Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxlv, no. 18 | Friday, February 19, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Khalidi offers bleak outlook for Palestine Gymnastics team finds
By Sarah Forman
Contributing Writer
Palestine faces enormous chal-
lenges that have only worsened
over the past 20 years, and achieving
stability and independence from
Israeli occupation is becoming more
and more unlikely, Rashid Khalidi,
professor of modern Arab studies
at Columbia, told a full MacMillan
117 Thursday night.
“A two-state solution looks a lot
further off today than it did in the
1990s,” he said, listing off the major
ways in which life for Palestinians
has worsened.
“In spite of all of these vicissi-
tudes,” he said, Palestinians have an
“extraordinary solidarity of society”
and general cohesiveness, so they
may just escape their “very, very
grim future.”
As he outlined the decline in
prospects for peace and stability
in Palestine, Khalidi spoke at length
about “the fiction of a Palestinian
Authority,” an administrative body
created to govern the Palestinian
territories. He claimed that the
Tale of Brown slave’s son retold
By Sarah Julian
Staff Writer
When Moses Brown found out that
his wife had been feeding spoiled
soup to the family’s slaves, he chas-
tised her and told the workers they
could always come to him if they
were being mistreated.
This story, along with many oth-
ers about life in Providence in the
1880s, is recounted in “The Life of
William J. Brown of Providence,
Alum’s nonprofit funds
higher ed in Haiti
By Heeyoung Min
Senior Staf f Writer
 
Conor Bohan ’92 left Haiti on Jan.
10 — just two days before an earth-
quake struck 10 miles from Port-
au-Prince, home to the scholarship
organization that Bohan founded
in 1997.
FEATURE
As soon as he heard about the
quake on the radio, he tried to
contact his friends in Haiti with-
out success, Bohan said in a phone
inter view with The Herald from
Port-au-Prince last week.
All the phone lines were down,
Bohan said. He wasn’t able to reach
inside
News.....1-4
Arts...........5
Memorial..6-8
World.........9
Editorial..10
Opinion...11
Today........12
www.browndailyherald.com
Columbia’s Rashid Khalidi called the Fatah-Hamas split “venemous.”
group has no real power, and that
a “venomous” split between Fatah
and Hamas, two rival political par-
ties, has destroyed its legitimacy
and effectiveness.
Suicide bombings during the
R.I.” The book is the autobiography
of William J. Brown — a free black
man who was the son of a Brown
family slave. Brown’s book was
recently republished as a result of
the efforts of Ray Rickman, a rare
books dealer and the “self-appoint-
ed historian of College Hill.”
“I believe it is the finest nar-
rative written by a free person of
color in the 19th century,” Rick-
man said. Brown, who was able
to write his story because he was
anyone in Haiti until the next morn-
ing, when a staff member of the
Haitian Education and Leadership
Program — the biggest scholarship
organization in Haiti — reported to
him via Skype that several students
in his program were injured.
Returning to Haiti
Bohan booked a flight for the
next day to the Dominican Repub-
lic because Haiti’s airports were
closed. Bohan landed in Santo Do-
mingo, where a taxi, arranged by
a Dominican friend, was waiting to
drive him to the Haitian border. He
spent the night in the small border
town of Jimani, in the home of a
continued on page 4
Arts, 5
Fang Island Debuts
RISD band drops their first
album Feb. 23
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
Kshitij Lauria / Herald
First Intifada, a 1987–1993 Palestin-
ian uprising against Israel, came
about because of the “corrosive
effect” of these political divisions,
continued on page 2
one of the few blacks who were
educated at the time, “talks about
everyone. Seldom do black narra-
tives do that.”
Rickman said while many of the
writers of black narratives focus on
their own communities, Brown’s
work covers many topics including
the presidential elections, the busi-
ness community and the Brown
family.
continued on page 3
HELP student Marc-Erline Dezulm’s apartment building was devastated by the Feb. 12 earthquake in Haiti.
true meaning of winter
By Tory Elmore
Contributing Writer
Katie Goddard ’12 isn’t afraid of a
little pain. A nasty, dinner-plate-sized
bruise, undoubtedly the result of
a tumble gone awry, colored her
backside as she took the floor by
storm Feb. 14. She’s not scared of
the competition, either. She earned
the top spot on floor, edging out a
former Olympian by one-tenth of
a point.
SPORTS
And she’s certainly not worried
about a little snow. Well, a lot of
snow. This week, Goddard, along
with the rest of the gymnastics team,
is escaping this brutal New England
winter — and heading to Alaska.
Four and a half thousand miles
seems pretty far to take 13 girls for
a long weekend. But the University
of Alaska Anchorage is more than
just a destination for the Bears. It’s
Head Coach Sara Carver-Milne’s
alma mater and a snapshot of her
career as a collegiate gymnast. Emo-
tions run high as the girls’ departure
approaches, the athletes brimming
with excitement and anticipation.
And perhaps, for Carver-Milne, a
touch of nostalgia.
“I look for ward to sharing all
the beauty of Alaska as I enjoyed
it during my four years there,” she
said. “It will be a solid competition
as well as a chance for the team to
compete in a different area of the
country.”
So, how will the East Coast gym-
nasts fare in the Wild West? “The
Alaskan team is strong, but, based
Memorial, 6
AVI SCHAEFER ’13
Friends and admirers
remember a life cut
short
on Brown’s determination and suc-
cess so far this season, they are
definitely beatable,” Goddard said.
“We usually get scored pretty
tough here with our judges, so when
we travel, our scores are significant-
ly better,” added teammate Victoria
Zanelli ’11.
Officiating was a topic of con-
cern for Brown on Sunday, causing
some distress among the athletes
and coaching staff. Carver-Milne
said her team’s hard-hitting routines
were underscored and was visibly
disappointed by some of the judges’
marks. Coming off their two stron-
gest meets yet, the Bears will look
to put up a high score at Alaska in
order to land them a spot in Nation-
als later this season.
Chelsey Binkley ’11, a key all-
around competitor who finished
second on Sunday with a combined
37.35 score, is confident in the
squad. “This is the best and most
hard-working team that I have been
a part of in my three years here,” she
said. “We are going to give Alaska a
great competition.”
Win or lose, Alaska will be an
arctic adventure for the girls, none
of whom have been there before.
“We have a lot of southerners
and warm-weather people on the
team, so snow in general is pretty
exciting to us,” Binkley said.
After two months of a wet Rhode
Island winter, the Alaskan wildlife
and landscape should be a good
change of scenery.
“We have planned a trip to a gla-
cier, a big game wildlife zoo, a tram
ride up the mountains and will see
continued on page 9
Courtesy of Conor Bohan
Opinions, 11
Tardy for the Party
Ben Bastomski ’10
considers the ethics of
partying for charity
herald@browndailyherald.com
Page 2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Friday, February 19, 2010

C ampus N EWS “I think American policy does harm.”

— Rashid Khalidi, on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Khalidi: Israeli mindset SLAM WOW

