Monday, November 15, 2004

M O N D A Y NOVEMBER 15, 2004

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXIX, No. 110

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

Across campuses, groups bare it all

Calder sculpture ‘Tripes’ appears on Front Green

‘Streaking team,’ naked donut run arouse interest

BY STEFAN TALMAN

There’s a new sculpture tucked away in a corner of the Front Green, fairly close to Hope College. It’s big, black and wavy. It looks angry. And ARTS & CULTURE it’s by Alexander Calder.

Calder is famous for his mobiles — giant, colorful, hanging forms — often present at major museums. They’re graceful and elegant, slowly turning in the wind. They’ve also been extraordinarily popular, perhaps because they’re so easy to “get” — they’re usually simple, pretty forms.

The Calder piece on the Front Green is not one of his mobiles. The piece, entitled “Tripes,” is a 12-foot steel structure bolted firmly to the ground. Calder completed “Tripes” — literally, “intestines” — in 1974, two years before his death.

The sculpture looks like an alien, albeit a playful one. And as with all encounters with aliens, one must ask where it came from and what it means.

“Tripes” was brought to Brown by the Public Art Committee, composed largely of arts faculty and administrators. Since its founding in 2002, the committee has ushered other memorable pieces to campus such as “Untitled (Donkey),” Isamu Noguchi’s elegant, if somewhat phallic, “To Tallness,” and Roy Lichtenstein’s mammoth

BY DANIELLE CERNY

The newest sports group at Hamilton College is on a winning streak — literally.

In fact, the group, which calls itself Hamilton’s varCAMPUS WATCH sity streaking team, has never lost a game in its five seasons of competitive streaking.

Then again, the Hamilton streakers have never actually “played” another streaking team since the team’s formation in 2002 — mostly because they can’t find one. But that hasn’t slowed the team down. During their October break, the streakers toured schools in the New England Small College Athletic Conference — the sports conference Hamilton’s more traditional teams participate in — and emerged unchallenged and undefeated.

Even if a challenging team had stepped forward, competition could have proven difficult, since there are no official, or for that matter unofficial, rules of competitive streaking. There is no scoring system, but there are scores — on its Web site, the team awards itself a point for every successful naked run.

Team member Craig Moores said he didn’t know exactly what a streaking competition would entail or how a winner would be determined, but he said he didn’t see this as a problem. “When you’re taking off your clothes and running around, everyone kind of wins,” he said.

Streaker Pete Holzaepfel said the team hasn’t really figured out all the details of competitive streaking yet, including whether the team has a philosophy.

According to Holzaepfel, the team streaks more to get a rise out of people than to send a message.

“It’s all a spoof,” he said.

see STREAKING, page 6

Nick Neely / Herald

An Alexander Calder sculpture, “Tripes,” will grace the Front Green for two years.

see TRIPES, page 4

UCS considers instant runoff voting

BY ROBIN STEELE

After a tumultuous presidential election last spring, the Undergraduate Council of Students’ election reform efforts could result in a campus-wide referendum on instant-runoff voting as early as next semester.

The Election Review Commission, formed this fall to address a range of prob-

lems from past elections, has largely focused its discussions on potentially implementing instant-runoff voting. In this system, voters rank the candidates, instead of voting for a single person.

Avi Robbins GS said although he didn’t know about instant runoff voting until about a week ago, he thinks the system could help make Brown’s elections more fair

Offering new ’dos with social conscience, Locks of Love returns to campus

BY CHESSY BRADY

Locks of Love will return to Brown Tuesday for a second year, hoping to collect hair and money that will go towards creating quality hairpieces for disadvantaged children who have lost their hair because of medical problems. Laura Goodman ’05, Rachael Greene ’06 and Jennifer Gordon ’06, the student organizers, say the event will be bigger and better this year.

Hairstylists trained at the Paul Mitchell School of Rhode Island will be cutting hair from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Sayles Hall Tuesday. Locks of Love accepts donations of hair 10 inches or longer, but anyone can get a haircut and in return donate as much money as they see fit.

In April, the organization collected 67 ponytails — more than 785 inches of hair.

Brown donors also gave more than $2,500. “We were really surprised by the kindness and generosity of Brown students,” Goodman said. “The success was

due to the Brown community.”

The coordinators did not expect such a high level of attendance last year, and only requested approximately 20 stylists for the day.

“We ended up calling in reinforcements,” Greene said. “In the end we had around 35,” and the lines were still out the door. The cutting also took place in carpeted Lower Manning, making the cleanup unpleasant.

This year the group has requested 50 stylists, many of whom are months away from becoming professional haircutters in some of the nation’s best salons. There will also be four express haircutting stations specially equipped to cut men’s hair efficiently.

“We’re more structured and organized this year,” Greene said.

“Now we know what we’re doing,” Goodman added.

According to the Locks of Love brochure, it takes six to 10 ponytails to

make one high-quality hairpiece, which in retail stores would sell for at least $3,500. The children who receive hairpieces from Locks of Love pay nothing or a low price based on their family’s financial situation. Due to the nature of the program, Locks of Love will need an entirely new crop of hair donors this year — most of those who gave 10 inches last year no longer have enough hair to spare.

To attract donors, the organizers are offering entertainment and free food as well as haircuts. Smoothie King and other vendors will be in Sayles giving out food and drinks, and music will be blasting.

“Last year it was a really fun, vibrant atmosphere,” Goodman said.

Walk-ins will be welcome, but to avoid waiting, the organizers recommend scheduling an appointment either in person at the post office today between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. or by sending an e-mail to hair@brown.edu.

Rites & Reason’s production of “Twelfth Tribe” tells tale of a black Jewish man arts & culture, page 3

Benjamin BrightFishbein ’07 thinks a universal draft will get the United States back in shape column, page 11

and equitable.

UCS Vice President Charley Cummings ’06 said fairness has been a concern in recent elections because candidates have been unable to secure a majority. Under the current system, a runoff election is required if no candidate obtains a majority vote.

UCS President Joel Payne ’05, who won last year’s election after a runoff against Ari Savitzky ’06, said the experience of going through a runoff election makes him think the idea of instant runoff voting has value.

But Payne does not sit on the election board, and he said he wants to see the results of a campus-wide referendum on the issue.

Cummings said he thinks last year’s election revealed that the current system is outdated. He said UCS decided to give more serious consideration to a procedural change last year, when for the fourth time in a row, no one presidential candidate received a majority of votes.

Cummings said a fairly strict interpretation of the constitution reveals that it does not preclude instant runoff voting. But some members of UCS think this shouldn’t happen without a constitutional change.

“It’s only feasible if we rewrite the constitution, and we have to decide if it’s something we want to do,” said Megan Saggese ’06, who sits on the commission.

“If we decide that this is something we want to do, before we undertake it, I think this is something that the students should vote on first,” Cummings said.

Amendments to the UCS constitution require a two-thirds affirmative vote in an

see UCS, page 4

W E AT H E R F O R E C A S T

I N S I D E M O N D AY, N O V E M B E R 1 5 , 2 0 0 4 Exhibit of contemporary Chinese art stops at David Winton Bell Gallery arts & culture, page 3

www.browndailyherald.com

Women’s cross country meet features strong individual races, but team can’t capture championship sports, page 12

Despite losing first meet of the season, men’s swimming team isn’t disappointed by results against Harvard sports, page 12

MONDAY

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TUESDAY

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THIS MORNING MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2004 · PAGE 2 Coreacracy Eddie Ahn

TO D AY ’ S E V E N TS BROWN IN ETHIOPIA INFO SESSION 4-5p.m. (Rhode Island Hall 106) — Professor of Sociology David Lindstrom will discuss general information and application procedures for Brown in Ethiopia.

LET’S TALK ABOUT JUDAISM AND SEX 7:30 p.m. . (Brown Hillel) — Rabbi Elyse Winick will speak about Judaism and relationships.

MEET ALLAN FUNG 8 p.m. (Smith-Buonanno 106) — The Chinese Students Association will present Allan Fung, the first Asian-American to be elected to public office in Rhode Island.

“CONTEMPORANIETY IN CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART” 5:30-7:30 p.m. (List Art Center) — Wu Hung of the University of Chicago will speak. Sponsored by the Departments of East Asian Studies and History of Art and Architecture.

Hopeless Edwin Chang

“THE HISTORICAL TEXTS OF THE BIBLE AND THE BIBLE AS HISTORY” 8-9:30 p.m. (Salomon 001) — Marc Brettler of Brandeis University will deliver a lecture as part of the Kirk Lecture Series on “Writing History in the Ancient World.”

FACES OF HOMELESSNESS 7 p.m. (Wilson 101) — A panel of homeless and formerly homeless individuals will tell their personal stories and answer questions from the audience.

Jero Matt Vascellaro

TOMORROW ’S EVENTS HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW! 11 a.m. (Sayles Hall) — Locks of Love, an organization which gives hairpieces to kids experiencing medical hair loss, will be holding an all-day drive. Free haircuts to those donating ponytails 10 inches or longer.

LEAD POISONING IN RHODE ISLAND 8 p.m. (Wilson 102) — Members of the community will speak about lead poisoning and the housing stock in Rhode Island.

UT Yu-Ting Liu

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Norway’s patron saint 5 Door fastener 9 Photo book 14 Wander about 15 Arab leader 16 Resembling 17 Unflappable 20 Make void, as a marriage 21 Window hanging 22 Endangered Florida sea cow 26 Many oz.

29 “__ Enchanted Evening” 30 Pass, as time 36 Butter substitute 38 Jamaican exports 40 Dropped fly ball, e.g.

41 Easygoing manner 44 Deprive of courage 45 Israeli flier 46 Abominable Snowman 47 Sacred Egyptian beetle 49 Singing brothers 51 Hair coloring 52 In a vividly sensational way 55 Rorschach image 60 Fable man 64 Emulated a philatelist 68 Fencing swords 69 Not odd 70 Watches 71 Owners’ documents 72 Rod’s partner 73 Camper’s structure DOWN 1 Killer whale 2 Crazy as a __ 3 “__ calling” 4 Soft palate 5 “For __ a jolly good...”

