Festival would help end isolation

By John P. Araujo
Skiff Staff

It’s been a while since I wrote a column, so I will comment briefly on some recent news events to catch up.

European meat products

Europe seems plagued with bad meat lately. Thousands of cattle and sheep have been slaughtered because of mad cow and hoof and mouth diseases in order to limit the spread of these diseases. This is almost enough to make me go vegetarian.

What this story demonstrates is that, despite all our knowledge and advancements, nature is still a force to be reckoned with.

In other words, when Mother Nature sneezes, the rest of us catch a cold.

Cultural awareness programs

Everywhere you go these days, there is talk of “diversity,” “cultural awareness” and “inclusiveness.” Many of the cultural awareness programs given on campus seem to be largely attended by members of that cultural group.

This leads to a couple of questions. Do the planners of these events make members of other cultures feel welcome at these events? Or is it simply apathy on the part of people from other cultures?

I find it hard to believe that the planners of these events would go through all the trouble so that only members of their culture will attend. That goes against the spirit of “reaching out to other cultures.”

Maybe the problem is having these events so isolated and spread out across the academic year that they are drowned out by everything else that goes on in the average student’s life. If you are not part of that culture, then you will be less motivated to attend those events. Perhaps the planners of these cultural awareness events can learn from Fort Worth’s annual Main Street Arts Festival and have all their cultural awareness events at the same time.

Imagine, for instance, closing off TCU’s portion of Stadium Drive for a Cultural Awareness Festival where we can have booths and stages for the various cultures that are represented on campus.

What better way to symbolize cultures reaching out to each other than to have a festival where all the cultures are celebrating with each other instead of in isolation? Think about it.

Sports stuff

Have you been watching the Dallas Mavericks lately? You should. After a decade of agonizing mediocrity, they are fun to watch again. I predict that the Mavericks will go past the first round in the playoffs. Beyond that, it depends upon who they play. The finals are probably a long shot this year, but next year...?

So Bobby “The Temper” Knight is now at Texas Tech. We all knew it wouldn’t take long for him to land somewhere else. In our “winning is everything” society, it was inevitable. Let’s hope that Texas Tech can squeeze a national championship or two out of Knight before they have to kick him out for another one of his violent incidents.

Should TCU keep men’s basketball coach Billy Tubbs? I say yes. He’s had nothing but winning seasons since he’s been here, and I believe he can still take us deep into the NCAA tournament before he’s done. Besides, “BillyBall” basketball is fun to watch.

(Cue “Eye of the Tiger” music here.) Congratulations to the women’s basketball team for its Cinderella season of firsts. First 20-win season, first Conference championship, first ticket to the NCAA “Big Dance,” first post-season victory and, unfortunately, their first tournament loss. Now that they got their feet wet on what a playoff atmosphere feels like, let’s hope they can use this experience to go further in the NCAA tournament next year.

John P. Araujo is a graduate student from Fort Worth.
He can be reached at (j.araujo@tcu.edu).

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