Author: elly

So I subscribe to an advise for college applicants listserv back from the days when I WAS actually applying to college. It’s called Outlaw Students. I don’t know that it’s ever helped me, but it certainly presents interesting and often controversial issues, not just your average run-of-the-mill college advisor stuff.

This site’s biggest achievement is its use of sensationalism. I mean, they get ME to read their e-mails and even check their site on occasion. How do they do it, you ask? Well, they send out e-mails with subject lines like “I Was Raped. Should I Tell the Admissions Committee?”

After clicking on the link, I was brought to Judge Josh’s column, where he gives a thorough and in-depth advice column-style analysis of the person’s situation, and then answers his or her question. In this case, the story is about a college student who was raped. She reported it to the proper authorities et al, but saw a massive drop in her grades due to this traumatic event. Now she’s applying to grad schools and want to know whether or not she should mention the extenuating circumstances which impacted her grades.

Judge Josh’s take on it was that she should use it to her advantage; saying she was raped but still continued her schooling and managed to finish the semester just proves how strong she is and what a hardworker! He encourages her to reveal it to the admissions officers as long as she feels comfortable doing so. For him it comes down to a question of whether she feels brave enough to share her story with the admissions counselors, in which case he thinks she definitely should. “Don’t worry about the committees — they’ll be fine with it.” Underneath his analysis readers left their thoughts, many in support of his advice.

I don’t agree. I would definitely tell her to do what feels best, and maybe she needs to get this secret off her chest by writing about it in this public way, but from a professional standpoint, I don’t really see how revealing something so personal could be a good thing. Perhaps I feel that way because there’s still something in our culture which makes us want to blame the victim, or tells us that we should feel embarrassed if we’ve been assaulted. But we shouldn’t, and she shouldn’t.

That still doesn’t make it smart to tell someone who you want to impress, that you’ve suffered a terrible personal trauma and dealt with it; personal statements to schools are MEANT to be fluff. The schools want to see that you’re creative, thoughtful, intelligent, insightful, hard-working…all of that, plus a good writer. However, hearing about your worst trauma is not going to make them want to accept you, it’s going to make them feel bad for you.

Even if the question were phrased “I was raped and I coped with it. Should I tell the admissions committee?”, I still wouldn’t recommend that she write her essay on it, but perhaps I would be less resistant to the idea. If the girl wanted to make it about the way she was able to persevere in SPITE of this tragedy, that’s much more understandable than her revealing this episode to the school and then asking them to bear that in mind as they look at her application and her GPA, which it seems is her current plan of action.

Call me a conservative, but I just don’t think colleges really want to or need to know that much about a person’s inner struggles…writing about coping with prejudice? That’s one thing. With rape? That’s another.

I recently read an article in the New York Times about New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s success in Congress this past session. The piece highlighted how much Gillibrand has accomplished since she joined the Senate in January 2009, when Gov. Patterson appointed her as junior senator to fill Hillary Clinton’s newly-vacated seat. Gillibrand was re-elected this past November, to fill the rest of Clinton’s term (ending Jan. 2013).

As the first senator from upstate New York in over 40 years, she is in a tough position, having to represent the views of both conservative, suburban upstate New York and innercity, liberal New York City (a drastic oversimplification of NY’s geography). Many of her views have changed since she has joined the Senate, evident from her work as a House representative and as special counsel to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the Clinton adminsitration. In those positions, Gillibrand fought against gun control, and did not co-sponsor legislation to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

Since joining the Senate however, Gillibrand has become much more liberal, and has had many successes, most notably working on the campaigns to repeal DADT and passing the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. She has been endorsed by many LGBTQ groups and publications, and one of her goals listed on her campaign site is to repeal the Definition of Marriage Act which stands in the way of gay marriage coming into law. Gillibrand has also been an enormously strong advocate for women’s reproductive rights, and received strong support from Planned Parenthood in the 2010 election.

I admire the work Gillibrand is doing, and enjoy her monthly e-mails. So, consider this a shoutout.

The King’s Speech is an amazing movie.
You should all see it.
Let me describe it though so that you don’t just go based on my advice; it is the story of King George VI (1895-1952), who was king of the UK during WWII, and had a speech impediment.

Albert (Colin Firth) doesn’t even want to be king, and lives a quiet life with his wife (Helen Bonham Carter) and daughters. He suffers from a stutter he has had ever since he was a child, made worse by his family’s constant teasing and familial neglect. He begins to see a speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush), a commoner who uses his knowledge of theatre to help people with their speech defects via unorthodox means. However, when his brother Edward abdicates the throne to marry an American divorcee, he must take the throne, becoming King George VI, and come to terms with his fear and inability to make public speeches. To make matters worse, Hitler is on the march in Germany, and the King must compete with his charisma. His speeches will affect the course of history.

