Despite cold February temperatures, more than 640 walkers came out at 10 a.m. on Feb. 20 to raise support for the homeless of Grant County. The walk, called “Walk a Mile In My Shoes…For Homelessness,” celebrated its five-year anniversary this year and benefits the Grant County Rescue Mission.

“It’s grown every year,” said Debra Ballard, director of development and Walk Coordinator at the Grant County Rescue Mission. “It seems the community gets excited about it every time we start promoting it.”

Last year, almost 500 people participated and more than $20,000 was raised. This year, the fundraiser brought in nearly $18,000.

“The money that’s raised goes directly to the general fund of the Rescue Mission, primarily because this time of the year expenses are up,” said Debra Ballard.

The Grant County Rescue Mission men’s shelter houses an average of 60 men each night. Last year, the facility provided 18,000 nights of shelter and served 75,000 meals.

“I didn’t notice [homelessness] as much being a student,” said Alicia Marsh, a 2008 IWU graduate. “But when you go from being a student to living in Marion and actually walking the streets of Marion more, you do see that it is a problem.” Marsh currently lives in Marion working as a financial aid counselor at Indiana Wesleyan.

The Grant County Rescue Mission is composed of five different locations. Housing facilities, including the men’s shelter, the women’s shelter and the new men’s apartments, serve the homeless of Grant County. The Rescue Mission also runs two retail venues, including Mission Mart in Marion and Rescued Treasures in Gas City. The revenue that the two stores bring in helps to support the Mission’s work.

“When we first came here a lot of people didn’t even know Grant County had a rescue mission,” said Debra Ballard. “So we have worked really hard to get the word out about what we do.”

Ballard and her husband Tom Ballard, the executive director of the Grant County Rescue Mission, have dedicated themselves to serve those in need in Grant County.

“[We] just felt a burden and a call to go into rescue ministries and we absolutely love it,” said Debra Ballard.

Through events like “Walk a Mile,” the community can show its support of the Ballards’ work at the Rescue Mission.

“I just think it’s a really greatthing, what we’re doing here today,” said Jenessa Scholl (fr). Others, like Marsh, appreciate the chance to see members of Grant County working together.

“I just like to get involved with the community. I think it’s just a great thing for both the college and the community in general to just come together for a good cause,” said Marsh.

Despite the economy, Debra Ballard remains confident in the work at the rescue mission. This confidence comes from community support, as well as a higher source.

“The Lord has always provided for us,” Debra Ballard said. “He’s always taken care of us. We’re proud of that, proud of what He’s done here.”

The 5th Congressional District is the richest in Indiana and covers 11 counties stretching from Huntington and Wabash down to the eastern and southern suburbs of Indianapolis. Rep. Burton has held his seat in the House for 27 years and during that time has run for office largely unopposed.

Luke Messer, a former state representative, is considered the front-runner in this race. Sam Blevins (sr) interned for Luke Messer last spring and was very impressed by Messer, most by his realistic ideas and character.

After an event in Wabash, Blevins attended earlier in the eek, Messer called personally to thank him for coming and his support.

“He didn’t have to do that,” Blevins said. He said that is Messer’s greatest strength. “A candidate should run for the people,” Blevins said. “[Messer] isn’t going to attend just to attend. He’s very personal.”

John Donnelly, press secretary for Dan Burton, said that Burton isn’t as concerned with the primary right now as he is the position he was elected to in Washington. Burton is confident because the people of the 5th District trust him and that’s why they continue to vote for him.

“He is very respected in Washington and his record speaks for himself,” Donnelly said. “This district is very conservative and that is who Burton continues to represent.”

Dan Burton and Luke Messer both acknowledge that something needs to change and they have similar ideas for Washington regarding the economy, education, and health-care reform. Burton said that he will continue to fight for health care remaining in the hands of patients and health care providers, away from government and big business, and he will rely on free market principles and the American work ethic to get us out of this recession.

Messer believes that this is not the time for old politics and that the Republican Party needs to start coming up with realistic alternatives.

When he announced his candidacy last spring, Messer said, “What we hear over and over again is that people want to see the Republican Party return to its roots of limited government, fiscal disciplines, lower taxes. They are ready for the next generation of conservative leaders to present that message. … If we are going to restore the credibility of our own party, we need to have our own version of reform.”

