YOGA

Instructor Leslie Bradley proforms a "Bridge" Sept. 28. to a healthly moves class of roughly 20 people. Bradley had been practicing yoga for over 25 years and teaching for 20. Teaching in the Iyengar Method she has traveled all the way to India to practice yoga with a living yoga master at the age of 80. Photo By Danny Holland

Praying Feet. The Child. Downward-facing Dog. The Mountain, and the Boat. Do any of these terms sound familiar to you? How about lying down on your back on a padded mat with your feet outstretched against a wall, your entire body bent at a 45-degree angle, while meticulously controlling your breath?

These terms and mental pictures of students sitting on walls may seem a bit strange at first, but to students involved in Yoga: For Everyone, a free class offered three times a week by the Health Center at Auraria, these things come as natural as, well, breathing. Classes are held from 12 - 1 p.m. and 5 - 6 p.m. every Tuesday and 12 - 1 p.m. every Wednesday in Tivoli 440.

The students unroll their yoga mats (called sticky mats) perpendicular to the wall and lie flat on their backs while Patricia Hansen, their instructor, tells them how to move their bodies for each yogic posture. Hansen, who has taught yoga for 36 years — 25 in an academic setting — says that yoga is a science and an art, not an aerobic exercise.

Yoga is the science of connected Self-awareness, Self-respect, and Self-control, Hansen said, emphasizing the capitalization of S in Self: the essence of who you are. It is integrated science and art connected with mind, body, breath and soul.

With their backs to the floor and legs to the wall, the yoga students press the heels of their bare feet to the ceiling and point their chins toward their hearts with their hands below shoulder level. Hansen explains that yoga is rejuvenating and restores the body’s natural energy.

The Healthy Moves program, sponsored by the Health Center, is an exciting program offering yoga to all levels. Healthy Moves class are offered to Students, faculty and staff five times a week free of charge.

Photo By Danny Holland

“Yoga can be viewed on a holistic level, engaging the emotional, physical, psychic, and spiritual aspects of the human body,” Hansen said. “(Yoga) accesses every aspect of who and what you are.”

Those in the yoga classes can expect to experience a series of body and breathing exercises meant to relieve tension and rejuvenate the body, or life-force. Flexibility and foreign body postures are also expected. Anyone interested should bring either a mat or a towel to lie on and comfortable clothing; exercise and workout clothes are suggested. Shoe type is not important because students are asked to perform yoga barefoot.

In addition to the aforementioned Yoga: For Everyone classes, there are also new yoga classes for the fall semester: 5:30 - 6:45 p.m. Monday nights. at the St. Francis Atrium, and 5 - 6:15 p.m. Thursday nights in Tivoli 440. The Thursday night class is under the title Power Yoga.

Brook Henery a CCD Student majoring in Massage Therapy proforms a (blank) She has been coming to class for 3 weeks and loves it . She says that yoga helps strech her out after long hours of massge therapy.

Photo By Danny Holland

Yoga can balance the different aspects of who and what you are, techniques and disciplines that bring about an integration of every aspect of every individual.

Toward the end of the class, students sit in a more relaxed position, cross-legged with their knees below the hips. Their arms are stretched toward their knees, with their thumbs and index fingers touching. After breathing in deeply, Hansen and the class vibrate the transcendental sound vibration, om; the whole atmosphere feels enlivened by the yogis voices.

“Om is the sound the universe made when it went from an un-manifested state to a manifest state,” Hansen said.

There is a definite health and fitness atmosphere to the yoga classes, so students with no prior knowledge of yogic practices who like to keep fit would find the class beneficial.”

One such example is Metro student Roy Swanson, who came to the class for the first time during the third week of the semester. Swanson thought the class was great, and said he felt rejuvenated.

“I wanted to improve flexibility and core strength,” Swanson said about his interest in the class.

Swanson said he wanted to work out on his own, but he wanted to do it correctly.

Pain is caused by the lack of oxygen at a cellular level, and yoga provides this proper oxygenation, Hansen says. Very important to yogasana, the beginning aspect of yoga, is rasayana, a Sanskrit word for rejuvenation, or restoration. Controlling the breathing process is where this rejuvenating experience comes from. Closing your eyes and observing your breathing from within is, according to Hansen, the first step in yoga. Dhirga-swasyan, or complete yogic breath, leads to what Hansen calls a conscious letting go of stress.

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David Horowitz, a Los Angeles based conservative, speaks in theTivoli Turnhalle Sept. 30 about his "Academic Bill of Rights" as well as his recent meeting with Bill Owens. Photo by Joshua Buck

-photo by Joshua Buck

David Horowitz, author of the much-debated Academic Bill of Rights, spoke to the public Tuesday at the Tivoli Turnhalle. Horowitz, a former liberal activist and current conservative ideologue, has introduced his proposal in several states including Missouri, Georgia and Colorado.