6 Dr.’s group 7 [Intentionally so written]

8 Overly proper one 9 Color of water 10 Sugar cube 11 Pig in the movies 12 Internet browser 13 Like a swamp 18 Word of sorrow 19 Hudson Bay native 23 “Me neither” 24 Tickle 25 “The Saint” Simon __ 26 Center of activity 27 Cartoon voiceman Mel 28 Alabama march city 31 Hawaiian necklace 32 Culturally pretentious 33 Snooped 34 Like Santa after struggling through a chimney 35 Bert’s Muppet buddy 1

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37 Poet __ Khayyám 39 “Me too” 42 Genetic stuff 43 Iditarod racer 48 Voting group 50 Blind piece 53 Kind of nonsense 54 It can help raise dough 55 Kept cold 56 Informal refusal

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ARTS & CULTURE MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2004 · PAGE 3

‘Twelfth Tribe’ tackles complex questions but falls back on clichés

BY JOEL ROZEN

Rites & Reason Theatre’s production of “The Twelfth Tribe,” presented this weekend, addressed a question political theater devotees have been asking themselves for years: Without the use of a dramaturge, can anything in a supposedly researched play be taken seriously?

Written by Alex Pudlin ’04 and directed by Elmo Terry-Morgan ’74 and Marsha West, the story recounted in “The Twelfth Tribe” is simple, but only deceptively so, for it introduces the complex mental state of those who must acknowledge religious and cultural traditions that are at odds with each other.

Born to a black Jewish family in Waterbury, Conn., Gerald (Maceo June ’05) has a difficult time coming to terms with the conflicting identities of the two minority groups that provide him his heritage.

The ensuing action leads him on a continental walkabout, as the confused youth searches for people of his particular kind, or at least for a community to which he can relate — a quest that ultimately drives him insane.

see TRIBE, page 7

Poet Regie Gibson speaks of love, life and Hendrix

BY STEPHEN NARAIN

As the first snow of the season descended on College Hill Friday evening, poet Regie Gibson provided a mellow performance of his highly personal work to an audience of about 50 people at King House.

Kurt Vonnegut calls Gibson’s work “supersonic and in the stratosphere, where you can see that the earth really is a ball, moist, blue-green.” Quite an appraisal, but Gibson’s poetry is really something beyond this physical world, daring to straddle the grey area between poetry, song, lyric and all the possibilities in between.

Although Gibson is used to performing in larger spaces, he took full advantage of the intimate setting of King House — the fireplace, the hot cider and the centuriesold history of St. Anthony Hall, the coed literary fraternity at Brown that sponsored the event. Gibson said his performances are affected by the venue, but said, “Whether it be a crowd of 5,000 people or in a church or synagogue … the ultimate goal is to communicate.”

Gibson, who has performed everywhere from the Art Institute of Chicago to Literature Haus in Hamburg, fuses instrumentals, drums, song and poetry in a way that defies convention. Five years ago, Gibson founded the Church of The Funky Word, which, he writes on his Web site, is “a literary and musical arts ensemble utilizing ancient, contemporary and original literary text combined with world music and rituals from various world cultures.”

Gibson said one of his poems was inspired by a professor he encountered at a

recent talk who seemed wrapped up in the confines and norms of language.

“This is not your daddy’s poetry reading,” Gibson joked. “Poetry is more than the sum of its parts.”

Gibson, a Chicago native, is the son of a Jehovah’s Witness and a police officer, and one of his poems was centered around his childhood, the joys of being young and the fiery rhythms of Chicago nightlife.

Interjecting the poem with Congo drumbeats, tapped feet and song, Gibson quipped that he was guilty of having

“metaphoric Tourette’s.”

“We’re only young once. … Those moments (of youth) are feral, sweaty with passions,” Gibson said.

Gibson also performed his poems “Anthem,” which celebrates the street vernacular he was surrounded with as a teenager; “All Praises Due,” his musings about living in Massachusetts with his family; and “I Will Not Know You Until I Watched You Sleep,” which explores discov-

see GIBSON, page 7

Exhibit traces Western influence in post-Communist China

BY SHIYIN WANG

The current exhibit at the David Winton Bell Gallery, “Regeneration: Contemporary Chinese Art from China and the U.S.,” is a snapshot of how China has changed over the years. The Western influences in the artwork can be subtle or overpowering, but there is always some element that speaks to the Chinese culture and experience.

Featuring 26 artists, “Regeneration,” a traveling exhibit organized by Dan Mills and Xiaoze Xie at the Samek Art Gallery at Bucknell University, is the Bell Gallery’s first exhibit dedicated to Chinese art. The gallery opened in 1971 and hosts six professional exhibits and one student exhibit each year.

“Chinese contemporary art is very

big now on the international market,” said gallery director Jo-Ann Conklin.

Yun-Fei Ji, one of the artists featured in the exhibit, gave a lecture with a slide presentation of his work as part of the gallery reception on Thursday. His pieces look like traditional Chinese landscape paintings but contain hidden images of faces, sex, cars and other modern elements. The work demands close inspection — no casual glance will reveal these intricacies.

Travel is a key component of Chinese art, Ji said in his presentation. The New York resident added that much of his work is influenced by what he sees on trips to China. A central event that influ-

see CHINA, page 4

PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2004

UCS continued from page 1 undergraduate student body referendum.

If the commission and UCS decide instant runoff voting is the right protocol to adopt, a referendum to amend the constitution would be put together in the early second semester, Cummings said.

Prior to the referendum, UCS would likely set up a WebCT survey to determine student opinion about possible courses of action.

The WebCT survey would be necessary because it’s unclear how much students know about instant runoff voting.

“I think a lot of students aren’t really aware of exactly how it works. Those engaged with the Green Party or with the 2000 election have heard a lot about it.

Students will have to decide if it will work in student elections,” Cummings said, adding that information about the process must be simple so that elections do not

China continued from page 3 enced his work is the building of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangzi River, a project that has displaced millions of residents.

One piece entitled “Calling the Dead” features a woman speaking to the spirits of her ancestors, asking them to get out of the way before the flood comes.

“Art is reaction to event,” Ji said.

Ji draws a clear distinction between traditional high art, which is the esoteric art of intellectual elites, and folk art, which the elites considered to be the lower art form of peasants. Ji is not interested in elite art, he said, but he is interested in good art.

Ji also focuses on capturing the “complexity of the historical moment” in his art. It is a com-

Tripes continued from page 1 “Brushstrokes.”

Like the others, “Tripes” is on loan to the University, in this case for two years. Such loans of artwork are significantly more feasible financially and allow the continued rotation of new pieces to campus. That the donkey only clung to the Sciences Library for a period of months, for example, contributed greatly to its allure,

become more complicated and bureaucratic.

Some students not only already know about the system, they’ve formed definite opinions.

“I’m definitely in favor of instant runoff voting in any situation,” said Amelia Rosenman ’08.

“It allows people to vote for who they most want without wasting their vote. (Instant runoff voting) encourages people to vote and vote for who they really want to see in office. It is a more accurate reflection of student opinion than just winner-takes-all.”

But others think instant runoff voting might complicate the voting process rather than improve it.

“What statistician came up with this method?” asked Christine Livoti ’08, who said she thinks instant runoff voting is too confusing for a student election.

According to Cummings, many other student governments have successfully implemented this system, including Harvard’s.

According to Harvard’s election rules for its undergraduate council, each qualified voter will be able

to rank candidates in order of preference. Ballots will be tabulated using a system that will “progressively eliminate candidates with the lowest number of votes, and transfer the votes of students who voted for the eliminated candidates to those remaining candidates that were ranked the highest on the respective ballots,” the election rules state.

Cummings said UCS has other options for improving elections, including requiring only a plurality for victory. Under this system, the candidate with the highest percentage of student votes wins, even if the candidate does not receive the majority of the votes.

Another option is keeping the current system of having a runoff between the top two candidates, Cummings said.

Cummings, who is communicating with Computing and Information Services to determine if it is even possible to set up this system through WebCT, said the commssion and UCS are far from reaching a conclusion on instant runoff voting.

plexity that makes broad judgments difficult — he can see the good that has come out of modernization and Westernization, as well as their negative impacts.

With the death of Chinese leader Mao Zedong in 1976, restrictions and censorships on art in China loosened.

Previously, Chinese artists could only work in social realism, a restrictive style built to “serve the political system,” Conklin said. The painting of Mao in Tiananmen Square is an example of this style, which forced artists to glorify the nation.

After Mao, “Western paintings came into China,” Conklin said.

“People had never seen these” styles before, and artists were now free to experiment with new styles like impressionism and surrealism, she added.

“Regeneration” contains an assortment of new media in addi-

tion to traditional paintings and drawings.

Photographer Hai Bo finds the original subjects of old pictures and re-creates the scenes, placing the subjects in their original positions. “They No. 3” shows a faded photo of five young soldiers of the Vietnam War, three standing and two sitting in chairs. Beside it is a black and white photo of a single middle-aged man standing with two empty chairs in front of him.

Wenda Gu’s “United Nations — Temple of Exoticism” is a set of tapestries arranged like walls, surrounding a table and chairs with TV monitors. Up close, it becomes obvious that the tapestries are made out of human hair.

The exhibit also features video, digital media and animation.

The Bell Gallery will host the exhibit until Dec. 23. The exhibit is touring through the end of 2006.

much like a summer-camp romance.

Calder lived from 1898 until 1976. Born to artist parents, he attended engineering school, but soon drifted into artistic jobs and moved to New York. At this point he became quite interesting, working as an artist for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. This experience influenced Calder greatly — he soon began constructing wire sculptures of circus animals and performers. This circusy aesthetic came to frame his work. Bold pri-

mary colors and playful movement pervaded his sculptures and paintings.

What’s confusing, then, is “Tripes.” The work is massive. The heavy steel looms above you. The bolts holding it together give it a kind of industrial, “just out of the factory” look. The work is bottomheavy, wide, dark and bolted to the ground, giving it a kind of imposing solidity. And most importantly, it’s a deep, dark black.

At the same time, the forms themselves are playful — the multiple folds of the work wiggle and bend. One looks like a monkey, one looks like a bunny and one looks like two dinosaurs poking their heads around a corner.

Seeing “Tripes” is like attending a circus funeral with pallbearer clowns and a eulogist on stilts. The viewer simply doesn’t know how to react: should one laugh and play, dance around the sculpture, or put on a “serious art” face and solemnly discuss the work’s compositional merits?

But the discord of “Tripes” fits well in its new home. The sculpture’s own identity crisis is at home among the clashes of the Front Green’s architecture, where colonial brickwork sits next to a Greek chapel, and perhaps even Brown’s iconoclastic-Ivy identity.

Herald staff writer Stefan Talman ’05 can be reached at herald@browndailyherald.com.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WORLD & NATION MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2004 · PAGE 5

In wake of protests, Okla. teen finds love where he least expected it SAND SPRINGS, Okla. (Washington Post) — The fliers arrived three weeks ago.

Some came over the fax machines of local churches, and others appeared mysteriously around town. Printed in bold was the heading “Westboro Baptist Church.”

No seeming cause for alarm. Sand Springs, population 18,500, is a Christian stronghold in the gently rolling hills of eastern Oklahoma.

