But instead of looking at what motivated the shooter or why he committed such a horrendous act, it would seem now is a good time to look at what the possible ramifications of Saturday’s tragedy could be.

Sadly, it appears that greater space, both literal and figurative, will be placed between citizens and politicians that are elected to represent them. A further sense of alienation between American citizens and their political representatives will likely continue because of this.

One of the things I am sure will come as a result of Saturday’s attempted assassination and mass murder is a more robust security force to protect members of both the U.S. Congress and Senate against the threat of such violence. It would not surprise me to see politicians with security details that are more reflective of the U.S. President than that of members of the Congress or Senate.

But as security increases, so too will a physical barrier between politicians and their constituents. As more police and guards surround those elected on our behalf, these representatives will be even more removed from the people they were voted to serve. And with such a wall between them and their political leaders, people will probably be less inclined to try and engage in a dialogue with said leaders.

The shooting may also affect the willingness of politicians to engage their constituents openly, and in public.

According to a Jan. 12 Associated Press report titled, “Dad pursued Ariz. massacre suspect before shooting,” Rep. Giffords was shot at a shopping center while taking part in what was referred to as “Congress on Your Corner.” During such events, Giffords would meet and speak with voters in her district out in the open, in public places.

It’s doubtful politicians are actually beaming at the prospect of going out into public arena and engaging with voters while one of their own sits in a hospital bed after trying to do just that. If anything, these sorts of forums for open government, such as “town hall meetings,” are likely to grow less frequent.

If these kinds of forums grow fewer and fewer, the distance between politicians and citizens will grow larger than it already is.

With the potential for increased security around them, a lack of willingness to take part in open forums like “Congress on Your Corner” and fear that they may be attacked, members of both Congress and the Senate may turn their attention inward.

As these elected officials’ attention may be turned inward, it will only detach them from their constituents and increase their attachment to entrenched special interests, i.e. political lobbyists.

Surely those lobbyists will have greater access (more than they already do) to our representatives than voters if these politicians choose to retreat from the public realm and surround themselves with security. Yet, after Saturday, how could anyone blame a member of Congress for feeling safer meeting with a lobbyist than with individual members of the public. After all, lobbyists generally want something from our elected officials, but it’s not to shoot them in the cranium.

But when it comes to engaging openly with the public, a senator or congressional representative can never be sure that some lone gunmen may not be in the crowd waiting to gun them down. Many politicians may largely remove themselves from the public eye

This will surely not enamor the voting community with their politicians. If anything, it will reinforce the whole concept that our elected representatives are beholden and serve at the behest of special interests; at least moreso than they are to the people they’re supposed to serve.

This will most likely increase the sense of disillusionment many have towards government.

So while you can blame partisan political rhetoric for motivating the shooter, this means little or nothing in contrast to the ramifications that may come as a result of the massacre.

None of which bodes well for increasing the contact between those elected officials and those they are charged with representing. Nor does it enhance the likelihood that public’s faith in their representatives is going to increase—not at least anytime soon.

Email the author: sstaley2@uwyo.edu

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The Branding Iron is a Student Media project. Student Media gives University of Wyoming students valuable experience in writing, editing, advertising, sales, graphic design, photography and production through its publications with the guidance of professional staff members. If you find a mistake in an article, e-mail us at bi@uwyo.edu. We will make sure to torture the poor soul until it's corrected. Just kidding. We probably won't do anything, since we're busy studying for finals.

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Toastmasters is a group of Laramie community members that practices forming and delivering of speeches. The group meets 6:45 a.m. on Mondays in Room 106 of the Animal Sciences/Molecular Biology Building.

The group has had about 20 members involved at any time. Most Mondays, about 12 of these members attend.

As a weekly morning ritual, the toastmasters recite their mission statement, “The mission of a toastmasters club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment, in which every individual member has the opportunity to develop oral communication and leadership skills, which in form foster self-confidence and personal growth.”

