The Miscellany News
Since 1866 | miscellanynews.org
Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY
Volume CLI | Issue 11
November 29, 2018
Lecture explores Uber, public transportation Jessica Moss
Assistant News Editor
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Sitomer talk centers trans allyship, Judaism Chris Dillon
Guest Reporter
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n Wednesday, Nov. 14, Rabbi Mike Moskowitz shared stories ranging from debates between first-century Jewish leaders to communities rebuilding in post-World War II Europe and modern struggles for social justice. These stories, along with his study of religious texts, informed how Moskowitz became an ally to the trans community while remaining
a firm believer in Ultra-Orthodox Judaism. Moskowitz’s lecture in Taylor Hall Auditorium, titled “Allyship as Spiritual Practice,” was part of the Dr. Maurice Sitomer Lecture series. Dr. Sitomer, a late Poughkeepsie resident and civic leader, endowed the series, which invites to campus speakers who encourage understanding of Jewish culture. When not speaking at colleges, MoskowSee SITOMER on page 4
Courtesy of Edward J. Guarino
ovement is a salient feature of the milieu of modern life, necessary for its most fundamental aspects: obtaining necessities, engaging in various forms of social interaction and getting to work. It is therefore troublesome that many U.S. cities lack adequate transportation systems to support this movement, often forcing indi-
viduals to depend on private companies for guaranteed travel. The failure of public transit was a defining feature of City University of New York Assistant Professor Dr. Kafui Attoh’s lecture, titled “Uber, Public Transit, and the Idiocy of the Smart City” and delivered on Thursday, Nov. 15. His lecture, sponsored by the Geography Department and Urban StudSee UBER on page 5
Kent Monkman’s “The Artist,” which depicts gender fluidity, is one of 31 contemporary Native American pieces that will be featured in “Imagining Indigenous Futures,” opening Nov. 29.
Indigenous art featured in Palmer Abby Tarwater Reporter
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odern art museums rarely showcase the works of Indigenous artists, especially in ways that do not infantilize and dominate Native voices. The upcoming Palmer Gallery exhibit “Imagining Indigenous Futures,” which will run from Thursday,
Nov. 29, to Dec. 20, seeks to rethink these exclusionary practices through its unique display of contemporary Native American art from the Edward J. Guarino collection. “Imaging Indigenous Futures” is the culmination of the American Studies class “Decolonizing the Exhibition,” taught by Associ-
ate Professor of English and Native American Studies Molly McGlennen. The course studies the significance and impact of Indigenous art through a Native American Studies perspective, and explores decolonizing approaches to the research and exhibition of such works. See PALMER GALLERY on page 6
Bullet journalers lay out benefits Rugby rides depth to fourth straight semi Frankie Knuckles
Assistant Features Editor
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Inside this issue
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Professor fights adversity by FEATURES promoting diversity
To get more of a grasp on how others use their bullet journals, I first met with Elianna Scheide ’20, who embraces the traditional bullet journal form with some twists. She runs an Instagram based around her bullet journal ([at] See BULLET JOURNAL on page 10
Frankie Knuckles/The Miscellany News
nyone who procrastinates by googling ways to stop procrastinating has probably already heard of bullet journaling: the magical productivity method invented and registered as a trademark by Ryder Carroll. In his system, one uses a dot-grid notebook to track anything and everything in life, listed under various bullets. However, the world of aesthetically-minded organizational strategists has reproduced Carroll’s ideas in abundant variation; colorful, calligraphic spreads are only the beginning. For me, bullet journaling encourages mindfulness. I first got into the practice through a recommendation from my therapist to manage my existential anxiety. As a secondary benefit, it helps me actually use the many art supplies I own—I have an entire drawer full of different pens (ballpoint, felt tip, fountain, etc.). Stationery fetish aside, laying out all of my obligations and thoughts in one place calms me down in a way that Google Calendar never could. Often, my best creative ideas germinate in my weekly note section, including the idea
to write this article. From a mechanical viewpoint, my bullet journal is somewhat atypical because I only do weekly spreads with a planner-esque section and a large open space for notes, rather than the traditional mode of habit-tracking and list-making.
Top: The author’s weekly spread. Bottom, left to right: Koolpe’s workout plan, Osterhout’s sketches and Scheide’s monthly tracker.
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As they coerce, Miranda OPINIONS Rights prove perverse
Myles Olmsted Sports Editor
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n Thursday, Nov. 29, the Vassar women’s rugby team will pile into a familiar bus to make a familiar pilgrimage down the East Coast to play in the USA Rugby Division II National semifinal, held this year in Charlotte, NC. In previous years—it will be the program’s fifth Final Four in six years—the bus would have driven through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, arriving in Greenville, SC, home to the last several Championship semifinals and finals. This year the bus will stop in Charlotte, where the team will rest and practice before taking the field on Saturday, Dec. 1, at 4 p.m. against the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Bears. A win would take the Brewers into the National Final game, to be played the following day at 3 p.m. For the Vassar squad it will be a familiar bus, a familiar route and a familiar foe. Vassar and the Coast Guard Academy have met in three consecutive post-
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seasons—first in the round of 16, then in the third-place game and last year in the national semifinal. (Vassar won all three matchups.) While this is the fourth consecutive Final Four for the Vassar senior class, the program has yet to capture the ultimate prize: a National Championship crown. Last year the Brewers coughed up a 29-7 first-half lead over Winona State in the National Championship game and went on to lose a 38-36 heartbreaker. Summarized senior Kaitlin Prado of the team’s quest for the crown, “Every season for the last several years, we have gotten so close to winning the national championships, and in slightly different ways each year we’ve fallen short.” According to Prado and fellow seniors Makena Emery and Oshana Reich, it is this recent history that drives the team. “We can’t help but be hungry for another shot at the national title,” attested Emery. “Last year we made program history by being the first squad to play in a championship game, so with one last shot, I See RUGBY on page 19
Americans refuse to have rights sunk, HUMOR defend liberty to drive drunk
The Miscellany News
Page 2
November 29, 2018
Editors-in-Chief Leah Cates Talya Phelps
Contributing Editors
Noah Purdy Charlotte Varcoe-Wolfson Laila Volpe
Courtesy of Laurel Hennen Vigil Laurel Hennen Vigil ’20 is studying abroad in London, England, and recently had the chance to visit The White Cliffs of Dover in Kent, England, pictured above. She writes, “Traveling thus far this year has been a bit of a mixed bag. There have been amazing moments when I’ve felt like I’ve finally made a breakthrough when it comes to meeting people, and intensely lonely moments, when I’ve spent hours and even days wandering around a new city without really speaking to anyone, and a lot in between.” To read more about Hennen Vigil’s time abroad, plus those of her fellow JYA-ers, visit farandaway.miscellanynews.org!
The Miscellany News 29
November
Thursday
Weekender_ 30
November
1
Friday
December
12:00 p.m. | Bridge Cafe | Music Dept.
Nationalism and Public Opinion in China’s Foreign Relation
Jane Kamensky Lecture
12:00 p.m. | TH 203-Auditorium | Political Science Dept.
5:30 p.m. | TH 203-Auditorium | History Dept.
Lunch & Learn Series
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith Decolonizing the Exhibition
12:15 p.m. | OLB 105- Lecture Room | Office for Accessibility/ Educational Opportunity
5:30 p.m. | Villard Room | American Studies Dept.
The Wild Party
Music on the Bridge Series
The Wild Party
Saturday
Students of Sobriety Group 9:30 a.m. | RH 211 | AA Poughkeepsie
M/W Squash vs. Colgate, Haverford 11:00 a.m. | KH Squash Courts | Athletics
Careers in STEM Panel 12:00 p.m. | EH AULA| Femmes In STEM
8:00 p.m. | Shiva Theatre | FWA
Gingerbread House Making
99 Nights
9:00 p.m. | EH AULA | Big Night In and Spoon U
The Changing Perception of AIDS Reception
M/W Squash vs. Colgate, Haverford 9:00 a.m. | KH Squash Courts | Athletics
The Philaletheis Annual Festivala 3:30 p.m. | Rose Parlor | Philaletheis
5:30 p.m. | CC Old Bookstore | Health Education
7:00 p.m. | TH 203-Auditorium | CHOICE
Tappy Holidays Courtesy of Pixabay Join Big Night In and Spoon U on Thursday, Nov. 30, to build some beautiful (and tasty!) graham-cracker gingerbread houses.
7:00 p.m. | KH Dance Theater | Vassar on Tap
The Wild Party 8:00 p.m. | Shiva Theatre | FWA
Vassar College Orchestra 8:00 p.m. | SH Martel Recital Hall | Music Dept.
Jessica Moss Frankie Knuckles Holly Shulman Lilly Tipton Patrick Tanella Chris Allen
Reporters Duncan Aronson Abby Tarwater Columnists Catherine Bither Isabella Boyne Jimmy Christon Christian Flemm Jesser Horowitz Dean Kopitsky Izzy Migani Emmett O’Malley Sylvan Perlmutter Blair Webber Copy Anna Blake Natalie Bober Samantha Cavagnolo Madeline Seibel Dean Amanda Herring Phoebe Jacoby Anastasia Koutavas Lucy Leonard Francesca Lucchetti Caitlin Patterson Gillian Redstone Cartoonist Frank
9:00 p.m. | Rose Parlor | The Miscellany News
Love Heals
8:30 p.m. | EH AULA | Class of 2019
Assistant News Assistant Features Assistant Arts Assistant Design Assistant Social Media Assistant Online
Andrea Yang Steven Park Hannah Gaven Izzy Braham Myles Olmsted Rose Parker Kimberly Nguyen Teddy Chmyz
Paper Critique
Courtesy of Tappity tap via Flickr
8:00 p.m. | Shiva Theatre | FWA
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Sunday December
Features Opinions Humor and Satire Arts Sports Design Outreach Copy
’Tis the season for Vassar on Tap’s annual winter show! Come to Tappy Holidays for a specTAPular performance.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
CORRECTION POLICY The Miscellany News will only accept corrections for any misquotes, misrepresentations or factual errors for an article within the semester it is printed. The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented within its Opinions pages. The weekly staff editorial is the only article which reflects the opinion of the Editorial Board.
NEWS
November 29, 2018
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Scholars discuss preservation of Nahuatl language, culture Jaime Aguayo Baas Guest Reporter
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n Wednesday, Nov. 14, SUNY Albany PhD students Abelardo de la Cruz, a Nahua anthropologist, and Alberta Martínez, a Nahua academic, gave presentations on their work with the Nahuatl community titled “Teaching, Exploring and Revitalizing our Nahuatl Language and Culture: A Methodological Proposal.” The event, sponsored by the Latin American & Latino/a Studies program and the Anthropology Department, was hosted by Professor of Anthropology David Tavárez. De la Cruz and Martínez, also husband and wife, focused on the preservation of Nahua language and culture of the Huasteca region of Veracruz, Mexico. After Tavárez gave introductions, Martínez, an educator from the Institute for Teaching and Resources in Zacatecas and an online Nahuatl instructor at UCLA, began her lecture on Nahuatl women with an image of Tepozteco: “[Tepozteco] is a rural community with a population of about 500. It’s a place where the congregants still preserve a grand part of their customs, culture and language. Additionally, the town preserves a lot of the culture from the 1940s in relation to women.” Martínez described life in a small Nahuatl community and what it means to be a woman there. To draw in the audience , Martínez present these perspectives through the lens of a real woman from the town. “Maria Magdalena, born in 1947 in the community of Tepozteco, eldest of four sisters, is a reflection of Nahuatl women from her era,” Martínez recounted. “She lived the hard labor of the
Ae n a K h a n In national headlines… Stacey Abrams conceded to Bryan Kemp in the Georgia gubernatorial race after acknowledging his victory. Abrams would have been the first Black female governor in the United States had she won, but despite concerns of voter suppression and a last-minute investigation into her campaign—all of which Kemp’s office oversaw—she acknowledged to CNN, “[Kemp received] an adequate number of votes [to become the] legal governor of the State of Georgia.” She also stated that she plans to seek elected office again (The Washington Post, “‘Something being legal does not make it right’: Abrams says she still has concerns about Georgia’s election,” 11.18.2018) Both Bill Nelson and Andrew Gillum of Florida ended their campaigns against their Republican opponents in the Senate and gubernatorial races. Nelson, who served as Florida Senator for nearly two decades, conceded to outgoing Republican Governor and Senator-Elect Rick Scott after Gillum ended his campaign. Gillum would have been the state’s first Black governor (CNN, “Bill Nelson concedes Florida Senate race to Rick Scott,” 11.18.2018). Amazon announced on Tuesday, Nov. 13, that it will split its second headquarters between D.C. suburb Crystal City, VA, and the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, NY. This will bring 25,000 jobs to an area of New York that previously struggled to
field and the strict care of her parents. Her only education was the traditional teachings her mother shared with her.” Women in Nahuatl communities had limited access to education. For example, Martínez elaborated, “Between the ’40s and ’60s the majority of girls were illiterate.” During this time, only men received formal education, a practice which continued until the 1990s. Martínez went on to explain how education transformed the lives of women in Tepozteco. “From the ’90s onwards, with the immigration of students to cities and communication with cities, the condition of women began to change. Now, women were found in the classroom. They could leave their homes,” she said. These newfound freedoms, both physical and intellectual, allowed women to break out of the conditions in which they lived and to access more equal roles. After Martínez finished her presentation, de la Cruz began his. He started by reflecting on the relative newness of his field of study: “It’s a pleasure to share our work… What we are doing is very new. In the 1980s, our town only had elementary education… it wasn’t until we left that we discovered the production of Nahuatl literature.” De la Cruz shared some of the current efforts to preserve Nahuatl culture: “During 2013 and [2014], we were working at Yale University teaching our language in order to share our culture. We have had several generations of students. We are teaching Nahuatl language to undergraduates, graduates and researches. [Another] part of the work we do is teach how to work on the land and
the cornfields.” De la Cruz also indicated that he contributed to Nahuatl preservation in years prior. “Before I attended university,” he recalled, “I was working with my father in Mexico. In these classes, I was teaching what I learned from my father. We have had several generations of students. This year we were working at the University of Utah teaching Nahuatl language.” In their talks, Martínez and de la Cruz placed strong value on sharing the Nahuatl language in academic contexts. De la Cruz, who has published his first scholarly article in the United States, explained how the article comprises a mission statement of sorts for his and other scholars’ efforts: “[The article was] written in Nahuatl with an English translation. It is my first article about what we think, what we have done, what we would like to do, how we would like to work with the research and our ideas.” De la Cruz elaborated on the importance of these academic settings in preserving his culture, such as writing more in Nahuatl and attending conferences, like a travel grant to the United Kingdom he received in 2016. In an interview following the lecture, de la Cruz further spoke about the importance of sharing his culture in a university setting. He indicated that participating in these types of settings can alter the perception of Indigenous people as different or uneducated: “The idea that an Indigenous person is ignorant and doesn’t have knowledge is different and lowly ... [A] lot of Indigenous people are just not writing or publishing their books. I think that that idea of difference can be erased.”
Martínez then shared, “I think it’s to give our ancestors value and recognition for their struggle to preserve their language and culture. It’s important for the kids of today to learn about the efforts to preserve their culture.” Speaking to the lecture’s impact on students and attendees, Ariana Salguero ’20 shared, “I think that both in classroom and informal settings, it’s often the case that people feel that they can speak for Indigenous communities regarding their wants and needs … It is crucial that we include members of Indigenous communities in such discussions rather than try and speak for them.” Salguero added, “Although I had already been learning about Indigenous communities…I hadn’t actually felt pushed to learn an Indigenous language. Because of these encounters, however, I am currently looking into figuring out how I can begin to learn Nahuatl.” Reflecting on the importance of sharing Nahuatl voices, de la Cruz expressed his hopes that students attending the lecture would recognize the value of protecting his culture. “Two people who identify as Indigenous visited and talked about their culture,” began de la Cruz. “It should be thought that [we the] Indigenous are working for our culture. We are not against people who aren’t Indigenous, we want to share our culture. We want to work in favor of our culture.” Martínez added, “Something important to say is that Indigenous languages, inside and outside of Mexico, are important. It’s important to keep conserving and teaching our language to learn about where one comes from.”
attract newcomers. Amazon has also dedicated funds to community infrastructure and a new school. However, controversy surrounds the decision of the Queens location, as Amazon received at least $1.5 billion in tax breaks from the city and state governments. Queens Congresswoman-Elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter, “The idea that [Amazon] will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment...is extremely concerning … [It was] dressed-up trickle-down economics” (The New Yorker, “The New York Hustle of Amazon’s Second Headquarters,” 11.17.2018). Democrats are currently divided over who will serve as the next Speaker of the House. Various House Democrats have hesitated to publicly support Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA.12) bid for the position. Brian Higgins (D-NY.26), Marcia Fudge (D-OH.11) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY.14) initially expressed concerns about Pelosi, but later said they would support her. Pelosi faces resistance after serving as the last Democratic Speaker of the House. Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH.13), who previously challenged her for the speakership, employed tactics often associated with the Freedom Caucus among House Republicans by announcing a struggle on the House floor if Pelosi does not step aside. “We need to be prepared for what’s going to happen when she can’t get to 218,” he said, referring to the number of votes needed to secure the Speakership. There are no immediate contenders for the position, and analysts credit Pelosi with Democratic success in the past election season. Pelosi stated that she intends to be a generational leader for the increasingly youthful and diverse Democratic party (The Guardian, “‘Don’t fire the Coach’: bid to end Nancy Pelosi’s reign leaves Democrats divided,” 11.25.2018).