But the message that followed was a rant against a 17-year-old Sand Springs resident named Michael Shackelford and his mother, Janice, the subjects of a recent Washington Post series examining Michael’s struggles as a young gay man in the Bible Belt. The fliers posted a photo of Michael, called him a “doomed teenage fag” and announced that followers of Westboro Baptist in Topeka were on their way from Kansas to stage antigay protests in Sand Springs.

Public theater is the specialty of Westboro Baptist and its minister, Fred Phelps, whose place on the extreme fringe of the antigay movement is symbolized by his Web site, www.godhatesfags.com. But this time, Phelps picked a formidable target.

Oklahoma could never be mistaken for a liberal blue state. President Bush grabbed the seven electoral votes here, winning 60 percent of the popular vote. A state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage passed by a 3-to-1 margin.

Sand Springs is the essence of pious Oklahoma. Downtown, a veterinary clinic with loudspeakers on its roof plays a taped carillon of hymns and patriotic songs. Michael and Janice Shackelford attend a large evangelical church where lots of worshipers bring their own Bibles.

In the eyes of Phelps, any church that allows an openly gay person to attend Sunday worship is weak. “Was there no Gospel preacher in Sand Springs or Broken Arrow to tell Michael ... that sodomy is a monstrous sin against God that will destroy the life and damn the soul?” the fliers asked.

When Phelps announced that his group was coming to picket at several churches and the high school, fresh battle lines were drawn. To many here, homosexuality was a sin, but Michael Shackelford was their sinner. Just as the November election was reducing moral issues to red or blue, Sand Springs confronted subtler shades of truth. Janice Shackelford was terrified by the persecution of her son, then surprised by what happened next.

“This Westboro outfit thought they could come to this town and break it apart,” Janice said. “But it has brought the town together. It has opened some doors to talk.”

After Michael’s story was published, competing forces wrestled for his soul.

The Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest gay advocacy group, invited Michael to attend its national dinner in Washington last month.

“Oh, great,” Janice remembers thinking. A year and a half after discovering her son was gay, Janice still held hope that he would renounce his homosexuality. She worried for his safety, especially after

see OKLAHOMA, page 8

Washington Post

Janice Shackelford has struggled to accept that her son is gay. Janice and Michael, shown in February in their Sand Springs, Okla., home, talk about homosexuality. Recently, anti-gay protesters who came to Sand Springs from a Kansas church were met by anti-hate rallies at Shackelford’s church and school.

Attention turns to insurgencies in Mosul, elsewhere BAGHDAD, Iraq (Washington Post) — The

fighting started in Mosul two days after U.S. tanks entered Fallujah. Armed men appeared in a sudden tide on a main street in Iraq’s third-largest city, a wide avenue where so many American convoys had been ambushed that locals nicknamed it “Death Street.”

At 11 a.m. Thursday, the target was an armored SUV. Witnesses said that after its Westerner passengers were chased into a police station, the driver was burned alive atop the vehicle as the attackers shouted out “Jew!” The city of 1.8 million people then devolved into chaos. Thousands of police abandoned their precinct houses. The governor’s house was set alight. Insurgents took the police chief’s brother, himself a senior officer, into his front yard and shot him dead.

By Sunday, the dawn of a three-day festival celebrating the end of Ramadan, control over sections of the city remained in doubt. In streets emptied by fear and gunfire, insurgents battled hundreds of Iraqi National Guard reinforcements dispatched by the interim government to quell an uprising that was at once largely expected and disquieting.

U.S. and Iraqi officials said they knew Ramadan would bring attacks, and the widely publicized offensive in Fallujah would spark violent provocations in other predominantly Sunni Muslim centers. But the scale of the Mosul attack surprised the U.S. forces in the city. And the disintegration of the city’s police force recalled the debacles of April, when a suddenly rampant insurgency shattered faith in the security forces that are expected to assume the ever-more difficult task of making Iraq at least reasonably safe.

“They were scaring us, and we are from Mosul, so we withdrew to our houses,” said Yusuf Rashid, a police officer in a Mosul neighborhood named “Justice.”

As fighting winds down in a Fallujah

returned by overwhelming force to the sovereignty of the new Iraq, U.S. forces are turning to the many other cities besieged by a fresh wave of insurgent attacks. The resistance remains concentrated in regions dominated by the Sunni Muslim minority, and further complicates the interim government’s stated desire to include Iraq’s entire population in January elections.

Sunday, U.S. tanks and attack helicopters swooped into Baiji, the midway point between Mosul and Baghdad, where insurgents destroyed a key highway bridge and claimed the city. Masked men carried guns aloft in a protest Sunday in Baqubah, a chronic trouble spot for U.S. forces just northeast of the capital. U.S. forces also engaged fighters in Tall Afar, a largely Turkmen city west of Mosul, and in Hawija, northwest of Baghdad.

Bands of armed men moved freely at night in several neighborhoods of Baghdad, where attacks on U.S. forces have more than doubled from a week ago. Ramadi, 30 miles west of Fallujah, remains a rebel stronghold.

And U.S. and Iraqi forces continue to fight in Samarra, the city advertised as a model for the assault on Fallujah when 1st Infantry Division tanks rolled there six weeks ago to reclaim the city from insurgents. Under the curfew again in effect there, Samarra residents are allowed on the street for only four hours each morning, and over the weekend its latest police chief, installed last month, quit.

“We never believed a fight in Fallujah would mean an end to the insurgency,” a U.S. Embassy official in Baghdad said.

“We’ve never defined success that way.

“We still have the very difficult problem of a Sunni insurgency.”

Just how much the move on Fallujah is roiling the rest of Iraq is still being assessed by Iraqi and U.S. officials. They appear heartened that the country’s Shiite majority remains quiescent and largely animated by the prospect of

asserting power through the ballot. That marks the sharpest contrast with the April uprising, when militias loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr took control of cities across the country’s south, opening a vast new military front just as Marines assaulted Fallujah the first time.

Al-Sadr’s defeat in August by a U.S. offensive in the holy city of Najaf, followed by weeks of grinding assault in the Baghdad slum named for his father, did much to persuade the radical cleric to shift his energies to politics. For Iraqi and U.S. decision-makers, it reinforced the decision to confront the Sunni insurgency in its own strongholds.

But if the tactical battle was won in Fallujah—removing both a symbol of successful resistance and a genuine paramilitary base—it remains far from clear who will prevail in the larger strategic fight to make the interim government credible to a Sunni population embittered by the loss of influence it enjoyed under the government of Saddam Hussein.

“The city is a mess,” said Bahaa Aldeen Abdulaziz, owner of the Casablanca Hotel in Mosul. “The shops are closed. There’s no security. And the reason for all this is because the Americans invaded Fallujah.

“And Fallujah will never finish. It has gotten into people’s blood.”

“I believe the situation will continue like this, and Mosul will become another Fallujah,” said Noofel Mohammed Amen, a shoe salesman. “And later on all the cities of Iraq will be Fallujah.”

The most immediate concern for the interim government is manpower. Iraq has no more than eight battalions of the newly trained troops whose main job is to occupy cities after U.S. forces defeat insurgents. Duty in Samarra and Fallujah, which have a half million people between them, already was stretching that force thin. Adding duty in

see IRAQ, page 6

PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2004

Streaking continued from page 1 Even if the streakers don’t have a unified message, they do have a unified goal: victory. So like every good sports team, Hamilton’s streakers have learned to survey each campus they visit and create individualized strategies for success. Among their most notable strategies have been streaking in a Mighty Ducks-style “Flying V” at Middlebury College, strolling through a library at Tufts University and taking a naked guided tour of Connecticut College.

But Holzaepfel said Bates College was the team’s most successful streak on the tour. The team was welcomed with enthusiasm and support at the college — so much so that one Bates student shed his clothes and joined Hamilton’s naked run. Bates was the only school on the team’s tour to get on the scoreboard, even though it currently trails Hamilton 2-1.

According to Moores, the most important part of a streaking game is to draw a large crowd. “If no one sees you run naked, there’s a big question as to whether you did or didn’t streak,” Moores said.

So whenever the team arrives on an opposing campus, the streakers try to tell as many people as possible about the upcoming streak and attempt to recruit students to join them on the run.

Despite the team’s success and its self-proclaimed No. 1 national ranking, the team is not officially recognized by Hamilton’s administration.

Moores said even though members of the administration have had many positive things to say about the streakers, the college can’t officially recognize the team since its sport is “technically illegal.”

According to Moores, alums have had varied responses to the publicity the streaking team has garnered. While some alums have not been pleased, others have gone so far as to offer to buy the team uniforms.

While it’s unclear what kind of uniforms would be used by a

Iraq continued from page 5 Mosul, a city of 1.8 million, “means you’re operating right

Volleyball continued from page 12 said. “We would keep the scoreboard on the sidelines at 29-27 and each team would try to finish.”

In the third game, Cornell dominated the Bears by a score of 30-19 to capture the win, giving Cornell (16-8, 10-4 Ivy League) a share of the Ivy League Championship.

Defensively, Kung once again had a game-high mark in digs, with 14. Not far behind was Katie Lapinski ’08 with nine.

Martin set the offense up with 31 assists and Gibbs once again led the team in kills with 16, giving her 33 kills for the weekend.

The Bears finish up their season on the road this Wednesday

streaking team, Moores said items like warm-up suits, headbands or sneakers would be very useful accessories, though he considered team members’ nakedness itself to be a uniform.

It’s little surprise that Hamilton’s streaking team has had some close run-ins with the law. Moores said a few members of the team were caught by campus police at Wesleyan University, where one dormitory is “clothing optional.” And the entire team was caught at Colgate University and cited with disorderly conduct. But Moores said the charge was just a misdemeanor, no worse than driving “really, really fast,” and wouldn’t stop the team from competing.

Even though Brown has yet to receive a streaking challenge from Hamilton’s team, Brown students have ample opportunities to see public nudity thanks to two time-honored campus traditions: the naked party and naked donuts.

The naked party is an annual, invitation-only party hosted by the Watermyn and Finlandia coops that took place Nov. 6 this year.

The Co-op event has music, dancing and in most respects is just like any other college party — except that everyone is naked.

Candace Toth ’05, who joined the Watermyn Co-op this year but considered herself more of a naked partygoer than party planner, said she had been nervous about whether the naked party would be highly sexual. But ultimately the party didn’t feel sexual to her at all, she said.

Jackie Parente GS, who attended the naked party as a sophomore and again this year, echoed Toth’s sentiment, saying that while a lot of times at other parties people’s objectives are more or less to get someone naked, that step is conveniently bypassed at the naked party, allowing people to just enjoy the party itself.