The movie is really exciting, dramatic, inspiring, all that jazz. It makes you consider politics, and where nowadays we would accept a politician who isn’t comfortable speaking in the public arena. Luckily for George VI, his speeches were mostly played via radio (and you can look up the authentic speeches he delivered, as my friend Grace and I did after watching the movie). However, in today’s world, his stutter would certainly be caught on camera, and what would come of his career then? I want your input on whether one qualification we should look at in a politician is his ability to deliver charismatic, motivational public speeches, or whether that is simply a symptom of our being swept away by all the glitz and glamor?

Hey faithful blog readers, and newbies,

Sorry it has been a while since we’ve posted- apparently the holidays were busy for us all.
On the national front, the year ended on a positive front for Democrats, and Obama is being heralded as the Comeback Kid. However, come 2011 Congress will see a change of faces, as Republicans gain control of the House.

One of the bills Republicans might bring up is already turning heads. As the Associated Press reports, there is talk of a bill which would take away the automatic citizenship granted to anyone born in the U.S., meaning that if a child’s parents are living here illegally then the child could be deported along with his/her parents.

This is a far cry from the DREAM Act, the bill that was considered but ultimately rejected just last week, which proposed that minors who arrived in the U.S. illegally but have lived in the country for a period of time would be able to work towards permanent residency status, and be entitled to certain rights and opportunities granted to U.S. citizens. The House passed the DREAM Act, but the Senate did not, failing to have enough votes to end the filibuster to vote on it (55 to 41).

(By the way, the DREAM Act’s website which I linked above is wonderful; it shows exactly what the campaign’s strategy has been, their progress, and even ways which people can help, such as a link to research a legislator and then report back what material you found which can help move the campaign forward. It’s even fun to click around on!)

It seems pretty ridiculous that after the House passed this bill, representatives would consider introducing a bill so extremely different in the next session of Congress. However, with Republicans taking control of the House and Obama still nowhere near the popularity he entered office with, many people fear that Democrats will not be able to get any of their bills passed, and that Congress will remain in deadlock on many issues.

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell has officially been repealed.
It passed in the House with a vote of 250-175 on Dec. 16, and then in the Senate yesterday with a vote of 65-31.
Now it just requires Obama’s signature, and Organizing for America has already sent out an e-mail from the president saying that he is excited to sign it!
That means that from now on, sexual orientation will not be an issue for people joining the U.S. Army!
According to The Atom Stack Tribune, senators were so excited they were even tweeting about it.

“We did it! #DADT is a thing of the past,” Senator Harry Reid tweeted at performer Lady Gaga, and she tweeted back, “Can’t hold back the tears+pride. We did it!i Our voice was heard + today the Senate REPEALED DADT. A triumph for equality after 17 YEARS.”

I’m really excited for this to go into effect, and think this is a great step forward for the country. If you agree, sign this letter thanking the senators who passed the bill, a letter sent out by OFA.

Unfortunately, on a sad note, the DREAM Act, the bill giving illegal immigrant youth rights and opportunities, did NOT pass yesterday. So the battle still rages.

Hey students,
If you’re reading this I’m presuming you have an interest in getting involved.
If that is true, then consider going to Student Events’ townhall-style open forum meeting THIS WEDNESDAY, from 7-8 PM in Upper Sherman- Lurias Conference Room.
Whether you have suggestions, want to hear others’ ideas, or just like observing the democratic process (I know I do…), it’s sure to be a fun time had by all.

Love,
Elly

Did you like Ok Go at the fall concert? Or, did you want a different comedian to come to Brandeis instead of Myq Kaplan? Come to Student Events’ end of the semester forum on Wednesday December 1st from 7-8 in the Lurias. This is the time for YOU to tell us what you liked or did not like about our events this semester.

Got any great ideas for next semester? Come to forum and tell us! We want your feedback. Snacks will be served, so bring your friends!

For the students, by the students… Student Events

Lauren Brodsky
Director of Student Events
Brandeis University ’11

studentevents@brandeis.edu

Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan’s sent out an e-mail to the Brandeis campus this afternoon informing us of a mugging of a Brandeis student that occured on South Street last night. (The text of the e-mail is quoted below)

This is frightening news, especially when you add up all of the incidents that have taken place so far this school year: the flasher in Harlan Chapel; the numerous laptop thefts in the Castle and other dorms, the perpetrator of whom was never revealed to have been caught; the International Business School credit card scam, which again, remains an open investigation; and now this, a mugging in Waltham.

Is the Waltham area, or even Brandeis campus not as safe as it once was? In many of the cases listed above the perpetrators could be members of the Brandeis campus or outsiders, so where should attention be focused, and what action should be taken?

I think we need to address the issue of safety that is seemingly being ignored, and perhaps educate students as to how to best protect themselves, or implement new policies TO better protect us. Obviously there are dangers to these suggestions as well, but I think it’s time for SOMETHING to be done, or at least for an administrator to comment on the situation.

