The Lance: Spirit Paper of the |
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Introduction
Terry's follow up to The Globe &
Mail & Windsor Star was a parody of The Lance itself, a bit of
satirical speculation on what a student newspaper would be like if
Things looked somewhat worrisome,
however, in the Spring of '92 when Student Council elections were held. The
president-elect Chris Chang ran on a platform of improving long flagging
school spirit. The
Windsoradians would look across the
border to the
While campaigning, Chang fingered The
Lance as one of the biggest reasons for anemic campus spirit. It was a
bit reminiscent of Mayor David Burr who, upon leaving office, cited the Windsor
Star as being one of the most divisive elements in the city. Yeah, how dare
the Star question Burr's use of public funds to fly his
secretary/future wife on a business junket. The Lance, in Chang's
eyes, was disproportionately critical and deeply cynical. The Lance
never focused on what was great about
Chang promised changes.
In some ways Chang's criticisms of The Lance was almost a personal attack on Terry as he was editor of The Lance that year. Terry cynical? Well, he is actually. But one could hardly call Terry the leader of an elitist, exclusionary clique or someone that would seek to deny students a voice. If The Lance seemed out of synch with campus life or seemed to have a homogenous voice that spoke a little differently from your average frosh with six pack under arm, it was because turning out a newspaper every week required people who were willing to write and to accept story assignments and execute on them. Sometimes people might even be asked to generate their own ideas. Oh yeah, you wouldn't be paid for it either.
"Hi, would you like to write stories for a whole year about campus club charity raffles, work until 4 am, and not be paid for it? Oh you're a business major and giving away your labor is against your principles unless its for the Conservative Party of Canada and it involves tearing down NDP lawn signs? No problem. The guy behind you with the well-thumbed copy of Catcher in the Rye is delighted to write the articles in return for some vague promise we'll print his feature about Noam Chomsky being the baddest mother fucker around."
Over all, The Lance - A Spirit Paper is probably the weakest of the three parody issues Terry lead the charge on. The Pennysaviour and The Globe & Mail & Windsor Star (and The Border City Lance to a lesser extent) were aimed at hard, established targets, ripe for parody and broad in appeal. The Lance - A Spirit Paper was predicated on the expressed intent of a nobody with a sham election issue.
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