Yet overcoming the novelty of public nudity takes longer for some than others.

While Parente had never been fully naked in public before attending the naked party, she said she had grown accustomed to feeling nearly naked in front of out on the edge of what forces you have — Iraqi forces,” the U.S. official said.

U.S. forces might be stretched thin as well. A battalion deployed outside Fallujah raced back to its Mosul base when

at Yale. Bruno took the first match of the season and hopes to duplicate their earlier performance, especially since the stakes are higher.

“Currently, there is a four way tie in the Ivy-League, which could be broken in the upcoming week,” Short said. “Yale is one of the teams tied and we have the chance to be a spoiler if we can beat them again.”

Kung echoed Short’s feelings on Yale.

“I would really love to beat Yale and end on a good note,” Kung said. “Yale has been surprising the league, but I would love to ruin their chances of an Ivy League title.”

Herald staff writer Marco Santini ’07 covers volleyball. He can be reached at herald@browndailyherald.com

large crowds while playing on Brown’s water polo team as an undergrad. She therefore looked forward to both of her naked party experiences with excitement.

Toth, on the other hand, said she started off the party feeling nervous and self-conscious but grew more accustomed to the nudity as the night progressed.

Toth said the party helped her realize that while the people there were different shapes and sizes, everyone was essentially the same. “There was nothing shocking just because people had their clothes off. We’re all the same type of mammal,” she said.

While the human body is exposed inside the party, Candace said Watermyn is very careful to cover the windows with sheets and put a tarp over the front porch to keep outsiders from sneaking a peek into the naked party.

Naked donuts, on the other hand, is a campus tradition that all students have the opportunity to witness, at least if their timing is right.

During the naked donut run, a group of unclothed students hands out donuts to people studying in the Rockefeller and Sciences libraries during reading period.

The theory behind naked donuts is that anyone studying toward the end of reading period is most likely in need of “a moment of levity,” according to Zach, a Brown student who requested that only his first name be used because of the secretive nature of naked donuts.

“It’s totally comical in its nature. It serves as a reminder that it’s not all about the studies,” Zach said.

Unlike the naked party, naked donuts is not affiliated with an organization on campus.

Instead, Zach said, coordination of the event has moved and traveled and remained highly elusive over the years, with exact details for the naked appearances being shared among participants by word of mouth or e-mail the day of the event.

The clandestine nature is not meant to exclude students from participating, according to Zach.

Anyone who feels comfortable

enough to hand out donuts in the nude is welcome to do so.

Instead, the covertness is mainly because who is participating and when the donuts will be distributed is supposed to be a surprise.

Zach said naked donuts is meant to be a tradition, not a spectacle. But over the years it has changed from a low-key event to an exhibition that draws large numbers of students to the libraries in hopes of catching a glimpse of the naked donut handout.

But Zach said this goes against the true intent of naked donuts, which is to give relief to the overworked, not to be a sexualized spectacle.

In fact, Zach said naked donuts “is one of the most asexual experiences on college campuses tied to the human body.

“It’s just a lot of fun to be with a group of people who are so comfortable that it’s almost like you’re walking through the library and forget you’re naked,” he said.

Unlike Hamilton’s streaking team, naked donuts participants have never had problems with campus security or library officials. Zach said he didn’t know if administrators were aware of naked donuts but hoped that if they did know, they would just look the other way.

Zach said that he saw no problem with the public display of nudity since it takes place on a college campus, among peers, but said events like naked donuts raise the question of “where does the domain of what’s appropriate for being naked in public end?”

Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services David Greene, a Hamilton alum, though never a member of the college’s streaking team, said Brown has no official position on naked donuts.

While Greene said he was not aware of any recent disciplinary cases involving streaking at Brown, the University “certainly encourages people to wear clothes at all appropriate moments.”

insurgents struck, attacking in groups as large as 50 at a time, numbers not seen in the city before, said Lt. Col. Paul Hastings of Task Force Olympia, the brigade that in February replaced a much larger unit, the 101st Airborne Division.

The magnitude of the assault generated a wave of excited reports that officials feared would further undermine public order elsewhere in Iraq. Mosul’s governor went on state television to attack “lies” on Arabic language satellite news channels, which at one point reported U.S. forces had evacuated one of their main bases. Sunday, the interim interior ministry issued a statement denying insurgents had overrun two police stations in northern Baghdad.

In Samarra, local insurgents and foreign fighters driven from the city Oct. 1 began trickling back a month later. A wave of car bombs and mortar attacks Nov. 6 killed 17 Iraqi police and made the city a combat zone once more.

Residents assemble each day at the bridge leading from the main highway across the Tigris

River into town, shut down by U.S. forces.

“It is our fault,” said Abu Muhammed, stranded on the wrong side. “We sold the city to those terrorists and let them enter, and now we cannot enter because of them.”

“They made it hard to live till the army came and freed the city,” said another man, who gave his name as Abu Omar. “We were able to move around freely and stay out late at night. But now they are back.”

Also Sunday, Najaf buzzed with the news that local tribesmen had carried out three days of devastating attacks in the town of Latifiya. Located on the exceedingly dangerous road between Baghdad and Najaf, the town harbors extremists blamed for killing 18 young Iraqi men returning from Najaf after signing up for the national guard earlier this month. The victims’ tribal leaders, incensed after extremists demanded payment before handing over the bodies, last week sent fighters north to burn farms and carry out revenge killings, officials in Najaf said.

Herald staff writer Danielle Cerny ’06 edits the Campus Watch section. She can be reached at herald@browndailyherald.com.

M. hockey continued from page 12 way we played in the third period,” Grillo said. “We still need to get better. It’s the learning situation where you need to walk the tightrope. You need to be patient with young guys on the team and demanding of things at the same time. But it’s a lot more fun to learn a lesson off a win than a loss.”

On Friday Brown learned a losing lesson at the hands of a surprising Princeton squad that was picked to finish last in the ECACHL but is currently tied for fourth place.

“We were sloppy off the puck and defensively we gave them too many opportunities,” Grillo said.

Although Brown held an 18-7 advantage in shots in the first period, Princeton took a 2-0 lead into the locker room.

“We didn’t score early and panicked and didn’t stick to our game plan,” Grillo said. “We fought the puck and didn’t support it well.”

Princeton goalie Eric Leroux stymied the Brown offense for nearly the entire game, but more importantly, when the game was still tied at zero.

“Our goalie gave us a chance to win. He was our best penalty killer,” said Guy Gadowsky, who is in his first year as Princeton’s head coach. “Brown could have easily been up on us 2-0 in the first period.”

In the first two periods, defensive woes led to easy Princeton scores. Botched defensive assignments and poor coverage gave Princeton several three-on-two and twoon-one chances deep in Brown’s zone.

A late power play goal by Sean Hurley ’08 staved off a potential shutout for Princeton.

Hurley became the 10th different goal-scorer for Brown this season, yet even with different players contributing, Brown has not been able to get the scoring when it has needed it most.

“The sense of urgency has to be there before we go down two goals,” said co-captain Gerry Burke ’05. “We played well in the third period (against Princeton), but there is no reason we can’t play like that every period.”

Against Yale, Brown found the urgency early, and through an impressive offensive display netted three straight goals. All three goals resulted from Brown stringing together several quick passes that were intended shots. On the second goal, David Robertson ’08 rifled a shot from a low angle that went wide and found Burke at the point. Burke failed to fully connect on the shot, which sailed wide, but McNary redirected the puck past Gartner.

Three of Brown’s walking wounded returned to action in the weekend split, with Haggett and Antonin Roux ’07 each collecting a goal and an assist and Seth Seidman ’08 starting both nights. Next weekend the Bears face non-league competition in tournament play at the University of MinnesotaDuluth.

Herald sports editor Ian Cropp ’05 covers men’s ice hockey. He can be reached at herald@browndailyherald.com.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2004 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 7

Gibson continued from page 3 ering the essence of a sleeping loved one.

Gibson said his poetry is influenced by a wide gamut of music and literary styles, and he is presently working on a manuscript inspired by the life and times of Jimi Hendrix.

“Jimi Hendrix is perennial. He helped me out through some really hard times,” Gibson joked.

“Hendrix made it all right for a heterosexual black male to still wear chiffon.”

Gibson is intensely intrigued not only with music but with fusing different instruments and styles, then relating that product to language.

“This is the time of world music when we can fuse 4,000-year-old rhythms with 300-year-old cantatas and 50-year-old saxophone (tunes),” Gibson said. “Poetry changes as the music changes.

Through the ’50s, the ’60s, the ’70s, through beat music, through disco and hip-hop, people spoke a certain way as the music inspired them — a corresponding colloquialism.”

Gibson is also working on a piece titled “The Ballad Mozart Brown” that expresses his artistic existence in multiple worlds — relating the past and the present in a dynamic way. The piece will bring the works of Mozart and James Brown together using classical European music and African-

Tribe continued from page 3 Unfortunately, this brand of in-patient narrative, unified under a rubric of psychological analysis, is not just discouraging for its heavy-handed simplicity — it is dangerous. The issues at stake are important, but they are precarious enough that a thematic misstep could lead to serious misrepresentation.

Today, there are many members of the “twelfth tribe,” a unique denomination of black Jews who trace their ancestry to one of the original lost tribes of Israel.

But Pudlin seems to forget that those in this sect have often been dismissed by society as being “crazy radicals” due to their public demonstrations that tout their religious beliefs. By presenting his audience with a portrait of a crazy, paranoid black Jew, Pudlin has successfully managed to confirm the stereotype — a dramatic device that, if anything, enforces the misconception.

Suffice it to say, the show’s more lethal assortment of stereotypes doesn’t end there. Gerald’s parents, Rachel and Fred (Sara Griffin ’04.5 and Tacuma Vanterpool), have been employed as metaphorical archetypes, signifying the conflicting ways in which African-American Jews attempt to reconcile their disparate identities.

This device, in the hands of a subtler playwright, would certainly have worked to illustrate the struggles faced by those born to more than one minority heritage. As the parents bicker over the loaded implications of their individual choices, however, Pudlin resolves the dispute with the most banal of cultural generalizations.

American funk.

Gibson said the work of Langston Hughes resonated with him early on, especially because Hughes was greatly influenced by music. “Hughes used to go out into Harlem and absorb what was around him,” Gibson said.

Gibson added that he is also motivated by the works of authors Charles Baudelaire, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Milton and Edith Wharton.

“They are springboards. (We need to) try to understand what they are telling us and make it relevant,” he said. “We have to break down antiquity. Knowledge needs to be updated.”

“We divide poets into different eras — transcendentalist, enlightenment, romantic — but poetry is a long, unspoken train of dialogue from time immemorial. … Poetry means a lot more to other cultures,” he said.