Following this mission statement, every member starts with a manual that includes 10 speech projects. Each week, two to three speeches are given by members of the group.

Each speech is rated by an audience evaluator.

The last part of each meeting is called “Table Topics,” which is a portion of the meeting when a member will pose a random question to another member. After the question is asked, two to three minutes are allowed for an answer.

Table Topics functions to improve an individual’s impromptu speaking abilities.

“Individuals have their own goals. At the completion of the first 10 manual speeches, a member is awarded the title of Competent Communicator. From there, he can pursue advanced manuals or prepare speeches on whatever he chooses,” Susan Mavrich, one of the Laramie morning toastmasters, said.

Even if a member is not giving a prepared speech on a given week, other duties are given. A different member is assigned to be the toastmaster, timer, main speaker, evaluator or the questioner for Table Topics.

“The Toastmaster for the week officiates the meeting, introduces the speakers, makes sure all the duties are fulfilled [and] ensures that the meeting runs in a timely manner,” Mavrich said.

The group is available to the public. “Laramie Morning Toastmasters is a diverse group. They may be university professors, university students …, or regular townspeople with non-university jobs. Members may be professionals or blue-collar workers. We have members that have been toastmasters for over 25 years, just because they love it. We have members who join for a short time to get a boost to their careers. There is a great mix of ages and vocations in our group,” Mavrich said.

Email the author: dbonner1@uwyo.edu

Branding Iron

The Branding Iron is a Student Media project. Student Media gives University of Wyoming students valuable experience in writing, editing, advertising, sales, graphic design, photography and production through its publications with the guidance of professional staff members. If you find a mistake in an article, e-mail us at bi@uwyo.edu. We will make sure to torture the poor soul until it's corrected. Just kidding. We probably won't do anything, since we're busy studying for finals.

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Along with Friday Night Fever’s De-Stresser events, Amnesty International will be hosting a letter writing event tonight in the Union Gardens at 9 p.m.

Writing letters to governments and other authorities that abuse human rights is how Amnesty International began their campaign, Conor Mullen, president of UW’s chapter of Amnesty International, said. “It’s such a simple act that really anyone, anywhere can do it. Overloading the post offices and mailboxes of the tyrannical influences can, and do, help free prisoners of conscious.” 

Amnesty International is a worldwide movement with 2.8 million supporters in more than 150 countries who work to end severe human rights abuse. 

“Our vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards,” Mullen said.

Tonight’s event will be a “hot cocoa social of sorts,” Mullen said. “Paired with some on-the-spot activism.” Members of Amnesty International will be writing letters on behalf of prisoners of conscious and advocating Amnesty International’s mission—human rights for all—while they sip their hot cocoa. 

With this event, Amnesty International is hoping to meet new people, introduce them to the group and promote the organization’s mission of protecting human rights for everyone. 

The group promotes human rights for everyone by targeting specific instances where some rights are not being observed at all. 

Amnesty International is not connected to any form of government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. Their funding mostly comes from their membership and public donations. 

Currently, Amnesty International is working on a specific campaign on campus in which they are attempting to gain a guarantee from a third party monitor that apparel displaying UW’s name, or logo is made while practicing fair labor.

Amnesty International is working to guarantee that no UW clothes are made in sweatshops. 

“We are not saying that UW clothes are made in sweatshops,” Mullen said. As of now, UW is signed on with the Fair Labor Association, which has some strong ties to the very companies it is overseeing, Mullen said. 

He said that this can create a conflict of interest. 

“[There is] a need for a stronger, more independent type of oversight,” he said.

In the past, Amnesty International has organized film festivals, music festivals called Jamnesty and teach-ins, which are workshops where people learn about specific issues. 

On campus, Amnesty International is a small group that is usually run by four or five people, and Amnesty International is always looking for new members.