The other candidates include Mike Murphy, a current state representative, Brose McVey, a Hamilton County businessman and John McGoff, Burton’s 2008 challenger.

McVey said that the district’s constituents “are terribly frustrated with politics as usual.”

He welcomed Messer to the race last year saying, “Voters benefit when they have choices.”

Sam Blevins agreed with McVey.

Rep. Dan Burton has done well for us, he said, but “people should have a choice between a good candidate and a better candidate.”

North Hall is taking each week in February and fasting something different. For the first week of February, the young women lived by the verses 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, which talk about focusing on others rather than yourself. During this week they paid close attention to humbling themselves and staying away from boastful or prideful actions. The second week, he young women were encouraged to fast from something that took up a large amount of their time on a daily basis.

According to freshman Emily Larson (fr), “For the personal fast, girls fasted from sweets and snacking. Texting and Facebook were big ones for a lot of girls too. Facebook was the hardest one.”

For the third week of February, the young women of North Hall took part in an image fast. Young women fasted from certain types of clothes or makeup. Freshmen from Shatford also took part in an image fast for the month of February. With this particular fast, each week the intensity of the fast heightened. Young women were encouraged not to wear eye makeup for the first week and then they were encouraged not to wear any makeup at all on their faces for the following weeks.

“I think that especially for girls nowadays everyone is so focused on their image and the way they look. The amount of time we spend getting ready in the morning is ridiculous. It’s a part of our generation and what our generation has developed into,” Larson said. “Fasting from it helps us emphasize that our outer beauty is the same as our inner beauty and others will see you how God sees you.”

The fast was available for any girl to participate in. A few young women from other halls around campus also participated after they heard what their friends were doing. The majority of young women that were hesitant to participate found comfort in having their entire hall of girls to lean on.

“There is more accountability and support than when you’re fasting individually,” Larson said. “We would remind each other, ‘Hey it’s just Facebook or it’s just makeup, it’s not a big deal,’ you can all do it together, which is rewarding when you can celebrate at the end of it together.”

On the last day of the image fast in North Hall, all mirrors will be covered. Following this, they will participate in a 36-hour famine to end their February fast.

See, it’s the middle of the semester: the time everyone just wants to give up and quit, letting grades slip and procrastination kick in. It’s almost spring break – one more day! – and I’m burned out.

So I watch TV. I want my brain to take a break from reading and writing to laugh at Jeff Winger on “Community” or get swept up in the drama of “Heroes.” I’d like to stare at the black box in front of me for an hour and detoxify from everything school-related.

But I can’t. I blame my major.

You know how professors warn you that “this class will kill your love for [insert your favorite major-related activity]”? I’ve heard it more than once. But as a communication major, my love for the media not only gets killed, but beaten relentlessly, kicked around and spit on. So much for detoxifying.

In my media and society class, we’re reading Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” which is about how this generation’s prominent form of communication (the media, specifically television) affects the way we think and the way we discover truth. Because television is the predominant medium of our culture, we have become conditioned to certain things. Like, we expect information to be given to us in quick sound bytes and we expect to be entertained.

This doesn’t really sound like a problem, until you really start to think about it. It’s fine to want TV to be fast-paced and entertaining, but if you expect everything to be fastpaced and entertaining, there’s a problem.

Postman argues that our attention spans have been shortened by TV (and, though he wrote the book prior to the Internet, I’m sure he’d agree it has played a part). We can’t stay focused if the content isn’t entertaining.

Take sermons for example. During the school year I go to a liturgical Presbyterian church. The service bounces from prayer to song to Scripture-reading to homily pretty fast – only 20 minutes maximum for each section – yet still I find myself getting fidgety. I’m not the only one, either. The lady in the pew in front of us always does the kids’ word search in the bulletin.

The longest I have to stay focused is only 20 minutes, and still I cannot handle it. TV, what have you done to me? Or think about class: How long do we listen to the professor before we start perusing the Internet? Not very long.

Even as I write this, I see the truth in this. Every time I get writer’s block, I check my Facebook. I can only handle homework for short periods of time before I look for entertainment.

This is why I’m in a pickle. I feel too guilty to watch TV, but know no other way to rest my brain from school work. I wish I had never read Postman and could back to ignorantly blaming my lack of attention on undiagnosed A.D.D.