Tuesday night, at approximately 10:30 p.m., a female Brandeis student was assaulted while jogging on South Street near the campus. The victim was approached by three young men and knocked to the ground. She suffered bruising and her iPod was taken from her. The student called Waltham Police from a friend’s home nearby after the incident. Police searched the area, but did not locate the three men.

While we hope this was an isolated incident, we remind members of the Brandeis community to be aware of their surroundings at all times — on and off campus. If you have any information that could assist police in this matter, please contact the Brandeis Office of Public Safety at 6-5000 or the Waltham Police Department at 781-314-3600. As always in all matters, if you see something suspicious, please contact Public Safety at extension 6-5000. In case of emergency, please call extension 6-3333.

A lot of people were disappointed with the results of yesterday’s election. A lot of Democrats at least. I’m not much of a statistics person, but Politico gives a really good, accessible map depicting which states went red and which blue, and you can tell from a glance what the overall result was: red.

I’m sure people who were watching the results come in live on the news last night can say a lot more about specific victories and losses, but I just want to point out one victory which I found out about from Trisk’s Political Outreach listserv, and which you can support no matter which party you belong to: The 2010 election was host to the largest number of openly gay candidates in history, and these candidates were overwhelmingly successful.

The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund is a political group which campaigns for and endorses LGBT candidates. Their mission is “to change the face and voice of America’s politics and achieve equality for LGBT Americans by increasing the number of openly LGBT officials at all levels of government.” According to the blog gaypolitics, “At least 106 of the [Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund] group’s record-breaking 164 endorsed candidates were winners as of Wednesday morning.”

That’s pretty awesome. Not to say that simply because a candidate is openly LGBT-identifying makes him or her a good candidate. But that more and more candidates feel they CAN come out, and aren’t worried it will jeopardize their election, and in return that people are not discriminating against them BECAUSE of their sexual orientation, well that’s pretty encouraging.

It’s Election Day.
Everyone tells me that means you should vote.
You should go out there and have a say.
Go Democracy!

Well, I am usually one of those people, but I have a confession to make: I’ve never voted, and I’m not going to this year.
It’s not that I’m too young, since I’m 19, and it’s not that I’m apathetic, but I’ve just never sent out for an absentee ballot in time. Since I’m registered in my home state, not the lovely state of MA, for all intents and purposes, I CAN’T vote, unless I skip school to head home for the day. And although I think it would be fun to vote, to feel important and like I’m doing something worthwhile, I’m not sure it’s such a bad thing for me NOT to cast my ballot either.

I’m pretty fed up with all these e-mails I’ve been getting from national progressive organizations telling me who to vote for, as though the merits of my voting are just to get their politicians elected. So, I say go out and vote if you have an opinion, have a specific candidate you support, have a cause you feel passionate about, or just want to pull those fun levers in the booth. But, if you don’t know anything about the candidates, don’t feel like looking it up, and don’t care about the results, it’s OK to live that lifestyle. You don’t have to vote just for the sake of it. I’m just trying to say, no peer pressure. Only do what you feel right doing. Voting just for the sake of voting can be dangerous too, y’know.
And if you’re like me, and ran out of time, then use the precious time you’re saving by not voting, and think about what living in a democracy really means. At least that’s what I’d like to try to do.

Fun facts about Election Day from wikipedia:
Election Day in the United States occurs on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November.
The earliest possible date is November 2 and the latest possible date is November 8.
The U.S. is (one of?) the only country with an election day on a Tuesday
Election Day is November 2, 2010 this year.
A uniform day for having presidential elections was first passed by Congress in 1845.

To me, Brandeis is all about people having multiple skills, passions, areas of interest, and being able to pursue all of them no matter how disparate they may seem.
Although this is impossible at times, since there is not enough time to do everything you’re interested in, or sometimes you decide it’s better to focus on certain things than to try everything, that’s what a liberal arts education is— dabbling to some extent.

That’s why I was extremely happy to see the following advertised in the latest BrandeisNow newsletter which I so generously read through and am updating the activist calendar with, so you don’t have to (unless you want to that is). Basically, it’s an annual exhibition of artwork by faculty and staff from the Brandeis community who make art (and the category is very broad), organized by the Office of the Arts.

I think you should encourage teachers and staffworkers you know to submit their work, and show them your support by attending the exhibit once it goes up, in the middle of November!

Are you an artist or fine craftsperson outside of your 9 to 5 occupation?

The Office of the Arts invites you to exhibit artwork in JustArts, the annual exhibition of faculty and staff work in the Dreitzer Gallery in Spingold Theater Center, November 16-23.

To submit work, fill out the online form here by November 5.

Work in all media is eligible: painting, sculpture, jewelry, fiber, photography, sound installation.

Last year’s exhibition showcased art by 35 talented artists who work in every corner of Brandeis, from the mail room to the chaplaincy to athletics, and academic departments including politics and theater. See the video here.

