Greetings!

We hear the word "represent" thrown around a lot these days---usually by emcees or those engaging in hip-hop poseur-ism. The truth is, though: we all represent. Whether or not you like to acknowledge yourself as a constituent member of one or many communities, you are---and you are thus (unwilling or not) a representative---a diplomat, if you will, for your community. So this week, readers, let us meditate on being mindful and responsible representatives of our communities. Whether you represent Brooklyn, the Bronx, Bosnia, Bolivia, Bulgaria or the USA, be conscious of the responsibility that has been bestowed upon you simply by virtue of your unofficial membership in one or more communities. Think about where you want your community to go---how you want it to grow...Then take it there.
-Ingrid Feeney

DEBATE CORNER: ELECTION '08!!!!

"Is Election Year Elitism Rational?
The Pitfalls of Belittling Middle America"


Maybe I've been watching too much of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" or maybe Republican rhetoric has started subliminally seeping into my skull, but lately I'm beginning to give into the politically trendy idea of "Democratic elitism." It's not that I think Barack Obama is an elitist; I just think many of the people voting for him are, including myself. I truly believe Obama is trying to reach out to all Americans no matter their geographical location or their socioeconomic class, but many of his supporters appear to be of a different mind. The Democratic voter's desire to belittle and denounce the beliefs of the opposing party has become a prevalent pastime in recent history. It may be that eight years of President Bush have driven many of us to such delirium that we can only express our political opinions in sly satirical remarks, but I find it more likely that many of us really do believe we are better or more enlightened than the average Middle American. This might be irrelevant in a non-election year, but a superiority complex becomes a problem when you're trying to convince others to vote for your candidate. Talking down to people has never been a successful rhetorical tactic (and since I'm assuming most Americans are against torture) we need to use other techniques to turn people's opinions.

Despite these realities, I often see the exact opposite methods used by peers and pundits alike, Bill Maher being the leader of this pack. Speaking about Sarah Palin on the most recent episode of "Real Time" Maher jeered: "Obama was talking about McCain's policies. He said, 'you cannot put lipstick on a pig. If you do, it's still a pig.' This was supposed to describe McCain's policies. McCain said he was actually talking about Sarah Palin. Which is very unfair, because pigs are smart. They don't believe in creationism." While this joke may be funny to some (including me) it causes the reverse outcome of Maher's intended effect. If he honestly cares about Obama becoming the next President of the United States of America (and not just producing laughs) then he would be more careful about referring to a woman many Middle Americans relate to as dumber than a pig. More importantly, we as liberals demand freedom in our personal lives (such as the right to choose and gay marriage rights), but often jump on conservatives for their personal beliefs (in the way that Maher did when he mocked creationism). It makes little sense to attack Palin's belief in creationism (when this will only offend others with the same belief) when the real issue lies in her desire to have it taught in school. Attack the policy, not the person.

What I find so ironic is that many of us so-called "liberals" pride ourselves on treating the traditions, values and beliefs of foreign cultures with respect, yet we are unable to use this same concept when dealing with people from our own country. Maybe that's the problem: because Middle Americans are from the same country as us we assume they should share our values when climate, geography, history, class, economics and hundreds of other factors make this idea inane. We might do better treating them as if they were from another country and attempt to understand where their beliefs and convictions come from instead of blindly bashing them. In one word: diplomacy. We decry our government's refusal to use it abroad, but we mirror it by not employing it at home.

If we claim to be true Obamites, instead of using Middle Americans' beliefs as fodder for jokes we should try connecting to them on issues that cross the borders of religion and geography, such as healthcare, education and the economy (much in the way that our presidential candidate does). Albert Einstein once said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." We must prove our sanity in the next couple months by not repeating the same mistakes of the past two elections unless we desire the same outcome. Otherwise, we aren't fit as Americans to have such a rational man such as Barack Obama for our President.

-Jacob Victorine




"Liberal Elitism vs. The Dumbing-Down of America"

The concept of "Liberal Elitism" must not be considered outside of the cultural context whence it has sprung: the current American zeitgeist of proud insularism and dogged adherence to obsolete "small-town values".

It seems that at present one must display, among other things, a marked disdain for other cultures, zealous and unquestioning piety, and an affinity for recreational killing in order to be considered a "real" American.

By contrast, in order to be considered a "liberal elitist", one needs only to have respect for and interest in other cultures, cuisines, and countries, to question the existence or omnipotence of the god of Jehova, or harbor a lack of enmity towards homosexuals and Latin American immigrants.

The term is "essentially a rhetorical device with infinitely flexible meaning. In various contexts, it refers to political positions as diverse as secularism, environmentalism, feminism, or even advocacy of representative democracy".

It is, in other words, semantic artillery for the Conservative Right to fire on their more left-leaning opponents, and by extension, a handy slur for those right-leaning middle-American civilians who resent (what they imagine to be) the lifestyles of their coastal-dwelling counterparts.

Let's examine the values of those who would use the term "liberal elitist" pejoratively:

"Small town values" is a euphemistic way of of referencing the denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.

"Family values" is clever code for walling out anyone who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.

"Patriotism" is the usual fallback in a failed war, accompanied by a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad. (Chopra)

So because some people base their convictions on the facts and realities that face our country rather than on "homegrown, old-fashioned American values", they should be slandered as elitist?

When did intellectualism and higher education come to be seen as so thoroughly anti-American?
This country was founded on some of the most lofty and forward-thinking ideas of the European Enlightenment. Education and intellectual ability were prized by the founding fathers. Thomas Jefferson warned against government by "an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth."
Better to be ruled by the gifted few, he wrote, than by the fortunate rich. (Zimmerman)

So, America was originally a meritocracy. Recognizing intellectual gifts and hard work (ahem, Obama!) above socioeconomic status at birth (ahem, Bush and friends!).

What we have now is an oligarchy that encourages disdain for learning to ensure that power remains concentrated in their small circle. Constituents of this blue-blood, ivy league-educated neoconservative elite, masquerade as working-class Americans in shameful political theater. It's shocking how many Americans are under the impression the George W. Bush is a "regular guy".

Bush affects a regular-guy demeanor because Americans have always suspected inherited wealth, and rightly so---it runs counter to the self-made ideal, whereby each of us rises or falls depending on individual ability, dedication and persistence.