needs to change for peace
continued from page 1
he said.
“Fatah competed with Hamas to
see who could do the most horrible
acts in Israel,” Khalidi said.
Palestine lost public favor because
of this increased violence, Khalidi
said, and Israel used the bombings
as justification for more fervent oc-
cupation.
“Expansion of the Israeli matrix
of control over Palestinians” has con-
sumed Palestinian freedom, Khalidi
said. “The kinds of restrictions on
movement that exist today were un-
imaginable 20 years ago.”
Expanded Israeli settlements in
the Gaza Strip and the West Bank
have fractured the landscape, mak-
ing it all but impossible to construct
a contiguous Palestinian state, and
Israel’s bureaucracy and economy
have become increasingly dependent
upon the continued occupation of
Palestine, he said.
In order to negotiate a peace
agreement, Khalidi said during the
question-and-answer period, the
mindset in Israel that “what’s mine is
mine and what’s yours is negotiable”
needs to change.
During previous negotiations,
terms were drastically imbalanced
against Palestinians, and Israel “was
eating up what we were supposed to
be dividing,” Khalidi said.
Despite Khalidi’s generally grim
portrayal of Palestine’s likely future,
the very diverse group of students,
professors and community members
who attended the lecture appeared
enthused, with more people stand-
ing in line to ask questions than the
lecture could accommodate.
sudoku
“I think it’s wonderful that the
lecture had such a broad representa-
tion of students,” said Henry Peck
’11, one of the four leaders of Com-
mon Ground: Justice and Equality in
Palestine/Israel, which sponsored
the event along with the Department
of Middle East Studies and Vice
President for International Affairs
Matthew Gutmann.
“I thought it was phenomenal,”
said Janine Khraishah ’12 of the lec-
ture. She said she found it “particu-
larly motivational,” and that she was
“enraged by the current situation in
Palestine.”
Brown Students for Justice in Pal-
estine, a group whose steering com-
mittee Khraishah sits on, came to the
event to distribute information.
“We’re here to talk about our
divestment campaign,” said Ruhan
Nagra ’10, another member of the
steering committee. The group wants
Brown to drop its investments in all
companies that profit from the Israeli
occupation of Palestinian territories,
she said.
The group saw Khalidi as an ad-
vocate because he supported Hamp-
shire College’s successful divestment
campaign last year, she said.
“He portrayed a very real picture
of what’s happening right now, why
it’s happening and what we can do to
change it,” Nagra said of Khalidi.
The death last week of Avi
Schaefer ’13, who engaged in vigor-
ous campus dialogue on the Israeli
and Palestinian conflict, clouded the
event. The organizers held a moment
of silence beforehand, and Peck said,
“The tragic event of a week ago cer-
tainly heightened awareness of ef-
forts to foster peace.”
Jamila Woods ’11 and four others will represent Brown at the National College Poetry Slam in April.
Q & A with Rashid Khalidi
Rashid Khalidi, professor of
modern Arab studies at Columbia,
spoke with The Herald Thursday
night before his lecture on “The
Uncertain Future of Palestine.” At
2 p.m. Friday afternoon Khalidi will
speak at the Watson Institute for
International Studies about the Cold
War’s impact on the Middle East.
Herald: How will your lec-
ture tomorrow afternoon at the
Watson Institute be different
(from the one you gave this
evening)?
Khalidi: What I will be talking
about there is the impact in the
Middle East of the Cold War, which
nobody really talks about. It’s usu-
ally talked about from the point of
view of Washington or Moscow
… I also go on to argue that there
hasn’t been as much of a change
in American policy as you might
have expected at the end of the Cold
War, and that we’re in sort of a mini
cold war with Iran, which in some
ways mimics the Cold War with the
Soviet Union. There are a variety of
problems in the American — and
for that matter also in the Iranian
— approach that result from that
sort of continuation of the confron-
tational stance.
Why has the Israeli-Pales-
tinian crisis become a rallying
cr y for so much of the Arab
world?
It’s always been a hugely emo-
tional issue in the Arab world … The
Palestine issue was always really
significant to some Arab countries,
in particular Egypt, Syria, Lebanon
and Jordan, the countries immedi-
ately around Palestine. And after the
’48 war it was even more so, because
you had a flow of refugees into these
are being closed off. The easiest and
most obvious solution is a simple
two-state solution. I think that that’s
been pretty much closed off by the
ineptitude of American policy and
by the malevolence of the policy
of settlement and occupation. It’s
very difficult to see how things that
have been done with the express
purpose of making it impossible
for a two-state solution could be
easily hurdled. I think they can be,
perhaps, but not easily.
And it gets harder and harder.
And one doesn’t see any politician,
Israeli or American, who seems to
be able to reverse that process. And
given that, there’s not going to be
a two-state solution. There may be
other solutions, but they’re probably
even harder … The easiest thing
is to say, make the Palestinians
capitulate and just let them accept
fifth-class citizenship, shut up, and
accept whatever crumbs are thrown
your way. That’s just not going to
happen.
You’ve spoken publicly
against suicide bombings and
killing Israeli soldiers. What do
you think Palestinians should
be doing instead to advance
their cause?
What I’ve said is that I think for
a variety of reasons — strategic,
moral, historical — that they should
adopt a policy of non-violence, not
just not killing civilians. I think
that violence doesn’t serve them,
partly because they’re dealing with
a people which sees itself as the
ultimate victims, and anything they
do involving violence reinforces and
strengthens that sense of victim-
hood. And that’s not something that
is only held by Israelis; I think many
people in the world share it. So it
Hilary Rosenthal / Herald
and the arguments in international
law, which I think are incontrovert-
ible and which I think are important
for the weaker party in some re-
spects … If you depend on inter-
national law and on international
humanitarian standards then you
have to be rigorous in behaving.
That means organizing Palestin-
ian society much better than it’s
organized.
You argue in your most re-
cent work, “Sowing Crisis: The
Cold War and American Domi-
nance in the Middle East,” and
your other books and essays
that a lot of the issues plaguing
the Middle East result from the
United States’ misguided for-
eign policy over the better part
of the last century. If the U.S.
were to fundamentally change
how it interacts with other coun-
tries, could these problems be
reversed?
Not everything, by any means,
was the fault of the superpowers.
And not everything, by any means,
was the fault of the United States or
might be corrected by the United
States. All I would I suggest is there
are a lot of problems that are caused
by the United States, and the United
States could at least stop making
things worse. And that doesn’t nec-
essarily mean that things will get a
lot better.
Take the state of democracy in
the Arab world, not an American-
caused problem. There’s what po-
litical scientists call a democracy
deficit in this region, more than any
other region in the world … This
isn’t caused by the United States
... I would never suggest that the
United States could solve that prob-
lem, or many other problems in the

