Daily Bruin

Gay rights advocates protest UCLA ROTC

‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy sparks protest in Plaza

By Donna Wong

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

In the midst of UCLA’s Coming Out Week, almost 100 students and
community members took the stage on Thursday in Westwood Plaza
again, but this time to protest the military’s "don’t ask, don’t
tell" policy regarding sexual orientation in the Reserve Officer
Training Corps.

Rallying against the use of public funds to finance programs for
the ROTC whose policies, critics say, discriminate against gays and
lesbians, Los Angeles community members spoke out specifically
against UCLA’s ROTC.

Speakers such as state Sen. Tom Hayden, (D-Santa Monica), U.S.
Army Sgt. Jose Zuniga and the Rev. Dusty Pruitt from the
Metropolitan Community Church in Los Angeles demanded change in the
ROTC’s policy, which requires that the ROTC and its cadets not
discuss members’ sexual orientations. These rules fall in line with
U.S. military policy.

Ultimately, the speakers emphasized an end to the discrimination
­ or an end to the program.

"If they won’t end the discrimination policy, we will act in the
budget sub-committee and will strip money from (the ROTC) budget
subsidies until the subsidy for discrimination ends," Hayden said
in his address.

Although some believe the rally’s goal was to kick the ROTC off
the UCLA campus, this wasn’t so, said Julio Rosa, chair of GALA,
UCLA’s gay, lesbian and bisexual alliance.

"Separate but equal is not acceptable," Rosa explained. "We’re
just saying they can’t discriminate."

But Rosa added, "If the only way to resolve the issue is to kick
ROTC off campus, then that’s what may have to happen."

While no officials from the campus ROTC office could be reached
for comment after the rally, one UCLA ROTC instructor who saw the
protest said it seemed significant that there were less people at
the anti-ROTC demonstration, compared to the coming out rallies
earlier this week.

"There really weren’t that many people there to reflect the idea
that UCLA students want to throw ROTC off campus," said J.D.
Whitlock, ROTC naval lieutenant.

And even though Whitlock said he does believe the policy to be
discriminatory, he added there is no other option, considering the
intimate conditions under which people in the military live.

"You’re forcing a person to live with someone who could
potentially be attracted to them," Whitlock said.

Despite these types of living conditions, Zuniga disagreed about
the policy in his address.

"No one should have to live a lie, deny their identity or deny
loved ones because the government requires them to do so," Zuniga
said.

Fifth-year world arts and cultures student Ariella Norminton,
who was passing out anti-ROTC stickers at the rally, said she hopes
she was able to expose students to the issue by talking to those
who passed by.

Rosa stressed the event was successful because the protest
reached beyond the student population and attracted UCLA alumni and
other community members.

But others were disappointed about the low turnout and suggested
more students did not attend because felt they could not make an
impact.

"People are still nervous about the issue," said Jill Morgan,
third-year religious studies student.

During the protest, the speakers stressed the importance of
changing homophobic attitudes now so that future generations will
not have to face discrimination.

"I want the world to be different for that one child in 10 who
isn’t wearing the blue booties, or the pink booties, but the
lavender ones," Pruitt said.

Unusual plutonium levels found near UC lab

EPA officials stress no health hazard in public park samples

By Alisa Ulferts

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

About a month ago, plutonium was found in a public park next to
an elementary school near the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, an
energy lab operated by the University of California.

Hoping to head off unwarranted concern, Environmental Protection
Agency officials have since announced that the elevated levels of
plutonium pose no threat to the health and safety of the
surrounding area.

Samples taken from a public park adjacent to Arroyo Seco
Elementary School in Livermore, Calif. revealed levels of plutonium
reaching only 5 percent of the maximum level allowed by the EPA in
residential areas ­ but still 16 to 160 times higher than the
normal background level, according to agency officials. Background
levels are already-existing levels of plutonium from natural
sources and nuclear testing.

"It is not a health hazard," said Michael Gill, an EPA official
and project manager of the Superfund, a federal waste-management
program, at the laboratory. "But it is a higher level than what has
been expected for worldwide background levels."

Gill said it was possible that the higher levels may have come
from the air stacks at the Livermore Laboratory, even though the
laboratory routinely monitors emissions. The laboratory is owned by
the Department of Defense but is under UC supervision.

"They’ve been a little hesitant (to cooperate)," Gill said of
the laboratory officials. "They didn’t really feel there was a
problem. But we found the need to sample and go back to see if this
was just an anomaly or from the laboratory."

Reports of the plutonium were released by a local environment
group, the Tri-Valley Citizens Against a Radioactive Environment.
The group was concerned that children playing in the area could
stir up and inhale plutonium dust particles.

