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On September 24, 2010, I had the pleasure of meeting the

president of the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus. In the week preceding his arrival, though, my enthusiasm to meet him was met with inquiry as to who he was. Upon finding out that he was the President of a country, my friends and family were very happy that I was going to meet someone important. Indeed, the president of a foreign country is, typically, im-portant. Yet that is not why I was so excited. What is so remarkable about President Klaus, and what served as the source of my excitement, was his staunch commitment to liberty.

Klaus, referred to as the “Margaret Thatcher of Central Europe” and the “Milton Friedman of the Czech Republic”, grew up in Czechoslovakia while it was under Soviet rule. He studied economics, which gave him the opportunity to go abroad. In

fact, he first became familiar with classical liberalism and Western eco-nomics when he studied in Naples, Italy. As a trained economist, Klaus had a steady job with the Czech economic state ministry until 1970, when he was identified as a counter-revolutionary and dismissed. For the next twenty years, he suffered dearly for speaking his mind and worked menial jobs until the Soviet Union began to collapse. After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, Klaus found himself appointed the Minister of Finance of a new Czechoslovakia where he was finally able to apply the lessons he learned from studying classical liberal thinkers.

For the past twenty years, President Klaus has been commit-ted to the freedom of which he was deprived for the majority of his life. Amidst the social democratic thought of most Europeans, he firmly stands for bestowing freedom, proliferating a campaign of radical privatization. In a 1990 interview, he

said that the new Czech Republic “[wanted] a mar-ket economy without any adjec-tives”. In wake of the financial crisis, I asked if he was still on the right path. Klaus ex-plained to me that, “market without adjectives” was his slogan to rep-resent a recovery from communist ideology. He noted that, in reality it “is not so sharp”. After communism, “[everyone] tried to introduce some elements of the market, some ele-ments of the system. I was the first who criticized [that] way of think-ing. ... I said either let’s keep com-munism or introduce capitalism, that simple. There are many attempts to somehow make it softer, make it

Luxuries. Clothes. Dining. Head-shops. Welcome to downtown

Ithaca, and more specifically the sec-tion of East State Street between Au-rora and Cayuga Streets known to lo-cals and tourists as “The Commons.” In this two-block pedestrian shop-ping district at the heart of Ithaca, one can experience the extremes of the city’s culture, and learn why it is all too accurately referred to as “ten square miles surrounded by reality.”

After the conversion of E. State Street into an open pedestrian mall with statues, trees, and picnic areas in 1974, the Commons has developed into one of Tompkins County’s big-gest shopping districts and tourist at-tractions, as well as a gathering spot for locals and college students.

“The area is better for tourists,” commented David Abdulky, manag-er of Mansour Jewelers for the past 30 years. David has seen everything from the frequent use of bad language by loiterers to the recent smoking

prohibitions that have looked to curb the widespread use of drugs in the Commons. What conclusion has David drawn from his experiences? “Locals don’t have a particularly good perception of the Commons.”

And that is where our friend Mickey Whittier comes in. Mickey has lived in nearby Newfield his en-tire life and is now two months into his job at Ameritalia Pizzeria at the heart of the Commons. The pizza shop has become a popular destina-tion for hungry tourists, as well as a hangout for the smokers who have been pushed out of other, smoke-free parts of the Commons. For the folks at the restaurant, this creates many more problems than advantag-es. “I don’t much care for the people doing drugs in the bathroom.” said Mickey. “We have to call the police all

October 6th, 2010Vol. XXiX, No. iii

Welcome to the Commons

INSIDE: More on the Klaus visit

The Q&A sessionKlaus talks to students

SunburnDaily Stun feels 'bullied.'

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Greek debate growsOther colleges scrutinize their frats

The Diversity DiversionFocus on diversity undermines educational principles

40 Days for Life Anti-abortion protesters return to Ithaca

Why are you in college? A piece for the introspective economist.

Humor page The Review is sick of intolerance.Page 11

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Kathleen McCaffreyStAff Writer

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By Noah Kantro AND Alfonse Muglia

The Cornellian's Guide to Downtown Ithaca

Approval Issued for HydrofrackingJoseph Bonica NeWs EDitor

The contest over hydraulic frac-turing, or “hydrofracking”, in

the state of New York has been very contentious. State legislators, inspired by environmental special interest groups and reports of accidents that occurred mostly in the southwestern United States, worked towards, and temporarily put, a moratorium on hydrofracking until “further investi-gation could be done.”

One of the major players in this moratorium was Barbara Liftion, the state representative of our own 125th District. This was done in spite of the EPA saying some years ago that hydrofracking is safe and does lit-tle damage to the environment (The EPA has since reversed this position and decided that further investiga-tion needs to be done, but few be-lieve the results of the studies will be any different). This refusal to allow gas drilling companies into the state to tap the Marcellus Shale, one of the largest in the U.S., has led to confu-sion and anger amongst some, citing the immense economic boost such an operation would prove to be.