Daily Herald
countries, who are still there. And increases sympathy for Israel. Arab-Israeli conflict … But, there
the Brown
each of these countries was af- I think the best example of this are problems that the United States
fected by the war … It’s almost a was the second Intifada that started exacerbates.
Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260 no-brainer and the fact that people in 2000, and which we all remember
George Miller, President Katie Koh, Treasurer say, ‘Why are people so concerned because of suicide bombings. I can’t Can America help bring
Claire Kiely, Vice President Chaz Kelsh, Secretary about this?’ makes me think, well, remember a period when Israel was peace to the Middle East?
The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serv- they clearly have no idea about the able to garner so much sympathy, or Absolutely. It can stop doing
ing the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday history of these countries. when there was such a great degree harm. I think American policy
through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during of solidarity inside Israel, or when does harm. I think we underwrite,
Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily
Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each members of the community.
Do you think there’s a solu- Israel moved so far so quickly to the endorse and support and enable
POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI tion to the constant fighting be- right. It hasn’t moved back. policies that are harmful to peace,
02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 tween Israelis and Palestinians This is a monumental strategic policies that are harmful to Pales-
Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. in the region? defeat to the Palestinians. So, leav- tine, the Palestinians and Israelis.
World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com.
Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily.
I think there are many possible ing aside all the moral arguments,
Copyright 2010 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved. solutions; a lot of obvious solutions which I think are overwhelming, — Sarah Forman
Friday, February 19, 2010
C ampus N EWS
Stiff competition in first pick contest
By Anita Mathews
Staf f Writer
The Residential Council’s competi-
tion for the first pick in the hous-
ing lottery, held Thursday night
in Sayles Hall, showcased a wide
variety of student creativity. But
there was a common thread among
many videos: parody. Spoofs of Law
and Order, the Twilight series and
the Cutting Crew’s hit “Died in your
Arms Tonight” were three of eight
entries in this year’s contest.
The over 300 students who at-
tended the event voted on their
favorite entries with paper ballots,
and online voting will open up on
ResCouncil’s Web site within the
next week. According to Jillian
Robbins ’11, housing lottery com-
mittee chair, last year’s online votes
totaled 1,143. ResCouncil Chair
Ben Lowell ’10 said the advantage
of the voting process is that it gets
students to consider their housing
options.
“The event is really intended to
encourage people to start thinking
about housing early,” Lowell said.
“We found that the people who tend
to do the best in the lottery are
those who have prepared.”
Lowell also acknowledged that
the atmosphere of both the first
pick competition and the lottery
can be quite enjoyable. “It’s a fun
thing to do, and it’s really nice for
campus morale.”
This was certainly true in the
case of one submission, “Brunonian
Love,” which included a reinven-
tion of a recent Google ad and
whose references to University
culture elicited several knowing
laughs from the audience. Also
among the contenders was a group
of familiar faces — the reigning
first pick champions who won in
2009 with their video “Ruthless.”
The group, one member larger this
year, submitted a sequel in hopes
of retaining their current residence
in Vartan Gregorian Quad.
“We’re only entering because
we’re not allowed to squat,” said
Matt Reiss ’12, who plays the stu-
dent-attacking bear in the video.
He said he and the other group
Rare books dealer revives 19th century memoir
continued from page 1
“He talks about every major inci-
dent,” Rickman said. “It’s incredible
stuff.”
Brown writes in the first chapter
of his book, “Grandfather Brown
was born in Africa,” and was the
slave of “Joseph, John, Nicholas
and Moses Brown.” The brothers
held their slaves together, with
each one selecting specific slaves
for housework, while the rest did
outdoor labor.
Brown’s father, Noah, was even-
tually freed by Moses Brown, and
William lived as a free man, though
still worked for the Brown family.
Rickman came across the nar-
rative 25 years ago and realized
how special it was. His goal was
to publicize Brown’s work to the
More than 300 students attended Thursday night’s screening of the en-
tries in the housing lottery’s first pick competition.
members think it is unfair that the
lottery rules don’t allow first pick
winners to squat, or stay in their
rooms for the rest of their time at
Brown. Students who choose their
rooms through the normal lottery
process are able to squat.
Regardless, Reiss said he
thought the competition has gotten
better since his group won. “It’s a
step up from last year,” he said.
Another group of sophomores
produced “OceanState’s Eleven,”
which depicted a heist reminis-
cent of the Rat Pack to retrieve the
coveted first pick from a devious
Mr. Manslaughter. Sam Helman
’12, who played Mr. OceanState,
said the group wrote the script
over winter break and has been
working on it since the semester
started. Though Helman said he
thinks the competing videos were
funny, theirs is “a strong contender
to win it.”
“Sunset,” the Twilight parody,
was devised by a dozen freshman,
including Seth Nolan ’13. Nolan
said that it wasn’t long after the
group came together that some-
one proposed the idea to feature
stand-ins for Bella, Jacob and Ed-
point where it would be used in
high school and college classrooms
throughout Rhode Island.
Rickman received a grant from
the Rhode Island Council for the
Humanities to undertake a year-long
project publicizing Brown’s narra-
tive and increasing awareness of the
life of African Americans in Provi-
dence during the 19th century.
“You have a nation with 20 mil-
lion women who have read ‘Little
Women,’ ” Rickman said. He said he
hoped Brown’s book could achieve
the same amount of recognition.
Rickman’s plan to increase
awareness of Brown’s story includes
guided tours of Providence, lectures
and the use of social networking
sites, he said.
SueEllen Kroll, grants director
at the Rhode Island Council for the
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
“There are a lot of hidden gems on campus.”
— Jillian Robbins ’11, housing lottery committee chair
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
ward in their housing video. Nolan
also acknowledged that the other
videos were “very original, very
well-planned.”
While the high caliber of sub-
missions remains uncontested,
what is up for debate is the best
choice of on-campus housing.
“Probably Young Orchard,”
Helman said.
“We were thinking possibly
New Dorm,” Nolan said.
“I know a lot of rising sopho-
mores want Caswell or Slater,” said
spectator Maya Chay ’13.
Lowell and Robbins said if they
were given first pick, their choice
would depend on their class year
and number of people in their
housing group, but maintained
that there are many prime rooms
to be chosen on lottery day.
“There are a lot of hidden gems
on campus,” Robbins said.
The winners will be notified
after online voting ends, and they
then have until March 9 to choose
their room. Until then, the vying
groups will have to sweat over a
close race.
“It was almost hard to vote for
my own video,” Nolan said.
Humanities, said the publicity is
timely.
“The mentality has changed,”
she said. “People are really interest-
ed in hearing this history because it
wasn’t really taught in schools.”
There used to be a “hesitance” to
talk about slavery, Kroll said, but she
believes people are now more open
to learning about that history.
Kroll said she appreciates the
work of the University’s Committee
on Slavery and Justice, which was
formed by President Ruth Simmons
in 2003 to examine the University’s
historical connections to slavery.
The University “demonstrated a
good deal of forward thinking and
for ward momentum and leader-
ship,” Kroll said. “The rest of the
community is saying we want to
embrace and understand this his-
A workshop on micro-scale satellites Thursday brought together scien-
tists, professionals and students.
Miniature satellites
hold giant promise
By Zung Nguyen Vu
Contributing Writer
The Division of Engineering host-
ed its first full-day workshop series
Thursday on micro-scale satellites
called “ChipSats.” The workshop
brought together leading scientists
from the field, professionals work-
ing in the aerospace industry and
students interested in the new tech-
nology.
The focus of the workshop, which
featured panel discussions and lec-
tures, was to explore the prospects
for a satellite that is no bigger than a
fingernail, according to the engineer-
ing division’s Web site. Ken Ramsley,
a visiting investigator in the division
of engineering, said this emerging
technology is being researched by
various institutions, including univer-
sities, laboratories across the country
and NASA. “This workshop is an op-
portunity for the isolated groups to
come together in the spirit of learn-
ing and sharing,” he said.
This year’s workshop is the sec-
ond in a series of annual aerospace
workshops organized by Ramsley
and Adjunct Associate Professor of
Engineering Rick Fleeter. The two
consider themselves the “space men”
of Brown engineering, Fleeter said.
He said the workshop’s purpose was
to introduce the new technology to
the University community.
“Many conferences in this field
tory.”
Professor of Histor y Evelyn
Hu-DeHart, a member of the com-
mittee, said she did not read the
book, but is always interested in
first-person narratives.
A narrative “tells you a whole
lot more than just one story,” she
said. “This is hardly the first one
ever discovered. By the same token,
every story is unique. The more
there are, the better it is for all of
us because it will deepen and enrich
our understanding.”
Brown’s story is important be-
cause history is written by the rich
and powerful, Hu-DeHart said. “The
weakest, the poorest, the victims
of discrimination do not have a
voice.”
The same sentiment was echoed
by Rickman. “American histor y,
Page 3
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
become advertisement shows,” he
said. “We wanted to create an expe-
rience where participants and spe-
cialists come in and put their heads
together to investigate challenging
questions and opportunities.”
Besides attending panels, par-
ticipants engaged in two hours of
unstructured discussion and brain-
storming on critical issues surround-
ing ChipSats. During the lunch break,
undergraduate and graduate students
had the opportunity to showcase
their own projects to specialists in
the industry and receive feedback.
“It’s exciting to be able to see
what’s currently happening and hear
the different opinions of what should
happen in aerospace,” said Vivette El
Fawal, an engineering grad student,
adding that she hoped the new tech-
nology “can lead elsewhere.”
The event was well-attended by
Brown students and students from
other universities. The NASA Space
Grant Consortia provided traveling
funds for non-Brown students to at-
tend the workshop, according to the
engineering division’s Web site. Stu-
dents also had the chance to network
with representatives of technology
companies and institutes and discuss
recruitment opportunities.
Fleeter said he was pleased
with how the conference went. “A
conference is like a party,” he said.
“This year we got a good mix, great
weather and energy.”
until very recently, is the history
of great white men,” he said. “The
rest of us don’t exist or are minor
characters.”
Brown’s book is of the utmost
importance for Rickman, “because
in America we act like slavery didn’t
happen or it wasn’t so bad.” Rick-
man said the University’s role in
slavery is undeniable when reading
firsthand accounts such as Brown’s
narrative.
“There you see the effects of
slavery on one family for 140 years.
It is not ephemeral,” he said.
Hu-DeHart said it is important
to pay attention to Brown’s particu-
lar voice. “We have to remember
that slavery is about people. And it
is not just ‘an institution.’ It is not
a system. This is the voice of one
person.”
Page 4
C ampus N EWS
Alum attempts to lift up Haiti using higher education
continued from page 1
local family.
“Before I left New York, I had
put out a request on Facebook for
a place to stay (by the border), as
all the hotels were booked,” Bo-
han said. He received a phone call
from a friend of a friend, who put
him in touch with the family that
hosted him.
Early the next morning he and
the friend that accompanied him
from New York rented a local taxi,
loaded up on fuel and bottled water
and drove to Port-au-Prince.
The extent of the disaster
wasn’t immediately evident as they
crossed the border, Bohan said.
“The border areas were virtually
untouched but as we got closer and
closer to the capital, the damage
became greater and greater.”
The devastation is “indescrib-
able,” he said, pausing before at-
tempting to illustrate the aftermath
of Haiti’s worst earthquake in 200
years. “The only image I can think
of is the European cities after World
War II. That’s the only image that
comes to mind.”
Bohan on Brown
Bohan graduated from Brown
with a degree in histor y, which
proved to be “perfectly useless”
during his job search, he said.
After two years of working at
beach and ski resorts in Europe,
Bohan decided he wanted to vol-
unteer in Africa. After a rejection
from the Red Cross — which he
remembers as “a low point” in his
life — he found a position teaching
in Haiti.
“My career path was not stan-
dard. A place like Brown encour-
ages that kind of exploration,” he
said. “Brown gives you the tools to
do anything you want to pursue.”
At the end of his first week as a
secondary school teacher, a student
asked to borrow $30 from Bohan
to register for secretarial school.
Bohan thought it was strange that
the top student in her class wasn’t
setting her sights higher, and as
it turned out, the student’s dream
was to study medicine but couldn’t
afford it.
“I told her I would rather raise
more money so she could go to
medical school, rather than go to
a mediocre secretarial school,” he
said.
Bohan supported the student,
Isemonde Joseph, a native of the
Cite Soleil slum in Port-au-Prince,
out of his own pocket at first. He
later secured suppor t from his
parents and several Brown class-
mates, including the organization’s
founding board member Genevieve
L ynch ’91, who is currently the
president of the Pluralism Fund,
a coalition of philanthropists that
conducts grant work concerning
Iran and Pakistan.
Joseph earned her medical de-
gree in 2005 with a starting salary
of $14,500, Bohan said, several
times Haiti’s gross domestic prod-
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
“We need to give the most ambitious students in Haiti the
tools to transform their country.” — Conor Bohan ’92
uct per capita of $480 a year.
As he saw the impact of educa-
tion on Joseph’s life, Bohan began
matching sponsors — many of
whom are Brown alums — with
some of Haiti’s top students, which
inspired him to establish a scholar-
ship organization.
HELP recruits the top high
school students in the country and
supports them with tuition, books,
living stipends and housing to at-
tend an internationally accredited
university — a total value of $5,000
per student, according to a press
release. HELP scholars also benefit
from access to the organization’s
computer center, career ser vices
and intensive English language
courses.
“We try to fill in all of the gaps,”
Boran said.
One-hundred percent of HELP’s
former students are employed with
a starting salary 20 times that of the
average salary in Haiti, the release
stated.
“There are so few university
graduates, so employers are will-
ing to pay top dollars for them,”
Bohan said. One percent of Hai-
tians enroll in university, and 85
percent of Haitians with university
degrees emigrate, draining Haiti’s
professional class from the impov-
erished country.
“My experience at Haiti has
made me appreciate every oppor-
tunity I’ve received at every level,
and made me realize I’m no more
deserving,” Bohan said.
“When you’re at a place like
Brown, you don’t get to appreciate
exactly how valuable your educa-
tion is until you get to see people
who are just as intelligent and hard-
working as you are, who have never
had the opportunity to pursue what
they want to do.”
 
