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Residents upset at treatment in wake Of Fire
Christian McPhate | Staff Reporter

Residents complained about callous treatment and looting after their Tiffany Place apartments was covered in flames early Saturday morning.
The two-alarm fire started around 1:15 a.m. Saturday at the Tiffany Place apartments 4000 Weeks Park Lane in Building 11 Phase 2. Fire fighters arrived at the scene around 1:45 a.m. six second-story apartments were engulfed in flames.
The apartments on the upper floor suffered from fire and smoke damage, while the units below suffered from water damage. The fire caused an estimated $250, 000 in damages to the complex
A woman was injured and rushed to United Regional Health Care System and airlifted to Parkland Memorial Hospital. She was admitted with smoke inhalation injuries.
She came out of her coma on Sunday. She is still listed in serious condition at Parkland.
Fire Marshall Antoinette Hastings believes the fire originated in an attic. We believe that it was an electrical fire, but we are not positive yet.
MSU was not leasing the units of that particular building. However, two of the residents affected by the fire attend school at Midwestern. Manager Wendy Kelso refused to identify the victims of the fire.
“Ya, I know the names and everything, but we kinda told residents we would stop giving out all of their stuff to the reporters. So, they would stop bothering them,” Kelso said.

Eric Grubs woke up to the sounds of screams. He laid in bed for a minute and decided to get up and check out the source of the disturbance. Grubbs walked out onto the balcony and smelled smoke. He woke his wife up and took her and the kids outside to safety.
“My wife didn’t even have a pair of pants on. She wrapped a towel around herself,” He said.
“I didn’t care. I just wanted to get the kids out,” She said.
Grubs said they were actually the first people out of their complex. His wife knocked on the neighbors door to warn them of the impending disaster. The other side of the flaming complex came out a few minutes later.
Five minutes after the Grubbs existed out of the apartment.  The roof was engulfed in flames.
“That’s the only thing that keeps going through my mind if I wouldn’t have heard the screaming,” Grubs said, overcame with emotions. “No one came up to the doors to wake us up or anything.”
Two other resident couples, which wish to remain anonymous, said they received callous treatment from the complex’s staff.
“I don’t want to bad mouth the complex, but they did not handle the situation very good,” the anonymous husband said.
The couple said some of the residents have complained that the staff has not been sensitive to the neighbors needs.
The replacement apartments that the management was offering to the victims were of poorer quality compared to what the residents had been staying in. The residents felt that the staff was not showing enough compassion in handling the displacement.
“The management stated in the paper that it was our responsibility because the smoke alarms did not go off,” anonymous wife said.
The couple had moved into the complex two months ago and had checked the smoke detectors. The couple said out of the 10 apartments involved in the fire none of the smoke detectors went off to warn the residents of the impending disaster.
“If none of the smoked alarms worked than that’s the complex’s responsibility,” he said.
 “I couldn’t believe they put that in the paper and had the nerve to say it was the victims fault,” She said.
The couple said when they moved in, they asked the management if the problems with the units were going to be fixed. The management assured the couple that the problems would be fixed.
“Okay, I’m a person of my word. You’re a person of your word. We can make this happen,” He said.
The couple said they had a laundry list of items needing to be fixed on the inspection sheet that they received upon moving in to the apartment.
“It was so bad that one of the owners came with us and was appalled at the variant of discrepancies,” He said. “We had a reaction, but no action.”
The couple said the reporters never bothered them. We wanted to get the story of the mistreatment out, but the complex seems to want to put a lid on it.
The smells of smoke and water damage filtered throughout the couple’s apartment, and part of the ceiling was beginning to cave in.
“By the grace of God, it (ceiling) did not fall,” the couple said, “but the water was pourin like rain.”
One of the maintenance men informed the residents that he was going to be on duty all night watching the apartments, and yet the looters still struck.
“All we know is that the looters stole a foot massager, a wine rack, some very old wine, and a beer that was left out on the counter. I locked the front door. The only way the looters could have gotten in was either up the balcony or with a key,” Grubs said.
Saturday’s fire was not the first for Tiffany Place apartments-in late January 2004; a short circuit caused a three-alarm fire in another section of the complex. The fire happened at 2:25 a.m. and caused over $1 million in damages. 
 

