LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) Arkansas Republicans tried to distance themselves Saturday from a Republican state repre-sentative’s assertion that slav-ery was a “blessing in disguise” and a Republican state House candidate who advocates de-porting all Muslims.

The claims were made in books written, respectively, by Rep. Jon Hubbard of Jonesboro and House candidate Charlie Fuqua of Batesville.

Those books received atten-tion on Internet news sites Fri-day.

On Saturday, state GOP Chairman Doyle Webb called the books “highly offensive.” And U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, a Republican who represents northeast Arkansas, called the writings “divisive and racially inflammatory.”

Hubbard wrote in his 2009 self-published book, “Letters To The Editor: Confessions Of A Frustrated Conservative,” that “the institution of slavery

that the black race has long believed to be an abomina-tion upon its people may actu-ally have been a blessing in disguise.” He also wrote that African-Americans were better off than they would have been had they not been captured and shipped to the United States.

Fuqua, who served in the Arkansas House from 1996 to 1998, wrote there is “no solu-tion to the Muslim problem short of expelling all followers of the religion from the United States,” in his 2012 book, titled “God’s Law.”

Fuqua said Saturday that he hadn’t realized he’d become a target within his own party, which he said surprised him.

“I think my views are fairly well-accepted by most people,” Fuqua said before hanging up, saying he was busy knocking on voters’ doors. The attor-ney is running against incum-bent Democratic Rep. James McLean in House District 63.

Hubbard, a marketing repre-sentative, didn’t return voice-mail messages seeking com-ment Saturday. He is running against Democrat Harold Co-

penhaver in House District 58.The November elections

could be a crucial turning point in Arkansas politics. Democrats hold narrow majorities in both chambers, but the GOP has been working hard to swing the Legislature its way for the first time since the end of the Civil War, buoyed by picking up three congressional seats in 2010.

Their efforts have also been backed by an influx of money from national conservative groups.

Rep. Crawford said Saturday he was “disappointed and dis-turbed.”

“The statements that have been reported portray attitudes and beliefs that would return our state and country to a harmful and regrettable past,” Crawford said.

U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., kicked off the GOP’s response Saturday by issuing a release, saying the “statements of Hub-bard and Fuqua are ridiculous, outrageous and have no place in the civil discourse of either party.”

“Had I known of these state-

ments, I would not have con-tributed to their campaigns. I am requesting that they give my contributions to charity,” said Griffin, who donated $100 to each candidate.

The Arkansas Republican House Caucus followed, say-ing the views of Hubbard and Fuqua “are in no way reflective of, or endorsed by, the Repub-lican caucus. The constituen-cies they are seeking to repre-sent will ultimately judge these statements at the ballot box.”

Then Webb, who has spear-headed the party’s attempt to control the Legislature, said the writings “were highly offen-sive to many Americans and do not reflect the viewpoints of the Republican Party of Arkansas. While we respect their right to freedom of expression and thought, we strongly disagree with those ideas.”

Webb, though, accused state Democrats of using the issue as a distraction.

Democrats themselves have been largely silent, aside from the state party’s tweet and Facebook post calling attention to the writings. A Democratic

Party spokesman didn’t imme-diately return a call for com-ment Saturday.

The two candidates share other political and religious views on their campaign web-sites.

Hubbard, who sponsored a failed bill in 2011 that would have severely restricted immi-gration, wrote on his website that the issue is still among his priorities, as is doing “whatever I can to defend, protect and pre-serve our Christian heritage.”

Fuqua blogs on his website. One post is titled, “Christianity in Retreat,” and says “there is a strange alliance between the liberal left and the Muslim re-ligion.”

“Both are antichrist in that they both deny that Jesus is God in the flesh of man, and the savior of mankind. They both also hold that their cause should take over the entire world through violent, bloody, revolution,” the post says.

In a separate passage, Fuqua wrote “we now have a president that has a well documented his-tory with both the Muslim reli-gion and Communism.”

Freshman Seminar classes, faculty and staff filed into Ar-kansas Hall as faculty and hon-orees took their seats on the stage for the annual Founders’ Day Convocation.

The Processional and Na-tional Anthem performed by the Arkansas Brass kicked off the event.

President Glendell Jones, Jr. greeted all. Directly after, Phil Turner, president of the Stu-dent Government Association, informed students that they too could be successful Henderson graduates like those being hon-ored.

Five faculty members were honored this year for excel-lence in scholarly or creative activity.

Teacher’s College honored Mr. Don Benton, who was re-ferred to by his nominator as a “mover and shaker of technol-ogy.” Ellis College recognized Dr. Haroon Khan, Dr. David Bateman, and Mr. Paul Glover. Ms. Kathie Buckman was rec-ognized for the School of Busi-ness and Dr. Allison Harris received the Outstanding New Faculty Member Award.

Ms. Rebecca Jester gradu-ated with her B.S.E in elemen-tary education in 1969 and M.S.E. in 1973.

She has received her reading specialist K-12 designation, cur-riculum specialist certification from Henderson and Ouachita Baptist University, elementary principal certification and ad-ministrator certification from University of Central Arkansas.

“It is a huge honor for me to be here,” Jester said. “It’s my colleagues who recognized

me. You can say I’m a Reddie through and through, except on Fridays I’m a ‘Go Devil.’”

