Final Feature

BOWERS GL OBAL WARMING PROFILE/Luthy

CALIFORNIA MAN LIVES IN GARAGE TO PREVENT GLOBAL WARMING

By Allison Luthy

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—“Can you smell this guy?”

Kalamazoo College students whispered to each other in their Energy and the Environment class as their guest lecturer told them he conserved water by only taking a sponge bath once a week.

Dressed in black track pants and a complimentary orange Kalamazoo College T-shirt, Mr. Bowers’ blue-eyed stare settled on a girl writing a note. As he turned away, she giggled nervously and kept whispering to her friends, this time more quietly.

Ken Bowers, 58, was born and raised in Detroit and graduated Kalamazoo College in the class of ’71. He now resides in a one-car garage in Oakland, Calif. and has a similar residence in Duluth, Minn. Bowers drives between these homes several times a year in his car—a silver 50mpg 1992 Geo Metro XFI—one of the most fuel-efficient cars on the market.

Now retired, Bowers used to work as a building contractor, fixing inner-city properties to make them more efficient.

Bowers decided to pursue a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle while attending school at K College. Up until that point, he was raised in a typical middle-class household where he didn’t think much of energy conservation or consumerism.

Life in the college dormitories helped Bowers realize how easy it was to live in a small space with few belongings. When he graduated from college, he chose to continue living as though he only had the space of a dorm room. This is the principle he still applies to his life 36 years later.

While at college, Bowers also changed his religion to one that better suited his convictions.

“I started out as an Episcopalian—that was what my family was, and that just was not free-thinking enough for me and I switched to Quakerism,” Bowers said. “I am a member of the Kalamazoo Friends Meeting to this day.”

He has noticed that his unusual lifestyle often gets in the way of his social life.

“I find it makes it harder to find friends,” said Bowers. “The friends I do find are really good friends, but it’s much harder to find friends, because I am just out of step with what’s going on in the culture.”

To conserve on energy and water, Bowers uses his sink as the only plumbing in his home and uses it for everything from cooking and doing laundry to taking his weekly sponge bath and using it for all his toilet needs.

“It’s a drastic change from what most Americans are used to,” said Bowers. “Very drastic, but it’s not impossible, I’ve been doing it for years.”

Dr. Michael Tanoff, a professor in Kalamazoo College’s Physics department who teaches the Energy and the Environment classes, approves of Bowers’ straightforwardness. He thinks that Bowers puts his money where his mouth is.

“People are going to have to wake up at some point and realize if you’re going to have a drunken party there’s going to be a hangover,” said Tanoff. “I think Ken will turn some people off but eventually they’ll come to realize that we might all be forced to live his lifestyle anyways.”

Jenna Hertz, leader of Envorg, Kalamazoo College’s environmental student group, also supports Bowers’ choice. She believes that regardless of the outcome of the debate on the real causes of global warming, humans are having a negative effect on the earth and need to find a solution for that.

“I think it’s kind of useless bickering, basically,” said Hertz. “There’s the larger point that we need to take responsibility for our actions, which is something that you learn in kindergarten.”

Dr. Binney Girdler, who teaches in the Kalamazoo College Environmental Studies and Biology departments differs from Hertz in her opinions of Bowers. Girdler feels that Bowers is too extreme for many people to take him seriously, let alone adopt his lifestyle.

“In some ways, it’s almost hyperbole: one went too far to expect the rest of us to follow,” said Girdler.

Girdler does not think Bowers is the best example of how most people can live consciously of the environment, particularly because he doesn’t have a family.

“He can afford to be utterly selfish,” said Girdler. “It’s an interesting combination of being completely selfish, yet for global reasons.”

Lauren Migliore, the president of the Kalamazoo College Republicans, looks at the problem from a more conservative viewpoint.

“ I think that while his heart is in the right place, that is excessive and definitely crazy,” said Migliore.

Andy Lukas, the vice-president of Kalamazoo College Republicans, also feels that the issue of global warming is being blown out of proportion.