The tragic irony of this situation is that those conservative elitists who affect regular-guy demeanors and preach "small-town values" are in reality putting policies into practice that are hugely detrimental to the working class, real regular guys in America. And those regular guys are voting for them!

It has gotten so bad that many Americans find a superior intellect to be an undesirable characteristic for a potential head of state. What??? Are you kidding me??? Doesn't it make sense that the leader of the free world should be an exceptional dude (or lady)? The president shouldn't have an IQ and world view that is similar to that of your neighbor Ned who works for UPS. Nothing against Ned, I'm sure he's a nice guy, I just don't want him running my country.

Now, with the woefully underqualified Sarah Palin dangerously close to taking the second-highest position in the executive branch of government, this issue is a topic of hotter debate than ever.

Palin's defenders invoke cries of "elitism" whenever anyone questions her qualifications. This makes it clear how far we have strayed from the meritocratic ideal, ignoring the difference between deserved and undeserved elitism and suggesting that any claim to high status is suspect. It makes a mockery of our government by implying that anyone among us is good enough to lead it. (Zimmerman)

There was once a vision of a noble America. A model of freedom and productivity that was admired, if not emulated across the globe. Many Americans wonder what has happened to this image. Well I will tell you.

The dumbing-down of America has happened to it. Americans in general are monolingual, geographically, historically, mathematically and otherwise deficient compared to competent citizens of other developed and developing nations. And we are known for it. Do we want to embrace this status as the stupidest nation on Earth?

What do we aspire to be as Americans? A nation of victims of uniformly lowered standards, lagging in all academic pursuits and becoming ever-more out of touch with global affairs?

Or are we going to stand up against the tyranny of stupidity that threatens to destroy what shreds of dignity we have left as Americans?

You make the choice. November 4th. It matters.
-Ingrid Feeney


Sources: Obama and the Palin Effect by Deepak Chopra
Sarah Palin and the Assault on Merit by John Zimmerman
Wikipedia entry on Liberal Elitism

Culture Corner

"Sure Facebook is Popular, But is it Cool?"



I saw Facebook for the first time way back in 2005 as a college freshman, and I must admit, I thought it was stupid. I didn't understand its function. To me, relationships were formed and nurtured in the real world, not in front of a computer.

"Damned if I'll jump on the bandwagon!" I remember saying to myself back then. After catching a glimpse of the site's usefulness in meeting girls however, I quickly jumped aboard. At first, my profile was a total joke. In my "personal information" section, I wrote "Executive Producer - The Sopranos" and hijacked an image of Homer Simpson as a little kid to use as my picture. I cruised around my friends' profiles, posting obscene comments on their walls, rejecting or not responding to their game and cause requests -- in general just being a total cyber-punk.

Eventually I cleaned up my act. I made a legitimate profile, featuring all those carefully selected tidbits of information I felt readily captured "me". But I did so reluctantly, still feeling deep in my gut that Facebook possessed at its core that mysterious quality to which my generation has become so attuned: cheesiness, or uncoolness.

I shuddered from a sensation that can only be described as pure cheese the first time someone used Facebook's "poke" feature on me. To "poke", I learned, was the Facebook equivalent of extended eye-contact or a provocative smile in the real world. But that was only the beginning of the uncoolness. When I received a "sexy halloween request" I nearly drowned in the wake of its cheesiness. "What the hell does that even mean?" I remember thinking at the time. I didn't ask. I just left the thing unanswered for months. It all seemed so unnatural; so devoid of the mystery and thrill of real-life romance.

In spite of all that cheese, I continued to use Facebook, embracing those features which I thought useful. Three and a half years later, I'm probably the only one still grappling with the question of whether or not Facebook is cool. You simply cannot lead a normal social life without it. In the realm of dating, the first move a boy or girl will make if interested is befriending you on Facebook. When it comes to throwing parties, mass text messages are annoying, and email has some how become creepy -- Facebook is the only way to go. In just about any situation where one person needs to communicate information with another, Facebook is superior to its alternatives: free, where a cell phone is not, fully interactive, where email is not.

For me, the Facebook experience of relationship, platonic or romantic, will never replace that of the real-life. Disturbingly, I can't say with confidence that other Facebook users would agree, especially those who started using in high school or younger. Regardless, it's probably safe to say that with 100 million active profiles, Facebook's coolness is no longer in question.
-Dan Asselin

The Boylan Brief #102!

“Milk: Not Doing Any-Body Good”

Over 50,000 babies have been affected by the recent contamination of milk-based products in China. What is disturbing about this scandal is that reports of illnesses related to the tainted formula were said to be reported as far back as December of 2007. When the Chinese government finally recalled the powder based formula along with other milk-based products eight months later, the real story began to unfold.

Companies like Sanlu and other dairy producers are accused of putting Melamine into the milk, the same chemical that spawned the dog food recall in the U.S. last year. Melamine, a chemical used in producing plastics, affects the kidneys and can lead to kidney stones, failure or even death. It is rumored that the contamination was not an accident but that it was an attempt to cut production costs. Companies are charged with watering down the milk and adding melamine to balance the lowered protein count.

This Monday Li Changjiang, head of the General **Administration of Quality Supervision in China resigned, only one of countless Chinese officials and others being fired or arrested since the investigation began. Apparently companies like Sanlu, had been given a free pass and were not required to be inspected. The result was an increased profit margin leaving thousands of children sick and their parents in panic.

With over 10,000 children hospitalized, 104 in critical condition and four dead, one has to ask how and why this happened. Who decided it was worth poisoning children to save a few bucks?

With the development of a global market, the production problems in China become an issue we all must face. In the last few years there have been many concerns with quality control in China: children’s toys were said to be tainted with lead paint; there were a slew of faulty tires exported, along with the scare of contaminated toothpaste. One of the most alarming stories was fake prescription pills, with thousands being shipped all over the world.

China claims to have begun cleaning up its act, appointing new officials and a stricter quality control in hopes of preventing further incidents. They are also sending a clear message to those who think tampering with quality is a good business decision. The Chinese government executed the man at the head of the fake prescription pill scandal, convicted of taking bribes to flush counterfeit pills into the market.