Officials from the laboratory deny there is a problem.

"The levels the EPA found are 20 times lower than the EPA’s own
standards for residential areas," said Gordon Yano, laboratory
spokesman. "There is plutonium everywhere because of nuclear
testing and naturally-occurring uranium in soil. But exactly how
the (elevated levels of plutonium) got there remains a
question."

Yano said it might have resulted from the laboratory releasing
plutonium into the Livermore city sewage system in the 1960s.
Before the plutonium was discovered, it accumulated into sludge
­ which was then used as fertilizer in Big Trees Park, the
site where the plutonium was found. Yano insisted the level was
negligible.

"If the radiation from the natural uranium in that area is a
penny’s worth, then that radiation plus the plutonium is two
pennies," Yano said. "You’ve doubled the amount, but you still
don’t have a lot of money."

City officials are also unconcerned. Diane Daniel, a spokeswoman
with the Livermore Area Recreation and Parks Department, said the
department had no plans to close the park. "The levels of radiation
are not a threat to children in the park," she said.

The Livermore Unified School District has not received any calls
from parents worried about the radiation and classes will not be
cancelled, said a district spokeswoman.

"A lot of the people here are more used to radioactivity because
they work with it in the lab," said Janet Armentraut,
editor-in-chief of Livermore’s local paper, the Independent.
"Things around here are pretty quiet because (the parents of the
elementary school students) know more about the effects of
radiation."

Plutonium cannot penetrate the skin ­ although it is
poisonous if swallowed, Yano said. It is most harmful if inhaled,
damaging the lung cells and possibly causing cancer.

Pilipino Americans share history with campus

Community presents heritage through month-long slate of
lectures, exhibits

By Allison Lefkowitz

Daily Bruin Staff

For the first time ever, the UCLA Pilipino community is sharing
its history and heritage through a Pilipino American History
Month.

Inspired by a trip to the Filipino American National Historical
Society’s conference in San Francisco this past summer, students of
seven different campus Pilipino groups came together to organize
the history month.

"It is very important for people to know about the history of
Pilipino Americans because it is something that is never taught,"
said Dawn Mabalon, director of the Samahang Pilipino Education and
Retention program.

"We are the oldest Asian American group in the United States,
the largest in California and the second largest but fastest
growing Asian Americans in the nation," Mabalon continued.

The students chose October for the history month because the
first Pilipinos stepped foot in the Americas in October 1587. Large
waves of immigration began in 1898 after the United States annexed
the Philippines and since 1965, only Mexico has sent more
immigrants to the United States. Los Angeles is home to the largest
Pilipino American community outside of Manila.

The UCLA Pilipino American population ­ which includes
almost 1,000 students ­ is represented by Samahang Pilipino,
along with other groups including Pilipinos for Community Health
and the Pilipino Recruitment and Enrichment Program.

Students said they planned the history month to educate the
campus about Pilipino American history as well as its modern day
issues and struggles.

"We are receiving national recognition from the Pilipino
community," said Valerie Villaraza, coordinator of the history
month. "We are hoping to set a precedent for other college
communities to follow."

Beginning with a Culturefest held in Westwood Plaza earlier this
month, the history month programs have included a lecture series on
Gender and Sexuality in Modern Pilipino American Culture and a
forum about AIDS in the Pilipino American community.

"The lecture on Gender and Sexuality brought prominent feminist,
gay, lesbian and bisexual Pilipino leaders to campus to talk about
their experiences and give (the students) Pilipino role models,"
said Mabalon.

"The AIDS forum helped to make people feel comfortable talking
about the issue, especially since the Pilipino American community
has the largest number of AIDS cases within the Asian American
community," Mabalon continued.

The month’s activities will continue with programs including an
exhibit in the Kerckhoff Art Gallery, a film in Ackerman Grand
Ballroom and poetry readings.

Pilipino American History Month will conclude on October 27 with
a rally in Schoenberg Plaza to inform the UCLA community about
efforts to save a class on Tagalog, one of the languages of the
Philippines. The class is scheduled to end after this year, and the
Pilipino community is fighting to have it permanently implemented
into UCLA’s curriculum.

"If the administration claims this is a diverse university, then
why can’t Tagalog be offered permanently?" said Ernesto de Guzman,
president of Samahang Pilipino. "There is a demand and an interest
in the subject, and I don’t know why the administration is blind to
this issue."

K.J.: Destination unknown

Will fate permit Kevin Jordan to be the best receiver in UCLA
football history?

Due to a production error, the following article ran
incompletely in the sports section on Thursday, Oct. 13. The Bruin
regrets the error.

By Randy Satterburg

Daily Bruin Staff

He must be aware of the irony of the situation.