Jester served as the assis-tant director and coordinator of special projects of the Daw-son Co-op for 11 years before becoming the director. The Arkadelphia Area Chamber of Commerce has named Jester as the Citizen of the Year, and the cooperative was named Large Business of the Year.

Mr. Matthew Hass received his bachelor’s degree in com-munication in 1999. He serves as the executive director of the Arkansas Trail Lawyers Asso-ciation.

“I wasn’t a grades type per-son,” Hass said. “I made a deal with my mom when I was

little that if I got all A’s that she would get me a dirt bike. Well, I didn’t get it that year, or the next or ever. Mom did tell me, though, that if I worked hard enough for what I want, then I can do anything.”

After graduating from Hen-derson, Hass stepped into the political scene.

He served as Chair in the Democratic Party of Saline County. His focuses are pub-lic policy and advocacy work, education, healthcare and con-sumer advocacy.

In 2004, Hass began manag-ing the political activities of the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Associ-ation. He is also on the National Association of Trail Lawyers Executives’ committee.

“I go to work everyday and fight for something that I really believe in,” Hass said.

Dr. Thomas Aiello graduated in 2000 with his bachelor’s de-gree, his master’s in 2004, and Ph.D. in 2007. He is currently an assistant professor of histo-ry and African American stud-ies at Valdosta State University.

Aiello has published several articles about American histo-ry, philosophy, religion, linguis-tics, sports and culture. He is the author of “Bayou Classic: The Grambling-Southern Foot-ball Rivalry” and “The Kings of Casino Park: Black Baseball in the Lost Season of 1932.”

He has written three novels, four manuscripts, other shorter works of fiction, and is current-

ly working on another manu-script.

“College is like a balanc-ing act,” Aiello said. “Not only should you try to get the grades while you’re in college, but also find your place, your significance.”

Ms. Bobbie Lee majored in human services and has a mi-nor in sociology.

“I didn’t focus well in school,” Lee said. “My teacher would ask me what six plus six was, but I was staring out the win-dow saying ‘Monkey bars, shiny, shiny, red squirrel.’”

She graduated in 2001 from Henderson. Lee is the county supervisor for the Arkansas Di-vision of Children and Family Services in Clark County. She was named the county supervi-sor for Clark, Pike and Howard counties in 2011.

Prior to joining the Arkansas Department of Human servic-es in 2004 as a family service worker, Lee interned at the De-partment of Human Services and later became an investiga-tor for the office of Child Sup-port Enforcement in 2001.

“Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you cannot be what you want to be because you can,” Lee said.

Mr. Cal McCastlain gradu-ated in 1981. He is a retired colonel from the Arkansas Army National Guard Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Mc-Castlain is an attorney for the Dover Dixon Horne law firm in Little Rock and serves as a di-rector for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The Arkan-sas Brass ended the convoca-tion with the “Alma Mater” and “Canzona No. 2.”

Information courtesy of pub-lic relations

Ark. GOP calls candidate’s statements offensive

News

Opinions

Features/News

Diversions

Sports

2

3

4

5

6

Inde

x

Founder’s Day celebrated with annual speeches

OracleThe

MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2012 HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY VOLUME 105, ISSUE 8

Colbie McCloudStaff Writer

OLD TRADITION TRANSITIONS Glendell Jones speaks in traditional garb to commemorate Founder’s Day. The celebration is one of respect for those who paved the way for Henderson students.

Chuck BartelsAssociated Press

Photo by Ryan Klare/Oracle

Musical notes, piano trills and applause are nothing new to vocal music majors, but on Thursday both vocal music ma-jors and non-music majors alike crowded into the RFA Harwood Recital Hall to hear a couple of new voices.

Matthew and Kristee Haney are a married duo with many talents in the vocal per-forming arts. Matthew Haney is a baritone with a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from John Brown University, and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the Univer-sity of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Haney also has experience as an oper-atic stage director.

Kristee Haney, a mezzo-soprano, received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory of Music and her Master of Music in Opera from the University of Kansas. She has experience performing in operas and musi-cal theatre.

Both are working on re-ceiving a Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance from The University of Kansas.

Mr. and Mrs. Haney gave a performance accompanied by Henderson’s Dr. Juhn on piano, and then taught a master class Friday afternoon.

“First and foremost, I hope all the students had an enrich-ing musical experience hearing the guest artists’ recital,” Dr. Ryan Fox, director of choral activities, said. “When choos-ing a guest artist it is important to look at what they can bring to the students. Mr. and Mrs. Haney have diverse experi-ences as musicians which give them a unique perspective on vocal performance.”

The last few songs, how-ever, ended the show with a laugh, and students had the pleasure of seeing one of their own voice professors, Dr. Lau-ra Storm, perform alongside them.

“I think the guest artists that came were very well pre-pared and experienced,” Kai-tlyn Tolleson, a mass media major, said. “They both had

beautiful voices and the perfor-mances were phenomenal and dramatic.”

“I especially enjoyed Mrs. Haney,” Jordan Murdock, a sophomore vocal music educa-tion major, said. “She showed great technique and reinforced a lot of the things that all the vo-cal staff emphasize and instill in students. I think it is awe-some that a husband and wife perform side by side. I’m sure it’s great for them knowing that they are doing what they love with who they love.”

