Jew Next...

By Lauren Belcher
Weekly Blog
Word Count: 217

There was this guy back in West Palm Beach, Fla. that ran karaoke night at McKenna's Place. He was clearly not from the United States, and had a very strong accent. He would repeatedly point his finger and say "Jew Next!" when the next singer was approaching the stage. My family and I found it hilarious...every time.

This is the extent of my background with Judaism.

But, thanks to a wonderful course at Flagler College taught by Professor Sarkio, by the end of the semester, I will be quite familiar with the faith.

The class is Advanced Reporting, and the assignment? 2,000 word literary journal. Basically, we need to go completely outside of our comfort zone for an extended period of time and create a compelling story out of our discomfort.

My discomfort? Religion. Especially ones that are really, really strong-willed.
My assignment? What is it like to be Jewish in a predominately Christian community?

So, in order to fulfill my assignment, I am submerging myself in the Jewish faith.

Despite being a devout agnostic turned atheist, I need to ignore all of my 'beliefs' and find out what theirs are.

I went to the synagogue, I rented books about Judaism from the library, and I talked to some Rabbis. Consider me, out of my comfort zone.

Image from Google Images

Let them serve

By Lauren Belcher
Project #2
Audience: People
Why?: An outdated military policy is up for review and should be removed so that everyone can serve in the military equally.
Word Count: 600 words

In the ‘40s, African Americans could not fight in the United States Armed forces. In the ‘60s, women could not fight in the US Armed Forces.

Both of these military policies were removed due to social changes in society. Now, it’s time for another change: the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the US Armed Forces.

Just like the ones listed before, 50 years from now, we will look back in awe at the rules we created limiting those who want to serve. If they are willing to sign their names on that piece of paper, and give their life for their country, let them serve.



I went out to see if everyone agreed with my strong open view of the military. I thought for sure that everyone would agree that “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was an outdated policy. I was surprised.

As I walked into the American Legion Post 37, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The front room was empty, but in the back, I could hear familiar sounds of alcohol-induced conversation and laughter. I took a deep breath and walked in.

I sat down at the bar and quickly realized that I stuck out in this group. Everyone around me was twice if not three times my age.

“How old are you honey?” the bartender asked me. “I’m 21,” I replied.

The lady to the left of me swirled around toward me. “21!?” she asked. “What are you doing here love?” I told her I am a student on assignment and that I wanted to talk to veterans about a military policy. “Well, Jess is a veteran, talk to him,” she said, obviously disappointed by my boring reason for being here.

The man she was referring to was sitting at the end of the bar, clearly drunk even though it was only 2 p.m. I went over to Jess and asked him if I could interview him for a school project about a military policy. Jess turned around and smiled at me. “Sir, are you a veteran?” I asked.

“Nope, but my whole family was in the military,” he said. “Perfect,” I said. “So Jess, what do you think about homosexuals in the military?” He thought for a moment, trying to grasp what I had just said. Then, his face twisted in a look of anger and disgust. First, he spit. Then, he yelled two words I will never forget. “F*ck f*ggots!”

I was shocked. He continued on, talking about the Bible and disease, but I had stopped listening. My mind was racing. How could someone be so intolerant? And worse, quote the Bible for their reasoning?

This conversation, although extremely unpleasant, drove the issue home for me. Homosexuals should be allowed in the military. If for no other reason than to make soldiers with Jess’ mindset uncomfortable. As far as I’m concerned, they need the exposure.

No one should have to hide who they are. If heterosexuals are allowed to proudly flaunt their sexuality, then why shouldn’t homosexuals have the same right? You can not look someone in the eye and say, “You can serve but you need to hide everything you are or we’ll kick you out.” It’s absurd.

We need to back President Obama’s plea to Congress. We need to reevaluate the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and deem it outdated. That way, homosexual soldiers will be able to serve openly without fear of punishment from their superiors. The way it should be. We don’t want our future grandchildren to ask us, “Why did your generation prevent certain people from fighting for our country?”

Image from: Center for American Progress

The Stair People

By Lauren Belcher
Weekly Blog Post
Word Count: 291

This year I decided not to have a New Year's resolution. I never keep them anyways; seemed kind of pointless.