Those who believe in the eco-nomic power of hydrofracking have caught a tremendous break in the past couple of weeks. On September

Czech President Václav Klaus Talks Straight with the Review

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Tapestry of Possibilities. Sound fancy? It certainly did its job

by confusing unsuspecting freshmen and tricking them into attending yet another mandatory O-week event. This one, however, was clearly adver-tised as one of the more significant events since it required students to swipe their cards for attendance. So why all the fuss? Diversity. Of course, the topic of racial slurs and discrimi-nation against minorities is impor-tant.There has never been a greater need to be politically correct than in the Cornell of today, which is quite the paradox considering the way teenagers throw around racist jokes that are “all in good fun.”

The purpose of Tapestry was “awareness.” Tapestry aimed to spread awareness of diversity, awareness that those around us may not find these jokes funny, and awareness of the se-rious effect that these jokes can have on students. Relevant and often un-comfortable topics such as homosex-uality and stereotyping were brought up during the two-hour meeting as Cornell’s Ordinary People Theatre Troupe performed its controversial skits.

The show seemed comical at times, as it was meant to be, but mix-ing comedy and racism together left students feeling confused. The dis-cussion afterwards epitomized un-easiness. Questions that asked stu-dents to discuss their feelings were followed by long periods of silence and darting glances across the room. Comments from students during the discussion included feelings of un-ease and embarrassment. Many felt that it was difficult to judge whether it was okay to laugh at common ste-reotypes that teenagers often take as jokes, or whether it was best to keep quiet.

While the Troupe’s message to accept one another and simply be mindful of personal differences is an important one, how truly effective was Tapestry at changing students’ behavior? How likely is it that stu-dents will really think before they cut out the racial jokes amongst friends? Sadly, the answer is that it’s pretty unlikely. Students will do what they want to doand say what they want to say. No awkward discussions or comi-cal but controversial skits will change that. The truth of the matter is that Tapestry was probably effective for an hour or a few days afterwards, at the most.

This is assuming that students even went to the event after all. The timing was off and schedul-ing was a mess. Students were

Mandatory freshman diversity program amounts to a lesson in good manners

Campus

As if the voices speaking out against the administration’s

proposed restrictions on Greek life, most notably the rule slated to come into effect in 2012 banning freshman from parties where alcohol is being served and the phasing out of alcohol as a part of recruitment and pledg-ing activities, weren’t loud enough, now several of our peer institutions have entered the fray and administra-tors all over the country have taken notice of Cornell’s aggressive tactics in dealing with underage drinking. In Virginia, the College of William and Mary has made the decision to ban beer pong tables from campus to discourage drinking games. At Princeton, where a Greek system ex-ists alongside the more well-known system of eating houses, the adminis-tration currently chooses to not rec-ognize the legitimacy of fraternities and sororities and even goes so far as to send out letters to incoming fresh-

man urging them not to join a Greek organization. According to report in the September 28th issue of The Daily Princetonian, however, this pol-icy is to be revisited with the options of maintaining the status quo, tak-ing a harsher proactive stand against the Greek system, or recognizing the Greek system and working to regu-late it. Princeton’s Vice President for Campus Life Cynthia Cherrey is even quoted as saying that “one of the

things that the working group may do is to review lessons learned from other universities.”

There is no question that tensions between supporters of the Greek sys-tem and the administration are high. But our colleagues in Cambridge seem to have taken a slightly more moderate view. While acknowledg-

ing that the proposed rules are “well-intentioned,” The Harvard Crimson notes in their September 13th editorial that, “[the rules] incentivize drinking in secret and in potentially more haz-ardous environments, where under-age drinkers and their peers may not be able to look out for one another, putting lives in danger.” Many who see the contrasting safety standards of a precocious freshman with a handle of Svedka in his dorm room or the closed-door gatherings of the various off-campus fraternity annexes versus the sober monitors, on-campus lo-cation, abundant cases of water, and bricks of 4.2% ABV Keystone Light one finds in legitimate fraternity par-ties understand this view.

The Crimson went on to make a key concession to one of the administra-tion’s main gripes with the Greek sys-tem, that it has fosters a culture that encourages dangerous levels of alco-hol use, the hazing of pledges, and a

drinking-centric focus. New Cornel-lians, however, think the drinking-centric stereotype isn’t as prevalent as the administration and others pur-port it to be. “I don’t feel an over-whelming pressure to drink,” said Dan Wexler ’14. Furthermore, fresh-men also report that the presence of upperclassmen brothers and sober

monitors makes them feel safer than they normally would in a similar situation. “I know there are people there who know what to do when something goes wrong,” said Zach-ary Zeno ’14. The mistrust of these safety standards, however, is under-standably more widespread amongst administrators who had to deal with the suspension of Cornell’s chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha after the hospitaliza-tion of three underage drinkers at a recruitment event in January.

Other university publications have also weighed in on the administra-tion’s efforts. The University of Vir-ginia’s Cavalier Daily echoed the sen-timents of The Crimson’s editorial in their own September 15th piece, while adding that, “[a more advantageous approach] would be for the individu-al fraternities and sororities to evalu-ate their own procedures and events.” Another point that has been brought

It's Not Easy Being GreekNew fraternity restrictions draw national attention

The former home of Pi Kappa Alpha, which was suspended in January after the hospitalization of three underage drinkers

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Michael AlanStAff Writer

Cheryl ChoStAff Writer

A Tapestry of Impossiblities

assigned a specific time slot to go to, one of which directly conflicted with the 2014 class photo. If students missed their time slot they were told

that they had to make it up, but many found it not only difficult but also an-noying to have to attend a make-up session. Moreover, some students just

aren’t interested. They’ve heard the same message again and again from their high school teachers and prin-cipals and would opt to tune out. This doesn’t peg Tapestry as a failure: some students out there appreciat-ed the event and took to heart what their classmates had to say. However, Tapestry does rouse the issue of the need to grab students’ attention so that they want to attend events like these that promote positive messages. We’d all agree that students are the most proactive when they’re excited about something. Here’s to hoping that Tapestry wasn’t a waste.