The Haneys gave a very diverse performance, singing about four songs each in many different languages, and then singing together at the end.

“Mr. and Mrs. Haney are close friends of mine,” said Fox. “This meant they were willing to work with Dr. Storm, Dr. Higgins and me on select-ing repertoire that would be most beneficial to our students and tailoring the master class towards our students’ needs. I hope they hear literature they are not familiar with but enjoy and discover new composers and musical styles that they can

incorporate into their own vocal studies.”

While many vocal perfor-mance majors are still getting used to having audiences, it’s nothing new to the Haneys.

“We travel to six, seven or eight places a year,” Mr. Haney said. “Everyone at Henderson has been really nice and wel-coming. It’s a lovely campus.”

Besides marrying his wife, Mr. Haney believes his biggest accomplishment so far was his directorial debut. Haney has been director or assistant di-rector for more than a dozen operas.

“It’s really nice to have a cou-ple vocal music guest artists,” Matthew James, a senior sociol-ogy major, said. “It’s a good ex-perience, and we should have more of them.”

“Guest artists expose stu-dents to even more musical per-formances and repertoire than they are exposed to in their education,” Fox said. “This ex-perience… enables them to see the possibilities in this profes-sion as well as the competition in the profession.”

The Garrison Center has pur-chased two new phone-charging stations. These charging stations can help charge your Blackberry, iPhone, tablets and most phone devices. There is one located in front of the Information Office and another one located in the Reddie Café.

Ernie Higgs, the director of Garrison Center, came up with the idea to incorporate the charg-ing stations at Henderson.

“This past summer, the com-pany Quickpost sent information to me,” Higgs said. “They just looked like something interest-ing, and they are a big thing in air-ports, sporting venues and larger campuses. The guy showing me the info was new to the area, and he just sent me a little information over the charging stations, and I checked into it, and I thought, ‘Why not?’ It seems like a neat idea to do.”

“Those two we currently have were probably around $400 when it’s all said and done,” Higgs said.

“We went ahead and bought the newest cords, but they haven’t came out yet for the iPhone 5.”

The iPhone 5 has been a buzz-ing topic since its recent release back on Sept. 21.

Apple had announced earlier this year that the iPhone was go-ing to adopt a new eight-pin con-nector called the Lightning.

Some didn’t like the idea of this change since most Apple prod-ucts had been using the standard 30-pin since 2003.

“We’re going to try to upgrade as much as we can, and we’re go-ing to get the iPhone 5 cords sent in as soon as the company gets a hold of it because the cord really hasn’t been released yet,” Higgs

said. “When deciding what cords to use, the company went off with the three highest sellers, which are Android, iPhone and Galaxy.”

Higgs noted how great the charging stations have been with students, but also pointed out some minor flaws in using them.

“It seems to be a hit,” he said. “I’ve seen kids charge their phone up, and walk up and down the hall. That’s kind of good, but then again it’s bad because we’re not responsible if somebody comes and swipes the phone.”

David Moore, a freshman ma-joring in biology and pre-med, believes that this idea is accurate.

“It’s a bad idea because who is willing to stand there and wait

on his or her phone for five min-utes just to get a battery charged,” Moore said. “I mean it’s a good idea to have it, but I just don’t see who would have all that free time.”

Ishmael Asaba, a sophomore majoring in accounting and busi-ness, thinks the stations are not all a smart deal.

“I think it’s a waste of mon-ey,” Asaba said. “You could just charge your phone at your own house or anywhere else here on campus. You should take respon-sibility to charge your own phone at home.”

Even though a few people might fear that the charging sta-tions may be a bad idea, Higgs

has seen the stations become a success.

“A lot of our students who work here will come plug their phones in, and the café, I’ve been told has been extremely busy,” he said. “They’ll just sit at the table and charge it while they’re eating lunch. I’ve even had other offices ask me about information regard-ing the chargers, and it’s looking like a couple other buildings may check in for it too.”

With the addition of charging stations, students may no longer have to worry about their phone dying any time soon. As for the Garrison, Higgs said that their may be an addition to the number of stations in the near future.

Last week the Russell Fine Arts Gallery presented a new exhibit that displays printmak-ing artwork. Two different people created each print work.

Aaron Calvert, the director of the gallery, started the open-ing reception with the history of how the prints came to exis-tence.

“This idea started over a year ago, and consisted of a bunch of printmakers in the area,” he said. “It’s a collaborate thing, so there are two stages to this where one artist basically prints an image a dozen times, and then what happens is those prints go, and they get collected by one person and they shuffle the prints up and redistribute them out to the participating people so that they print a con-junction with that original print that they received.”

In the second stage, artists added traditional printmaking process such as photo trans-fers, stencils, painting, collage and drawings.

The artist is then free to change the image to his or her view with respect to the origi-nal print by making changes that reflect the original artist’s mind.

There were 38 prints at the exhibit. Printmakers judged which ones were worthy of be-ing displayed at the exhibit.

Calvert had quite a few prints in the exhibit. One of the prints he worked on from stage one is called “The Rocker.”

“The original guy has a guitar in his mouth, and his hands are real big and fill up a lot of the area,” Calvert said. “I got it, and my job was to add my thing to it, so I did the green fish part,

which covered up about half of his work.”