Harley burns Hot over Homecoming logo, Promotion
Cassie Daley | Staff Reporter

Remember the Harley Homecoming we never had?
Most students probably don’t, we all saw the orange and black seal on the shirts, banners and advertisements. That was Harley, wasn’t it?
The original idea for homecoming was in fact, a Harley Homecoming. They had the name, the bikes the whole Harley-gamut. Just to be on the safe side MSU officials consulted with the Harley Corporation, to ensure that they wouldn’t be breaking any copyright laws by using the ever-so-popular logo.
“Someone from the university called Harley to get permission to use our trademark. Permission was not granted, it was specifically denied for a number of business and trademark reasons,” said Judy Henslee the manager of trademark enforcement for the Harley Davidson cooperation.  
Henslee thought that, that would be the end of it. Until she saw the name Harley on the MSU website as well as the logo, so she contacted the university again. It was an understandable mistake. MSU officials were under the impression that if they took the name Harley out of it, that they could still use the logo.
“I said no, absolutely not. The logo cannot be used. Having it put on merchandise was one of my biggest concerns,” Henslee said. “It is problematic to have the trademark put on merchandise used outside of the trademark owners. It is supposed to be a direct link to the corporation it belongs to.”
Director of Public Relations and Marketing Janus Buss, then took the logo to a public relations agency, to alter it enough to be legal, at this point alter the entire theme would be almost impossible.
“We sent it back to an agency and said that we couldn’t use it exactly as it was because it has been trademarked. And if you put it side-by-side the two logos are different,” Buss said.
MSU is still however, in the Harley hot seat. Harley is still slightly revved up at the fact that the MSU logo is almost exactly the same with out the words “Harley Davidson” on the inside.
“Yes, we are concerned. Yes, it does violate our trademark rights,” Henslee said. “We are planning on addressing this issue with the university officials, however we have no intension of suing. We want to make sure that this does not repeat itself in the future.”
Henslee is also concerned with some of the promotional materials that sported this Harley-esque logo.
“There were little mini-motorcycles used in the promotion of the event that had this logo on it, and I want to make sure that the logo is off those mini-bikes before they dispose of them, I don’t want customers bringing them back to Harley manufacturers,” Henslee explained.
Henslee also touched on the fact that many thought Harley was sponsoring this event, but make no mistake about it, they were not. Both Henslee and Buss agreed on that subject. It was brought to Buss’s attention that Red River Harley Davidson had run an advertisement in the Wichitan claiming to be sponsoring homecoming. This advertisement however, was a pre-made ad. from Red River Harley Davidson.
“We’re not upset about it, it’s just kind of curious that they said they were sponsoring this and we don’t know what they sponsored. Especially since we were told not to use the Harley name or logo,” Buss said.
Now that Homecoming has past there isn’t much that can be done to rectify the issue, if in fact, it needs rectifying.


Scary Good Time: Halloween not Always about Candy, Costumes
Cassie Daley | Staff Reporter

Take any holiday tradition and mix it with several different cultures, different religions and good old capitalistic commercialism, put them all together in one country and allow them to stew for centuries, and you will inevitably get a blend of customs and traditions that falls under one name. Halloween is one of many American holidays that have roots in several other cultures, forming one “blended” version of the holiday.
“Halloween is the commercialized version of the Christianized version of  the Celtic holiday, Samhain,” junior Amy Giles, an ordained Minister of the Universal Life Church said. “(It’s the) Last of the harvest festivals, a time to celebrate the bounty that was gained from the earth. It was also the day all of the farm animals were brought in for the winter.”
The Celts resided in Europe, especially in Ireland and in the British Isles. They believed that on Nov. 1, Samhain, the dead walked the earth, which was generally celebrated.
“It represented a time when the veil between the worlds was thin, on that night you could communicate very easily with the dead, with the fairy realms and with the deities,” Giles explained.
They also had to protect themselves, for on this night, it was not only good sprits roaming the earthly plane. Evil Sprits and goblins were also believed to be afoot, and the citizens in order to protect themselves and the spirits of their dead relatives painted scary faces on gourds and also disguised their own faces with paint. Quite similar to current-day practice of dressing in scary costumes.
On the night of Samhain it was also believed that fairies were free to walk around earth. These fairies would dress up as beggars and go door-to-door begging for food. Those that gave them food were rewarded (with a treat?), those who refused were “tricked” or punished somehow.
Though generally Samhain was a celebration of the dead, it was also a celebration of the earth and the sun, back then the citizens depended entirely on these two elements in order to reap good harvests for survival.
“It was a fire festival, large bonfires were lit to represent the sun and the journey of the sun and what the sun gives to man,” Giles explained. “Many of the holidays of the Celts and pagans fell at times where they provided a time-line for a lot of important agricultural events.”
Some of the other Halloween traditions derived form the Celts were jack-o-lanterns, lit both to light the way for the spirits to find their way back to the spirit world and to ward off evil sprits. Bobbing for apples is another custom popular at many Halloween parties, this takes its roots in the ancient Celtic practice of using apples in communicating with the spirit world, Giles said.
Jumping from a holiday known as Samhain to a holiday called Halloween still seems like a pretty big leap. That leap was made in 43 A.D. when the Roman Empire conquered Europe, and the Celts and Romans shared much of the same spaces.
Over the next 500 years the Catholic Church grew in power. Eventually the Church wanted the Roman Empire to be rid of pagan traditions so that its power could be complete. The pope in power however was aware that if he banned the widely recognized tradition there would be massive riots, so instead he changed them. He angled this holiday towards celebrating Catholic saints, rather than the spirits of the dead, and hence the birth of “All Saints Day.”
The villagers were allowed to dress-up as saints, and the village boys went door-to-door begging for food for the poor in the village, sound familiar? Though the Catholic church felt it had one the battle over the Celts, the two traditions really just blended together to form one.
Halloween eventually came to be because the church would hold a mass, titled along the lines of “Mass of all the Hallowed,” hallowed meaning, saintly people. Eventually the citizens must have decided that Halloween (originally, “All Hallows Eve), was easier to say than “All Saints Day.”
Halloween still didn’t make its way over to America until after the American Revolution. When the masses of immigrants came to America, they packed with them their customs and traditions, which worked their way over time into the fabric of the United States.
The first official celebration recognized by any American city took place in Minnesota in 1921. And the rest is history.