Questions? Contact Ingrid Schorr, Office of the Arts, at ingrids@brandeis.edu or 781-736-5008.

The military is now accepting openly gay applicants!
Did everyone hear that?

The military’s 17-year old Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy prohibiting openly gay people from joining themilitary was deemed unconstitutional by U.S. District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips in September, when it came up in the case of Log Cabin Republicans v. United States. Phillips’ ruling ordered the government “immediately to suspend and discontinue any investigation, or discharge, separation, or other proceeding” started under DADT, according to conservative news source Baptist Press.

The Baptist Press reported that “Under the Pentagon’s latest directives, recruiters are not allowed to ask candidates whether they are homosexual as part of the application process, but if a candidate volunteers such information and otherwise qualifies under normal recruiting guidelines, the person’s application can be processed.”

Yesterday, Oct. 20, the Department of Justice responded to this ruling by submitting an emergency request to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals asking that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell remain until the appeals process for the case is over. The Log Cabin Republicans (the plaintiffs in the case) have said they intend to file written opposition to this request, but according to MetroWeekly, “No oral arguments are expected at the Ninth Circuit for consideration of either request.”

Stay updated while the debate continues.

***Update: As reported in NPR, “A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday temporarily granted the U.S. government’s request for a freeze on the judge’s order.” However, “it was unclear what effect the temporary freeze would have on the Pentagon, which has already informed recruiters to accept openly gay recruits and has suspended discharge proceedings for gay service members.” So, the military seems to be in a state of confusion as to which orders to follow.

Legally, they should not be accepting openly gay people at the moment, although they were mandated TO allow them to sign up for a brief period. During this period Lt. Daniel Choi, and undoubtedly other openly gay men and women, re-enlisted, presenting a question of what will happen while the case is waiting for appeal. (Lt. Daniel Choi came out publicly on the Rachel Maddow Show in March 2009, and was then honorably discharged under DADT. He has since been active in the fight against DADT, and served as the Grand Marshal of the 41st Annual New York LGBT Pride March this summer. He re-enlisted in the US Army on October 19th.)

This is DELAYED breaking news, but we will be updating you all as we find out more. Let us know if you have any tips:

This e-mail was sent out on October 18th at 10:38 am by Mark Collins, Senior Vice President, Administration

A small fire broke out around 10 AM this morning in the Heller School Building.
Everyone was evacuated and the fire was quickly extinguished.

This went out at 12:45 pm the same day

I’m please to report that the Heller School buildings reopened at 12:30 p.m. following this morning’s fire. Classes will be held this afternoon as scheduled. Work is underway to repair areas of the buildings that were damaged, and some areas are still not accessible. These are marked by signs and yellow tape. Crews will be cleaning the building this evening, and we expect that most access will be restored tomorrow.
I want to commend everyone at Heller for calmly and quickly evacuating the buildings. The cause of the fire is undetermined, but is under investigation by the Waltham Fire Department.

Anyone see the fire first-hand? Know any further information?

****Newest update from BrandeisNow:

A small fire broke out in a shaft between the old and new wings of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at about 10 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 18.

An estimated 300 to 400 students, faculty and staff in the building at the time were evacuated within one minute, and there were no injuries. The fire was quickly extinguished by the Waltham Fire Department. The cause is undetermined and is under investigation by the fire department.

The Heller buildings reopened at 12:30 p.m. and afternoon classes are going ahead.

Some areas of the buildings were not immediately accessible. These areas were marked by signs and yellow tape. Java City was closed for the day, the elevator was out of service for the day and there was no direct access from Heller-Brown into the Schneider building. It was necessary to go outside to pass from one building to the other.

Workers will be repairing glass, carpeting and ceiling where the Schneider building meets the Heller-Brown building. Dean Lisa Lynch said the school hoped to restore passable access between the buildings by Tuesday, Oct. 19.

Power was working throughout the buildings; the dean asked that any outages be reported to Linda Purrini ext 6-3930 or purrini@brandeis.edu. If there is a problem after 5 p.m., call 6-5000.

Dean Lynch thanked everyone affected “for the quick and calm way you all exited the building this morning. The Waltham fire chief made a point of complementing us on how rapidly the building was cleared and how people moved well away from the building.”

Anyone not in the Union but want a say in the Union?

The Student Union is excited to announce the addition of an Office of Communications to our structure in order to forward our mission of staying connected and being an active resource to students.

We want to create transparency, innovate new mediums of communication, and inform students on all the different ways they can get involved at Brandeis. That’s why we’ve revamped our Student Union website to include blogs, as well as a better presentation for events, announcements, directory and academic information. You can also ‘Like’ the Brandeis Student Union page on Facebook and/or follow ‘BDeisUnion’ on Twitter for frequent updates. When you’re grabbing dinner at Usdan, you’ll also be able to check out our Student Union Bulletin Board, which we also plan to use as a space for clubs to advertise events and announcements. Last, but definitely not least, you can look out for a monthly Student Union Newsletter, which we are in the process of creating in time for the holidays.

