. I could never make that my profession.

I spent the subsequent few weeks in a mental turmoil of sorts, wrestling with the idea that what I pictured in my mind was not real at all. As bad as I felt, I saw the bright side. Even though I would have to change my major and everything else I had laid out in my life, it was better to find out then while I still had the chance to change rather than making the enormously expensive decision on my first day of law school.

It surprises me to no end that more people don’t take the time to do research on their teachers and careers. The invaluable information of simply asking the person next to you if they liked their professor might just save your GPA and allow you to continue on to a graduate school or at least allow you to make the excellent grades to land your dream job.

Once you have established yourself as a serious student and are sure this is indeed the career path you wish to follow, then take the time to volunteer and shadow someone in the profession you want.

Story by Bobbie Jo Ridenhour, Staff Writer

I failed the midterm in one of my classes the other day. It wasn’t my fault though. The professor didn’t cover all of the information that was on the test and he counted off for every little thing. I’m really mad about it and I’m going to be sure to torch him on his evaluation.

That is an entirely fictional story, but it is one that I hear from students all the time, and it drives me crazy. People have become so comfortable finding someone else to blame for their problems that nobody wants to take responsibility for their own actions anymore. My question, however, is this: Did you honestly put in all the effort that you could? How hard did you actually study? How much effort did you put into the homework?  Did you actually take notes during class, or just play Angry Birds? I’ll be the first to admit that there are some teachers that are less than effective, but students are also less than enthusiastic about hitting the books when there is a party going on, football on TV, or whatever you find to be your distraction of choice. We’re all paying for this education, so why do students pay $700 for a C- or a D?

Don’t get me wrong—I’m a big fan of doing things other than homework. I’d much rather be out with my friends, eating wings and having a good time, instead of reading text books and taking notes. Yet, grades are important to me, and at the end of the day, I myself am solely responsible for acquiring them.

The positive side to this is that when you do something great, you can accept responsibility for that too. If you finish a difficult class with an A, or accomplished a personal goal, you can own the sense of pride that comes along with it!  It’s just asinine to try and claim credit when something goes right, but blame others when things go poorly.

In the long run, there will be things that go well in life, and there will also be struggles.  Dealing with various situations is what makes us who we are. The best thing we can do is learn from all of it.

I know that some will agree with my opinion and some won’t, and I respect that. I would just like to ask that you take a minute and consider my perspective, and I thank you for your time.

John Robertson

The extension of the Theory of Place leads almost directly to Aldo Leopold’s
statement that, “All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the
individual is a member of a community of independent parts.” Apart from the semantics involved with the term “independent,” implying the rules of the human system, the Mary-by-herself of Mary Austin that sees complete separation between the multiple parts of a community, Leopold’s statement leads directly to the Land Ethic. Instead of the independent parts of Leopold, the importance of the interconnectedness of the community and the overlap of Self, Body, and Place are paramount.  Therefore, what Leopold intended to be an extension of human-system rules of conduct amongst other humans transferring over to the Land itself has instead been expanded to not only cover the people but their connections with place.

The search is not what we can do to heal the environment, as it is almost certain that Nature will gradually erase the effects of humanity over eons, if given the opportunity. I honestly don’t believe that we, as humans, have done anything or could do anything that will end all life on earth. We could certainly annihilate ourselves, but the planet will go on. So, instead of trying to heal Nature, in considering the scope of time that it will affect humanity, we must temper our decisions with the intention of finding the proper balance between our effects on the environment and our importance to the environment. We must strive to minimize our impact on Nature. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.

We serve no essential purpose to the biome, to Nature. We’ve exterminated the carrier pigeon and many other species (which served roles within the community), and we mourn their loss out of a sense of responsibility for past misdeeds. We have removed many valuable members of Nature from their places, but had the funeral been ours, the pigeons would hardly have mourned us. Our role, if it can be called such, in Nature appears to be an ability for alteration and management of the community. We build walls to keep our human-system safe from the biotic system. We can sit indoors by a fire (or heating vent) and ask ourselves the questions, “Am I hungry? Am I cold?” in the middle of winter. Outside of our walls, outside of the human-system, the questions are instead “Am I going to starve to death?” and “Am I going to freeze to death?” Our purpose seems to be to remove ourselves, to distance ourselves from the natural, biotic community, and create a separate domain where Nature does not hold sway: A Human Exemptionalism Paradigm.

As a member of a community of dependent and related parts, it is vital to remember that no decision solely affects one aspect of the community, but it instead influences several interrelated pieces.
Brian A. Arwood

Millionaire basketball players are currently squabbling and pouting over more millions of dollars from team owners, who, in turn, squabble and pout over the millions right back at them. They’re fighting over how to split up over $4 billion, and, bless their hearts, they spent a whopping 15 hours the other day in a marathon negotiation session. They deserve praise for arguing so long in one day over all that money. Now, basketball players are following the general state of the American job market. When jobs in America are hard to find, say, when their league is locked out like it is now, or those greedy unions want benefits and a decent wage – look for work overseas. Brilliant. This is the trickle-down effect executed to perfection, like a well-executed pick-and-roll or post move, but the basket is Asia and the defender is Richard Nixon.  And make sure you mean-mug the guy you just floored after he ran into you blindsided, corporate America. When the super-rich are threatened with loss of their capital, they take their jobs overseas instead. Ironically enough, China is one of the options many professional basketball players are considering, where they will probably recognize a great deal of our manufacturing jobs that were transplanted previously.

We’re still unemployed at dangerous percentages, now add those poor, maltreated millionaire basketball players to the mix. Our economy is still struggling. We can practically smell, hear, or feel the next recession around the corner. But our unemployment rate is falling and that is good, right? Well, sort of, and by sort of, I mean no. It turns out that when your unemployment benefits run out (and in a multi-year recession, that number of people is quite high) you fall off of the unemployment statistics. So you still don’t have a job, but now you’re not a burdensome blip on the political radar, you’re safely ignored. Hurray!

Tax the rich? Crazy idea. That was probably a socialist talking. That would never work.  It is the only reason we have our crumbling, insufficient infrastructure like the National Highway system that we haven’t really maintained since it was built. Taxes are how we pay for trash removal, and plowed roads in the winter, and public libraries, and police, and our vaunted healthcare system. So what happens if we do tax the rich, after all? Nothing, really. Their high-priced accountants (no small wonder their unemployment rate is really low) find a way for them not to pay (the clever corporate ones find a way to not pay and get an obscene refund). Or they’ll move out of the country. You? You’re screwed – wait, did your unemployment benefits just expire? Sweet, because now you’re a non-unemployed person without a job paying a higher tax rate than those poor, destitute, maltreated millionaire basketball players. True, you don’t have a job, but now you don’t matter anymore again. Maybe you should work on your post moves or elbow jumper.

 Brian A. Arwood