www.dcls.org
www.theholidayspot.com
Chambers, A. Washer. (1983). The Celebration Book of Great American Traditions. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers.


Student marks one-year Anniversary of boyfriend's death
Konnie Sewell | Opinion Editor

How appropriate it is for Layllen Sawyerr that the first year anniversary is commonly known as the paper anniversary.
Sawyerr, a 22-year-old business management major who will graduate this December, has been keeping a journal for the past year. The journal includes memories and thoughts about her boyfriend: his favorite foods and jokes, the time he spent playing football for the Indians.
She finished the journal on Monday, exactly one year from the day she started it.
“It was actually really weird,” Sawyerr said. “I didn’t plan on finishing it one year later. It just sort of happened.”
Her journal isn’t just a basic rehashing of mundane or irrelevant thoughts from her life, written in romantic cursive about sloppy daydreams; it’s a chronicle of her life one year after the death of her boyfriend.
Sawyerr’s boyfriend was Pierre Johnson. His body was found in a Colony Park apartment Oct. 24, 2004. Today, police have no leads or suspects in the murder.
“I will never have complete closure until they find out the truth about it,” Sawyerr said. “But finishing the journal helped give me a sense of it.”
She said the journal helped her release all of her many frustrations, as well as keep Johnson’s memory alive.
“I knew I didn’t want to ever forget him or the great things he’d done,” Sawyerr said. “I wanted to keep his memory alive. So I started writing down everything I could think of about him. It wasn’t just about his life, though; it was also about all the questions I had and everything I felt. There were so many things I kept asking, like, ‘I wonder’ this and ‘I wonder’ that.”
The journal also gave her a way to cope with an unbelievable situation.
“Until you’ve had a loved one die – until you’ve had something like that happen to you – you’ll never know what it’s like to go through that,” Sawyerr said. “There’s no way to express what it’s like. There’s nothing like it.”
Sawyerr’s voice was soft as she remembered Johnson, a popular guy originally from California who always had friends over to hang out.
“He probably intimidated some people when they first saw him,” she said with a laugh. “He was a big guy, 6’2” and 180 lbs., but everyone had nice things to say about him.”
Sawyerr said Johnson, who was studying criminal justice, was very passionate about life.
“He was a simple guy who loved life,” she said. “He had a wonderful, outstanding character. He was a normal guy. He loved really traditional meals, like hamburgers, but was allergic to seafood.”
Sawyerr believes everything happens for a reason and even though Johnson’s life was taken too soon, he still made an impression on others and deeply impacted the lives of those around him.
“I’ve asked myself over and over again, ‘Why, why, why?’” she said, “but I don’t question God’s will. Even when it happened and right afterward, I didn’t. Everything happens for a reason, even though it might not be the most comforting thought or it’s not what we want to hear. He did a lot with the time he had here.”
For Sawyerr, pouring her soul into the journal for the past 365 days has been a relatively positive experience, though the subject matter was not always so.
“It’s a way to make sure I never forget him or the time we had together,” she said. “I wouldn’t anyway, but everything I want to remember will stay fresh. Now that it’s finished, it shows the different stages in my life and what I’ve been through. It’s helped show me how much I’ve changed, how much I’ve grown.”