Fbuy 4, 2009
2
tessA CoGmAn
StaFF Writer
Sweet, choco-late-y goodness,many shades of red,and giant bouquets of flowersare just around the corner, wait-ing to pounce on the single anddepressed.
It happens every year; your best
friend is down and out because heor she thinks there’s no one to love,and our society attacks brokenhearts by bombarding them withcupid images.Singles form into groups andmake pacts to stomp on every bou-quet and avoid every couple insight.I’ve been single on Valentine’s
Day before and I know how horrible
it can be. Seeing happy coupleseverywhere, or watching your best
friend get more cards than you, can
make Feb. 14 feel like more of apopularity contest than a holiday.
You look out the window before
you leave the house, just in casethere’s someone waiting to pointand laugh at you. One year I evencarried a thumbtack around withme so I could pop any “Will you bemy Valentine?” balloons.But can we just stop burningpictures of our exes and move onwith our lives? Valentine’s Day doesn’t need to be about the girl-
friend and boyfriend, the girlfriend
and girlfriend, the boyfriend and
boyfriend, or even the love-triangle
type. Anyone and everyone canenjoy Valentine’s Day.Don’t have a love in your life?Send out cards to friends, parents,or siblings! Don’t want to spendmoney on cards? Then make them
like you did in second grade and usethose sparkles that are harder to get
rid of than the herpes.It’s not like it’s Christmas andyou have to spend your entire pay-
check on presents; a few lines of text
and a dash of pink can say it all.Most of us work far too hard,and we should use every excuse tocelebrate something in our lives. Whether it’s staying home with a
friend and watching romantic com-
edies, or going out for a romanticdinner with your special someone, Valentine’s Day should be aboutappreciation, not an angry mob of singles with torches and axes.
The more people there are com-
plaining about Hallmark holidays,the more people there are feelingguilty for enjoying them.Just keep in mind that every-one, at some point, has felt bittertowards Valentine’s Day, but nextyear’s could be really sweet. Then
you can be a hypocrite like everyone
else!
Hebron article informative but slightly misleading
Thanks for the ne article on Hebron and
Palestine in your Jan. 21 issue. It taught mea few things, but I would like to point out acouple of errors.On the front cover, the story headline describesHebron as “ . . . Israel’s divided city.” Hebron has beenillegally ruled and controlled by Israel since 1967, butit’s not in Israel, it’s in Palestine. Also, throughout the article, the word “Jews”was used to describe the settlers in Hebron. I feelthat’s incorrect.These settlers are Zionists and, to be more specic,
they’re Political Zionists who are racist extremists. They
have little or nothing in common with the many Jewishpeople from around the world who disagree with theIsraeli state’s occupation and oppression of Palestine. All Jews are not Zionists, and for that matter allZionists are not Jews. Much of the political and fi-nancial support for a completely Zionist Israel comesfrom fundamentalist Christians.They are diligently funding and working for thebiblically foretold return of the Jews to Israel, whichwill bring on Armageddon, which will bring J.C.back, who will then convert or kill the Jews and sendthese Christians to Heaven . . . honest, I couldn’t makethis stuff up if I tried. Which, to my mind, makes these fundamentalistChristians Zionists who are also anti-Semitic and nutsto boot.Sometimes it gets so confusing you need a programto tell the players apart. But your informative article didhelp to clear away some of the confusion.
Kevin neish
COMMUNITY MEMBER
L e t t e r s
Next publication date: Feb. 18, 2009Deadline: noon Feb. 11, 2009
Address: 3100 Foul Bay Rd., Victoria, BC,V8P 5J2Location: Lansdowne Richmond House 201Phone: 250-370-3591Email: nexus@nexusnewspaper.comWebsite: www.nexusnewspaper.comPublisher: Nexus Publishing Society
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STUDENT BOARD MEMBERS
Kyla FernsKelly MarionAndrea Moir Jason MotzChris PalMiriam Putters
MANAGING EDITOR
Jason Schreurs
LAYOUT EDITOR
Laila Brown
STUDENT EDITOR
Tessa Cogman
COPY EDITOR
Alan Piffer
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Kait Cavers
STAFF WRITERS
Guy AlaimoBrendan Kergin Jason Motz
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Courtney Broughton
ADVERTISING SALES
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DISTRIBUTION
Adrian BinakajAshley Moore
CONTRIBUTORS:
Guy AlaimoOlivia BertrandAdrian BinakajCourtney BroughtonBreanna CareyKait CaversAlisha CharmleyTessa CogmanZan ComerfordMaelina de GrasseSamantha DoneyMichael DuncanBrendan KerginDonald KennedyKeltie LarterWill MaartmanKelly MarionChloe Markgraf Jason MotzShane Scott-Travis Jenna SedmakRhea SmilowskiEd Sum Joel WitheringtonCamden Wright
th vws nd opnons xpssd hn hos of h uhos, no of h Nxus PublshngSocy. On copy of Nxus s vlbl p ssu,p pson. Nxus s pnd on mxuof 100 nd 40 pcn cycld pp.Pls cycl you copy. thns!