Mullen said Amnesty International would like to have dedicated volunteers, who would help keep the group and its projects going. To get involved, anyone can drop by the group’s information table on Mondays in the Union breezeway, or contact Mullen at cmullen@uwyo.edu.

Email: Jamie Magrum

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The gala has been an annual concert for the university since before the tenure of current choral director Nicole Lamartine, who is one of the featured conductors for the event.

According to Lamartine, the Concert Hall can accommodate 700 people, and most years both event times are completely sold out, as was the case last year.

“This event is a performance that includes most of the UW choirs and the wind symphony. It has a combined total of more than 150 singers and 60 wind players. We have been preparing since the end of October,” Lamartine said.

The gala includes performances by the Laramie Civic Chorus, the UW Wind Symphony, the Bel Canto women’s choir, the UW Wind Symphony Woodwind ensemble, the UW Singing Statesmen, the UW saxophone Ensemble and the full Wind Symphony. The concert will incorporate performances from combinations of the different groups.

There will be a total of 15 different pieces performed throughout the night.

The gala will be conducted by three different members of the fine arts faculty; James Bowyer, Robert Belser and Lamartine.

Bowyer was the recent recipient of a doctorate degree from the University of Washington and conducts Bel Canto and the Civic Chorus. 

The last conductor will be Belser, who is conducting the Wind Symphony and all of the performances with any sections of the Wind Symphony.

Belser will also conduct the pre-concert music in the lobby, which will be performed by TubaChristmas.

In 2000, Belser was the recipient of the John P. “Jack” Ellbogen Award for Meritorious Classroom Teaching.

“I think that it is a favorite event for the performers and the Department of Music, and it is a great way to connect to Laramie as a whole, both UW and community members,” Lamartine said.

Email the author: dbonner1@uwyo.edu

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While the nation’s capitol enjoys a 65-foot Jackson Hole Christmas tree, Laramie celebrates the season with a festival of individually decorated pine trees.

To help kick off the Laramie holiday spirit the annual Festival of Trees will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, at the Centennial Complex, 2111 Willett Drive, across from War Memorial Stadium.

The Festival of Trees is a silent auction and tree lighting reception hosted by the UW Art Museum.

“The Festival of Trees is an annual event that is made possible through volunteer decorators in the community and is a combination of the silent auction and the Lighting of the Trees reception.  Members of the Laramie community, as well as the UW community, participate in this annual event,” Beverly Schroeder, administrative assistant to the Art Museum, said.

Participating community members decorate a tree that will be sold at the silent auction. 

“There is no set theme; the participants decide themselves what they would like to do and we always end up with a great variety of trees,” Schroeder said. 

Along with the trees, the silent auction will include many pedestal items like pre-lit wreaths and wall hangings and holiday creations from local florists. 

This is the 18th annual Festival of Trees and it is open to the public. 

“The proceeds from the silent auction help to support the Art Museum programs and to aid in supplying scholarships for all ages,” Schroeder said. 

One of the trees included is a “Forever West” tree, decorated by Gov. Dave Freudenthal and his wife, Nancy.

“Santa’s Garden,” a tree decorated by the UW president’s office, will also be up for bid. The art museum decorated two trees this year calling them the “Nutcracker Suite” and “Candy Warhol.” 

First Interstate Bank, UW Football and Habitat for Humanity have also decorated trees for the Festival of Trees.

The silent auction continues on Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and ends on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.. 

“People can come to preview the decorated trees and place advanced bids while they enjoy and evening of music, refreshments, and holiday lights,” Schroder said. 

Email: Lauren Kottenstette  

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Internet and social media makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family across the world. Social networking sites Craigslist and Google make it easy to find whatever, or whoever a user may want in a matter of minutes.

While this easy access is beneficial to family members and friends trying to connect, with it comes a lack of privacy—and in many cases a lack of safety—a concern that hits close to home.

Recently, a Casper man was convicted of raping a woman after he responded to a rape fantasy ad posted on Craigslist by a man the victim had a brief romantic relationship with. 