As consumers, we would like to believe that the food we are eating is safe. Hearing about these deadly shortcuts is a frightening reminder that not everyone has our best interests in mind. It’s horrendous that companies like Sanlu, who released ads just a year ago, claiming to produce safe products under strict quality control, would tamper with baby formula just to make a quick buck. Stories like this remind us: How much do we really know about what’s in our fridge?
-Meaghan Keeler

Source: BBC


"Ashes are Forever"

As if there weren’t enough luxury industries already, a Swiss company has found a way to turn death into another. Algordanza, which means “remembrance” in Romansch, one of the indigenous languages of the Swiss province of Grisons, creates diamonds out of the ashes of the deceased. Algordanza began offering its services in 2004, a year in which it only sold one diamond.

Nowadays the company produces around sixty per month, ranging in price from $7,500 and up. Each diamond takes anywhere from three weeks to three months to complete.

Companies such as Britain’s Phoenix Diamonds and the U.S.’s GemLife also create synthetic diamonds, however, Phoenix Diamonds uses human hair instead of ashes, while GemLife uses anything from hair to dead pets. Hair holds a higher carbon content than ash, which allows diamonds to even be made from the hair of a living person.

Synthetic diamonds are created through a process in which carbon is subjected to extreme temperature and pressure. This method of production mimics the natural way diamonds form and was invented by General Electric in the 1950’s.

The technology pioneered by GE has improved so much since the 1950’s that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) now marks the quality of synthetic diamonds in the same way it grades natural diamonds. The main difference is that the word “synthetic” is etched on the surface of the artificial stones.

Pricing on synthetic diamonds is slightly less expensive than natural diamonds, however, there is a drawback to having a dead loved one turned into a diamond (besides the ethical implications). The largest diamond offered by Algordanza is only one carat due to the fact that only two percent of a corpse’s ashes are carbon.
-Jacob Victorine

Source:AOL

Currently Reading

This week Chantal Hauser shares her experience reading the novel My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler


Candid, hilarious and provocative; these words best describe Chelsea Handler’s first book, My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night-Stands. This book is written in a clever and fresh style, where the author illuminates, without shame, her highs and lows in her encounters with the opposite sex.

As a bonus, the reader will find warmhearted anecdotes involving friendship, inebriation, bouts of questionable judgment and many other difficult paths that comprise the typical love/sex life. Provocatively titled chapters such as, “Guess Who’s Leaving through the Window?”, “Skid Mark”, and “Shrinky Dink” make you raise an eyebrow, or two.

After reading the first few lines, the reader is immediately captivated and cannot help but want to know what happens next. Consider the introduction of, “I was seven years old when my sister told me she’d give me five dollars to run upstairs into my parents’ room while they were having sex and take a picture. At that age I had heard of sex but had no idea what it looked like…I was always up for a chance to make easy money. I had been wearing hand-me-downs since I was born, and by the age of seven was already sick and tired of my second-string wardrobe. I may not have known what sex was, but I did know that I needed to step up my wardrobe in order to be taken seriously in the first grade.” It is pretty rare - at least for me - to have my curiosity tickled by a book after the very first sentence. Throughout the book, the plot lines only seem to get better; you will not be disappointed.

At a time when the display windows of most bookstores are littered with either depressing self-help manuals, or extended political op-ed rants, My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands comes as a refreshing blast of ‘yes, I went there’ honesty. It is a fast and light read, and I recommend it to anyone who does not mind laughing out loud. Trust me; this is the perfect break from the chore of absorbing mandatory reading from complex and intense textbooks. Consider it a well deserved guilty pleasure…remind you of anything?

Poem of the Week

This week, Jacob Victorine shares a poem by Marc Kelly Smith.


Marc Kelly Smith is the creator of Slam poetry and “I Wanted to Be” was appropriately one of my first introductions to this relatively new poetic style. Smith invented Slam in the late 80’s as a more performance-based form of poetry. A Slam poet will often emote his poem as if he were performing a monologue in a play instead of merely reading it off a piece of paper. Slam poets also compete in events called Slams, which are performance poetry contests that are judged and scored (usually by audience members).

Slam is not only important as a new form of poetry, but also in a larger cultural sense. Slam shares stylistic and performance aspects with Hip-Hop and as a result has drawn a significant amount of Hip-Hop loving urban youths to poetry. The style has not only sparked a revival of poetry in large urban settings, but (as cliché as it sounds) it has created a positive way for kids to express themselves. This connection to Hip-Hop is what made Slam attractive to me and has continued to keep it relevant and exciting for many others and myself.

“I Wanted to Be”

by
Marc Kelly Smith

I wanted to be so many things
Bigger than I was.
A tall tower of building blocks.
A shoelace tied so fast.
Jelly spread smoothly
to the corners of the bread.
I wanted to be so good.
A smile on everyone's face.
Folded hands. A clean desk.
All the numbers added up
digit under digit
perfectly clear.
I wanted to stand between the bully
and the frail kid.
Ready to take it. Ready to give it back.
I wanted to do the right things.
Pull the spit back into my mouth.
Scrape the gum-chewed secrets
off the bottoms of the chairs.
Drag the dumb, go-along laughs
out of the air.
I wanted to stand on an asteroid
whirling a mighty chain above my head,
Flinging an outer space hook probe
into the heart of the Universe.
And by loving ...
Whatever I wanted to love,
When I wanted to love,
How I wanted to love ...
I wanted to grapple the Ultimate Connection.
So what happened?
What happened during that great revolution?
After we pinned our daddies to the floor?
After we made our mothers eat shame?
After we rolled all antiquity and tradition
into cigar size joints,
Sucking in whole rooms of humanity,
Hoping to assimilate all the differences
and heat the world
with our spontaneous combustion?
What happened
When the chain on the asteroid
slipped out of our hands?
When the ones we loved
loved others?
When our laugh became the dumb laugh?
When the spit shot quick and hard
from our teeth?
When we gave the kids the beatings?
What happened to our dreams?
What happened to me?

I wanted to read all the books
of unerring truth.
I wanted to tie my shoelace fast.
Spread jelly smoothly to the corners of the bread.
Build a tower, a tall tower.
Spell everybody's name
top to bottom,
bottom to top
all four sides,
in and out.
I wanted so bad, so bad
to be so many things,
Without the whole thing
falling in.