This is a huge undertaking for communications alone, and we can’t do it without your help!

The Office of Communications will consist of the Student Union Co-Directors of Communication, (2) writers, a newsletter editor, and a website administrator. Writers will be responsible for writing weekly blogs, updating our social networking outlets, and writing stories for the Union newsletter. The newsletter editor will be responsible for assisting in the creation of the Student Union newsletter and managing all the content that goes into it. If you like journalism, these positions may be for you! We need dedicated writers who are willing to devote time to pen stories highlighting all the exciting things that are going on on campus. We also need a tech-savvy website administrator to maintain the Union website and innovate new ways to make it bigger, better, and more useful. Applicants should be creative, familiar with Drupal (preferably), and be able to troubleshoot, as well as add new features to the website.

We hope you will consider this fantastic new opportunity to be a part of the Student Union. To apply, please fill out the application here:

Applications are due by Friday, October 15th and you will be contacted to schedule an interview time for Sunday, October 17th. If this date is inconvenient, please e-mail Andrea Ortega, and we can arrange a separate interview time. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Andrea Ortega at aortega@brandeis.edu.

I received the following e-mail from Triskelion, our school’s LGBTQA student group, and wanted to call to attention the recent spike in “teen suicides by gay-identified youth.” While the reasons these LGBTQ youth felt the need to take their lives is a whole bigger question, the Brandeis community will be holding a peace vigil tomorrow at 5:30 at the Peace Circle outside Usdan in order to remember these people.

For all of you who have been following the news, this has been a sad time in LGBTQ history. In the last 3 weeks, there have been 5 teen suicides by gay-identified youth. Because of this, the Trevor Project is promoting a national moment of silence today at 8:00 p.m. If you would like to participate, all you need to do is to take a moment out of your day at 8 o’clock and reflect on the lives that have been lost. If you would like more information, I will place links below to some news articles and the Trevor Project.

The Trevor Project: http://www.thetrevorproject.org/ or http://www.facebook.com/TheTrevorProject

Asher Brown, 13: http://www.queerty.com/shock-gay-texas-13-year-old-asher-brown-shoots-himself-in-the-head-after-horrific-school-torment-20100928/

Seth Walsh, 13: http://www.queerty.com/bullied-to-death-seth-walsh-13-dies-after-10-days-on-life-support-after-suicide-attempt-20100928/

Billy Lucas, 15: http://www.queerty.com/billy-lucas-15-hangs-himself-after-classmates-called-him-a-fag-one-too-many-times-20100914/

Tyler Clementi, 18: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/01/2010-10-01_tyler_clementis_parents_open_up_on_rutgers_freshmans_suicide_after_gay_encounter.html

Raymond Chase, 19: http://thenewsoftoday.com/raymond-chase-19-year-old-gay-male-is-5th-suicide-in-last-3-weeks/3095/
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In order to respond to these tragedies, Trisk leaders and Brandeis’ Program Coordinator for Sexual and Gender Diversity Alison Better have organized an LGBTQ Suicide Candlelight Vigil this Monday to mourn the loss of everyone who has committed suicide “for reasons related to their non-normative identity.” The Vigil is planned for tomorrow at 5:30pm, at the Peace Circle outside of Usdan.

If you are interested, please attend and invite people to the facebook event

http://www.one.org/us/actnow/globalfund2010/whitehouse.html?id=1963-5191593-rDJj8Fx&t=2

Click on this link to support ONE, a grassroots organization cofounded by Bono and others who would like to insure that no babies are born with HIV by the year 2015.

I know that Brandeis and Harvard have a long-enduring rivalry for who can out-social justice the other, but I still think that we should acknowledge achievements on either side.

With that being said, my childhood friend Paolo Singer goes to the dreaded H-name school, and he volunteered at a nonprofit NGO in South Africa this summer, assisting them in determining what effect they were having on the country and how best to help the people. He wrote a really amazing article about it, detailing the ethnographic and sociological work he did while there, his conclusion being (if I must sum it up) that after 8 years of funding programs and building libraries, schools, soccer fields for the native South African villagers, ThinkImpact, the nonprofit he worked for, realized that it wasn’t doing any substantial good. Rather, Paolo asserts that the best way to help the people is to encourage them to come up with their own ideas for how to enrich the community, and then assist them in the development of those projects.

Although many have come to this conclusion before, I think there’s something really inspirational about a college sophomore articulating his first-hand experience of finding this out on his own in a foreign country where he did not speak the language. Please read and find out for yourself:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/9/15/village-development-good-south/

Jack Kevorkian, known mostly for his contraversial take on a person’s unalienable right to end his/her suffering by means of assisted suicide, is a man of great interest for other reasons too.