I’m left to wonder what I should do. How can I rest my brain without damaging it more with television?

I could read – but even I, an avid reader, don’t want to look at tiny print after I’ve spent hours writing a paper. I could play Sudoku – but even that involves a certain amount of math.

Maybe the problem is our time frame for rest. Most of us take sporadic breaks throughout the day between homework assignments. We spend Saturday mornings doing homework then have fun Saturday night.

What if we tried it the Jewish way – what if we worked really hard six days a week and left a whole day for rest, for Sabbath? Instead of taking minor breaks, what if we took one big break.

We wouldn’t need to squeeze in a television show here and there, but could spend the day shopping in Indy or taking a road trip to see friends.

Whenever I think about Sabbath, I get really uneasy. I’d much rather take smaller breaks every day than have one whole day of rest. But when I think about what I’m taking my breaks with – mindless television shows that do more damage than good – the idea of Sabbath becomes more appealing.

Because even though I like watching shows like “Community” after several hours of homework, I don’t feel rested once the episode is over. Most of the time I want to watch another episode and forget about homework completely.

So what do you think, do we try setting aside whole days for rest? Or do we continue bouncing from activity to activity to keep ourselves amused?

Continue the conversation online at my blog: http://broken-downpoetry.blogspot.com

On Feb. 15, two passenger trains collided in a head-on crash killing 15 men and three women during rush hour in Halle, southwest of Brussels, Belgium. With a total of 18 dead and 160 injured, authorities are working with the relatives of the victims to identify all of the dead bodies.

The cause of the accident is still unidentified, but officials said that one train reportedly missed a stop signal. The trains collided in Halle around 8:30 a.m. local time. Belgium’s track operator said that an investigation was still under way because of the difficulty and confusion of the accident.

Witnesses said that people were being thrown around the inside of the train violently. One passenger described that the “carriages compacted together” from the collision.

“The trains were carrying a total of 250 to 300 people,” a rail official said, AFP agency reported.

Emergency workers said there was a considerable amount of damage overhead to the power lines at the station in Buizingen, the district of Halle where the trains crashed.

Doctors began to treat the injured passengers at the scene of the crash, including amputations. Others were taken to the nearby hospitals. Passengers who were not injured as badly were taken to a nearby sport hall for treatment. Even now, there is still much confusion over how many dead and injured there are because of the wreckage.

The Associated Press reported that passenger Christian Wampach said, “It was a nightmare. We were thrown about for 15 seconds. There were a number of people inured in my car, but I think all the dead were in the first car.”

On Feb. 16, Belgian authorities held a crisis meeting to discuss the devastating event that happened the day before. Belgium’s military, the first department, medical services and other agencies attended the meeting. The provincial governor, Flemish Braband, chaired the meeting. The main issue they discussed was the identification of the dead passengers.

Train drivers went on strike in several areas of Belgium, complaining about the lack of information from officials concerning the crash.

Willmes Bennig from the ACOD in Brussels said, “Union members had gathered at the main rail station in Louven, just east of Brussels.”

The Belga news agency said strikers were blocking depots at Louven and 10 other towns, severely disrupting rail traffic.

On Feb. 15, U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind. announced his retirement from public office. His announcement was a surprise to his party, leaving the Indiana Democratic party shocked and far behind.

Recent polls show that Bayh was the strongest candidate, and he has never lost an election for public office.

His public career began in 1986 as secretary of the state for Indiana. He won with ease for Indiana governor in 1998 and 1992. In 1998 he ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate, and he has been there until now.

In fact, just one week before his announcement, Bayh’s reelection campaign manager, Dan Parker, made it clear that Bayh would seek another term in the U.S. Senate. Democrats also released a poll showing Bayh comfortably ahead of former U.S. Senator Dan Coates and U.S. Representative John Hostettler, who are only two out of the four Republicans running.

Much speculation has risen as to why Bayh decided to not seek reelection; however, Sen. Bayh prides himself on being the middle-line Democrat, and that extreme partisanship is to blame for his retirement.

Bayh made it clear that he doesn’t “love Congress,” and that the partisanship is only hurting Americans.

“Just last week, a major piece of legislation to create jobs fell apart amid complaints from both the left and right,” said Bayh. “All of this and much more has led me to believe that there are better ways to serve my fellow citizens, my beloved state and our nation than continued service in Congress.”