“I’ve spent a lot of time here and I know a lot of people here. Colorado is a very libertarian state and this is a very libertarian bill. They seem to match,” Horowitz said in an interview prior to his presentation.

During the speech, Horowitz defended himself against claims that he was attempting to establish a quota system for hiring conservative professors. Horowitz insisted that the Academic Bill of Rights is “not a quota bill” but an “anti-quota bill.” Rather than establishing an enforced system, the Academic Bill of Rights will protect academic freedom by “making explicit the university’s commitment to diversity,” Horowitz said.

Horowitz cited a “ridiculous imbalance” in the political affiliations of professors at Metro, pointing to a survey of 85 professors. The survey, according to Horowitz, showed “42 democrats and no republicans.”

Although Horowitz views the university system as “polluted by the political left,” he stressed in the interview that he is “not calling for anyone to balance the faculty.” The bill itself forbids the hiring, firing, or promoting of faculty “solely on the basis of his or her political or religious beliefs.”

Horowitz spoke of a “hypocritical double standard” at American universities. He also encouraged students to form a chapter of Students for Academic Freedom at Metro and denounced a press conference held prior to his presentation, calling it inappropriate.

“I asked to come before the academic senate and received no response,” Horowitz said. As of Tuesday afternoon, Faculty Senate President Joan Foster had no knowledge of any attempt by Horowitz or his office to contact the Faculty Senate.

Horowitz concluded his speech by urging students to “open your minds, which is what a university should be about.” Following his presentation, Horowitz fielded questions from the audience. Metro student Mikel Stone called Horowitz’ answers evasive.

“I did expect more content,” Stone, who noted Horowitz’ tendency to “answer questions with questions,” said.

Student Felicia Woodson also expressed concern about Horowitz’ answers, and about the Academic Bill of Rights in general.

“I was concerned with his non-definition of the word freedom,” Woodson said, “this campus is about freedom. This bill will divide us instead of bringing us together.”

At the press conference prior to Horowitz’ presentation, Woodson publicly invited Horowitz to visit some of the classes at Metro.

Horowitz did admit that he may have inadvertently politicized the issues surrounding the Academic Bill of Rights.

“I will concede that this could have been done in a better way,” Horowitz said.

Students and faculty alike have many concerns about Horowitz’ proposal. Although Horowitz insists that “our democracy is jeopardized by what is going on in our universities,” others feel that the Academic Bill of Rights poses its own threats.

“The Academic Bill of Rights would really threaten academic freedom. It would give people who are objecting the opportunity or the instrument to chastise or to screen faculty. It would affect hiring practices,” said Eugene Saxe, an English professor at Metro and faculty representative to the board of trustees.

“What is being proposed is very frightening,” said Stone, who fears that teachers may face intimidation “under the guise of free speech and diversity.”

While the Academic Bill of Rights was designed to protect students from political intimidation, Bill Vandenberg of the Colorado Progressive Coaltition said “the real intimidation factor being ratcheted up is due to Horowitz and his attempt to draw partisan politics into Metro State. This man created this issue in Colorado,” Vandenberg said.

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Students and faculty on the Auraria campus gathered outside the Tivoli Tuesday in opposition to conservative David Horowitz speaking later in the Tivoli Turnhalle.

Organizing the demonstration was Creative Resistance, a Metro student organization.

Joel Tagert, from Creative Resistance, stressed that this was a press conference, not a protest rally, however, familiar signs of a protest, including anti-Horowitz signs, were present.

“Defend against Doublespeak,” “Recall Owens – Not Our Professors,” and “Dissent Yes! Horowitz No!” were some of the signs that could be seen in the crowd behind the speaking podium.

SGA President Felicia Woodson speaks out against David Horowitz's visit to Auraria Campus outside of the Tivoli Sept. 30. Woodson stressed she was not speaking as president of SGA, but as a concerned student against Horowitz's "Academic Bill of Rights. Photo by Joshua Buck

The conference was said to be in opposition to Horowitz’s attempt to push more conservatives into Colorado’s higher educational system through legislature and the media. The piece of legislation in question is the Academic Bill of Rights.

“David Horowitz wants us to get rid of some of our liberal professors and replace them with conservative ones,” Tagert said. “He claims there is a liberal bias on campus, and I really don’t think there is.”

In agreement with Tagert was Metro’s Senate Faculty President Joan Foster.

“I don’t want my students to think about if I’m a republican or democrat. I want them to think about what I’m teaching them,” Foster said before leaving to teach her next class.

