Archived News Item

In Our Natural Habitat

A London broadcast student, John Adams, is planning a trip to California soon to gather material for a film project. He’s planning to visit schools and interview teenagers, attempting to gain perspective into the lives of American youth beyond the reflected glare of the media.

I’ll keep you informed as more news arises, but at the moment, John has a request. He’s trying to track down Eli Marienthal, a junior and an actor, in an attempt to procure an interview from him. If anyone has an email address or phone number where he can contact him, it would be appreciated. Just let John or myself know.

Today Common Ground, the slightly eccentric small school, held a die-in to protest the military action in Iraq that this site has so studiously not been mentioning.

A die-in, for those of you who are normal, is equivalent to a sit-in or perhaps a walk-out; it is a form of protest in which (it would seem) a lot of people lie on the ground unmoving. The concept being that, when people see what an armed conflict can result in — dead people, that is — they will understand the horrors of war in person.

This lasted all day. The courtyard was covered in uneasy bodies. It was quite an event.

In the interest of balanced propaganda, I proposed holding a bomb-in to lay simulated waste to the courtyard, but nobody seemed willing. A shame — it would have strengthened the realism, if not the logic.

Think what you will. This is Berkeley High.

— Brandon