“Some of the News That’s Fit to Print”
October 29, 2012
The VA Voice Vermont Academy, Saxtons River, Vermont 05154 “Discere verba et opera Dei”
Vermont Academy Hosts Jack Beatty
By: Mike Reilly Last week the Vermont Academy community had the great opportunity to listen to the political insights of Mr. Jack Beatty. Mr. Beatty is most well known for his role in the regular NPR program “On Point.” Beatty is also an acclaimed author. For fifteen years he served as Senior Editor for The Atlantic magazine. During his tenure, Beatty has also taught writing classes at Harvard, Dartmouth, and Yale. Mr. Beatty joined us to talk about the politics of the current presidential election, and some overriding themes of American politics. Mr. Beatty focused most of his time on the idea of statism versus individualism and what these terms actually mean. Statism is the philosophy that the state should provide for the people, an idea promoted Picture Courtesy of Vermont Academy by Democrats and Barack Obama. Individualism states that citizens should be independent from the state, and this idea is promoted by Republicans and Mitt Romney. Mr. Beatty talked about how throughout the course of American history, individualism has usually won over statism, but that an overriding theme of American government since the time of the New Deal has always been to provide assistance for the unfortunate. After his discussion, Mr. Beatty took some questions from students and faculty. He talked about a range of issues brought up by members of the community including the percieved contradiction between social and fiscal conservatism as well as the individual mandate put in place by The Affordable Care Act. After taking questions, Mr. Beatty enjoyed lunch with Vermont Academy students and continued discussing politics. I thought that Mr. Beatty was an excellent speaker. He was able to effectively talk about the election in an objective way, which is not an easy feat. Mr. Beatty gave some great insight into how the current party system developed, and how that development relates to what America values today. On behalf of the Vermont Academy community I would just like to thank Mr. Beatty again.
Volume 17, Issue 5
IN THE MARGIN The Third Presidential Debate President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney participated in their third presidential debate on Monday. The debate was moderated by Bob Schieffer, and centered on the issues of American foreign policy. The candidates frequently brought the conversation back to the economy. Northeast Prepares for Sandy Hurricane Sandy, referred to as “Frankenstorm,” is projected to slam much of the east coast on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Authorities have already closed schools and evacuated low lying areas of cities like New York. World Series Continues The Major League Baseball World Series is underway in Detroit. The San Francisco Giants are pitted against the Detroit Tigers, and the Giants are up three games to none. If the Giants were to win the series, they would bring their world series total to nine wins. This is surely shaping up to be a memorable series.