Calvert stressed the amount of pressure involved.

“There’s a lot of pressure not to mess someone else’s work up because if what you thought was going to look one way ends up looking totally different, you mess up,” he said.

Cecilia Medina Delgadillo, a sophomore with an undecided major, was among one of the few who named a red and yel-low print the favorite out of all.

“I like the colors, the design and texture in it,” Delgadillo said. “I really like the design and the colors because what it portrays is really neat. The way the artist used the design and color, it brings out a zigzag tex-ture.”

“I don’t like every print here, just some of them stood out to me,” she said. “It just depends on your interest, and I like art so when I see an artwork that I really like, it gives me ideas and examples of something else to do, similar to that, but totally different.”

Hassanna Tadi, junior digital art and design major, liked one of the prints of an African wom-an with the country’s outline imposed into her image.

“I’ve never been to a print making event,” Tadi said. “It’s pretty cool. All the work is beau-tiful. Everyone should come if they have a chance, since it’s open until the last day of Octo-ber. I’m excited to take the print making class now because I’ve seen the possibilities of what I can do in print making with all the different techniques shown here today. I think people should come and suppor, or just look around if they have never seen fine artwork like this.”

Art opening reception is a huge hit PAGE 2 OCTOBER 8, 2011News

News BriefsOn Monday, Oct. 8 the

Center for International Pro-grams and Office of Diversi-ty and Multicultural Affairs will be showing a film in the Garrison Lecture Hall at 7 p.m. called “Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth.” After the film, Ms. Miyera Reith will speak about un-documented students and the DREAM Act.

Also on Monday, guest artist Duo Avanzando will be visiting the Harwood Re-cital Hall beginning at 7:30 p.m.

There will be a women’s volleyball match on Tues-day, Oct. 9 against Texas A&M in Commerce, Texas. The match will be at 7 p.m.

The third part of the Pres-ident’s Recital will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 5 p.m. at the Texarkana Country Club.

The Friends of Music Faculty Showcase will be on Tuesday, October 9, in the Harwood Recital Hall.

Fall Break will officially begin on Thursday, October 11. The offices will be open during that Thursday and Friday, but there will be no classes.

On Friday, October 12, the Lady Reddie volleyball team will go up against South-western Oklahoma at 6 p.m. It is a home match, so head out to the Wells and support the team.

The Arkadelphia Arts Center will be holding the 6th Annual Round About Artist Studio Tour on Satur-day, October 19. It will begin when the center opens at 10 a.n.

There will be an away football game on Saturday, October 13, against Hard-ing. The game starts at 6 p.m,. in Searcy Arkansas.

This Saturday is also the last chance to see the HSU-OBU Art Faculty Exhibit at the Arkdalphia Art Center. The Saturday hours for the center are from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

The Haunted River will be showing every week-end throughout the month of October. This will be a haunted house that is along the Caddo River in Caddo Valley.

Photo courtesy of Kenneth Ibarra

Interpretations Students gathered to view prints by students and faculty in the RFA Gallery.

Kenneth IbarraStaff Writer

Kenneth IbarraStaff Writer

Garrison brings new charging stations to Henderson

The Haneys perform for HSU students and staffKatie BlairStaff Writer

Over the past few years, I have seen every example of a bad employee. Many of these experiences still remind me of what kind of worker I would like to be.

Sometimes I think someone has published a book full of funny secret ways to get off work or make your co-workers mad.

We have all been there be-fore. That awesome event that everyone has been talking about for weeks is tonight.

You want to go so bad! You are definitely wishing you could skip work.

Then all day long you’re sit-ting in class, dreading having to go to work later that night. All you want to do is have fun.

The anticipation nags at you all day.

The thought crosses your mind that you have only called in sick a few times in the past year.

Before you even realize it you are picking up the phone and calling in, praying hard that your boss doesn’t pick up the phone and you can just tell one of your co-workers you’ve caught the “stomach bug” and

won’t be able to make it to work.

To all of your fellow co-work-ers, you are now known as the annoying person who calls in too much.

Does this bring back any em-ories for anyone? Needless to say, your boss isn’t naive. Your great grandmother can’t pass away 300 times in a year.

Life just happens sometimes. Some things do come up that

may cause you to miss work. But normally, the best thing to do is just show up.

My family has owned a busi-ness for five years. I’ve seen all the tricks in the book for tak-ing off work and failing as an employee.

Using a blow dryer on your forehead, then coming into the business to show us you have

a fever. How smart of you. You can totally see the red mark on your forehead from the heat of the dryer.

“I have an iron deficiency. Can’t come to work today.” Ten minutes later on their Facebook status, they’re post-ing “Partying it up with the besties at the cluuuuubbb! Get-tin’ pumped.” Classic move. I didn’t know the boogie fever was an illness.

It’s like your manager or boss has super senses. They have secret ninja spies that watch your every move.

Working woes don’t only include the inconsistent per-son who takes off work, but also the annoying person who works the shift before you.

Say you are the one worker at the business who does ev-

erything and more than your boss expects of you. How frustrating is it to go into work and find that the person who worked before you slacked off majorly? Food is swept under the cabinets. Ice cream is splat-tered from floor to ceiling. The stock is running super low.

