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Columbia College Chicago Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago Columbia Chronicle College Publications 4-22-2002 Columbia Chronicle (04/22/2002 - Supplement) Columbia College Chicago Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cadc_chronicle Part of the Journalism Studies Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Columbia College Chicago, "Columbia Chronicle (04/22/2002 - Supplement)" (April 22, 2002). Columbia Chronicle, College Publications, College Archives & Special Collections, Columbia College Chicago. http://digitalcommons.colum.edu/ cadc_chronicle/530 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago. It has been accepted for inclusion in Columbia Chronicle by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago. ]illian }{elmer &Xatie Walsh > Special Section Editors RECEIVED APR II 2002 COLUMBIA OOt.LBGE LIBRARY • \·. .. I . • ._ _. .• ·~' • • • , ' .. 2 They Call Me Coo-Coo The Shotput Thrower by Chandra "Goldie" Brown by Brian Costello I lJa,~ls~~iff and later became two people with two ·:Not to<i'dijiny people know this, but when you make the United very different nifhle\.- --sl> ~~ ce myself to you. My name i~· Chandra State~ Olytj{pics team, you have to take a few classes in grooming, and my other name I'll tell you a . .. n1anrit:rs, aijd cultural sensitivity training. If you're surprised by . One weekea4,.~~~Qt ~visit my father. On that weekend my co.usin's brother this, irpagifie how I must have felt; I just figured, since I made it ~n-~aw molesterline.!· JsY~fe.d to scream when I woke up and felt his fingers onto the._shOtput ~earn ~d all, all I'd have to do is throw a shotput ms1de of m~ . He p~t the hand that wasn't inside of me on his lips and shook his all pay an,~ practice until I threw the shotput [¥·- ~h to win a gold medal. · Jt· \, head back «<t 1 U~· <t>_ R!fiy, no don't do that. ~lt~"hi!M~~lle.do~toJd me if I said a word that he would kill my father. But, the Olympic Committee wants us t.&'take classes1Jike this Now I Jove my (Ia~ willt-fll'ttriu tiltaJn ~ lf I didn't have my father around I would one: Culture and Shotput Throwing. I kn~w. I know, it~ounds com not know Jove since I never felt this tTom my mother. pletely ridiculous: after all, if somebody't1a good sho~put thrower, it doesn't matter where on earth they're from>,. .right? 4 f least that's ~o at eleven I protected my father from h:um or less that's what I thought I was domg. I wanted to run to my mother but"Wlth tb.e way she treated me I thought how I look at it. Howe-yer, i' wasn't always· fhiS'~flf. .. it used to be she would tell me it was my fault. So I keep thiS secret to myself. That day that that only wealthy white males were considered capable of effective man created a person in me whom I've come to love. shotputting, ari(f t1Jis .COI,Irse me and the team are enrolled in aims tO Chandra was always this scared little girl. She is quite, easy going afraid to kick down what is 'fu~}:!fe1- es~_ent i ally. a wide open door: that any speak her mind and she doesn't love herself. ' body anywhere ~~Jhrow a sbotput m any way they see fit as long Now Goldie is this loud, hard, tough, bad as b---. She doesn't takes--- off as it flies l ong c ~cl;.Qigh and~tands in the dirt with a victorious plop. anybody. Stie loves to fight and she is very possessive. No one owns her and she In other words: If' 1t works for you, use it, and don't worry about makes her own rules. She doesn't love anyone expect Chandra. what anybody else has to say about it. The way I came to finally meet Goldie was in a mental institution. At seven Our teacher is named Max. He's half Aborigine, and half Idahoan. teen I became pregilant and at eighteen had a beautiful son. At nineteen I was It's a ~eird ~ix, I know, but he's cool. He has kinif-'6f:-~.