1979. USA. Dir: Francis Ford Coppola. With Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando. 153 min.
“The Horror! The Horror!”
Sheen gets sent upriver n a Joseph Conrad-inspired odyssey through the physical and psychological landscape of the Vietnam War, confronting violence, jingoism, and the base brutality of the human spirit. You can almost smell the napalm…
Tonight / 8 p.m. / Goldsmith Family Cinema / Free
A great event comes your way from Nikki Dodd ’15:
What do Buddhism and violence have to do with each other, you might ask? Come to this lecture and Q&A event to find out! This event will address contemporary examples of Asian Buddhists engaged in politicized acts of violence.
THE ISSUES
1) Self-immolation by Tibetan activists
2) Buddhist hostilities with Muslims in BurmaTHE SPEAKERS
1) Dr. Robbie Barnett (Modern Tibetan Studies, Columbia University)
2) Ashin Nayaka (Buddhist Missionary Society of New York)Be sure to arrive on time because there will be pizza!
Date: Wednesday, November 6th, 2013
Time: Noon
Place: PAC 001
Cost: Free
Want to spend the two-month anniversary of the Newtown shooting marching through Hartford with thousands of others to demand sensible gun legislation in Connecticut? So do I. There’s a planning meeting on Tuesday, and Em Kianka ’13 has deets:
The recent tragedy in Newtown has just made more apparent an issue that has been neglected for far too long. We as a community must take a stand and tell our legislators that enacting gun control legislation now is necessary to ending gun violence in the state of Connecticut. Come stand in solidarity with those working to end gun violence and join the March for Change in Hartford the morning of February 14th. The March for Change is organized by a coalition of activists supporting the enactment of safer gun legislation in CT and will support the efforts of CT Against Gun Violence.
Interested in marching or helping mobilize a coalition of Wesleyan students to attend or volunteer at the march? Come attend this planning meeting on Tuesday, 1/29 at 4:15 in Usdan 110 to talk about our vision for Wesleyan’s involvement in the march. THERE WILL BE SNACKS!
Also, please invite your friends!
Date: Tuesday, January 29 (the actual march is February 14)
Time: 4:15 p.m.
Place: Usdan 110
Facebook: koobecaF
“In Middletown, the connection between those ignored by society who then come back to cause harm is difficult to overlook.”
In the days and hours after the Newtown shooting, my thoughts turned to Johanna Justin-Jinich ’10, the Wesleyan student who was senselessly gunned down in Broad Street Books in 2009. A prefrosh at the time, I wasn’t on campus. I followed the tragedy, in horror and shock, from the safety of my parents’ house, and I fielded uncomfortable questions from high school classmates who asked if I was going to “the school where that girl was killed.”
I’m not the only member of the Wesleyan community for whom Sandy Hook triggered memories of 2009. First came a blog post from Professor Claire Potter, who reflects on faculty experiences in the wake of Justin-Jinich’s murder and argues forcefully against proposals to arm teachers. Then followed a Huffington Post column from President Roth, who advocates for gun control and writes, “If we falter, if we think the politics too difficult or too complicated, we should remember Johanna.”
“Violence and Mental Illness in Middletown, Connecticut” is the latest, a sprawling Atlantic piece that weaves together the shooting of Justin-Jinich, the 2012 outrage over Middletown elementary school “scream rooms,” and the horrific 1989 stabbing of a young girl on Main Street into a portrait of a small city still haunted by violence and stigmatization of the mentally ill. (David Peterson, the schizophrenic man who stabbed nine-year-old Jessica Short as her family looked on, had just escaped from Connecticut Valley Hospital, where Stephen Morgan is now held. Like Morgan, Peterson was later ruled insane.)
In the wake of the Newtown shooting, should teachers be armed?
One week after the Newtown shooting, the NRA has ended its social media blackout and the national gun policy debate is as bitter as it’s ever been. Thousands of Americans are demanding gun control now, and if you’re reading Wesleying, chances are you agree. But on the gun-owning side of the lobby—the sort of people who follow NRA’s Twitter account in the first place—conservatives demand the opposite: more guns, more concealed carry, more self-defense. (Don’t believe these people are real? Read a few NRA Facebook comments. Go ahead; I’ll wait.) In one heated exchange, Larry Pratt of the Gun Owners of America appeared on Piers Morgan and suggested that gun control advocates are responsible for the massacre. “Since we have concealed carry laws in all of our country now, people can get a concealed firearm,” Pratt argued. “And yet, we have laws that say not in schools.”
Should teachers be armed in the classroom? Could guns in school have saved the lives of 20 children and six teachers? Should America combat guns with—err, more guns?
Over at Tenured Radical, in a post titled “Teachers Are Not Soldiers,” Professor Claire Potter has a response for the pro-gun lobby. In a phrase: “Uh, no.”
Professor Potter describes learning about the Sandy Hook massacre after having just read Jeffrey Goldberg’s December Atlantic piece in favor of more guns. The bulk of her argument revolves around an experience at Wesleyan following the shooting of May, 2009, when a gunman remained on the loose after murdering Johanna Justin-Jinich ’10 in Red & Black Cafe. Wesleyan’s campus went into lockdown, and Potter waited for hours in the Center for the Americas:
“Given the size of our campus and our openness to visitors, each of us must make a personal commitment to promote safety and security for ourselves and others.”