President of Student Government Felicia Woodson also spoke at the conference.

Woodson said everyone has a right to his or her own belief system. But she added that this was going too far, getting to the point of hurting people.

“This bill opens the door to negativity,” Woodson said. “We only want to promote positivity on our campus.”

Woodson said education is key to this country, and this bill will lead to the crumbling of education as we know it.

Backing Horowitz in the crowd at the conference was Jessica Peck Corry, campus accountability project director at Independence Institute in Golden.

Corry said that the Academic Bill of Rights is about all of Colorado, not just the Auraria campus. She also pointed out that the bill has not been passed yet, and it does not mention ideology or affirmative action anywhere in it.

“We should have a real debate on the issue before blindly attacking it,” Corry said.

“We have no idea what political affiliation a professor is when we hire them,” said Foster, “I look at how they will help our students.”

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This series of articles is based on the dialogue I have with a friend of mine who is currently serving in Iraq. It is our attempt to illustrate a unique perspective about the ordinary people engaged in extraordinary situations. He has agreed to relate this story, as it unfolds, for the readers of The Metropolitan.

I have known him to be drunk with patriotism for our country, having without hesitation served in two branches of the armed service — but because the nature of his predicament, he wishes to remain nameless until he returns sometime in October.

These stories are not an embedded reporter’s account of the war in Iraq. Some of the accounts related are kind of bizarre, but war by its very nature is bizarre. This is just one person’s account.

This is the 13th dispatch in the series.

— Ian Neligh

Soldiers here are constantly assigned to guard against any Iraqi infiltrators which would threaten the Army.

In such a hostile area, one should expect that an ongoing guard force is protecting the personnel and property essential for the Army’s mission in this area. And rightly so, as such a guard force does exist (and there is talk of it getting stronger).

We guard the walls of the compound, we guard the palace of the general, and we guard lots of different things that I really can’t get into.

And now, we’re going to guard the most important resource known to America. We’re going to erect triple-strand concertina wire and lights around what will be known as the Ironhorse TCP, or Trash Control Point.

That’s right, a big-ass hole in the ground that we dump and burn garbage in.

How did this happen, you ask? How can our soldiers, who are undermanned and overworked in this hostile environment, be expected to guard refuse?

Here is the edited version of the polite answer I get from almost every soldier I ask:

“Don’t ask me man, I just work here.”

I asked one soldier who is always in-the- know what happened and this is what I got:
“Well, we used to have the old trash point, but the head enlisted guy decided it was an eyesore, so we had to move it.”

“An eyesore? In Iraq? This whole place is a freakin’ eyesore!!” I replied in disbelief.

“Right.” He said.

“The old dump was close to where everybody works, I know where that was. Where is the new one?”

“Well, you go…” and he proceeded to carry on for a while, twisting my mind into a horrible mess, confusing me thoroughly.

“But you can only go there between 0600 and 2000 hours.” He finished.

“Great.” I said. “I work at night, so I will never have to take out the trash again!! Har!!”

“I guess not.”

“So you’re telling me, they are limiting the hours you can go to the dump?”

“That ain’t all. They want to put up triple strand razor wire and lights around the thing.”

“Man, stop bullshitting me. Next thing you’ll tell me is they want a guard force for the trash point!! Ha!” I laughed.

The look he gave me was priceless. For the rest of my life I will never forget it.

“No way.” I said in disbelief.

“Yep.”

“Damn.”

Desert Wildlife

Our buddy “V”, who is plagued, on a regular basis, by porcupines and other indigenous animals, has added yet another chapter in his on-going “Creatures of Iraq” file.

The other day, he comes in and tells a story about some kind of Iraqi porcupine down by the hooch chasing him.

He says:

“Yeah dude, I don’t know what it was but it looked like a porcupine and it opened its mouth and snarled at me.  Those porcupines got big-ass teeth!  I had to run and jump on the hood of a HMMWV! It was chasing me!”

You have to remember that this guy is from New York (no offense to those fine people intended) and that when he first got to Fort Hood he was afraid of cows.

The next day, I see him wake up around four in the afternoon and walk next door to pick up some bottled water.  When he comes back in, he’s wearing his running shoes instead of his shower shoes, which is what we normally kick around in.

So I say “Hey V, what’s with the sneakers?”

And he says, “Man, it’s in case the porcupine comes back.  I can’t run in shower shoes!!”

Now every time he leaves the palace he wears his running shoes.

The other day, he was down by the fuel point refilling the cans we use to top off the generators every night when he heard a vicious snarl.

Looking to his right he spied what he called a “lynx.”

Locking and loading his weapon against the animal’s attack, he bravely refilled the cans.