Instead, I decided to make a more manageable resolution: a Spring Semester resolution. My Spring Semester resolution is to not use the elevator if the building is five floors or smaller. This includes every building on campus and several others that I frequent.

It was the perfect resolution for me, just hard enough to remind myself that I'm doing it, while not so hard that I would never keep it up. I am an avid elevator user. To me, using the stairs meant exercising and I don't want anything to do with that.

But it's been a little over a month now and I've made a strange discovery. Here I am, struggling to get up the stairs, making a conscience decision to do so, while all around me there are other people doing it too. The Stair People.


How could this be? Why would anyone subject themselves to such torture without a Spring Semester resolution?

Could it be that they do this all year round? Impossible!

But it's true, these people don't think twice about taking the stairs. They do it everywhere they go! To an elevator junkie, like myself, they look like masochists.

Maybe my decision was not so farfetched. Maybe this is something I should have been doing all along and should continue well past April. It's good for me. And it saves the planet a little too, something I'm always a fan of. Perhaps, one day, I will look at the people filing onto the elevator, as long as they are not disabled, and think that they look strange.

Until then, I frolick with The Stair People.

Photo from: Linda Treash

This is college, not high school

By Lauren Belcher
Project #1
Audience: Flagler College students
Why?: Attendance policy is up for evaluation
Word Count: 651 words

Flagler College’s 871-word attendance policy basically boils down to: “Don’t miss class, ever. If you do, we will fail you.”

The rule is simple. “A student who is absent, for any reason, excused or unexcused, more than 20 percent of the scheduled class meetings for the academic semester will not receive credit for the course,” according to the Flagler College Student Handbook.

This means, if your class meets three times a week, you can miss eight classes, twice a week, you can miss five, once a week and you can miss two. Sounds like high school to me.

We are college students. Most of us are paying for our education. So why are we being forced to attend at least 80 percent of our classes?

Junior Meg Weathersby is an athlete at Flagler College. Last fall, Weathersby and the rest of the volleyball team made it to the final four of the national tournament.

“I think I missed my limit for both Tuesday Thursday and Monday Wednesday Friday classes,” Weathersby said. “And it was all Volleyball.”

These absences are excused, but with the college’s policy, even excused absences count toward the 20 percent. If she would have gotten sick last semester and decided to miss class, she would have been dropped from the course. Her coach’s advice? “Take a trashcan to class.”


Basketball player DJ Ferguson feels the same way, “you just force yourself to go.”
“The other day we got back at 6 a.m. from North Georgia, and I have a class at 9, and coach said: ‘You guys have to go to class.’”

The athletes take early classes and need to be done as early as possible within the day. Weathersby is taking all of her late classes this semester because Volleyball will start back up in the fall. Both athletes think the policy is too strict to manage.

“I’ve already missed three classes this semester for a Wednesday class,” Ferguson said. “And one of my Wednesday classes is Monday and Wednesday and you can only miss five so I don’t know what’s going to happen with that.”

Weathersby thinks the college should let the students choose.

“If you’re a college student, you should have the responsibility to go to class,” she said. “If you don’t and you can still pass the class, then awesome.”

Student Government Association is also noticing problems with the current policy. SGA’s Academic Committee First Chair Jim Stiller is taking the issue on.

“My goal is to clear up some of the language in the policy,” Stiller said. “Make it that excused absences don’t count against you and make a universal policy so that teachers don’t have that much authority.”

Hopefully SGA’s attempt to reform the policy will prevail. It seems to be the only attempt at appeasing the stressed out college students of Flagler College. It’s a small step, which may be insignificant for us non-athletes, but a step nonetheless. What if you pass the limit?

“Our coaches’ reasoning is: if they’re all excused, they definitely have to do something,” Ferguson said. And the administration is doing something to help the athletes with their excused absences, but what about the rest of us?

We need a plan that works for everyone. We can’t have different departments making different rules for attendance and we need to make it that excused absences don’t count.

Those are obvious. But we are college students. And as college students, we should be able to choose if we want to go to class.

Some of our classes could be passed by arriving on test days and studying in between. And when you juggle classes and work or internship, the whole issue gets even fuzzier.

I am a student who works, goes to class and has other loyalties in the college. I go from class to class, meeting to meeting and then to work. Give me the right to choose.

Photo from Google Images