Around the world… U.S. President Donald Trump caused an international uproar after vowing to remain a “steadfast partner” of Saudi Arabia, despite the CIA assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is accountable for the murder of Washington Post journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi. Republican senators and various world leaders have publicly split with Trump following his comments. Coupled with the worsening conflict in Yemen between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed coalition, which the United Nations described as causing the world’s worst famine in 100 years, humanitarians have increased their calls for a total ban on weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. On Friday, Nov. 13, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland all signed on to an arms embargo that earned the support of the European Parliament (Washington Examiner, “Four European countries to stop Saudi arms sales,” 11.24.2018). European leaders and British Prime Minister Theresa May finalized a Brexit deal in Brussels this past Sunday, Nov. 25, after a year and a half of negotiations. President of the European Council Donald Tusk and chief negotiator Michel Barnier have publicly expressed support for the final 600-page treaty, which sets the terms for the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the E.U. and expresses ambitions for a future free trade agreement. Many Britons oppose the deal and believe that the agreement is a watered-down version of the U.K.’s current membership, while those in favor of Brexit feel it leaves the nation too attached to the European project. Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn stated, “[It is] a bad deal for the country.” He promised to oppose the agreement in next month’s vote alongside the Democratic Unionist Party, whose votes from Northern Ireland May relied upon to maintain control of her weakened coalition
government. Brexit will formally be finalized on March 29, 2019 (Al Jazeera, “EU leaders approve Brexit deal with the UK,” 11.25.2018). Nine have been killed in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the state’s deadliest week since 2009. Six rebels died in a gun battle with Indian police, while other casualties resulted from clashes between locals and authorities. Hundreds of civilians called for a shutdown of businesses in response to the killings and took to the streets to support an independent state or merger with the Kashmir-e-Azad state of Pakistan. Five hundred and twenty-eight people have died in armed conflict this year, including 145 civilians, and Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society coordinator Khurram Parvez accused India’s main ruling party of “selling the body bags of Kashmiris to gain votes [ahead of federal elections]” (Al Jazeera, “Nine killed as Kashmir reels from its deadliest year since 2009,” 11.25.2018).
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
In our backyard… The Trump administration’s travel ban caused the number of asylum-seekers entering New York State, which hosts the third-largest population of refugees in the nation, to drop from 5,026 in 2016 to 1,281 in 2017. The ban suspends visas from Libya, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea and Venezuela, and the Trump administration has decreased the cap on refugees from 45,000 from any country to 30,000 by next year. Many refugees have been separated from their families, and the drop has been pronounced in upstate areas where refugees have contributed to the socio-economic landscape. Various groups with the goal of helping these refugees have spoken out against the sudden decrease. Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY.16) posed the idea of revisiting the travel ban next year (Poughkeepsie Journal, “After Trump travel ban, refugees to New York plummet,” 11.21.2018).
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November 29, 2018
Rabbi Moskowitz speaks on ‘Allyship as Spiritual Practice’ SITOMER continued
Zane said that Rabbi Moskowitz is an example of socially progressive and religious worlds that are not opposed, as students sometimes perceive them to be. For Moskowitz, being religious and being a support for trans people and communities who need resources are not just compatible—they are intertwined. To explore these ideas, Moskowitz delved into the grammatical nuances of Jewish texts, examining how a call to action can be embodied in Judaism. He looked at the words for soul, ally, commandment, woman and man within their contexts, showing what it means to support trans people today while also being motivated by a religious tradition. Moskowitz said that a mitzvah, a “good deed” which he defined as a “divine expectation” or commandment, can be a call to support others and help them better reach the fulfillment of their own mitzvot.
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Religion Ágnes Vető, who introduced Moskowitz at the lecture, said that speaking on the texts he used is a difficult task, not only because they are complex and extensive, but also because of their distance from our own time. “[The texts date to] the period of classical and formative Jewish history,” Vető explained, “and one might conclude that the attempt to bridge the distance between our time and the time of the creation of these texts is doomed to failure.” However, Vető noted that the lengthy question-and-answer session and the vibrant discussion at the dinner reception after the talk proved that Moskowitz succeeded in making the material accessible. She explained, “Ultra-Orthodoxy is defined by gender binary. Advocacy for trans rights in these circles is a highly counterintuitive activity, to say the least.” This rare position
Courtesy of Chris Dillon
from page 1 itz, a Scholar-in-Residence for Trans and Queer Jewish Studies at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in Manhattan, is engaged in interfaith events across the country. To begin, he said, “I find it helpful to borrow language from the queer community to talk about my own religious identity. So, I was assigned secular and came out as Orthodox in high school.” However, Moskowitz said that the question of how trans and queer people fit into an Orthodox community did not occur to him until three years ago when a family member told him that they did not identify with their assigned gender. The next two years marked several changes in Moskowitz’s life. He explained that while he was studying issues of gender in religion, he felt compelled to publicly announce that he would commit himself as an ally to trans people after one of his former students from Columbia University also came out to him. He was then fired from his job for these statements, began to volunteer for Uri L’Tzedek, an Orthodox social-justice organization and was even arrested at a protest in Washington, D.C., along with other religious leaders. Liv Zane ’19, who attended the lecture, said, “A big issue on campus is people thinking that there’s no way to be socially liberal and religious, which is so not true.” As a member of the board of the Vassar Jewish Union (VJU), Zane said, “[I have been engaged with] questions of what it means to be a pluralistic Jewish community, and how to provide that to students—how to create progressive, egalitarian spaces that also are religiously and spiritually rich.”
Orthodox Rabbi Maurice Moskowitz is the Scholar-in-Residence for Trans and Queer Jewish Studies at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the flagship LGBT temple.
sparked a lot of students’ interest. “How often at Vassar—or elsewhere—can we hear a speaker identifying as a Jewish Fundamentalist [and an] advocate for trans rights?” Moskowitz reflected, “Having found a space to make a contribution that I feel really nobody else is makes me feel really privileged.” He told students that he is grateful to be of use on a pragmatic level, such as being a key advocate when it comes to speaking to legislators, or on a personal level, such as when people come to him struggling with their identities. He said, however, that there are people who need extra convincing that the Talmud and the Torah support trans people and those who help them. He explained that, on a basic level, “We are humanity, and if we care about God, we need to care about humanity. If we care about Judaism, we need to care about Jews.” Zane said they felt it was important that Moskowitz also emphasized what he could not do as an ally, as much of the talk was focused on the tensions between what a community and what an individual can accomplish. “It’s important often to just be there and amplify the voices rather than speaking for the people,” they said. These conversations continued with the VJU’s queer movie night on Sunday, Nov. 11, screening the movie “Indecent.” Zane said that discussions around gender and sexuality have garnered positive responses and have moved ongoing efforts for inclusion forward on campus: “I feel so lucky that Vassar has made such a commitment to hold religious spaces for LGBT people, so I think [the lecture] is part of a continuing effort to make us feel comfortable.”
News Briefs U.S. releases climate report On Friday, Nov. 23, the U.S. government released the Congress-mandated Fourth National Climate Assessment, compiled by 13 federal agencies. The 1,656-page document explains the current effects of global warming, as well as projections for its toll on the economy, health and the environment (NYT, “U.S. Climate Report Warns of Damaged Environment and Shrinking Economy,” 11.23.2018). This document is the second volume of the National Climate Assessment—the U.S. Global Change Research Program issued volume one last year—which the Global Change Research Act of 1990 requires the government to publish every four years. The findings from the previous report, published in May 2014, illustrated the economic costs and impacts that climate
change has been causing around the world, prompting the Obama administration to finalize the Clean Power Plan and to help form the Paris Agreement (NYT). However, the current administration’s policies, which include withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, promoting coal and reducing environmental regulations, directly conflict with the document’s findings and suggested course of action. Princeton Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs Michael Oppenheimer stated, “This report will weaken the Trump administration’s legal case for undoing climate change regulations, and it strengthens the hands of those who go to court to fight them” (NYT). The report includes plans of action to reduce risk both through adaptation actions and through emissions mitigation. According to the official website, “Adaptation re-
report come in the sections on heat waves, wildfires and rising sea levels. Over the next few decades, heat waves are projected to increase by 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit, and the number of days below freezing will decrease while the number of days above 90 degrees will grow. Climate change has also led to a doubling of the effect of wildfires on the Southwest, which poses an immediate danger to residents. These harsh realities appeared in the recent California fires, both of which were announced as fully contained last week. In the case of rising sea levels, coastal flooding could force millions of people to migrate to dry land (The Atlantic, “The Three Most Chilling Conclusions From the Climate Report,” 11.26.2018). While grim, the report is designed to educate the government and the public and to urge them to act as soon as possible while we are still able to reduce or prevent dire climate change consequences. To review the document, see its comprehensive website with interactive features and the downloadable report at https:// nca2018.globalchange.gov/. —Laila Volpe, Contributing Editor
Estimates of direct economic damage from temperature change
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
Courtesy of the National Climate Assessment
Courtesy of the National Climate Assessment
Projected changes in U.S. annual average temperatures
fers to actions taken at the individual, local, regional, and national levels to reduce risks from even today’s changed climate conditions and to prepare for impacts from additional changes projected for the future” (NCA, “Reducing Risk Through Adaptation Actions”). Although implementation of these practices have increased since the Third National Climate Assessment, the urgency of the findings presented in the report necessitate large-scale response, the report details. In the section focusing on air pollution, the experts write, “Unless counteracting efforts to improve air quality are implemented, climate change will worsen existing air pollution levels. This worsened air pollution would increase the incidence of adverse respiratory and cardiovascular health effects, including premature death” (NPR, “Climate Change Is Already Hurting U.S. Communities, Federal Report Says,” 11.23.2018). To address these effects, they include in the report actions to prevent such adverse effects, such as local authorities issuing air quality alerts (NCA, “Air Quality”). Some of the most alarming results of the
NEWS
November 29, 2018
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Presenter highlights flaws of ‘Smart City’ transportation UBER continued from page 1 ies Program, focused on Uber’s role in the transportation landscape of Washington, D.C., and alternative visions of a “Smart City”—a city constructed based on collected data—that do not fail to serve underrepresented populations. The lecture began with opening remarks by Professor of Geography and Director of Independent Program Joe Nevins, who was the main organizer and is a friend of Attoh. Following these remarks, Attoh began his lecture: “My argument starts here,” he said, pulling up a quote from the first chapter of the Communist Manifesto on a Powerpoint slide. “One of the things Marx and Engels argued was this new age was primed to do something incredible: ‘to rescue a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life.’” He continued by defining idiocy as isolation, saying, “We should talk more about urban idiocy, [and] we should talk about why: What it is about urban cities that makes them isolated? What about cities threatens to make idiots of us all?” Cole Palatini ’21, who attended the lecture, evaluated the similarities of rural and urban isolation in an email interview: “In the same ways that the rural are isolated from the people around them spatially, people in modern cities are isolated by technology. When people call an Uber on their phone, they skip the process of moving throughout the city as a community activity.” Private transportation systems such as Uber facilitate this urban idiocy because they decrease demand for public transpor-
tation systems, rendering it a less profitable investment, which discourages movement for those located in less populated remote areas. According to Attoh, Uber drivers have a particularly antagonistic relationship with public transportation in D.C. “Uber’s relationship to public transit is a curious one,” he said after showing the audience interview transcriptions of drivers happy to hear about a metro glitch, as it indicated they would make more money off of trapped commuters. “It’s severely undermining mass transit.” Beyond fostering a hostile relationship between private and public transportation, Uber impacts various social fabrics, including the relationship between drivers. According to Attoh, the Uber Pool rating system creates competition between drivers: “The failure of one driver feeds into another’s success, leaving more customers available to transport. Uber ratings...prevent [solidarity] between drivers.” This creates driver isolation, helping Uber remain profitable through preventing collective action, unions or other benefits for drivers. One might question why many continue to rely on private transportation in the face of these shortcomings. According to Professor of Geography Yu Zhou, private transportation remains popular because of the U.S. culture of associating public transit with lower socioeconomic statuses: “Once it’s programmed into our minds that buses are for poor people, and public transit has class implications, it became very difficult to improve those systems … To create new public transit, you need to purchase property, which is always a challenge. To im-
prove transit, you need investment. American cities are built for private cars.” Palatini elaborated on reasons for continued dependence on private transportation, focusing on the failure of public transit to adequately serve public need. “Taxi drivers don’t have to go to neighborhoods they feel are unsafe—often predominantly minority neighborhoods. Also, public transit systems might lack infrastructure in these same places,” he said. “While these forms often fail people of color by restricting access to the city and therefore opportunity, Uber functions on a model where riders can without fail find a driver to come get them.” However, as Zhou indicated, “Having a private company to fill in the gaps [of public transportation] doesn’t always work, because it doesn’t always address the public need.” This is because Uber, as a private company, is focused on maximizing profit, not serving the public. It does not benefit an Uber driver to travel a long distance to pick up a client in a remote area when there are clusters of clients available in the city center, a pattern that promotes the isolation of remote groups. Given that both private and public transportation systems are flawed, the question becomes how to improve them to adequately serve the public. According to Attoh, Zhou and Palatini, access to data on movement could help improve public transportation to better represent public needs. Uber, as a data-collecting company, owns much of the information necessary to improve these systems. However, according
to Attoh, “Uber’s commitment to build [a] smart city is limited by its own business model in a world with the commodification of data.” In other words, because data is Uber’s asset protected by intellectual property laws in the United States, the public cannot force Uber to share its data. According to Zhou, “This privately owned data is going to be used to maximize private profit, and not by the public to help better design the city.” Although ostensibly committed to the “Smart City” vision, Uber doesn’t publicize most of its data, indicating that its vision is informed by self-interest: Uber dreams of a city profitable for its own business, which may or may not align with the wellbeing of the city and those who populate it. But what does Uber, and other technology companies for that matter, mean by a “Smart City” in the first place? Any vision of a “Smart City” must be characterized by the balancing of different needs. “The Smart City was originally...a vision to make traffic better, ease congestion, or make traffic data known,” said Zhou. “But there are competing needs within a city. Is it mostly geared toward commuters or for residents? Businesses or private residents? Automobiles or pedestrians? Space is tricky, and areas have multiple roles…so when you say you’re going to build a smart city, the question becomes: for whom?” Attoh concluded the lecture with his own comments on the Smart City: “Whatever vision we might offer for a smart city, it should be offering a collective response to the collective problems of our cities, rather than offer an idiotic response.”
Updates from the VSA Senate Agenda and Updates for November 18 and 25, 2018 Consensus Agenda—Passed
Appointments: • Drew Hardin was appointed as 2019 Board of Elections and Appointements (BoEA) Representative • Francisco Andrade was appointed as 2022 BoEA Representative Programming Committee: In collaboration with ViCE and WVKR, the committee is hosting UV RAY, which will be held at the Chance Theater this Friday, Nov. 30. Tickets are on sale this week in the College Center for $5 and will be $8 at the door. The event will run from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Buses will be running between campus and the Chance, picking up students from Main, the TAs and the THs. It will be a night of black lighting, dancing and music from student DJs! Academics Committee: In response to several inquiries by Senate members, Chair of Academics May Venkat communicated that all academic departments should have released and disseminated changes to their major programs by February 1, 2019; that the College will, after the curricular rebalancing, only accept two pre-matriculation test-based courses (e.g. APs) per student; and that she will inquire with the Office of the Dean of Studies about laptop policy in classrooms. –Julian Corbett, VSA General Intern
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
Courtesy of Kelsie Milburn
Allocations: • 100/300 from Collaboration to Business Club for STEM Career Day collaboration with Gender Inclusivity in STEM and Healthcare Industry Club • 150/150 from Pre-Organizations to Healthcare Industry Club for Breaking into Healthcare Panel as part of STEM Career Day • 750/1500 from Social Consciousness to The Underground for a three-day event focused on raising awareness for human trafficking and using art for promoting social issues to a larger audience.