Bayh also mentioned that he would start his own business in the private sector once his retirement is official.

“If I could help create one job in the private sector, it would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months,” said Bayh.

Dr. David Bartley is the division chair of social sciences at Indiana Wesleyan University, and he believes that Bayh has plans that don’t necessarily match up to what Bayh said.

“My first suspicion is that Bayh was given inside information as to what President Obama had planned with health care,” said Bartley. “Good bye Joe Biden as vice president.”

But according to Bayh, “I simply believe I can best contribute to society in another way: creating jobs by helping grow a business, helping guide an institution of higher learning or helping run a worthy charitable endeavor.”

Each Olympics, whatever nation gets the bid has the opportunity to dazzle the world with their creativity, culture and showmanship.

In the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, gave a performance that most will never forget. Co-directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimour and Chinese choreographer Zhang Jigang, China’s opening ceremonies lasted for more than four hours, included more than 15,000 performers and cost more than US$100 million. It was the first Olympics to use weather modification technology to prevent rainfall at the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest.

There were numerous innovations and spectacles that made Beijing one of the most impressive opening ceremonies yet, and one that would be a tough act to follow.

Vancouver, British Colombia, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics, had the privilege of taking on this task. The ceremonies were held on Feb. 12, but got off to a rough start due to the death of 21-year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili, a luger from Georgia, which happened during a practice run earlier that day.

The entire opening ceremonies were dedicated to Kumaritashvili.

More than 60,000 people attended the Vancouver ceremony — the first Olympic opening or closing ceremony ever held indoors.

The ceremonies began when a snowboarder jumped through the Olympic rings at the end of the stadium and snowboarded down to the floor.

The march of the nations took place at the beginning, rather than the end, of the ceremonies to give the athletes a chance to actually watch the ceremonies themselves.

The ceremonies featured Canada’s aboriginal communities and spotlighted the four chiefs of the First Nations whose traditional native territories overlapped in the Olympic region.

Bryan Adams, Nelly Furtado, Sarach McLachlan and k.d. lang, some of Canada’s most popular musical stars, were featured in the ceremony.

Some of the most breathtaking parts of the ceremony included the incredible lighting technology that created interactive illusions on the floor of the stadium.

The ceremony was filled with tap-dancing fiddlers, a young man running and flying through fields of a prairie, skiers and snowboarders flipping down a “mountain” and slam poetry. The ceremony captured some of the unique and seemingly less-wellknown aspects of Canadian culture.

The ceremony came to its climax- the lighting of the Olympic torch — only to experience a devastating technical difficulty. Four pillars were designed to rise out of the floor, creating a symmetrical cauldron, but one of the four pillars did not lift to meet the others! This kept speed skater Catriona LeMay Doan from joining the other three selected individuals from lighting the cauldron. Those who were able to join in the lighting included hockey star Wayne Gretzky, skier Nancy Greene and basketball all-star Steve Nash.

Continual bad weather and hundreds of anti-Olympic protestors gave a negative welcome to this year’s Olympic Games. The protesters actually forced Olympic organizers to change the route of the last leg of the torch relay and threw debris at the outside the stadium hosting the opening ceremony.

The next location to take the stage is London, which is hosting the 2012 summer Olympics. After the Vancouver ceremony, the bar is still held high, and the world will eagerly anticipate London’s chance at wowing the world with their crack at the opening ceremonies.

What was D.C. like? Well, the president wasn’t too happy, because in an interview with Bloomberg News, Obama said, “I can’t believe I have to shut down the federal government for a week for this.”

In fact, Obama is convinced that the federal city is a bit wimpy compared to snow strong Chicago.

In the 2008 campaign, Sen. Obama said that Washington could use some, “flinty Chicago toughness.”

But regardless of what the president thinks about D.C.’s lack of burliness, he hasn’t lost his sense of humor. In a recent press release, President Obama mentioned that a few high profile senators were “doing snow angels on the South Lawn together,” claiming that this was an example of bipartisan effort.

Oh the irony of writing a review of FNL for The Sojourn! After what became of the last review, I feel like I should be terrified of what may become of this one. Nevertheless, a response is necessary, and respond I shall.