I’ve witnessed this first hand. The business is ransacked, and nothing is set up for the second shift.

You call the person out on their poorly done job and then they lie straight to your face.

Or you attend the typical once a month employee meet-ing, and the crazy employee who thinks they run the place keeps talking.

“You have to do unto others as they do unto you,” said the craziest crazy woman I have ever met.

What a great motto to live your life by! If the person be-fore you makes a mess, you make a bigger mess. If they slap you in the face, you punch them in the face.

What has this world come to? How do you twist the most golden rule in the history of the world? All in all, work-ing woes are just a fact of life. There are many things we will face in the workplace. It all de-pends on how we face them.

One of the most terrifying experiences I ever endured in elementary school was the presidential fitness challenge. Every day I would walk outside to P.E. and see the multiple sta-tions. My eyes would widen with terror.

The pull-up bar was the worst. It was humiliating to have to re-veal the fact I couldn’t do one pull-up in front of my peers. My body was always heavier than I could manage to lift, and I could feel the eyes upon me as I heard stifled giggles while I struggled to achieve just one.

I would always fail. I could always see the bar getting closer and closer, and then I could hear this tiny voice in the back of my mind just whisper-ing to me, “Give up, give up, you can’t do it.” Eventually, I would just give into the voice in my mind and my hands would just become limp, falling to the ground and feeling ashamed and humiliated that I couldn’t manage to lift my chin above the bar just once while other kids did it repeatedly.

My parents were concerned with my troubles in P.E. I would often come home on the verge of tears because of some physical inadequacy.

I couldn’t pitch a ball as far as the other kids. I couldn’t do a pull-up while other kids could do several. I couldn’t run a mile without trailing far behind the other kids.

Finally, mom and dad decid-ed to consult a doctor about it. After some testing, I was diag-nosed with Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy (BMD).

Becker’s Muscular Dystro-phy is a genetic muscle disor-der that takes its name from a

protein called dystrophin that repairs damaged muscle tissue. Muscles become damaged when they are strained and worked hard.

The dystrophin builds it back stronger, but with muscular dystrophy, the body does not produce as much dystrophin or in some cases, none at all. It also leads to muscle deteriora-tion with age.

BMD is considered an invis-ible disorder because there are no specific traits that mark someone with BMD.

There are no physical defects and no disfiguration. The only visible symptoms are that peo-ple with BMD tend to walk on their toes or stick their abdomi-nal muscles out while standing or walking.

I struggled until high school with feeling my shortcomings

in the gym, having to work in the school library.

The mental strain of watch-ing other kids so far surpass me in athletic ability was just too much to not get upset over. I felt weak and frail. I often won-dered if I wasn’t normal.

It wasn’t until my high school years that I finally understood my shortcomings in the gym didn’t matter. I had other strengths.

I couldn’t do a successful pull-up in elementary school, but I could build awesome things out of Lego blocks.

When I was about five years old, my grandma bought me a Lego UFO 292-piece set that was marked to be for ages 8-12 years old.

Lego called it the “Interstellar Starfighter” kit number 6979.

It was some kind of alien spaceship that you would ex-pect to see in a comic book.

It had a flying saucer that would mount to the rear of the ship by magnets and had a mo-torized engine that would spin and light up via fiber optics.

It was pretty complicated for

someone my age, but regard-less, I had the entire thing as-sembled and functioning with-in a matter of hours.

I discovered in high school that there’s more to life than athletic ability.

A high school football player may say otherwise, but in real-ity, everyone has something that makes him or her feel in-ferior.

I’ve accomplished something that some people my age have never thought of achieving. I placed sixth in state in Auto-motive Service Technology at the SkillsUSA conference, after only having one year of Auto-motive Technology classes.

I’m not disabled, and I’m not handicapped. I’m just like everyone else. I live with this shortcoming every day, and I don’t feel like it holds me back in the slightest. I will never let BMD or that voice that told me to give up on doing pull-ups in P.E. control my life.

Everyone has that one thing that makes them feel as if they’re disabled and so far be-hind everyone else.

The key is to count your blessings and remember that you may have shortcomings in one specific area of life, but you should never let that hold you back.

For that one place you fall short, there are thousands of other places where you rise above everyone else.

Find that one thing you’re special at and enjoy it as much as you can. That will outweigh the bad.

OCTOBER 8, 2012 PAGE 3 Opinions

Kaitlyn TollesonGuest Columnist

Y OURH O N E S T OPINIONWhat is your favorite class this semester?

Jessica Lewissenior

psychology“Behavior Modification. There have been a lot of interesting projects

and stuff.”

Justin Youngfreshman

digital art and design“Seminar class. My

teacher makes it really fun and interesting.”

Kalayah Andersonsenior

sociology“Research Methods.

Weare doing a research project this

semester that I’m really excited about.”

Joanne Michaelfreshmanundecided

“Seminar, because you don’t really have to do

anything. It’s easy.”

Inadequacy:Life with BMDChris IngramGuest Columnist

Katelyn Jacksonsophomore

early childhood education“Public school art. I get to teach some of

the lessons, so I like it because I get actual

teaching experience.”

Working woes:Life on the job

“I will never let BMD or that voice that told me to give up on doing pull-ups in P.E. control my life.”

“My family has owned a business for five years. I’ve seen all the tricks in the book for taking off work and failing as an employee.”

