[Issue 62.2]
“Anarchists know that a long period of education must precede any great fundamental change in society, hence they do not believe in vote begging, nor political campaigns, but rather in the development of self-thinking individuals.” - Lucy Parsons.
At this time last year this campus was buzzing. Returning from winter break, CSULB found itself consumed by 49er sports fever, especially with our basketball team. We were winning, something most students had never before felt the excitement of. Our boys were running up the score on the best teams in the Big West. We cheered, “This is our house!” after dominating Cal State Fullerton in their arena, and even though we didn’t know it yet, we were on the verge of an NCAA tournament birth! My how things have changed in a year.
I won’t rub it in, or dwell on things like records or statistics, but things have gone sour in the pyramid, and quick. For a split second a few months ago it looked as if the basketball team was poised to make the necessary improvements, they were learning to play together and Monson was living up to the hype; or so it seemed. The Union Weekly isn’t going to point the finger at one single person (cough cough Larry Reynolds) or one reason why our team has taken a nosedive the proportions of the Titanic’s, but on page five Ryan ZumMallen (49er b-ball optimist and realist) tries to identify exactly how our two basketball programs have fallen this far.
But lucky for us basketball isn’t the only sport being
played on this campus right now. Let’s face it people,
CSULB isn’t exactly know for our b-ball programs. We
are known for our volleyball programs though, and
they certainly aren’t disappointing. As I write this, our
boys are a perfect 8-0, and ranked number three in the
country! Allow me to repeat that for you, NUMBER
THREE IN THE COUNTRY! No matter how good
our basketball team was last season, no one in their
right mind ever believed they had a chance at winning
a national championship. But this season our volleyball
team is brought up in every national champion contender conversation without a doubt. These guys are good. Really good.
So here it is, we say it’s time to jump on the bandwagon. It was eerily similar to last season’s b-ball squad seeing our volleyball team jump into the stands smiling ear to ear after beating a highly ranked Pepperdine team. We are totally fine with you saying you’re a fan even if you don’t know a single players name, just show up to the games, cheer really loud, and we’ll call it even.
Don’t judge me for putting sports before politics but that’s just how I was raised. Vincent Girimonte (Union News Director) decided to see how our campus felt about the upcoming Super Tuesday primaries. Vince spent the entire week getting a couple hundred students to explain whom, why, and how they were planning on voting this week (page 8). After all the surveys were tabulated the results weren’t very shocking. It seems Obama is gaining ground on the college campus, but what interested me more than that were people’s responses as to why Barack is their choice for our next president.
If you’re like me you still have no idea who you’re voting for. For the first time in my life I don’t know where I stand politically and it’s driving me nuts. In possibly the most important election in decades, I can’t seem to connect with any of the possible candidates. I’ve seen debates and interviews, I’ve listened to friends try and convince me that the Ron Paul Revolution is the clear choice for me, and I’ve had friends tell me to vote for anyone but Obama or that a vote for Hilary is a vote against freedom and progress. All I know is that I’m still really bummed I won’t have the opportunity to cast a vote for Colbert. If nothing else, we hope that the survey and its results will spark some kind of emotion in you. And more importantly, we hope this weeks feature gives you enough motivation to go out and have your voice heard on Tuesday.
-Ryan Kobane
Editor-In-Chief