January 22nd - UNLV Beam Hall / Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall

I loved college. Lord knows I took classes at enough of them...Xavier, University of New Orleans, Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton, Sac State. I found self-reliance, my voice, a broader perspective, sensuality, romance, perseverance, passion and my inner party girl in college. I discovered beer, creative fundraising, and how to buy a complete outfit with only $25 in college. I made lifelong friends, appreciated beautiful music and read life-changing books in college. So when I heard that our dear Governor Gibbons was seriously pitching a budget cut of 52% at UNLV, I went to a party....kind of.


The students, faculty and administration of UNLV, College of Southern Nevada and Nevada State College organized a rally from 6pm to 7:30pm outside of Beam Hall on UNLV's campus to protest the disastrous cuts being proposed. How could I have resisted? Having grown up in the Bay Area, I have always been a proponent of taking to the streets in the face of injustice. At a quarter to 6pm, the lawn outside of Beam Hall was full of bodies facing a stage, brandishing homemade signs and swaying to music being pumped out of huge speakers. News vans were all about. Cameras snapping pictures. Tapes rolling. Older rally attendees smiling to themselves remembering days of peace signs, long skirts, birkenstocks and guitars. I think the young people were a little confused as to what they should be doing besides pumping signs in the air. I fully expected to hear chants of "Hey! Hey! Hut! Hut! We don't want no budget cuts!" But I imagine that this wouldn't be the last rally and those kinds of impromptu rhymes would all come in due time. (I'll stop.)


A cavalcade of speakers took their turns on stage explaining the severity of the cuts, the importance of investing in the future of Nevada by funding education, the need to contact legislators and raise hell until these cuts died much like Sonny Corleone when he was gunned down by the Barzini family in The Godfather. Did you know that the mayor of Las Vegas is actually looking for help from the government to fund a bleeping mob museum because he feels that such a creation will attract tourists and stimulate the economy? What?!?!? Meanwhile, our students face the destruction of their study programs and the threat of losing the credit hours they have worked for. No, I don't have children. No, I didn't grow up here. But I understand the importance of education in our community, to our economy, and to the overall benefit of our society. This party girl is pissed!

At 7:30pm, I walked about 100 feet to Artemus W. Ham Hall to attend The Barrick Lecture Series. The evening's lecture- The First 100 days: Predictions for the Obama Administration. (Projections and Prognostications by Three Leading Political Analysts.) The panelists included local political pundit Jon Ralston, Senior Political Analyst Gloria Borger, Washington Post Columnist E.J. Dionne and Republican Politician J.C. Watts. (It is the duty of every party girl to be informed. It's the American way and gives us even more reason to drink.)


In the audience sat a generation in stark contrast to the crowd just a few footsteps away. I had no idea male pattern baldness had become so popular. There was a sea of white hair, canes and sweater sets quietly waiting for the "festivities" to begin. They were here to learn what that damned Barack Obama was going to do about our fine American mess. What about changing the tone of Washington? What about the threat of socialism? What about the end of partisan politics? What about their capital gains tax? I could just have easily tuned into Meet the Press in lieu of attending this event. However, I was glad that I had come for I saw something there on the campus of UNLV that I hoped was not indicative of bigger problem..even though I knew it was.

It was likely that none of the audience of that lecture were even aware of the rally that had just taken place. Perhaps they felt that it did not concern them. Their children were probably grown and long gone from school. But here they were enjoying their precious outing on a college campus whose very existence was being threatened. At the end of the lecture, they would tip out of the concert hall to their cars to drive home at a rate of at least ten miles per hour under the speed limit and be none the wiser the next morning.

Conversely, the few students that attended the lecture left in the middle of the talk. Probably bored out of their minds, they were unwilling to see the opportunity to reach the demographic sitting all around them. Unwilling to take the chance to make heard their concerns about their future during the question and answer portion. Unwilling to understand that participation in such activities was paramount to their inheritance of a broader world.

It is in these times that I appreciate being 30-something. We 30-somethings are neither young and ignorant nor geriatric and cynical. We can understand reality, but we have the energy to dream beyond it. We are in the age of acquisition but we comprehend the necessity of sacrifice. We have the power to unite generations and value each side of the corresponding arguments. We have a duty to all around us for they are reminders of past and future walks through this brilliantly confounded life...... Wow. I'm on the verge of tears.