A community activist, Gibson believes in the power of poetry to transform lives. In addition to lectures and workshops at Northwestern University, Harvard and the University of Michigan, he has done work in Roxbury and Dorchester, Mass., as well as with Youth Speaks, a poetry, spoken word and creative writing program in San Francisco.

Kelly Hall ’06 described herself as a “huge fan” of Gibson’s and said, “I’ve known Regie since ninth grade through his workshops and performances. He is a perfect teacher and guide for young people to find their expressive outlet … and nurture their creative

processes.”

“I’m very excited that he was able to come. We hope to have more events like this in the future,” said St. Anthony Hall member Cassie Ramirez ’06.

According to Clair McClung ’05, literary chair at St. Anthony Hall, the event was made possible in part from a grant from the St. Anthony Hall Educational Fund. “(It) allowed us to bring some amazing speakers including a storyteller and the romance novelist, Judith Arnold.”

The audience was visibly amazed at Gibson’s poetry, responding many times with moans, cheers and pressed lips.

Many people simply closed their eyes to absorb Gibson’s words.

“I didn’t know what to expect. … He was really dynamic,” said Joss Whittaker ’06.

Gibson’s poetry has the power to appeal to many people because his voice is made up of everything from, in his words, “Homer to hip hop.” Gibson’s Web site quotes author Kurt Vonnegut as saying, “Regie, you sing and chant for all of us. Nobody gets left out.”

Much of this appeal is probably due to Gibson’s philosophy.

“I believe art is my politic,” Gibson said. “Not political art, now, but the fact that art has the power to transform in very subtle ways. It’s about revelation. I know what it must be like for people to hear someone who looks like me speak of many cultures in this muddled voice … (but) I believe art is our highest dialogue with ourselves.”

“When I had a son,” says Fred to pacify his fuming wife, “I always imagined him running around, carrying the Torah, dancing the hora.” The subtext here is obvious — that despite the denominational choices of his two parents, Gerald is, above all, Jewish. But can Judaism really be reduced to the tired signifiers of the Torah and hora dancing? Only so long as one subscribes to the patronizing ideology that cultural stereotypes can be overthrown with other, more lighthearted clichés.

Wisely, Pudlin has elected to incorporate comic elements into his dialogue. The audience is made privy to a few scenes in which Gerald, during his quest for identity, encounters Janie (Shatara Francisco ’08), his whimsically narcissistic “first girlfriend,” a truck driver (TerryMorgan), who curtly advises the protagonist to steer clear of hitchhiking, and the Southern Baptist-like Nana Gertrude (Darshell Jackson), who, in her loud, reverential voice, beseeches him to leave “her kind” alone.

Though the audience reacted positively to such comic interventions, they were not spared the playwright’s penchant for trite character sketches.

For all her charmingly naïve affectations, Janie glows embarrassingly at the premature thought of a wedding ring and remains a painfully unilateral and hackneyed representation of women. “What are the odds,” exclaims Gerald in response to the trucker, completely discounting the religious affiliations of the inhabitants of Nigeria, Niger and Somalia. “A black Muslim!” Even worse, Nana Gertrude is dispensed as a stock character of the worst “Pray-uz Jee-yuh-sus!” variety.

Ultimately, “The Twelfth Tribe” culminates in not much more

than a missed opportunity, for what might have been a penetrating, psychological glimpse into the knotty mind of a social outsider has been distilled into a veritable pageant of social generalities.

Most disturbing of all, however, is the seeming lack of research that went into the production, a factor that marks a definite break from Rites & Reason’s legacy of historical accuracy.

From the moment the rabbi chants his first prayer, mispronouncing several of the more elementary Hebrew expressions and thus inadvertently destroying his credibility as a learned religious leader, one wonders exactly how much preliminary investigation was conducted prior to the first performance.

It bears mentioning, however, that not all of these very correctable errors can be attributed to flaws in Pudlin’s script — or, by that light, to weaknesses in directorial interpretation. If anything, the playwright should be congratulated for his bravery in unveiling such a show, and in his defense, his program notes even identify the “process” that has kept his script in a constant state of development.

Instead, perhaps the more pressing question might be directed at the producers of this theatrical mess. What would it take to endow this play, with its under-researched details and conspicuous inconsistencies, with a dramaturge? Because without someone to clean up the historical errors and misleading information, the spectator not only comes away with a deficient sense of the black Jewish condition, he begins to feel Gerald’s pain. Cracking under the pathological weight of dueling minority legacies and a ramshackle production, the audience, too, can be driven to madness.

PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2004

Oklahoma continued from page 5 renting a video at Blockbuster about Matthew Shepard, the young gay man who died after being beaten and lashed to a fence in Wyoming. Mostly Janice worried about Michael’s salvation. Attending the dinner in Washington might reinforce his belief that he is gay. “I felt like allowing him to go was condoning the lifestyle,” she said, “and it would propel him to that even more.”

Yet something inside told her to let him go. One factor tipped it: Michael would get to meet Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew, who would be attending the event. Janice couldn’t take off from her job at a barbecue restaurant, so Michael was accompanied by his 23-year-old sister, Shelly.

In Washington, a tux was waiting for Michael in his hotel room. He brought his disposable camera to the dinner and asked a male model if it was OK to take his picture.

The next day there was a luncheon and sightseeing of the monuments. A lesbian couple with a 3-year-old daughter took Michael and Shelly to dinner.

Walking around a gay neighborhood, Michael was in awe. “It was like being around family,” he said. “Seeing all those successful people, that could be me.”

Shelly, who shared Janice’s views against homosexuality, was also in shock. “Men were holding hands with men, women were holding hands with women, and no one was yelling at them,” Shelly said.

What Michael wanted most was to buy his mother a book on being a Christian parent of a gay child. He found them at Lambda Rising, a gay and lesbian book-

store.

When they got back home, Janice listened to their stories.

“There’s a life out there,” Michael said Janice took the books Michael brought home—”Always My Child” and “The Gay Face of God,” among others—but was not ready to read them. She piled them on a table in the living room, which is where they were still sitting when she received a call from her pastor.

“Janice,” he said, “We got a fax.”

Janice tried remembering where she had heard of Westboro Baptist—and then it clicked. While visiting her oldest daughter in Las Vegas, she remembered seeing the group picketing a high school that was staging “The Laramie Project,” a play about Matthew Shepard’s murder in the town of Laramie.

Janice listened with growing anxiety as her pastor, Bill Eubanks of Cornerstone Church, explained that Westboro Baptist was coming to protest Cornerstone for allowing Michael to worship there. When Eubanks called Westboro, a woman who identified herself as Fred Phelps’ daughter told him that he had not been strong enough in “prescribing the truth about homosexuals.”

Eubanks, 53, has a deep-well Oklahoma accent and a 6-foot-2 frame that makes him a commanding preacher. He pastors a flock of 500, where bluejeans are welcome and men are not embarrassed to brush away tears when praying. A huge banner, hung from the rafters, said, “Family Under Construction.”

There was no doubt that “family” referred to a man and woman.

Homosexuality is viewed as a sin.

Eubanks had known Michael was struggling with his sexuality. But to the pastor, seeing Michael in church meant there was still a chance that he would turn away from homosexuality.

Eubanks was disturbed by the fliers’ hateful message, but he saw an opportunity.

“I get to speak about the grace of God,” he said. “No matter what the sin, God loves you.

He is saying, ‘Come on, come back to the family.’ I was an alcoholic and a drug addict. I can see the possibility of change.”

A transformation, from gay to straight.

“These are the hopes, that Michael will change,” Eubanks said.

The week before the protest, the pastor announced from the

pulpit that they were in the midst of a spiritual battle. He read parts of the flier aloud. “We are family,” Eubanks said. “We are going to stand united as a family.”

The response surprised Michael, who thought he would be cast out. People were being nice to him. Only a few weeks earlier he’d been called a “queer” at Arby’s. Now there was a new menace in Sand Springs, and it was Fred Phelps.

As more fliers circulated around Sand Springs, Janice knew it was time to talk to her 88-year-old mother, a fervent Baptist with a weak heart. All this time Janice had never told her mother that Michael was gay. “This would put her in the grave,” she had warned Michael.

After Wednesday night church, Janice drove to her mother’s house. The words simply would not come out. Finally, Janice got up and turned the volume down on the TV and sat beside her mother. “I’ve been keeping a secret from you,” Janice said. She stopped again.

Just tell me, her mother said.

“Michael seems to think he’s gay.”

“Janice,” she recalls her mother saying, “I’m a tough old lady. You should have told me sooner.”

And that was that.

The Sunday of the protest arrived. The Phelps entourage had left Topeka at 3 that morning and unloaded in front of Cornerstone in time for the 9 o’clock service. There were nine in all. Fred Phelps had sent his 51-year-old son, Fred Phelps Jr., and his daughter, Shirley Phelps Roper, 47. Under the watchful eye of several Sand Springs police officers, they spread out along the public patch of grass in front of the church.

They raised their signs. Fags Are Worthy of Death. Fags Doom Nation. Fag Church. Your Pastor Is Lying. Others involved obscene drawings and references to excrement. One of the protesters dragged an American flag on the ground.

A truck roared by from the main road and the driver shouted, “Let he who cast the first stone!”

Phelps gestured toward the church marquee that scrolled the message “I hate the sin but love the sinner—God!” “It’s a play on words, the sin and the sinner,” he said. “You can’t separate the two. There are some people in this world who are made to be destroyed.”

Shirley Phelps Roper chimed in. “With the right hand they are

saying that homosexuality is a sin and they will fix you,” she said. “And with the left hand they say that God loves you.

They don’t own salvation. They don’t have the prerogative to fix the heart of man.”

Worshipers drove through the bottleneck, refusing to engage.

Michael Shackelford rumbled past in his truck without notice.

Janice arrived minutes later in her Oldsmobile, nervously gripping the steering wheel, eyes straight ahead.

Inside the church, the congregation was standing and the six-piece guitar band was rocking.

The Lord reigns Great is the Almighty The music and energy built until Pastor Eubanks bounded onstage. “Welcome to the reign of life,” he said. “Amen?”

“Amen!” the crowd shouted, whistling and clapping.

“There is darkness and there is light and we are in the middle of the light,” Eubanks said, to more thunderous applause. “Say it: God loves us all. All of us!”

After the service, several people came up to hug Janice. One woman held her in an embrace that lasted two minutes, whispering to Janice the whole time.

A burly man with a crew cut gave Michael a thumbs-up.

“Man, you be who you are,” Shannon Watie said, holding his Bible. “We got your back.”

