Roberto Luongo is making a good living these days, but he often does it sitting on the bench. Photo © The Canadian Press Files, The Province

Watching Mac Carruth and the Portland Winterhawks finish off the Edmonton Oil Kings to become WHL champions on Sunday, I started to think about the potential professional futures of these young players. And as I considered the possibilities of the long, fruitful NHL careers ahead of the skaters who had just claimed the Ed Chynoweth Cup, I finally found something to appreciate about the most recent lockout in the NHL.

At least Carruth will never have to suffer the fate of Roberto Luongo in Vancouver. Thanks to the cap on the length of contracts that was settled in the belated collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and the players’ association this year, none of the guys graduating from junior hockey to the pros will have to endure the shackles of an inflexible commitment to a franchise.

Nearly dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the trade deadline this season, Luongo instead found himself tethered to the Canucks through another underachieving playoff run. The three-time Vezina Trophy finalist and backstop for Canada’s 2010 Olympic gold medal-winning squad was once again supplanted by Cory Schneider—the starter for the Canucks as Vancouver was swept in the first round by San Jose. Though Schneider got the nod for Vancouver in the postseason just as he did in last year’s opening-round loss to the Los Angeles Kings, Luongo, 34 years old and in his 14th season, has been proving all year that he is still better than the starters on at least a dozen NHL teams.

But the reason that Luongo hasn’t managed to gain a fresh start is not his receding statistical production or his chokes of postseasons past; it is the 12-year, $64-million albatross currently hanging heavily around his neck. Unable to get into a rhythm as he split time with Schneider over the past two years, Luongo now can only wait and hope that a deal closes this offseason to restore him to a more regular workload in another city.

He may be disappointed once again, because any team that picks up his contract will have to work around the NHL’s salary cap, which is locked in at $64.3 million next season. Luongo’s contract, designed to exploit loopholes in the previous collective bargaining agreement, means that the franchise that ultimately adds him to its lineup is forced to dump a twelfth of the total budget on one position. It’s the kind of situation that the NBA wanted to avoid when they added an amnesty clause to their new CBA after last year’s lockout. It is the reason why no contract is guaranteed in the NFL.

In the salary cap era, it is often in the best interest of a player to not chase the highest possible compensation for their services if they wish to retain the maximum freedom of movement. After all, an eight-figure payout can all too soon become the encumbrance that prevents the athlete from achieving the full measure of success at the professional level. So, while I hope that Carruth, Ty Rattie, Seth Jones and the rest of the Winterhawks go on to earn themselves a comfortable living at the next level, I just hope it isn’t too comfortable. It’s hard to make that next save, score that next goal, hoist that next trophy and earn that next contract if your current deal keeps you from getting out onto the ice at all.

The conference semifinals are underway in the 2013 NBA playoffs, with the field now whittled down to eight on the road to the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Photo by © AP

Outside of the Milwaukee Bucks getting steamrolled by the Miami Heat, the first round of the 2013 NBA playoffs was full of surprises.

The San Antonio Spurs dominated the star-studded Los Angeles Lakers in
four consecutive double-digit wins, a sweep that ended with Dwight Howard being ejected and Laker fans reconsidering buying season tickets for next year. The Memphis Grizzlies lost their first two games to the Pacific Division-winning Los Angeles Clippers, then went on a tear and won four straight to deny all-stars Chris Paul and Blake Griffin a spot in the second round. One of the biggest upsets was the Golden State Warriors’ remarkable triumph over the Denver Nuggets in six games, mostly thanks to Sports Illustrated cover boy Stephen Curry’s accuracy beyond the arc.

The conference semifinals have been no different in terms of astounding moments. Coming off their success over the Bucks, the Heat dropped their first game against the injury-laden Chicago Bulls—a team playing without Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng and, of course, Derrick Rose. The Bulls seem to prefer to play with tenacity and raw aggression rather than rely on their stars, racking up quite a few technical fouls in the process during the playoffs. They’ve been a thorn in the Heat’s side since the regular season—Chicago was the team that ended Miami’s 27-game winning streak. But LeBron and company are not the type to be pushed around, and even without Dwyane Wade’s normally stellar play as of late, they’ve answered the Bulls’ aggro-tactics with pure, often overwhelming talent.

