Massachusetts Daily Collegian: Feb. 18, 2014

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TREY DAVIS

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TRUE DETECTIVE A GENRE-DEFYING GEM

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THE MASSACHUSETTS

DAILY COLLEGIAN DailyCollegian.com

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Amherst history is no mystery

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The meaning of the debt ceiling Breaking down a political puzzle By Patrick Hoff Collegian Staff

President Obama signed legislation on Saturday that raised the country’s borrowing limit, or “debt ceiling,” until March 2015. Though the debt ceiling has been in and out of the news for years, it can still be a confusing concept for Americans to understand, especially since it has always been tied to other legislation for the past three years. Here’s a breakdown of what it all means.

What is the debt ceiling?

JULIETTE SANDLEITNER/COLLEGIAN

Robert Cox delivers a lecture on the history of chowder at the eighth annual Amherst Founders’ Day Celebration.

Serving the UMass community since 1890

The debt ceiling, or debt limit, is the amount of money that the U.S. government is authorized to borrow in order to pay

off its existing obligations, including Social Security, Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds and other responsibilities. The debt limit does not authorize the government to spend any more money – it merely allows the government to pay for existing obligations that the president and Congress have already approved. Imagine that the government has a credit card that they have charged many purchases to. Raising the debt limit is like asking the credit card company to raise the credit limit so that purchases that have already been made can be paid for. Failure to raise the debt limit is worse than a government shutdown because if the debt limit is not raised, the United States defaults on its loans, causing strife for American families who see

DEBT CEILING on page 3

Gay marriage picks up Fund established in memory speed to Supreme Court of deceased Five College Same sex couples gain more support By DaviD g. savage Tribune Washington Bureau The legal campaign for marriage equality is picking up speed, moving at a pace that has surprised even longtime advocates and increasing the likelihood of a definitive Supreme Court test as early as next year. Efforts by some lawyers to plan a careful strategy for which cases to push forward to the high court have largely been put aside amid a rush of lower-court rulings striking down bans on same-sex marriage. The most recent came last week in Virginia, the first such ruling in the South. “I don’t think there is any way to predict” which case will arrive at the Supreme Court first, lawyer David Boies said after the Virginia ruling. In the last eight weeks, in addition to the Virginia decision, federal judges in Utah and Oklahoma have struck down laws limiting marriage equality. A federal judge in Kentucky ruled the state must recognize same-sex marriages from other states. And in Ohio, a federal judge issued a more narrow ruling that cast doubt on the state’s ban. Increasingly, the judges are saying they can see no legitimate justification for denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples. With the Supreme Court having said that states cannot validly base marriage laws on traditional religious disapproval of homosexuality, the remaining justifications offered to defend the

laws fail to pass muster, the judges have ruled. U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen in the Virginia case began her opinion with a lengthy quotation from Mildred Loving, the plaintiff who successfully challenged Virginia’s law against interracial marriage in the high court in 1967. That opening served notice that the judge, a former Navy lawyer appointed in 2011 by President Barack Obama, did not accept Virginia’s argument that history and tradition were enough to justify the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. She also forcefully rejected the state’s argument that limiting marriage to heterosexual couples is good for children. She noted that one of the two couples who sued Mary Townley and Carol Schall - have a 16-year-old daughter, Emily. “Like the thousands of children being raised by same-sex couples, (Emily) is needlessly deprived of the protection, the stability, the recognition and the legitimacy that marriage conveys,” the judge wrote. Though the state has “compelling interests in protecting and supporting our children,” they are “not furthered by a prohibition on same-sex marriage.” If marriage is good for families, for children and for society - as all sides agree - then the state may not deprive its “gay and lesbian citizens of the opportunity and the right to choose to celebrate, in marriage, a loving, rewarding, monogamous relationship with a partner to whom they are committed for life,” she concluded.

The sequence of rulings amounts to “a fundamental shift in the legal landscape,” said Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry. Jurists increasingly are saying that “marriage discrimination against loving and committed gay couples is indefensible under our Constitution,” he said. That shift is not limited to judges. The chief state attorneys in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Nevada refused to defend the constitutionality of their longstanding laws forbidding gay marriage. The pace of the rulings may be more rapid than some Supreme Court justices would have preferred. Last year, the high court avoided ruling directly on whether gays and lesbians had a constitutional right to marry. Instead, the justices issued a 5-4 ruling that struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act and extended equal rights to legally married same-sex couples. Although the ruling had a limited reach, it included broadly worded passages about equal rights that lower-court judges are now citing as a basis for striking down bans on same-sex marriage. Most speculation about how the Supreme Court would handle a second round of same-sex marriage cases has focused on Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a Reagan appointee who has written the court’s major gay rights opinions. He is often the swing vote between the court’s four Democratic appointees and its four conservative Republicans. see

GAY MARRIAGE on page 3

visionary and pioneer

Contributions by “Jackie was a liason to a wide range of Pritzen recognized academic committees during her long tenBy JosH Darling

Collegian Correspondent

A fund meant to finance academic programs in the Five College Consortium has been established in honor of a recently deceased, longtime member of the administration. In honor of her numerous contributions, the Consortium has started the Jackie Pritzen Fund to ensure that her legacy of generosity and passion for higher learning lives on. Kicked off last November by a donation from Hampshire College alumna Jacqueline R. Slater, the fund has already raised over $165,000 in Pritzen’s honor. “Jackie was liaison to a wide range of academic committees during her long tenure with the Consortium,” Five College communications director Kevin Kennedy said. “In recognition of her versatility, funding will be awarded to Five College academic programs based on applications submitted to the consortium.” Kennedy went on to say that applications would be taken on a rolling basis, and will begin this fall. The generous spirit and academic focus embodied by the fund is quite representative of the person it was named in honor of. A Fulbright scholar and Yale graduate by the time she began working for the Five College Consortium in 1969, Pritzen worked tirelessly and selflessly

ure with the Consortium. In recognition of her versatility, funding will be awarded to Five College academic programs based on applications submitted to the consortium.” Kevin Kennedy, Five College communications director

to help lead and establish many of the collaborative projects enjoyed by Five College students today. Over the course of her 25-year career with the Consortium, Pritzen played a leading role in establishing the African Studies Council, American Indian Studies, the Center for East Asian Studies, Coastal and Marine Sciences, East Asian Languages and the Latin American Studies Council. She is also credited with developing the first coordinated Five Colleges Calendar, greatly facilitating cooperative efforts between the schools. Pritzen reflected on these and her many other contributions in a 1995 interview following her retirement. “(The presidents of each of the Five Colleges) saw a new era coming, and knew that not all institutions would be able to keep up with the knowledge explosion,” Pritzen said. “(Colleges in the Pioneer Valley area) weren’t going to be able to expand their curriculum and student body the way larger places could, so they looked to each other for help.” T his posthumous fund is not the first time

Pritzen’s contributions to the Five Colleges have been officially recognized. Upon her retirement in 1995, the Five Colleges initiated the annual Jackie Pritzen Lecture. The lecture is free and open to the public, and has hosted a variety of interesting guest speakers and topics in the years since its inception. One notable example is the physicist who discussed a potential theoretical basis for time travel. Beyond her numerous academic contributions, Pritzen was a beloved and gregarious member of the Pioneer Valley community. She was a diehard Red Sox fan, an apt political conversationalist and a great cook. She garnered the reputation of a true and caring friend, always lending an ear to those in need. Pritzen died on Aug. 10, 2013 – two days after her 83rd birthday. Her life and legacy was celebrated at the Hampshire College Red Barn on Feb. 16 from 2 to 4 p.m. Josh Darling can be reached at jmdarling@umass.edu


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