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Chapel is Messmer-ized By Brian Hiatt last April 9 vwhen he was shot in the throat dur- Staff Writer ing a robberyyattempton Chicago's West Side. Early that imorning, Messmer had left a sports h n.. .. ,.1 ... getting into his car when he saw a More than seven months after a robber's bul- Udi dlU W4t5 let threatened to end his landmark singing teenager app)roaching him, a gun in his hand. career, Wayne Messmer stood at the pulpit of When he qui ckly shut his car door and attempt- Evelyn Chapel with his baritone voice intact ed to drive away, a second gunman who had and a message to spread. ng behind him fired, striking the The 1972 Illinois Wesleyan alumnus, perhaps Messmera moin t throat. the most famous singer of the national anthem i " m ment like that, you go to your in American sports history, delivered a stirring instinct," Messmer said. "My first reaction guest sermon, "The Power of Prayer," Nov. 30 was, 'Oh Go d.'" at Evelyn Chapel. withMessmer the bul cdrove back to the bar to get help "I stand here as living proof that miracles do chance, the let still lodged in his throat. By happen every day," he said. tie he had been wearing that Messmer, who has sung the national anthem evening stuc k in the bullet hole and controlled for the Chicago Cubs and White Sox baseball the bleeding He was transported to Cook teams and Blackhawks and Wolves hockey County Hostpital, where 13 other gunshot vic- teams more than 3,000 times, is one of the most tims had bee:n taken that weekend. recognizable figures in Chicago sports. ssmer awakened, his brother and But his singing career was nearly cut short see MESSMER p. 7 Profs rip Prop 187 Expect measure to be struck down By Jeff Klemens the realities of illegal immi- Staff Writer gration to California often dif- fer from public perception. Jeff Millies/The Argus According to Renner, as few Wayne Messmer sings the national anthem at the Titans' Three IWU professors ques- tioned the effectiveness and as nine percent of all illegal first game in the new Shirk Center on Wednesday, Nov. 30. legality of California's immigrants partake of welfare Proposition 187 during a panel benefits. Pigeons forced off campus discussion Nov. 28. Seeborg added that with a California voters recently wage differential of seven to By Brian Hiatt an attempt to control the area's passed the referendum which one between the United States Staff Writer pigeon population. would deny state-funded and Mexico, illegal immi- Bob Aaron, director of social services to illegal immi- grants can earn more money With its large expanses of Wesleyan's News Services grants. These services include here, even working menial natural land, the Illinois department, said that the welfare, public education and jobs. had contracted Wesleyan campus hosts an University health care. Renner further defended the American Pest Control of array of animals whose The panelists-political sci- immigrants' position, stating in August to appearances are familiar to Bloomington that for many Californians apply Avitrol in selected cam- ence professor Tari Renner, students. economics professor Michael there is "certainly an econom- But to the consternation of pus areas which pigeons had favored for roosting. Seeborg and sociology profes- ic benefit from illegal immi- many animal lovers this fall, a sor Chris Prendergast-all felt grants . they truly do per- number of students have The decision to do so, he Proposition 187 would be form an economic function." reported a relatively unusual added, was in response to a potential health hazard created struck down in federal court. He described jobs done by sight-sickened, convulsing immigrants as the ones and apparently dying pigeons. by the birds and the feathers "Almost any reading of "Americans didn't want to According to officials of the and droppings they leave Proposition 187 tells you that perform." University and a local pest- behind them. it violates the equal protection control company, the birds are "There's no question within clause [of the fourteenth When asked why victims of a pesticide com- the medical and scientific amendment to the Consti- Proposition 187 became an monly known as Avitrol, used community that pigeons create tution]," Renner said. issue in this election, Seeborg by Wesleyan since August in health problems," Aaron said. The panelists stressed that see PIGEONS p. 6 see PROP 187 p. 5 Friday, December 9, 1994 2 Opinion ®® llls L- IIIIL I I O - -' ,I I I Ib _ _ I, _ ~ ~ I ,,_., __ ,-r \PpF1ES x Christmas Canes and Coals... It wouldn't be the holiday season if The Argus didn't use this space to hand out our candy canes and coal to all the people, things and events that