Cheryl Cho a freshman in the Col-lege of Arts & Sciences and can be reached at cgc65@cornell.edu.Ordinary People performers talk with the audience

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At Princeton, the administration currently chooses to not recognize the legitimacy of fraternities and sororities and even goes so far as to send out letters to incoming freshman urging them not to join a Greek organization.

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Last weekend the Review wel-comed a group of former

Editors and Presidents back to cam-pus to celebrate the 26th year anni-versary of the paper. In light of this occasion, we decided to dig up some old issues from the 1980s and 1990s to see how far we’ve come.

So how much has the Review changed over 26 years? Well, a lot. For one thing the world in which we fight for our conservative values has changed. In 1984, the world was bi-polar, and the Evil Empire was alive and well. The Cornell conservatives of the 1990s lived in a post commu-nist world — we live in a post 9/11 world.

The campus has changed as well. Back then Cornell Reviews were burned with matches; nowadays propane lighters are the weapons of choice. In 2008 the Review was accused of publishing racially insen-sitive articles, but in 1995 it was the Cornell Daily Sun that took flak for publishing a racist cartoon of O.J Simpson. For displays of liberal lu-nacy on campus we used to give out the Bozo of the Month Award; now we have an occasional Ass Clown feature in the back of the paper. Breaking the losing streak against Harvard was once a big deal, but lately we’ve been clob-bering them at Lynah.

But there are many more par-allels between now and then. Looking back at the old Reviews, many of the campus is-sues that made the front page seem like a portal to the future. As we speak, the student body at Cornell is reeling from a proposed renovation of the Greek fraternity system. This past September’s issue of The Review covered the potential impact of the proposed Greek changes that would crack down on frat boozing and im-pose stricter enforcement of under-age drinking laws. The December issue of 1996 has a lead story titled The Future of the Greeks whose first sentence reads: “Every ten years or so in the United States, college admin-istrations suppress the fraternities

and sororities on their campuses.” Perhaps the author’s math was a few years off – but nevertheless, quite prophetic.

While some Review authors dis-played a great bit of foresight when

covering stories, others analyzed campus events that have never even changed at all. One of the first editorials on the Review’s blog, Cornell Insider, was a freshman’s

reaction to the Writing Seminar courses. Freshman Writing Seminars: Breeding Ground for PC-thinking, it was titled — we’re surprised our colleagues didn’t claim plagiarism. “The writing program has become a hotbed of radicalism (PC Prose),” wrote a Review writer in November of 1994. Though it is a refreshing notion that our paper has remained sentient of the University’s

most left-wing programs, it is upset-ting that such topics fail to fall off the map.

The Review’s most frequently ap-pearing topic of dissent is an obvi-ous one: Cornell’s Program Houses. A residential area that divides stu-dents by the color of their skin is the most self-defeating and poorly implemented idea in the history of

self-defeating ideas. While the PH’s today have not maintained quite the same breed of extrem-ism that evolved in tandem with their creation after the 1969 Willard Straight

takeover, the Review has neverthe-less stood as the sole protesting voice against a backwards solution to an outdated problem. Every volume of the Review has dedicated articles, pages, and of course the occasional humor piece, to providing an alter-native viewpoint to these race-based dormitories. When the voice of Program Houses rose for the institu-tion of more segregated dorms, the public burning of Cornell Review copies, and the support for contro-versial figures such as Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Review’s editorial page was there to return the rationality of speech to a reasonable state.

In 1995, Review writers turned

their attention to battling a nation-wide movement led by far left radicals demanding the freedom of Philadelphia cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, filling the editorial pages by chastising those Cornellians who fell to the ideological pressure of Black Panther extremists. Last November, the current Review staff exposed an Akwe:kon listserv email supporting the very same prisoner. The email was sent by a Resident Advisor to students, encouraging protests on Columbus day and linking to a web-site advocating the freedom of con-victed criminals and terrorists. Just as in 1995, tolerance was exhibited in all the wrong places.

While our Student Assembly rap-id-fires many proposals against the dartboard, few ever hit a bulls-eye. Since the early 90’s, our self-govern-ment has failed to move our student culture forward, instead presenting resolutions that result from the idle minds and unchanging objectives of short-sighted liberal relativists. The

SA of 1993 unsuccessful-ly pushed for a “Resolution on

Multiculturalism” which demanded special recognition of groups that were subjected to oppression and contemptuous ridicule by U.S. cul-ture. Our decade’s offshoot of this was of course Resolution 44, an anti-discrimination proposal that incited a fiery campus-wide debate that pit-ted idealists against realists. Just as 1993’s resolution collapsed, so did 2010’s — a clear testament to the SA’s mainstream progressive agenda and failure to motivate practical thought among the student body.