Although I love all of Smith's poems, I specifically chose “I Wanted to Be” for its ability to capture both the simple joys of childhood and the amorphous fears of growing up. I originally read the poem as a seventeen-year-old high school student and loved the way it illuminates how a child thinks. Only a kid would want to be “A tall tower of building blocks./ A shoelace tied so fast” or “Jelly spread smoothly/ to the corners of the bread". Revisiting the poem five years later, my appreciation for it has only grown. I still love the imaginative and innocent imagery of childhood painted by Smith, but I also know how it feels to want “to be so many things,/ Without the whole thing/ falling in.”

At This Moment

This week, Carolina Alvarado and Phyllis Forbes asked the Brooklyn College Community:

"If you could save one tragic character, historical or fictional, which would it be, and why?"

Frankenstein, 'cause I feel so bad for him. They hated him for existing and then punished him for acting like a monster after they already treated him like one.
- Ashley B.

Arwen for giving up her immortality, that guy that sacrificed himself from A Tale of Two Cities, and Karen from Exodus because she got blown up before ever living her dreams.
- Kathleen H.

Jenny from Forest Gump... she is never appreciated as a tragic character. She lives her life as though she has free will, but is confronted by historical circumstance and illness.
- Kristina H.

Jesus, no, my father. I'd prevent his illness and his death. I didn't really get to know him, and I would like to.
- Paul V.

Thomas Moore, because he died for honor. Also, John Proctor from the Salem witch hunts. Because he wouldn't lie and say it was witchcraft, they killed him. It was another honor/pride kind of situation.
- Jennifer W.

Edward Scissorhands. He was so different he couldn't live in society, so he's forced to live out eternity on his own, giving up on his love. Society just can't accept what's different, especially in that time period--in the 50s. They try to make him fit in, but they can't change him...
- Anthony B.

Greetings!

If there is one truth that resonates throughout every aspect of every life in every corner of every universe, it is the truth of change. Change is constant and inevitable. People age, species evolve (yes, Governor Palin, they evolve), governments fall, continents shift, stars burn out into white dwarves and implode into black holes... Many people, (most notably Republicans), fear and resist change, mistaking it for the degradation of some imagined state of static idealism. This week, readers, let us embrace change with an empowered and positive attitude. Ask yourselves: What changes can I make that will have a positive effect on my development so that I can contribute even more to my community and society at large? Think of this as an "End-of-September resolution". Myself, I am finally going to learn how to breakdance and start practicing parkour. Yes, I'm serious. Send us comments with your End-of-September resolutions, we'd love to hear from you!
Also, don't forget to check out Eyes Wide Open on the quad outside Boylan Hall from 12:15 until 2:15 this Thursday!

Culture Corner

“Cel-Web-rity culture”



Thanks to the success of websites like YouTube, we've seen a surge in people gaining fame for videos posted online. Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has spawned a new beast in internet culture: the “cel-Web-rity.”

YouTube has helped launch people into the spotlight who would have otherwise remained unknown. According to a New York Times article from 2007, many YouTube stars are now moving on to bigger and better things, being offered money to move their “vlogs” and other videos to different host sites. Also, companies like Metacafe are offering $5 for every 1000 hits a video receives, meaning chump change for most but big bucks for those whose videos get hundreds of thousands of hits each day.

"Cel-web-rity" culture has become so pervasive that even Comedy Central's hit series South Park has taken a shot at it. In a recent episode, the boys make an online video and run into problems at the “Department of Internet Money” where they meet famed “Leave Britney Alone” vlogger Chris Crocker. At the height of the tabloids' Britney-bashing last year, Crocker posted a video on YouTube begging the public to leave Ms. Spears alone, instantly making it a hit on the site. Crocker even gained some non-cyber fame, appearing on daytime talk shows to discuss his video. Even though he was on her side, Crocker did not make Ms. Spears happy. In fact she shunned the video and denied any ties with the vlogger, claiming that he posted "Leave Britney Alone" just to get in the spotlight.

Vlogging didn’t help bitter ex-wife Tricia Walsh Smith either. She gained stardom when she appeared on YouTube in 3 videos complaining about unfair settlements with then husband and millionaire Philip Smith. With over 3 million hits, Walsh-Smith's video reveals intimate details about the couples' sex life (or lack there of), and even features a call to Mr. Smith's assistant, in which Tricia asks what to do with all the Viagra when she moves out of their apartment. She claimed the video was posted in hopes that it would catch people’s attention and allow her to plead her case to the public, but it didn’t do much good. When Tricia and now ex-husband Philip Smith went to court, the judge sided with Mr. Smith, claiming that Tricia’s YouTube stunt was just a way for her to humiliate her husband into a more favorable settlement.

Unfortunately, some people become "cel-Web-rities" without having any say in the matter. Schools around the country and worldwide are facing the threat of “cyber-baiting," which involves a student agitating his teacher until the teacher flips out, then secretly turning on a camera-phone and pressing record. While some argue that teachers are to blame and that students who "cyber-bait" are only capturing behavior already going on in classrooms, others point out that no teacher deserves to have his or her worst career moment posted up for the whole world to see.

So when are we entitled to privacy? More importantly, when are we not? When it comes to making a "cel-Web-rity," those questions are typically overlooked, and with the click of a mouse, You Tubers can cause irreversible devastation to a person's reputation and career. You never know when you’re being recorded, so watch out or you may just become the next big "cel-Web-rity"...

-Meaghan Keeler

The Boylan Brief #101!

And God Said Let There be, Evolution?

The Vatican will host a conference on evolutionary theory next year to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.” Including scientists, and philosophers, along with Catholic and Protestant theologians, a resolution to the creationism, evolution, and now intelligent design conflict is hopefully the desired outcome. Though Pope Benedict has argued that Darwinism is “insufficient to explain the origins of life,” Gianfranco Ravasi, in charge of the Vatican’s cultural affairs, told reporters that “there is absolutely no incompatibility between evolutionary theory and the Bible’s message.”

