Letter to the Editor

Dear Iowa State Daily,

We are writing in response to the letter/opinion article you ran on Wednesday 4/14/2010 entitled "White male, white female: Keep it the way God intended." We were appalled by the egregious oversight on the part of your editing staff to run a satire piece without any preface and as though it were a factual and realistic piece of journalism. As is evident in the prior printing of this article in the Northern Iowan, Mr. Boeckmann created this piece as a way to "question current arguments against homosexual marriage" by highlighting, what is now considered by many to be illogical racit rhetoric used to oppose interracial marriage.

We are disappointed that the Daily has failed to recognize the impact that such an oversight may cause to readers, especially those unaware of the context. The Daily is seen as a major voice to students and has significant responsbility in ensuring the accuracy and portrayal of its journalism.

As readers unaware of the context, we attributed this hateful speech to Mr. Boeckmann under the protection of the Iowa State Daily. This was not Mr. Boeckmann's intention, and to portray it as such is unfair, hurtful, and potentially dangerous. As written in the Daily, the article promotes bigotry and serves to strengthen racism and hatred.

In this context we would like to add that even with a qualifying statement indicating satire, pieces such as this often do not achieve the outcomes they were intended to produce. We feel that it is irresponsible and dangerous to create a satire piece in support of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual marriage, which draws upon arguements that are still used today to attack interracial relationships. These strategies have the potential to perpetuate the hateful rhetoric they aim to dismantle within the populations they hope to educate and have an emotional impact on the community they hope to serve. We are specifically concerned about the impact of this piece to our communities of color at Iowa State give the outrageous implication of African Americans in the article. This impact was undoubtedly compounded by the fact that the Daily failed to run this as satire.

We challenge the Daily and its staff to correct this oversight and to apologize for the impact and hurt it likely caused to many readers. We also encourage the Daily to seek more positive and insightful avenues to create the space for such critical dialogues to occur.

Autumn Wilke & Teresita Alvarez

The goal is not flat soda...another emotional analogy

You rush down to the soda machine. You have been craving a diet pepsi all day and have finally scrounged up enough change to buy a bottle. You plug in the coins and the bottle clunks out, slams against the door of the machine, and sits there asking to be drank. You grab the bottle and begin to walk back to your office and you trip and watch the bottle go flying across the room. It hits the floor and you can see the bubbles begin to form. You know if you open the bottle it is going to explode but you were soooo looking forward to drinking it right now. What do you do?

I think that this is an excellent analogy for processing emotions. I often refer to the way that I process emotions as "stuffing." I stuff and stuff and stuff until I am ready to explode...and often I do. It usually comes out a burst of emotion at the most inopportune time, such as crying in class or laughing hysterically when someone tells me something serious. The amount of energy I expend in not having emotion or pretending that my emotions do not exisit is exhausting. And draining. And often leads to the development of more emotion. This new emotion often serves to mask the real source of my sadness, or pain, or anger and just serves to fuel the impending explosion.

Today I, and a group of other people, discussed and developed an analogy for describing this cycle that we all experience-in our own unique ways. It is the soda analogy. I often feel as though I am a bottle of soda that has been dropped down an endless set of stairs, constantly being agitated. I am left with the question of "what do you do". I can chose to just sit with it until the bottle explodes and I break down emotionally often impacting those around me and leaveing myself without a way to process the emotions as I experience them. Often when this happens the emotion is displaced and no longer seems to be connected to the incident or incidents that originally fueled it. This is not productive and in many ways is destructive.

I can try to slowly open the cap, taking great care to let out only a small amount of emotion at a time until the overall emotion dwindles...this is an overwhelming process in many ways. It is scary to begin to process major emotional events, it is scary to be vulnerable and put yourself on the line, and there is a fear that once you start crying or yelling it will never stop. When the bottle reaches the point where the carbonation will bubble over if you are not careful it can be extremely overwhelming to even consider dealing with the rush of emotion that will likely come with it...even if it is in small doses.

There are places or groups where it is easier to being this process. I view these groups as a sink. When you open the bottle over the sink there is a place to catch all of the mess that comes with it. It is a safety net. One which can help you process, one which understands you, and one which lesses the pressure. It challenges you while making you feel supported and safe. I am lucky to have groups such as this on campus who can act as my safety net as I process through emotion.

I do not think there is an immediate answer for the best way for me to deal with emotion but I do think that the goal is to reach a point where I have a hole poked into the bottle that will constantly siphon off the emotion and allow me to feel it as it happens. The goal is not to have a bottle of flat soda but one where the carbonation occurs, is expected, is enjoyed, and is released.

My goals are to:

1)begin to use my "safety nets" to process the build up

2)allow myself to feel emotions-not just happy-as they occur

3)begin to recognize that emotions themselves are natural and not scary--they exist for a reason and can be beautiful

Summer To Do List...the first 25

1. collect geodes near Keokuk with Rob

2. long weekend(s) at the cabin

3. see a Brewers game(done May 20th)

4. see a Twins game (done May 20th)

5. hike on the Mississippi River Bluffs(done June 12th)

6. visit a waterfall (done June 20th and June 27th)

7. go to Rhythm and Booms for the 4th

8. Pack all my stuff

9. read books for fun

10. become the proud owner of library cards from 3 states (Done June 15th)

11. finish all of my Peace Corps essays (done June 12th)

12. write new poems

13. go camping at least once

14. get better at water skiing

15. drink at the terrace

16. do something ridiculous with Luke Schiferl

17. get muscles (work in progress)

18. learn to cook 3 new things

19. try a new food

20. take enough pictures to fill up my memory card

21. radio telem a blandings turtle

22. learn stuff about college orientations

23. visit a new college campus (done several times)

24. go out with Chavel, Teresita, and Allison

25. go to the Mall of America and stay for more than 30 seconds (done June 26th)