“I think this is something that has been concocted out of biased studies or taken from inaccurate studies and that it’s something that needs to be looked at, but needs to be looked at more seriously, in that we shouldn’t just jump to the first conclusion,” Lukas said. “I think everybody’s just jumping on the bandwagon because it’s the latest and greatest fad for the left.”

Similarly, he does not believe that the level Bowers wants others to practice energy conservation at is practical or entirely necessary.

“You have to admire the man for his convictions and he’s certainly doing more than his part to deter this consumption of natural resources, but I think that’s going a little too far, and to expect other people to do it as well is a little ridiculous, but if people want to act that way, it’s fine,” said Lukas, “That’s their choice.”

In spite of opposition from others, Bowers continues with practicing his simple lifestyle and encourages others to do the same.

“Just try to be in touch with your mind, your spirit, and your body. Try to move away from this commercially induced lust for ever-increasing material stuff in your life,” Bowers said. “‘Cause that’s just a ball and chain.”

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Vulnerable Democrats See Fates Tied to Clinton

It wasn't really made clear in the lede what the article was going to be about. I didn't particularly like this article because it was so convoluted that I only really grasped the topic after I had read the first third of the article. The article did pick a very interesting politician to discuss as a person who may be negatively affected by Clinton being nominated by the Democrats. The rebuttal by the Republicans was also very clear and concise, including a kicker quote from a Republican saying that Clinton has no effect on any other political nominees. The ending of the article was much more grabbing than the beginning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/us/politics/04ballot.html?ref=todayspaper

Speech Coverage

Faust Works Donated to Kalamazoo College

German Scholar’s Library Donated to Kalamazoo College

Allison Luthy-Kaplan

KALAMAZOO, Mich.— Professor James M. van der Laan of Illinois State University delivered a lecture on Saturday, October 13 entitled “Faust Across the Ages and the Arts” to an audience of 50 people at Kalamazoo College. The speech was in honor of the newest addition to the A.M. Todd Rare Book Room being unveiled that day in Upjohn Library.

The collection of first editions was donated to Kalamazoo College after the recent death of the renowned German scholar, Victor Lange.

Born in Leipzig, Germany in 1908, Lange graduated from the University of Leipzig and went on to receive his doctorate in English literature. He moved to Canada at the beginning of World War II, eventually going to the US, where he became a main ambassador for German literature, which he collected. His son, an alumnus of Kalamazoo College, donated the collection after his father’s death.

The speaker, van der Laan, demonstrated the far-reaching influence of Faust with such materials as Edith Wharton’s “Age of Innocence” to Wishbone, a children’s television show about a dog that reads classic literature. With brief descriptions of their relevance, van der Laan played CDs, showed paintings, read aloud from books, and played DVDs.

The hour-long lecture got laughs from audience members at first, but lasted too long to hold their attention. Students who clearly had other things to do on homecoming day glanced repeatedly at the clock and stopped taking notes for their classes for much of the last half hour.

Van der Laan said of Faust, “The legend has such a grip on us—on his contemporaries and on us today.”

Clearly, Faust did not have as much of a grip on the students attending the lecture as van der Laan would have hoped.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Obituary

SCHWARZENEGGER OBIT/Luthy

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER KILLED BY SUDDEN HEART ATTACK

By Allison Luthy

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger died yesterday from a heart attack in his California home with his family, leaving behind a legacy of bodybuilding, acting, and politics.

Born in Austria in 1947, Mr. Schwarzenegger became one of the most famous athletes in history, winning five Mr. Universe titles by 1980. His notoriety as a bodybuilder led to his being cast in his famous roles in “Conan the Barbarian”(1982) and “The Terminator”(1984).

In 2003, Mr. Schwarzenegger was elected California’s 38^th governor.

“It was the most difficult decision in my life - except the one in 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said of his decision to run for governor.

As governor, Mr. Schwarzenegger stabilized the economy and created new work opportunities for more than 680,000 Californians.

A man with a history of heart problems, Mr. Schwarzenegger corrected a congenital heart valve condition with surgery in 1997.

Mr. Schwarzenegger joked after his surgery, “We made, actually, history, because it was the first time ever that doctors could prove that a lifelong Republican has a heart.”