Marc Leclerc, of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, which is co-organizing the meeting with US-based University of Notre Dame, further encourages this hope, reasoning that "’It isn't the theory of evolution as a scientific theory that is incompatible with faith and in God the creator,’ but rather that it is not the only way to explain reality.” This goes hand in hand with the observations of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, which argues that science and religion are not, as traditionally viewed, enemies. Most often, he says, “scientists and people of faith have operated not at cross purposes but simply at different purposes.... most scientists tend to view the two disciplines as distinct, with each attempting to answer different kinds of questions using different methods,” or, as famously referred to by late evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould, “non-overlapping magisteria."

The outcome of this conference will be significant as 42% of Americans, the Pew Forum reports, reject the idea that life on earth evolved, while 21% argue that it did evolve, but with the guidance of a supreme being. Only 26% accept “evolution through natural processes or natural selection alone.” Only 28% say that scientific advancements threaten their religious beliefs, 81% say "recent discoveries and advances" in science have not significantly impacted theirs, and surprisingly, 14% say these discoveries have actually made them more religious. Only 4% say that science has made them less religious. Yet 87% do think that “scientific developments make society better.” The Forum uses this data to conclude that “in the minds of most people in the United States, there is no real clash between science and religion.” When the two realms do conflict, however, most look to their faith for answers. With that in mind, let’s hope at its next conference the Vatican offers only the most conciliatory ones.
-Carolina Alvarado
Source:Yahoo!

Rivularis:The Return

There was a time when frogs flourished in the rainforests of Costa Rica, but in the last twenty years many species of the amphibian have become endangered or extinct. Scientists believe the cause of the rapid decrease in the population is a fungus called batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. This fungus infects the frogs with the disease chytridiomycosis, which produces skin lesions. Unfortunately, the result of these lesions is a slow death by suffocation for the frogs.

On a brighter note, many rare species have been found in Costa Rica including the 2.5cm Ithsmohyla Rivularis. A male Ithsmohyla Rivularis, which was believed to be extinct, was found last year, while a female carrying eggs was discovered recently, which gives the species a slight chance for survival. Researchers tested the frogs for chytridiomycosis and studied the skin of the tree frogs to understand what is destroying the species. The Ithsmohyla Rivularis is doing the impossible by making this comeback. Now researchers are going to start the search for the majestic golden toad, which has been extinct for twenty years. There’s so much we do not know about this world and this discovery gives hope to finding other species who are thought to be extinct and new species yet to be seen.
-Joe Pugliesi
Source:BBC

It's Just in my Blood

The age old argument of nature vs. nurture has presented itself yet again, but this time, it is being debated as a determination of political proclivities. Roger Highfield, science editor for the UK Telegraph, reports that a study conducted by Professors Douglas Oxley, Kevin Smith and John Hibbing and colleagues at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, working with Prof John Alford at Rice University in Houston, Matthew Hibbing at the University of Illinois, and Peter Hatemi at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioural Genetics in Richmond, has shown that political inclination may be innate. According to the study, people who respond to startling noises and shocking images with hard blinking and excessive sweating have a tendency to “endorse political positions that are more protective of their own social groups.” Professor Hibbing, of the University of Illinois, believes that the study can “…show that certain important political beliefs have a very deep basis.” He stresses that despite the fact that it is not certain genetics are the cause, the study has shown “…that there's a predilection biologically that leads some people to experience the world differently from others.”
-Aisha Douglass
Source:The Telegraph

Currently Reading

Hispañola.

The Dominican Republic and Haiti. Two countries sharing the same island—one poor, the other poorer. For decades, Haitians attempting to escape their country's abject poverty streamed into the Dominican Republic to work as laborers in the sugarcane fields or as domestic help in sprawling haciendas.

In 1937, longstanding hostility between the two countries erupted with Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo Molina decreeing the slaughter of all Haitians on Dominican land. The genocide came to be referred to as "El Corte" or "Kout kouto" (“The Cutting,” in Spanish and Kréyol respectively). This is the historical backdrop for “The Farming of Bones.”

Like all of Danticat's work, this exquisite novel is intoxicatingly colorful and feverishly erotic, miraculously engaging all of the five senses through her skillful rendering of luscious prose.

The protagonist, Amabelle, drifts between waking life and vivid, haunting dreams in which she, as a child, relives the death of her parents again and again in the raging post-storm swell of the river that would later, after the state-sanctioned slaughter of Haitians, be renamed “Massacre River.” She also dreams of her lover Sebastien, her life's only hope being to find him after their separation at the beginning of Kout kouto.

The Farming of Bones is replete with complex shades of meaning. In the first few chapters of the novel, Amabelle helps Señora Valencia give birth to twins, one of which had a caul over her head that impeded her breathing. When the doctor finally arrives to check on the newborns' health, he says to Amabelle, "Many of us start out as twins in the belly and do away with the other." Haiti and the Dominican Republic, vying for resources on the same island, are much like rival twins in the same belly. One of the twins dies days after his birth, foreshadowing the devastating violence about to be carried out by one of the sibling nations on the other.

Danticat writes in her mother country's language of crippling paradox—of inconceivable suffering and devastating natural beauty—of the miseries of poverty and the joys of living close to the Earth. She speaks to us all through the exploration of universal themes such as lost love and mother-daughter relationships.

I would recommend Ms. Danticat's work to anyone, at any time. I find it even more relevant now, however, in light of the recent series of hunger crises and environmental disasters that have made the always difficult existence of the Haitian people close to impossible.
~Ingrid Feeney

Poem of the Week

Prior to my encounter with “To fill a Gap” my experience with Emily Dickinson was what I assume the typical student’s to be: too stoic, too formal, too obsessed with death— and not in that thrilling way of Poe’s either, more, well, cold, and unaffected. I couldn’t identify with her morbid worries, nor did I want to.

I expressed this to a friend at finding a volume of her work on his bookshelf. Patient and used to the criticism, I’m sure, my friend sat me down. He asked me if I’d ever been heartbroken, separated from someone I deemed special, or just awfully disappointed. He asked me to recall the feeling, which I, albeit reluctantly, did. Then he showed me this:

To fill a Gap
Insert the Thing that caused it—
Block it up
With other— and 'twill yawn the more—
You cannot solder an abyss
With air—

I realize this poem doesn’t particularly suit the mood of this blog, or even of the time— it is still technically summer— but what really affected me was the entirely new perception of Emily Dickinson it offered. It cracked the icy niche where I had placed her and lowered her to a more humane and empathetic level. One of the most renown, and, certainly for me, inaccessible poets, suddenly seemed in my reach and in my realm. I was moved and in awe of how easily it captured one of the most complex human feelings, and amazed at how clean the execution of it was. I was thrilled.

