ONLINE-ONLY: TIERNEY HALL TO BECOME UPPERCLASS DORM, MANRESA PROGRAM MOVING TO SOUTH OR MARTYRS’ SERVING THE FORDHAM UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY FOR OVER 90 YEARS
1918-2010
OCTOBER 27, 2010
VOLUME 92, ISSUE 17
Fox News’s Juan Williams Speaks at Fordham Veteran News Analyst Gives First Lecture After Firing from National Public Radio; Focuses on Education, Age and Class in American Society By PATRICK DEROCHER NEWS EDITOR
Fox News analyst and commentator Juan Williams spoke at an Academia Hispania and ASILI cosponsored event in Tognino Hall in Duane Library on Oct. 21 in his first speaking engagement since being fired by National Public Radio on Oct. 20. Williams, whose recent ouster came after remarks on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor” were taken as offensive to Muslims, acknowledged the controversy early in his lecture. “It has been an interesting few days,” he said. “It is quite the experience, being in the center of a controversy like this.” Williams’ firing came in response to a discussion with “O’Reilly Factor” host Bill O’Reilly in which he expressed concern over airline passengers dressed in “Muslim garb” “When I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried,” he said, “I get nervous.” Although he did not directly address the controversy during his main lecture, he fielded multiple audience questions regarding the matter. At each question, Williams emphasized the context in which the remark was framed. In his interview with O’Reilly, Williams
noted on multiple times that his past work and involvement in the history of the civil rights movement indicated his unwillingness to let racial prejudice and preconceptions affect his decision-making: “I’m not a bigot,” he said in his interview with O’Reilly. “You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country.” Elsewhere in the program, Williams specifically decried such responses to the proposed mosque as Koran burning and other backlashes. “It was not even an opinion I was describing,” he said at Fordham. “It was a gut reaction, an irrational fear.” Although Williams did not specifically disown what he said on “The O’Reilly Factor,” he nevertheless said that he regretted any offense anyone had taken at the remark. When asked directly about the matter of political correctness invading and, as he put it, “paralyzing” discourse, Williams said that he believed that NPR’s response to his remarks was indeed an example of that “paralysis.” In keeping with his main body of work and research, Williams dedicated his lecture to talking about the role of race, class and other social divisions in American life, a topic to which audience members SEE WILLIAMS ON PAGE 3
PHOTO BY CAROLINE DAHLGREN/ THE RAM
Speaking at Tognino Hall in Duane Library on Oct. 21, former NPR news analyst Juan Williams, in his first appearance since being let go from that position, discussed matters of prejudice, preconception and demographics in America.
Loyola Chair Discusses Poetry and Spirituality at Lecture By EMILY ARATA CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Easter, according to Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, is a verb that means allowing the empowering spirit of Christ to come alive in the minds, hearts and souls of followers. This is the basis of the lecture “Let Him Easter In Us: Gerard Manley Hopkins, Ignatius Loyola, and the Spiritual Consolations of Poetry,” given by Dr. Rev. Francis X. McAloon, S.J., on Monday evening. McAloon is currently associate professor of Christian spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University in addition to Fordham University’s fall 2010 Loyola Chair. He has spent the last 10 years studying poetry as a religious medium. McAloon focused on the consolatory poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins as a mode of non-Biblical prayer in contemporary life. He believes that, by working poetry into prayer, Christians open themselves to an entirely new spiritual experience, which he referred to as “reading for transformation.” In fact, Hopkins himself spent his life as a Jesuit priest. Born in 1844, the Victorian poet composed poetry that was stylistically far ahead of his time. None was published during his lifetime for fear it would not be well received. The first book of Hopkins’ poetry was not published
until 1917. He was raised Anglican but converted, later studying at Oxford in addition to spending many years in parish work. He passed a great deal of his life struggling with his dual urges to be both a priest and a poet, since that was not a common occurrence at a time when rules for the ordained were extremely rigid. Hopkins’ consolatory poetry mainly focuses on the beauty of nature and the way it reflects the glory of God. McAloon took a moment to clarify this statement, saying that he often tells his students that, “the best way for a cow to bring glory to God is by simply being a cow.” The poet also parallels many creatures and objects in nature to art and music. His poems are a sensory experience, focusing on specific details rather than general ideas. The poet died from tuberculosis in 1889 at the age of 44. The first poem discussed was arguably Hopkins’ most popular piece, “Pied Beauty.” McAloon performed a reading of the poem, taking time to explain each line. The poem revels in the “dappled” quality of nature; namely, that all God’s creatures are beautiful in their imperfections and differences. It also refers to farm fields, which McAloon discussed as a reference to how even the simplest human work gives glory to God. He also spent time discussing the fact that Hopkins’ poetry “gives us words with which to find ourselves,”
acknowledging that creating our own prayers and meditations is far from easy. The daunting task can be made easier by using poetry to express intended feelings and praises. The second poem read was “As Kingfishers Catch Fire,” a striking piece which begins with imagery of brilliantly colored creatures and moves on to the role of humans in creation yet again. After a reading of the poem, McAloon called the attention of his audience to Hopkins’ focus on action and movement. He struck a note with his listeners when likening the tolling bell in the poem to our very own bell in the University Church. McAloon discussed at length the sentiment at the very core of Hopkins’ poetry: humans created in the image of Christ. According to him, the just person is the one who realizes that the truest embodiment of self is Christ, since we are created in His image. Thus, the actions of Christ in the world are really based upon the actions of Christians in the world.
COURTESY OF FORDHAM.EDU
Francis X. McAloon, S.J., of Santa Clara University spoke about British poet Gerard Manley Hopkins at his Loyola Chair Lecture on Oct. 19.
McAloon concluded with a brief restatement of the fact that Hopkins’ poetry opens readers up to a whole new experience. Very often we overlook the fact that this simplest of human endeavors brings great glory to God. Hopkins, well ahead of his con-
temporaries, was one of the first to acknowledge this view. The cow still brings glory to its Creator just by being a cow, much as the student brings glory just by being a student. In the opinions of McAcloon and Gerard Manley Hopkins, God is easily accessible to all of us.
Sports PAGE 24
Opinions PAGE 6
Culture PAGE 13
Football wins Family Weekend game over Lafayette.
An argument for caffeine options near the library.
Haunted places on Fordham’s campus.
INSIDE