One of the most exciting series in this round has been the Spurs against the Warriors—or, as it should be dubbed, “old vs. new.” The San Antonio roster is largely composed of veterans, including Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker (who, at 30, is the youngest of the three). All three have retained their aptitude for clutch plays, and each has been key to the Spurs’ run this postseason. However, they’re not the young bucks they were 10 years ago, and during the fourth quarter have frequently looked a bit gassed.

The Warriors, on the other hand, are their polar opposite. Aside from injured power forward David Lee and a few others, Golden State’s lineup mainly features players under 30. This allows coach Mark Jackson to give hot players less bench time to rest (or, in the case of Steph Curry in Game 1 of the series, no rest at all). But while energy and enthusiasm are crucial in the playoffs, they don’t automatically equal success. Golden State’s inexperience has been on full display the past few games—most notably in Game 1 against the Spurs, when the Warriors, up by 16 in the fourth quarter, allowed the Spurs to go on an 18–2 run with four minutes left, eventually losing the game in double overtime.

The question is, will vigor or experience weigh out in the end? Or, more importantly, how will your team’s strengths in this round match up against a better opponent in the next? The answer is almost never easily predicted. Stay tuned.

Rodney wallace, right, provided Portland’s first goal against Chivas USA, later setting up Diego Valeri for another score in the Timbers’ 3–0 victory. Photo Karl Kuchs

The Portland Timbers welcomed Chivas USA to Jeld-Wen Field on Mother’s Day for a sold-out MLS Western Conference bout. The Timbers were hungry for a win after being held to draws in their last two matches. Portland’s frontline was back to normal with Ryan Johnson and Rodney Wallace in the starting lineup, while Chivas USA was playing without 2012 MLS all-star goalkeeper Dan Kennedy and midfielder Carlos Alvarez. The Timbers Army seemed to be on their best behavior when the Chivas USA squad came out onto the field, perhaps partly out of respect for the mothers in attendance.

The referees called the game fairly tight, whistling several fouls in the early going. Portland maintained their focus, however, and were rewarded in the 34th minute. Donovan Ricketts fired a long counter that was collected by Ryan Johnson, who sent a pass over to a streaking Wallace. The midfielder netted a goal that was greeted by celebratory green smoke at Jeld-Wen.

Wallace gave much of the credit for his goal to head coach Caleb Porter. “Caleb gives you the confidence to go out there and express yourself as a player,” Wallace said. “He tells you not to hold back and [to] do the dirty work as well, and just play free.”

The Timbers held possession for 67.4 percent of the first half and benefitted from an impressive 84.3 percent passing accuracy. Portland also attempted 12 shots compared to just two by Chivas.

The opening stages of the second half were generally uneventful, until the 70th minute when Diego Valeri found himself unmarked and scored Portland’s second of the night off an assist from Wallace. The Timbers then began to bring in their backup players, substituting Kalif Alhassan and Ben Zemanski for Darlington Nagbe and Jack Jewsbury, respectively.

In the 92nd minute, Will Johnson, still angry after Chivas’ Mario De Luna shoved Wallace and then a ball boy on the sideline just a few minutes earlier, caught a pass from Alhassan and scored on a screamer to the left corner to provide the
final score.

With the win, Portland improved to 4–1-6 and jumped up into the second spot in the Western Conference standings. Coach Porter was businesslike after the win.

“We continue to be on a very good path towards our ultimate goal—nothing more, nothing less,” Porter said. “If we continue to have good work and training like we have been, it’ll show up in the game. It’s been a good third of the season and we have made a lot of progress, and we’re in good position, points-wise, but it’s a very tight race in this conference.

“We’re not where we want to be yet,” Porter added. “We could be even better.”

The Timbers now head north for a Saturday matchup with the Vancouver Whitecaps at BC Place. The official viewing party will be held at the Thirsty Lion Pub and Grill on Southwest Second venue.

