Amy Buchanan

The Valley Forge

Have you ever had to say good-bye to someone you loved very much? Whether it be death or distance, I know you have. It could have been a best friend, family, etc. Have you ever been at a dead-end at how to deal with your sadness? Surely you have. Everyone has. For every hello there is a good-bye. Somehow hellos are much easier to deal with.

I'd like to offer a better way to see it. The human character always seems to dwell on the negative aspects instead of the latter. Believe in yourself, and you will get through the rough spots. You can always look for a new beginning. Make the new chapters of your life great! Live each day to its fullest. A fresh start leads us on a different path in the road of life.

No one says that the process is simple. No one ever said that saying good-bye is easy. We must continue. Its not that you will ever forget the person, because the impact they had on your life will always be with you. We must love enough to let them live their own lives whether is be in heaven or on earth.

Tell those you hold in your heart how much you love them, whenever you can. No matter what the circumstance, they will always be in your heart, your soul.

Forrest Gump once said, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get." He was so right. Throughout your life, you never know who's path you are going to cross. This is why life is comprised of multiple paths. These will continue to cross forever. Make the most of this gift.

Well here we are at the start of a new year. You can already feel fall in the air, and see it on the football field. For those of you that don’t know Fred and Wilma is the RVC version of Dear Abby or Dear Ann Landers. It’s a chance for you to get advice on problems and the way that our advice is different is that you get perspectives from a guy and a girl. So if it is a relationship question you’ll get different perspectives. In fact no matter what type of question you will get different perspectives. So if this is your first semester at RVC and you are having trouble adjusting to college life let us know we will do what we can to help. Just drop off your note or question to the Valley Forge office or just slide it under the door and put it to Fred and Wilma’s attention. Please keep your letters as concise as possible and we reserve the right to edit letters for content, length or to change details to keep them anonymous. Thanks for your help and we hope you have a great year at RVC.

by Jeff Bergstrom

The Valley Forge

The date is August 17, 1998, and I am at Deer Creek in Noblesville, Indiana at the Pearl Jam concert. It is the peak of the show. Eddie and the boys just finished a kick-ass extended version of "Do the Evolution," before strolling off the stage giving all of us drunk partiers the opportunity to yell like, well, drunks for five minutes straight before the band appears for the encore- anAmerican concert tradition. After what seemed like five hours, or five minutes, I'm not really sure, the band reappeared, and sent the crowd into even more of a frenzy.

"Shhhh," Eddie Vedder pleaded, which of course only made the place louder, "No really, shhhh, I wanna, uh, I wanna, shhhh shut up! I have, I wanna talk to you about something."

Eddie has had his helping of wine, it seems, and I am prepared for some musing about corporate America, or something like that. "I actually wanna show you something. President Clinton had a news conference today, so we want you to watch it." Then I saw the American President on a 40 foot screen above Eddie Vedder's head confessing to having an improper relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Then, the screen went dead, and Eddie proceeded to read the press conference word for word. The crowd didn't seem to know whether to cheer or boo, what did Eddie want? Vedder then dedicated the song, "Betterman," to Hillary Clinton.

Then it hit me. We, as generation x-ers, college students, just like the rest of the country, do not know what to think of this whole Clinton scandal. We are a country in growing disunity and dissary. The feminists don't know what to say, the Democrats won't say a things, and the Republicans, well, the Lord has come again, because the Republicans are in heaven.

Do we think that it is his own business, and ask, how dare we intrude on another man's sex life? Some are appalled at the disgrace and blasphemy of honor that Clinton has shown. Slap on the wrist, kick out the door? I would feel more comfortable if, as a nation, some sort of national unity was being shown, even if I disagreed with whatever the national opinion was. Bad enough that none of us agree on such matters as perjury, truth, adultery, and honor, but no one seems to know what they believe. So instead, we just don't care- not that we approve mind you. Lucky for Clinton. Being the prez at the peak of moral decline has its peaks, no?

Here is the thing. We all make mistakes, and mistakes are painful. They hurt ourselves. They hurt others. Others we love. Others we never meant to hurt. Others it hurts us to know that we hurt. Yet mistakes are probably the greatest tool of instruction in all human nature. We learn from our mistakes. At least we are supposed to. At least the potential is there to learn. A mistake can turn out to be one of the best things that ever happened to you. Big mistakes. Little mistakes. Redemption can be had, if not right away, then around the bend.

Here's the catch, at least for William Jefferson Clinton: You have to be sorry. Sincerely. Genuinely. Sorry. For what you did, the hurt you caused. The trust you betrayed, the honor you spat at. If you are sorry, than you may be forgiven. If you are not sorry, if you are not filled with remorse, if you do not pray for redemption than, forgive the dramatics, but God be with you.

It says in the Bible that all, all sin is the same in the eyes of God. So that white lie you told earlier today hurt as much as Clinton's sins, or John Wayne Gacys for that matter. But not all sins are the same in the eyes of man, and Bill Clinton has committed quite an offense. If only he were sorry.

I could live with him being a perjurer. Disgracing the office of the American Presidency. Haven't they all in their own chronological way? But the man is a husband. Hillary knows and doesn't care? She is only in it for the power-Bill be damned. Looks that way, but the woman is just that. A woman. A wife. With a heart.

But more importantly, Bill Clinton is a father. Yes, even fathers make mistakes, but how dare he hurt his daughter like he has, and then show no remorse? He shows only anger at Ken Starr. For what? Doing his job?

What makes all of this American tragedy worse, is that none of us seem to know what to think. A nation with no identity.

And a man with no remorse leading us all.