He is an oil painter, a jazz musician and a politician. Born to a family of Armenian immigrants, he grew up in Michigan extremely aware of the suffering his family had undergone at the hands of the Turks, in the widely underpublicized Armenian genocide of the early 1900s. His family history and culture helped shape his view of a person’s unablienable rights, especially as he developed a better understanding of patients’ rights while in medical school.

After practicing as a doctor for some time, Kevorkian published many research papers on the study of euthanasia and began to advertise for his services as a “death consultant” in local papers. He became known for helping people with terminal diseases who are in a constant state of pain end their own lives, through medicinal means. After taping one of the assisted suicides he assisted in, and airing it on 60 Minutes, he was arrested on charges of first degree murder. He chose to represent himself, and was subsequently convicted of second degree murder and sent to jail. From jail, he appealed his case, but was not granted cert.

He served 8 years of his term and then was released early due to the deteriorating state of his health. As one of the terms of his parole he is no longer allowed to comment on assisted suicide or advise patients, but he has spent much of his time since then campaigning to change laws which prohibit assisted suicide. In 2008, he campaigned for a seat in Michigan’s 9th congressional district, but received only 2.6% of the vote.  Since then he has continued to spread his message advocating for people’s freedoms, quoting the Ninth Amendment.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

He has toured the country to promote his ideals, speaking at the University of Florida, Nova Southeastern University and appearing on many news shows. I think that he could offer a great deal of insight, and the legal studies, pre-med, ethics, social justice and social policy departments, as well as groups such as the Brandeis Law Journal and pre-law society, could all benefit from his teachings. I would hope religious groups would be interested as well, because even if you do not agree with his views, it’s a fascinating look into a divisive issue, from someone who has lived his whole life contemplating these topics. Anyone want to help me bring him to Brandeis?

What could come of dozens of the nation’s richest people getting together? The options are limitless.

Bill&Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet, longtime billionaires and philanthropists, have teamed up to create a network of America’s richest people, reaching out to the Forbes 400 in order to ask for donations. However, this campaign, now known as The Giving Pledge, goes further than any have in the past, asking donors to promise 50% of their net worth to charity. Billionaires who have publicly agreed to the pledge include: NYC Mayor Bloomberg, Oprah Winfrey, David Rockefeller, George Lucas, and more. Some of the participants have already promised to give even more, such as Buffet, who pledged to give 99% of his wealth to chaitable donations.

Although the Gateses and Buffet have been arranging meetings with some of the richest billionaires in the nation for the past year, they kept the dealings top-secret until recently, and little was gleaned by the press as to what these powerful people were planning. In June of this year, Fortune Magazine printed a comprehensive story detailing the Pledge for the first time, and estimating its potential. (http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/06/16/gates-buffett-600-billion-dollar-philanthropy-challenge/ )

At its most recent count, the Pledge had signed on 30 billionaires. If it were to reach its goal of obtaining half the networth of the 400 richest people on Forbes List, it would mean $600 billion going towards charity. To give some perspective, people in the U.S. gave an estimated $307.65 billion  to charity in 2008, and is usually the leading country in charity donations.

Reading about this ambitious, admirable cause left me with two questions: first, no statement has been made about what charities the money will go towards, but which causes do you think are the most deserving, the most in need of this money?

Second, how can we create an environment of selfless giving amongst our own community? By no means am I claiming that Brandeisians are akin to billionaires, and what with the recession charitable donations have become a lot more difficult for people to make, but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be massive efforts to fundraise.

Already this past school year the student body voted overwhelmingly in favor of passing the Brandeis Sustainability Fund (http://innermostparts.org/2010/04/27/win/) electing to pay an extra fee of $7.50 per semester in order to take steps towards ‘greening’ our campus. Another great successes was the Haiti Relief Effort (http://www.brandeis.edu/haiti/ ) which raised over $30,000. So, what steps should we take towards more effective fundraising next?

The Brandeis biking listserv, which is used by faculty, staff, students and community members alike, sent out an e-mail which lists a bunch of opportunities for free classes and events, both healthy and political! Please read if interested in this sort of thing:

Below is information about upcoming free bike commuter classes, and a bike maintenance class. Even as an experienced cyclist, I found the commuter class helpful. Writing to this bike listserv may be preaching to the choir, but if you have friends who are interested in learning more about bike commuting, please pass on the word. Also, Healthy Waltham sponsors a summer evening series of walk & talks with Waltham elected officials.

Thanks to the generous support of Adobe Systems, MassBike is offering a variety of summer education classes free of charge to the general public. The classes will be in Waltham, where Adobe is located.