Editorial meetings
Com ou o ou wly Nxus dol mngs,wh ll Cmosun sudns cn g nvolvd nh sudn nwspp. Mngs plcvy tusdy 11:30 m n h Nxus ofc,rchmond Hous 201, Lnsdown. Cll 370-3591o -ml nxus@nxusnwspp.com fo monfomon.
Send a letter
Nxus pns ls h 250 wods o lssn spons o pvous sos. Nxus svsh gh o fus publcon of ls. Lsmus nclud full nm nd sudn numb (nopnd). Nxus ccps ll ls by -ml onxus@nxusnwspp.com
VieWS
Opn Spc ccps submssons fom Cmosun sudns. Submssons o Opn Spc should b400 wods o lss. rsponss o pvous cls n Nus should b 250 wods o lss.e-ml submssons o nus@nusnwspp.com nd nclud you nm nd sudn numb.
Open Space
N e x u s E d i t o r i a l
brendAn KerGin
StaFF Writer
At a recent Canadian University Press conference, the nal keynote
speaker, Jesse Brown, asked 300
smiling delegates, “Are you insane?”at the beginning of his speech. Once
done, he answered his own ques-tion, saying, yes, we’re all insanefor getting into this business. Writing for newspapers andmagazines is just not a growingsector for employment.Print journalism is taking amassive hit from online bloggers,cell phone videos, and anybody else with a modem and keyboard.This is a serious issue for anyone
interested in the ink-on-paper style
of knowledge transfer. While books seem relatively
safe, since trying to read a 500-page
opus on a Dell is certiably insane,newspapers and magazines areghting to stay nancially viable.
With the recession, advertising
sales are down for everyone, every-where. Print is generally the rstplace companies are going to pullads from. Companies once willingto spend a few hundred dollars fora one-day ad in a daily paper arenow looking towards websiteswith timed ad space and targeteddemographics.If that wasn’t bad enough, sub-scriptions are down for everyonefrom your local newspaper to gi-gantic multi-national magazines. With both avenues for incomebeing slashed, corporations arecutting the paper and magazinebudgets, focusing money on moreweb-friendly mediums.Hundreds of jobs are beingdeleted. This creates a vacuumwhere good investigative journal-ism once was.Many once-respected news-papers are becoming rags for theregurgitation of massive, agency-written stories that run on dozens
of websites and other papers. If yougo through the Times Colonist, how
many stories are from Reuters andthe Associated Press? All of this makes us over atNexus a little unsure of our ownpulp-based publication. We write,design, and distribute somethingwe enjoy making and hope it goeson to bigger and better things, likeinforming students, entertainingour readers, and, when all is saidand done, lining Fluffy’s cage.So all this doom and gloom weheard at the conference is a little
disconcerting. Of course, all student
newspapers are in a similar situa-tion. While some are doing someblogging, podcasting, and videouploading, it’s interesting to seeeveryone still appreciating the inkversion of student publications. We’re at least part of the futureof journalism and, for the mostpart, print is our choice. It’s likevinyl and blacksmithing. We don’treally need to collect records or
ride horse-drawn carriages around
town, but isn’t it somewhat coolerto do so?Here’s the crux—media and journalism is changing; there’snothing we can do about that. Butwe still have a choice. Plenty of people are willing to go out andreport on vital issues.Don’t let a centralized mediagain complete control of infor-mation. Look for other sources,and don’t forget that independentpress provides the journalisticfreedom corporate machines willnever offer.
Print journalism just too legit to quit
W w, dsgn, nddsbu somhngw njoy mng ndhop gos on obgg nd bhngs, l nfomngsudns, nnngou ds, nd,whn ll s sd nddon, lnng Fluffy’scg.
Rosy cheeks and fists of fury
On y i vn cd humbc oundwh m so i could popny “Wll you b myVlnn?” blloons.
DraWiNG: SHaNe SCOtt-traViS
hlp buildu a
nxu dud vlu
if you would lk o w, kphoos, o jus wn o hlp ouwh h nwspp, g n ouchwh us sp!
250.370.3591nexus@nexusnewspaper.comwww.nexusnewspaper.com
Richmond House 201,Lansdowne
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