Nothing says Hollywood like taking something that was a suc-cess and trying to recreate the magic a few years later. The only problem with this is that most of the time it doesn’t work.

Like the sequels to “Jaws,” “Terminator 2” and “The Hang-over,” Liam Neeson’s “Taken 2” attempts to profit off of the success of the original and once again tries to instill the fear of be-ing kidnapped by criminals in a foreign country.

Neeson reprises his role as Bryan Mills, an overprotective ex-C.I.A. operative who will stop at nothing to ensure that his fam-ily is safe.

When he isn’t protecting pow-erful people or killing bad guys, Mills comforts his ex-wife and terrorizes his daughter’s boy-friend.

In an attempt to bring his fam-ily together, he invites his ex-wife Lenore, played Famke Janssen, and his daughter Kim, played by Maggie Grace, to join him in Is-tanbul for a few days. Little does he know he has just put them in danger.

This time around Murad Krasniqi, the father of the main antagonist from the first movie, is targeting Bryan’s whole fam-ily.

His plan is to kidnap the family and take them back to Albania where they will be punished for the crimes com-mitted against the antagonists’ families.

Just as the vacation is start-ing, Bryan notices that some-thing is off. While out to lunch with Lenore, he sees that they are being followed and quickly takes action.

Before he can escape, he finds himself surrounded and forced to surrender. The group of criminals then takes him and Lenore captive, and Bryan’s special set of “skills” takes over.

With the help of a special phone on his person, Bryan is able to contact Kim, who has avoided being captured, and instructs her on how to find them.

Now Kim must use her fa-ther’s special skills to save her parents before they are killed. The stakes are high, and now the man who saves his family must now be saved himself.

There are a lot of things about “Taken 2” that make it a bad movie. The biggest thing

is how similar that plot is to the original.

This sequel brings nothing new to the table and gives audi-ences what they’ve already had.

It has been four years since the first “Taken” came out, and it’s sad to see that this is the best the studio and writer could come up with. It feels rushed and is unsatisfying.

It is hard to believe that the same thing happens to the same family twice.

Another issue that brings the movie down is the acting.

Neeson is a great actor, but sometimes he tries too hard. In-stead of spending time develop-ing a character he simply runs around grunting and growling

his cheesy lines. He is one bad movie away from being Samuel L. Jackson.

They are both still great ac-tors, but have become some-what of a joke in pop culture.

Neeson’s acting isn’t all to blame. Luc Besson’s writing could have been way better. This is the guy who wrote “Leon: The Professional” and “The Fifth Element,” and all he could come up with was a re-hash of a movie he had already written.

The dialogue is weak and most of the scenes just seem awkward, especially the end-ing.

Besson and Neeson have the potential to make a great

team. With a great script and Neeson acting like he did in “Schindler’s List,” the two cre-ate an incredible movie.

“Taken 2” suffers from the studio’s desire to make money. They traded story for dollars and the movie seems unreal and detached because of it.

In the end “Taken 2” winds up being a lazy recreation of a movie everyone’s already seen. The only difference is no one seems interested anymore.

Audiences have matured and expect better when it come to movies. “Taken 2” still treats people as if they started watch-ing movies yesterday.

“Taken 2” aims high but falls short.

PAGE 4 OCTOBER 8, 2012Features/News

Reviewer not ‘Taken’ the second time aroundJ.D. RobertsStaff Writer

OVER A BARREL Liam Neeson reprises his role as Brian Mills in the sequel to the hit action thriller, “Taken.” The film features another attempt to retrieve kidnapped family members, and the writers keep the story similar to the first movie, with which they had success.

Photos courtesy of EuropaCorp

Corrections on the solar panel installation story:

Aaron Harford is the person who owns the house, not Horford. The tax credit is federal, not state. “Until the bottom fell out,” refers to oil prices.

BENTON, Ark. (AP) An an-chor who worked for Little Rock television station KTHV was killed in a traffic crash on Inter-state 30, just weeks after he left his longtime job in northwest Arkansas at KNWA-TV.

Matt Turner, 32, died Satur-day in Saline County when his SUV left Interstate 30 in Benton, crashed into the concrete base of a sign and caught fire, Arkan-sas State Police said. No one else was in the vehicle.

KTHV issued a statement Sunday that said Turner started at the station in September af-ter eight years as an anchor at KNWA in Fayetteville.

An Arkadelphia native, Turner attended Ouachita Baptist Uni-versity where he played quar-terback and met his wife, Julee Turner. He also has a 10-month-old daughter, Preslee, according to the station.

Turner’s family issued a state-ment, saying: “Matt always loved and protected his family and his greatest asset was his love for his daughter Preslee.”

Colleagues and viewers flood-ed KTHV’s Twitter feed and website with condolence notes.

The station retweeted Julee Turner’s statement, which read: “I appreciate the love & prayers from everyone! I can’t compre-hend what has happened to the love of my life. Please continue to pray for us!”

The station’s statement de-scribed Turner’s devotion to his family.

“For the first two years after the passing of his father, Matt drove from Fayetteville to Arka-delphia every weekend to be with his mother Lisa and brother Andy.

Those that knew him best say he was a great husband, dad, son, brother and friend. He genuinely cared for others,” the statement said.