Our first round of classes is listed below. These classes will be our Commuter Workshop and our Maintenance Workshop. The Commuter Workshop is a fast-paced, one hour workshop covers topics ranging from bike choice, gear choice, route planning, safety, rules of the road, how to look professional when you get to work, and other general tips and tricks. It is a great introduction to a variety of aspects of bicycling, and most people leave this class feeling much more confident about riding their bicycle. The Maintenance Workshop covers how to fix a flat, how to adjust your seat post, how to lube your chain, and a basic overview of bike parts and what they do. Presenters bring all tools/props needed to teach this class, so attendees will not need to bring anything other than themselves to this presentation (please do not bring a bicycle to be repaired). This class will teach you the absolute basics you will need in order to perform some of the most common bicycle upkeep tasks.

July
23rd Maintenance Workshop 6-7pm Waltham City Hall Basement of Govt Center

August
4th Commuter Workshop 6-7pm Waltham City Hall Basement of Govt Center
16th Commuter Workshop 6-7pm Waltham Public Library Lecture Hall.
23rd Maintenance Workshop 6-7pm Waltham Public Library Lecture Hall.
26th Commuter Workshop 6-7pm Waltham City Hall Basement of Govt Center

September
2nd Commuter Workshop 6-7pm Waltham Public Library Lecture Hall.
9th Commuter Workshop 6-7pm Waltham Public Library Lecture Hall.
16th Commuter Workshop 6-7pm Waltham City Hall Basement of Govt Center
29th Maintenance Workshop 6-7pm Waltham City Hall Basement of Govt Ctr

Each class is one hour long, and is limited to 30 students, these fill up
quickly so be sure to RSVP by emailing Shane@massbike.org. Specify how many people will be attending and the date of the class you wish to attend.

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Walk & Talk With Elected Officials

What concerns you most about Waltham today?  What would make Waltham a better place for you to live in?  Join local elected officials and community members to walk & talk.
Join us on Mondays, 6:00 – 7:15 PM at Leary Field (Bacon St., across from
Plympton Elementary School).  Bring your water bottle, look for the folks with the orange bandanas, and start walking and talking!

The walks will be held on:
Monday, July 26
Monday, August 9
Monday, August 23

Democratic Senator and President Pro Tempore Robert Byrd, the longest-serving member of Congress in history, died this morning.  He served 57 years, and holds many records, among them: holding the most Senate positions (Majority leader twice, minority leader, etc.), being elected for the most terms (9); casting the most votes in history (over 18,000).

As many news sources spread word of his death and memorialize him, two things seem to jump out: the first, his KKK involvement, which is what pushed him to get involved in politics in the first place, and the second, his ability to stay true to his state (West Virginia) and reflect the views of his consitutents.

As for the first, he became involved with the Ku Klux Klan when he was in his twenties, at which point their regional leaders encouraged him to run for the House. He stayed involved with the Klan for a short time, and then cut his ties. When asked later about his involvement, he said that it was “a sad mistake,” and his track record of voting for civil rights bills plus his vote for Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor convinced people that he had left his white supremacist roots behind, though to imagine someone in the Senate nowadays having that kind of background is very surprising. Is his past forgivable under the circumstances?

From “Robert Byrd’s Baffling Career: From Segregationist to Senate Sage” by Walter Shapiro

In his 2005 autobiography, Byrd referred to his two years as a Kleagle in the West Virginia Klan during World War II when he wrote, “It has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me and has taught me in a very graphic way what one major mistake can do to one’s life, career, and reputation.” But two years after Byrd left the KKK to work in a war-time Baltimore shipyard, he wrote to Mississippi’s Theodore Bilbo (one of the most virulent racists in the Senate) declaring, “Rather I should die a thousand times . . . than to see this beloved land of ours degraded by race mongrels.”

Two decades later, Byrd delivered a 14-hour address as the final gasp of the Southern Senate filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. But in addition to resorting to time-eating historical gambits like reading aloud the entire text of the Magna Carta, Byrd turned to the Bible to justify segregation. Dismissing the call of Jesus to love one’s neighbor, Byrd thundered, “But the scriptural admonition does not say that we may not choose our neighbor . . . It does not admonish that we shall not build a wall betwixt us and our neighbor.”

As to the second point, throughout his time in Congress he fought in the interests of coal miners and the companies that ran the mines, got the money to build major highways and other pieces of infrastructure to support WV’s economy, and all in all, seems to have stayed focused on his state rather than getting sidetracked by national or personal interests.

As Patricia Murphy writes in “Sen. Robert Byrd, Longest-Serving Member of Congress, Is Dead at 92,”

The Almanac of American Politics once wrote that Byrd came “closer to the kind of senator the Founding Fathers had in mind than any other.”

Lastly, a major achievement I read about in the above article, when he first entered the House he had neither a college nor a law degree. However, after taking night classes for 10 years at American University, he earned a law degree, presented to him by President Kennedy. And in 1994, Marshall University, located in West Virginia, awarded him an honorary college degree, when he was 77 years old. So, he truly was the quintessential “self-made man” which Americans are always calling for.

What do you think, will you remember Byrd fondly?

