Bryan College Triangle

Alex Green
Assistant Online Editor

I’m just a guy writing a column. I get asked frequently if I am a student here and have paid every rate for food in the cafeteria and Lion’s Den. I almost got a staff discount once, too.

The truth is that I arrived at Bryan as a student last semester, but I have been at and around this school since I was a kid. My parents often drove my sister and I around the campus on our autumn Sunday afternoon cruises.

After some post-graduate adventures, I have landed here and am here to stay – hopefully until graduation. These are my thoughts on a place that I love not only as a student but as a piece of my home, Dayton. I’m not always right, but I am the one writing the column. Enjoy.

Mr. Palmer recently showed his Communication Ethics and Issues class a video about the Light’s Golden Jubilee, an extravaganza celebrated in October 1929 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the electric light bulb – thank you, Mr. Palmer; that is good stuff.

The jubilee was centered around the person of Thomas A. Edison, great American inventor and father of the electric light bulb. At a certain moment during the festival, Americans coast-to-coast were asked to switch off their lights in recognition of Edison, a giant among giants by the Dearborn, Mich., party.

The men who had come to acknowledge this titan of his times included President Herbert Hoover, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, industrialists John D. Rockefeller Jr. and J.P. Morgan and Edison’s admirer and auto revolutionist Henry Ford.

Today, I reluctantly acknowledge that giants are extinct. We Americans look back with swelling pride and awe at those figures of our past because they are like fossils, uncovered in the now bleak and deserted forests of the past. We reconstruct their impact and influence and put them on display in our museums. Read full story »

Bryan Family,

Over the course of the last few days, several things have happened in SGA that I think deserve clarification and that we would love your feedback on moving forward. I proposed earlier this week that SGA as an entity be dissolved for the period of one year. Events would still be sponsored and planned under a specific Events Council whose positions are still voted on by the student body at-large and the respective classes. One of the main reasons for the proposed change would be to reevaluate the functions of SGA and how it could best fit with the direction of Bryan College as a whole, to clearly see the essentials that the organization provides. I remain firm in the belief that this proposal would be best for SGA and student leaders on campus, but there are many people whom I respect inside SGA and out of it that disagree with me. I believe in this change, others do not, and disagreement is not a bad thing.

The Corporate Body of SGA will have the final vote on this proposal Tuesday, Feb. 7, at the first Corporate Meeting of the semester. I understand that I have simply given an overview and not many specifics on my line of reasoning, so I encourage anyone with an opinion on this issue to please contact your representative or friends in SGA to ask questions and give thoughts.

Thank you all,

Vincent Smith

Your Student Body President

Words are real. They can hurt, regardless of what the old children’s rhyme says. We at Triangle are cognizant of the power of words. That’s why we regret that some of our words last semester hurt other members of our community. That was never our intention, and we regret that anyone felt attacked or belittled by anything published in Triangle.

Sometimes in the pursuit of truth or making a point or just making a joke, we focus more on the creation than the reception of our writing. That is not the humility that we strive to practice as journalists. Specifically, Triangle would like to apologize to the members of the women’s soccer team who were offended by references to the team in a sports column last semester. It was not Triangle’s intent to offend; in fact, the column was about something else entirely. But we were callous in not perceiving how these committed athletes would receive our attempt at humor. We will strive to be more sensitive in the future, and hope that those we offended can forgive us.

Dear Editor (and Ms. Wallach),

I read your letter to the editor this past week, and while there were several things that I agree with, the main point has been bothering me all week. I have to say, I disagree. You said, “I do believe that having attraction to the same sex is wrong and is an act that requires repentance.”

Same-sex attraction is not a sin. Same-sex attraction is not an act. Same-sex attraction is a temptation, and a temptation that a lot of research suggests will be with you your entire life. Attraction is also not the same as lust.

I believe that even you would agree with this. If attraction is lust, than attraction to anyone of the opposite sex is also sin, unless they’re your spouse (so good luck courting).

Instead the main Greek word used for lust, also often translated covet, can also be used for good desires (Hebrews 6:11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end). It is a desire or longing for a thing. But that desire is wrong, when it reduces someone to an object to crave.

Attraction, on the other hand, notices that the person your looking at looks good. I think that Emma Watson is attractive, and several of my friends. But that is not the same as lusting after any of them. Can attraction be a temptation? Certainly. Is it sin? No.

In the same way that I can be tempted to gorge myself on a feast, to hurt someone who’s wronged me, or to pridefully ridicule an opinion I disagree with, I can be tempted to lust after those I find attractive. It is not sin to feel temptation. Jesus felt temptation too. But being tempted isn’t wrong.

To single out a single temptation as being itself sin, requiring of repentance drives away those who desperately need our help. Instead it is typical for them to find the church’s doors closed. God spent time with sinners. He loved them so much it killed him. Though he tells them to “sin no more,” he also offers them forgiveness for their failings, and restoration.

So yes, “everyone struggles with something.” Your sins are no more or less acceptable to God than any other. Maybe we as the Church need to remember that we are just as flawed as those we so often seek to condemn.

- Junior Sean Bunger

Dear Editor,

Concerning your recent article about the piano situation on campus, I feel that there was some crucial information left out that would change the course of this discussion.

I was disappointed with the fact that the article did not give what I believe is the most important reason why not every student is allowed access to the pianos in Rudd. All music majors and minors who are taking lessons from music faculty have to pay a $125-250 music lab fee that goes to the music department for the upkeep of the current pianos. We pay the music department for the “privilege” to use the pianos.

The music department is not trying to deprive the rest of the student body of the opportunity to practice. Every student has the ability to take music lessons and pay the lab fee to use the pianos if they desire. It’s only fair that students who wish to practice on the Rudd pianos be asked to pay the same fee that music students do.

The caption under my picture that was placed with the article was misinforming. The reason I am allowed to play the pianos in Rudd is because I am a music minor taking lessons, and I pay the music lab fee. I mentioned to the Triangle staffer who took my picture that he had to hurry because I was supposed to be teaching a lesson in about a minute. I believe I also said something to the order of, “The only time I’m allowed to be in here (talking about the practice room with the grand piano) is when I teach my music lesson.” I never said anything about that having to do with my ability to practice on the Rudd pianos in general. However, I do understand how that may have gotten misinterpreted.

I agree with the article in the fact that this is an issue worth talking about, and it would be nice if SGA could have a piano on campus that other students may use. At the same time, let’s remember that having a piano to practice on is not a right, it’s a privilege.

- Junior Kelly Findley