N 0 V E M n E R 2 , I 9 9 4 The Other Side V o L u M E X X I V . I s !i u E 2 Po ectio Fall 1994 .I on 187 Unplugged Oh \veil, \vhatevp; Clip 'n' collect! NICOLE LAMPHERE EXPLORES THE EcocENTER (PG. 8) • PHoro EssAY OF THE O NTARIO YoUTH CENTER (PG. 13) • J uSTIN Roon ON MURALs (PG. 6) THE OTHER SIDE on everywhere, and that the apathetic are just too busy watching TV to figure this oul I am thinking particularly of the forum on Lab?r editor's desk organizing that took place in the Founder's Room on ~to~r 26th_m which representatives from a variety of Southern Cahforn1a orgamz­ "It was the sad confession, and continual exemplification, of the short-comings of the composite man- the spirit ingcoalitionsspokeon the work they havedone to secure basic rights burthened in clay and working in matter- and of the despair that assails the higher nature, at finding itself so miserably for documented and undocumented workers. There is also a flurry thwarted by the earthly part." -Nathania! Hawthorne, ''The Birth-mark" of activity that Pitzer faculty and students a_re participati_ng such as labor organizing internships and the on-gomg efforts w1th staff on Editors-in-Chief: Kim Gilmore On lazy afternoons in grade school,as the heaters purred softly in the background, the kids in my class laid comfortably campus to elevate working conditions for '1ow-level employees" Heidi Schumnn on the floor, mesmerized during story time by the tale of Harriet Tubman. Amidst the great political and social upheaval here. Executive Editor: fortllthan Casper that eventualJy led to the Gvil War, Tubman, as we all know now, engineered the Underground Railroad which led dozens In any time, there seems to be a certain amount of blindness to Features Editor: Justin Rood ofslaves to freedom, courageously risking her life and theirs. Appropriately removed from her complexity, from the details which people must succumb; it is never possible to know h~w the Editorial Intern: Tobin Steers that led up to her decision, to third grade ears hers was a story of a wonderfully defiant action against the cruelty of slavery. actions of today will be perceived in one year, in a decade, m two Writers: Ramzi Abed Along with the other kids in my class, I imagined myself right alongside her, could clearly see that what she had done was hundred years. But what all people t~t have worked f~r change Aaron Balkan right, and that I, if put in the same situation, would be propelled to do act accordingly. Our teachers didn't wince in what seem to have understood in some way IS that the moment IS always Joshua Cohen they felt was their responsibility to beourmoral guardians, and I remember not wincing in myunflinchingyesas they asked now, but always, at the same time, influenced by a historical con­ Shaula Coyl us after the story, "Would you have done the same?" tinuum which provides some illumination about which choices are Moral dilemmas are often very cut and dried in the minds of children not yet conditioned to forestall the emotional more intelligent, more humane, or more effective than others. Lawrence CUilloping responseintheinterestofananalyticalone. OneofthewrittengoalsofthePitzereducationistoencourageandaidstudents Pitzer College has been more in tuned than most colleges~ I th1_nk, Matt Fehrs in critical thinking, and the debates in the past few years of the relationship between this kind of thinking and social action to the realization that the moment is always now, that h1stoncal Sara Glaser have yet to be resolved. The objectives and guidelines seem to be ones that the college community loosely agrees upon, processes are being formed continually and presently. But t~e Elise Graner but the extent to which they should connect to direct social actions of various sorts is a point of contention. It is almost an tension still exists, perhaps cannot be resolved, about how acadeiT\Jc Nicole Lamphere over-played question: how do we, as students, connect or reconcile our academic work and knowledge with "the outside pursuits, which force a slowing down of the political response in the Jenny Murphy world," or our roles in the public and political world? One answer might be that we make these connections in such a wide favor of gaining knowledge, can or cannot, should or should not feed ZAch Pall variety of ways, in so many forms of action and inaction that a single response would be elusive. But there seems to be a into students' responsibility to the public domain. Al~hough_ ~ne Ad Coordinator: Alice Rogers deeper, older and more historical background to this question in a country that has laid down such egalitarian ideals and ultimate goal may be to equip the emotional response w1th a entical Sarah Byrsk has had such powerful faith in the public citizen. Artists: one sometimes it seems