elated and frustrated us throughout the year: fault is it, anyway? Whose Candy Canes As a reasonably educated Her statement bothered me, 30 years ago, or if ACT ques- college senior, I never consid- and not because of any older- tions have become easier over ered myself to have an MTV- generation lecturing that might that time period. induced attention span. But have been implicit in it-the On the contrary, I have 4 thanks to one of my English when-I-was-your-age admon- always assumed that these have become more ishings that my parents love to standards * To the new $15.2 million Shirk Athletic Facility, for heap on me as a joke. difficult over the years. With bringing the great game of racquetball into all of our lives What really concerned me the current plethora of college Brian Hiatt was the fact that she wasn't and graduate school students, * To FAB, for our own reasons saying it in an exaggerated, admissions requirements must * To Student Senate, for seeing the light columnist tongue-in-cheek manner. It have become increasingly * reehr was apparent that she honestly stringent to keep the merely * To the stores in Normal that let cats run around inside average student from becom- professors, I've now got a felt that she worked a lot hard- * E-mail about it. er as a student than the average ing a lawyer, doctor or even an complex * To Dr. Plath, for his enchanting Argus parties "It's all because of your gen- student does today. insurance salesman. eration's attention span," this She may not have had to Yet Illinois Wesleyan stu- * To The Boar, as always professor informed my class walk five miles to school every dents, whose collective ACT one day regarding our apparent day without shoes, as my par- scores average out to a very inability to critically read long ents say they did, but she pos- un-mediocre 27, are supposed- literary works. "When I was in sibly did the equivalent in the ly among the upper echelon of school, all I did was read. I pre-Cliff's Notes college era. our generation's legion of didn't have 40,000 cable chan- Of course, our generation- mediocre students. So why is nels, MTV or sound-bite com- the famed Generation X of it that our professors-and for Coals mercials." media hype and scorn-has that matter, our elders-don't Because of this lack of dis- heard these things before. If consider us to be all that great? tractions, she added, she was you listen to likes of Andy It's interesting that these able to derive pleasure and Rooney, you'll soon gather the people-the same Woodstock * To FAB, for our own reasons learning out of her reading at a message that everything from generation who are infamous * To Michael Stipe, for shaving his head and singing level today's American stu- college admissions require- for bringing on social decon- "Tongue" struction in the 1960's-now dents would never be able to ments to standardized tests * Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers match. have been made easier for believe that their offspring are * To Bloomington/Normal city councils who are the only Long works such as ignorant baby-busters. at fault for holding lower edu- see a need for a stop light Paradise Lost, currently the I don't know if these asser- cational standards. people on the planet who don't bane of our class' existence, tions are true or not. To my If anything, our generation is at Emerson and Towanda were so difficult because we knowledge, no empirical study the recipient of those stan- * E-mail, when it doesn't work didn't have the attention span has revealed that college dards. Yet, allegedly, we are * To the new $15.2 million Shirk Athletic Facility, for degree requirements are defin- necessary to follow them from see Xers p. 3 allowing professors to play racquetball . in shorts beginning to end. itively more lax than they were ,,-- - - - I -- 9 Copy Editors Betsy Phillips, Editorials are the majority opinion of the editorial board. Katrina Ewert, Laurie Letters and signed columns are the opinion of the writer. The Argus Chappell, Julieanna All letters mustibe signed, typed, double-spaced, less than Lambert,Andrew the Monday before publication. Editor-in-Chief Christopher Baron Sandley 300 words and submitted Business Manager Jesse Boyle Production Manager Ashish Verma All letters and columns are subject to editing or rejection. Managing Editor David Brown Graphics Design Mike McMorris The Argus offices are located in the Memorial Center, News Editor Kerry Podzamsky Treasurer Amy Mills Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL 61701. Assistant News Editor Maisa Taha The Argus is published by Illinois Wesleyan University Subscriptions are $21 per year.

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