Bates Democrats and Republicans Continue Activism
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The Bates Student THE VOICE OF BATES COLLEGE SINCE 1873 WEDNESDAY January 16,23, 2013 Vol. 142, Issue. 910 Lewiston, Maine FORUM ARTS & LEISURE SPORTS What’s it like to live through Acapella takes the stage Manti Te’o speaks a war? All five Bates groups wow audi- A lonely linebacker Natalie Shribman ’14 offers a ence during Winter Carnival offers his relationship personal account of her study concert advice abroad experience in Israel See Page 2 See Page 7 See Page 8 Puddle Jump Club enthralls Rondevu first-years welcomes JULIA MONGEAU STAFF WRITER all Batesies What did you do last Friday after- noon? HALEY KEEGAN Most Batesies would answer, “I STAFF WRITER jumped in a puddle.” It was the day of the annual Puddle Jump, hosted by the Last week, doors opened to the new- Bates Outing Club, a day when brave est phase in Batesies’ quest for a Thurs- Bates students take the plunge into Lake day night hot spot as Club Rondevu Andrews in the frigid month of Janu- began its, “We Love College Night.” ary. A tradition that began in 1975 on Set to happen every Thursday at 16 St. Patrick’s Day has only increased in Park Street, the event is run by Maine- popularity over the years, and has be- based entertainment group 207 Night- come one of the most anticipated events life. It is also supported by the Bates DJ of the Bates College Winter Carnival. Society who will have a guest DJ spot Friday afternoon, the brave jump- each week. ers lined up on the edge of the puddle, In a statement to The Student, 207 waiting to jump. Nightlife called last week’s soft opening, “We were the first ones in the pud- “okay.” They added that with new man- dle... it was exciting! The water wasn’t agement and the club just re-opening bad at all-it was the air getting out of the the, “only place to go is up from here.” puddle that was the issue,” said first-year Setting Rondevu apart from past Chrissy McCabe. Thursday night attempts is its 18+, non- The atmosphere surrounding the segregated policy. However, the owners Puddle Jump helps get the jumpers mo- are quick to point to their zero tolerance tivated. policy for underage drinking. “The entire environment was so Also new to 16 Park Street, the for- hyped up, so I wasn’t really thinking. I mer home of Club Karma, is ten thou- just kind of went and did it,” said first- sand dollars in new lighting and special year Julia Savage. effects including, “Everything from la- The crowd was excited and anxious, sers to C02 cannons to offer the premier and everyone was cheering, encouraging nightlife experience,” according to 207 the jumpers who crept cautiously to- Nightlife. wards the gaping hole in Lake Andrews. The club is located about a mile Some people wore costumes, others from campus and is a short walk from wore bathing suits and some wore their the Goose and Pub 33. Additionally, birthday suits. shuttles to Rondevu will be starting at “I think a lot of people were very 9:30 pm from the corner of Frye Street excited and nervous at the same time. and College Street as well as in front But once we got out there in the cold in of V3 on Central Avenue. The shuttles our costumes, the atmosphere lit up and will continue to run past the club’s 2 am was completely euphoric! It was defi- close until all students have been given nitely one of the best events we’ve had transportation back to campus. so far!” said ThuyMy Do, also a first- While the club is still working out year and a first time jumper. cover charge details, this Thursday la- After jumping, students ran to the dies get free entry before 11 pm and nearest residence hall to shower and get cover is free for those who are over 21 See PUDDLE, PAGE 5 COLIN MCINTIRE/THE BATES STUDENT See RONDEVU, PAGE 5 Dr. Anthea Butler kicks off MLK celebration system, about a broader distribution of Finally, Butler argued that rising ture and create jobs, as well as an end to lot of great programs with the schools SAM LEARNER wealth…One day we must come to see healthcare costs and state and local cut- privatized secondary education, which around here.” CONTRIBUTING WRITER that an edifice which produces beggars backs to government programs have she feared exacerbated educational in- In all, Butler’s keynote address pro- needs restructuring.” severed vital economic lifelines to those equality. This last note struck a chord vided a powerful start to Bates’ MLK This year’s three-day celebration of To that end King, spurred on by about to sink into poverty. with sophomore Charley Kenyon, who celebration. Butler reminded the com- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s