The Ed Chynoweth cup came back to Portland for the first time since 1998, as the Winterhawks took down Edmonton in five games. Photo by © Codie Mclachlan/Edmonton Sun/QMI agency

After two straight years of coming tantalizingly close to winning the WHL championship only to be thwarted at the final hurdle each time, the Portland Winterhawks reached the summit at last on Sunday. Missing out on a prime opportunity to finish off the Edmonton Oil Kings at the Rose Garden Arena in Game 5 on Friday, Portland traveled north to Rexall Place, the site of the Winterhawks’ heartbreak in Game 7 of the finals last year. This time, Portland was able to fight through the noise and a dangerous Edmonton squad to claim the Ed Chynoweth Cup in a 5–1 victory. In doing so, Portland booked its first trip to the Memorial Cup since 1998.

Ty Rattie, the Winterhawks’ right winger and alternate captain, picked the least likely of moments to emerge as the catalyst for Portland’s coronation. Falling behind early on a Travis Ewanyk goal that caromed off Portland defenseman Derrick Pouliot’s skate and past goalie Mac Carruth just 1:04 into the contest, the Winterhawks faced another potential setback when Chase De Leo was hit with a four-minute double minor penalty for high-sticking Edmonton center Henrik Samuelsson. But instead of going on the defensive to try and kill Edmonton’s power play, Rattie took the occasion to catch the home team off guard.

Portland’s standout winger tied the game a minute into the penalty kill. Nicolas Petan raced out ahead of the backpedaling Oil Kings power play unit, corralling the puck behind goalie Laurent Brossoit’s net. Wrapping around, he served up the puck to Rattie right in front of the net, and Rattie calmly snapped a one-timer past Brossoit’s outstretched glove with 15:32 remaining in the period. The goal was Rattie’s 48th career playoff marker, pushing him past former Medicine Hat forward Mark Pederson for sole possession of the WHL postseason goals record.

Less than three minutes later, Rattie added to his record with a second shorthanded goal on the same penalty kill. Pouliot fed Petan with an outlet pass and Rattie stayed onside as he streaked along the right wing. Petan then slid the puck over to Rattie, who wrapped around the net and shoveled the puck in faster than Brossoit could cover the post. The lead would hold at 2–1 as the two teams went in for the first intermission.

“[Edmonton] came out to an early start with that lucky goal there,” Rattie said. “It was big for us to get a couple goals and kind of set the pace for the game.”

Coming back from the break, the Winterhawks continued to bombard Brossoit with shots. Portland broke through four minutes into the second period as Oliver Bjorkstrand extended the lead for Portland. Moving through traffic, Bjorkstrand snatched up a Ty Wotherspoon pass from the right face-off circle and sent the puck past Brossoit before the beleaguered goalie could even track it through the bodies blocking his vision.

Then, with 6:35 remaining in the period, Rattie completed his hat trick and put the game effectively out of reach. Streaking into the offensive zone, Petan once again found his winger in front of the crease with a perfect tape-to-tape pass. Settling the puck, Rattie switched to his backhand before shooting over the sprawled netminder to stretch the lead to 4–1 at the second intermission.

Asked about the three-goal night that would make him the first player in WHL history to score 50 postseason goals in a career, Rattie’s analysis was simple: “My dad told me before the game that big-time players step up in big-time games,” he said.

Edmonton would get several more scoring opportunities in the third period, but Carruth proved impenetrable in net after giving up the early goal. The Winterhawks veteran finished with 26 saves on 27 shots in the win.

Hoping for a miracle to get the series back to the Rose Garden for a deciding Game 7, Edmonton head coach Derek Laxdal pulled Brossoit for an extra attacker in the waning moments of the third period, and Taylor Leier took the opportunity to deposit a fifth goal for Portland into the empty net with 39 seconds remaining, putting an exclamation point on the victory.

The game provided another prime example of how the Winterhawks have responded to adversity all season. Losing head coach and general manager Mike Johnston to a season-long suspension as part of the unprecedented sanctions levied against the team for impermissible player benefits, the Winterhawks could easily have folded up the season and prepared for 2014.

Instead, they went out and topped their efforts of the last two years, claiming home ice throughout the playoffs with a league-record 29 regular-season road wins under acting head coach Travis Green, eventually coming through with the victory that had eluded them in the recent past.

“It means a lot,” Green said after the game. “It’s been a tough year. We’ve got a guy in Portland right now we dearly miss, and I give our team a lot of credit. I give Mike a lot of credit. He’s instilled a lot of things in these young men, and I give the team a lot of credit for being able to carry on and not miss a beat. It was a great series. We had to play well to beat Edmonton, and we did.”