231.13/643.50 from Discretionary to Contrast for transportation to Hearst Fashion Group Office Tour/ Q+A in NYC
Courtesy of the VSA via Facebook
Pre-Approved Allocations: • 50.33/50.33 from Capital to Ultimate Frisbee for 28 collapsible training cones • 10.98/10.98 from Pre-Organizations to Korean Dance Crew for two AUX cords for rehearsals • 1875/1875 from Discretionary to VSA Programming for transportation costs for UV Ray event at the Chance • 230/230 from Speakers to Gender Inclusivity in STEM for food for Careers in STEM From the Perspectives of Women event • 319/319 from Discretionary to Town Houses for bonfire at the THs open to all students
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death! welcome: a playlist for the last weeks of hardcore work By Izzy Braham The Internet: “Come Together”—Start off strong with this fun tune with a catchy beat and mesmerizing vocals. “Come Together” will motivate you to put together that pesky outline. Thunderpussy: “Fever”—My wonderful friend Zsa Zsa Toms recommended this one to me, and I am forever grateful. Imbued with full riot grrl vibes, lead singer Molly Sides’ voice will fire you up and entrance you. Julia Holter: “Les Jeux to You”—We love a gal with an angelic voice and avante-garde lyrics. Whether or not you were alive then, this song will reminds you of the ’70s. It also rhythmically explodes in the middle. Truly a wonder. Listen to this when you are in the final stretch of typing a paper. Amen Dunes: “Dracula”—Sure, this track is dark and pretty, but it might also make you want to dance weirdly. You will fall in love with this man’s voice. Daisy the Great: “The Record Player Song”—This jam is an angsty delight. With lyrics such as “I’m just crying for attention” and “All I think I’m ever doing is try to convince myself I’m alive,” any listener is sure to relate during this finals season. Destiny: “Orange Blossom”—Ok this one is for when you need a break. It is sexy and has the catchiest beat. Grimes: “Zoal, Face Dancer”—This track is ghostly and wintery but also beautiful. It might match your mood when you are walking to Express from the library in a dissociative state. Cat Power: “Stay”—This is when you reach your low point and can’t continue...but must. Take a moment to cry to this cover by the utterly heartbreaking Cat Power. Deradoorian: “Moon”—With a dark, droning beat and powerful lyrics, this track is at once a satanic ritual and feminist wonder. Would recommend if you have to write a paper about any type of oppressive system. Helado Negro: “Please Won’t Please”—We ! love ! his ! voice ! This song is pensive and will help you think through a mid-week breakdown. You will relate to the lyrics “Will anyone come rescue what’s left of me.” Loving: “Bowlly Goes Dancing”—It’s a little melancholic, very chill and reminds me of being on a cold beach somewhere far, far, far away. Chilly Gonzales: “Gogol”—If you are in the mood for a song without lyrics, check out “Gogol.” The rich piano notes have an urgency, but also an undeniable beauty that is sure to interest, yet relax, any stressed-out student.
Exhibit features Indigenous artists, confronts stereotypes
Photo by Thomas King Courtesy of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith Jaune Quick-to-See Smith will participate in the opening panel of “Imagining Indigenous Futures.” Her lithograph “Trade Canoe from the North Pole” will be in the exhibit. PALMER GALLERY continued
from page 1 The exhibition will commence with an opening event and reception on Nov. 29. At 5:30 p.m., a panel discussion featuring four speakers with distinct perspectives on contemporary Indigenous art will take place in the Villard Room. The panelists include McGlennen and Guarino, as well as Eugene Lopez-Huerta ’20, a “Decolonizing the Exhibition” student; and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a revered Salish and Kootenai visual artist. A reception will follow the panel at 6:30 p.m, during which visitors will have access to the exhibition for the first time. This semester is the second time that McGlennen has offered the “Decolonizing the Exhibition” course. In 2013, the students researched Inuit art on paper; this time, the class is studying 31 works from 18 different contemporary Native artists. McGlennen articulated the purpose of the course: “‘[D]ecolonizing the Exhibition’ examines theories of decolonization, what indigenous visualities and visual culture are, as well as what new indigenous muse-
ology has brought into the conversation— how Native peoples through their art have been challenging the traditions of ethnographic representation.” The class ultimately confronts the Eurocentric ways of studying art taught in conventional art history classes, which often trivialize the contributions of Native artists. McGlennen described how her course resists this oversight: “[F]or so long Indigenous peoples’ works have been sort of relegated to the side and marginalized from the traditional canonical ‘art history’—or, more often, they’re seen as ‘objects’ that aren’t attached to people as artists, but they might just have a tribal affiliation, if even that. So, often they’re rendered as ‘crafts,’ but not real art. And we really challenge those pretty strong assumptions about Native peoples.” “Decolonizing the Exhibition” students were responsible for producing the wall labels for the works, a task which, considering the overwhelmingly non-Native population of the class, McGlennen described as difficult to navigate. “We try to measure the extent to which we can engage with decolonizing work,” she explained. “In our research … we foreground Native voices. So no non-Natives sources in our research—all Native voices, all Native scholars, all Native intellectuals, and all Native artists … And every wall label is preceded by a quote from the artists themselves, so that their voices come first, and then it’s our interpretations after that. So, we’re trying to challenge some common ways that you might experience a museum gallery space.” Lopez-Huerta found the process of writing the wall labels to be daunting. “I think my classmates and I were overwhelmed
with how to even begin conveying our artists’ messages. Each piece is grappling with so many different concepts that we discuss in Native American Studies: Indigenous sovereignty, colonial moves to innocence and tribal specificity, to name a few,” he stated. “We are familiar with these ideas, but each of us has to write for visitors who probably won’t be as knowledgeable. So we as a class must communicate as much as we can with as few words as possible and, of course, challenge visitors to look deeper into every piece.” Prioritizing Native voices and perspectives in wall labels is just one way in which “Imagining Indigenous Futures” is defying the norms of museum spaces. Guarino, who has collected over 1,000 pieces of Indigenous artwork, asserted that the mere act of showcasing contemporary Native artists is progressive. “I think it’s really important for the work of Native American artists to be exhibited, and I advocate for that because, by and large, it’s overlooked. If you go into most of the major museums in the New York area, their work is not on exhibit,” he explained. “People come away with the impression that Native American art ended in the mid-20th century. They have no idea of all of this incredible creativity that’s going on right now. Part of it may be that most Native American artists don’t have gallery representation.” A major component of “Decolonizing the Exhibition” is the consideration of how Westerners can engage with and support Native peoples in a respectful manner. The “Imagining Indigenous Futures” exhibit creates a moment for non-Native peoples to present themselves as allies. Lopez-Huerta asked: “Indigenous Futures must center Indigenous imaginations, so
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how can colonial peoples support them? For one, they must choose to actively listen and learn—the opening of this exhibition is a great opportunity for everyone to do that.” McGlennen echoed this sentiment. “It’s not very often that Vassar has Indigenous peoples come to this campus,” she commented. “Every time I do one of these types of events...I try to recognize and foreground the fact that you’re actually doing something really positive by just attending these things and talking to people about it, because it sustains a conversation that needs to be sustained … It makes a statement, in that it brings visibility to something that is otherwise ignored or forgotten.” The curators of “Imagining Indigenous Futures” sought to feature eclectic and provocative pieces from a variety of Native American perspectives. McGlennen explained how she chose these cutting-edge artists: “We really thought these 31 works exemplified the most exciting, subversive, imaginative, edgy works there are out there today,” she stated. “People—a lot of young artists in their 20s and 30s—that are really imagining what it really means for Native peoples not only to have survived 500 years of conquests, but to now to thrive and imagine their futures through their relationship to being occupied peoples … I think people will really love it.” Those who wish to learn more about the exhibit can visit the website sites.google. com/vassar.edu/indigenousfutures, which accompanies the exhibition with reproductions of the wall panels, artist biographies and opportunities for further research into Indigenous art.
November 29, 2018
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Grande turns pain into power in new single ‘thank u, next’ Holly Shulman
Assistant Arts Editor
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me pain/now I’m so amazing/‘I’ve loved and I’ve lost’/but that’s not what I see/’cause look what I got/look what you taught me/and for that I say/Thank you, next.” Despite—or rather thanks to—the painful impacts these men have had on her life, Grande looks back on her recent past as a period of development. She goes on, however, to point out that those experiences do not translate into growth on their own. That process requires hard work, self-reflection and strength. In order to elucidate this crucial point, Grande references the positive influence of friendships and employs the metaphor of conversations with herself: “Spend my time with my friends/I ain’t worried ’bout nothing/plus I met someone else/we having better discussions/I know they say I move on too fast/but this one’s gonna last/’cause her name is Ari/ and I’m so good with that.” This is a major
Courtesy of Emma via Flickr
or Ariana Grande, 2018 has been a lot like the first year of college. Many relationships have ended as new ones have formed and then faded away—in her case, all under the watchful eye of the tabloids. Like first-year students, she has been confronted with the difficult truth that as life moves forward and circumstances change, old relationships either persevere in all their absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder glory or disappear into out-of-sight-outof-mind oblivion. In the latter case, Grande, like most of us upon entering college, has been forced to consider what is left behind when connections are severed. Her latest single “thank u, next,” is her answer. In May (almost one year after a terrorist killed 22 people at her concert in Manchester) Grande broke up with her long-time boyfriend, rapper Mac Miller, citing his struggles with substance abuse as the reason for their split. At the end of the same month, she started dating “Saturday Night Live” actor Pete Davidson, to whom she was engaged by June. In September, Mac Miller died of accidental drug overdose. In October, Grande’s relationship with Davidson ended. Like countless women across the globe and throughout history, Grande faced criticism for each decision and blame for actions taken by the men in her life. In late May, one of her Twitter followers tweeted, “Mac Miller totalling [sic] his G wagon and getting a DUI after Ariana Grande dumped him for another dude after he poured his heart out on a ten song album to her …is just the most heartbreaking thing happening in Hollywood” (Twitter, [at]FlintElijah, 05.21.2018). In response, Grande gave followers a hint of the self-assured, confident, inspirational woman she has been turning into: “How absurd that you minimize female self-respect and selfworth by saying someone should stay in a toxic relationship because he wrote an album about them…I am not a babysitter or a mother and no woman should feel that they need to be…Shaming/blaming women for a man’s
inability to keep his shit together is a very major problem” (Twitter, [at]ArianaGrande, 05.21.2018). “thank u, next” emphasizes and elaborates on this point. Five months ago, Grande simply observed societal patterns; now she has the insight to flip the idea that women should be responsible for men’s failures, claiming instead that such issues may actually provide a source of women’s strength, if women can learn to view and use them that way. Instead of subscribing to the myth that she and all young women whose love lives do not reflect simplistic societal standards are messes, she quite literally thanks these patriarchal philosophies for the confidence that she and the women in her life have gained. After listing off each of her exes in the first verse, Grande sings the pre-chorus: “One taught me love/one taught me patience/one taught
Following a terminated engagement, the death of an ex and several breakups, Grande uses her music to reimagine these experiences as opportunities for growth.
turning point in the song. Grande transitions from thanking men for teaching her to thanking herself and the women in her life for being thoughtful and brave enough to take the shitty things that the world (and men in particular) throws at them and transforming them into power. To drive this message home, she repeats the pre-chorus with a conspicuous change: this time she is the teacher in place of her exes: “She taught me love/she taught me patience/she handles pain/that shit’s amazing.” Having dealt with her exes, herself and her friends, Grande turns her focus to two of her other major influences: her parents. The singer has been estranged from her father since 2013, for reasons she has kept private. In fact, “thank u, next” offers one of the most personal glimpses into that relationship that Grande has ever shared: “One day I’ll walk down the aisle/holding hands with my mama/I’ll be thanking my dad/’cause she grew from the drama.” Here, she alludes to how watching her mother deal with her father’s “drama” allowed Grande herself to tap into a long history of women turning pain into strength. I’ve witnessed the same history in my own family. I’ve seen it in my friends’ parents, too. And as we grow up and the number of relationships in the oblivion category accumulates, I see it in my friends themselves. Over Thanksgiving break, I hosted a party for friends from high school. As is often the case in these situations, there were uninvited guests in attendance, and several of my closest friends’ exes were there. A few of them had just recently broken up, and in a moment of drunken bravery, one friend took the AUX and played “thank u, next.” I watched as she locked eyes with her ex-boyfriend, who had been particularly cruel to her when they broke up last year (they were both first-years at the time). Finally on the other side of all that pain and self-blame, she looked so confident and carefree. From the speaker, Grande’s final pre-chorus said it all: “I’ve got so much love/got so much patience/I’ve learned from the pain/I turned out amazing…and for that I say/Thank you, next.”
Photo contest highlights details, meaningful moments Dean Kopitsky Columnist
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glinting sunrise over Copenhagen, a woman playing the harp in a nook of ancient Jerusalem limestone, a crowd of plastic Maneki-Neko cats saluting in unison outside of a Tokyo temple, a pensive man at his magazine stand in Florence. Vassar students truly have sharp eyes for distinct details of the world. For the last 14 years, the Office of International Services and the Vassar International Student Association have held the International Photo Contest. According to the Vassar website, “[The exhibition displays] our campus community’s cross-cultural perceptions and perspectives” (Vassar College, “International Photo Contest.”). This year’s collection, held in the Old College Bookstore, has been on display since early November. Assistant Dean of the College for Campus Life and Director of International Services Andrew Meade said in regards to the impetus behind the project, “The photo contest was part of an effort to create programming that gives students and alumnae/i the opportunity to share with one another their experiences of their own and other cultures and geographic spaces.” It was open not only to international students, but also to any Vassar student who
wanted to share a moment captured on their world travels. Still, while the exhibit featured many photos from all around the world, some contestants offered photos of American locations. Created in 2005, the photo contest was one of the first initiatives undertaken by the Office of International Services. Meade commented, “We wanted to do something which would embrace the international experience, both from that of international students and also of any student who traveled.” After consulting the successful international programming of other colleges and the Vassar International Student Association, Meade, the students and other faculty were able to bring the idea to fruition. In 2006, it became part of a week of international education shared with Kaleidoscope, an event that brings countries across the world together through food and dance in a night of cross-cultural festivities and learning. The contest this year brought over 200 entries, with some students submitting multiple photos. The Old College Bookstore makes for an inviting exhibition space. The photos, pinned to the wall by tacks, fill the white spaces of the Bookstore with brilliant and rich colors. Vassar students captured moments of tranquility, nature and culture that brought life to the
room. Gaven Eier ’19 captures the glimmering symmetry of the Palace of Peter the Great in St. Petersburg. Towering trees form sheer cliffs of green that empty into a reflecting pool hundreds of feet below. Golden statues frame the massive orange and baby blue palace. A photograph by Anja Zhou ’19 titled “Dusk” is placeless. The image freezes the ocean after dark and recalls a Rothko painting in its bold and horizontally alternating pinks and blues. Akansha Goel ’20 captured a photo of a canal in Venice. The sun peeks curiously around a sloping corner, refracting on the turquoise blue water, turning it gold. Tiana Chung ’19 snapped a moment of gleeful spontaneity in her photo “Pleased Piggy!” Eyes shut, ears pinned back and snout up, the pig named “Gem” hoists itself over the top of its green pen in pure, perfectly timed exuberance. During a relaxing leg of her trip to Norway, Sophia Kapur ’22 captured the sleepy village of Svovlaer. Embalmed in fog, the town is dwarfed by looming mountains rising up hundreds of feet in the background. Asked what made that photo stand out, Kapur said, “I loved the way the clouds suffocated the village, and it had this small fishing town feel I wanted to capture.” Kapur also commented on what she liked about the photo contest as whole, stating, “it’s a
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
fun way for people not taking art to have their work on display and to celebrate the enriching experiences we’ve had abroad.” Sophia’s sentiment falls in line with Meade’s vision for the project. He emphasized his pride in the 14th iteration of the internal photo contest: “Many of the photos are absolutely stunning, and collectively they really do encourage, to quote from Vassar’s original mission statement, ‘the individual imagination to see into the lives of others.’” The winning photos will be chosen by judges and students. International Studies Program Director Tim Koechlin and Ekin Gulen ’21 will determine the strongest selections. According to the Vassar website, “Photos will be judged by a panel of experts based on technical merit, representation of international experience, and creativity” (Vassar College, “International Photo Contest”). Winners will be selected from two categories: “People” and “Culture and Landscape.” In addition to expert judges, students will have a vote in the contest and a third winner will be named People’s Choice. Results will be announced by Monday, Dec. 3, and the winning photos will be displayed on the bulletin board across from the Office of Residential Life. Regardless of winners, in the end, each and every photo highlighted distinct perspectives and experiences that cannot be recreated.