To be fair, it could have just been the wine, or the excitement of being, for that weekend, in a new town, with fresh faces. Most certainly a disappointing someone made this poem resonate, understood. Yet I started this semester with the confidence that burgeoned when Emily Dickinson’s words felt more like mine than like her own, and with the belief that there’s an entry point to every writer’s most furtive thought, that none of us is really that different, or that alone.
-Carolina Alvarado

AT THIS MOMENT

This week, Aisha Douglass and Ingrid Feeney asked the Brooklyn College Community, "What fictional character have you always been (at least a little bit) in love with?"

"Harry Potter! Hands down the hottest make-believe wizard to ever be invented."
~J.

"I like Arwen from Lord of the Rings, because elves are cool and Liv Tyler is an earth angel"
~Daniel

"Jessica Alba's character in Sin City. No explanation needed!"
~David

"D'Artanyan of the Three Muskateers. Swoon."
~Alena K.

"Robin Hood! I am clearly not a gold-digger!"
~Marie P.

"House--I just love those terminally-emotionally-unavailable types."
~Ellie M.

"Princess Leia."
~Ivan

"I'd like to bond with Bond, James Bond."
~Erin

"Clarisse McClellan. When I think about it now, she represents so much that I value. It's entirely possible, though, that I value some of these things because I was in love with her when I read this so many years ago."
~Bill F.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: EYES WIDE OPEN!!! THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 25th, BC CAMPUS QUAD

Eyes Wide Open: New York is coming to the Brooklyn College Quad on Thursday, September 25, 2008, from 12:15 to 2:15 p.m.

Eyes Wide Open: New York is an exhibit that displays the impact of the Iraq War on New York State. This exhibit features 183 pairs of combat boots memorializing the U.S. soldiers from New York State who have fallen in the Iraq War. The number of boots in the exhibit increases with each reported death. Each pair is tagged with the name and age of the deceased. A display of street shoes represents the thousands of Iraqi civilian causalities.

The Brooklyn College Anti-War (BCAW) Coalition is sponsoring the exhibit. It will be on display from 12:15–2:15 p.m., Thursday, September 25, 2008, on the Quadrangle at Brooklyn College. A rain date has not been scheduled.

BCAW is also sponsoring a discussion of GI resistance to the war, which will be held at the Brooklyn College Student Center that evening from 5 to 7 p.m. IVAW member Matthis Chiroux, a Brooklyn College student will speak. Mr. Chiroux has publicly refused a stop loss order to deploy to Iraq. Recently he received a letter from the military, which stated that he would not be prosecuted for his act of resistance.

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), an international social justice organization, originally created Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of War to illustrate the lives lost in the war in Iraq. The national exhibit, which first opened in Chicago with five hundred pairs of boots in January 2004, increased in size to represent the loss of 3,500 lives when it closed on Memorial Day weekend 2007. The tour had been to more than seventy cities across the country, including Boston, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York City, Orlando, and Washington DC. It has now been divided into smaller statewide exhibits, which continue to tour on a local level.

Further information about the Brooklyn College Anti-War Coalition may be found at www.bcantiwar.org.

Further information about the exhibit may be found at www.afsc.org/nymetro.htm or from the AFSC New York Metropolitan Region office in New York at 212-598-0950.

Greetings!

As the first fresh breath of fall alights upon the last lingering lackadaisical breezes of summer, we welcome you, our readers, back to the Boylan Blog. Wherever your summer adventures took you---whether to foreign shores or simply to the boardwalk at Coney Island, we trust that they have left you feeling satisfied and rejuvenated. Now it’s time to use those stores of accumulated solar energy in order to realize your potential as an academic superstar and to keep the crazies out of the White House. Please return to our blog frequently, treating it as your touchstone for the academic community at Brooklyn College and as a way to keep up on current events in the months preceding this most pivotal of elections.

Announcements!

The first Poetry club meeting will be held next Tuesday, September 23 from 12:15-2:15 in 2307 Boylan Hall. Come one, come all!

We will be accepting submissions for the Volume 27, 2008-2009 English Majors' 'Zine from this date forward. Please bring a hard copy of your work of short fiction or poetry to 3416 Boylan, and send an electronic copy to bczinesubmissions@gmail.com.

Check the door of 3416 Boylan for the Fall '08 English majors' open mic sign up sheet. It will be up soon!

Non-English majors are free to participate in both the 'Zine and the open mic.

We will be running a political op-ed column in the blog through November. Please check it out, and also keep an eye on the polls using the link below!

Election-Projection.net

Culture Corner

"The Soul of Sneaker Culture"


Over the past five years sneaker culture has walked its way from the outskirts of city life into the center of urban culture. It has demonstrated its presence in documentary films such as "Just for Kicks," books such as Bobbito Garcia’s "Where’d You Get Those?," television shows such as ESPN’s "It’s the Shoes" and has even manifested itself in the form of Sneaker Pimps, a traveling exhibition of sneakers, art and music. Sneaker boutiques can be found in foreign cities such as Paris, London, Tokyo, and Beijing and cover most of lower Manhattan like the shadow of a supreme sole. It seems that suddenly everyone and their mother knows a sneakerhead or is a sneakerhead, but do they understand the history of the culture they are partaking in?

Sneaker culture was born in late 1970’s New York City, an amalgamation of early Hip-Hop, playground basketball, and the walking life of city existence. The original sneaker enthusiast was the basketball player; in a sport such as basketball that requires sparse equipment, the little that is required takes on even more importance. Having the newest and most technically advanced sneakers can benefit a player’s game, but this is not their only purpose; they also act as an on court status symbol. In the late 1970’s prominent college teams would sometimes give their players sneakers in unreleased colors or with the team’s name on them. These sneakers would not only draw attention because no one else had them, but they would also indicate how good a player was since the only people that had access to them were the players good enough to be on these teams.

