This link will take you to Western's Online Writing Center. The Center is staffed by many of the intructors in the Communications Skills Department of the college.

Most students find it incredibly helpful to submit their assignments to the writing center. The feedback students receive helps them in the revision process and in turn, helps their grades.

I hope you will be one of the students who submits their essays often!

“Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?"
Ron Koertge

Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leave
your house or apartment. Go out into the world.

It's all right to carry a notebook but a cheap
one is best, with pages the color of weak tea
and on the front a kitten or a space ship.

Avoid any enclosed space where more than
three people are wearing turtlenecks. Beware
any snow-covered chalet with deer tracks
across the muffled tennis courts.

Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.
And the perfect place in a library is near an aisle
where a child a year or two old is playing as his
mother browses the ranks of the dead.

Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf.
The title, the author's name, the brooding photo
on the flap mean nothing. Red book on black, gray
book on brown, he builds a tower. And the higher
it gets, the wider he grins.

You who asked for advice, listen: When the tower
falls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybody
in the world frowns and says, "Shhhh."

Then start again.

et tu, Earth Day?

I guess I was being idealistic. I had thought that in this over-merchandized, over-commercialized world we had a few pure holidays. By pure I mean holidays that are Hallmark card free, holidays that are still devoted to the original sentiments that served as the impetus for them.

I had always seen Earth Day is a somewhat "anti-establishment", "anti-big business" holiday where people could focus on the beauty of the earth, and learn ways to be more environmentally conscious. That naive notion has gone by the wayside.

In Leslie Kaufman's 4/22 New York Times article, "At 40, Earth Day Is Now Big Business" she addresses the rising amount of merchandising that has been targetted toward Earth Day. There are private business which are using Earth Day as a means of self promotion, yogurt, umbrellas, even banking has gotten in on the action. Kaufman states: "F. A. O. Schwarz is taking advantage of Earth Day to showcase Peat the Penguin, an emerald-tinted plush toy that, as part of the Greenzys line, is made of soy fibers and teaches green lessons to children" (para 4).

Perhaps I am being idealistic, but isn't the fact that landfills are overflowing with our detritis one of the major problems with the environment? If so, how is marketing and selling more "junk" working toward fixing that problem.

I say: Let's forget about buying more crap that will clutter up our lives, our homes, and our landfills, and get back to the original intention behind Earth Day. Let's focus on the important issues, the cleaning and maintaining of our beautiful planet.

Mississippi Rolling

I begin and end each work day with a 30 minute drive long the Mississippi River. Often, it is the best part of my day, I have the rare occasion to gear up for my day or to wind down at its end. It is quite easy to see how the "Big Muddy" has become the stuff of legend and lore. In some places the river seems like a simple channel of water, then I will become surprised when I drive a stretch of the road that is elevated and I can see just how vast the river is. Those channels only appear small due to the number of islands and sandbars on the river. I can understand why Mark Twain put 'Ol Jim and Huck out on the river. Even though they didn't "travel" on this section of the river, I can picture them setting up camp on any number of these sandbars.

I am often amazed by serenity of the river; my favorite time is when the temperature of the air drops below that of the water, and the river gets a misty fog on the surface. There is something so mysterious and peaceful about the look of it.

We still have steam-driven paddlewheel boats that cruise up and down the river, shuttling locals and tourists along the water. Its a slow moving boatride - not for those who prefer power boats or jet skis; rather, for those who want to take in the surrounding landscape, sight a heron or bald eagle, or simply slow down and breathe.

Perhaps you will take a ride along the waters?

The Boys from Beantown "Bring it"

Baseball's opening day is an annual celebration which marks the fact that not only has spring arrived, but that summer is not all that far away. Baseball is one of the few sports I enjoy watching and to those who know me it is no secret which team I root for. I've been a Red Sox fan for my entire life. In fact, I would never have made it to adulthood if I had chosen to root, root, root for another team.

Baseball fans are a funny breed. They cheer for and stand behind their respective teams, regardless of how the season is going. I should know; I've spent many, many years standing behind the Sox, and remaining steadfast only to watch the lead fade away as the season progressed. Call it what you will; bad luck, poor playing; or the curse of the Babe; regardless of the reason, The members of the Red Sox Nation have long been accustomed to disappointment. I've seen the team come close to many World Series wins, only to lose at the last minute. Certainly one of the most memorable was coming in second in 1978.

In fact, I do love watching them play now, but when I think of the team my first thought goes to the 1978 lineup. It may be because I listen to the games on the radio with my grandmother, or watched the games on the television on warm summer evenings with my dad. Most likely it is because the players of the 1978 team seemed to demonstrate all that is good about baseball. Players like Yaz, Jim Rice, "Butch" Hobson, Dwight Evans, Carlton Fisk, and players like Luis Tiant, Mike Torrez, Dennis Eckersley, and the wild "Spaceman" Bill Lee, graced the mound. Most of them were in it for the team, for the win. They demonstrated a loyalty to their club that is almost unknown today. Of course, this was before the days of "free agents"; back when guys signed on to a team and many of them planned to retire with that very team. Today's players could learn a lot from these guys.

Sunday April, 4th was opening day for the Sox. The icing on the cake is that we were pit against the Yankees. I'm sure you've heard of the Hatfields and the McCoys? Well the bad blood between the Sox and the Yanks is even worse. It helps to play on the home turf, but even so, the team played well. Dustin Padroia played well and we took the game, 9-7. Sox fans know better than to gloat, especially with an entire season ahead, so I will hold my "neaner, neaner,neaner" type comments. Let's just say that I am one happy Sox fan.

The road goes ever on and on....

I recently came across this passage in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Return of the King:

"There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."

Tolkien's success as a writer, I believe, lies in the fact that he combines intricate and compelling characters and story lines with elements of human nature that everyone can relate to.

True, none of us have ever been or will ever go to Middle Earth. True, we will never encounter a fight such as the one these characters encountered (thank God). But regardless of those facts, Tolkien wrote about human nature, and human nature doesn't change much. In fact; I'd venture to guess that human nature hasn't changed much in the last several thousand years.

We all want to live in a society that is good, rather than one which is evil - regardless of your political stance. Regardless of what you believe and who you support, the Founding Fathers designed a government which relies on the people in order to work.

In other words, it is our responsibility to each other to help keep the government in check. It is our responsibility to the government to make sure that the elected officials are working toward an end result we can support and believe in.

That responsibility can seem daunting when you stop to think about it. Yet, like everything else, even the smallest step keeps you moving forward. So I try to learn as much as possible, and to do as much as I am able. I don't try to overwhelm myself; I only do what I can.

Even if all I accomplish is as small a task as ensuring that someone good and noble serves as the chair of my local school board. Sometimes that small an effort can mean tremendous positive change in a community.

Back to that Tolkien passage, I can relate to Samwise Gamgee. I will never be the "hero" of any tale. I certainly have no intention of running for office; however, I will always be in the background, supporting those who are fighting for what is good and right. I will always be looking for that "white star of hope, twinkling" even if it only twinkles intermittently.