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November 29, 2018
Filmmaker Carter explores collaborative creative process Christian Flemm Columnist
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gainst the backdrop of clocks, spoons and empty rooms, Graham L. Carter’s new musical feature “Shoot the Moon Right Between the Eyes” is one of the most exhilarating experiments of the year. The film, ostensibly about two elderly, county-hopping Texans who romance women out of their money, reveals itself to be a tender tale of broken hearts left unmended from years of running from tortured pasts. At a brisk 72 minutes, Carter’s film is replete with brilliant performances of John Prine songs, delivered without pretense by the principle cast members. “Shoot the Moon” is also quite funny, and Carter balances humor, romance and sadness with a certain skill far beyond his years. At Café Erzulie in Bed-Stuy, I sat down with Graham—who had just come off the heels of winning the Special Jury Prize at Indie Memphis Film Festival—to talk about collaboration, the creative process and Film Twitter. The Miscellany News: The film has been in the works for quite some time, right? Graham Carter: I started writing
[“Shoot the Moon”] in 2013/2014, but I’m slow with scripts. I can’t get into it until I have a contradictory idea—adding the musical element was what made everything click. The Misc: That wasn’t the first element? GC: No. Originally it wasn’t a musical. The scene in the bar, where the Private Investigator (Frank Mosley) starts singing was when everything clicked. I finished writing, set a production date and applied for a grant from the Austin Film Society. We ended up getting the grant so we shot over nine days at the end of 2016. I took six months off from editing, but it took two years to complete. The Misc: Has it always been easy for you to get up and shoot something? GC: I think it’s hard. Tons of people talk about making a film, but they never do it because it’s so much work. I shot four feature films in one year when I was in college, finishing one. So I’ve always had the drive. The Misc: You mentioned taking six months off from editing? GC: Yeah. I went on a cross-country road trip to meet friends that had moved and that I knew online. As soon as I left New York, I felt I was missing out. So I’ve been here for a year. And I essentially came just to watch
movies, so I think things are working out okay. The Misc: Has social media played a big role in your development as a filmmaker? GC: Oh, I couldn’t have done any of this stuff without Twitter. Most of my friend group I met through Twitter. I’ve been Miriam Bale’s Twitter friend for three years, and she asked to premiere the film in Memphis. My friend Chloe, who helped on the script, introduced me to filmmakers like Neil [Bahadur, “From Nine to Nine”] and Kurt [Walker, “Hit 2 Pass”]. Kurt shot a ton on his iPhone that we used in the film. Andrew Enfante and I edited the movie together. He’s my key collaborator. J.R. Molina gripped on the film. A lot of it was just going to lunch with people and talking. It’s important for me to have people to bounce ideas off of. I think that the most important aspect of collaboration is new things coming out of conversation. The Misc: For the organization of the film community in New York—making a cinema of modest means—is essential. GC: It is! I think It’s important for filmmakers to talk about financing and about money. Most of your cast and crew [could] be making $500 on another movie, but they
work with you because they want to be there. I’ve always thought of filmmaking as a bunch of friends getting together, having fun and helping each other out. I think that’s the best thing. The Misc: Where is the film playing next? GC: I’ve sent it to Rotterdam. Dan Sallitt is waiting to hear back from a few festivals like Chicago and Madrid. But with regards to distribution, it’s too commercial for Grasshopper but not commercial enough for Magnolia. It doesn’t have many distinct experimental elements, but it’s also more of a formalist thing. It’s in a weird space, but that’s fine with me. The Misc: Are you writing anything now? GC: I’ve started writing a script but that kinda stalled out. That happened with “Shoot the Moon,” where I wrote 20 pages and paused on it for a year. But what made me come back to it was when I figured out the musical element. I feel like I’ll do a movie next year. I don’t know exactly what it’ll be. I’m waiting to hit this seemingly contradictory idea that will make things interesting. I like a film of contradictions fighting against each other.
Wolfe delivers cutting-edge content, exquisite writing Jimmy Christon Columnist
The Book of the New Sun
Gene Wolfe Simon & Schuster
ast year, I wrote a review of Ursula Le Guin’s oeuvre in a local newspaper as a sort of memorial to her. My love for her works truly knows no bounds. She gave us all texts to hold dear to our hearts and against which to judge the rest of sci-fi for years to come. In terms of acting as a transitory figure between old sci-fi and our modern moment, there is no one else that served their role as brilliantly as she did. If you haven’t read her works, you are basically looking up at the night sky and ignoring Sirius. In this piece, I want to deliver another bouquet of flowers to an author that is still with us, but is getting up there. Gene Wolfe is the Polaris to Le Guin’s Sirius. Gene Wolfe is the writer for me in terms of classic sci-fi. With influences ranging from the gospel of Luke to golden-age giant Jack Vance, Wolfe is the man for writing epic
Courtesy of Catriona Sparks via Flickr Gene Wolfe’s “The Book of the New Sun,” a sci-fi fantasy that rivals the texts of Le Guin, impresses readers with mind-blowing settings and harrowingly beautiful language.
is Gene Wolfe’s translation of this odd artifact. The original and only author of this text is Severian the Autarch. This book is a memoir of Severian’s life from his early days as an orphan living under the walls of the Torturers’ guild to his rise to power as the Autarch that rules all of Urth (and yes, it is spelled that way). Severian’s journey is ostensibly archetypal. He writes the the hero’s journey in the boldest of fonts in this book, and its handwriting is Severian’s own. But underneath the surface, there’s more to this story. The other character on display in this series is the world of Urth. The story is from Severian’s perspective, but the variety of places of which we are exposed to throughout this book is utterly amazing. Half the joy of this series is trying to unravel exactly where—and when—the story takes place. And this is something I have yet to come across again in literature. Like a conversation, Severian speaks directly to you, the reader. You become versed in Severian’s experience, and you gain the ability to pull apart the facts of this world and place them in moments within a grand narrative whose scale remains hidden up until the very end of this monstrous book. It’s hard not to spoil this series because of the complexity of the narrative, but there is a cheat card for me to pull here. The amount of fan sites dedicated to unravelling the mysteries of this fictional world is truly enormous. “Urth.net” is a website that hosts an email chain group of readers who have been devoted to analysing Wolfe’s works since the late ’90’s. Ultan’s library is a literal dictionary for the terms that Wolfe uses in the series (none of which are madeup words). This is all daunting, I know. The biggest issue with this series is that everyone to whom I recommend it always leaves it half-finished. It took me two years to get through these books. But I can assure you that it is worth every second. Everything about these books is truly masterful. Discovering just what the Undines are was enough to give me chills, and when Severian actually encounters one at the end of the second book, you will be left in awe.
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Courtesy of RA.AZ via Flickr
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science fiction that is built on the bones of classic pulp. And the book I chose to center this review around is 100 percent pulp. “The Book of the New Sun” follows Severian, the torturer, who walks around carrying a huge sword swung across his shirtless back. His only articles of clothing throughout most of the series are a cloak with a hood, pants and a leather mask that covers his face. His muscled chest is copper in tone, and he has sex with many women throughout the series. And he kills many more. Did I mention that the writer is a Roman Catholic and that Severian has many Christ parallels? Are you turned off to this series yet? Because by this metric, “The Book of the New Sun” sounds like the most trite, Euro-jank fantasy to ever be put to paper. But you should never judge a book by its cover—and this series has awesome covers—because this book becomes so much more than what any summary can provide. The biggest compliment that I can give this series is that it is genuinely fun to read. I’ve called this text a book written by Gene Wolfe, but that isn’t entirely true. The book was actually found by Gene Wolfe in his backyard in a metal chest. This book
Published in the ’80s, Wolfe’s book features complex settings and plot points, engaging the audience in spite of its daunting size. And this excellence of the text’s style extends to every aspect of the series. There is a section about the efficacy of prayer in the fourth book that is absolutely stellar. I don’t pray, but there was something about the way this section is written that left me spiritually fulfilled. I’m not even very Christian, but man, I was picking up on all of this Christian imagery and themes, and I thought it was pretty beautiful. I’m not trying to be like, “Hey guys, look at all this Christian stuff,” but I have to point out how masterful the balancing act must have been here. If you look at other Christian fantasy series, it’s usually easy to see lazy reproductions of Christian ideas without much thought to how they affect the setting of the world. But with “The Book of the New Sun,” Wolfe presents a portrait of Christianity that is both self-reflective and critical. Wolfe is adamant about his idea of Christ being a literal torturer and what that means for our existence, and Severian is a living example of this sort of intense theological questioning. If this doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, then it probably won’t be the most enjoyable read. But if you are a fan of ambitious, genre-breaking, iconoclastic and non-Tolkien fantasy, then please give this unique and thoughtful series a try.
November 29, 2018
Campus Canvas
ARTS A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists
Page 9 submit to misc@vassar.edu
Excuse me, What’s the tea from your Thanksgiving?
“I heard someone’s room in Noyes caught on fire.” — Blake Trimmer ’22
“Six glasses of sangria and a racist uncle.” — Katie Scibelli ’19
“Arguing over who gets the first plate.” — Tiara S. Coleman ’22
“My grandpa asked all of my female cousins what their treadmill settings was.” — “Seymore Buttes” ’22
“My brother failed for the fifth consecutive year to make a gingerbread house.” — Davon Dowie ’21
“My mom said I’m not allowed to shame her for eating meat, but I still did.” — Griffin Wells ’22
Maimuna Touray Class of 2020 MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
Hannah Gaven, Humor & Satire Hannah Benton, Photography
FEATURES
Page 10
Quite Frankly Frankie Knuckles
Assistant Features Editor Quality Advice-Giver
Have a question you want answered? Submit your quandaries at http://bit.ly/2RFnXfk Hey Frankie,
Sincerely, Fitful Friend Dear Friend,
Q
Best Wishes, Frankie P.S. If you end up needing recommendations for an angsty Spotify playlist, hit me up.
Andrea Yang
Features Editor
“I
f you were a plot of land you would be the Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve because you are beautiful but full of problems.” —overheard in BIOL 106 Over a million users follow Overheard, an Instagram account chain, that shares comic or serendipitous conversations submitted anonymously. The concept gained popularity most likely because it captures the highlights of conversations in our everyday lives, creating a microcosm of urban culture. Several students applied the idea to the Vassar community, resulting in a variety of whimsical posts. This week, we invited the Overheard at VC group on Twitter to reflect on their account history. The Miscellany News: What inspired you to create Overheard at VC on Twitter? What do you want fans to get out of it? Overheard at VC: We were inspired by the vast quantity of goofy comments that went unheard by the larger Vassar population. By sharing these quirky quotes, we at Overheard at VC hope to brighten people[’s] days and encourage students to be their authentic selves. The Misc: Do you try to maintain your posts at a certain rate? How do you encourage submissions? Overheard: In general, we post submissions real time in what some may say [is] a haphazard manner. Submissions are received through an anonymous submission form: [bit.ly/2TP6yCF].
The Misc: Do you have a favorite post? Overheard: A personal and fan favorite is a quote heard in the Main Haus elevator[:] “Trust me! I want to do it, but I do not think we can fit three people into a Main shower.” We would love to *overhear* ;) how this story ends. The Misc: Do you encounter any difficulty in running the account? What do you like most about your role? Overheard: After we created the Twitter account and sharing it on Vassar Missed, other unaffiliated students created accounts on various social media platforms. This has been super annoying. That being said, we enjoy reading through the silly things people say on campus and sharing that with others. It’s rewarding to bring the campus together with humor. The Misc: Is there any type of content off limits to posting, or would you intervene and/or modify? Overheard: The account is designed for light-hearted humor, so it is unlikely that anything would be censored. However, it is hard to make a definitive statement regarding this issue. The Misc: Is there a competition among similar accounts? What’s your relationship with them, and would you consider collaborating with them? Overheard: Absolutely. Although we applaud their success and find it very flattering that they decided to copy our idea, it has been challenging to compete for the attention of the Vassar community. That being
said, our account and others share a similar goal and so if the situation were to present itself we would consider a collaboration. The Misc: Is there anything else that you’d like to say to the Vassar community? Overheard: While we still consider Twitter is a good platform for this content, we recognize that the Vassar community does not engage with that platform enough to substantiate a large following. For this reason, we have recently launched a sister account on Facebook [bit.ly/2SgWtwF]. Go like! Additionally, a major goal for Overheard at VC is a follow request from our beloved President Bradley. And finally, keep on saying the wack things we all love to overhear.
Overheard at VC started their Twitter account in May and then created a Facebook page to attract more followers. Their profile picture is a photoshopped version of the iconic Vassar College seal.
Aesthetic journaling inspires mindfulness BULLET JOURNAL continued
from page 1 earlgreynotes, for anyone interested). “The artistic side of it as well as the planner-y, organizational side—both parts felt very organic to me,” she informed me. Like most bujo-ers of Instagram, Scheide balances an artful aesthetic with utility in her journal. “I use it to draw, to sketch... for just about everything. I keep pictures, scrapbook things, maybe ticket stubs or images I print out,” she described. By combining these with traditional planner layouts, Scheide cultivates a personal memory book that also holds her accountable for habits such as taking medication and accomplishing projects. In this way, Scheide shares my focus on mindfulness. Others take an even looser interpretation of the form than Scheide or I. For example, Candace Osterhout ’19 uses Moleskines with blank pages, rather than a dot-gridded or lined journal. They in-
Frankie Knuckles/The Miscellany News
uite frankly, open communication shouldn’t be predicated on what outcome you foresee. You should always try to be open about how you’re feeling, especially with friends. If he really is one of your best friends, not talking to him about your feelings will still cause awkwardness because you’re not being open with him. He’s bound to pick up on that if he’s truly a good friend. He may already suspect your feelings. Of course, the information you’ve given me isn’t comprehensive, so there may be some reason to stall this conversation. You seem pretty sure your feelings are romantic, but I would recommend taking some time to consider your next step. I assume, because you’re asking me this question, that you want a next step after your hypothetical confession. Do you want a relationship with him? If that’s not what you want, what is? What do you hope to gain by telling him how you feel? Remember: Emotional bonds don’t have to be romantic to be valid and fulfilling. On “never knowing what could be”: I hate to burst your bubble, but we never know what could be at any given time, regardless of whether we tell people how we feel. We never know what could have happened if we went to a different college or if we decided to drink two cups of coffee instead of three. If you constantly evaluate every decision, you’ll run into problems (namely, the inability to act at all). Hopefully this is a comforting thought rather than a terrifying one. I’m not suggesting that you act on impulse, but that it’s okay not to know what might have happened if [insert possible action]. You can’t foresee the outcome of a given act; you can only guess. If he doesn’t reciprocate your feelings, then it will hurt. That’s just a fact. However, you can’t keep this to yourself, and you shouldn’t try to suppress your feelings. The longer your emotions bounce around in the echo chamber of your head, unexpressed, the more intense and overwhelming they’ll become. It’s better, almost always, to get them out into the open. Sure, it will be painful if he doesn’t reciprocate, but if he’s really your friend then he’ll understand. Your interactions will be weird for a while, but they’ll return to normal. And there’s always the possibility of a positive outcome.
Overheard at VC tweets campus dialogues
Courtesy of Overheard at VC via Twitter
I think I’ve developed feelings for one of my best friends. If I don’t tell him, I suppose I’ll never know what could be. But if I tell him and he doesn’t reciprocate my feelings, I fear things might be super awkward between us. Do I tell him or should I just keep it to myself?
November 29, 2018
Top left: A weekly from Scheide. Center left: Steeves’ daily layout. Bottom left: Koolpe’s weekly to-do spread. Right: Osterhout’s class notes and drawings.
formed me in an emailed statement, “[It’s] basically a sketchbook with class notes hanging around. I wouldn’t say my bullet journal is very organized or pretty like a lot of bullet journals on Instagram ... Since my thoughts and daily schedule [are] kind of messy, so is my journal.” Because it strays so far from the traditional form, they said, “I would be more willing to call it a bullet diary.” For them, the chief goal of bullet journaling is not only creation, but also recording their developing art skills. Another traditional bullet-journaler, Isabelle Hart ’20, also uses her bullet journal to track habits, including caffeine intake and sleep, as well as her schoolwork. She settled upon the method after being inspired by Instagram posts from accounts like Scheide’s. Hart recounted, “Every week, I have a habit tracker, I have a thought and mood tracker and I have my homework. And then I have a monthly spread with everything I have coming up.” This is a pretty standard usage for a bullet journal: combining productivity and self-awareness in one handy location. Hart does break from tradition, however, with her choice of materials: “I use a Moleskine [lined] notebook because I got them on sale at Target.” Hart does not seem to be embroiled in debate over the best bullet-journal supplies. In addition to being useful for habit tracking, bullet journaling can also inspire organization. For instance, Samantha Steeves ’21 likes to lay out individual days in her bullet journal and does so methodically—we sometimes make our spreads together, so I’ve watched the magic happen. In contrast, I purposefully avoid using straight edge tools or overly uniform patterns in my bullet journal, because ob-
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
sessing over perfection stresses me out. Steeves, unlike me, thrives on making clean lines and easy-to-read schedules. “I personally do a spread a day where I write down my schedule for the whole day using sticky notes. On the side, I list the tasks that I have to do and the events I have to go to, just to organize my thoughts.” She uses sticky notes because they allow her to rearrange time blocks to accommodate her shifting daily obligations. She added, “I take a lot of comfort in knowing, in the morning, exactly what my day is going to look like.” Emma Koolpe ’21 also highlighted the organization that bullet journaling lends to her daily life, in addition to cultivating good habits. She described, “I use [my bullet journal] mostly to do scheduling and planning out my days. I recently started trying to work out more, so I’ve been using it for a workout plan. It’s nice to have my day solidified.” Planning her exercise in advance encourages her to follow through. While all of us approach journaling differently, everyone with whom I talked gave the same advice for any burgeoning bujo-ers: Get started, and don’t worry about trying to look like an Instagram post at first. Steeves phrased this sentiment particularly well: “Bullet journaling can sound really intimidating, especially if you look at pictures and see all of the elaborate spreads with watercolors and such. It’s really just what you want to make of it.” Osterhout contributed, “The whole point of a bullet journal is to do something that makes you happy.” Everyone agreed that the idea is to find the method that best fits one’s particular madness. The prettiest bullet journal is the one that most effectively helps its owner to get their life in order.
