By Will Underhill
Spam the Senate was on the menu Nov. 10 at the Ruta Maya coffee house.
The event was organized by Ernest and Devyn Gonzales of Exponential Records and was sponsored by the Northwest Democrats.
Its purpose was to send a message to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is up for re-election in 2008. Participants attending the event were asked to send an e-mail to the senator using computers set up in the coffee house.
The message was “Dear Senator, We are spamming you for the following reasons: we know we are addicted to oil and we will kill and be killed in the name of it. We know that our addiction to oil is destroying earth. Stop our dependence. Stop the war. We demand change!”
Devyn Gonzales attributed the inspiration for Spam the Senate from Comedy Central’s “Lil’ Bush.”
“We were watching ‘Lil’ Bush’ and got upset at how true it was,” she said. “The whole idea is they’re a lot of young people who don’t know much about politics, but you don’t need to be a poli-science major to know there’s something wrong with this country.”
She continued, “Sending an e-mail is the first step to getting involved. If we provide the computers and music there’s no reason not to get involved.”
Erick and Maggie Malsbury are two students at this college who became involved in the project. They are both supporters of Libertarian candidate Ron Paul and became interested in Spam the Senate during the Octoberfest activities on campus last month. The Malsburys helped paint signs for the event, carry equipment in, and contributed to the slideshow presentation.
Architecture Professor Dwayne Bohuslav encouraged his students to attend by offering extra credit to those students he saw there.
“I think it could work, but people don’t care,” said education sophomore Andrew Gonzales.
“They’re a few of us here who care, but it’s not enough to make a difference,” Gonzales said. “It’s not going to work.”
Many organizations put up booths at the event. Supporters for candidates Ron Paul and Barack Obama were there as well as Rhett Smith, who is running for Senate in 2008. The Sierra Club and the organization Drink Liberally also had tables.
Musical acts for the event included members of 180 Grams, Davis, SixGuns, Kool Kid D vs. Ernest Gonzales, Treestump, Scuba Steve vs. DJ Tech-neek, Mr. O’maxi vs. Johnny Walker, Pop Pistol, JJ Lopez vs. Gibb, Lotus Tribe, Donnie Dee, Make Your Own Maps and Electrochemists.
“This was all brought together by people with a common goal of getting young people involved in local government to affect the country on a larger scale,” Devyn Gonzales said.