Is that it, then? Are Cornellians destined to keep fighting about the same issues over and over again, with each new decade bringing a new manifestation of an old campus debate? We think not. Times have changed. The conservative voice on campus is stronger than ever, and the continuity of these issues and the continued failure of repeated liberal initiatives are a testament to our resolve. Liberals stand to gain from this brief history of the Review by understanding that their ideas and proposals are merely new exhibitions of outdated liberal objectives. But history suggests that they will not. We’ll be here.

Dennis Shiraev is a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences. He may be reached at des255@cornell.edu.

Oliver Renick is a junior in the College of Engineering. He may be reached at ojr5@cornell.edu.

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Ann CoulterJim Keller

Jerome D. PinnAnthony Santelli, Jr.

Founders

The Cornell Review is an independent biweekly journal published by students of Cornell University for the benefit of students, faculty, administrators, and alumni of the Cornell community. The Cornell Review is a thoughtful review of campus and national politics from a broad conservative perspective. The Cornell Review, an independent student organization located at Cornell University, produced and is responsible for the content of this publication. This publication was not reviewed or approved by, nor does it necessarily express or reflect the policies or opinions of, Cornell University or its designated representatives.

The Cornell Review is published by The Ithaca Review, Inc., a non-profit corporation. The opinions stated in The Cornell Review are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or the staff of The Cornell Review. Editorial opinions are those of the responsible editor. The opinions herein are not necessarily those of the board of directors, officers, or staff of The Ithaca Review, Inc.

The Cornell Review is distributed free, limited to one issue per person, on campus as well as to local businesses in Ithaca. Additional copies beyond the first free issue are available for $1.00 each. The Cornell Review is a member of the Collegiate Network.

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The Cornell Review meets regularly on Mondays at 5:00 pm in GS 160. E-mail messages should be sent to

thecornell.review@gmail.com

Dennis ShiraevEditor-in-Chief

Oliver RenickExecutive Editor

Raza HodaPresident

Lucas PolicastroManaging Editor

Joseph BonicaNews Editor

Hannah MacLeanNational News Editor

Brendan P. DevineCampus News Editor

Anthony LongoTreasurer, News Editor

ContributorsMichael AlanPeter Bouris

John Farragut Noah Kantro

Karim LakhaniTianye Liu

Colin LounsberryKathleen McCaffrey

Alfonse Muglia

Sam PellLucia RafanelliDavid Schatz

Chris SlijkGregory Stein

Matthew TruesdailWilliam WagnerZachary Waller

Faculty AdvisorMichael E. Hint meh26@cornell.edu

Board of DirectorsChristopher DeCenzoJoseph E. Gehring Jr.

Ying MaAnthony Santelli Jr.

The Cornell Review prides itself on letting its writers speak for themselves, and on open discourse. We do not all agree on every issue, and readers should be aware that pieces represent the views of their authors, and not necessarily those of the entire staff. If you have a well-reasoned conservative opinion piece, please send it to thecornell.review@gmail.com for consideration.

Editorial

The Cornell Review: Then and Now

Dennis ShiraevEDitor-iN-Chief

Oliver RenickEXecutiVe EDitor

The Review welcomes and encourages letters to the editor. Long, gaseous letters that seem to go on forever are best suited for publication in the Cornell Daily Sun. The Review requests that all letters to the editor be limited to 350 words. Please send all questions, comments, and concerns to thecornell.review@gmail.com.

Is that it, then? Are Cornellians destined to keep fighting about the same issues over and over again, with each new decade bringing a new manifestation of an old campus debate? We think not.”

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21, PenEnergy, a major news source for energy companies around the country, reported that the New York State Department of Environmen-tal Conservation has given the green light to Gastem USA to drill into the Marcellus Shale section located in Ostego County, just northeast of Itha-ca. This section of the well, known as the Ross-1 Well, is estimated to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 145 billion cubic feet/sq mile of natu-ral gas.

With the intensity on both sides of the hydrofracking debate, it is inter-esting to see that the NYDEC has de-cided to issue this permit. Certainly, this is a victory for those in support of gas extraction. Of course, it will be some time before a drill is actually built; Gastem still has to test the area to see if it is to their liking. The issu-ance of the permit, however, is sym-bolic; clearly, the NYDEC recognizes hydrofracking as a positive, job-creat-ing force that will safely supply alter-

native energy. So far, there have been no reported conflicts re-garding the potential drilling

in the area, but this can change at any time.

How well the hydrofracking ex-periment goes in Ostego County will be crucial in determining the future of the gas industry in the state. Eco-nomic success, paired with minimal environmental damage, could force many legislators to reconsider their

original positions against the prac-tice. Any sort of accident, however, no matter how small or large, will like-ly reinvigorate negative attitudes to-wards gas extractions. If hydrofrack-ing is expanded, it will be interesting to see Ithaca's reaction if Tompkins County’s portion of the shale is al-lowed to be drilled in the near future. Sentiments against it would likely

be very inflamed, but hopefully cool heads prevail and a sorely needed eco-nomic boost is given to the region.

Joseph Bonica is a junior in the Col-lege of Agriculture & Life Sciences and can be reached at jmb582@cornell.edu. Pick up our next issue for his rap "Frack the Shale."