£umty way raped by an ex-boyfriend and at the end of that same year I was raped again by of talk1?g: he 11 stretch out the first vowel of every seqJence and my son's unCle. At twenty-four I became a lesbian and at twenty-seven I started then he 11 accentuate the even numbered words, and t!J.en he'll lisp hearing voices of this little girl. · the last word, so when he coaches us he sounds like tJ!ls: This little girl use to come to me at night when I slept, so I stcuted sleeping in "Aaaaaaaaand THEREFORE the BIG Russian WOMEN who LIVE the day. I would sit in front of my radio and drink all day. Sometim~ I wouldn't in SIBERIA learned TO-tly:qw THEIR shotputs BY ®-owing THEM even sleep. I couldn't stop hearing her no matter what I did sbe.wouldn't go Jh~ WAY baseball PITCJ-WRS,UVow BATHEBA'tM:.t.H;;,I guess away. Then way day I was dreaming and I took a good look at the little girl and 'that's how people talk in;idaho alldlor the Australian Outback. I found out she was me. I couldn't take it anymore so I tried to kill myself. ,have no idea. When he;.peaks, h?;waves a pointer around and his Goldie still didn't have a name, but I felt her presence. I knew that I was no .. : biceps .twitch from h!sJ.haVY.,.R!+te;•USA sweatshirt. He's a rather large longer in. control. I should have stayed in that hospital much longer than I did, .., ;. man w1th large Alx?J"!Smal eyes and potato brown flattop hair. but Gold1e made a way for me to escape. She told them everything that they -; I li~e him, and s6ffleti.f!les, I like the class. I like leamin~ about all wanted to hear. It was all lies, but she was so believable to they had to let me ' thed1fferent ways people-throw a shotput. For example, did you out. t7- mow that in Madagascar, the Madagascarian shotputters throw their From there own Goldie started creating this new life through me. I started shotputs by jumping three times and then tossing them underhand? dancing. Since I have blonde hair my name was Goldie there on the dance floor Hey: it works for them! Did you know ~~W.-e'hina. they hold the half naked Goldie was born. And everybody wanted a piece of Goldie. Goldie shotput up to their breasts with both hands <iA and then thrust the was everything that I wasn't and I loved her myself. shotput outward so it's almost like passing a :~asketball? In Arizona. Goldie had to be the one in charge. She was the boss and that was that. The the Hopi Indians throw their shotputs by dancing arouqd them in a more I let her take charge the more I felt safe because no one hurt me any longer. sa~ ~~t~l for ~0 minutes• .and then and only._;,then d0.4hey pick up Now at age 33 I have let Goldie go. I saw all that she was doing and I couldn't thetr sh?t~ while beseechmg the God of Shcm>u~2i,Jo bless handle her any longer. I met this beautiful woman and Goldie didn't like her so them w1th a gold medal worthy toss. ,t;fd:~?J" " she made it to where this woman didn't want me. I belonged to her and nobody I•ve tried incorporating some of these techniques into my own was going to take me away from her nobody. shotputting, but I can't seem to do it without it looking completely I had to go within myself and find out why was Goldie here. How did she ridiculous, like I'm making fun of the way other cultures throw grow so strong within me? On this journey it lead me back to my mom and the sho~puts . For instance, I did the Hopi Indian Shotput Throwing ritu way she treated me. al, and everybody thought I was just making fun of Hopi Indians, So, ~hat I did was writ~ my mom this letter. Once I released all of that built up which I wasn't, and not only that, but after I went through the whO e frustration I started breathmg on my own. I never mailed the letter to my mom I 30 minute dance, my toss didn't go farther than it ordinarily would didn't have to. I just had to write it and cry and by doing so I had to also Jet have. Goldie go. But, Max my teacher is real encouraging and he's advising me: I thank Goldie for being there through the most difficult times in my life, but "Brrriiiiiiiiiian DON'T give UP because YOU can REALLY toss A now I have to live my life for me. I will never let go of Goldie completely shotput MY kind THHHHIR!" I take these wqnfs to heart, especil,l_ because I love her so much.