Short-term recovery
Bohan ran the daily operations
of HELP in Haiti from 1997 to 2008,
before moving to Brooklyn to spear-
head the organization’s fundraising,
marketing and outreach initiatives.
But last year alone, Bohan traveled
to Haiti six times.   historically has been “severely”
When he arrived in Haiti after
the earthquake, Bohan set out to
Biology prof elected AAAS fellow
By Fei Cai
Contributing Writer
The American Association for the
Advancement of Science will recog-
nize Professor of Biology Osvaldo
Sala for his contribution to the bio-
logical sciences at the society’s
annual meeting Feb. 20.
Sala was one of 531 fellows
elected to the association last No-
vember. He is also currently an
elected member of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences and
Secretary General of the Scientific
Committee on Problems of the En-
vironment.
“It’s definitely a source of pres-
tige for Brown,” Sala said about his
election. “But I’m just ver y happy
about it. It’s great.”
locate the 108 students and eight
staff members of HELP. It took
Bohan two weeks to confirm the
deaths of two HELP students.
Marc-Erline Dezulma, a second-
year HELP student studying engi-
neering, perished when her entire
apartment building in the capital
city crumbled, according to Bohan.
Evenson Jean, also a second-year
HELP student, passed away when
his classroom building collapsed,
Bohan said. He did not have classes
in the afternoon when the quake
struck, but was there to study for
his finals.
“It is doubly tragic that Even-
son paid the ultimate price for his
determination to succeed,” Bohan
said.
Every other HELP student and
staffer was located. “Those who had
to be operated on for broken bones
are recovering well,” he said.
Bohan’s next undertaking is to
integrate HELP students into the
relief effort, making the most of
their talents and skills. “We need
to give the most ambitious students
in Haiti the tools to transform their
country.”
Many HELP scholars have
headed back to their hometowns in
rural areas — contributing to what
Bohan called “one of the greatest
reverse migrations in Haiti’s his-
tor y” — and are ser ving their lo-
cal communities. Twenty students
staying at HELP’s student house in
the capital and seven commuting
students are working to get the
organization’s temporary office up
and running, Bohan said.
“Electrical engineering students
wired the house to run off a small
generator and inverter,” Bohan
said, “while an alumni accountant
worked with computer science stu-
dents to retrieve the accounts from
a rescued hard drive.”
Long-term goals
As HELP students and staf f
are rebuilding their temporar y
headquarters, Bohan already has
a long-term vision for rebuilding
Haiti’s education system, which
underserved.
Even Haiti’s eight internation-
Despite his election, Sala does
not plan on attending the award
ceremony in San Diego.
“He’s a ver y humble man and
is always winning awards left and
right, so it didn’t seem like a big
deal,” said Shane Easter ’10, an un-
dergraduate working in his lab.
Sala has been at Brown since
2005 and currently teaches two
courses on ecosystem and con-
ser vation biology. His interests in
ecology include global change is-
sues that focus on the function of
ecosystems and ecosystem-water
dynamics, he said.
Currently, he is researching
precipitation controls of carbon
and nitrogen cycles of plants in arid
and semiarid ecosystems, a project
he started in 2006, he said. To con-
Friday, February 19, 2010
ally accredited universities “are ex-
tremely under-resourced,” Bohan
said. “None of the universities have
decent libraries, computer labs or
career services.”
The three main universities in
Haiti’s capital were “almost totally
destroyed,” Education Minister of
Haiti Joel Jean-Pierre told Reuters,
but schools must resume, some-
how. “Even in wartime, schools
must function.” Classes may con-
tinue “in tents or the open-air,”
Jean-Pierre said.
UNESCO is mobilizing “support
for temporar y emergency educa-
tional facilities and for reconstruc-
tion,” Director-General Iris Bokova
said in a statement. “I also urge
academia to show solidarity. Uni-
versities in the region and beyond
should make ever y effort to take
in Haitian students.”
Brown continues to look for op-
portunities to support the relief
and recover y efforts in Haiti by
raising funds to support relief ef-
forts, supporting affiliated medical
school faculty who are providing
direct emergency relief and raising
awareness through educational un-
dertakings such as Friday’s teach-
in. At this point there have been no
steps taken to enroll displaced Hai-
tian students, according to Marisa
Quinn, vice president for public
affairs and University relations.
But several universities abroad
have expressed interest in tempo-
rarily accepting Haitian students
— what Bohan hopes will be the
beginning of a long relationship.
“Bringing a handful of Haitian
students to the U.S. is not a long-
term solution,” he said. “We need
to build a system that gives tens of
thousands of students an education
so they can rebuild their country,
but build it better.”
Bohan, noting that Haiti has few
trained architects and engineers,
said that the infrastructural dam-
age could have been mitigated by
better urban planning.
“A lot of the damage has been
compounded by the lack of educa-
tion in Haiti,” he said. “There was
no urban planning, no inspection
of construction sites and tech-
niques.”
duct his study, Sala and his team
travel to a research site in New
Mexico, where they use rain-out
shelters — huge roofs to protect
land from rain — to manipulate
incoming rainfall on different areas
of vegetation.
The association, founded in
1848, is the largest international
scientific society, according to its
Web site, and it publishes the jour-
nal Science. It has been electing
fellows since 1874.
After being nominated by peers,
fellows undergo rigorous review by
the association’s steering groups
for their disciplines. The nominees
are then presented to the associa-
tion Council for election. The list of
fellows was published in the Dec.
18 issue of Science.
Arts & Culture
The Brown Daily Herald
Where weather meets music and art
By Alexys Esparza
Contributing Writer
“Musical Variations on Weather,” a
unique blending of weather systems,
musical scores and intricate sculp-
ture by artist Nathalie Miebach,
is on display at the Sarah Doyle
Miebach’s art translates weather data into a musical score before
converting the information into sculpture.
Band of RISD grads Fang Island doesn’t dwell on the past
By Luisa Robledo
Staf f Writer
Born of an independent study at
the Rhode Island School of Design,
rock band Fang Island is preparing
to release its debut album on Sar-
gent House Records Feb. 23. The
self-titled record is a jolt, a surge
of energy. It’s a call to get up and
dance.
“We’re very excited,” said guitar-
ist Jason Bartell. “We don’t know
where this is going, but we’re going
to see what happens.”
Bar tell and three friends
for med Fang Island during
the 2005 RISD winter session,
when they started a “class about
rock” together, Bar tell said.
“It was called ‘Rock Band,’ or some-
thing like that,” Bartell said, laugh-
ing. “We just started music when we
weren’t working on projects.”
The band’s rhythm is irresistible.
“Daisy,” a song from its new record,
consists of rapid drumbeats scoring
a three-guitar harmony that accel-
erates heartbeats. On the album,
each strum, each chord and each
beat complement each other, creat-
ing one thrilling song after another.
The tracks are electrifying and full
Women’s Center Gallery through
Feb. 26.
Miebach’s creative process
consists of collecting weather data,
translating that data into a musical
score and then translating that score
into a sculpture, she wrote in an
e-mail to The Herald. The fascinat-
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
of surprises.
“Making uplifting music is a big
driving force for the band,” Bartell
said.
Bartell said Providence’s mu-
sic scene was very “accepting” of
young artists, adding that it was
ideal for Fang Island’s growth. The
city’s “colorful noise” served as an
initial source of inspiration, to which
the band added a “healthy dose of
classic rock and modern pop,” he
said.
Fang Island has undergone some
changes from its original days on
College Hill. Today, the band con-
sists of Bartell, bassist Phil Curcuru,
guitarists Chris Georges and Nicho-
las Andrew Sadler and drummer
Marc St. Sauveur. While the five no
longer live in Providence, they con-
tinue to make music, Bartell said.
“Although we don’t have a per-
manent location,” he said, “we’re
trying to make New York a central
practice area.”
The band already has several
shows booked around the nation for
the next month. So far, Bartell said,
the band has gotten great audience
response.
Fang Island worked on the al-
bum for more than a year, and has
Friday, February 19, 2010 | Page 5
ing scores and sculptures are on
display in the exhibit, accompanied
by audio recordings of Miebach’s
compositions.
All of the sculptures are extreme-
ly vibrant in color, and most consist
of a beautiful blending of wood, reed
and pieces of data.
Miebach described her work
not as a collection, but as “part of a
continuous conversation on weather
and complexity.” She wrote that she
was inspired to make the sculptures
after observing weather conditions
at her home. She began to notice
that “weather never happens in
isolation, but always in the context
of an environment,” she wrote. To
accurately depict these nuances in
weather, she added musical scores
to accompany her data and sculp-
tures.
“Just like a composer can tweak
and shape the notes of a melody, I
can use tempo and rhythm to nu-
ance the musical translation of the
data,” she wrote. The musical notes
correspond to meteorological data
that Miebach collected.
The exhibit includes “Musical
Buoy in Search Towards a New
Shore,” the first piece of this Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
sculptural series, and “External Miebach combines wood, reed and weather data into sculpture.
Weather, Internal Storms,” an
aesthetic mix of reed, wood and little naive.” But, she added, “Try- Whatever the reaction may be,
metal. ing to figure it out through some Miebach wrote that she hopes to
The sculptures focus primar- sort of imperfect logic is what gives leave the viewer with “a sense of
ily on storm systems that passed me the greatest pleasure in making wonder at the complexity of behav-
through the Gulf of Maine, where this work.” iors we walk through and are a part
Miebach could observe the “interac- Miebach wrote that she has of everyday.”
tion of weather and marine environ- received mixed responses to her “Weather is largely invisible, yet
ments.” work. “Some love the aesthetics of … it is all around us,” she wrote.
Because she had little prior ex- it. Others love the fact that it’s all Her sculptures and scores help
posure to musical composition or based on numbers. Others hate it connect the emotive to the seem-
notation, Miebach wrote that she because it’s so complex and seem- ingly logistical in an intriguing and
entered the creative experience “a ingly confusing.” refreshing way.
Courtesy of Cathy Pellow
The members of Fang Island met at the Rhode Island School of Design.
put together 10 tracks that promise riod of time.” positive aspects of it,” he said.
to make its fans want to jump up The new album is full of posi- He added that the band wants
and down. The band is now count- tive energy with a tinge of nostalgia, to make fun music that conveys a
ing down the days until the album Bartell said. To him, dwelling on the vibrant energy. “We want to remind
comes out. past can prevent people from mov- you of what you and your friends
“Yeah, it’s exciting,” Bartell said. ing forward. “It’s about overcoming can accomplish,” he said. “It’s about
“It’s been building up for a long pe- nostalgia and also reveling in the hopefulness.”
Page 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Friday, February 19, 2010

In memoriam
I am Avi Schaefer — you are Avi Schaefer — the world should be Avi Schaefer.
Some people say that the universe takes loved ones from us when that particular
individual has made their mark on the
world, but I don’t buy it. In a world that
becomes cloudier with each passing day,
there is an aura that still dimly shines —
We Are Avi Schaefer
an aura that our brother, son and man Avi
Schaefer always embodied. In a world full
of madness and hate, Avi Schaefer found simplicity and love. In our insecure and
often ambiguous world, Avi Schaefer made us feel secure and sure of ourselves.
Avi, the minute I met you (and Yoav) and after further knowing your family and
friends, I knew that I — that we — were in the presence of accelerated greatness
and a larger-than-life personality. Phrases you used to embrace — “remember why
you are here,” “I have a vision for the future” — are phrases that resonate with me
… with us. Having you bless our lives is something we carry with us every day.
They say the most precious quality contained within any great leader or warrior
is the ability to be humble — the ability to capitalize on your strengths while
improving your weaknesses and flaws. This leader must be able to appreciate
and respect the guidance of others while balancing that with his or her own
ingenuity. I guess, by this definition Avi, you are an exemplary leader — friend,
son … brother.
The world is a nasty and cruel place, Avi — and since your aliya to the heavens,
I have begun to think of it as even more sinister that I previously comprehended.
But I — we — in your name, Avi, will search for that dimly lit aura as you knew
always existed. If we can take something away from this tragic and excruciatingly
painful loss, let us all carry a piece of you in us. You are found in all of us, Avi.
I am Avi Schaefer — you are Avi Schaefer — the world should be Avi Schafer.
Avi, if you will it, it is not a dream. I love you.
Your brother and one of many, many admirers —
Steve Rubin
“Humankind cannot comprehend
the loss it suffered today. You were
going to change the world.”
Avi,
Humankind cannot comprehend the loss it suffered today. You
were going to change the world.
Avi,
I can proudly say that you influenced me. One of the smartest,
most passionate, and amazingly sweeping people I have had the
honor to know, was taken away.
You and Yoav are two of the few people I remember meeting
even from our first Garin seminar. From then, I could already
forsee where this friendship would go. Butting heads, doing
shtuyot, exchanging views, forming ties, and experiencing life in
Israel, in the army, and in general, together. It was through this
pattern that we took so much from each other. That I learned so
much from you and about you.
Avi,
The passion that you have for the things that you hold dear is
addicting. Your drive to accomplish your goals stirs admiration.
Your ability to be there to listen, to advise, is a gift I called on
many a time. If I had to choose one person out of everyone I
know who I thought would make a difference in this world, it was
you.
It was supposed to be you, Avi.
I was supposed to keep reading your amazing editorials in the
Brown newspaper, watching and hearing from afar as you make
yourself known in the political community. Supposed to read
essays and speeches about how you see our conflicts, limits, and
solutions. Was supposed to pick you up at Ben Gurion when the
time came for you to return home. I was supposed to have many
more years of thinking, “Wow, that’s my friend, and I am proud
to say that.”
Avi,
I was and AM your friend and admirer, and am proud to say
that.
I will miss you so much.