During the same period in time Hip-Hop began to emerge as a popular art form and culture, specifically within the confines of New York City (where it was originally formed in the Bronx). Break dancing was a big part of this and the basketball sneaker became the b-boy’s footwear of choice. In Hip-Hop, music, dance and style are indisputably linked and so the footwear worn for breaking automatically became the same worn casually. Through Hip-Hop the sneaker quickly transformed from the on court status symbol of the basketball player to the off court fashion statement of the emcee and b-boy.

In the early 1980’s sneaker companies such as Puma, Adidas, Converse, Nike, Pro-Keds and Pony began to notice the newborn popularity of the sneaker and adjusted accordingly. Prices rose and more sneakers were released in more colorways. Companies also began to discontinue models after their release in order to create more demand for newer models (previously a specific sneaker model might be released year after year). This marketing scheme gave birth to what I consider the true beginning of the modern day sneakerhead. Due to the limited availability of certain sneakers, sneaker connoisseurs would often buy multiple pairs of a sneaker in order to put one or more pairs away for future wear a few years (or more) down the line. This practice is commonly known as putting your sneakers on “ice.” Putting a sneaker on ice meant you could break out a sneaker at a later date after everyone else had already beaten down their pairs, thereby being the only one with that model of sneaker at the time.

The 1980’s also marked the beginning of sneaker hunting (journeying to different sneaker stores in order to find older discontinued models or newer hard to find styles) along with the signing of the Hip-Hop trio Run-D.M.C. by Adidas and the creation of the Air Jordan line by Nike. The 1990’s began with the craze of the Japanese sneaker collector, which caused much of the older sneaker stock of mom and pop sporting goods stores to be bought up and taken to Japan. As a result, the decade ended with an increased desire for previously released models (since they could no longer be found in the U.S. due to the Japanese raid) and the subsequent rerelease of retro models by companies such as Nike. The 2000’s only saw this trend increase and lead to the creation of sneaker boutiques in urban centers to accommodate this newfound niche market.

I wasn’t born until 1986 (the same year the Air Jordan I was released), but despite this fact I came to sneaker culture through the same trinity of basketball, Hip-Hop and city life that the culture was formed from. Born and raised in the upper part of Manhattan I’ve been in love with basketball ever since my parents placed a plastic Fisher Price basketball hoop in my room when I was two years old. My love for Hip-Hop did not come later until 1999 with the arrival of Mos Def’s “Black on Both Sides,” but by then I had already crept into the culture the same way basketball players of the late 1970’s had. Playing basketball on blacktop everyday wore down my kicks creating a need for a new pair every month or so. The fact that I was actually good at basketball only made me fiend for the best and newest models even more. Hip-Hop merely allowed me to take my love for sneakers off the court.

In a way, it is a shame that the sneaker has gone from cultural signifier to fashion statement. For a while the right sneakers denoted that you were part of something bigger: something more specific, more meaningful. Nowadays they usually merely show that you are in step with the current style.

-Jacob Victorine

Sources:Garcia, Bobbito. Where’d You Get Those?. New York: Testify Books, 2003.
Just for Kicks. Dir. Thibaut De Longeville & Lisa Leone. Perf. Bobbito Garcia, Robert “Scoop” Jackson, Rebel, Doze Green, Russ Bengston. Image Entertainment, 2005.

The Boylan Brief #100!

“White Women find a Pal-in McCain ticket”

The historic 2008 race for the presidential election has taken a turn for the contentious as Barack Obama's formerly comfortable lead in the polls grows steadily smaller. Among those who are switching over to the McCain camp are members of an unlikely (that is, a generally Democrat-voting) demographic: white women. Why, one might ask, would women support a candidate who supports robbing them of their right to choose to terminate an unwanted pregnancy and would gladly send their brothers and sons to die in order to perpetuate the catastrophic and massively unpopular occupation of Iraq? The answer is simple: Sarah Palin.
Palin was chosen by John McCain as his running mate on August 29th of this year. Until then she was virtually unknown outside of the remote state of Alaska, where she has been serving as governor since November of 2006. It is doubtless, looking at her list of accomplishments, that Mrs. Palin is a woman of substantial energy and conviction. But when one considers the nature of those accomplishments, one begins to quake and tremble imagining the havoc she could wreak upon this country should she be elected to such a high ranking position in the executive branch of the US government. Palin's support base among the uber-conservative Christian Right is understandable, seeing as she embodies their NRA gun-toting, pro-life ideology of unrepentant and uninformed nationalism to a tee. But it is far less understandable why women who would otherwise vote democrat would support a candidate whose personal ideology and political agenda so thoroughly subverts their rights as citizens of the United States of America.
Women who are supporting Sarah Palin merely because she possesses a similar set of reproductive organs might want to take some time to learn a little about the woman behind the vagina. Following are some facts about the woman who could be our next vice president if we let her.
•She was elected Alaska’s governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.
•She is presently under investigation in Alaska for abuse of power.
•Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest, and supports overturning Roe v. Wade.
•She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000.
•Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.
•She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change and is solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.
•She supports drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the planet's last pristine wildernesses.
•She offered a bounty of $150 for each right front leg of freshly killed wolves.
•She supports aerial hunting of wolves and bears even though Alaskans voted twice to ban the practice, and used $400,000 of state money to fund a media campaign in support of the practice.
•McCain met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.

Is this the woman you want running your country? If your answer is no then I hope you are planning on exercising your right to vote this November, because the far right certainly is.

-Ingrid Feeney
MoveOn

"Israeli Official Suggests ‘Kidnapping’ Iranian President"

Israeli cabinet minister Rafi Eitan mentioned the option of kidnapping Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his continued threats of aggression against the state of Israel. Most recently, Ahmadinejad warned that Israel would “soon disappear” and likened the sovereign nation to a tumor that must be erased from history.

As one of the elite operatives involved in the 1960 kidnapping of Nazi official Adolf Eichmann, Eitan maintains that the mere threat of genocide is sufficient grounds for arrest. If obtained, Eitan said, Ahmadinejad would stand trial before The Hague International War Crimes Tribunal.

Eitan's suggestion of kidnapping is his personal opinion, and does not reflect any recognized plan of the Israeli government. However, with tensions brewing over Iran's developing nuclear capabilities, comments such as those made by Ahmadinejad are no longer taken lightly by Israeli defense officials.

-Daniel Asselin
Source: BBC


"What to Believe...The Truth or the Facts?"