FEATURES
November 29, 2018
Page 11
Prof spotlight: Williams Brown talks educational diversity Duncan Aronson/The Miscellany News Assistant Professor of Education Kimberly Williams Brown conducts research on and teaches about identity, race and gender. Duncan Aronson Reporter
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ust before Thanksgiving break on an already sparsely populated campus, I stopped by the Old Observatory Building to have a chat with Assistant Professor of Education Kimberly N. Williams Brown. Only in her second year as a Vassar faculty member, Brown has taken an unlikely path to enter the world of education, academia and teaching. The Miscellany News: Why did you become an education professor? What got you interested in education? Kimberly Williams Brown: I’ve al-
ways been in education in different roles and different capacities. So it’s really interesting to be teaching. I don’t think I ever saw that coming. When I was an undergrad, my majors were psychology and sociology...Then I did my master’s degree in HR. Then I ended up at Syracuse getting a master’s degree in communication and rhetorical studies. At Syracuse, I was working in student services—I worked in residence life and multicultural affairs. Teaching was a part of the responsibility I had there, but co-curricular teaching. So when I entered the PhD program, teaching or becoming a professor was a possibility, but it was not the only thing that I could’ve done. The Misc: Do you think that your past experiences in student services affect your teaching or your research? KWB: I think it makes you a different teacher when you have been in a classroom or you have worked with students in intimate ways that are outside of the classroom. It allows me to have a much broader scope of who students are and what their lives are outside of the contact I have with them in the classroom and in office hours … The experiences prior to this have really allowed me to ask different and better questions when I sit across from students that really get at root causes. I think it makes me more empathetic and allows me to teach in ways that are hopefully much more accessible to them. The Misc: What courses do you teach? KWB: I teach EDUC 235, which is the contemporary issues in education class. I’m teaching it very similarly to how Maria
[Hantzopoulos] and Colette [Cann] taught it. We’re trained very similarly and we do a lot of similar work around race and intergroup dialogue and those sort of things. I also teach Adolescent Literacy, Rethinking Gender in Education and Race Representation and Resistance in the spring. I want to develop courses that focus on intergroup, critical dialogue as ways to make inroads into social justice education and on immigration. The Misc: What are you researching? KWB: My research is primarily focused on teachers. I looked at Afro-Caribbean teachers who were recruited from the English-speaking Caribbean to come to New York City to teach at failing urban schools in the Bronx, Queens. I really tried to think about the kinds of neoliberal recruiting tactics that were used to get them here and then to think about how they negotiated that resistance —all the kind of things that are in place to make them fail, which they did … Right now, I’m working on a project on international teachers of color ... We put forward our own conclusions and observations about how these teachers have navigated unfamiliar spaces around race, around gender, around class, around immigration status, in addition to figuring out how to be successful in professional spaces. The Misc: What non-academic activities do you enjoy? KWB: I have a two-year-old and so I spend a lot of time chasing my two-yearold. So that’s a lot of fun. I travel and hang out with my family as much as I can with said two-year-old. Also, I’m new to the
Vassar community and mid-Hudson region, so I’m trying to explore the area. I love being outdoors. I’m transitioning, transitioning with a kid, transitioning to a new job. And so I have to think differently or more creatively about what fun looks like for me. The Misc: Do you have any words of advice or book recommendations for students? KWB: You know, I always want students to ask me this question but when I get asked that, I go, “I don’t know…” What I would say is it would be a missed opportunity for any students at Vassar not to take classes in fields, regardless of your major, that are thinking about identity and social constructions of a space and place. So I would say taking a feminist studies classes, education classes, Africana Studies and urban studies. Those classes push you to think in different ways. They begin to make you question things and institutions that we’ve always taken for granted, and I think that becomes the crux of your education. As for books, it’s not one book but a series of books. You just have [to] philosophically change how you approach education. If you just get through college, do your major, I think it becomes woefully disappointing when you enter the real world and you realize that actually what you learned in undergrad is of little consequence. Have a really broad experience, especially because of the liberal arts college. And so it’s a place to do it. Really challenge yourself. Right? Not just academically, but also philosophically and ontologically to really think differently about the world.
Get ready for five festive holiday events in our local area Ariana Gravinese Guest Reporter
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Courtesy of arlingtonhasit via Facebook The Arlington Holiday Festival presents a variety of activities, including a parade. Get your holiday shopping done and celebrate the season with some local eggnog.
Christmas Open House at the Vanderbilt Mansion When: Sunday, Dec. 2, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Where: Vanderbilt Mansion, Hyde Park, NY Drive about 20 minutes off campus and experience the holiday spirit at the Vanderbilt Mansion. A national historic site, the mansion will be decorated and filled with holiday cheer. This event is free and perfect for groups. You are welcome to bring a camera and have a holiday photo taken in front of the Christmas tree. Twilight Tours at Boscobel House and Gardens When: Saturday, Dec. 1 to Sunday, Dec. 2 and Saturday, Dec. 8 to Sunday, Dec. 9 Where: Boscobel House and Gardens, Garrison, NY Visit the beautiful Boscobel home decked out for the holidays. The home, styled for a traditional 19th-century Christmas, is perfect for the history buff craving holiday cheer. Just a 35-minute drive from campus, the candlelit home offers multiple evening tours for $26. Holiday Craft Fair When: Saturday, Dec. 15, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Where: Mid-Hudson Civic Center The Holiday Craft Fair, located only 15 minutes off campus, is a great place to find gifts for the holiday season. This fair will feature products from the Hudson Valley: From locally sourced pieces to works by artists in the community, the fair incorporates a variety of handicrafts from over 100 vendors. The event is free and there will be raffle prizes as well as live music.
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Courtesy of boscobel.org
ow that Thanksgiving has passed and December is rapidly approaching, many people are ready for the holiday season. Radio stations have started playing holiday music, Netflix is featuring seasonal-themed movies and white lights and icicles light up Vassar’s Main Gate (take a peek at night—it is pretty!). Now is the time to take a break from work and embrace the holiday season. If jumping into the festive spirit has inspired you to venture off campus, here are some ideas that you might enjoy! These activities suit groups, so you can bring your friends or family along to enjoy all that the local area has to offer, including tours of historic homes, holiday treats, local festive gifts and much more.
Arlington Holiday Festival When: Saturday, Dec. 1, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Where: Vassar College Alumnae House The Arlington Holiday Festival offers a little something for everyone and is convenient. Just a short walk from main campus, the fair will feature a variety of activities, including a petting zoo and holiday goodies for sale. Worried about finding the perfect gift? Look no further! There will be lots of local and handmade items for sale. Go on an Eggnog Crawl where you can explore the local businesses in Arlington and all they have to offer (you can buy tickets the day of for $5). There will be a parade that will march down Raymond Avenue with Santa arriving at the end via sleigh. To conclude the festive day, the tree will be lit at 5:30 p.m. along with live caroling!
Above is the decorated Boscobel House in its candelit splendor. Enjoy string music during your Twilight Tour through the Neoclassical home and adjacent garden. 25th Annual Celebration of Lights Parade and Fireworks When: Friday, Nov. 30, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Where: Upper Landing Park, Poughkeepsie Waterfront This cost-free event, hosted by the Walkway Over the Hudson organization, will feature fireworks over the Hudson. While the walkway will be closed, visitors can sip hot chocolate at the Upper Landing Park on the banks of the Hudson and watch the sky light up with color during a dazzling display. These events will prepare anyone for our forthcoming winter wonderland.
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Misc Comic by Natalie Bober
November 29, 2018
What’s the worst advice you’ve been given?
Word
submit to misc@vassar.edu
on the street
“I had a coach who told me to drop out of high school at 15 to focus on sports.” — “Global Kitchen” ’22
“During the winter I had a hot sore “It’s so bad, I throat, and a friend don’t want to of mine told me to share it.” go outside without — Noah a scarf, make my Papagni ’19 neck cold. I got sick anyways.” — Viola Scalacci, Italian Language 31. Uniquely Power Of Fellow
The Weather Outside Is Frightful ACROSS 1. Kitten's cry 4. A wintery greeting 8. One of Elizabeth's 12. Cat 'o nine tails 13. Epic poem 14. A marathon, for example 15. Plants that never see winter 16. Dogs that thrive in winter 18. Completely without reason 20. Not suited to 21. Possession, contracted 22. One billion years “The Weather Outside 23. Rohypnol, for example Is Frightful”24. Restrict resources 26. Man in Black 45. Reaper’s implement ACROSS 28. Wintery Vanilla 46. Graffiti artist or Cube 1. Kitten’s cry 48. Tu/usted 4. A wintery greeting 29. First Prime Minister of India 49. Cooked like sashimi 8. One of Elizabeth’s 30. This Stark loves raisins 50. Rain/snow hybrid 12. Cat ‘o nine tails 31. Acorn producers 51. Crook-in-training 13. Epic poem 54. Tupperware, 14. A marathon, for example 32. A particular tryfor example 56. Moved in a curve 15. Plants that never see winter 35. Newton and 57. Variety of 17Diaz down 16. Dogs that thrive in winter 58. White-speckled horse coat 38. Bouquet receptacle 18. Completely without reason 59. Informed 20. Not suited to 39. Flavored winter sweet 60. An unmixed drink 21. Possession, contracted 43. Mama Mia band [sic] 61. Barley bristles 22. One billion years 62. Surrounds 23. Rohypnol, for example 44. Flower plots 25 down 24. Restrict resources 45. Reaper's DOWN implement 26. Man in Black 1. Scottish Play protagonist 46. Graffiti artist 28. Wintery Vanilla or Cube 2. -mate, -val, -mation 29. First Prime Minister of India 48. Tu/usted 3. A wintery eraser 30. This Stark loves raisins 4. Wielderlike of the Power Of 49. Cooked sashimi 31. Acorn producers Greyskull 32. A particular try 50. Rain/snow hybrid 5. 6th civil and 12th ecclesiastical 35. Newton and Diaz Hebrew month 51. Crook-in-training 38. Bouquet receptacle 6. While waiting 54. Tupperware, for example 39. Flavored winter sweet 7. A sung tone 43. Mama Mia band [sic] 56. Moved in musician a curve 8. Martian 44. Flower plots 9. Almond liqueur 57. Variety of 17 down Answer to last week’s puzzle 10. Tool to carve 28 across Good Eggs 58. White-speckled horse coat 11. GRE takers S C R U B A P E S H A S H 12. Baby butterflies or baby frogs Informed E R A S E M O R E A M M 59. O 15. Stacked stones M A N E S B A I L R O O M 60. An unmixed drinkheaver than 17. Lepton 200 times I N T R O D U C E D D U K E an electron Barley bristles M E S H O M B R E 61. S 19. Second-youngest Weasley M O O I C E W A D E 62. Surrounds 25 down 23. Wife of a Raja or Rana
“Someone once told me to only choose friends that are the same as you.” — Adonis Mateo ’22
4. Wielder of the Greyskull 5. 6th civil and 12th ecclesiastical Hebrew month “Take the bus to go 6. While waiting to Montreal. (It’s 13 7. A sung tone hours!)” — Pierre Forfert, 8. Martian musician French Language 9. Almond liqueur Fellow 10. Tool to deal with winter weather 11. GRE takers 12. Baby butterflies or baby frogs 15. Stacked stones 17. Lepton 200 times heaver than electron Costa byanBenjamin 19. Second-youngest Weasley 36. Mother-of-mother-of-pearl 23. 37. Wife of a Raja Purple-red coloror Rana 40. Otolith organ opposite the 25. Goddess of the rainbow saccule 26. 41. Turf material Induced self-consciousness 42. Chopped 27. A friend orapart counterpart 44. Second-fiddle wolf 30. Brass fastener
Ben Costa
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OPINIONS
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Campus Climate As org treasurer, how has your experience been with VSA Finance and the rules and regulations that govern Finance? Big Night In Treasurer Leven Cai ’19 BNI does weekly programming for students, and we host large events on Halloweekend and Founder’s Day. Thus, we need a substantial budget to meet the needs and goals of our org. Thankfully, VSA Finance was generous with our 2018–2019 budget. Moreover, the finance chair, Mendel, in particular, is consistently helpful with making invoice requests and addressing questions or concerns regarding purchases and special purpose funds. Regarding rules and regulations, I don’t have much criticism for them. The application for special purpose funds is straightforward, and we hear back from them quickly. At a collab fund meeting last month, the committee was willing to listen and receptive to the reasoning behind fund requests. The main disadvantage with VSA Finance is that capital items have to be purchased only through capital funds, which may hinder or postpone certain events if not planned ahead of time.
Quidditch Treasurer Phoebe Murray ’21 Quidditch has had a fairly positive experience with VSA Finance this year! We were able to receive capital fund and collaboration fund allocations, which was very helpful to our org. The only thing that has been difficult is navigating spending caps—we often have to rearrange our monthly and single transaction limits, and it can get complicated and confusing. It is also hard to understand what makes these limits specifically necessary (within reason—obviously blocking enormous transactions is important). Generally, more transparency on issues like this from the VSA would be helpful, but our overall experience with Finance has been positive!
Philaletheis Society Treasurer Michelle Kang ’21 As a theater org, Philaletheis often requires uncommon items, ranging from prop weapons to (empty) alcohol bottles. Strict regulations on purchasing these items is understandable, yet often inconvenient. Another more commonly reoccurring inconvenience is online purchases. Money paid with PCards are tax exempt and treasurers are welcome to use VSA’s tax-exempt Amazon account. However, it would be significantly more efficient if our club were able to have an account of our own. Despite these few grievances, working with VSA Finance has been a pleasant experience overall—although this may in part be due to our generously large budget, a privilege that most clubs do not have.
Burlesque Treasurer Philip Macaluso ’19 My experience with VSA Finance as a treasurer for the burlesque org has been a smooth process for the most part, but it hasn’t been without its hiccups. At the start of the year, since I and many others were new to the job, it was difficult to meet the early deadlines for budget and fund applications (especially since some of them need to be completed a few weeks in advance). While our introductory training was thorough, there were important forms and information that needed to be more clearly conveyed, rather than giving a wash of all the treasurer responsibilities. However, Finance was mostly understanding of this tricky transition period and after a couple months in, I would say most treasurers understand the rules and regulations for their job. These rules have overall been helpful when it comes to keeping my org organized, and I believe my org’s good relationship with the finance committee is based on our history of proper budgeting and fund allocation. I can also say that the VSA chair of finance Mendel Jiménez has always been prompt and committed in his emails to me and been very helpful with general reminders for treasurers.
Miranda Rights require revisions to eliminate coercion Jonas Trostle
Guest Columnist
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hile delivering the opinion of the Supreme Court in the case Miranda v. Arizona, Chief Justice Earl Warren stated, “An individual swept from familiar surroundings into police custody, surrounded by antagonistic forces, and subjected to the techniques of persuasion described above cannot be otherwise than under compulsion to speak” (Justia, “Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966),” 2018). Consent, believe it or not, is actually a pretty easy concept to understand: A person freely and of their own volition agrees to something. One exception is when circumstances outside the question itself are inherently coercive. Coercion is also pretty straightforward: If you don’t agree, you’ll be killed, fired or expelled. Coercion effectively takes away your ability to say “no.” If I ask you if you want a cookie, you can freely answer what you most want to do. If you want a cookie, you’ll say yes; if you don’t want a cookie, you’ll say no. On the other hand, if I hold a gun to your head, and I ask if you want a cookie, and you know that I want you to have a cookie, you’ll probably say yes even if you really didn’t want the cookie. Consent is on one hand, coercion is on the other. Easy, right? What does this have to do with police confessions? The first thing to understand is that the most important aspect of a confession is not whether it’s true. The truth of what is said is entirely secondary. The most important aspect is whether or not the confession was coerced. A police officer can provide an entirely true account of an
unsolved crime, but if that officer obtained it by threatening someone’s life, torturing them or denying them basic rights, nobody in a civilized society should want or use it. Compelled self-incrimination is illegal at a constitutional level in the United States, and the nation’s judicial system did not design this mandate this way to get a laugh; they designed it that way because it’s important for basic human decency.
“Compelled selfincrimination is illegal at a constitutional level in the United States” With that understood, let’s talk about Miranda Rights. Everybody probably already knows their Miranda Rights, especially if you grew up around parents who watched “Law & Order” constantly. But just so that what I’m referencing is entirely clear: “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be provided to you. Do you understand these rights as I’ve read them to you?” That’s not bad, huh? The police letting you know about your rights, that’s downright dandy of them. However, the police have to do this. Otherwise, everything you say in response to a question is inadmissible in court. The reason for this is that in Miranda v. Arizona, the Supreme Court ruled that unless you know about and waived your right to silence and an attorney, po-
lice questioning is inherently a coercive situation. When the Miranda Rights mandate was first established, it was seen as a radical anti-law-enforcement ruling. (Miranda v. Arizona: Rebalancing Rights and Responsibilities, “A Fear Sweeps the Nation”) Today, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) view the policy as a significant civil rights victory. (ACLU Arizona, “Accomplishments,” 2018). That is how well the insidiousness of the issue has been hidden. It is not anti-law-enforcement, but quite the opposite. At its heart, Miranda Rights rely on two lies. The first is apparent in the very statement itself. “Do you understand these rights?” isn’t really what the police are asking. What they are really asking is “Do you waive your right to an attorney and your right to remain silent?” Sure, you can re-invoke your rights at any point during questioning, but until you do, you’re considered fair game. To draw a consent-based analogy, they’re not asking if they can initiate sexual contact; they’re asking “You understand you can refuse at any time?” These two statements are not the same thing. But this is what the police does, and everybody is, for some reason, okay with it. The second lie comes from the form of the Miranda Rights. The idea that spurred the formalization of this policy was that police custody was inherently coercive. You couldn’t answer questions freely because, if you did, you would be subject to “the third degree,” i.e. brutalization by the police. If we take the very premise that caused the court to spell out our rights—that police custody is inherently coercive—then Miranda falls
apart. Why? Because Miranda rests on the assumption that you can waive your rights by answering the police’s question “Do you understand your rights?” with a “yes.” But if you are asked that question, then you are already in police custody, you are already coerced and can’t give an answer freely. It is entirely impossible for you to consent to having your rights waived. And, if you can’t waive your rights, then you can’t answer any of the other questions without still being inherently coerced. If you put a gun to someone’s head—an inherently coercive situation just like being in police custody—and you ask them to waive their right to refuse sex—a consent-based activity just like waiving your rights—the other person can say yes, but they obviously can’t actually give consent. People would consider this violation a serious crime anywhere in the United States, but when it happens in police stations, nobody cares. The fix for this, at least at a state level, is easy. It doesn’t take more than a statute that says that any statement given to the police while a person was under police questioning is inadmissible unless the person giving the statement has an attorney present. The mere presence of an attorney in the same room is enough to change the situation so that it is no longer coercive. That’s all it would take, at least in New York: a simple majority in both houses and a few lines of text to protect the innocent. With judicial norms collapsing all around us, there is no better time to shore up the protections for the most vulnerable among us. New York State has the votes for this, it just needs to do it.
