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Vol. 92, No. 6 Thursday, September 12, 2013
Give peace a chance Locals congregate downtown to speak against U.S. military involvement in Syria
Staunton man gets 40 years Chaplin pleads guilty to fatally shooting Harrisonburg man
COURTESY OF HPD
On Dec. 23, Dallas Chaplin fatally shot Benjamin Graessle in the breezeway of an apartment building in The Commons. BRIAN PRESCOTT / THE BREEZE
Community members gathered by Court Square Monday night against the ongoing violence in Syria and spoke out against U.S. military involvement. By MARK OVERSTREET The Breeze
More than 150 people gathered outside of Court Square Monday night to voice their concerns about the proposed military intervention in Syria. “Let the people be heard!” one person from the crowd shouted. “Syria needs prayers not bombs!” another said. A congressional vote was scheduled for Wednesday, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has delayed the vote to allow diplomatic efforts to play out in the coming days. At 7 p.m. sharp, the crowd hushed as Earl Martin, a local peace activist and carpenter, addressed the crowd.
“Tonight starting at 7 p.m., 165 places around the country are holding vigils just like this one,” Martin said, “and we all share the same goal: to voice our concerns about this proposed military action.” Applause followed from the combination of college students, war veterans, activists, parents and community leaders. Martin was a carpenter in Vietnam during the war, and said that when he thinks of proposed military strikes, he’s reminded of his time there. “Collateral damage has stained our hearts,” he said. “We need to come up with more imaginative ways, more effective ways and less violent ways to deal with this conflict.” He stressed that violence is not the answer, an ideal that everyone in attendance agreed
with. Martin called it a people’s gathering. A diverse group of priests, peace advocates and other members of the community gathered to share their concerns and honor the fallen in not just the Syrian conflict and the Iraq war, but of previous wars as well. Evan Knappenberger served in Iraq from 2003 to 2007 as an intelligence analyst. He was only 20 years old when he was deployed. “When I went to Iraq, I received no cultural or language training from the military,” he said. “I was in total darkness and unprepared, but I had power over people’s lives.” Knappenberger said he didn’t think the federal government handled Iraq the right
Yesterday, Dallas Chaplin, 20, of Staunton pleaded guilty and was sentenced 40 years in prison. On Dec. 23 around 1 a.m., police arrived at 895 Port Republic Road and discovered Benjamin Graessle, 20, of Harrisonburg lying unresponsive after being shot in the breezeway of an apartment building in The Commons. Graessle was later pronounced dead. Witnesses say that Chaplin had been involved in a fight with Graessle’s friend before he shot Graessle. Chaplin was arrested on Dec. 27 and charged with the nonviolent possession by felony of a firearm, use of a firearm in commission of a felony and first degree murder. His original sentence was 80 years, but 40 years were suspended. -staff report
see SYRIA, page 3
Speaker leads workshop SGA prepares to fund organizations Leaders hope to diversify clubs that receive money on sexual identity Gender labels redefined, re-analyzed
By IJ CHAN The Breeze
Gender and sexual orientation labels don’t define Robyn Ochs. “I am not a bisexual,” she said. “I am a person, and I identify as bisexual.” Ochs is a travelling activist, writer and speaker who visits college campuses around the country to get students thinking about how sexual orientation and gender labels affect the way they or others view them. About 45 people gathered in the Festival Allegheny Room for Ochs’ workshop on Tuesday night, which was sponsored by Madison Equality. Ochs began by asking the group to brainstorm as many different terms to describe sexual orientation as well as gender identity labels. Some of the sexual orientation labels included “gay,” “pansexual,” “hetero-flexible,” as well as words like “fag” and “dyke,” while some gender identity terms included “transexual,” “butch” “cisgendered.” “These are not words that you probably learned in high school,” Ochs said. “These are words that you may not have even heard in college, even if you’ve been here for awhile.” The group was then split up into two teams — “kiwis” and “oranges.” Ochs had each person choose and explore the disadvantages and advantages of one sexual orientation or gender identity label and then participate in a discussion with a member of the other team.
Freshman biology major Logan Wasser chose to explore the word “gay.” Wasser said he likes how the word is synonymous with the word “happy,” but he thinks people often use it in a negative way. “People will say things like, ‘Oh, that’s so gay,’ and that’s not what they mean. Back in the day, in high school, I used to just let it slide, because you don’t really want to stand up against what people do,” Wasser said. “Now I usually just give people a look like,
”I am not a bisexual. I am a person and I identify as bisexual.” Robyn Ochs
Traveling speaker, activist and writer
‘are you serious?’” After the exchange, Ochs asked each pair to join with three other pairs and form a larger group. Each group was given a piece of paper to collectively write down all the disadvantages and advantages of the labels they discussed. Each group then presented their list to the rest of the crowd. Disadvantages were shared first. Many of the groups had overlapping ideas, describing labels as “confusing” and prone to negative stereotypes and see IDENTITY, page 3
9/12 INSIDE 3 NEWS There’s an app for that BlueLight helps students in danger contact police in a hurry.
Contingency funds can pay for:
By ERIC GRAVES The Breeze
It takes a lot of money to fund JMU’s 278 organizations, and the Student Government Association has the resources to help. Each year, the SGA receives a certain amount of money in a contingency fund to be used for aiding registered organizations in putting on events around the school. Student Body President Jake Jedlicka, a senior history and political science major, said that the fund is one of the main things SGA does to be involved directly with student organizations. “If you have a thought or an idea that your club wants to do, this is designed to help you achieve that,” Jedlicka said. “That’s what our job really is, students get that extra last step in.” SGA finance chair Aaron Brown, a junior political science and public policy and administration major said the contingency fund for this year is about $78,000. Any registered organization can apply for up to $3,000 at one time. In past years, the contingency fund has been as low as $40,000 for the school year. Jedlicka said that recently some groups have cut back on their own budgets to give more money. “There is a lump sum given out and divided up,” he said. “This year, UPB dropped a couple thousand in their budget to give more money to the contingency.” Each organization seeking money from the contingency fund must apply at least four weeks before their
4 Professors’ attempts at OPINION Need a refill?
deterring drinking with more work will only backfire.
JILLIAN PAUL / THE BREEZE
scheduled event and present a PowerPoint slide detailing the expenses and why they deserve the money. Shevy Chaganti, a senior international affairs and Spanish double major and SGA’s contingency liaison, explained that each organization’s event has to be approved by the SGA finance committee and the SGA senate. “We had a great show of smaller clubs and newer clubs,” Chaganti said. “We’ve been really trying to promote that and diversify the clubs that receive money.” On Tuesday, the Latino Student Alliance presented to the SGA and became the first club to receive funding from SGA contingency fund for this school year. Anthony Galeano is a junior computer information systems major and a member of the executive board of LSA and said the money from the SGA is a relief.
6 Harrisonburg’s roller LIFE Rolling dirty
derby team gives women a chance to roughhouse.
“With the amount of work and effort we’ve put into this event, we’re really thankful that they were able to help us out,” Galeano said. “This is going to create a positive memory for the JMU community.” Galeano said in past years groups could apply so far in advance that the money would be gone by the time smaller groups applied. “An event, conference, outreach, series, guest speakers, we cover all of those things,” Chaganti said. “If an organization gets funding one year, they are not guaranteed to get funding each year.” Chaganti said that there is little-tono competition between the clubs for money. “We have almost $78,000,” she said. “We’re happy to start giving it out to clubs.” CONTACT Eric Graves at gravesem@dukes.jmu.edu.
8 Dukes need to keep SPORTS Cool is the rule
emotions in check after penalty-filled loss.