The Winterhawks begin their quest for the third Memorial Cup in franchise history when they take on the Halifax Mooseheads on Saturday afternoon. The four-team tournament comprises the champions of the WHL, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey League, plus a host team, for the top honors in North American junior
hockey. The tournament runs May 17–26.

Alex Morgan, left, scored an early goal for Portland to lead the team to its fourth consecutive win. Photo © James Smith/Chicago Red Stars

It’s safe to say that the Portland Thorns are off to a solid start in the first year of the National Women’s Soccer League. More than a month into their inaugural campaign, the team hasn’t lost yet.

The NWSL leaders continued their unbeaten streak on Sunday, taking down the Chicago Red Stars 2–0 on the road. Portland got goals from Alex Morgan and Allie Long in the win, both of which came in the first half, and the defense took care of the rest as Chicago was unable to find an answer to the Thorns’ balanced attack.

The win wrapped up a three-game road trip for Portland and marked the team’s fourth victory in a row after starting off the season with a draw against FC Kansas City. The Thorns outscored their opponents 6–1 during the trip, with Morgan recording points in all three games.

Morgan’s goal came just three minutes into the contest, as the forward received a pass from Nikki Marshall and raced toward the left side of the goal to boot a shot around Red Star goalkeeper Erin McLeod. Long added to the Portland lead in the 35th minute, scoring her first goal of the season off an assist from Nikki Washington.

Chicago was fortunate not to go into halftime with a three-goal deficit after forward Christine Sinclair netted what looked to be her third goal of the year, beating the Stars defense and firing a shot right past McLeod. The ball bounced off the top post and onto the goal line, but it was ruled not to have crossed the line and play continued.

The score remained at 2–0 going into the locker room, but Chicago fared no better in the second half as Thorns goalie Karina LeBlanc held her ground and Portland left with the victory.

The team now returns to Jeld-Wen Field, where they will begin a two-game home stand against Sky Blue FC tonight at 7:30 p.m. After that, Portland hosts the Washington Spirit on Sunday at 2 p.m. before getting back on the road for a matchup with the Seattle Reign next week.

NWSL

Thorns vs. Sky Blue FC
Jeld-Wen Field, 7:30 p.m.

Forecast: high of 65 degrees, partly cloudy

FRIDAY, MAY 17

Softball

Vikings vs. Washington
Husky Softball Stadium, 6 p.m.

Forecast: high of 65 degrees, few showers

SATURDAY, MAY 18

Softball

Vikings vs. TBD
Husky Softball Stadium

Forecast: high of 62 degrees, showers

WHL

Winterhawks vs. Halifax
Credit Union Centre, 4 p.m.

MLS

Timbers @ Vancouver
BC Place, 4 p.m.

Forecast: high of 58 degrees, showers

SUNDAY, MAY 19

NWSL

Thorns vs. Washington
Jeld-Wen Field, 2 p.m.

Forecast: high of 66 degrees, partly cloudy

MLB

Seattle @ Cleveland
Progressive Field, 10:05 a.m.

Forecast: high of 75 degrees, isolated thunderstorms

Photo Miles Sanguinetti

Portland State just received the title of Gold Bicycle Friendly University from the League of American Bicyclists, a national advocacy group that promotes bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation. While Portland is frequently being celebrated as a leading bicycling city, it’s great for PSU to receive honors like these to help bring positive exposure as we all graduate into the workforce.

The league, which has a current membership of 300,000 affiliated cyclists, focuses on a handful of categories that are used to decide whether a college should be ranked as platinum, gold, silver or bronze. member. The organization cutely calls these criteria their “five E’s.”

The first of the five E’s is engineering, focusing on what’s been built on and incorporated into a campus to promote cycling; things like bicycle lanes, street policies and innovative bicycle accommodation. The bicycle lane on Southwest Broadway is a key example that probably boosted PSU’s ratings.

The league also focuses on education by attempting to determine how much information on bicycling safety is available to cyclists and motorists. Educating individuals on the correct use of pathways and sharing space with other modes of transportation is considered, and somehow Portland, despite all of the illegal sidewalk cycling and red-light pedaling we see from far too many bicyclists, impressed the judges, earning the city a platinum ranking.