Students have been told time and again of the importance

and value of diversity in everyday life, especially in the marketplace of ideas that is higher education. At Cornell, these ideas have coalesced into pre-sentations like Tapestry and the de-velopment of entire departments de-voted to espousing the idyllic tenets of multiculturalism. But just how

have these visions of acceptance and tolerance really played out in univer-sities and colleges across America? How have these tenants manifested themselves in our everyday student lives?

A recent report by the Associ-ation of American Colleges and

Universities shows that despite an overwhelming belief amongst both students and faculty that college cam-puses should facilitate a tolerant envi-ronment for diverse viewpoints, few feel that this is the reality. According to the study, the majority of students (58.4%) and faculty (77.3%) felt that a major goal of college should be to foster an open-minded worldview and to ensure that students seriously consider others' perspectives in mat-ters where they may hold conflicting

opinions. Yet of this group only half of students and two-fifths of faculty believed that their school was mak-ing a legitimate commitment to pro-mote such an environment. More-over, the gap between “should be” and “is” amongst students seems to widen with every passing year, with only

25% of seniors agreeing compared to 40% of freshmen.

Turning to personal perspectives, the report found that two-thirds of incoming freshmen tend to feel that they enter college already having a respectful view towards others' opin-ions. But their mentors don't seem to think so: only 7% of faculty be-lieved that students come to college with an open mind towards foreign views. This gap narrowed somewhat when comparing experiences during and after college, with 45% of facul-ty and 55% of students feeling that they had been successfully enlight-ened in the ways of non-judgmental progressivism.

What does this all mean? Well, aside from the irony of forcing pupils into a mindset of open-mindedness being lost upon faculty and admin-istrators, it would seem that colleges have largely shifted their focus: rath-er than give students an academic education based on factual knowl-edge, many universities have seem-ingly elected to train a generation of automatons who accept whatever ideas come their way and lack any solid convictions of their own. More-over, the statistics indicate that this has failed to work and in some ways has backfired, with some students in fact clinging more closely to their re-spective ethnic or intellectual circles while shunning anything from the outside. The report, biased as it was, even pointed out that minority po-litical views, particularly conserva-tive viewpoints, are not seen as safe to express openly, with one profes-sor commenting that “many on this campus cannot tolerate any opinion

other than the liberal viewpoint.” To those with common sense it comes as little surprise that spotlighting stu-dents’ differences is not the best way to make them feel more closely con-nected to their diverse peers, but for many others an artificial appreciation

for diversity via constant forced re-minders seems to be good enough.

Perhaps more interesting than the findings is the implied belief that higher education should be re-tooled to control the social development of students. One suggestion by an educa-tion analyst suggests that "...society must give new priority to a set of ed-ucational outcomes that all students need from higher learning.” Have we students really been reduced to noth-ing but the product of “educational outcomes” in the eyes of today’s edu-cators? Willingness to hear other per-spectives is certainly a cornerstone in promoting intellectual discourse, but to suggest that students must be steered towards this “correct” mental-ity for the good of society seems dis-missive of our own abilities to think

Campus

The Downfall of Diversity in Higher EducationChristopher SlijkStAff Writer

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At a University Diversity Council talk, students satiate their irresistible desire to discuss the subject.

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Rather than give stu-dents an education based on factual knowl-edge, many universities have seemingly elected to train a generation of automatons who lack any solid convictions of their own.

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said Hasenhauer, a sophomore in the ILR school.

Last spring, the protests became a routine occurrence at Planned Par-enthood. Every Saturday morning at 10:00, a group of demonstrators would meet in Immaculate Concep-tion Catholic Church to pray for the success of their protest. Then, led by Brother Carmine Funaro of the Ca-puchin Friars, they would head over to the Planned Parenthood to pray and sing hymns. They would stand across the street from the Planned

Parenthood building, behind protec-tive yellow barriers that the police de-partment had set up the night before. The sound of their voices could be heard across the street, where more volunteers stood to counsel women

going in and out of the Planned Parenthood.

Last spring’s campaign did not go unnoticed by Planned Parenthood. Some of their employees stood out-side to escort women into their fa-cilities. They even wrote an article in their newsletter about the campaign. It reports: “We’ve seen many more protesters this spring than in previ-ous years . . . The protests are generally ‘peaceful’ as they claim, but some of our patients tell us that they feel ha-rassed by the 40 Days crowd.” The “40 Days crowd,” on the other hand, in-sists that their aim is to help women in need and not to harass anyone.

This year the campaign tried to at-tract a broader base of people to par-ticipate. Organizers recruited mem-bers from organizations such as the Cornell Republicans, the Cornell Co-alition for Life, and Campus on a Hill, as well as many churches in the Itha-ca area. Each group was encouraged to “adopt” several hours a week, when their members would go down to the Planned Parenthood and hold a vigil. So far, the Cornell Republicans have adopted Wednesdays from 1 to 3 PM and the Cornell Coalition for life has adopted Fridays from 2 to 4.

The fall campaign kicked off last Saturday with a strong turn-out.

her commitment to the organization is based on the idea that “[t]his is not an easy world to grow up in and I think that brightening a child’s life, even if just for a day, can really make a difference.”