The convicted rapist, Ty Oliver McDowell, responded to the ad, believing he was speaking to his soon-to-be victim Sarah Kostovny, a 2007 UW graduate and alumnis of Chi Omega sorority, according an article in The Casper Star-Tribune. 

According to the article, after the man who posted the advertisement, Jebidiah James Stipe, learned Kostovny had become engaged, he called her to get her address to send her an engagement gift. McDowell was convicted of three counts of first-degree sexual assault and Stipe was convicted of conspiracy to commit sexual assault. 

It doesn’t take a Craigslist ad for predators to find their next victims though, and social networking sites make it easy for them to find targets, allowing users to post information like phone numbers, addresses and current cities on their profiles. 

Although most sites allow their users to customize privacy settings, it is important to keep in mind that when something is posted on the internet it stays there, even after it has been deleted.

Yes, that means even racy photos, once deleted from a Facebook wall, can still be found by future employers who dig deep enough.  

These sites have also been playing a role in the hiring process, and universities and other organizations have been known to look at sites to learn more about potential students or members. 

Off-handed posts and inappropriate information are often enough to remove one from consideration for a position for a job, on a team or in an organization.  

Email: Erin Jarnagin 

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Facebook is currently the most preferred service for sharing accounts for 78 percent of social network usage, according to socialnetworkingwatch.com. However, the evolution of social networks did not begin with Facebook; rather, the site’s popularity is the result of extensive attempts by various networking outlets that have all contributed to the progress social networking has made.

The internet has always been a medium for social activity. A Digitaltrends.com page titled The History of Social Networking states that long before Facebook was the now-archaic Bulletin Board System, which allowed users to share files and post messages to other users. Though the technology of the 80s and 90s restricted the potential of BBS sites, the concept resonated with the public and became popular. In the same era was CompuServe–a system that began to thrive in the 80s. Like BBS, it allowed users to share files and access events but it also provided the first true interaction between users and email. CompuServe didn’t invent email, but it was the first to offer email to the public. According to the Digitaltrends.com page, users could also join any of CompuServe’s thousands of discussion forums any time of day. Those forums proved to be incredibly popular and marked a big milestone in the evolution of social networking.

Many social networking sites existed throughout the 90s, but the next network that marked a major milestone was Friendster. A Social-networking.com page on the history of Friendster explained it is viewed as the original social networking site. It operated on the principle that an online community can only thrive between people that have common bonds and that there were plenty of ways to discover those bonds. This concept is what paved the way for subsequent online dating and business-oriented networks. LinkedIn arrived next on the scene and offered business people a way to connect with other professionals. Users on LinkedIn were referred to as ‘connections’ to emphasize the professional nature of the site.

MySpace arrived in 2003 and quickly became more popular than Friendster. It enabled members to access a wide array of media (predominantly music and music videos) through more intimate connections with artist’s actual profiles. Furthermore, it allowed members to create a unique space via funky, creative profile layouts and the ability to decorate with icons. With these new innovations, MySpace quickly garnered a membership three times the size of Friendster, reports a consumeraffairs.com page titled What’s Inside Myspace.com?

Facebook was launched in 2004 by Harvard students and existed as a campus-oriented network for two years before it opened to the public in 2006. The site has since garnered more than 500 million members and is leading social networking. According to a report released by techcrunch.com that details the top 50 websites in September, other leading networks of this year include Youtube, Blogspot, MySpace, and Twitter. The data by Techcrunch.com ranks the networks by the number of unique visitors each received throughout the entire month of September.

Social networking continues to evolve. In order to remain a leader of the social networking pack, Facebook needs to constantly work to propel itself forward. Its founders recently announced the launch of Facebook’s own email service, specifying that the network will provide an @facebook.com email address to any user that wants one.

While many might find it hard to remember what life was life prior to Facebook, it is important to give credit where credit is due and to recognize that social networking is process that continues to evolve. Facebook may be the front of social networks today, but one should always be excited for the next networking milestone that technology brings us.