Good thing your usually paranoid WesParents were kept busy this weekend. Otherwise they might have heard through the grapevine about the inordinate number of P-Safe reports students received. Ranging from the awkward to the truly menacing, each report detailed an account of students approached at night by men, and all of them ended in shouting or physical confrontations. The first one, from Friday night (or Saturday morning, depending on how you operate), seems merely socially awkward:
Public Safety would like to inform the community that on Saturday 10/20/12 at 2:44am a female was walking on Church St and was approached by a male subject who put his arm around her and asked her to walk with him. The male removed his arm and tried to start a conversation with the student. Several other students walked by and the female walked away from the male and into the Exley Science Center. The male shouted out to her but did not follow her. The male then left the area and the student later notified Public Safety of the incident. The student was not injured and declined to speak with Middletown Police.
The student described the suspect as an African-American male, 5″ 6″ tall, medium build in, his late 20’s or early 30’s, short hair, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, dark jeans and carrying a backpack.
A discussion at 200 Church about homophobic harassment:
There have been an unfortunate series of tragic cases of violence that have recently occurred in the QPOC community. These were instances of anti-queer bullying, name-calling, and other forms of harassment that have resulted in too many beautiful individuals losing their lives at an early age. Spectrum would like to have an open discussion about these events to coalesce as community and bring awareness to these tragic events on Wesleyan’s campus. We would also like to bring this discussion close to home by discussing experiences of violence, harassment, and safety on Wesleyan’s campus. Food will be provided.
Date: Thursday, April 30
Time: 7 pm
Place: 200 Church
Cost: FREE (+ free pizza)
The Argus has more information about last Friday’s Public Safety report: two students, Claire Staples ’09 and Travis Fitzgerald ’09, were assaulted in an unprovoked attack by four people on Friday night, outside the Davison Art Center on High Street.
Following a gathering at her house on Court Street, Staples and Fitzgerald were traveling up Court Street towards a friend’s house when they noticed four youths loitering ahead. The youths began to follow them, at which point Staples and Fitzgerald crossed High Street and headed towards safety at the CFA, where they both have studios. Staples then tried to flag down a passing PSafe patrol car, but it failed to notice her attempts.
…Within seconds, Staples was severely hit multiples times in the face by one assailant. Fitzgerald, after chasing the attackers, sustained minor injuries to the face and back. No weapons were used in the assault, and theft does not seem to have been a motive. Following the attack, Fitzgerald called PSafe, and he and Staples, who was heavily bleeding, were taken to the hospital.
The effects of the assault have outlasted the incident itself. Staples, who bore the brunt of the attack, sustained an orbital blowout fracture below her left eye and received multiples stitches for cuts on her chin. Currently on Percocet to numb the pain, she is unable to attend classes or work on her senior thesis.
“I definitely thought that I was invincible,” Staples said. “Now I feel a little vulnerable. It all happened in like twenty seconds.”
This is pretty unnerving – by all accounts this kind of attack is rare, and Public Safety has stepped up security in the area since Friday. The case is being pursued with the Middletown Police Department, but the fact that it happened is another reminder to watch your back when you’re out late.
The victims are admirably clear-headed about the incident:
The assault is particularly unsettling for Staples since it appears to be unprovoked and unmediated. Additionally, she feels that it was directed towards her not as an individual, but as a Wesleyan student.
“I was attacked because I was a Wes student,” Staples said. “It didn’t matter that it was me. It’s an isolated incident and yet it’s not an isolated incident. It was just a bunch of fucking punk ass kids.”
Staples, who has lived on the periphery of campus both during the summer and academic year, still considers Middletown a safe place to live. Both she and Fitzgerald do not fault the community for what happened or see this assault as an accurate depiction of relations between the University and greater community.
“It certainly hasn’t changed my opinion of Middletown,” Staples said. “I know that it’s not a good representation of Middletown. It’s still a great place to live.”
According to the Argus, Claire is planning to hold an art show of photos chronicling her injuries in March – kudos for making something positive out of this ordeal.
Argus: Two Students Attacked Outside CFA on Friday
Not to strike excessive fear into the hearts of students living at the edges of campus, but there was an attempted mugging at gunpoint on Pearl Street last night. From this morning’s P-Safe alert:
Public Safety would like to inform the community that on Friday 12/5/08 at approximately 1:00am a student was approached outside their residence on Pearl St by an individual who began asking the student questions about where they lived and what was in his pockets. The individual then attempted to strike the student and a scuffle ensued.
The subject got to his feet and pointed a handgun at the student and demanded they empty their pockets. A vehicle then approached the area and the subject fled. The student went to a friend’s house and later called Middletown Police. The student did not receive any injuries.
It should go without saying – Wesleyan is physically not a bubble. Be vigilant, avoid walking alone at night if you can, and if you do, at least be aware of the possibility of danger.
This might be a good time for Americans to be thankful that our cities haven’t been subject to major terrorist attacks for awhile.
If anyone has friends or family in Mumbai, hope they’re safe.
BBC News: Mumbai Attacks