Wide receiver Kevin Jordan is putting up All-American-type
numbers in this, his junior season with the UCLA football team.

Through six games this year, Jordan has 40 receptions for 611
yards, numbers which exceed those of J.J. Stokes at the same point
last season.

His average of 101.9 receiving yards per game is the third-best
in the nation and leads the Pac-10. On top of that, Jordan is on a
pace that would make him the Bruins’ all-time leading receiver in
career receptions and receiving yards at the completion of his
senior season.

Does this sound vaguely familiar to anyone? It should.

The UCLA football team is no stranger to receivers having
outstanding junior years. But is it a blessing or a curse?

It all started back in 1991, when Sean LaChapelle burst onto the
scene in his third year of action with the Bruins. His 73 catches,
1,181 receiving yards, and 11 touchdowns amounted to the best
single-season performance ever by a UCLA wide receiver.

With a similar ­ if not better ­ senior year,
LaChapelle could have broken all of the UCLA career receiving
records, and in the process, put them so far out of sight that
nobody would ever threaten them.

It didn’t quite happen that way.

Instead, LaChapelle was slowed for most of the year by fractured
ribs, which allowed him to start in only six of 11 games and held
him to a single touchdown catch.

But LaChapelle passed the torch of unfulfilled expectations to
Stokes, who was immediately anointed as the next great UCLA
receiver. With his 17 touchdowns, 82 catches and 1,181 receiving
yards in 1993, Stokes eclipsed every one of LaChapelle’s single
season receiving marks ­ and was on pace to shatter virtually
all of UCLA’s career records.

Everyone expected Stokes to use this, his senior year, to become
the Hank Aaron of UCLA receivers ­ someone whose records
nobody would dare think about challenging.

UCLA fans ­ and Stokes for that matter ­ need not be
reminded how this fairy-tale story evolved into a haunting
nightmare when a thigh bruise rendered useless any speculation
about the great things he could have accomplished this year.

Stokes’ story represents everything that could go drastically
wrong and did ­ a season so maliciously construed that it
exceeds the bounds of cruel and unusual punishment.

This year, just like Stokes ­ and LaChapelle before that
­ Jordan has laid a foundation for his future as a junior. But
after witnessing firsthand the way injuries can turn expectations
on their head, Jordan must wonder at times whether that foundation
sits atop a fault line.

"Injuries are just a part of the game, they can happen at any
time whether its your junior year or senior year," Jordan says.
"Unfortunately you can see a pattern with Sean and J.J, but that’s
just the way things happened to them. I really cannot worry about
that (happening to me)."

As an active member of the Christian fellowship group Athletes
In Action, Jordan brings a unique perspective to the debate about
God’s role in determining the path one’s life follows.

Despite the fact that football has always been an integral part
of his life, Jordan credits a higher source for his involvement in
the sport.

"(Football) is just something I do because God gave me the
ability to play," he says. "It’s up to Him whether He wants me to
continue to play."

In fact, according to Jordan, his calling in life may lie
somewhere else altogether.

"If I get a serious career ending-injury, then I’ll know that it
was just not meant for me to play football," Jordan says. "I don’t
have control over what happens to me day in and day out. Some
people think they do. But I have to humble myself and say that
Kevin Jordan only has a certain amount of control over his
life."

But this begs the question of what Stokes and LaChapelle did
wrong to deserve such a fate. Did God not want them to be the best
receiver ever to play at UCLA?

"I’m not saying that God did this to get back at J.J. (or Sean)
for anything," said Jordan. "I’m the type of person who believes
that everything happens for a reason. J.J is hurt for a reason. I
don’t know what that reason is, and J.J. probably doesn’t know what
the reason is, but there is a reason for it."

Still, it is an unusual twist of fate that one person’s
misfortune can open the door for another’s success.

Jordan finds difficulty in knowing that every one of his
accomplishments on the field at UCLA will be compared to those of
his good friend off the field, J.J. Stokes. If Jordan goes on for
the successful senior season that has eluded his predecessors, it
would be Stokes’ records he breaks ­ Stokes’ legacy upon which
he infringes.

"It would be kind of bittersweet, because going through the time
when J.J and Sean were here, I wasn’t the man. I’ve done things in
my own quiet way," Jordan says. "If anything like that happens, it
would be nice, but it doesn’t really mean that much to a certain
degree."

Knowing what he does about the unpredictability of life, and
especially football, does Kevin Jordan dare think that he can be
the one to break the string of bad luck that has tripped up two of
the best UCLA wide receivers in history.

"Well, I hope so," Jordan says. "I plan on coming back to have a
good senior year and do whatever I can to help the team. But then
again, you never know."