Shir Hasson

Several months ago, we attended a fundraising dinner of Friends of the IDF in Waltham,
Mass., as guests as our son is a volunteer Lone Soldier in the Israel Defense Forces after
making aliyah to Israel. As a college graduate and American, our son was older than his
colleagues who made fun of his accent and literal interpretation of slang. “In many ways, he was
As we were standing and talking with other parents, a tall lanky and very thin young
man shyly approached us. “Are you Ethan’s parents?” he asked. a model student: eager
“Yes, we are,” we replied.
“I was one of Ethan’s commanders and firearms instructors.” As he went on to tell us
to learn, hardworking,
his story, it was he who befriended our son and helped him to deal with his differences and emphatic and reflexive.”
become accepted as one of the guys in his unit.
Avi, we wanted to know you better and lost you before we had a chance. Rest in peace
and thank you for watching over our son. You will be in our hearts and minds always.

Alan and Deborah Pransky

It is hard to communicate how immediately
and fully Avi impacted our lives from the
minute he arrived on our campus only a short
time ago. It is indicative of how incredible
“You will be in our hearts and in our minds always.” Avi was that we find it so challenging to
summarize what he meant to us. He was, first
and foremost, a dedicated son and brother
to his family, a loving and generous friend,
and a compassionate human being who knew
Avi Schaefer was a student in my seminar “Islam and Democracy in the how to bring people together. He arrived
Middle East” for this term. Words cannot capture how deeply saddened I at Brown after three years of service in the
am by the news of his sudden and tragic death. Avi and I had several e-mail Israeli Defense Forces. Avi always defined
exchanges before the course began. He was a freshman but wanted very badly himself as a “soldier for peace.” His Jewish
to take my class, which was only open to juniors and seniors. At first, I declined identity was central to how he positioned
his request to join the class, but he persisted by sending me e-mail after e-mail himself in relationship to his interests, beliefs,
outlining his command of the basics, his desire to learn about Muslim politics friendships, and experiences. We were blessed
in the region and, most importantly, “to understand the predicaments of the to have him in our lives and his impact on our
other side,” as he put it. But just to make sure it was a sealed deal he recruited community had only just begun. We will keep
two of my former top students to vouch on his behalf. And so he was in! his inspiration, passion for peace, and love of
We had barely begun sharing stories and perspectives on the region, and identity and values alive in our community and
I despair at the thought of all the topics we had set time to talk about: his in our hearts.
time in Israel, his experience in the IDF, his work with Palestinian friends, our
hopes and fears about the region. In many ways he was a model student: eager Samantha Adelberg ’11
to learn, hardworking, empathetic, and reflexive. We really do (and ought to) Danya Chudacoff ’11
mourn ourselves in his absence. Roberta Goldman ‘13
Jana Loeb ’08
Hussein Banai Sarah Rapoport ’10
Nava Winkler ’13
Friday, February 19, 2010 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Page 7

Avi Schaefer ’13

In the game of baseball, a five-tool player is a player who can do it all. He can hit for average, hit for power, steal bases, field his position, and has a cannon for
an arm. A five-tool player only comes around once in a lifetime, and if you ever have the privilege of seeing that player take the field, you know you’re witnessing
something special, and you find yourself in awe of his ability. All you can do when you watch him play the game is sit back and utter one word: “Wow.” In the game
of life, my cousin Avi was the quintessential five-tool player, and there were countless times when I found myself in awe of how he lived his life and the choices
he made. In celebration of his fantastic life and legacy, I’d
like to recount just some of the tools Avi possessed that
caused me to sit back and just say “Wow.”
Avi cared about others — I was worried when my little
brother Adam went off to college at UCSB, because I
didn’t know how he would be able to adapt to life at a huge
college campus after having attended a small, tight-knit
high school. I was upset that I was in college on the East
Coast at the University
of Maryland, with no way
of helping my brother
Avi Schaefer: A adjust in person. When I
finally got the chance to
five-tool player at visit Adam at school for
the game of life the first time, there were
Avi and his brother Yoav,
taking Adam to Hillel
and making sure he was
meeting people and making friends. Avi didn’t have to take
the time to make sure his younger cousin was comfortable
in his new home for the next four years, but he did. Today,
Adam is following the path that I would have wanted him
to take in college, a member of the same fraternity I was
a part of, with great friends and lasting memories. The
role I was supposed to assume as Adam’s older brother
couldn’t be served because I wasn’t there, so Avi took it
upon himself to assume that role. I was forever thankful,
and all I could think when I made that first visit and saw
how Adam had adjusted was “Wow.”
Avi was strong-willed. It takes an extraordinary human
being to decide as a 17-year-old that they are going to
stray from the ordinary path. At my high school, out of
150 graduating seniors, every single one got their diploma
and went on to college. That was the well-traveled path
that was supposed to be taken, so everyone took it. Not
Avi. He wanted to make his own path through life, and do it
on his terms. He pledged his service to the Israeli Defense
Forces in order to protect the country he loved. He wanted
to protect the Jewish people and find a way to make the
world a more peaceful place. And he did just that. College
could wait; he had his own itinerary for life. The scene at
Aunt Laurie and Uncle Arthur’s house before Avi and Yoav
left for Israel was surreal — hundreds of people gathered
to wish my cousins the best of luck on their journey. There
was some tension in the air that day — many people had
doubts about Avi and Yoav’s choice. But on that day, I felt
calm. I could do nothing but respect a decision by two
people who wanted to take the road less traveled in order
Sarah Young
to make peace for a nation of people. Something inside
me had no doubt that they would be safe and make a lasting impact on so many lives in Israel. All I could think was “Wow.”
Avi was willing to share his tremendous gifts. After reading about what Avi did in his short time at Brown University, I was taken aback. He was an active
member at Hillel. He was working with a professor to develop a course on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He had approached the police chief of the Providence
Police Department so that he could teach officers some of the tactics he learned in the IDF in order to make Providence a safer place. When I traveled from Los
Angeles to College Park, Md., for my first year of college, it took me months to even gather up the courage to speak to a professor, let along collaborate with one
for a course on a hot-button issue. I didn’t even know where the College Park Police Department was until I moved into the fraternity house my sophomore year
which was five minutes away from it. There is no doubt in my mind that Avi would have made a massive impact on the community at Brown, one that I could
never make in my wildest dreams at College Park. All I could
think when reading about what he did in his short time there
was “Wow.”
But Avi’s greatest gift was his ability to touch lives — all
“Avi’s greatest gift was his ability to touch lives.” you had to do was go on the Facebook page that was made for
those who knew him to celebrate his life to realize what kind
of impact Avi had on people. I have never seen anything like
it. Hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of people, using
words like “you were an inspiration” and “I feel honored and
privileged to have met you.” It is truly incredible. Those aren’t words you say to an average college kid. They just aren’t. Avi was extraordinary. There are no two
ways about it. Everyone he met became his friend, whether they only knew each other for a day or for their entire lives. All I could think about when looking at
what his acquaintances and friends had to say about him was “Wow.” But I expected nothing less.
I will always remember the night of January 8, 2010. For the rest of my life I will never forget it. It was my brother’s 21st birthday in Santa Barbara. It was
truly a magical night, a night where God gave me one last time to be with Avi, who wasn’t a cousin that night, but a close friend. As he remains. It was my one last
chance to witness a five-tool player in the game of life in action. We had a fantastic Shabbat dinner with the Gross-Schaefer family and their friends, and then a
great night celebrating in Isla Vista. Me, Adam, Yoav, Avi and friends, who seemed to always be by Avi’s side. All I was thinking about when the night ended was
that I couldn’t wait for the next time.
Avi, your far-too-short time on this Earth has inspired me. I will forever look up to you for the way you carried yourself and lived your life. Nobody will ever be
able to fill the void left by your absence. However, the memories you provided me and so many other people will be cherished forever. There will never be a time
when I don’t think back on those memories with a heavy heart and countless tears, but there will also never be a time when those memories don’t invoke in me
a sense of pride, admiration, awe and love. And I know that every time I think of those memories they will conclude with me thinking one word to myself:
“Wow.”
Joel Gross
Page 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Friday, February 19, 2010