Among HALO’s most notable achievements is its recent donation of neonatal equipment to Cayuga Medical Center. HALO’s series of do-nations resulted in the center being raised to Level II status, thus allow-ing it to care for prematurely born in-fants and infants with birth defects. Additionally, HALO has raised over $25,000 for medical equipment to be donated to treatment centers around the world.

In the past, HALO has also hand-made baby blankets that were deliv-ered to locations as close as Cayuga Medical Center and as remote as vil-lages in Vietnam and Bangladesh.

Additionally, the organization publishes and distributes a brochure containing information about rais-ing premature babies. The brochure, entitled Baby Smarts, is available at Cayuga Medical Center.

Perhaps HALO’s most involved and largest projects are “Candyland” and “A Painted Gala”, both of which are events HALO puts on annually.

Candyland, which first occurred in 2005, is a children’s carnival HALO hosts each year at a local grade school. A Painted Gala, HALO’s pre-mier event of the year, is a charity art auction featuring student and other artwork.

Halpin called this event her favor-ite of HALO’s projects, noting, “Each year we raise a lot of money for our featured charity, which can really help that organization. Everyone re-ally rises to the occasion and the art-work is always fabulous.”

The event also showcases musical performers and is run by a profes-sional auctioneer. A date has not yet been chosen for this year’s auction, but its proceeds will go to the Great-er Ithaca Activities Center children’s programs.

On the whole, HALO offers Cor-nellians an opportunity to get in-volved in their community at both a global and local level, and to main-tain balanced lives. Halpin com-mented that HALO has this effect on her life, and believes, “It is so easy both at Cornell and at other institu-tions of higher learning to become so wrapped up in your own world of problem sets, prelims, and papers, that you forget there is a whole big world out there....HALO reminds me of the millions and millions of people that are not as lucky as me.”

Further, Halpin elaborated, “HALO has taught me that we have a plethora of resources at our finger-tips; why not use them to do good, to help save a life?”

With prelim season in full swing, it is at times easy to

get caught up in our personal prob-lems and forget to give back to the communities surrounding us. There is at least one group of Cornell stu-dents, though, who have not forgot-ten the importance of this. They are the members of the Help a Life Orga-nization (HALO). HALO is a student-run, campus-based charitable organi-zation that was founded in 2002 by a group of Cornellians who hoped to have the opportunity to help save a life before graduating.

Over the years, HALO has put on a number of events and donated to multiple charities, all in an effort to help children in need, both locally and around the globe. The founders started the organization in order to promote the health and wellbeing of children and infants. They believed that children, as the leaders of future generations, are valuable sources of future innovation and progress, and so should be nurtured and protected in the present.

HALO’s vice president of public-ity and marketing, Katie Halpin, said

Campus

Cornellians Give Back

For the Preborn and their Mothers: “40 Days for Life” Returns to IthacaSam PellStAff Writer

Lucia Rafanelli / StAff Writer Greg Stein / StAff Writer

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Local children benefit from Help a Life Organization

Last Saturday, about 15 pro-life demonstrators gathered out-

side the Ithaca Planned Parenthood to protest abortion. They came carry-ing signs reading, “Women do regret abortion” and “Men regret lost father-hood”. Some of the demonstrators hailed from Cornell and the Ithaca area, while others came from further away. They were all united in a com-mon purpose: to be a witness to the preborn and to help women facing unplanned pregnancies.

The protestors are part of 40 Days for Life, a national organization that seeks to end abortion by peaceful means. The organization coordinates pro-life activists to conduct prayer vigils and protests between Septem-ber 22 and October 31 at abortion mills across the country. Why did the organizers in Ithaca decide to dem-onstrate outside of Planned Parent-hood? “Planned Parenthood is where the [child] killings take place,” orga-nizer Shea Hasenhauer says. “They have a history of perpetrating these killings, and . . . they’re trying espe-cially to reach out to college students,”

40 Days for Life demonstrators protested outside Planned Parenthood in Ithaca.

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“They have a history of perpetrating these killings, and . . . they’re trying especially to reach out to college students”

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When Václav Klaus, now Pres-ident of the Czech Repub-

lic, studied at Cornell, he “came to a country where students are supposed to study and professors to teach,” a country “not controlled by the om-nipotence of politics,” but he did not find it. “I came to the country of Bob Dylan and flower children” and SDS.

The year was 1969. Klaus intend-ed to work as a teaching assistant in the Economics department and to

“understand this great and uncriti-cally admired country.” Instead, Klaus was forced to watch a gang of kids armed with cheap hunting rifles in-vade Willard-Straight Hall and force unwarranted changes to the Univer-sity at the muzzle of a gun. “I had the feeling it was not much quieter here than at Prague,” said Klaus. “The ar-guments used by the radical students here sounded quite familiar.”

Klaus did not dissipate his stay at Cornell watching career miscreants and the New Left pillage the Univer-sity. Klaus dedicated most of his time

and exertions to reading in the library and absorbing volumes of knowledge and opinion on economic thought. At this juncture of time Keynes was not yet dead, and Friedman was not quite in vogue. Klaus, anticipating a trend in economic thought that would not materialize until the next decade, became a confirmed Mone-tarist: “I was firmly, ideologically, on the Right.”