Encouragement also plays a large part in the decision whether a campus is bicycle-friendly. If a school promotes bicycling by, say, having a month-long bicycle challenge, it gets kudos. Other incentive programs and organized campus rides also help boost a school in the rankings.

A fourth factor the league uses when determining whether a college has earned a gold or the epic platinum—membership is enforcement. The organization asks questions about how bicycle theft is prevented, what local law enforcement policies are and if the college is supporting campaigns to help cyclists and motorists safely share
driving space.

The final “E” considered is evaluation and planning. Much like it sounds, this is an evaluation on whether a college’s programs for increasing bicycle commuting are actually working and what the school’s plans are for future improvement.

Whether those are good criteria for establishing which are the most cycle-friendly universities, it got PSU placed in the gold membership category. The only university to rank higher than us was Stanford University—with its fancy amenities like locker room showers for cyclists and access to an epic bike station called the Palo Alto.

More important is how we beat out other prestigious colleges like Harvard and Cambridge with our awesomeness. We’ve even rolled over local competitors like the University of Oregon and Oregon State University, though why should they care about sustainable commuting choices when there’s money to throw at more important things like football?

Of course, the real joy should come from setting a great example and getting other colleges to be as bicycle-friendly as we are, but it’s still nice to know that PSU is at the top of the list for some things.

We’ve actually grown a considerable amount over the past decade. Students who regularly bicycle to PSU has increased from an impressive 6 percent in 2005 to a whopping 12 percent in 2012, according to The Oregonian.While that number seems small, it’s incredible that so many students choose to meet their transportation needs in the wettest and sweatiest way possible in order to save the world, one pedal at a time.

Our school has done a tremendous job of pushing the appeal of commuting by bicycle.

Back to that whole month-long bicycle challenge: It’s probably worth noting that PSU is actually currently in the middle of its Bike to PSU Challenge. Students can sign up and join a movement that tracks riders who are actively logging their trips, including how many miles they’ve logged, how much carbon dioxide has been saved and how many calories they’ve burned.

Impressive programs like these have played a huge part in developing PSU into an innovative place for forward-thinking, sustainable people, and they’re a great pick-me-up on those days when you just want to start hurling textbooks and screaming about the outrageous cost of tuition. Our university might not do everything right, or even do most things OK, but it does sustainability like a pro.

Photo by Miles Sanguinetti.

If you use social media in any way, chances are you’ve probably noticed a particular recent trend: The Great Gatsby. Now, as much as I’d like to write one, this isn’t an expose of Baz Luhrmann’s film adaptation of the great American novel. Or a commentary on why some people shouldn’t discount the film just because they say, “It was my favorite book in high school. I am so special for reading it in high school, you can’t possibly understand.”

No, what this is about is education standards. Like almost every Portland State student, I went to public high school and took four years of English classes before making my merry way to university. I, like many people, also read Gatsby in high school. Chances are you read it as well. That’s all right. It’s an important book, but there’s really no need to act like reading makes you a better person than anyone else.

OK, now that that’s out of the way, back to education. Recently, Oregon signed on to increase the level of teaching in reading, writing and math. Planned to go into effect in 2014, this change in curriculum will cover K–12 schools.

That sounds great, right? Oregon and the 43 other states anticipating this change will be part of an effort to better prepare kids for both college and “the real world.” However, as The Oregonian
reported, “barely one-fourth of U.S. teachers say they have the tools and preparation to make sure students meet the new expectations.”

That’s a little disconcerting. These new expectations, titled Common Core State Standards, “will require students to read challenging works of fiction and nonfiction and write sophisticated analyses, including of science and history,” according to The Oregonian.

This is happening because Oregon leaders believe nationwide universal standards will ensure a particular brand of higher education that will put the U.S. on a more even playing field in the international community. The U.S. is significantly lacking in its primary education programs, so what better solution than to actually start caring about and prioritizing education?

Remember those awful standardized tests that everyone had to take in order to graduate high school? Well, those will still be around. The Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or OAKS exam, is just being replaced with two different tests.

One is the Smarter Balanced Assessment. From the name, you could guesstimate that the test is balanced and mindful of the fact that not every student comes from the same school district, background, et cetera. It’s hard to tell since it isn’t yet the standard, but it seems like the test mainly consists of multiple-choice, short-answer and essay questions. So, not too different from what we’re already used to.