Watie later said that he respected Michael for having the courage to come out. “I have the sin of pride, the sin of lying sometimes,” said the 37-yearold father of two. “The reason why Jesus was on the cross was because we all do.”

Watie voted for Oklahoma’s ban on same-sex marriage. Civil unions? He might have considered those. Homosexuality?

“That’s between the person and God,” Watie said.

Out in the foyer, Eubanks saw Michael and seized the chance.

He invited Michael to lunch.

There was work to do.

After church, Michael drove the interstate with the windows of his truck rolled down and the stereo blasting Merle Haggard’s “Kentucky Gambler,” Michael singing every word.

I wanted more from life, than four kids and a wife And a job in a dark Kentucky mine.

In nearby Tulsa that Sunday night, a vigil was held in response to the Phelps demonstrations. It was organized by Tulsa Oklahomans for Human

see OKLAHOMA, page 9

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2004 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 9

U.S. military leaders gather to plan Iraq strategy BAGHDAD, Iraq (Los Angeles Times) — The United States’ top military

commanders converged here Sunday to craft a strategy for using the momentum from a seemingly successful anti-insurgent battle in Fallujah to pacify other embattled Iraqi cities, pressing toward a decisive “tipping point” in the war.

In an unusually high-profile mid-battle gathering, Gen. Richard J. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived from Washington, and Central Command chief Gen. John P. Abizaid flew in from his regional headquarters in Qatar. They met with the top U.S. ground commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, his Iraqi counterparts and the American generals in charge of Iraq’s various regions.

Unlike Myers’ occasional visits to troops in Iraq, the general planned this tour to discuss war strategy with senior commanders regarding the ongoing battle in Fallujah and the outbreaks of unrest in other areas, including Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul.

As many as 1,600 insurgents in Fallujah were killed so rapidly that the streets were littered with an “alarming” number of bodies, senior defense officials said, despite Muslim strictures that require burial within 24 hours.

The American commanders expect to use information gleaned from the dead and from interrogations of an estimated 1,000 captured rebels to find insurgent leaders — possibly including the best-known guerrilla, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — who the commanders said left Fallujah ahead of the past week’s fighting.

“I think Fallujah will show us where the leadership is,” Abizaid said. “I think there are quite a

Oklahoma continued from page 8 Rights and held at a gay and lesbian community center.

Organizers set out 24 chairs.

More than 220 people showed up; the overflow strained to hear from the sidewalk.

Janice had been nervous to attend the vigil with Michael but there she was, standing in back.

Several Tulsa ministers spoke out against Phelps. Most were from churches that Janice was unfamiliar with; Unitarian, Congregational and Diversity Christian.

The Rev. Russell Bennett, president of the Tulsa Interfaith Alliance, took the podium. “You are a gathering of the saints,” he said, smiling at the crowd. “Now, in some parts of town, that might be disputed.”

Bennett recited a Bible verse in which Jesus scolds the leaders of his time for worrying more about narrow morality than the bigger picture. “Woe to you, hyp-

few people that are in our hands right now that will tell us an awful lot about their organization.”

Yet uprisings in Mosul and elsewhere suggested many insurgents might have fled to fight elsewhere.

“The insurgency is like water, and when you squeeze it, it kind of goes like water,” Abizaid said.

The gathering, which commanders described as the result of visits independently scheduled before the latest confrontation in Fallujah, was marked by a renewed optimism among Pentagon strategists that they were making progress despite a recent rise in attacks by a stubborn insurgency.

“You never know how close you are to a tipping point,” said a senior defense official involved in the talks, who requested anonymity.

U.S. and Iraqi military commanders are setting their sights on a smaller hotbed of insurgency, Ramadi, as the next likely focus of a major anti-insurgent onslaught. The deployment used to seize control there is expected to be smaller than the 10,000 American and 2,000 Iraqi forces used in nearby Fallujah.

Iraqi and U.S. officials continued to express optimism over the prospect of nationwide elections for a new Iraqi government in January but said that depended on driving insurgents from Fallujah and Ramadi, the capital of Al Anbar province.

The province is considered particularly crucial because Al Anbar is predominantly Sunni Muslim. Authorities hope that Sunnis — who were loyal to ousted President Saddam Hussein, a fellow Sunni, and have since supported and fought in the insurgency — could be

placated by participating in a new government.

Sunnis also offer a counterbalance to Iraq’s majority Shiite Muslims, who Bush administration officials fear could use their power at the ballot box to steer the historically secular nation toward an Iranian-style theocracy.

Commanders intend for a bloody battle against intransigent fighters in Fallujah to send a message to Iraqis elsewhere who ally themselves with extremist groups: Those who cooperate with radical insurgents, even in the short term, will find themselves targets.

“The coalition and the Iraqis will not tolerate temporary alliances of convenience,” said Abizaid, who visited Fallujah on Sunday before a late night meeting with Myers, Casey and Iraqi commanders.

U.S. military officials have been surprised by the aggressiveness of the insurgents.

Attacks have been on the rise throughout Iraq, reaching 130 a day as of Friday, the defense official said. But the attacks have been weaker in recent days, he added, including a fair amount of return fire directed at U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Nowhere have the guerrillas dug in more stubbornly than in Fallujah, where a ring of U.S. and Iraqi troops appears to have trapped many insurgents who did not flee before the onslaught. The senior defense official called the decision “curious” but “helpful.”

“I am surprised, personally, at the resistance in Fallujah, that the insurgents opted to stay and fight,” the senior defense official said. “They sacrificed a lot of people to stand up and fight a conventional force.”

ocrites,” the reverend said. “For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy.”

Janice was quiet, listening to phrases such as “radical inclusivity” and quotes by Robert F. Kennedy about the long arm that bends toward justice. Only once did she feel at home, when a man came up afterward and reached for her hand. “You know, we have been praying for you all week,” he said.

His name was Toby Jenkins and he was a Free Will Baptist pastor for 17 years before accepting that he was gay. Now he preaches at a gay evangelical church in Tulsa. He told Janice that the Bible is not the blackand-white doctrine that many say it is. He asked Janice if they could pray together, and he took her face in his hands and they stood motionless in the crowd, forehead to forehead, eyes closed.

“I am going to have to think about all this,” she said later.

The next morning, the Phelps

protesters were back in Sand Springs, this time picketing in front of Charles Page High, the school that grudgingly started a Gay Straight Alliance last year after an openly gay senior forced the issue.

Shirley Phelps Roper stood on the sidewalk, holding her God Hates Fags sign and singing “America the Beautiful.” Police were standing by, but all was peaceful. Several cars drove by with their own messages painted on the windows: Go Back to Kansas and God Loves Everybody.

As school let out that afternoon, dozens of people from Tulsa Oklahomans for Human Rights arrived with brooms. In silence, they swept the sidewalk where the Phelps protesters had been. Michael was there, sweeping.

A group of students walked by.

One of them, a girl with long, silky hair and a backpack, was obviously fed up with all the protests and counter-protests.

“Leave our homos alone,” she said, to no one in particular.

browndailyherald.com

W. x-c continued from page 12 in 70th place, Smita Gupta ’08 in 86th place and Anna Willard ’06 in 97th place. Emma Sarro ’05, Jilane Rodgers ’06, junior varsity competitors Becky Crossin ’08 and Madeleine Marecki ’07 also performed well.

Top runner Annie Hatch ’06 was not able to compete Saturday due to injury.

“Annie gutted it out as best she could at Heptagonals, but she and I decided that she just wasn’t feeling strong enough to run,” Wemple said.

In a race with 230 runners, the women struggled to get a quick start. With only nine competing Saturday, the Bears were proud of their efforts.

“We went into the race ready to run as a team and focused on getting out aggressive — we weren’t intimidated by the other teams,” Komosinski said.

Smita Gupta ’08 had a breakthrough performance, improving from eighth for her team in the Heps to fourth in the Regionals. The Bears were happy to end their season with such strong performances.

“This season was just a great team experience, and (Saturday) we all helped each other out. It was a pretty good day for us all,” Monaghan said.

Wemple said he thought the team did well, especially considering some of the problems the team faced.

“They always stayed positive despite all the negatives we experienced this year with all of the injuries and sickness,” Wemple said. “Those who were healthy always worked hard and ran up to their potential.

They never gave up on the season.”

Herald staff writer Katie Larkin ’08 covers women’s cross country.

She can be reached at herald@browndailyherald.com.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL/LETTERS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2004 · PAGE 10 S T A F F

E D I T O R I A L

Out of focus Last year’s Undergraduate Council of Students elections made it clear that reform of UCS’s election system was long overdue.

The UCS election board changed election rules several times during the election process. Questionable campaigning tactics and even more questionable rulings by the election board revealed that UCS’s election code is inadequate. The online voting system crashed during the elections. And when it was over, some students continued to question whether it was fair that the candidate who appeared to win a large plurality in the initial election went on to lose in the subsequent runoff.

To their credit, UCS President Joel Payne ’05 and Vice President Charley Cummings ’06 have prioritized election reform, forming a committee of non-UCS members to reform the system. But despite the long list of problems, the Election Review Commission has inexplicably decided to focus on the question of instant runoff voting, which is irrelevant to the UCS system.

The UCS code already allows for a runoff if no candidate wins a majority of votes, which is what happened in the spring.

Instituting instant runoff voting would only speed up the process; it would likely not change the result. Under the current system, a candidate can win a plurality of votes in the initial election but lose the runoff. This situation is always disappointing for some, but it isn’t necessarily unfair.

There are far more pressing issues for the Election Review Commission to address. It must rewrite the UCS code, which prohibits campaigning “within the Election Board designated area where the voting is taking place” — a passage that has been obsolete since UCS began holding elections online. The commission should decide what now constitutes a polling place and clearly state what violates this section of the code. It should work with Computing and Information Services to make sure WebCT can handle a surge of users on election day. And it should examine the makeup of the UCS Election Board, which is currently composed of UCS members who know the candidates too well to make unbiased decisions.