In addition to anchoring the news, Turner moderated po-litical debates, covered break-ing news and shot and produced news stories.

In a brief segment during half-time of Sunday’s late-afternoon NFL game, KTHV anchors Dawn Scott and Craig O’Neill, both wearing black, announced Turner’s death. Scott’s voice broke as she described Turner’s family.

The state police report said it was raining at the time of the crash.

Wire ReportAssociated Press

Arkadelphia native dies in fatal crash

The Oracle is produced by and for Henderson State University students. Opinions expressed in personal columns do not reflect the opinions of the staff as a whole or of the university.

The editorial staff reserves the right to arbitrarily select articles, letters and ads to be published. In addition, the Oracle reserves the right to edit all letters for space, style and libel as per the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual.

The Oracle, as a forum for public opinion, welcomes all signed letters. Unsigned letters cannot be published. Letters must bear the writer’s name, class standing, major and phone number.

The deadline for letters and for advertising is noon Thursday for inclusion in the following week’s publication.

The Oracle is published in Garrison L113 and printed by GateHouse Media in Hope, Ark. Two copies per student are provided free of charge. Additional copies can be purchased for 50 cents each.

Editor-in-Chief: Morgan Acuff newantiquity@gmail.com Faculty Adviser: Mike Taylor taylorm@hsu.eduNews Editor: Stephanie Hartman sh17097@reddies.hsu.edu Sports Editor: Kaitlyn Kitchens kk175413@reddies.hsu.edu

Photo Editor: Ryan Klare rk167403@reddies.hsu.edu

Copy Editor: Ashley Loftin al169408@reddies.hsu.eduBusiness Manager: James T. Allen ja165078@reddies.hsu.eduDistribution Manager: Trey Porchay treyporchay_hsu@yahoo.comGraphics Designer: Lauren Penick lpenick0917@gmail.com

Web Designer: Izhar Buendia izharbuen@gmail.com

OracleThe

HSU Box 7693 Editorial Staff: Advertising Arkadelphia, AR 71999-0001 (870) 230-5221 / oracle@hsu.edu (870) 230-5288 / oracleleads@hsu.edu

Columnists:

“Don’t Feed the Trolls” Ryan Klare rk167403@reddies.hsu.edu

Staff Writers

Zach DuttonMalorie KelleyNeal StewartReaves Alewine Katie BlairKaitlyn TollesonColbie McCloud

Krissica HarperChris IngramTyler PriddyKenneth IbarraZachary ZdanowiczJeffery GilmoreJ.D. Roberts

October; the month that conjures up images of pumpkins, candy, and costumes. Most of us probably have fond memories of selecting Hal-loween outfits to dress up in for a night of trick or treating.

Costumes, however, can be used for more than just one month out of the year.

Samantha Proffit, a psychology major, spends most of her waking hours dreaming up creations to use in “cosplay” or costume play.

“My head is always working on costumes,” Proffit said. “If I could just sew all the time I would be very happy.”

She has many places from which she draws inspiration. Her well-organized notebook has intricate lists of over 80 characters from anime, pop culture, video games and manga that will ul-timately be cosplayed by Proffit.

“There are characters that I either love, or characters I want to improve,” she said.

The real passion for cosplay stemmed from her favorite anime series: Karas.

“I wanted to be Yurine,” Proffit said. “She was my first costume, and I just redid her last year.”

Currently working on well over a dozen cos-tumes, the time it takes to create the characters

can often average around 3 weeks, spending up to 4 hours a day working on the details. Due to a broken sewing machine, most of the time is spent hand sewing these pieces.

Cosplay can be an expensive hobby, but Prof-fit has been resourceful and found cheaper ways to create her characters.

“I did a claw for one outfit that was made from an old, black evening gown glove, wonderflex, and those fake nails that you can find anywhere,” Proffit said. “It’s so much fun. I love it.”

Proffit has high ambitions for herself. Aside from an upcoming transfer to the Dallas

Art Institute to pursue an associate’s degree in fashion design, she also has ideas for a future business.

“I really want to have my own store one day,” Proffit said. “Start online, getting my name out there and then eventually opening somewhere. I know I’m pretty much going to be broke after college, but if I get to do something I love, it will be worth it.”

ANIME’D UP Samatha Proffit is shown in a costume she designed and hand made, something she intends to do professionally some day.

Photos by Ryan Klare

Jennifer KetchesideStaff Writer

Student seeks to make cosplay hobby a way of life

Last week’s crossword solutionSudoku puzzle

Create a Diversion! Submit your short stories, poetry, essays and other creative writing, and they could be featured on this page. Send an email to oracle@hsu.edu with the word “creative” in the subject line. Include your name, classification and major.

OCTOBER 8, 2012 PAGE 5Diversions

On a cold Saturday after-noon, the only thing that could stop the Reddie offense was time. With temperatures around 50 degrees at game time, the Reddies managed to put up over 70 points for the second time this year.

The Reddies’ first ranked scoring offense in all of Divi-sion II put up huge numbers as they beat the University of Monticello 71-0 Saturday.

Kevin Rodgers proved wrong anyone who may have said he was just a warm-weath-er quarterback.