Upon returning to Prague, Klaus met the disparagements and shuns and the neglects that so often accom-panied capitalist thinkers in Cold War Eastern Europe. The Party dis-missed him from the Institute of Economics after labeling him the “leading non-Marxist econ-omist” in the country, a title Klaus found flattering. After the dissolution of the Sovi-et veil over Europe, Klaus presided over the economic growth of the new Czech Re-public. The fledgling Repub-lic joined the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty powers in hopes of becoming “a normal European country again.” Klaus is ambivalent as to whether or not these aspirations have been met. The sudden advent and simi-larly sharp fall of the European su-per-state, Klaus believes, has put too many countries under the aegis of a convoluted central authority, an authority that has enforced a “European model of an over-regulated welfare state.” Klaus maintains that he is not anti-European, but instead prefers “inter-govern-mentalism” to the super-state.

During the Question and Answer session with the audience Klaus put several upstart, opportunistic, and downright obnoxious enquirers in their proper place. A Hotel student from France posed the question: What are the hapless nations of Eu-rope to do without the Union? Klaus promptly reminded the student that he was French, and that no one from a respectable country would dare ask such a question. Klaus further elabo-rated on the shortcomings on the Eu-ropean Union, noting that the EU helped “hide the debt problems in in-dividual countries,” like Greece. These nations should have been punished but were sustained by the Union.

The discussion mostly revolved around questions derived by students who researched Klaus’s Wikipedia

page prior to attending his lecture, but not all trips to the microphone ended in banality. One student from the upper-deck of the Statler audito-rium queried as to what sort of fun Klaus had here? Did he go to Slope Day? While he “tried to study” he “really enjoyed skiing on the Greek Peak.”

The most sincere student inter-action with the Eastern European leader came from Ray Mensah, vice-president of the S.A. and friend to all conservatives on camps. Mensah

thanked Klaus for taking very bold positions on “climate change and other issues” that the majority of Western leaders shy from.

Questions pertaining to economic topics poured from the balcony and flooded from the aisles. Some were warranted: why did Klaus, a devout opponent of the European Union, sign the Treaty of Lisbon? “There is no way of being out of the overall Euro-pean integration process,” responded Klaus. “The ‘Back to Europe’ slogan meant to some being absorbed into Europe.” The Treaty of Lisbon eventu-ally took root; “It works, but I don’t think very successfully.” However, fur-ther caterwauling over the Treaty will do the Czech Republic no service:

Klaus Escaped from Communism to Cornell, Found Communists.Forty Years Later, Greeted by More CommunistsBrendan patrick DevineCAmpus NeWs EDitor

weaker: not just ‘market economy,’ but ‘social market economy,’ ‘ecologi-cal market economy’ ... All of those elements [and adjectives] were dis-qualifying”. Despite his understand-ing of economics, he does not look at freedom as a tool to some other end. President Klaus is committed to retaining a ‘free market’, since, in light of his experiences with planned economies, he considers it a humane option; not just a means to a higher GDP.

A majority of the students President Klaus encountered that Friday asked him policy-oriented questions. His views are far from the norm in Europe; he opposes a collec-tive ‘European Union’ and is skepti-cal of measures to regulate human activity in the name of global warm-ing. Yet it seems that many of the people who inquired about this were missing his point. President Klaus lived under a regime that atrophied

the powers of individual reason and, instead, used the state to plan a society in the name of a

“common good.” As he explained in 2009, “Communism was a utopia to mastermind human society. Current efforts to fight the crisis, to fight climate, to artificially unify Europe belong to the same category.” He

has seen ‘rational planning’ go awry and, ultimately, puts a premium on human choice over government col-lectivism, regardless of the cost to his popularity.

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Review Interviews President Klaus

Earlier in the week, President Klaus had made a speech at Johns Hopkins. In his concluding remarks there he said that there was a need to “reformulate the case for capital-ism”. I asked him for a piece of advice as someone who has staunch-free market views that are currently out of favor in wake of the financial crisis. While he could have regur-gitated lines from Hayek, Mises, or Friedman about market principles and liberty, President Klaus instead gave advice useful to those who may even appreciate markets with ad-jectives. “It became fashionable to believe in the omnipotence of the

government and of mastermind-ing the economy and whole society from above. It’s something [Czechs] experienced for decades in the com-munist country, so we are oversensi-tive to those issues. So what I would recommend to young people [in America] is to have open eyes. To lis-ten [....] to think twice about [what they are told.]”

He still laughed when I handed him a 100 trillion Zimbabwean dol-lar bill, though.

Kathleen McCaffrey is a junior in Arts and Sciences and can be reached at kam424@cornell.edu.

“It became fashionable to believe in the omnipotence of the government and of masterminding the economy and whole society from above. It’s something [Czechs] experienced for decades in the communist country.”

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October 6, 2010 7

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the time.” He was only too happy to describe his disgust and frustration with the frequently hushed drug cul-ture that pervades the atmosphere in the Commons.

Perhaps the best evidence of Itha-ca’s thriving drug scene can be found in its head-shops. One store down from Ameritalia Pizzeria is 3-D Light, which sells an assortment of “smok-ing” accessories, weapons, bumper stickers, and out-of-the-ordinary home decorations. Manager David Pargh said that the family-owned business has been in the Commons for over twenty years. The shop’s business, ironically enough, booms around the time that students are re-turning to school in the late summer. Pargh, however, tiptoed around the drug problem lamented by the pizza shop employees, limiting his descrip-tion of what he sees as problems in the Commons to the fights he sees break out sometimes, while admit-ting that there is “some stuff I can’t re-ally talk about.”