While the idea of completely changing the education system is alluring in many ways, it’s also a very important and lengthy process. That the state wants to have all these new changes implemented by next year is almost a pipe dream. Oregon is a lot bigger than just Portland and Eugene, and the state has many different school districts, all with different focuses.

Raising standards is a good start, however. The whole Gatsby craze of the past few weeks has caused a bigger jump in sales of Fitzgerald’s novel than ever before, so obviously people are interested in reading the classics.

If we raise standards and make English classes more challenging and focused on analysis, students will be introduced to the classics earlier on. This will help them gain understanding of symbolism, metaphors, et cetera, and how these literary techniques are applicable to real life.

When it comes down to it, implementing new standards is important; in fact, it’s probably one of the best things we can do for students right now (aside from well, abolishing student debt, but y’know).

Not only will this prepare kids for college, it’ll also give them a broader and more analytical perspective of the world around them. While radically changing the system would be optimal, the economy isn’t in the shape to provide educators with the tools and funds they need to make it work in our current system.

Let’s hope this implementation isn’t just pretty words hiding an ugly truth, otherwise we could just be screwing over future generations of learners—and no one wants that, right?

Photo by Suraj Nair.

Eight people were reported dead last week after a fire ravaged a clothing factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, according to USA Today. This is the most recent incident to hit the country and its garment industry after last month’s factory collapse, in which 1,000 people died.

There have been questions about the safety of workers in these factories for years—you’d think that such a massive loss of life would end any doubt of the need for changes.

If the response of The Walt Disney Co. is any indication, we’ll have to keep on hoping.

The company announced it’s pulling its textile production out of Bangladesh. So now, on top of the unimaginable tragic loss of life, the country could face a possible long-term economic collapse. Some see Disney’s move as just the beginning of a massive withdrawal of large Western companies in a “too much liability—hit the road, Jack” scenario.

In an interview with The New York Times, Mohammad Fazlul Azim, a member of the Bangladesh Parliament, expressed concern at the implications of such a situation: “The whole nation should not be made to suffer…This industry is very important to us. Fourteen million families depend on this.”

The garment business makes up the bulk of Bangladesh’s export industry, bringing in more than $18 billion a year, according to The New York Times. With millions of its citizens living in poverty, Bangladesh can’t afford to lose this critical part of its economy. However, most of the major Western players are remaining mute on the issue, hoping we’ll forget they have their greedy fingers wrapped around Bangladeshi spools
of yarn.

Galen Weston, the chairman of Loblaw, a major Canadian brand that produces the Joe Fresh line, spoke out about the disaster and the need for his and fellow companies to be part of the solution. Few retailers have echoed his urgency, though. “I’m troubled by the deafening silence from other apparel retailers on this issue,” he told The New York Times.

There’s nothing unusual about the silence. Large Western companies have successfully remained unaccountable for their overseas practices for years. They’ve consistently gone into developing countries and paid their workers peanuts while providing them with minimum levels of job security and safety in order to sell us clothes at fabulously marked-down prices. Then, when things get inconvenient, they slip out the back door.

If you asked a panel of CEOs if the first rule of success in business is to take care of their employees, they would nod emphatically and talk up their employee-appreciation programs as if they’d discovered the concept themselves. I suppose what makes it so convenient is that, “technically,” the Bangladeshis aren’t “employees.” No doubt they are “contracted laborers” or something of the sort. There’s always some convenient technicality or loophole involved.

If ever there was a time for company owners to show a semblance of humanity, it is now. If they have any sense of what is honorable and just, they will take this opportunity to invest in the long-term safety of the factories they use and the people who make it possible for them to even make their clothes.

Labor advocates have created a compensation fund for the victims of the tragedy and their families, but retail giants like Wal-Mart and Gap have “balked at embracing” it due to concerns over its “binding legal commitments,” The New York Times reported.

If 1,000 of their employees died here in America, there’d be no concerns over “legal commitments”—or if there were, they’d be over whether the CEOs themselves would end up in jail. High-level executives would be fired left, right and center, and the storm of devastating press would be addressed immediately with commitments to making things right, no matter the cost.