The members of the commission were right to conclude that last year’s election revealed the system’s weaknesses. But the problem with the election was not that it ended with a runoff. It was that because of the inadequacies of the UCS code, decisions were made by people with clear conflicts of interest hurriedly and arbitrarily at every step of the way.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD EDITORIAL Juliette Wallack, Editor-in-Chief Philissa Cramer, Executive Editor Julia Zuckerman, Executive Editor Jen Sopchockchai, Arts & Culture Editor Leslie Kaufmann, Assistant Arts & Culture Editor Danielle Cerny, Campus Watch Editor Jonathan Ellis, Metro Editor Sara Perkins, News Editor Dana Goldstein, RISD News Editor Alex Carnevale, Opinions Editor Ben Yaster, Opinions Editor Ian Cropp, Sports Editor Christopher Hatfield, Sports Editor Bernie Gordon, Assistant Sports Editor Chris Mahr, Assistant Sports Editor Eric Perlmutter, Assistant Sports Editor PRODUCTION Peter Henderson, Design Editor Melanie Wolfgang, Copy Desk Chief Eddie Ahn, Graphics Editor Judy He, Photo Editor Nick Neely, Photo Editor

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SHANE WILKERSON

LETTERS Funding transfer aid not a zero-sum game To the Editor: While I sympathize strongly with the position of Resumed Undergraduate Education and transfer students, my impression is that many of us do not fully understand the position of the other side (“RUEing the aid situation,” Nov. 11). The provost’s response to student worries was not “abhorrent,” just realistic and honest. The decision to fund each individual financial initiative is made through a protracted, time-intensive effort on the part of the University Resources Committee — a hardworking group of administrators, faculty and students working together with the provost. Because our University operates under financial limitations, each initiative that gets funded comes at the expense of another, both of which seem very important to the well-being of the University. So we have to prioritize.

This is the unpopular truth: The number one goal is to attract the best students possible. As a result,

our financial aid resources are fully devoted to the group of students we want to matriculate under regular admission routes. Attracting these students is very competitive. Logistically, transfer and RUE students can only be admitted after vacancies have been opened by the initial regularly admitted group. A more unpopular truth is that although it is competitive for transfers and RUE students to get in, it is not competitive for Brown to get them to matriculate.

As a result, we do not strategically need to pool additional resources into attracting this group to the University. At the very least, we know there is no question that the allocation of our resources currently maximizes our chances of getting the best students possible.

Neel Shah ’04 M.D. ’08 Nov. 11

Contradiction in article on campus poker To the Editor: There is a baffling contradiction in The Herald’s article on poker (“On-campus poker games play with the law,” Nov. 12). The first half of the piece correctly elucidates Rhode Island law on the matter of gambling, apart from the state lottery and at state-sanctioned venues. It is illegal. Even small card games for money among friends on private property are categorically prohibited under the Rhode Island General Laws. Brown's Associate Dean for Judicial Affairs, Terry Addison, is quoted pointedly and extensively on the subject. He indicates that the University would frown on students who engage in such illicit activity and that DPS officers would likely break up poker games that involve wagering.

Later in the article, however, Addison speculates

that the University might modify its policy and allow poker-playing! Similarly, two senior students, poker enthusiasts, express the hope that Brown will adopt a permissive policy towards the games. Huh? The administration may choose to turn a blind eye on the Faunce House “Casino” and instruct DPS staff to assume a laissez-faire posture. But Brown can no more abrogate Rhode Island law pertaining to illegal gambling than it can lower the drinking age on campus to 18. And there is nothing to prevent the Providence Police from descending on the Lower Blue Room, and elsewhere, to bust up card games, just as they entered the Underground a few years ago to enforce laws against underage drinking.

Paul Palmera AM ‘65 Nov. 13

Allison Kwong, Night Editor Allison Kwong, Sonia Saraiya, Copy Editors Senior Staff Writers Stephanie Clark, Robbie Corey-Boulet, Justin Elliott, Ben Grin, Kira Lesley Staff Writers Marshall Agnew, Camden Avery, Kathy Babcock, Zaneta Balantac, Alexandra Barsk, Zachary Barter, Hannah Bascom, Eric Beck, Danielle Cerny, Christopher Chon, Lexi Costello, Ian Cropp, Stewart Dearing, Gabriella Doob, Jonathan Ellis, James Feldman, Amy Hall Goins, Dana Goldstein, Bernard Gordon, Kate Gorman, Krista Hachey, Chris Hatfield, Jonathan Herman, Leslie Kaufmann, Kate Klonick, Allison Lombardo, Chris Mahr, Lisa Mandle, Ben Miller, Sara Perkins, Eric Perlmutter, Meryl Rothstein, Marco Santini, Jen Sopchockchai, Lela Spielberg, Stefan Talman, Jessica Weisberg, Brooke Wolfe, Melanie Wolfgang, Stu Woo, Anne Wootton Accounts Managers Steven Butschi, Rob McCartney, John Nagler, David Ranken, Joel Rozen, Rukesh Samarasekera, Ryan Shewcraft Project Managers In Young Park, Libbie Fritz Pagination Staff Eric Demafeliz, Deepa Galaiya, Jason Lee Photo Staff Marissa Hauptman, Ashley Hess, Matthew Lent, Bill Pijewski, Kori Schulman, Sorleen Trevino, Juliana Wu Copy Editors Chessy Brady, Jonathan Corcoran, Eric Demafeliz, Leora Fridman, Allison Kwong, Katie Lamm, Suchi Mathur, Cristina Salvato, Sonia Saraiya, Lela Spielberg, Zachary Townsend, Jenna Young

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

OPINIONS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2004 · PAGE 11

Trickling up GUEST COLUMN BY MICHAL ZAPENDOWSKI

On every issue, from Jesus to taxes, an aggressive Republican agenda is being met by a Democratic establishment whose defensive strategy has centered on mimicking the struthio camelus, a species of flightless bird that sticks its head in the sand when threatened.

What have liberals proposed to counter Republican tax-cutting plans, which have created a hole the size of Texas in the national budget? The party, picking up a position formerly associated with the Republican Right with the eagerness of puppies jumping at scraps from the dinner table, has rallied for more responsibility in public finances. This strategy, however, obviously did not succeed in persuading voters. So what could the Democrats have offered instead?

The Republican stimulus strategy is founded on the “trickle-down” theory, invented by a West Texan economist who was watching dirt and sweat trickle down the rumps of longhorn cattle in the sweltering heat. Its fundamental premise is that benefiting the wealthy benefits the middle and lower classes, in the form of more jobs and higher wages. According to trickle-down economics, the United States should strive to put more wealth into the hands of the upper class. Latin American history provides a shining example of the benefits of “supply-side economics,” with governments for centuries acting to protect the wealthy.

There is, of course, an alternative to this trickledown system. A cursory glance at IRS tax returns (taxfoundation.org) shows that the bottom 50 percent of Americans pay just 3.5 percent of the income tax.

When Uncle Sam turns the bottom half of the United States upside down and starts shaking, not much comes jingling out. This means that a tax cut of 3.5 percent across the board would reduce tax revenues by the same amount as would eliminating taxes altogether for all working poor families and half of the middle class.

Democrats could have suggested this, eliminating taxes for the bottom half of the United States, as an alternative tax cut plan. Not only would it help those who are struggling to make ends meet; it is backed up by sound economic reasoning as well. People making over $93,000 (the top 10 percent) get 42 percent of the

benefit from an across-the-board tax cut and almost all the benefit from eliminating dividend taxation, both of which are strategies favored by the Republicans. It’s true that cutting taxes for the top 10 percent partially boosts consumption, which is what can stimulate an economic recovery. However, it also starts a bubble in the investment economy, which sets the stage for

Formulating a better economic plan for a Democratic Party struggling to recover from Nov. 2. another recession.

Economists call this “boom and bust,” and it doubly benefits the successful, who can buy up cheap stocks during downturns and prosper during upturns.

This alternative — giving money back to the working poor and those struggling to remain in the middle class — creates a direct economic stimulus. Joe Worker isn’t going to parade proudly into Wall Street with his $500 tax return and invest it in the stocks. He’s going to spend it on himself or feed his children, in either case stimulating consumption and job creation. Think of it as “trickle-up” economics: Pour more into the masses that form the foundation of the economy, and the Ship of America is lifted upward, along with everyone onboard.

This alternative stimulus plan could have gone even further, proposing that taxes be increased by 10 percent on the top 1 percent of Americans (people making

over $285,000). With this proviso, the plan wouldn't add a penny to the deficit. It would still stimulate the economy because the money taxed from America’s leading 1 percent will cause decreases in savings, which do not stimulate the economy, and investment, which sets the stage for another bubble and recession.

But the money taxed will not lead to a decrease in job-creating consumption. This is an observed phenomenon of human behavior: The last thing people are willing to give up when their incomes are reduced are the living standards they have grown accustomed to.

Meanwhile, for each wealthy family that reduces its savings and investment, 50 working and middle-class families will pay no income taxes and spend this money instead in the economy.

To anyone who thinks it’s unfair for the working poor and half the middle class not to pay any income tax, I would answer: working overtime year-round at a wage insufficient to pay for the needs of a modern family is enough of a contribution to society. Not to mention the fact that it’s the working poor who are laying their lives down in the name of America in Iraq. The opposite rhetoric — that the wealthy are parasites — is equally inappropriate, especially if the wealthy pay a disproportionate amount in income taxes. Everyone gives back to society how they can: The poor give their sweat and their blood, the rich give part of their wealth.

If the Democrats had suggested this plan, or an altered version, the party could have made themselves the champions of the working poor, a balanced budget and economic stimulation all at the same time.

Instead, they slopped together an impossible, utopian program — promising to cut the taxes of 98 percent of Americans, create millions of new jobs and somehow simultaneously slash the deficit.

They paraded Bill Clinton around, hoping Americans would associate him with the prosperity of the 1990s tech bubble. America’s verdict, delivered on Nov. 2, spared them from having to live up to these promises.

Michal Zapendowski ’07 doesn’t like paying taxes to Washington fat-cats.

The case for a universal draft GUEST COLUMN BY BENJAMIN BRIGHT-FISHBEIN

As long as America has existed, we have feared the draft. During the Vietnam War, thousands of young men fled the country, or obtained deferments, legitimate and not, in order to evade fighting. Currently, there is a bill in the House of Representatives that would establish a universal draft, though it has little chance of getting passed.

A draft is the best thing that could happen right now for our country.

And to everyone in our liberal community already itching to sink their teeth into my throat, I’ll first remind you that the bill in the House is being proposed by a liberal Democrat from New York.

There is no better way to promote equality than through a universal draft. The army is comprised mostly of the poor and working class who have few other options to escape their neighborhoods or obtain education benefits.

Does this seem fair? The lower-classes are sacrificing their lives for those fortunate souls who happened to be born in a higher tax bracket. They’re dying for our (supposed) security.

Economists would argue that the rich have a free ticket to ride the backs of the poor. They even might suggest taxing the well-off so that the cost of the death of poor soldiers is recovered. But with four more years of Bush on the way, that will never happen.

Besides, it is not right that a monetary donation precludes you from service to the nation, even if it’s how the American war factory has worked since its inception.

A universal draft would fix this problem with a total integration of the classes. All Americans would share

the burden of protecting our country, instead of rationing off the job to those people who don’t have a choice in the matter.