The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented within its Opinions pages. The weekly staff editorial is the only article which reflects the opinion of the Editorial Board.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
OPINIONS
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November 29, 2018
U.S. should look to China, India for suicide prevention Isabella Boyne Columnist
[TW: This piece contains discussion of suicide.] n the wake of celebrity suicides such as those of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, suicide has become a topic often discussed in the media, typically viewed with a kind of morbid curiosity. Not only do these deaths reveal a tragic fact about a life of fame, but they also expose how the suicide epidemic has proliferated across the United States. Since 2000, suicide rates have increased by 18 percent, mostly targeting white, middle-aged, poorly educated men. However, while rates in America have increased, rates in the rest of the world have dropped. According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the world suicide rate has decreased by 29 percent since 2000, an optimistic statistic that will hopefully continue (The Economist, “Why suicide is falling around the world, and how to bring it down more,” 11.24.2018). In China and India, overall social change has led to the betterment of people’s mental well-being, indicating that perhaps America should learn from these other countries and move toward this kind of global adaptation. Around the world, men tend to have higher suicide rates than women, and older people have higher rates than young people. However, in China and India, young women have been disproportionately prone to suicide. As part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factor Study 2016, 30 public health doctors and researchers evaluated data to study suicide rates of both men and women in India and concluded that the prevalence of suicide in
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young women (15–30 years old) was likely because Indian women below 30 have to cope with major life changes and social pressures after they get married. Many of these young women live with their in-laws and acutely experience the oppression of a patriarchal system. However, after the age of 30, suicide rates drop for women. One of the psychiatrists involved in the research, Dr. Lakshmi Vijavkumar, suggested that the drop occurred due to women shifting their focus onto their children. Another researcher, Rakhi Dandona, who works with the Public Health Foundation of India, provided a similar claim, stating “It is believed that educated women expect more from their lives and hence have deeper dissatisfaction when they were thwarted from achieving their goals, such as higher education and career advancement” (National Public Radio, “Suicide By Women Is A Major Public Health Concern in India,” 09.25.2018). Harvard psychiatrist Vikram Patel offered another explanation: “[Many suicides in India] are related to the lack of agency for young people to choose their own romantic partners.” He cited an example of a family threatening to tell the police that their daughter has been abducted if they disapproved of her partner (The Economist, “Suicide is declining almost everywhere,” 11.24.2018). A similar situation exists in China, the only country in the world in which the rate of female suicide is higher than the male rate. One reason is unique cultural circumstances such as the one-child policy—which has since changed to a twochild policy as of January 2016—that put pressure on women to give birth to a male child. If they failed, women, particularly
Please, Tell Us More! Prof. Justin Patch Music Dept.
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traditions. Leaving rural civilization also helps in a different way—people have less access to methods of killing themselves, typically committed with agricultural pesticides in the countryside (Foundation for Economic Education, “The Remarkable Fall in China’s Suicide Rate,” 05.18.2018). In America, which has experienced more urbanization than countries like China and India, the government can still do its part to reduce suicide rates. One of the most significant initiatives would be limiting the availability of methods that people use to commit suicide. Fifty percent of all Americans who commit suicide do so by using a gun, and America has approximately double the overall suicide rate of the United Kingdom, which enforces strict gun control (The Economist, “Why suicide is falling around the world, and how to bring it down more,” 11.24.2018). Governments could also ease economic and social problems by introducing labor-market policies of retraining unemployed workers and altering the current health-care system. Spending on health-care services can help many people who use suicide as a means to escape the pain they fear may befall them, particularly as they become older. Globalization has quite literally saved the lives of many people, particularly young women, providing the opportunity for freedom and mobility. China and India, alongside many other countries in the world whose suicide rates have fallen, give hope for other countries that suffer from this worldwide epidemic. America, therefore, should take the opportunity to learn from these places and move toward a position of progress that is in line with the global reduction of suicide.
Professors: What is a topic, idea, theory or breakthrough related to your field of study that you find absolutely fascinating or feel very passionate about? Explain why. tion. Eventually, the purposes of these songs morphed as power devolved and was ceded to representative citizen bodies rather than hereditary rulers. The songs that sounded for royalty came to represent the peoples of a nation, the theoretical seat of power and justice. The history of the national anthem as a form tells us two things. First, a national anthem is always connected to the presentation and practice of state power, therefore its use is always political, whether one stands at attention or takes a knee in protest. Inside the sonic and ceremonial confines of the anthem, there is no apolitical space. Second, the anthem represents the entirety of a people equally, particularly in the case of the United States, a Western power whose history contains no monarchy or divine rule. In a democracy, no individual or group of individuals are more representative of the nation than any other. In the case of U.S. democracy, the military cannot be more American than any other citizen, or else we truly lose what has been fought for: representative democracy itself. This opinion does is not meant to sway any feelings on what Kaepernick did, or what Marshawn Lynch and Eric Reid continue to do before work on Sundays. But the injection of musical history into this debate is meant to steer it out of the partisan and
racial quagmire that has framed these Black athletes demanding justice. By first asking what the meaning and history of the national anthem is, we can then ask what the purpose of protest is and assess its appropriateness.
Courtesy of Justin Patch
or the last two years and three months, players in the NFL have taken a knee during the national anthem. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is credited with sparking the protests, but players from a number of teams joined in, particularly during the 2016–2017 season. Although coverage of the protests has slipped from the news, players like Panthers’ safety Eric Reid, one of Kaepernick’s 49ers teammates, have continued using the two-minute musical platform to raise awareness of violent racial injustices. The drama surrounding these events reached a peak in 2017 when President Donald Trump weighed in on the controversy, sparking team actions across the NFL, including kneeling by the owners of the Dallas Cowboys and Jacksonville Jaguars. Much of the coverage surrounding the national anthem protests concerns several intertwined opinions. The first is that what Kaepernick and others did and continue to do is a First Amendment right, protected under free speech. The converse is that this action is disrespectful, particularly towards veterans who fight for the rights and privileges that we enjoy every day, including the First Amendment. The second line of argument concerns the nature of work and what
employers can demand of their employees. In this contention, football players are on the clock and must do what employers tell them to do, which might include standing for the anthem. Moreover, those who argue this point often revert to the opinion that the ceremonial performance of the national anthem is no place for politics. The counter-argument is that mandating that players stand for the national anthem is forcing employees (i.e. players) to participate in politics already and that players, as employees, cannot and should not be compelled to participate in employer-arraigned political spectacle. As an interested observer of this debate, and a scholar of music and politics, I was disappointed in the fact that these ongoing events rarely contain an argument about music. Any discussion about what a national anthem is, as a form of modern music that tracks the development of the contemporary nation-state, is conspicuously absent. Informed perspective on the national anthem sheds meaningful light on the appropriateness or tastelessness of these divisive political displays. National anthems in the West are rooted in the practices of European monarchy, initially as musical tribute, invocation and accoutrement to royalty. These songs reinforced divine power, prestige and presenta-
those in rural China, were often mistreated or harassed (Indian Journal of Psychiatry, “Suicide in Women,” 07.2015). In addition, women in rural communities often face financial struggles as well as a stricter adherence to traditions. Women marry much earlier and oftentimes must live with their in-laws and obey their rules. According to one popular saying, a married woman is like “poured-out water”; she is given away by her birth family and never able to return (The Telegraph, “Young Chinese women are committing suicide at a terrifying rate - here’s why,” 10.20.2016). Fortunately, these trends have started to change. China’s suicide rate has declined more rapidly than that of any other country and has now fallen even lower than that of the United States and only slightly above that of the United Kingdom. Interestingly, rural women have served as the biggest contributor to this change. Such a dramatic decline coincides with an increase in Chinese people leaving rural areas to seek employment in urban areas. Despite the sweatshop stereotypes that many Westerners may entertain when imagining factory work in China, such work tends to be an improvement from working in the countryside. Factory conditions can be harsh and certain areas could use improvements, but they are still much better than the labor-intensive conditions and extreme poverty prevalent in rural areas. This move provides women in particular the opportunity to improve their social and economic conditions. For many young women in countries like China and India, urbanization gives women more choice in terms of whom they marry and with whom they live due to less strict
Pictured above is Assistant Professor of Music Justin Patch, who specializes in the role of music in U.S. politics.
This segment is designed to be a space in which professors are invited to talk about any topic related to their work that they find fascinating. If you are interested in contributing, please write a 300 or more word response to the question shown above and email your piece to Steven Park at eupark@@[at]@vassar.edu along with a picture of yourself or something relevant to your topic (examples include research projects, independent work or labs). The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented within its Opinions pages. The weekly staff editorial is the only article which reflects the opinion of the Editorial Board.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
November 29, 2018
OPINIONS
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President-elect AMLO offers ray of hope for Mexico Sylvan Perlmutter Columnist
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bservers dismayed by Brazil’s election of the far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro may find comfort in the coming ascension of leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popularly known as AMLO, to the Mexican presidency on Dec. 1. In June, AMLO’s Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (MORENA) party swept both chambers of the Mexican legislature, and in July, he won 53 percent of the vote in the presidential election as the candidate for the Juntos Haremos Historia coalition. In his campaign, he railed against the corruption of the entrenched Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) and Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) and pledged to empower populations ignored by Mexico’s decades-long policy of technocratic neoliberal reforms and harmed by the militarization of the drug war. At the beginning of his campaign, he released a list of proposals calling for, amongst other things, increased decentralization of government, doubling of pensions and free education for all (El Universal, “The ten proposals of AMLO’s pre-campaign,” 12.14.2017). AMLO portrays his presidency as the beginning of the “fourth transformation” of Mexico, a grandiose statement from a man credibly accused of possessing a demagogic streak (The New Yorker, “A New Revolution in Mexico,” 06.25.2018). Whenever a charismatic populist comes to power, it is essential to make sure that the emancipatory nature of their project is not lost in a cult of personality or in hatred of political opponents. To this end, it is necessary to
undertake a careful critique of AMLO’s actions thus far in the lead-up to his presidency so that this “fourth transformation” can truly come to pass.
“AMLO portrays his presidency as the beginning of the ‘fourth transformation’ of Mexico” The most significant action that AMLO has taken thus far is announcing that he will cancel the construction of a massive new international airport outside Mexico City, a project that critics have lashed out against for misdirecting resources and lucrative contracts to the wealthiest stratum of Mexican society. AMLO came to this decision by calling a nation-wide consulta (consultation) on the airport. Seventy percent of the roughly one million voters in the consulta voted no. Instead, the Mexican government will improve and expand pre-existing airports in the area (NACLA, “Mexico Says No to a New Airport,” 11.26.2018). The use of the consulta process marks an exciting departure from the behind-closeddoors technocratic decision-making of the Peña Nieto government. However, only one million people participated in the vote, representing barely one percent of the Mexican electorate. In addition, AMLO’s supporters were more likely to have voted (The Economist, “Mexico’s incoming president halts an airport project, and pays a price,” 11.03.2018). The consulta process must involve much
more participation from the general public or else the process is at risk of becoming a rubber stamp for the policies on which AMLO has already decided. Personalistic rule disguised as a direct-democracy is no improvement on technocracy at all. AMLO’s proposals to expand the energy sector, fund development in indigenous communities and combat narco-trafficking also deserve additional scrutiny. AMLO wants to devote billions of pesos to expanding the Mexican oil industry, which will probably inflict negative ecological ramifications and disproportionately impact indigenous communities in the south of Mexico. These same communities also face the risk of displacement by his proposal to build an extensive infrastructure network linking southern Mexico together. These two plans could possibly render benefits to indigenous Mexican communities by stimulating economic growth and providing employment. However, mitigating negative impacts is only possible if the government consistently communicates with local community leaders. The government must never pursue these projects for its own sake and drift away from its intended purpose of empowering locals. Reporter Alexander Gorski writes, “[I]t seems like the most powerful opposition to AMLO’s proposed ‘fourth transformation’ will indeed be coming from organized Indigenous communities and their allies” (NACLA, “The Infrastructure of a Presidency,” 09.18.2018). Furthermore, AMLO’s proposal for a national guard combining military and civilian police to combat the drug trade and
other crimes perpetuates the worst policies of the Mexican drug wars. President Felipe Calderón’s decision to deploy the military in the drug wars contributed to many human rights abuses, including numerous extra-judicial killings. By maintaining the military’s role in combating the drug trade, the proposed national guard would institutionalize the military’s drastically expanded presence in Mexican life. The current arrangement already erodes civilian control over the actions of governments; what would happen to Mexican democracy if this policy cemented itself as a permanent fixture? (The Guardian, “Mexican president-elect’s new plan to fight crime looks like the old plan,” 11.21.2018).
“Despite these grave concerns over AMLO’s agenda, his presidency serves as a ray of hope” Despite these grave concerns over AMLO’s agenda, his presidency serves as a ray of hope in a hemisphere experiencing a period of far-right revanchism. The Mexican people elected him and MORENA with the fervent desire to reshape their society to be more equitable, democratic and just. Even if ALMO successfully implemented only a quarter of his proposals, the average Mexican would be better off. As the beginning of his Presidential term approaches, let us lend him our support and constructive criticism.
Democrats must remain honest regarding stance on Israel Jesser Horowitz Columnist
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n Nov. 16, 2012, Democrat politician Ilhan Omar tweeted out an accusation against the state of Israel, stating, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them to see the evil doings of Israel” (Twitter, @IlhanMN, 11.16.2012). Six years later, the tweets resurfaced, resulting in widespread accusations of anti-Semitism against Ms. Omar, who won her bid to replace Keith Ellison in the United States House of Representatives just a few short weeks ago. Representative-elect Omar’s allegations against the state of Israel play into traditional anti-Semitic tropes. Historically, anti-Semites have accused Jews of engaging in world conspiracies of a similar nature: In 2003, former head of the Klu Klux Klan David Duke wrote a book titled “Jewish Supremacism: My Awakening to the Jewish Question,” detailing the existence of a Jewish supremacist conspiracy to commit genocide against the Palestinians (Anti-Defamation League, “David Duke,” 2013). In June 2018, conspiracy theorist Philip Giraldi penned an article that tied the Israeli government to a “worldwide conspiracy to promote threats to keep big national security-based government well-funded and in place” (Veterans Today, “Understanding Jewish Power,” 06.13.2018). The idea of Jews and the Jewish state using their influence to manipulate world affairs is not new, and it is difficult to view Omar’s statements as anything besides anti-Semitic. Disappointingly, the Representative-elect’s response to the claims of anti-Semitism was lackluster at best. She
said, “These accusations are without merit. They are rooted in bigotry toward a belief about what Muslims are stereotyped to believe.” She at no point apologized for the misguided tweet (The Times of Israel, “Woman running for congress in Minnesota rejects anti-semitism accusations,” 06.08.2018). Yet, that is not the focus of my ire today. I am not as concerned about one anti-Semitic member of the House of Representatives as I am about a general trend of left-wing Democrats being dishonest regarding their views on Israel in order to pander to voters. If the Democratic Party wants to abandon Israel and the Jewish people, let it do so openly. Representative-elect Ilhan Omar expressed opposition to the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement during her primary campaign. She stated, “It is going to be important for us to recognize Israel’s place in the Middle East and the Jewish people’s rightful place within the region. I believe right now with the BDS movement, it’s not helpful in getting that two-state solution” (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “Ilhan Omar, who once called Israel an apartheid regime, wins congressional primary in Minnesota,” 08.15.2018). She didn’t hang on to this position for long. Following her victory in November, Omar changed her view, saying that she believes in and supports the BDS movement. While she does add that she still expresses reservations about the effectiveness of the movement, this remains a disappointing deviation from the beliefs she espoused during her campaign (Muslim Girl, “Ilhan Omar: Why Advocating for Palestine is Not Anti-Semitic,” 11.2018).
But it’s not just Omar who has flipped on this issue when politically convenient. If anything, her reversal in positions serves as one of the less extreme examples. While she changed her position on the BDS movement, much of her rhetoric stayed the same. As Batya Ungar-Sargon pointed out, “Despite her statement, it’s clear that Omar’s support for the BDS movement isn’t a call for a single, non-Jewish state where Israel is. She still believes in a two state solution - one for Jews, one for Palestinians” (Forward, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Flip-Flopped on Israel. Ilhan Omar Did Not,” 11.15.2018).