that the critical voice often concludes that Patricia Patzko This month has produced a multitude of stories in the mainstream media regarding race and racism thatcaneasilylead potltical solutions are so difficult to compile. For exampl~, while Photographer: Blythe Miller to sensory overload: Proposition 187, with all of its various frightening and complex off-shoots, articles on the Pioneer Proposition 187 is clearly the wrong solution to th~ econ~n:uc hard­ Fund's support of anti-Semitic and racist theories and scholarship, and The Bell Curve by the conservative social theorists ships of Southern California, the harder task comes m deodmg what Faculty Advisor: Allen Greenberger Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein, in which they argue that certain races are intellectually inferior to others. These the better ones are, as individuals and collectively. are just the most noteworthy of the incendiary issues and theories that have cropped up this month regarding race. These I agree with President Massey's statements regarding the need are all separate issues that deserve to be addressed individually and carefully, but I bring them up together because they for students to be freed from certain intellectual roadblocks, to learn Back in the olden days, The Other Side used seem to represent a frightening a historicism when it seems that these issues should have been resoloved by now. "without protective, defining boundaries." Pitzer students would to receive mail and letters to the editor. But at the same time, there is something about Proposition 187, The Bell Curve, and the activities of the Pioneer Fund offer a variety of conclusions as to how effective the College has been Not anymore. We would like to get mail that invite an immediate, gut response. The critical mode is, at least for a split second and sometimes for a more prolonged offering that freedom, but it seems that \itzer does ~ave some period, dulled by such ridiculousness, with the absolute ludicrousness of such policies and theories seeming to blare so allegiance to that model. But, and I don t mean to 1mply that once again, not only for selfish reasons, plainly. There is a well-documented history that debunks the usefulness of racism and theories of biological determinism; President Massey suggests other·wise, it seems that one of the bur­ but because letters to the editor both there are harrowing and tragic histories that prove the gruesome ends to which they can be taken. These histories may dens of becoming independent thinkers is the reality that freedom regarding articles written in the magazine inform a purely emotional response to these issues, or might prove that they are not so purely emotional after all, but are must eventually give way to an abandonment of some ideas and the and on Pitzer in general provide other grounded by a bleak past of racism and hatred. acceptance of certain moral or ethical positions. So whileass_tuden~ avenues for discussion and dialogue. But the emotional response, though valid, is insufficient, and in fact, it seems that what such theories and policies need we are afforded a great luxury at Pitzer to pon~e~ such ph1losp~JC Please write. is a well-reasoned and historically informed counter-argument. This isn't to discount the attention that Proposition 187, notions, freedom must lead to the tougher dec1s1ons about wh1ch for example, has received in the alternative press and from groups that have organized against it. As time closes in on the critical modes to adopt, which actions to take, and which to let go. The Other Side magazine is a publication of election, resistance pressure against 187 has surely had an effect; the exasperating reality, though, is that the greatest anti- Unlike the way I thought as a third grader, I understand more the students of Pitzer College. The editors 187 victory to be heralded by the mainstream press so far has been the Republican opposition rather than the grassroots fully now the sacrificies Harriet Tubman's, or Cesar Chavez's, or reserve the right to edit or refuse any organizing and demonstrating by Californians, many of them undocumented. MedgarEvars'choicesdemanded. Thepoliticaldecisionsthatpeople One of the characteristic insistencies of the foggy dream world of the U.S. mainstream during the Reagan-Bush Years make, the connections students do or do not make between academ­ material, although it doesn't happen often. when manyPitzerstudents were growing up was that there were times of urgency in US. history,and that ours wasn't one ics and politics and social lives may just personal and might not be The opinions expressed in this magazine of them. It is interesting that, maybe as a response to the blindness of the recent past, the youth of today seem to be fully comprehendible.