Some argue that forced conscription is just as bad as leaving the system the way it is. After all, what’s the point of equality and justice if you’re violating individual rights? To this I say: define “violating.” For example, we can just as easily say that taxes “violate” individual rights: The government takes money away from

Instating a draft is the right move for our military and for America. the people who earned it. But the idea is that society gets that money back in the form of services provided by the government.

The same is true of the draft: Young men and women sacrifice their time, and in some cases, their lives, so that we are all better off. Yes, a universal draft may violate individual rights of a few, but it does so in order that everyone else might benefit.

Here’s the situation: Either way, there’s going to be injustice. We have a choice: We can be unjust and

weak without it, or we can be unjust and strong by universalizing it.

A universal draft will give the country strength in a number of ways. Most obviously, it would benefit the army overseas, which is overextended as it is. Second, it is hard to deny that it would greatly increase the health of the nation; the draft is a great way to promote regular exercise and better eating habits.

Third, and probably most important, a draft would increase awareness of international affairs, lifting us out of the general ignorance that pervades our society. Everyone in America would feel compelled to follow the latest developments in the world. Remember, this draft is universal, which means everyone is deeply affected by troop deployments.

As counterintuitive as it may sound, a draft will even promote peace. Society will cast its ballots for the candidate who will keep their children out of harm's way. With a draft, we never would have entered Iraq in the first place.

Additionally, a draft will completely change the way representatives legislate.

Obviously, they have their constituents to win over, but they also have their own children to protect. A universal draft excludes no one, and especially not the children of politicians.

Do you think Bush would have gotten us into Iraq if he had to face Jenna and Baby Babs gearing up for battle?

Benjamin Bright-Fishbein ’07 is willing to die for his country.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS MONDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2004 · PAGE 12

Long-awaited first victory for m. ice hockey in weekend split

Déjà vu for volleyball as team sweeps Columbia and is swept by Cornell

BY IAN CROPP

BY MARCO SANTINI

One tie, an overtime loss and two blowouts into its season, the men’s hockey team (1-3-1) earned its first league win Saturday night. After a forgettable 5-1 loss against Princeton on Friday, the Bears regrouped the following night and grabbed an early lead against Yale that it did not relinquish, winning 5-2.

Brown and Yale came into Saturday’s contest as the only winless teams in the ECACHL, but by the end of the first period it looked like Yale would be without company shortly. Brian McNary ’08 tallied the first two goals of his collegiate career, and nearly netted a third for a hat trick, all in the first period.

He would grab an assist on Brown’s third goal and earn first star honors for the game.

“It was nice to finally get some goals, but it was nicer to get the two points,” McNary said.

McNary was not the only Brown player with a breakout performance. Goaltender Kevin Kliman ’06, who came into Friday’s game to relieve Scott Rowan ’05 after Princeton gained a 4-0 lead, started for the first time in his Brown career against Yale. Kliman had 21 saves, including several key stops in the third when Yale pulled to within 3-2.

“I was really impressed with his performance,” said Head Coach Roger Grillo. “He played

For the second time this season, the women’s volleyball team (816, 5-8) experienced both ends of a sweep in the same weekend.

Once again, Columbia and Cornell were the two teams involved.

“We had a good game against Columbia last time and we were pretty confident going into the match” said Julie MandoliniTrummel ’08, who had nine kills and four blocks against Columbia.

Brown dominated the first game, winning 30-20, and never looked back. The Lions made the second game a little more interesting, but Brown held off the late surge to win 30-27. Bruno was rolling and took the third game for the sweep, winning 3024.

“We played very well against Columbia,” said Head Coach Diane Short. “They are a very young team with a lot of freshmen.”

Lauren Gibbs ’06 had a gamehigh 17 kills in the short match to lead Brown’s offensive attack.

“I was a little nervous coming into this weekend because I sprained my ankle on Wednesday,” Gibbs said. “I really wanted to play and I thought I only have another week to play.

There was no stopping me. If I hurt my ankle again, I have the entire off-season to worry about that.”

Rikki Baldwin ’07 added 10

Judy He / Herald

Brian McNary ’08 earned first star honors on Saturday against Yale with two goals and an assist. solid and did what he had to do to win. I’m happy for the guys … especially the young guys.”

The end of the Yale game could not have come any sooner for all of the Bears, especially Kliman.

“It was the longest 60 minutes of my life,” Kliman said. “I knew I didn’t like not playing, but I forgot how much I loved playing. I haven’t felt this way in a long time.”

It was not until with 2:13 remaining that Kliman and the Bears could breathe easy. Mike Meech ‘05 buried a lose puck after an Adam Tichauer ’06 shot

In final meet of the year, w. cross country places 11th at NCAA Regionals

BY KATIE LARKIN

The women’s cross country team ended its season Saturday on a cold and windy day with an 11thplace finish out of 32 teams in the NCAA Regional Championships.

Like the Heptagonal B ROW N S P O RTS S CO R E B OA R D Friday, November 12 Women’s Ice Hockey: Princeton 3, Brown 2 Women’s Volleyball: Brown 3, Columbia 0 Men’s Ice Hockey: Princeton 5, Brown 1 Saturday, November 13 Men’s Swimming: Harvard 197, Brown 96 Women’s Volleyball: Cornell 3, Brown 0 Women’s Ice Hockey: Brown 4, Yale 1 Men’s Ice Hockey: Brown 5, Yale 2 Football: Dartmouth 20, Brown 7 Men’s Water Polo: Navy 9, Brown 4 (Eastern Championships) Men’s Water Polo: Bucknell 5, Brown 2 (Eastern Championships) Women’s Cross Country: 11th (of 32, NCAA Regional Championships) Men’s Cross Country: 4th (of 32, NCAA Regional Championships) Sunday, November 14 Men’s Soccer: Dartmouth 2, Brown 1 Men’s Water Polo: Brown 10, MIT 9 (Eastern Championships) Monday, November 15 Men’s Basketball: at Missouri (Guardians Classic), 8 p.m., Columbia, Mo.

Championships, this meet took place at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City, and was a qualifier for the Division I women’s cross country championships in Terra Haute, Ind. The Columbia team, which placed second Saturday, will be the only full team representing an Ivy at Nationals.

Though no Bears qualified for the Division I championships, those who ran Saturday posted solid performances. The chilly weather did not seem to be a factor.

“When it gets that cold it can be difficult warming up, but once you get into the race you’re focused on other things, so it doesn’t really affect you,” said captain Julie Komosinski ’05.

Michol Monaghan ’07 finished first for the team and 45th overall. “(Monaghan’s) performance was a huge step up for her,” said assistant coach Rick Wemple.

“She beat her personal best by more than a minute.”

Scoring for the squad following Monaghan were Komosinski in 64th place, Anya Davidson ’06

see W. X-C, page 9

from the point could not be collected by Yale goalkeeper Josh Gartner. An empty-net goal by Les Haggett ’05 with 1:40 sealed the win.

Throughout the night, Gartner, the son of NHL Hall of Fame forward Mike Gartner, gave up big rebounds that allowed Brown to score four goals on him, including two on the power play. Despite Brown’s offensive output, Grillo was not pleased with the entire performance of his young squad.

“I was disappointed with the

see M. HOCKEY, page 6

kills to keep the Bears on top.

Elvina Kung ’05 had a game high 20 digs and Rachel Lipman ’08 helped out the team with 12 digs, Leigh Martin ’06 posted the team’s only double-double with 43 assists and 10 digs, giving Brown three athletes with digs in the double digits.

“It was great to get the sweep against Columbia because we were able to get on the buses a lot earlier than expected and arrive at Cornell at a reasonable hour,” Martin said.

In Ithaca on Saturday, Brown was trying to avenge a sweep at the hands of the Big Red from their first meeting, but this encounter ended much like the first.

Cornell took the first game by 10 points but Bruno battled back. In the second game, the Bears reached match point but couldn’t convert the win. In extra time, Cornell took the second game 32-30.

“It was definitely a heartbreaker to lose the second game,” Kung said. “This season, we’ve had some trouble closing out games.”

Shawn Tulac ’07, who connected on 10 kills, was similarly upset with the result of the second game.

“It was very frustrating to lose the second game, especially since we had been practicing all week to finish games,” Tulac

see VOLLEYBALL, page 6

M. swimming opens season with loss to a highly touted Harvard squad

BY CHARLIE VALLELY

The men’s swimming and diving team fell to Harvard 197-96 in its first meet of the season.

In the loss, there were several notable individual performances.

In the 1,000-yard freestyle, Peter Volosin ’08 took first place, despite an equipment malfunction — his goggles kept popping off and gradually filled with water.

“It was like swimming without goggles the whole way,” Volosin said.

Volosin not only finished the race but won his first-ever collegiate event.

“The last distance race I saw Brown win was on my recruiting tour,” said Eric Brumberg ’06. “The distance guys were the highlight (of the day).”

While Harvard won the day convincingly, which was expected, the Bears found out some things about their team that have given them reason for optimism. Volosin’s performance proved that, as a first-year, he is ready to compete immediately. But Volosin was not so sure before he got in the water.

“My hands were actually shaking for a while before the meet started,” he said. “I was nervous because I wasn’t sure how I would do against a strong Harvard team.”

Volosin also finished fourth in the 500-yard freestyle, though he was in second-place for much of the race. During the race, his goggles actually flipped over, forcing him to stop and adjust them.

“Unfortunately, after I stopped and got them on right, I pushed off the wall and they fell off again,” he said. “I was upset afterward because I knew it meant fewer points for the team.”

“He’s got a lot more to show,” said Head Coach Peter Brown, who was impressed by Volosin’s early times but noted the hindrance the goggles presented.

Brown was particularly impressed by Brumberg, who won the 200-yard butterfly and the 400-yard independent medley while taking third place in the 200-yard Backstroke and second place in the 400-yard Freestyle Relay.

“It was not surprising,”

Brown said of Brumberg’s performance. “He had a great summer of training, but it was significant. He had a good solid swim.”

In the 400-yard independent medley — the final individual event of the day — Brumberg beat out John Cole, a Harvard senior who took last year off to train for the Olympic trials. Brumberg noted that the Harvard team was frustrated, though it won handily, because of the Bears’ persistent competition.

“It wasn’t as easy as they expected,” Brumberg said. “We gave them a good fight.”

Other notable finishes came from Brian Sharkey ’06, who won his first ever event, taking the 100-yard backstroke, and captain Matt DelMastro ’05, who won the 200-yard breaststroke. Rob Reinhardt ’08 placed second in the 50-yard freestyle, and Timothy Wang ’05 placed third in the 200-yard freestyle and fourth in the 100yard freestyle.

This Saturday, Bruno takes on Dartmouth and Navy in a dual meet at the Smith Swim Center.