1988–2010
It is the song “Livkot Lekha,” by Aviv Geffen, that I can’t get out of my head. Loosely translated as “To Cry
for You,” it was written for a friend who was killed in a car accident, but it achieved great notoriety after the
assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin when it became a sort of anthem.
The song transports me to the campus of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, July 2002. I lost two of my friends
in a suicide bombing that day. Others died, but Ben’s and Marla’s deaths took a piece of me with them. And
I am aware every day that I still hold a
piece of them.
Israelis are known for many I am going to cry for you
inventions. What many do not know is
that the considerable ingenuity that
Be strong above
has brought flowers to the desert, My longing is like doors
victory in the face of massive armies
and thousands of patents, cures, Opening in the night
discoveries and pieces of art, has also
been applied to the art of mourning.
I will remember you forever, my brother
We excel at mourning. We’d be happy And you know that we shall meet again,
to not lead the world in this category.
Mourning is ancient, and Jews have, in the end
from our ancient tradition, many ideas
and many modes. We begin with the
I have friends
shock of learning of a death by tearing But they are dark in comparison to your
our clothing — a physical expression of
the tearing of the fabric of the universe. maddening brightness
Then we plan and we care. We wash the
deceased, more carefully than we would
When we are sad we go to the sea
a baby. We wrap the body and then we That is why the sea is salty
guard it. We do not leave the departed
alone, not even for a moment, until we It’s sad that you can return your gear
return them to the earth from which
they were formed.
But not your longing
In the hours or days between death Just like the waves
and burial all we worry about is the
deceased, caring for the one who can no We are crashing up against the pier
longer care for him or herself. We are
exempt from all other service to man or
Up against life
Creator — off the hook but for the care “Livkot Lekha,” Aviv Geffen
of the departed.
Next comes the funeral where we are
encouraged to speak in a way that evokes grief. We simultaneously bless and question. We also laugh and cry.
Some sing and some recite. Always working to create memory and to make us more mindful of our emotions
to move us along.
The next phase is focused on the mourners. In the most ancient customs, they sit for a week in a home on
low chairs or pillows. The do not leave, they do not bathe, they do not change clothes. No TV, movies, Internet
or distraction. Not even the study of our most beloved Torah.
All this for a week, as guests come and go. Relatives feed and care for the needs of the mourners, who are
the immediate family and spouse of the deceased. This week is hard but healing. It allows for stories to be told
and the necessary movement from the depths of despair forward and on with life. No one is alone, no one can
run away — the physical debasement of the mourner reminds them of the gaping hole that is newly created,
and that life will never return to “normal.”
All this is true but for the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, Shabbat, the mourners go to temple or synagogue. They
change their clothes, stretch their legs and shed any public or visible signs of mourning. On Shabbat, we rest
from mourning.
Those who were present this past Friday at Hillel did not witness a memorial service as they may have
expected. They witnessed a regular week at Hillel, where normally 200 people come to celebrate themselves,
or God, or life, or Brown, or rest. This past Friday. 400 or more came and they celebrated Avi, his life and the
love he created.
At the end of the seven days, the mourners change their clothes and are accompanied on a short walk out of
the house. They are released back to a reality. Out of the cocoon, on with life. Back to work. Back to self-care.
The mourners are not to forget, they are to re-appropriate their thoughts and grief.
There are more periods, thirty days, eleven months and then the anniversary of the death, commemorated
for all time by relatives, students and descendants.
Now is not the time for these discussions. We are still in the first week, the shiva.
I can tell you of many deaths that will forever hurt. The twenty-four year old, I loved the whimsy of her toe-
ring. The twenty-five year old who was to help me quit smoking. The twenty-two year old who died trying to
help, that’s just what he did. Each of them hurt and will for all time. They are scars on my soul that cannot be
removed. They are burnt into my memory.
And so to the Brown community finds itself with a fresh wound in a shiva of sorts. The Gross-Schaefers
on the other side of this vast country are sitting low, surrounded by their friends and Avi’s. And we, here in
Providence, are looking to each other for care and love. We also have a chance to be in shiva together — to hold
hands and hug and talk and reminisce and, as we Jews are known to do, eat, sing and laugh.
Shiva will end. It must, and we must go on. Accept his challenge, build a better world. Remember why he was
here and why you still are — to grow and learn and achieve. We will emerge from our grief with memory. We
should also emerge with a clearer sense of what we need to do, what ingenuities we can apply to the question
of how to make the world better and safer and more open to dialogue and peace.
It is with sincere love that I share these words with the entire community. I thank you for allowing me the
opportunity to share with you. Even in these terrible times, your radiance is maddening.
With love and blessings for peace,
Mordechai

You can listen to “Livkot Lekha” at http://thebdh.org/livkot

Mordechai Rackover is the rabbi at Brown/RISD Hillel and associate University
chaplain for the Jewish community. He can be reached at rabbi@brown.edu.
World & Nation
The Brown Daily Herald
Mancuso makes U.S. Olympic history with medal
By Craig Hill
McClatchy Newspapers
In the rush to anoint Lindsey Vonn
the greatest American woman skier
in Olympic histor y, most media
and fans forgot about the skier
whose been wearing the crown
for years.
Julia Mancuso, who skis with a
tiara painted on some of her hel-
mets and wears a tiara after races,
skied into the U.S. record books
Thursday afternoon by winning
a silver medal in the super com-
bined.
Often overlooked since winning
gold at the 2006 Games because of
injuries and poor performances,
Mancuso is now the only American
woman to win three Olympic ski-
ing medals.
When she finished her slalom
run and saw she’d locked up a
medal she fell to the ground. She
kicked her feet in the air, celebrat-
ing the moment.
“That was pure joy,” Mancuso
said. “I was so stoked. Skiing a good
downhill and having to follow it up
with a good run of slalom, I mean,
that’s tough. I didn’t think I could
do it. ... That’s a moment I won’t
ever forget.”
She shared the podium with two
of the world’s best skiers, but un-
like Wednesday’s downhill when
Vonn was beside her on the top
step, Vonn, the world’s top-ranked
super combined racer, was watch-
ing from the sideline.
Vonn easily won the downhill
portion of the race and was less
than 100 yards from another gold
medal when she hooked the tip of
her right ski on a gate. She ejected
from her ski and fell to the snow.
Germany’s Maria Riesch, the
top slalom skier on the World Cup
circuit, won gold. Anja Paerson of
Big unemployment persists in R.I. Gymnasts head north to
By Shashank Bengali
McClatchy Newspapers
PAWTUCKET, R.I. — For the
frustrated folks who troop into
the unemployment office in this
fading industrial city every day to
peruse the same paltry job offer-
ings or tweak their resumes for
the hundredth time, the trickle of
positive economic data coming out
of Washington is cold comfort.
“All they got is figures. This is
up 10 percent, that is up 2 percent,”
said Cynthia Roderick, 57, an un-
employed hospital clerk who, like
many in this solidly Democratic
state, voted for President Barack
Obama but now criticize his re-
sponse to the jobs crisis.
“Let Obama come down here
and see the real deal,” said Roder-
ick, who’s been looking for work
for four months. “Let him see what
people are going through.”
The nationwide jobless rate
declined and retail sales rose last
month, leading some experts to
suggest that the economy is start-
Sweden took bronze and claimed
a place in Olympic lore.
Paerson was on pace to win sil-
ver in Wednesday’s downhill when
she took a violent tumble off the
final jump and slid into the finish
area.
She said she was in pain and
“pretty scared” in the super com-
bined and later compared herself to
Austrian ski legend Herman Maier
who recovered from a nasty fall in
‘98 to win gold.
Her lower body covered in
bruises, Paerson made histor y
with her sixth career medal. She
ties the record of Croatia’s Janica
Kostelic set over the 2002 and ‘06
games.
“In a word, amazing,” U.S. coach
Jim Tracy said of Paerson. “That
was a fall that probably would have
taken 98 percent of the field out.”
It’s a similar mental toughness
than Tracy sees in Mancuso.
“She embraces these big
events,” Tracy said. “... She really
does a good job of focusing on ex-
actly what she needs to do. On the
outside she looks like she’s a little
bit carefree, but on the inside she
knows exactly what she needs to
do and when to do it.
After six women crashed on the
bumpy course during Wednesday’s
downhill, the course was altered
Thursday and it proved more for-
giving. The start was lowered, a
customary move for the super com-
bined downhill, and the final jump
was shaved down so skiers didn’t
catch as much air.
Only three racers fell Thursday,
but Mancuso said the course was
still “really bouncy.”
U.S. skier Kaylin Richardson,
who specializes in the technical
events, said she was happy with
the changes.
“For the girls that rallied after
ing a slow recovery, but not even
vague optimism is apparent in hard-
hit states such as Rhode Island.
It’s hardly surprising that jobless
Americans are discouraged, but the
gulf between reports and reality is
sapping confidence in Washington’s
economic prescriptions.
The latest White House-backed
plan is a Senate bill aimed at help-
ing small businesses grow, but
some watchdog groups have said
it won’t create many jobs. Tax write-
offs for small entrepreneurs, one
of the bill’s provisions, aren’t the
kind of bold initiatives that Rhode
Islanders think are needed to jump-
start the Ocean State’s moribund
economy.
America’s smallest state is
experiencing outsize economic
problems.
Rhode Island’s unemployment
rate, 12.9 percent in the latest Bu-
reau of Labor Statistics figures, is
the third highest in the country
due to the steady erosion of its
manufacturing industries, which
account for one in eight jobs, and a
Lindsay Vonn of the United States crashes on the slalom portion of the women’s super combined competition at
Whistler Creekside in Whistler, British Columbia.
the big crashes yesterday I think
it eased their minds a little bit,”
Richardson said.
After her slalom run, Richardson
radioed up a report on the course
to Mancuso and Vonn.
Her advice: “Just go for it.”
Both did, even though, for Vonn,
it wasn’t necessary.
All Vonn had to do was stay on
her feet to win a medal.
“I wanted to win,” Vonn said. “...
I won gold yesterday, so I didn’t
really want to shoot for something
lower than that.”
Vonn spends most of her time
training for the speed events, Tracy
said. While she is still among the
best in the world in the technical
wave of layoffs and mergers in the
health care sector. Only Nevada, at
13 percent, and Michigan, at 14.6
percent, are in worse shape.
If you count part-time workers
who’d rather be working full-time,
as well as people who’ve given up
looking for jobs, however, Rhode
Island’s “real” unemployment rate
is 18.3 percent, according to U.S.
government data.
“President Obama wants to talk
about small businesses — what,
like a restaurant? What is that go-
ing to create?” Roderick said. “How
many jobs? They need a strong
(economic) foundation like they
had years and years ago, and I don’t
really think they’re going to get it
back.”
Pawtucket, a town of about
72,000 people along the Blackstone
River, has seen better days. It was
the site of one of the nation’s first
water-powered cotton mills, built
in 1793 by British emigre Samuel
Slater and credited with helping
to launch the industrial revolution
in America.
Friday, February 19, 2010 | Page 9
events, the slalom has proven es-
pecially frustrating for her over the
past month.
It was during slalom training
where she injured her shin, forcing
her to ski in pain. But Vonn wasn’t
making excuses after her fall.
“The shin wasn’t the reason I
didn’t finish the race today,” Vonn
said. “It was just because I hooked
a tip and that happens in ski racing
all the time. I just wish it wasn’t at
the Olympic Games.”
The women have today off but
return to the slopes Friday for the
super-G, another event Vonn will
be heavily favored to win. Vonn has
already clinched the World Cup
super-G title this season. She also
Alaska for meets and moose
continued from page 1
ice sculptures and dog sled races
in downtown Anchorage,” Carver-
Milne said.
“Apparently we are supposed to
see moose!” Binkley said.
In the past, the team has trav-
elled to Los Angeles, Oklahoma and
Arizona. The Department of Athlet-
ics will not incur more expenses
than they would have if the girls
were competing away from Brown in
New England, according to Carver-
Milne. Alaska has covered most of
the travelling fees.
“Hopefully we can have two
great meets at Alaska and keep
our momentum from those meets
going strong and win Ivies,” Bin-
kley said.
¡Gracias por leer!
Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times
won the World Cup season title
and the world championship in the
super-G last season.
But as Mancuso has proven
this week, she shouldn’t be taken
lightly.
“I really think I can put a couple
of good runs together,” she said.
“Whether or not that’s good enough
for a medal, we’ll have to wait and
see.”
Suddenly the talk about winning
four medals has shifted from Vonn
to Mancuso. She’s already proven
to be fast in the speed events and
she’s the reigning Olympic champ
in the giant slalom.
“Anything is possible,” Mancuso
said, “as you saw today.”
The Ivy Classic Competition will
take place the following weekend
at the Pizzitola Center. The Alas-
kan team, studded with talented
gymnasts like vault standout Lau-
ren Agostino and floor specialist
Shakea Sanders, will prepare the
Brown team well.
Between competition and sight-
seeing, the girls have a busy week
ahead of them.
“We’re just going to try and stay
warm,” Zanelli said.
With the way the Bears have per-
formed recently, they should have a
heated competition against a tough
Alaska squad. If Goddard and the
girls can repeat last Sunday’s per-
formance, they may return home
with some extra hardware packed
into their luggage.
Editorial & Letters
The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Friday, February 19, 2010