Mr. Schwarzenegger, 60, is survived by his wife, Maria Shriver, and four children, Katherine, Christina, Patrick, and Christopher.

There will be a public memorial service held for Mr. Schwarzenegger in Sacramento following a private funeral at St. Bartholomew’s Church.

Serving Life for Providing Car to Killers

I really liked the lede on this article. The way that the author mentioned murder without actually telling what happened made me curious enough to keep reading an article I otherwise probably would have ignored. The story very smoothly transitions between telling the story of the man serving life in prison and stating general facts about the laws on accomplices to murder. The kicker at the end of the article was strong, using a quote about the murder victim's father.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/us/04felony.html?pagewanted=2&ref=todayspaper

Oakwood Duplex Fire

OAKWOOD DUPLEX FIRE/ Luthy

CHILD FATALITY IN OAKWOOD DUPLEX FIRE

By Allison Luthy

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—A child died at 3:12 this morning at Bronson Memorial Hospital as a result of a fire suspected to be arson in her duplex at 1275 Monroe St.

Tiffany Blanchard, three, was pronounced dead at 3:57 a.m. due to smoke inhalation. Her brothers Tory Blanchard, five, and Terry Blanchard, six, were treated for minor injuries and released at 10 a.m., according to a public information specialist at Bronson Memorial Hospital.

The fire started at 2 a.m. in the Oakwood Neighborhood residence and was called in at 2:10 a.m., said Patricia Clarksen, deputy chief of the Kalamazoo Fire Department. Two fire trucks from two companies responded within 5 minutes.

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OAKWOOD DUPLEX FIRE/Luthy

“The building was at a total loss,” said Clarksen.

Fire officials report an estimated $250,000 in damages to the building.

By the time they arrived, most of the 10 tenants had exited the building, but the three children were trapped in the second floor.

Samuel Walshe, Company 4, and James O’Brian, Company 2, tore a hole in the roof of the duplex and lifted the children out to safety.

The Kalamazoo Fire Department suspects an accelerant was used, which their black lab Smokey sniffed out.

Neighbors told police that they saw a man running from the residence with a canister, as well as a juvenile running away, said Lt. Regina Santarpio of the Kalamazoo Police Department.

Vincent DeNofrio, 33, of Mattawan and a 16-year-old juvenile were arrested today in connection with the fire. They will be arraigned tomorrow at 10 a.m., according to police officials.

Police suspect that Marie Blanchard, 32, was the target in the fire lit by her estranged boyfriend, DeNofrio.

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Navy Hero Dies of Emphysema

AHSON OBIT/Luthy

NAVY HERO DIES OF EMPHYSEMA

By Allison Luthy

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Jeffrey R Ahson, 79, navy hero and Kalamazoo local, died at home last night from emphysema.

Mr. Ahson served as a petty officer in the navy during World War II, according to Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeraldine Fyfe.

Assigned to the USS Emory at the battle of Midway, Mr. Ahson crossed a burning deck to save four other officers. He then took over a fallen gunner’s post and shot down three enemy planes.

“Ahson was a genuine American hero,” said Fyfe.

The Navy awarded Mr. Ahson with the Purple Heart and the Navy Cross for his actions.

Mr. Ahson left the navy in 1946, moving to Kalamazoo to become a firefighter. Mr. Ahson collected World War II memorabilia, which he stored in an old fire truck he repaired. The fire truck is now on display at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum.

He retired from the fire department in 1966 and became a car salesman until 1985.

Mr. Ahson belonged to the American Legion post 702, VFW post 4206, the National Checkers Association, and served as an usher at John Calvin Presbyterian.

Mr. Ahson is survived by his wife, Therese Alpert; his three children, Richard Ahson of Phillipsburg, Kan., Angela Molino of Omaha, Neb., and Lela Stalling of Pipecreek, Texas; siblings Henry Ahson, Julie Solomon, and Judith Acker, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Services will be held at Littleton Mortuary at 10AM on Saturday, followed immediately by a burial in Memorial Park Cemetery. There will be viewings held at Littleton Mortuary from 4-5:30PM and from 7:30-9PM Friday. Mr. Ahson’s family requests no flowers.

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