Yesterday I was browsing through articles online when I stumbled upon a piece of news announcing that Archie Comics will introduce its first gay character this September!  Archie will also have his first interracial kiss, with Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats!

Archie Comics, which has been around since 1941, features a group of typical, all-American, “average” teenagers growing up somewhere in the midwest. Archie featured an all-caucasian cast until the 1970’s, when Chuck Clayton, and African American, was introduced. He is now a regular member of the group. His girlfriend Nancy Woods is also African-American, and the two have never been depicted dating outside of their race.

Frankie Valdez, who is Puerto Rican, and his girlfriend Maria Rodriguez, who is Hispanic, only dated each other, in the same vein of that of Chuck and Nancy. Ginger Lopez, a Spanish-American teen, was introduced in the early 2000’s, and Tomoko Yoshida, a Japanese exchange student came in the 2000’s. Raj Patel, who is of Indian descent and the newest minority character, entered the scene in 2007. Now, they will greet Kevin, the first openly-gay character to join the crew, in the upcoming September issue of Veronica, #202.

There exist some minor characters of diverse backgrounds as well, most notably Anita Chavita, who was brought in for a short period ib the 1990s, and who was African-American and paraplegic. According to an article on Wapedia,

“Rather than handling her disabilities naturally, Anita kept bringing them to the surface with comments like “my legs may not work, but at least my brain does”. Ultimately she was jettisoned due to lack of reader interest. However, she is worthy of note because she was a love interest for both Jughead Jones and Dilton Doiley, making her the first instance, in an Archie comic, of interracial romance.”

I’m glad for these additions, although it is always difficult for a series to introduce a minority without making the character into the “token black guy” or the equivalent. However, just think about the fact that kids all across the world read Archie, and hopefully they will embrace people of all different sexual orientations and ethnicities due to these additions!

Target came under fire recently, for a fashion decision.

Amongst memorabilia sold in honor of the 2010 World Cup, Target displayed a shirt with the Spanish flag—but used the wrong flag. The flag printed on the shirts was Spain’s former flag, from the times of Francisco Franco’s rule, and was the official flag from 1945 until 1977.

Franco, the Spanish military dictator, is remembered for the repressive regime he headed, leaving behind a legacy of violence and political oppression with his death in 1973.

The Spanish flag from that period is closely associated with the pain the nation suffered at his hands, and so many Target shoppers were outraged to see a T-shirt bearing this flag up for purchase recently.  In response to complaints, Target apologized and pulled the shirts from all stores, offering a full refund for any already purchased.

Why did Target print shirts with the old flag in the first place? Was it simply an oversight?

I must say, I don’t think Target did anything wrong by selling the shirts, and if people take offense to a national flag emblazoned on an item of clothing then they should not buy it, but the store has every right to sell it. Although my sense of freedom of speech is a bit disturbed by this, since Target voluntarily apologized and immediately stopped selling the shirts, I guess there’s no issue. Do you think Target had a moral obligation to do so?

Anyone else enjoy receiving personalized e-mails from OFA telling them how they can personally help the president?

President Obama delivered his first address from the Oval Office tonight, telling citizens about the status of the BP Oil spill and the terrible impact it is having on the Gulf Coast.Following his speech, I received an e-mail from Organizing For America (OFA) requesting my support.So, having signed on to the president’s petition for environmental reform, I would like to pass this along.  (This being the e-mail OFA requests I forward to 5 friends):

Hi,

The oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is a tragedy — one we can only hope never happens again.But the solution is about more than just addressing this crisis.

As President Obama said, “An America run solely on fossil fuels should not be the vision we have for our children and our grandchildren.”

I added my name today to show I stand with President Obama for a clean-energy future.

Will you join me?

http://my.barackobama.com/CleanEnergy-auto

Thank you.

I support this cause, and lowering out fossil fuel dependency is surely a good thing. I can’t think of any objections to this Clean Energy petition, except perhaps that your name and state of residence can be made public once you submit them, can you?

On a sidenote, I admit that scripted e-mails make it very convenient for people to pass the message along, but do they really have as much impact as personalized ones asking for support?

ATTENTION: AQUAPOCALYPSE

Massachusetts has declared a state of emergency due to a break in a water main which brings water to 48 communities in the Boston area. 31 communities have been put on “boil water” order, including Waltham and Boston, meaning if you live in those areas you have been advised to boil your faucet water before drinking or bathing in it.

According to an article in the Boston Globe, “The break is in a 10-foot-diameter pipe on Recreation Road in Weston, where the MWRA’s MetroWest Water Supply Tunnel meets the City Tunnel”, which is located about 2 miles from our very own Brandeis University. Due to the leak, 8 million gallons of water are rushing into the Charles River each hour, and has been ongoing since sometime between 10 and 11 a.m. this morning, when the break occurred.

Be careful, and use your water responsibly!