blog
The same 10 questions
What to do tonight
Cup o’ (Pro)Jo

daily
Ratty vs. V-Dub
Time-waster of the day
Brown Is the New Black
Ask Gail
Talk of the Brown

herald
julia streuli

e d i to r i a l

Transfixed

.com
A recent University Resources Committee report sug-
gested that one way the University might increase
revenue is by accepting more transfer students. Since
transfers are not admitted on a need-blind basis, their
from the Meiklejohn program as well.
Advice from peers with similar interests can often be
just as helpful as guidance from a faculty member, if not
more so. Indeed, students in a given department tend

So many reasons
tuition payments can help offset some of the $30 mil- to be more familiar with course offerings and can offer
lion in needed budget cuts. This week, the Herald firsthand advice about a professor’s teaching style and
reported that the Admission Office will in fact increase class difficulty level. Current Meiklejohn advisers are all
to <3 the Blog! the number of transfers next year by 50, bringing the
total to 170 students.
volunteers, and the cost of training 10 or 15 additional
students to work exclusively with transfers would be
As long as administrators believe the University has minimal, given that such training is already run for
the capacity to support a larger student body, this plan freshman advisers. The benefit of having access to a
is a sound way to strengthen the University’s balance peer adviser far outweighs the minimal cost of training
sheet. However, it is also important to remember that a few additional students.
transfers are not mere pawns in the budgeting process, Although many new students do not need help ad-
but real students with concerns and needs. justing or making friends, some do find the transition dif-
Currently, transfers receive little support beyond the ficult. Accordingly, the University may want to consider
t h e b r o w n d a i ly h e r a l d first week of school. By contrast, incoming freshmen developing an independent peer counseling program
Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Deputy Managing Editors Senior Editors not only participate in a week-long orientation, but also for transfers. Peer counselors who work with transfers
George Miller Chaz Kelsh Sophia Li Ellen Cushing receive faculty advisers and Meiklejohn peer advisers could not only advise on academic issues, but also help
Seth Motel
Emmy Liss
Joanna Wohlmuth
for the duration of their first year. While transfers of address social and extracurricular concerns.
Business
course have more college experience than freshmen, Given the wide range of transfer students’ back-
editorial General Managers Office Manager they are just as new to life at Brown. grounds, it would be beneficial to at least give these
Anne Speyer Arts & Culture Editor Claire Kiely Shawn Reilly
Suzannah Weiss Arts & Culture Editor As such, we encourage the University to develop a students the option of working with a peer counselor.
Katie Koh
Brian Mastroianni Features Editor stronger advising system for transfers. Improvements Granted, some may not want to take advantage of this
Directors
Hannah Moser Features Editor
Kelly Wess Sales would not be drastic or particularly costly, but they could opportunity. However, given the willingness of many
Brigitta Greene Metro Editor
Matthew Burrows Finance
Ben Schreckinger Metro Editor make a big difference to students who are trying to current students to volunteer as peer counselors, cre-
Margaret Watson Client Relations
Sydney Ember News Editor
Christiana Stephenson Alumni Relations make major decisions — such as choosing a concentra- ating and maintaining this new program should not
Nicole Friedman News Editor
Dan Alexander Sports Editor Managers
tion — while learning to navigate a new school. be difficult.
Andrew Braca Asst. Sports Editor Arjun Vaidya Local Sales Since most transfers are sophomores and juniors, Transfer students undoubtedly enrich Brown and
Han Cui Asst. Sports Editor Marco deLeon National Sales they have less time to choose a concentration than bring unique perspectives to the community. We wel-
Graphics & Photos Aditi Bhatia University Sales
Stephen Lichenstein Graphics Editor Jared Davis University Sales incoming freshmen. On top of this, transfers are not come a larger transfer class, and we want these students
Alex Yuly Graphics Editor Trenten Nelson-Rivers Recruiter Sales given a Meiklejohn peer adviser. We enthusiastically to have as easy an adjustment period as possible.
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong Photo Editor Alexander Carrere Special Projects
Max Monn Asst. Photo Editor Kathy Bui Staff
support the University’s new policy of assigning transfer
Jonathan Bateman Sports Photo Editor students to a faculty adviser. However, we think Brown Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board.
Opinions
production Michael Fitzpatrick Opinions Editor should go one step further and allow transfers to benefit Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
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Design Editor
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Editorial Page Board
Editorial Page Editor
correction
Julien Ouellet Asst. Design Editor Debbie Lehmann Board member
Neal Poole Web Editor William Martin Board member
Melissa Shube Board member An article in Thursday’s Herald (“Program releases Web feature on Haiti,” Feb. 18) incorrectly stated that cur-
Post- magazine Gaurie Tilak Board member riculum units developed by the Choices Program have been used in 3,000 classrooms. The lesson for Teaching
Marshall Katheder Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Topaz Board member
with the News on Haiti has been used in about 3,000 classrooms, while Choices Program materials have been
Julien Ouellet, Designers used in about 8,000 schools. The Herald regrets the error.
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Opinions
The Brown Daily Herald
BY ANTHONY BADAMI
Opinions Columnist
In an effort to squeeze out negative energy
(new year, new semester, new outlook, you
know the drill), I must take this conspicuous
opportunity to lay open my feelings against a
most conspicuous man. He is someone who
absorbs more attention than he will ever de-
serve. He is a man capable of and culpable
for widespread political, moral and social
distortions, demagoguery and the cheap-
est form of falsification. He is a mendacious
sleaze and an anti-intellectual agitator. He is,
of course, Glenn Beck.
My fundamental issue with Beck is not
his stupidity, blatant bigotry or baffling ig-
norance. Rather, my real grievance lies in
the narrative that Beck represents; he pro-
mulgates a hyper-paranoid, quasi-conspira-
cy view of the world, all the while portray-
ing himself a man of the soil. He even goes
so far as to slander that once useful word,
“populist.”
How arrogant can this man be? How far
do the depths of his shallowness reach? He
shuns Marxist or Communist thought, while
expressing a deep disdain for the state’s in-
tervention in the personal sphere. (Marx
himself reproached this state vs. citizen dis-
tinction entirely.) It is fairly obvious from
even a brief viewing of his daily tirades on
Fox that Beck has probably never read a sin-
gle word of Karl Marx, nor any other kind
of sophisticated (pardon my elitism) philo-
sophical text.
The drivel that escapes his mouth is re-
markable in its idiocy. After the Anti-Defa-
BY BEN BASTOMSKI
Guest Columnist
The ongoing crisis and relief efforts in Haiti
have rightfully captured our close national
attention. But as the acute phase of the di-
saster fades and relief rather than rescue be-
comes the order of the day, an important op-
portunity arises for self-examination. It may
be uncomfortable, but the circumstances de-
mand that we ask ourselves: have we acted
well and admirably as members of the inter-
national human community? While leaving
that as an open question, I want to discuss
some aspects of fundraising I’ve observed
here on campus that I feel are particularly
relevant to this question, as we each attempt
to answer it for ourselves.
Since we’ve returned to school, the cam-
pus has been abuzz with various fundraisers
for the crisis. More than likely you’ve seen a
Facebook invitation to a “Party for Haiti” at
nightclub Blu, a fundraising a cappella con-
cert or a night at the Grad Center Bar — all
of which promise a share (respectively: the
$5 cover plus 10 percent of Blu’s profit, the $5
entry fee and 50 percent of the GCB’s profit)
of their proceeds to relief efforts. In this im-
mediate sense, there’s no doubt that the ef-
forts on campus are applaudable: they help
maintain a strong overall campus awareness
of the crisis’s severity and provide ready ac-
cess to the opportunity to give.
With an abundance and variety of fund-
I hate Glenn Beck
mation League dubbed Beck the country’s
“fearmonger-in-chief,” Beck fired back (with
his usual acerbic wit) that the ADL was as
helpful to the Jewish people as the “National
Organization for Women (was) for the plight
of women.” Wow. NOW, as you may know,
has made immense strides in protecting the
reproductive rights of women — a potential
solvent to many of the world’s most grave so-
cial and economic issues.
When Beck interviewed Rep. Keith Elli-
son, this country’s first Muslim Congress-
man, Beck challenged Ellison to prove that
he was not “working with our enemies.” Beck
He is a mendacious sleaze and an anti-
intellectual agitator. He is, of course, Glenn Beck.
prefaced this astoundingly doltish comment
by asserting that he did not subscribe to any
sort of “political correctness.”
Again, I’m at a loss for words. While I un-
derstand the desire to move away from rig-
id, political euphemism, there is a difference
between doing that and spewing whatever
half-baked nonsense that comes to mind.
To suggest that it is more “patriotic” to
go with gut feelings than contemplation is to
show both a severe lack of thoughtfulness