I read the newspaper every day, or at least I try. Sometimes there are very informative and factual articles to be found, some of which are actually interesting. Yet the burning question that I have now and then is, ‘how accurate and truthful are these articles?’ Of course “truth” is a subjective concept, but I’m often left wondering about the veracity of what I read. For instance I was very confused – and still am – about an article regarding North Korean Communist Party leader Kim Jong-Il.
Tuesday, September 9th 2008 marked the sixtieth anniversary of North Korea’s Communist Party. There was an elaborate parade and the usual festivities in the capital city of Pyongyang. All of which could be described as a typical anniversary celebration, except that there was one important element missing: the leader himself.
What confused me is the newspapers’ take on this fact. The New York Times headlined with, “North Korea’s Leader Is Seriously Ill, U.S. Intelligence Officials Say.” 20 Minutes, a Swiss newspaper, quipped, “Parade for a Double?” Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper reported that Kim Jong-Il collapsed in late August but is now on his way to recovery. The most troubling headline was from the British Sunday Times: “North Korea ‘uses doubles’ to hide death of Kim.” What is the truth and what are the facts? Is he dead, alive, convalescing?
In fact (or maybe not) we know that Kim Jong-Il has several doubles because he is afraid of assassination. Supposedly one of those doubles has even undergone extensive plastic surgery to resemble the leader. If so, it would be unfortunate for North Koreans. Imagine never being completely sure whether the person you’re supposed to follow is the genuine article or just a convenient backup. I think the newspapers are just as confused as I am…truthfully.

-Chantal Hauser
Source: The Times Online

Poem of the Week

Poem of the Week

This week, Phyllis Forbes discusses her experience with Gregory Pardlo, and shares his poem, "The Winter After the Strike".



My summer was probably much like yours. An ice cream cone here; a sudden last minute expulsion from summer a program there, you know the usual. The best part about it was that I was invited to participate in the North Country Writers Workshop at Medgar Evers College. The four day event was my very first time sharing my poetry in such a forum. Right away, I learned that the unique anxiety generated in "anticipation of reading one's fledgling poetry aloud in front of strangers," feels exactly like "fear of a slow painful death"! Fortunately, I was in good hands.

The workshop was taught by poet and Medgar Evers Creative writing Professor, Gregory Pardlo. Professor Pardlo had prepared some very generative readings and exercises for our group, in addition to creating a safe but honest space for us to share ideas with each other on our respective poems. He really was an amazing teacher and I learned more at the workshop than any single person on earth has learned in the past 4000 years. Ok, maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but he is excellent.

It wasn't until after the workshop that I got Professor Pardlo's book and realized what a decorated poet he is. He is a 2005 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in poetry and the recipient of a 2006 fellowship in translation from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has also received fellowships from The New York Times, the MacDowell Colony, the Seaside Institute, and Cave Canem. His poems, reviews and translations have appeared in Calalloo, Lyric, Gulf Coast, Painted Bride Quarterly, Ploughshares, Seneca Review, Volt, Black Issues Book Review, Black Renaissance/ Renaissance Noir, and on National Public Radio. His volume of translations from the Danish poet Niels Lyngsoe, Pencil of Rays and Spiked Mace (BookThug), was published in 2004. His first book of poems, Totem (American Poetry Review, 2007), was chosen by Brenda Hillman for the 2007 American Poetry Review/ Honickman Prize and was nominated for an Essence Magazine Literary award.

The poems in his book "Totem" are well written and expertly polished without losing the raw emotional quality I look for in a poem. "The Winter After the Strike" is an example of the thoughtfulness and eloquence present in all of Professor Pardlo's work.




The Winter After The Strike

Perhaps we are each a cresting echo hesitating, vibrant with the moment
before rippling back.

But you're steadfast as Odysseus strapped to the mast, as you were
in '81 when Reagan ordered you back to work. You were President

of the union local you steered with your working-man's voice,
the voice that ground the Ptolemaic ballet of air traffic to
a temporary stop.

You used it to refuse to cross the picket line I walked
with you outside Newark International.

I miss sitting beside you at the console when you worked
graveyard shift in the tower. Mom and I visited with our
sleeping bags.

I could see the dark Turnpike for miles, the somber
office buildings winking insomniac cells, the tarmac

spread before us like a picnic blanket and you, like a jade Buddha
suffused in the glow of that radial EKG.

You'd push the microphone in front of me, nod, and let me
give the word.
I called all my stars home, trajectories bent on the weight
of my voice.

You say you miss tracking those leviathans, each one snagged
on the barb
of your liturgy. I, too, get reeled in by the hard, now rusty music
of your pipes.

I follow it back to the day of your accident in the story you tell:
you were sixteen, hurdling the railings dividing row-house porches

from one end of Widener Place to the other to impress Mom.
I imagine the way you cleared each one like a leaf bobbing
on water, catching

the penultimate, the rubber toe of your Chuck Taylors kissed
by the rail, upsetting your rhythm and you roiled in the air
headlong,

arms outstretched, stumbling toward the last like one hell-bent
or sick to the stomach. The way you landed, on your throat,
the rail

could have taken your head clean off. Since then, your voice issues
like some wartime communiqué: a ragged, typewritten dispatch

which you swallow with your smoker's cough black as a tire
spinning in the snow. That winter after the strike,

we were so poor you sold everything but the house. Tell me, Dad,
when you'd stand at the door calling me in for the night,

could you hear me speaking to snowflakes falling beneath
the lamppost?
Could you hear me out there, imitating you imitating prayer?

At this Moment

This week Austin and Joe asked the Brooklyn College community "If you had the chance to spend time with any American president, who would it be?"

"Lincoln, solely because of the hat."
-Dominique Gauvard

"James Madison, because he wrote the Federalist Papers with Alexander Hamilton." -Michael Bronner

"I would say Abe Lincoln because he was supposedly a really funny guy.
But, if I were to be more creative, I would want to hang out with
Andrew Jackson. He was crazy!!!"
-Nicole Lebenson

"Definitely anyone who was pre Lincoln because I mean who really knows about the guys between Washington and Lincoln."
-Anonymous

"Barack Obama that's how much faith I have in the fact that he is going to be our next president."
-Anonymous

"George Washington. I want the real story about that cherry tree."
-Anonymous