Email: Davis Bonner 

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Weight Watchers now has a program at UW. The program, dubbed Weight Watchers at Work, started at the end of September under a provisional trial period. 

“Weight Watchers at Work is a slight spin on the traditional program to help members lose weight,” Tammy Scott, Weight Watchers liaison to UW, said.  

The program is the outcome of the UW Wellness Committee, she said. “There were some budget cuts; our hands were tied. We’re thrilled to have a program on campus.”

To work around the cuts and other stipulations, Scott and others brought Weight Watchers to UW apart from the school. UW does not aid the group financially. 

Weight Watchers at Work is in the middle of its first 17-week program, which ends in February. After that, the group will have to find a means to continue to pay for its space on campus. 

“We’ve been sponsored for six months, but after that, we have to find a way to pay for our room,” Scott said.

Currently, 23 staff and faculty members attend the weekly meetings.

“We have a good support group. It helps to keep people accountable,” Scott said. 

She also said that having the program at UW has cut down on the time she has to devote to it. So far, only staff and faculty have become members, but the program is open to students as well. 

“Anyone can still join, even though we’ve started our first program,” Scott said. 

 Meetings for Weight Watchers at Work are every Tuesday at noon.

Email: Rhaden Lind 

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Dr. Jose Rosa spoke about the motivations behind pushing for subsistence merchants and their overall effects on developing and underdeveloped countries. Rosa is a professor of marketing and sustainable business practices here at UW.

 EWB is an international organization with the purpose of “creating a world where everyone can meet their basic human needs,” Amanda King, the UW chapter’s president said. The organization is separated between state and regional chapters, with both student and professional levels in each.    

“We put members into different teams that travel around the world to different countries,” King said. These teams then see if each location can benefit from the EWB’s services. “We ask if the place is a good fit for what we can offer, and if it is, we’ll make a formal commitment to them,” King said.

EWB’s UW chapter has multiple projects underway. The group’s first project, started in 2005, helped build a school in the village of Panabaj, Guatemala, after mudslides had struck the town following a hurricane.   

The group has also helped in Africa where they are working to bring clean water to Kenya, according to King.

Once a commitment has been made to a location, EWB will stay to help develop the area for five to 10 years.  

The group recently sent a members to Honduras. “We hope to build a hub clinic there, so nurses don’t have to hop on buses and spend a long time getting supplies,” King stated. “Architecture students have already drafted a plan and we will be working on the water component.”    

She added that the organization is a good path of professional development for all students at UW. “What people don’t seem to realize is that you don’t have to be an engineer. I’m president of the chapter and I’m not even an engineering major.”

Email the author: rlind1@uwyo.edu

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Beaver will give an overview of her graduate research, she will give results and what the implications of those results might be to Wyoming and its citizens.

The project started after the Wyoming Game and Fish division noticed a herd of elk had split into two sub-herds, with one staying migratory and the other becoming residential. 

The biggest issue was that the herd that stayed migratory was having a lower pregnancy rate compared to their former (now residential) members of the herd.

Working in association with a doctoral candidate in the Department of Zoology and Physiology, Beaver looked at how plants might be affecting the two different herds to explain some of the odd behavior and biological discrepancies. This involved studying potential availability of plants to the elk, along with the nutritional value.

The Friday botany seminars have been a staple at UW for over 16 years. 

Such seminars are an opportunity for graduate students who plan on graduating at semester, to fulfill their seminar requirement and also provide a chance for doctorate students to have a presentation before their thesis defense. Next to UW students, the seminars also features speakers related to biology from around the world.

“We have seven different areas of expertise in the department, and anybody in the department can bring in a speaker,” Jan O’Dell, the office associate in the Department of Botany, said.

All members of the university and the community are invited to come and listen to the free seminars every Friday.

 Email: Max D’Onofrio 

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