and a supreme aptitude for provincialism. In
other words, Beck’s most deplorable effect
is lending legitimacy to those individuals
who prefer a comfortable and unprocessed
Partying (f)or charity
raisers, we could hardly be faulted for a lack
of attention on campus toward the crisis. Yet
I feel there is also a certain danger in these
social fundraising events, and hope that we
can remain mindful of their potential pitfalls
while supporting them and, more important-
ly, their cause.
The potential problem events such as
these present is the risk, in our minds as
participants, of a distortion of the spirit of
charity, and of a resulting incongruence be-
tween fundraiser and cause. These events
In a humanitarian crisis of this magnitude,
compassion is still the greatest fundraiser that
we have, and charitable social events should
be seen as a complement to, rather than a
substitute for, genuine giving for its own sake.
are promising sources of further aid to the
relief effort, but because they are intention-
ally designed to draw participants by offer-
ing enjoyable activities, it’s important that
they be accepted for what they most funda-
mentally are: an opportunity to have a good
time, with the added benefit of the donation
of proceeds.
The spirit of enjoying a concert or a party
is not the same as the spirit of genuine con-
political or cultural belief as explanation.
We need not think too hardily either
about his comments on Obama’s supposed
detestation of whites. (I mean, Beck’s not
saying that Obama “doesn’t like white peo-
ple,” just that he has a “deep-seated hatred”
for them. Duh!) Their meaninglessness is
palpable enough.
But one Beck scheme I find particularly
striking is his creation of the 9-12 Project, a
confused and misguided faction veiled as a
political movement. Through this organiza-
tion, Beck has attempted to recapture and
sustain what he believes to be the feelings of
solidarity and strength expressed by Ameri-
cans in the days following September 11th.
The values and aims of the project are
enumerated in his manifesto (his word, not
mine), which, among other things, contends
that the real patriot expresses an unwaver-
ing belief in God (not exactly a sentiment in
line with the secular founding of our coun-
try), holds the family as the most sacred
unit (does this veneration extend to gay
families?) and attests to the deeply profound
and insightful declaration that “America is
good.”
You may know the fallout from this proj-
ect as the Tea Party, or Tea Baggers, whose
cern for disaster victims, and we must take
care to distinguish the two. We need to be
careful not to convince ourselves that there’s
something supererogatory in attending a
party or a concert, not to pat ourselves on the
back for ordering another round of drinks
at the GCB, not to view our spent money
straightforwardly as a donation. We should
certainly appreciate that the proceeds go to
relief efforts, but the activity itself is a good
time first and charitable second, and not the
reverse.
Ultimately, money is money and social
fundraising events are instrumental tools in
strengthening the overall relief effort. But
in a humanitarian crisis of this magnitude,
compassion is still the greatest fundraiser
that we have, and charitable social events
should be seen as a complement to, rather
than a substitute for, genuine giving for its
own sake. We can give freely, or we can give
indirectly through having a good time. Or,
Friday, February 19, 2010 | Page 11
refined tactics include (but are not limited
to) stampeding D.C. venues like stray cattle
and barking fanatically and incessantly at
politicians with whom they disagree.
It is difficult to say from exactly where
Beck derives his moral and philosophical
purview. Founders like Jefferson, Madison
and Adams, were either deists or Unitarians,
separate from modern Christian orthodoxy.
Indeed, the United States is the only dem-
ocratic government in the developed world
that establishes as a principle the separation
of church and state.
On Beck’s book, “Arguing with Idiots,” I
have but two comments. First, his inveighed
conflation of Nazism with communism, Fas-
cism with progressivism and Liberalism with
Stalinism, showcases more of a bizarre fe-
tish with mating “isms” than it does any kind
of intellectual illumination. Second, his un-
substantiated claims regarding immigration,
national security and affirmative action bor-
der on the absurd and embrace the farcical
(“Well, Asians are getting high test scores!
Why aren’t Blacks?!”).
All in all, the various crusades of Beck do
a disservice to conservatives, to liberals, to
reason, to Americans, to journalism, to poli-
tics, to robust debate and to the future of hu-
manity. I hate Glenn Beck, you hate him too,
and with that off our chest, let us move on to
issues, people and ideas that matter. Happy
semester.
Anthony Badami ’11 is a political
theory concentrator from Kansas
City, Mo. He can be reached at
anthony_badami@brown.edu.
ideally, we do both, while understanding
their differences. What’s critical for each of
us to avoid is engaging in the latter to the ex-
clusion of the former and finding a compla-
cent, false sense of altruism in doing so.
Let me make myself clear: this is not a con-
demnation of these fundraising events, nor
of their organizers, nor of those who choose
to attend them. I believe these events, both
here on campus and everywhere else they
exist, have a vital role in providing the stron-
gest and swiftest relief we can to the people
of Haiti. Each of the organizers of the specif-
ic events I’ve mentioned is a personal friend
of mine, and I admire their efforts, which are
nothing less than laudable. Further, partici-
pation in these events can go hand in hand
with good, humble perspective about the cri-
sis and our role as givers.
I say only that it’s important, if we choose
to participate, that we keep that perspec-
tive while we do so. I make no assumptions
about what you have done, thought or felt.
But if you have participated in these events,
I urge you to think (if you haven’t already)
about what it meant to you, and what the ap-
propriate role is for these events, both with-
in your personal response to the crisis and
within the larger relief effort.
Ben Bastomski ’10 is a philosophy
concentrator from Santa Barbara,
Calif. He can be contacted at
benjamin_bastomski@brown.edu.
 Today
The Brown Daily Herald
s p o rt s a ro u n d t h e b e n d
Men’s hockey hosts Clarkson
at 7 p.m. Friday and St. Lawrence
at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Bears beat
Clarkson, 3–2, but lost to St. Law-
rence, 5–2, earlier this season.
The women’s basketball team
hosts Penn at 7 p.m. Friday and
Princeton at 7 p.m. Saturday. The
women bettered Penn, 61–47, but
fell to Princeton, 75–44, in January
on their opponents’ turf.
Men’s basketball travels to
Penn for a 7 p.m. game Friday and
to Princeton for a 6 p.m. Saturday.
Penn upset No. 22 and Ivy League
leader Cornell, 79–64, last week.
c a l e n da r
Today, February 19
12:00 p.m. — Framing Haiti: A Brown
University Teach-In, Sidney E. Frank
Hall
2:00 p.m. — COE Lecture Series with
Gabriel Jaramillo, President and CEO
of Sovereign Bank, Salomon 203
menu
Sharpe Refectory
Lunch — Zucchini Burgers, Hot Tur-
key Sandwich with Gravy, Nacho Bar
Dinner — Red Potato Frittata, Onion
Rings, Seafood Jambalaya, Custard
Pie
crossword
Princeton is second place in the
Ivies at 5–1.
Wrestling visits Cornell at 7
p.m. Friday and Columbia at 4 p.m.
Saturday. The Bears look to chal-
lenge No. 5 Cornell, who is 2–0 in
the Ivies. The Lions lost six straight
duals before this weekend.
The women’s hockey team trav-
els to Princeton for a 7 p.m. game
Friday and hits the ice at Quinnipiac
4 p.m. Saturday. Princeton welcomes
the Bears after two wins last week-
end against Clarkson and St. Law-
rence, while Quinnipiac finished
with a win and a tie.
tomorrow, FebRUARY 20
8:00 p.m. — The Bear Necessities
Present: The International Competi-
tion of Collegiate A Cappella
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Lunch — Chicken Fingers, Vegan
Nuggets, Butterscotch Oatmeal
Cookies
Dinner — Fried Clams, Stuffed
Shells, French Fries
3 Hundreds turn out for first-pick contest
Weather turns into sculpture
5
Friday, February 19, 2010
d i a m o n d s a n d c oa l
Diamond to Student Activities Office Director
Phil O’Hara ’55 for promising us all a “nice little
kitty.” You make be taking the LOLcat fascination
a bit too seriously.
Diamond to the men’s basketballer who
“played like a man.” We appreciate the clarifi-
cation, especially in light of the cross-dressing
ambiguity at Friday’s Dancing with the Profs.
Coal to the students suffering from re-entry
shock. It may hurt, it may be uncomfortable —
but it is not that hard.
A congratulatory diamond to BioMed for
assuring us that they are “absolutely going to
grow.” We’re just grateful not to have to make
another Viagra joke.
Coal to Class Board for doing everything
“75 percent well.” Three-quarters of the way to
Cancun and we would be floating in the Gulf of
Mexico.
comics
Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
Fruitopia | Andy Kim
Hippomaniac | Mat Becker
Island Republic | Kevin Grubb
to day to m o r r o w
41 / 27 43 / 28
Page 12
Diamond to the 60-year-old Ironman alum.
We’re impressed at the challenges you face. But
here’s the real question: Can you handle the chal-
lenges of the SciLi?
Cubic zirconium to students protesting
Brown’s investment in a hotel chain. Luckily you
don’t need a ladder to get into Motel 6.
Diamond to Salman Rushdie, who hangs out
in the “lowest circle of hell,” where the parties are
better. So we take it you had a chance to check out
the partially underground Liquid Lounge while
you were in Providence?
On the other hand, a competitive diamond to
the aerospace engineering conference that was
“like a party.” We hear it was out of this world.
Want more D&C? Check out a retro-diamond
from 1995 at blogdailyherald.com, and write your
own at diamondsandcoal.com.