The only reason they can get away with it now is that, to them, Bangladeshi men, women and children don’t have faces, names or families. They have ID numbers, unit counts and performance ratings. Perhaps Gap or Wal-Mart CEOs should look at the newspaper picture of Reshma, the young woman who was pulled alive from the wreckage after
17 days. Oh, wait, they can’t. She disappeared from the headlines long ago.

Maybe one day these millionaires will understand that treating people with dignity and humanity is not only just and honorable, it also makes good business sense. But until then, we have a thousand reasons not to buy their clothes.

Photo © AP Photo / The Lowell Sun & Robin Young

To each age its own Terror.

The ancient Egyptians succumbed to the predations of the obscure Sea Peoples; the Greeks just managed, by naval ingenuity, to stave off the overwhelming might of the Persian Empire; for centuries the Romans stood shaky watch against the cross-border incursions of beer-swilling hairy blond Germanic barbarians.

So too did Viking raiders scare medieval Irish monks completely shitless. The sweeping conquests of the Mongol horde left an indelible mark on the national psychologies of Russia, China and India. And, to this day, Latin American leaders live in paranoid awe—for good reason—of the yanqui Monroe Doctrine military–
intervention bogeyman.

There will always be the threat of the Other. But in this monopolar age of the West and the Rest, the Other is not a people, nor an army, nor even a shadowy, conspiratorial international organization.

Our Other is an ideology.

And an ideology, no matter how specious or ill-conceived, cannot be killed.

This is the lesson of last month’s Boston Marathon bombings. Brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the attack’s suspected perpetrators, seem to have conceived, planned and executed their operation without any assistance from a larger terrorist organization. The attack was admittedly an amateurish and low-tech affair: The bombs were assembled from such easily obtainable components as pressure cookers, fireworks and construction nails. The suspects barely put any thought into escaping capture.

All the worse.

Two half-competent global-jihad neophytes managed to kill three, maim more than 200 and send a suburb of Boston into complete lockdown for nearly 24 hours.

And for what? The Tsarnaevs set fire to themselves and the city of Boston to broadcast just one message: Modern life, secular culture, global capitalism, the United States of America—we do not like you.

But irrespective of the role elder brother Tamerlan’s radical Islamic beliefs played in the attack, this bulletin does not pertain in any way to Islam or any other religious practice. It’s simply the Excluded’s expression of roiling anger. It is an ideology of Opposition, the anti-Everything. The Brothers Tsarnaev are anarchist crust-punks without the patched jeans and heroin.

It would be premature to psychoanalyze the Tsarnaevs, and Tamerlan took his motives to the grave. But the brothers’ decision to partake in an act of mass terror aligns them with this global expression of limitless rage. So long as the West is wealthy, peaceful and prosperous, and the Rest are poor, war-torn and downtrodden, there will be those who lash out at this inequality and attempt to violently destroy the prevailing global political and economic paradigm.

Transportation Security Administration checkpoints and 24-hour aerial drone surveillance ain’t going to stop them. Neither will the national surveillance apparatus: Tamerlan was ignored by both the FBI and the CIA when the Russian secret police fingered him as a possible Islamic radical in 2011.

Nor will a massive military show of force cow the omnipresent opposition. As a point of fact, Dzhokhar Tsarvaev stated that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were significant motivating factors behind the attack.

And it’d be virtually impossible to stop another soft-target attack such as the one in Boston. Who’s going to tolerate the authorities cordoning off an entire 26.2-mile marathon street course? Or police frisks on every street corner?

So unless the Western world collapses under the weight of economic calamity or internecine violence and pulls down in its undertow its cultural signatures of capitalism, secularism and scientific rationalism, we will need to get used to the idea that bad shit will happen. In all likelihood, worse shit than the April 15 bombings.

So consider this question, Americans: What does security mean to you?

Two-and-a-half kids, a dog and a house in the suburbs? A six-figure job tied to a 401k and excellent health insurance? A network of concrete tunnels underneath your home accessible only by a hidden trapdoor in the cellar, booby-trapped against intruders and stocked with a 10 years’ cache of beef jerky, Heinz baked beans and
5.56 mm ammunition?

Or is security merely a peace of mind, the fuzzy blanket of living safe in the knowledge that you won’t be maimed or killed by perfect strangers in a public place for no apparent reason?

Not so much to ask. But it’s long gone.

All that’s left is Terror.