“If the Democratic Party wants to abandon Israel and the Jewish people, let it do so openly.” A more blatant flip-flop comes from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In an interview with PBS in July 2018, then-candidate Ocasio-Cortez said, “I believe absolutely in Israel’s right to exist. I’m a proponent of the two state solution” (Forward, “What Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Really Thinks About Israel,” 07.16.2018). In an interview just two days later, she backpedaled, refusing to tell journalists from Haaretz whether she supported a two-state solution. As Haaretz pointed out, this was not the first time that she had changed positions on Israel. (Haaretz, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Vows to Learn and Evolve on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” 07.18.2018). Rashida Tlaib, who recently became the
first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, made a similar shift. Prior to the Democratic primary, then-candidate Tlaib expressed pro–two state solution views in order to appeal to J-Street, a pro-Palestinian organization that distinguishes itself by its support for the continued existence of Israel. She expressed to J-Street that she endorses a two-state solution and continued U.S. aid to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. That position evaporated after she won the primary. Just a few days after her victory, she stated, “This whole idea of a two-state solution, it doesn’t work” (Haaretz, “From Two States to One: Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib Shifts Position on Israel,” 08.16.2018). This is perhaps the most blatant of these sudden position changes: She pandered to J-Street for their endorsement during the primary and then immediately flipped positions when she no longer needed them. If the progressive wing of the Democratic Party plans on shifting away from its traditional support for the continued existence of the state of Israel, I would hope it would at least have the basic courtesy of going about it honestly. In doing so, the American Left not only turns away from Zionism but also away from the Jewish people in general. It is essential for those Jews who want to maintain a progressive movement that is inclusive of Israel to express caution in approaching candidates and weeding out anti-Semites and those who attack the legitimacy of the Jewish state from those who have valid criticisms. If we don’t enforce honesty and transparency, then the pro-Israel Left in America may die very, very soon.
The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented within its Opinions pages. The weekly staff editorial is the only article which reflects the opinion of the Editorial Board.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
HUMOR & SATIRE
Page 16
November 29, 2018
Breaking News
From the desk of Hannah Gaven, Humor & Satire Editor
During campus-wide power outage, student hides in dark to scare friend, accidentally grabs stranger Lotion used for cracked nipples turns human into greasy glob Blair Webber
Oozing With Moisturizer
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Frank/The Miscellany News
inter is coming. While it is absolutely my favorite season, full of hot chocolate and snow and wrapping my whole body in multiple blankets before leaving my dorm room, my yearly battle with dry skin has returned with a vengeance. It begins innocently enough. My lips are chapped 90–99.99999 percent of the time regardless of temperature and humidity, but as the cold encroaches, the average number of chapsticks I carry around increases from two to 4.76 tubes per pocket. But perpetual lip greasing is just the start. I have moisturizing soap, sufficient for most of the year, which I supplement with a post-shower lotion, and problem areas in the corners of my mouth and the sides of my nostrils are slathered with the heavy-duty protection of a goop made from sheep’s wool and often recommended to breastfeeding mothers with cracked nipples. This year, however, things are changing. I began my campaign against dry skin in mid-October as usual, but every time I went to put on more lotion, it appeared the lotion I put on previously remained on my skin. Some places were even still shiny with freshly applied moisturizer. This felt like a victory: Finally, I’d vanquished my winter nightmare of peeling and flaking. Last week, I began to notice a white, fragrant ooze collecting around my elbows and knees–two problem spots for my dry, itchy skin in the winter time. Since it smelled like lavender and oatmeal, I decided it couldn’t be anything too harmful. In my experience, most bad oozes don’t smell like lavender. And while the goop did leave greasy stains on my jackets and pants, nothing was hurting or itching. So I ignored it. But the ooze kept coming. Over the ensuing week, the Burt’s Bees Almond and Milk hand
cream I use began collecting on my hands. I started scraping it off, thinking I’d followed the instructions to “apply liberally as needed” a little too carefully. Maybe in my overzealous quest for moist, soft skin year round, I’d left huge splotches of lotion just sitting on my hands. Moments later, however, even more would collect on the surface of my skin. I decided globs were getting a little out of hand when I climbed out of bed and immediately slipped on my floor. It was as if a whole bottle of Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Body Yogurt Lotion: Apricot and Honey with Broad Spectrum SPF 15 had burst all over my feet and ankles. Only this time, no matter how many paper towels I used to wipe it off my feet, it kept coming. Unsure if becoming a blob of my own lotions would actually count as an excused absence from class, I decided to risk going to Baldwin. Despite the pleasant smell and rejuvenating quantities of moisturizer pouring off of my skin, it seemed rude to walk all over campus dripping with lotion, so I slipped and slid my way from Cushing to the student health center. After asking if I was pregnant, the staff at Baldwin gave me some ibuprofen and sent me on my way. Becoming a human bottle of lotion hasn’t been all bad. While I have had to dictate this article for fear of ruining my laptop, I no longer have to walk anywhere on campus. I can just sort of slide wherever I want to go. And it’s way easier to get the sushi bowl you want from the Retreat when there’s only two left and a line of 12 people in front of you when you can distract people by hurling globs of moisturizer at them. Being an oozing mass of thick liquid clears out a room fast. People don’t really want to hug me or sit next to me in class, but when it comes down to it, I’d much rather be a puddle of lotion than deal with a little dry skin. For me, it’s a win-win.
Here sits Harlow the Womp Womp. Harlow is scared. What if the power went out and never came back on? What if it’s daylight savings, and I am late to class?
After witnessing brawl, Black Friday shopper persists, buying dinosaur planter Confessions from shopaholic Izzy Migani
Y
ou want to know a stressful time? I’ll tell you in two words: Black. Friday. Don’t get me wrong, I usually love shopping more than anyone else I know. Exponentially more, in fact. However, I have my own issues with Black Friday. Although it is a gross display of capitalism in every sense of the word, that is not my main issue. My main issue, instead, is that I end up with things I definitely do not need. Now, for example, I have an affinity for rings. However, I only have 10 fingers. So tell me, why would I need two sets of 12 rings each? Do I have 24 fingers? No! I do not. I blame Black Friday. That incident was only the beginning. That incident occurred at 9 a.m. The stampedes at the mall, like a tsunami, first brought me to Best Buy. I walked out of there with a TV. I don’t even have cable. I saw people fight tooth and nail over a few dollars’ difference in the price of an Xbox Minecraft bundle. It was terrifying. Next, I managed to make my way over to
Target. Target, a once bustling paradise of discounted DVDs and a $5 clearance section, was now a desolate Hunger Games-esque wasteland. I cowered in the only place I KNEW I couldn’t be found: the Keurig Pod section (Why the Target I frequent keeps it separate from coffee items, I will never know—but that’s a different story). Next to Target was the “As Seen on TV” store, which I thought people legitimately fabricated for a meme. What a wonder it was: The asinine products advertised on the late-night shows I watch when I am sick had somehow transcended the barrier of that world and real life. I held a “My Pillow” for the first time. It truly did have magical properties. It really was as good as everyone says. Something about that store, however, was off. The employees smiled too wide. Time didn’t see to move. Everything was too clean. I was convinced I had stepped into an episode of “The Twilight Zone.” I assumed I left after mere minutes,
but I spent an hour in the store’s clutches. I thought myself lucky to make it out. The rest of the day was a complete blur. I vaguely remember purchasing 12 Cinnabons at one point, but I can’t be sure. Whatever I bought was gone before the car ride back was over, anyways. When I reached home base, it was time to assess the damage done to my bank account. Were the deals worth it? Was Bank of America going to be able to snarkily pen another email saying, “Just thought you’d like to know your account is under $25 again!”? The damage was worse than I had thought. I had purchased the entire Sims 4 bundle, and I own a Mac. I can’t run the entire Sims 4 bundle on a Mac. I am now the proud owner of a great game set and a computer that can’t do anything. In addition, I had initially thought I purchased a pretty stylish coat. I was feeling myself for awhile, and everything was great. I then walked into Forever 21, where the
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
cashier said that they liked my coat, for I gave off a “very neo-nun vibe.” I turned and looked in the mirror—I was literally wearing what looked like a full habit, minus the four-inch thigh-high boots. Further inspection of my purchases produced two gallons of milk, a copy of “Mulan,” a DIY slime kit, Starbucks Keurig Pods (I couldn’t resist), the second season of HTGAWM, a fake succulent/dinosaur planter, a pair of pink flip-flops and a pack of glitter glue. I bought NONE of the essentials I needed, and now I am left with the ageold problem of trying to figure out what to do with a pack of glitter glue. If I were, say, in kindergarten and not college, I imagine it’d be easier. Any tips? Let me know. How mad would my professors be if I signed and dated the hard copies of my essays in glitter glue? What if I glitter glued my assignments together instead of using staples? Suffice to say, I guess my Black Friday purchases can actually be useful.
November 29, 2018
HUMOR & SATIRE
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Americans fight for right to commit vehicular homicide Steven Park
Not The Designated Drunk Driver
ast Friday, a large crowd of angry, white protesters assembled outside the steps of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., as part of an ongoing nationwide movement to change America’s current laws on drunk driving. Clad in red-, white- and blue-striped t-shirts with the American flag emblazoned on the front, the protesters held up signs that read “Protect America’s Freedom” and “Patriots Do What They Want” while throwing empty beer cans at the courthouse. This boisterous demonstration was the latest in a series of rallies led by the American non-profit company Freedom for America Forever (FAF) Foundation, which recently entered the national spotlight in October after filing a lawsuit against the U.S. government for enforcing its law against driving under the influence. In their lawsuit, the FAF Foundation argued that America’s laws against drunk driving infringed upon a fundamental American right protected by the 21st amendment of the Constitution. “Americans have the right to drink alcohol wherever they want and whenever they want,” stated FAF Foundation’s chief executive Gary Stubert. “It doesn’t matter if it’s in a local bar or in your Volkswagen cruising 60 mph on the interstate highway—this is a fundamental freedom established by our Founding Fathers. The attempts by the media and the government to vilify those who drink while driving are a gross attack on this country’s values.” According to the U.S. National Highway
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and pngimg
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These two stick figures are having a bad day. The fire of satire is burning their butts as they run from a drunk driver. If I had to guess, I’d say they’re screaming, “AHHH.” Traffic Safety Administration, drunk driving is responsible for more 10,000 American deaths per year (NHTSA, “Drunk Driving”). However, in just two weeks since the FAF Foundation announced their lawsuit, the non-profit has tripled in membership subscriptions by those who agree with the group’s doctrine of placing personal self-interest above other people’s lives. “The FAF Foundation is right. America is a country of freedom; we shouldn’t be arrested for drinking and driving because a few people die from it every now and then. I have the right to do what I want,” argued one anonymous FAF member. “I’d rather 100 people die every day than lose my God-given right to get completely hammered in my Chevy Silverado. No one, neither the biased media
nor mourning parents, will change my mind.” Throughout their campaign, the FAF Foundation has released videos and other endorsements that encouraged Americans to fight for their rights to drive under the influence, fanning the flames of controversy on social media. Countless horrified parents have expressed their shock at how so many Americans supported rolling back vehicle safety laws at the risk of jeopardizing the lives of thousands of people. “The world is becoming increasingly dangerous for my children,” cried Sydney Rogers, a 34-year-old mother of two nine-year-old daughters. “It’s not safe for them to walk to school anymore without risking their lives.” According to law enforcement, the number of car accidents caused by drunk drivers has
HOROSCOPES
skyrocketed ever since the FAF Foundation started promoting their campaign against anti–drunk driving laws. In the past week, the police reported five different major incidents of drunk driving accidents where drivers with a blood alcohol concentration well above the legal limit crashed their vehicle into crowded areas, killing 19 and injuring 37. Law enforcement has identified the suspects of all five incidents as members of the FAF Foundation. In response, the FAF Foundation denied any connection with the accidents but expressed their condolences for the victims. “The Freedom for Americans Forever Foundation joins the nation in horror, outrage, grief and earnest prayer for the families who have suffered such an incomprehensible loss,” stated Stubert at a press conference. “Like most Americans, we were shocked by what happened. The truth is, these deaths could have been avoided if our sidewalks were fortified with concrete barriers. However, some have tried to exploit this tragedy by arguing for regulations that would infringe upon the rights of intoxicated American drivers. These people want to make all of us less free, and we must not allow that to happen. The loss of life is always a tragedy, but even the tiniest loss of freedom is immeasurable. It doesn’t matter if the victim is an adult man or a small child—no life is worth losing our right to drive irresponsibly.” Update, [Nov. 26, 2018]: Gary Stubert was reportedly hit by a drunk driver at 11:48 p.m. tonight in Schenectady, NY. The FAF Foundation has kindly asked its fellow members to send in their thoughts and prayers.
Hannah Gaven
amateur astrologist
ARIES
March 21 | April 19
TAURUS
April 20 | May 20
GEMINI
May 21 | June 20
CANCER
June 21 | July 22
LEO
July 23 | August 22
VIRGO
August 23 | September 22
Reading autobiographies is like watching YouTubers. I’m bored, so I watch other people shove pie in their best friend’s face. While it’s entertaining, I realize that I don’t care. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that you should stop caring about everyone else.
I’ve decided it’s time for me to become famous, which is why I’ve bought 2,000 hyenas. On Christmas Eve, I will release all of the hyenas into Central Park. The infestation will take over the streets. If you want to survive, you must pledge your allegiance to me now. Did you know wombats poop in cubes? Imagine how much easier it would be to find a mate if humans pooped in squares and then competed for attention by building the biggest fecal tower! I suggest you try building a poop tower to impress your crush!! My kink is being dominated. The most dominant people I can think of are air traffic control up in the tower. They tell you to come up and down. If you’re looking for a high, I suggest breaking in and switching all of the landing patterns. Whenever you speak to your friends, speak in code so others can’t eavesdrop. For example, I screamed, “J’ai mangé les enfants. Ensuite j’ai vomi!” to my friends in the Deece, and no one even looked over! I know you’re low on iron. I took the initiative to test your blood, and luckily I noticed the deficiency. Once a month you must drink the blood of fellow humans to stay alive. Hint: The richest source of blood is the neck.
LIBRA
September 23 | October 22
SCORPIO
October 23 | November 21
SAGITTARIUS
November 22 | December 21
Plane rides are lame rides. Red eyes are dead eyes. I always end up horribly contorted, trying to find an inch of sleep, and eventually I get cramps and cry. If you want to avoid the same duress this week, start a storm with your coven that is nasty enough to ground all planes. According to my sister, I can’t wear blankets to class, but wearing a cape is totally trendy. The stars mandate cape wearing this week and will issue punishments for noncompliance. If you aren’t game, expect an eviction notice.
“Burn!” the oven whispers as it reaches out for your wrist. I’ve heard ovens are up to no good this week, so watch out for burning food or flesh. However, the burns may come in unassuming forms, like a sly statement from a close friend. I really miss pooping in the privacy of my
CAPRICORN home. It’s fun to be able to see my friends
December 22 | after a quick piss, but I would prefer if they January 19 didn’t have to hear the screeches of my
bowels. For a more pleasant week, I suggest holding in your poops.
AQUARIUS
January 20 | February 18
PISCES
February 19 | March 20
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
It’s weird to poop while looking at sultry Instagram photos. I feel awkward, but then I wonder if some people wait until they are on the shitter to peruse these photos. However, don’t knock it until you try it.
It’s time to stop wasting money on the laundry machines. I swear the dryer doesn’t actually dry clothes. It makes them damp. I haven’t washed my sheets all year, and I’m thriving, so follow my lead and don’t wash your clothes.