Rodgers threw for 326 yards, going 23-30, on a frigid day. He and the Reddie offense started slow, though, as he completed only one of his first five passes against the Boll Weevils, and they forced the Reddies to punt on their first drive. “It certainly was a factor,” Rodgers said.

“I just needed to get settled in and get comfortable and for my hands to warm up.”

After the first two drives ended in zero points for the of-fense, Rodgers and the offense warmed up.

They proceeded to score touchdowns on their next six drives. The offense put up 35 points in the second quarter alone.

The second quarter seems to be the best as the 14th ranked Reddies have now outscored their opponents 132-37 in the second quarter.

The second is the quarter they have scored the most points in, as they let the fans get settled in their seats before putting up huge numbers.

“We just got rolling, and what happened (against Mon-ticello), is what has happened the past few games for us,” Rodgers said.

“We got on a roll and just couldn’t be stopped.”

The Reddies have now scored over 47 points in every contest they have played this year.

During the game, Rodgers completed 18 straight passes against Monticello, and threw five touchdowns.

Rodgers has now completed 149 straight passes without throwing an interception.

His last interception oc-curred in week two of the sea-son against McKendree Uni-versity.

Rodgers is now three touch-down passes away from setting the single season mark for most TD passes in a season, and is only five away from being the career touchdown leader.

Henderson wide receiver

Robert Jordan added to his to-tal as he scored yet again this season.

Jordan has now scored in ev-ery game this year, and seven straight dating back to last season, after he scored on a 69-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers late in the second quarter Saturday.

It wasn’t all in the air though, as running back Jarvis Smith rushed for 121 yards on 7 car-ries.

He also added a touchdown and joined in on the fun. This marks the fourth time in six games that the Reddies have had a running back eclipse the 100-yard mark.

Not all the accolades belong to the offense though, as the Reddie defense shut-out the Boll Weevils and had a season high of six turnovers.

The Reddies have had GAC player of the week every week this year, and it would be hard-pressed to find a better candi-date than Maxie Graham this week, as he had a career day.

Two of the turnovers in the game belonged to Graham, as he had a career high of two in-terceptions, and also a career high in tackles with 15.

The first interception was thrown right to Graham and hit him right in the numbers, while the second was a tipped ball that he caught while the Boll Weevils were driving into Henderson territory. The Red-die defense also added a touch-down.

Late in the fourth quarter, Randall Howard had a 22-yard scoop-and-score after he forced a fumble from Monti-cello quarterback Trey Taylor.

With every part of the team, offense, defense and special teams, clicking on all cylin-ders, the only thing that seems to be slowing the team down was time. The next time this team will take the field is next Saturday in Searcy.

Henderson will go on the road to face the unbeaten Harding Bisons. Harding is 5-0 on the year and 3-0 in the GAC this season.

This will be a huge test for the Reddies as the Bisons are only allowing 12.8 points per game.

“We definitely have to step our game up because this will be the best opponent we have played yet,” Rodgers said of the upcoming game. “It’s going to be a good game in a tough place to play, and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”

PAGE 6 OCTOBER 8, 2012SportsReddies undefeated in season, 6-0, 4-0 GAC

Zachary ZdanowiczStaff writer

WINNING STREAK CONTINUES Robert Jordan catches a pass from quarterback Kevin Rodgers to gain a touchdown in the game against UAM. The Reddies won 71-0, keeping their undefeated record.

Photo by Ryan Klare/Oracle

Reddies golf team mem-bers place in Classic

Kaitlyn KitchensSports editor

Henderson men’s and women’s golf teams com-peted in two different tourna-ments early last week.

The Lady Reddies compet-ed in the Central Oklahoma Classic at Lincoln Park Golf Course in Oklahoma City on Oct. 1 and 2.

Junior Kendall Earp from Crockett, Texas finished in 26th place, shooting a 76 in both rounds, totaling 154.

Katie Kilponen, freshman from The Woodlands, Texas, finished in 39th place, shoot-ing a 76 and a 79 for a total of 155 points.

Junior from Mount Pleas-ant, Texas Katie Flinn fin-ished for a tie with Lady Reddie Jessica Parks, a soph-omore from Sachse, Texas, in 67th place.

Taylor Brown, a senior from Richmond, Ind., fin-ished in 74th place.

She shot an 85 her first round and a 77 her second round, totaling at 162 points out of the 94 participants at the tournament.

The Reddies’ men’s golf team participated in the Lin-

denwood Invitational, also on Oct. 1 and 2.

Freshman Wess Webb from El Dorado finished in 42nd place in the tournament with a 79 his first round and an 83 in the second round with a total of 162.

Antoine Lairy, a junior from Chateau Gontier, France, finished with an 87 in the first round and a 76 in the second.

This totaled 163, and he fin-ished in 51st place.

Joseph Hausberger from Hessen, Germany finished in 60th with a round-one score of 85.

He scored 82 in the second round.

This totaled in 167 points.Junior Winston Sizemore

from Pine Bluff finished in 73rd place with a round-one total of 86 and 87 in the sec-ond round, totaling in 173 points.

The Reddies’ men’s golf team will compete in the TVA Credit Union Classic in Flor-ence, Ala. Oct. 15-16.

The Lady Reddies will next travel to Dallas to compete in the Dallas Baptist Classic, also on Oct. 15-16.

Additional reporting by Troy Mitchell.