life, legacy, civil rights activist Marian Wright Edel- Butler’s closing remarks resounded agreed that concrete action was the best munity that this national holiday is not and “forgotten economic message,” be- man, began to develop a plan for a mass with a call to action. Butler quipped that solution. As Kenyon simply said, “The only a time to reflect on an incredible gan with a keynote address delivered by march on Washington, which would she was, “Tired of bus tours,” and that it Bates bubble is a stupid thing.” life cut short, but also a time to realize Dr. Anthea Butler, a professor of reli- later become known as the “Poor Peo- was no longer enough to simply, “Write While Kenyon noted that some that Dr. King’s message still has reso- gion at the University of Pennsylvania. ples’ Campaign.” Although King was your elected officials” to ask for change. community outreach programs appear nance, and that his dream has yet gone President Spencer’s introduction, in assassinated in the midst of this cam- Instead, she advocated for real action, limited to education majors, he still unfulfilled. which she praised the Bates tradition paign, SCLC leaders, after some debate, like a change in national rhetoric, a thought that, “Bates does a good job of observing the holiday, “In a spirit decided to press on. In May of 1968, “New WPA” to rebuild our infrastruc- with community outreach…and has a of self-challenge rather than self-con- 3,000 poor African-Americans marched gratulations,” perfectly set the tone for to Washington and established a tent Dr. Butler’s address, titled, “Martin Lu- city known as “Resurrection City.” ther King Jr. and America’s Bad Check: Butler drew several parallels be- America’s poor in the 21st Century.” tween Resurrection City and the Oc- Dr. Butler’s core argument was cupy movement—both created ad hoc that we have lost Dr. King’s critical and living quarters, neither had specifically compassionate approach to poverty. articulated goals, and both were moni- Though King has been immortalized as tored by police and the FBI—to segue a cool-headed yet passionate civil rights into a discussion about twenty-first cen- reformer, Butler showed that King was tury poverty. also an astute economic thinker and And yet, despite this parallel, Butler critic of capitalism. King understood concluded that poverty today is argu- that poverty and inequality were less a ably an even more entrenched problem. function of individual actions and more Butler attributed our failure to eliminate a product of the capitalist system itself. poverty to a range of cultural, political, In his famous April 1967 “Where and ideological changes since the 1960s. Do We Go From Here” speech to the For example, Butler claimed that Southern Christian Leadership Con- today, “We have a nation of people who ference, King claimed that “the Negro don’t know the value of money,” in no still lives in the basement of the great small part because public schools and society,” and therefore would always churches no longer teach children how remain in the impoverished, artificially to balance a checkbook—a skill that constructed capitalist system that had Butler herself recalled learning in high been created for him. school. Moreover, King argued that this In addition, Butler rightly imputed system had to be questioned. “There our cultural callousness to poverty to are forty million poor people here,” the resurgence of Ayn Rand’s political King said. “One day we must ask the philosophy, openly touted by the politi- question, ‘Why are there forty million cal right, which advocates for a sort of poor people in America?’ And when radical individualism and considers the you begin to ask that question, you are poor to be so because, in Butler’s words, raising a question about the economic “They want to be.” WWW.BATES.EDU Forum The Bates Student January 23, 2013 2 Operation pillar of defense: a normal lifestyle for Israelis? 1,500 terror sites across the Gaza Strip. taking a side. NATALIE SHRIBMAN For the first time ever — Hamas and Amid the commotion, a city siren CONTRIBUTING WRITER other Palestinian terrorist groups fired went off, declaring that a rocket had long-range rockets, such as the Fajr-5, been shot into Jerusalem. The campus Some might say Israel is in a con- toward Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.” came to a standstill. Israeli soldiers ap- stant state of danger and that a lifestyle Haaretz reported that more than peared out of nowhere and sprang into of war and bombs is somewhat normal 3.5 million Israelis were under the threat action. Being outside and far from for the people who live there.