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November 29, 2018
Abdul-Rauf’s story shows perils of resisting the Plastics Emmett O’Malley Columnist
[TW: This article makes mention of responses to sexual assault and transphobia.] stuck around for Thanksgiving Break, and hence, had lots and lots of time to do… nothing. Part of that nothing was scrolling through my phone like a 21st-century neanderthal. Part of that nothing was binge-watching Season Two of Jason Bateman’s “Ozark” (quite solid, if you’re looking for binge-worthy TV). Part of that nothing was doing the semi-deep dive on former NBA player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf that I’ve always intended to do. And part of that nothing was watching some of my favorite movies for the umpteenth time. One of those movies—”Mean Girls”—struck a particularly profound chord this time around. Highbrow films bring about highbrow ideas, apparently. My last column was titled “Butler trade intersects with hypocrisy of VC activism.” Central to the thesis of this wannabe-polemical piece were a couple of questions. If you didn’t get a chance to read it yet (you still can!), the central qualm I pose with Vassar “activism” is that it exists in constant tension with the fact that Vassar is premised on the idea that every one of its students will be a hustling meritocrat. That’s the condition of membership. We are bound to our pursuit of boundless personal gain, and personal gain in a viciously unequal society is built atop the backs of the exploited. In the conclusion of the column, I asked, “At what point will we hustling meritocrats totally alter our consciousness and stop with the game of personal gain?” The answer, recent Vassar history tells us, is never. If you want evidence, go make a LinkedIn account and look at the sorts of jobs that most of our peers are working. Ask yourself about the social function of those jobs. Have fun. Perhaps most useful in our discussions moving forward are two quotations: one from the anthropologist Mary Douglas (as presented by the philosopher Zygmunt Bauman) and the other from Janis Ian (more on her later). Douglas claims, “Unless we know why people need luxuries [that is, goods in excess of survival needs] and how they use them
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we are nowhere near taking the problems of inequality seriously” (Zygmunt Bauman, “Consuming Life,” 2013). Going to a school like Vassar is, for many, the pursuit of luxury. So why do we want it? Janis Ian, in a somewhat similar vein, insists, “There are two kinds of evil people in this world. People who do evil stuff, and people who see evil stuff being done and don’t try to stop it” (“Mean Girls,” 2004). In the responses I got to last week’s article, there seemed to be confusion—or at least blinding discomfort—with its most existentially challenging elements. Perhaps existentially challenging is merely what I was going for, and I failed to get there. Regardless, in considering one of the artfully-crafted films that I watched over break, I think there’s a map to better elucidating these phenomena before connecting them back to sports (Of course! Welcome to the sports section!). I’m about to get very serious. It’s “Mean Girls” time. Let’s pretend that a generic Vassar student is Cady Heron (played by Lindsay Lohan). Let’s pretend that their newfound, conflicted social consciousness is Janis Ian (played by Lizzy Caplan, and quoted above). Let’s pretend that corporate America is the Plastics (led by the truly legendary Regina George). Got it? Got it. Janis justifies Cady’s break into the world of the Plastics on the grounds that Cady’s newfound critical consciousness will exempt her from the poison pill that the “others” in the Plastics take (see: Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith). However, Cady cannot resist the many attractions of the Plastics. She gets caught up in, and ultimately defined by, their metrics of success. She is infatuated with their world of popularity, sexual legitimacy and resource-rich, attention-heavy extracurricular activities. Her conflicted social consciousness falls by the wayside (Bye, Janis!). Cady is one of the Plastics. Cady is Regina George; the Vassar student is the manifestation of evil lurking over the system we are so (rightly) ready to criticize. I repeat: just go click around on LinkedIn. If your Janis Ian-like social consciousness is at all intact, LinkedIn looks an awful lot like
Regina George’s “Burn Book,” except people are writing their own insults. What I didn’t discuss last week, that I want to discuss this week, is what an alternative to deleterious complicity looks like. How would “Mean Girls” change if Cady Heron did not get co-opted by the oppressive powers that be? What would it look like to overcome the appeal of consumerist/capitalist minutiae? As promised, here is the sports section. Took me long enough, huh? In the first 19 games of the 1995–96 NBA season, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf—then 26 years old—averaged 22 points and 8 assists per game. During that stretch, Abdul-Rauf became one of three players in NBA history to score 30 points while recording 20 assists in a single game (he did it against Charles Barkley’s playoff-bound Suns). Later in the season, Abdul-Rauf dropped 32 points on the 72-win Bulls team now often referred to by fans as the greatest team ever. Overall, he averaged 19 points and seven assists in 57 games. He was electric. And just over two years later, he was out of the league. He did not suffer a catastrophic injury. He did not get in any sort of legal trouble. What he did was refuse to stand for the national anthem. In a 2016 interview with The Undefeated, Abdul-Rauf explained his decision to not stand for the national anthem: “You can’t be for God and for oppression. It’s clear in the Quran.” Abdul-Rauf saw the flag, and the anthem, as a symbol of racism and oppression. As The Undefeated details effectively: The players union supported Abdul-Rauf, and he quickly reached a compromise with the league that allowed him to stand and pray with his head down during the anthem. But at the end of the season, the Nuggets traded Abdul-Rauf...His playing time dropped. He lost his starting spot. After his contract expired in 1998, Abdul-Rauf couldn’t get so much as a tryout with any NBA team. He was just 29 years old. (The Undefeated, “Still No Anthem, Still No Regrets for Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf,” 09.01.2016).
Abdul-Rauf’s story has resurfaced as the Colin Kaepernick saga wages on (I wrote about Kaepernick’s current position in an article titled “Kaepernick’s Nike deal demands skepticism”). Abdul-Rauf was better at his sport than Kaepernick is at his. But whether it’s Nathan Peterman or Pooh Richardson (Peterman is a lot worse than Pooh, FWIW), the two player-activists were/are objectively much better than their replacement-level contemporaries. Even in the supposedly meritocratic world of professional sports—where talent supposedly trumps everything else—there are certain paradigm-undermining actions that cross the line and are grounds for removal from the site of competition. We know the line is not graphic domestic violence (hello, Tyreek Hill). We know the line is not sexual assault (what’s up, Ben Roethlisberger). We know the line is not death threats directed toward a gay man (Dwight Howard and his crew have become the locus of jokes, not controversy). And we know the line is not murder (howdy, Ray Lewis). Abdul-Rauf and Kaepernick, though? Those guys crossed the line. They challenged the status quo. They tried subverting the dominant, dogmatic, American paradigm. The consequences for Abdul-Rauf, at least up to this point in the Kaepernick saga, proved harsher. He cost himself millions of dollars and didn’t have Nike to save his purse. He faced death threats. The house into which he planned on moving was set on fire. He was expelled from the league into which he spent his entire life trying to get. But he retained a backbone. Comfortably ensconced in retirement, Abdul-Rauf had a few thoughts on his career-defining, previously overlooked decision: “It’s priceless to know that I can go to sleep knowing that I stood to my principles... Whether I go broke, whether they take my life, whatever it is, I stood on principles. To me, that is worth more than wealth and fame” (The Undefeated, “Still No Anthem, Still No Regrets for Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf,” 09.01.2016). Cady Heron could never. Can you? Can I?
Nations League supplants apathy of international friendlies Desmond Curran Guest Columnist
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f you have read any of my previous articles, you may have noticed that a particular formula. When I am preparing to write an article regarding any of the various aspects of soccer, but am running out of original thoughts, I inevitably turn to my favorite punching bags: FIFA and its underling confederations (UEFA, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, AFC, CAF and OFC). I dislike them for their blatant, arrogant corruption and seemingly boundless incompetence. Their only redeeming factor, for me at least, is that they offer an endless supply of writing material. This is another one of those articles. But, in a historical first, I will not be doing my best to highlight my misgivings with UEFA, European soccer’s governing body. Instead I will actually be—cue the drumroll—praising their introduction of the new Nations League. As much as it pains me and my cold heart to exalt UEFA, the Nations League has proven an unprecedented innovation for international friendlies. Before this year, the various international breaks in the fall soccer season provided fans with un-
inspired matches between behemoths like Germany and minnows like Malta. These one-sided beatings failed to provide even the slightest excitement for fans and viewers, and, on top of the mismatch, in the particular case of Germany and Malta, Germany’s best players didn’t even suit up. Such matches were chances for managers of top countries to test out inexperienced players. Yet even when the strongest nations fielded “weaker” teams, these friendlies remained snoozefests. Only on the rare occasions of matches between prominent countries, like Spain and France for instance, could the quality of the game reach tolerability. For the teams, there was no reason to take international friendlies seriously: winning brought no benefits and losing no consequences. (Friendlies could marginally change a country’s FIFA ranking, but even then, those rankings are meaningless.) Enter the UEFA Nations League. The idea of the Nations League was to place every UEFA member country into a group with two other countries in either League A, B or C, with four groups per league. League A would have the 12 “best” European teams—
France, England, Spain, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, etc.—divided into three team groups. Each League A team would play the other members of their group twice, and the team that finished on top of each group would advance to a Nations League semifinal against another League A group winner. More important, the teams that finished in the bottom of their respective groups would be relegated down to League B, their spots to be taken by the winners of the four League B groups. As of the time of writing, the Netherlands have finished on top of their group, above France and Germany, and will be advancing to the semifinals next summer with England, Portugal and Switzerland. Germany will be relegated down into League B, replaced by one of Ukraine, Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Denmark. Significantly, however, the results of the Nations League will have implications for seeding in the UEFA European Championships—a tournament held every four years, similar in structure to the World Cup, but composed of UEFA members. As you can see, UEFA completely re-
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
vamped the system of international friendlies. The results of these matches now have massive implications for every country, no matter its historical pedigree or their performances in previous international tournaments. Germany, for example, the winners of the 2014 World Cup, can no longer afford to use international friendlies as a proving ground for young talent, lest its current performances relegate the team to a group of death in the next European Championship. For viewers, the Nations League has brought parity of talent to friendlies. The German federation, barring disaster, will no longer play Malta. Instead, it can pick fights with opponents its own size, like France, the 2018 World Cup Champions. The actual play in these matches will be much less one-sided and, combined with actual incentives, provide a more passionate experience for fans and players alike. For UEFA, the Nations League has breathed fresh life into the dull and stagnant system of international friendlies. UEFA has given the players something worth battling for, the fans something worth watching and me something worth praising.
November 29, 2018
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National semifinal awaits resilient women’s rugby squad RUGBY continued
ich. “Our sidelines are overflowing with talented players eager to get some time on the field, so our injured players can focus on recovering.” Emery made the same connection, declaring, “In terms of overcoming [injuries], building depth has allowed us to maintain our focus on just doing the basics well, minimizing mistakes, and executing our plays.” Indeed, you wouldn’t know Vassar’s dealt with an injury bug by looking at their road to the National Semifinal. In the Round of 16, hosted Nov. 17 in the mud on Vassar’s Farm, Vassar faced another Ursidae school, the University of Maine Black Bears. The game was 17-12 at the intermission, but Vassar pulled ahead in the second half, breezing to a 46-12 win. Reich scored three tries to lead the home team and senior Jennie To added two more. An Elite Eight matchup the following day followed a different script. After the Brewers raced to a 34-7 lead over the Bryant University Bulldogs, three late tries saw the Rhode Island school tighten things up, though ultimately the Brewers held on for a comfortable 41-24 victory. Prado was the star of the day, scoring three ties. The all-too-familiar Coast Guard Academy Bears will likely prove to be the toughest adversary the Brewers have faced this postseason. A win would see Vassar take on either last fall’s winners Winona State or the University of Cincinnati in the Championship game. Since these are the same final four teams as last year, the Brewers have a sense of the challenge they face. Said Prado, looking ahead, “We’ve played some of these teams before, and we all know just how hungry the other teams are for these wins. This week is definitely a time when we as a team have to focus in on the kind of mental toughness that will give our team the edge.” Despite the familiarity of the three other colleges heading to Charlotte, Reich asserted that the team’s preparation and game plan will keep the focus internal. “We are confident that the game of rugby we play can stand up against anything the
Courtesy of Nick Jallat
from page 1 would say we’re pretty hungry for another chance at that.” Prado signalled that a Sunday win would put a validating cap on the careers of the seniors, adding, “Winning the championships this year would be a kind of affirmation of the work we’ve been committed to and the growth that we’ve experienced as a team across the years.” Reich echoed Prado’s thoughts, stating, “To improve on our performance in the Final Four would be an extremely gratifying culmination of the last year of hard work we’ve all put in together.” While the successes and failures of past teams have shaped the motivations of this squad, this year’s team has had to forge its own identity. Losing a particularly strong crew of graduating seniors in the spring forced the program to incorporate a batch of new faces into the starting lineup. The result? The process has shaped a group identity that Emery described as “fresh and hungry” and bolstered the program in terms of depth and experience. Reich mentioned this depth as one of the team’s greatest assets. “Most days we can field two full sides, which is really beneficial for running practices and pushing ourselves and each other,” she said. Emery too keyed in on depth, adding, “We truly pride ourselves on being multifaceted rugby players and our ability to slot different players into multiple positions on the field.” Depth, of course, especially in a sport as physical as rugby, is more necessity than luxury. Injuries have, perhaps predictably, presented one of the biggest challenges to this year’s Brewers. “Unfortunately,” explained Emery, who has battled shoulder problems herself, “we’ve had a decent number [of injuries] this fall, and they have resulted in us making constant changes to our lineup throughout the season.” Yet those constant lineup changes have not sunk the Brewers this fall, thanks to the squad’s depth. “[Depth] takes a lot of pressure off of injured players,” said Re-
Senior Kaitlin Prado (pictured) scored three tries to lead the Vassar women’s rugby team to a resounding 41-24 win over Bryant University in the National Quarterfinal on Nov. 18. other teams may throw at us,” said Reich. “Of the many aspects of our game, dominance in set pieces and quick defensive organization will be especially important for us this weekend.” Prado, too, zeroed in on the importance of what the Brewers themselves can control, specifying, “We have to make our tackles, and we can’t allow any turnovers
Courtesy of Nick Jallat At home on the Farm, the Brewers rode a second-half surge to a 46-12 victory over the University of Maine in the Round of 16. Senior Oshana Reich (pictured) scored three tries.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
when we have the ball. In the most basic sense, rugby is a game of possession— good rugby for us will mean starving the other team of the ball.” For the Vassar women’s rugby team, this weekend brings a familiar bus, a familiar drive and familiar foes. But if the Brewers can play their game, the weekend may just bring an unfamiliar prize.
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November 29, 2018
Kubica’s return to Formula One inspires racing world Daniel Bonfiglio Guest Columnist
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Rally Championship, and competing in Gt3 endurance races. In 2017, he debuted in the World Endurance Championship (WEC)— the series many consider to be the second most prestigious in motorsport behind Formula One—in the Le Mans Prototype One (LMP1) class for privateer team ByKolles. Renault rewarded Kubica’s persistence later that year when they decided to give him an independent test, curious if their old driver still had what it took to race a Formula One car. Unsurprisingly, just as Kubica had his entire career, he impressed with his professionalism and consistency. Head of Renault racing Cyril Abiteboul stated later that there was no reason why Kubica couldn’t return to Formula One. Kubica’s test turned heads, and multiple test sessions with the Williams F1 team soon followed, their big brass also impressed with the Polish driver. Williams faced a decision before the 2018 season, looking for someone to partner with their 19-year-old driver Lance Stroll in his second year. Naturally, the team wanted a driver with experience, but pressing financial issues forced the team to sign rookie Sergey Sirotkin and his lucrative Russian backers, slotting Kubica into a familiar reserve driver role. With continued financial trouble and two inexperienced drivers, Williams suffered their worst season in team history, finishing dead last in the team standings. The news that Stroll was leaving for Force India came midseason, sparking speculations about who would take his seat. Williams signed F2 champion George Russell, but also dropped Sirotkin. Eight years after last competing in a Formula One race, and now in his mid thirties,
Courtesy of RandomDieRoll via Flickr
he 2018 Formula One (F1) season ended this past Sunday, Nov. 25, when British driver Lewis Hamilton crossed the finish line in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to win his 11th race of the season, capping off a year that saw the Mercedes driver clinch his fifth Formula One World Championship two races prior. Four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel finished second to Hamilton in Abu Dhabi as well as in the Championship standings, the German driver coming up short in what was a competitive season between the two titans of the sport. The season played host to a number of other supporting storylines as well, none bigger than the retirement of 37-year-old double World Champion Fernando Alonso, at least for now. Rookie phenom Charles Leclerc is one of a plethora of drivers set to change teams for 2019, as he will be promoted to drive for Ferrari alongside Vettel, and Formula Two (F2) champion George Russell will get his Formula One chance with Williams next year. The question of who would be Russell’s teammate, however, led to what was quite possibly this year’s most remarkable story in F1, if not in the sports world as a whole. Robert Kubica made his Formula One debut for BMW Sauber in 2006 at 22 years old, stepping up from his reserve driver role and finishing a very impressive seventh on debut before being disqualified for having an underweight car. In only his third race that year, he claimed a podium and over the remainder of the season he cemented himself as a formidable Formula One driver.
In 2008 Kubica took his first victory, (to date the only victory for a Polish-born driver) vaulting him to the Championship lead. While he did not go on to win the Championship that year, Kubica had gone from reserve to rookie to respected in just two years, and a move to Renault in 2010 only cemented his status as a high-level professional driver in Formula One. All of that changed in a heartbeat, however, when Kubica decided to compete in the Ronde di Andora rally between the 2010 and 2011 seasons and suffered a near-fatal crash. With a partially amputated arm, compound fractures in his elbow and legs, and a significant loss of blood, Kubica remained in the car for nearly an hour before safety workers arrived on the scene. Following the crash, doctors told him he would never be able to drive again, let alone drive in the immensely physically demanding cockpit of a F1 car. Kubica remained signed to Renault through 2012, but a freak accident at his home that year saw the Polish driver suffer another broken leg, casting his ultimate recovery further into doubt. Kubica’s first return to racing ironically came in the form of Rally driving, where he won his first rally—the Ronde Gomitolo Di Lana—placing his horror crash firmly in the rearview mirror. He then made his fulltime start in World Rally Championship-2 in the 2013 season, where he proceeded to win the competition in his first go. Kubica’s progress earned him simulator sessions with the Mercedes F1 team, but mobility issues in his arm made it clear that he was still a long way off from being competitive in F1 machinery. Kubica continued to impress with his rally driving, earning a seat in the top World
A 2011 crash took part of Polish F1 driver Robert Kubica’s arm and threatened his career but, after almost nine years, Kubica will return to the top division next season. Robert Kubica agreed to drive for Williams in 2019, completing his unbelievable comeback. It remains to be seen if Kubica still has what it takes to compete at the top level, or if he really can physically last the season. But even if he is less than his former self, the mere fact that he has made it back to Formula One demonstrates an unprecedented dedication to compete, and his driving history suggests he may very well still have the ability to win races. Either way, from a near-death accident to the pinnacle of motorsport, the Robert Kubica’s comeback is one of the most inspirational sports stories of the year.
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