I am just going to say that we deserved it. That review harshly criticized the FNL performance last semester. While the article logically supported the opinion it conveyed, FNL did a pretty good job of showing the audience just how silly The Sojourn can be. Stories about pingpong, squirrels and family weekend don’t exactly nominate newspapers for Pulitzers. I can honestly say that I was practically crying I was laughing so hard, watching those articles flash up on the screen, knowing that I had personally written half of the headlines. I guess I could be embarrassed or offended, but this is college! The whole thing is just funny to me. We are not The New York Times and we never will be. So bring on the stories about pingpong and bring on the fun!

And I think that’s why FNL is something I want to return to semester after semester. It’s just fun. No, it’s not a professional grade SNL show with big flashy New York City cameras all over the place, but I found myself not caring whether or not the jokes made sense, because it’s just fun. I enjoy watching my classmates spin around looking like paper-cutout planets. And who didn’t want to just tell Eeyore that he really was loved and appreciated? Some of the jokes flopped, true, but the duds didn’t distract me from enjoying it. It all melted into part of the experience.

I must confess that I think my favorite skit was the Circle-K breadstick video. I loved seeing Steve DeNeff and Bud Bence tossing breadsticks around, with a giant Polar Pop in the background! And I pretty much died laughing as I watched Dr. Guy conduct an invisible orchestra with a breadstick in each hand. It was classic—especially since I really have wondered why that time doesn’t have classes in it.

I also really appreciated the videos about IWU couples. I can always enjoy mocking PDA encounters, since the over-the-top couples at IWU make me kind of nauseous from time to time. It’s like, seriously, just wear one coat or use one tray, right? Then you will never have to be apart and you can just be gooey and gross forever…

And who doesn’t love pirates? I love pirates! I thought it was an interesting variation to the musical-esque number performers usually open the show with, and the fog and ship made out of paper gave it that extra touch.

So no, the humor was not intelligent, dry, British humor, and no, it wasn’t a big flashy evening with famous people, but yes, I had a blast and I would totally come back for another night of funniness next semester, just like I have since freshman year.

Vancouver is not the only city with photo finishes and medal ceremonies to bring attention to the hard work of competing athletes.

The men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams from Indiana Wesleyan University competed in the NCCAA National Championship this past weekend in Cedarville, Ohio. Going into the event both teams were confident that they could compete for the team championship.

“On paper we can win if we perform like we are capable,” said Micah Shaw (so) about the men’s chances of winning. Shaw was set to run the 60-meter hurdles before a pulled hamstring kept him from competing.

The men’s team won the national championship with outstanding performances from the Distance Medley and 4×800- meter relay teams. Members of the Distance Medley included Andrew Albert, Jeff Stuttler (so), Jason Wenzel (jr) and Ethan Naylor (so). Albert ran with Matt Mitchell (fr), Josh Schweigert (sr) and Dan Carrick (sr) in the 4×800-meter relay.

“Though our direct focus is not on indoor track, it was encouraging to all pull together and win this one,” said Stuttler, who runs the 400-meter portion of the Distance Medley.

The women placed third as a team with a strong performance from Chelsea Heyne (so), Katelyn Morgan, Lizzy Skinner (fr), and Laura Bowman (sr) in the 4×200-meter relay.

To prepare the team for the national championship, coach Foss has put an emphasis on sprints and block work in practices. Block work creates the muscle memory needed to perform on the big stage.

Coach Foss has used the term poise as a point of focus for this season, explaining that poise is prepared strength in both character and action.

“Poise is just one of those words used frequently in our team meetings and devotions,” said Stuttler.

The Distance Medley consists of four members running in four different distance events. The different distances include the one-mile, 1200 meter, 400 meter, and the 800 meter. Naylor ran in the one-mile even while Wenzel ran the 800 meter before Albert finished the relay in the 1,200-meter race.

Prior to the national championship, Indiana Wesleyan has competed in three home meets and one meet held at Taylor University. This will be the first true away meet of the indoor season. Some runners have admitted to not performing well after a long bus ride.

The indoor track and field teams will now compete in the NAIA National Championship in Johnson City, Tenn., on March 4. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, unlike the NCCAA, includes more than just Christian schools. This allows the division to pull from a much larger collection of schools and therefore increases the level of competition.

With the NAIA Nationals just around the corner, the indoor track and field teams will be working hard in practice to bring back another trophy.