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FEATURES COMDEB NEWS SPORTS CC student reports on the Republican antics as trans- Pikes Peak Community Men’s hockey looks to start One Laptop Per Child Ini- parent as Michael Scott College enrollment booms off season strong against tiative in Uganda as funding dissipates Northeastern Ian Wrangham 5 Ben Quam 7 Elle Emery 9 Aaron Patterson 12 Volume 40 No 5 THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF COLORADO COLLEGE Check out James Zilenziger Cracks in Obama’s image? Page 6 Nearby Farming Community Seeks Support for Workers, Local Foods > October 9, 2009 catalystnewspaper.com Nick Hawks Catalyst Staff eneath the gaze of the Virgin of Guadalupe and with Norteño music Bplaying in the background, Sister Nancy Crafton scurries past metal shelves stocked with traditional Mexican food to her pick-up truck that is fi lled with donations from community members. As she works to unload everything Welcome! from kitchenware to clothing from the back of the truck alongside multiple volunteers, she stops frequently to fi eld questions. Speaking in a mixture of English and Spanish, she addresses We here at The Catalyst would like each individual with compassion in a tone that is to welcome back alumni, family and authoritative, yet grandmotherly and comforting friends back to Colorado College. – questions related to everything from identifi - Perhaps you’ve noticed we look cation documentation to medical bills to food a little different, and maybe even orders. report a little differently on our Once all of the bags have been unloaded and put in the appropriate place throughout the campus, than in years past. Our mis- facility, Crafton returns to her offi ce to respond sion is to catalyze informed debate to a myriad of emails. Her desk is covered in pa- and we are doing just that. We’d also perwork, as are most other surfaces in the small like to invite you to use us as a way room. On one wall, a Mexican fl ag hangs. On to stay informed about what’s going another, a small framed picture of an illustrated on here at CC. The best way to do scene of Robert F. Kennedy standing with na- that of course is to make your way tional union leaders in front of a back drop of over to American and Union fl ags. Beneath the picture, a caption reads, “You stand for justice and I’m proud to stand here with you.” In 2000, Crafton left St. Mary Corwin Hospi- tal where she was a neurosurgical nurse specialist Graphic: Eleanor Anderson to devote herself, full-time, to addressing the problems, extortion scams, and medical care; Mexico and Central America, work jobs that issues of the local immigrant population in support that is greatly needed by this disenfran- most Americans are unwilling to do. They are Avondale, Colorado and the surrounding rural chised population of immigrant workers that often times the hardest and most physically areas. Now, at 67, she is the Director of El has no other available resources to aid it nor any demanding jobs that are also stigmatized by Centro de Los Pobres, a non-profi t organization recourse of fi ghting the injustices it suffers. American society. Jobs like fruit and vegetable dedicated to the service of the immigrant poor “These are good workers, good people,” says pickers, construction hands, factory workers, that operates using a limited amount of funds Crafton, “but, in our society, migrant workers meat processors, hotel maids, groundskeepers, catalystnewspaper.com/subscribe that are generated via small private grants and are invisible and the lowliest… they are put and janitors. Realistically, though, the nation community donations. The Center provides in- upon and abused.” could not function without these workers pro- We’ve tried to make The Catalyst dignant families with “those things necessary for Despite the United States’ reliance on foreign viding such necessary services. more accessible, more sustainable, survival: food, clothing and when possible, shel- labor and the benefi ts that American society re- While it is important to note the necessary ter,” according to its mission statement. In the ceives from it, U.S. immigration policy creates an role that immigrant labor plays in the United more interesting and more inviting past nine years, the organization has registered environment in which immigrant workers can be States economy, what is more important and than ever before. We hope you’ll over 6,000 families and continues to register an exploited and are systematically disenfranchised. what many tend to ignore, is that the immigrant check us out online and support our average of 34 new families weekly. Immigrant labor provides the foundation workers discussed in policy debates are not mission here at The Catalyst. The Center does more than just provide