“Man, my rifle was in my right hand and I was fueling with my left…” he said, vividly demonstrating his actions.

“I was shaking so bad, I got fuel everywhere!”

When he picked up our relief and told them of the hellcat, they decided to go back and check it out in force.

All they saw in the dawn’s early light was a small, mangy dog sniffing around the fuel point. It ran away as their HMMWV approached.

“Man, I bet that dog was tracking the lynx,” he says, defending his honor.

Sure buddy, sure.

This is an on-going account and will be continued in the next edition of The Metropolitan

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“I’m guedo, gringo, cavacho, é Tejano, involved civil rights worker,” Dick Reavis said, referring to his nationality.

On Sept. 25, Reavis spoke to approximately 50 people in Tivoli Room 320. He spoke of his past work with civil rights and the story of Mexican guerrillas and their leader.

Reavis is the author of five books, including “Conversations with Montezuma” and “The Ashes of Waco.” Since 1974, Reavis has been a journalist. He is an investigative reporter for the San Antonio Express.

Reavis was the 1989 Neiman Fellow at Harvard University, and in March 2003, the Austin Press named him Investigative Reporter of the Year.

“I used to be an activist for about 15 years, but you can’t be an activist when you’re employed by a newspaper,” Reavis said.

In the past, he worked as a freelance journalist and became involved in a story about Mexican guerrillas in 1976.

“We broke the story that there were guerrillas in Mexico, something the Mexican government had been denying for several years,” Reavis said.

Reavis was the first journalist to interview the guerrilla leader Florencio “Guero” Medrano.
When Reavis was working for Texas Monthly magazine he was introduced to Medrano by Mario Cantu, a Chicano leader who was supplying Medrano’s rebels with guns smuggled into Mexico from America.

“Guero showed me the villages in the hillsides and told me of the problems the Mexican people had.” In the process, Medrano told Reavis of his personal life.

Medrano had grown up a peasant working labor jobs in Mexico City where he met a group of radicals who talked to him about the revolution. Medrano and the rebels went to China for three years and trained with the Chinese army, Reavis said

When he came back from China, he joined a squad of settlers. While fighting government troops who were sent in to remove them, Medrano’s brother was killed. Medrano fled to the mountains where he joined the remnants of the guerrilla army. He became the leader of the guerrillas and worked on recruiting and organizing the resistance.

“The people in the villages were living in shacks with palm-thatch roofs, little sticks for walls, and dirt floors. Most of the villages were primitive, with no running water or electricity. The villagers would dig a hole in the river to bathe in muddy water. If you’re a Mexican peasant you’re lucky if you get chicken once a week; the rest is rice and beans,” Reavis said.

Medrano would ask the villagers, “Are we men or are we not men, are we going to stand up and defend our families or not?” Reavis said. The rebels were fighting for land which had been taken from the peasants by ranchers.

A few villagers had owned their farms since the days of the conquest. Their fields of corn, beets and squash were fenced off by cattlemen and used for grazing. The villagers could not do anything but go to the government to petition for help, Reavis said.

One man trying to get his land back had a stack of petition papers about two feet thick, some dated back to 1939.

“Twice a year, this man went to the government to petition, and every year they gave him more papers to add to his bundle. You had bureaucracy that was not doing what it was created to do. Instead, it was supporting the big land owners,” Reavis said.

The ranchers organized the White Guard armies, which acted as private police in an area where there was no government. In 1979, in a confrontation with the White Guard, Medrano was shot. He died three days later.

Reavis drew a parallel to Medrano’s revolution in Mexico to the South. Medrano was organizing the poorest people in Mexico for the same struggle Reavis had seen in the ’60s working for the civil rights movement in the South: a better standard of living and justice.
He became interested in civil rights in 1965, and went to Atlanta to join the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, for which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. served as president from 1957 until his death in 1968.

SCLC sent Reavis to Demopolis, Ala. to organize black people to register to vote. At that time in Alabama, a person was required to pass a literacy test before he or she could vote.

Conditions in Alabama for blacks were similar to those for peasants in Mexico, Reavis said.
“Blacks were paid $2.50 a day to work in the cotton fields. We had a 14-year-old girl die of heat stroke working those cotton fields,” Reavis said.

“Northern migration was seen as the solution to the problem for black folks in Dixie.

Segregation was offensive, but the worst offense was not being able to put food on your table.”
Another parallel he drew was the northern migration of poor Mexicans to the United States. For many it is the only solution to the poverty conditions they struggle against, Reavis said.
“Today the ordinary laborer, the guy flipping burgers, the guy loading trucks who can’t put food on the table, that’s where the Civil Rights Movement failed.”

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