the for a number of industries within the United just workers, but people – people with names, bare necessities, it is “a quiet system of sup- States’ economy. While they primarily, but not families, and inalienable rights that should be port… that [immigrant families] know they have exclusively by any means, work in low-skilled guaranteed not because of citizenship or any access to,” said Crafton. Support that includes, sectors that require little to no formal educa- Continued on page 6 but is not limited to, help with immigration tion, immigrant workers, specifi cally those from 2 October 9, 2009 Features Sweetgrass puts their “Signatures” on 700 inches Jon Gang Guest Writer Labeling a film like Signatures with a genre is a difficult prospect. The ski/snowboard/tele- mark/noboard film, by the CC alumi helmed company Sweetgrass Productions, exists in the grey area between straight-ahead ski porn, documentary, and a planet-earth style nature- film. Just about the same amount of time is dedicated to nature footage and Japanese-lan- guage interviews as to skiers and riders cutting through the fluffy white Hokkaido powder. This gorgeously shot movie is much easier to define by what it is not. It is not a helicop- ter-shot, big mountain huckfest like last year’s That’s it That’s All starring Travis Rice, or the films of Teton Gravity Research. It is certainly not your run of the mill, big-name, pro-centric park, pipe, and rail saturated flick. In fact, it aggressively eschews the trademarks of both these genres, opting instead for a much slower pace and an understated aesthetic. Gone are the superhuman-feats of your aver- age ski-porn. There are no double-cork 1260’s, 150-foot cliff bombings, or 25-stair handrails to be found here. The film’s main focus is snow, Cartoon: Jeff Hester powder snow, and lots and lots of it. Signatures faze someone who can ride a whole mountain flora in Hokkaido. If there is one glaring complaint to be made documents a winter and spring spent living and like Crested Butte or Vail. It even includes These hushed, contemplative conversa- about the movie, it is the soundtrack, which riding in Hokkaido Japan. The skiers and riders an extensive section of riding on thin, crusty tions, combined with copious nature shots predominantly features slow burning, mellow are faceless behind their goggles, hats, and mas- spring snow. of trees, flowers, and rivers, serve to create a folk. Banjos, acoustic guitars, and hushed male sive plumes of fresh powder kicked up by their However, none of this makes Signatures a sense of place, of the changing seasons, and voices abound. Only two tracks feature any skis and boards. Little indication beyond the boring film. It doesn’t aim to pump your adren- of the way these Japanese skiers and riders sort of percussion. While this does fit the over- occasional first name is given of who is riding aline. What it wants to do is take your breath view the mountains they are riding. In this way, all laid-back vibe of the film, the fifty minutes what or when. Most of the terrain is fairly mel- away. The movie presents the riding of snow Signatures becomes less concerned with the of uniformly slow motion ski and snowboard low. Aside from the occasional extreme steep as a thing of grace and beauty. Shot in picture individual accomplishments of certain skiers footage, contemplative interviews, and nature or pillow line, there isn’t that which would perfect HD, the cinematographers makes every and snowboarders, and more with a film about shots could have been better moved along by effort to capture the beauty of the skiers’ and a place and its connection to the people who the occasional change of pace in the music. Sweetgrass has riders’ movements, as well as the terrain that live and ski there. Hokkaido itself is the star Still, if you were at the October 5th screen- managed to take the they are covering in equal measure. of the movie. Sweetgrass has managed to take ing of Signatures in Armstrong hall, you wit- “ Breaking up the scenes of riding are several the ego-serving tendencies of most modern nessed a journey to a foreign land of jaw-drop- ego-serving tendencies subtitled Japanese-language interviews with ski and snowboard films out of the picture. ping beauty, and to see its thickly snow-covered of most modern ski and skiers, equipment designers, and filmmakers. As anyone who’s seen That’s It That’s All, or slopes shred in a way that it is both relatable Topics range from the similarities between just about any other recent film like it, can and breathtaking, lead by tour guides with a snoboard films out of the snowboarding and calligraphy, to the way a attest, this documentary is no small feat in the keen eye for capturing it all on film.

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