After a day in the Commons, the average Cornellian can form his or her own opinion about what this “stuff” is that David was so hesitant to discuss, just as locals and lawmakers have.

“I thought you were here to ask about the smoking,” interrupted a co-worker of our friend Mickey when we introduced ourselves as journal-ists from Cornell. “The same people I saw here as a teenager 10 years ago are still around all the time,” added Mick-ey, leading to another problem he sees with the Commons: homelessness.

“Every day this guy washes his hair in the bathroom,” he described, “but realistically, I don’t think these are things that can be changed.”

History appears to have proved Mickey right on this one.

Aside from the recent smoking-ban in a concentrated area, little has been done to address these issues, but the area is still thought of by busi-ness owners and politicians as an ideal tourist attraction and the “cul-tural” center of the town, which may

have been the rea-son the Tompkins County Democrat-ic Committee has chosen to set up shop right smack in the middle of the Commons.

This reputa-tion as the artistic and cultural hub of Ithaca has been gained in part through the public artwork which has

taken over the open, tree-lined mall, such as giant multicolored mush-rooms made of plastic shopping bags or a metal ribbon running through the trees creatively decorated with a decades-old layer of bird droppings.

Beneath these displays street per-formers can often be found, rang-ing from old bearded guitarists pick-ing out tunes and humming along, to boisterous public exercise classes where hip-hop blasts out of a boom box and can be heard for blocks in every direction. Indeed there is some-thing to be found for every alterna-tive lifestyle in the Commons, wheth-er it be artsy, liberal, or downright scary, such as can be found in the im-posingly-named Ithaca Body Modifi-cation Station.

Nevertheless, business is boom-ing. “The stores work as a result of the nice place that [the Commons] is,” added David Abdulky, the jewel-ry store manager. “It’s a nice, peaceful, laid-back territory, and besides, there is zero crime.”

As the days become shorter and the Commons’ trees begin to lose their leaves, Cornellians new and old should take the time to hop on their favorite bus route, head down the big hill, and explore everything the city of Ithaca has to offer.

On your journey downtown, might we suggest buying a bumper sticker that accurately sums up the history of the Commons? Perhaps the Commons have failed to become what they were intended to be back in 1974. Perhaps they have evolved beyond that intention. In either case, downtown Ithaca has been able to ap-peal to a diverse group of people and everyone from politicians to stoners can call it home. We recommend a particular bumper sticker featured at 3-D Lights: “If at first you don’t suc-ceed, redefine success.”

Noah Kantro is a freshman in the School of Engineering. He can be reached at nk366@cornell.edu.

Alfonse Muglia is a freshman in the School of Industrial & Labor Relations. He can be reached at arm267@cornell.edu.

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The Commons in 1901 – more horses, less cannabis.

Natives block the road to the dismay of bus drivers.

The CornellReview

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President Obama got on the phone this afternoon with several college students in a publicly-broadcast confer-ence call, where he fielded questions from student journalists. His objective was relatively simple – garner support for health care initiatives that allow students to remain on their parents’ plans until they are 26, and encourage young people to take part in the upcoming midterm elections.

“I want to remind young people they have to get reengaged in this process and vote in these midterm elections,” he told one caller. It sounds as if Mr. Obama, who received widespread youth support in 2008, may be realizing the fickle tendencies of the youth.

Obama credited health care costs for the hardships of graduating college students, saying “if I keep increasing pell grants and college funding but health care keeps going up and inflation of tuition prices rises, we’re right back to where we started.”

The president also recounted the good ol’ days of his college years. “When i was going to college food at the cafe-teria was notoriously bad – we didn’t have a lot of options, we used to joke about what was for lunch that day. There was a lot of nondescript stuff that wasn't edible. We need to ask, what can we do to make universities more cost ef-fective? There should be pie charts at every university that show you where every dollar your spending is going.” Bold words for a Harvard man.

According to a September 12th New York Times article, with a critical midterm election cycle approaching, a num-ber of Democratic candidates for national offices are attempting to distance themselves from their party and its recent legislative actions. Rather than riding President Obama’s coattails, it seems Democrats are mar-keting themselves as the renegades (or mavericks, if you will) of their party.

For instance, Democratic House Representatives Mark Schauer, Suzanne M. Kosmas, and Glenn Nye all ran campaign ads in which they criticized the status quo in Washington, the latter explicitly stating “‘I stood up to my party leaders and voted no.’”

It is worth noting that this strategic distancing is taking place as Republican can-didates and groups run significant numbers of ad-vertisements criticizing current “Washington insiders,” namely President Obama and Nancy Pelosi. This is likely more than just political coincidence. Both parties appear to sense a general dissatisfaction with the current state

Please Hold for the President

Incumbent Dems Distance Themselves from Obama

CORNELLINSIDER.coma blog by the writers of the Cornell Review

By OLIVER RENICK

By LUCIA RAFANELLI

of national politics. Further, both are trying to capital-ize on it– Republicans by drawing the public’s attention

to the undesirable consequences of two years of Democratic political control, and Democrats

by dissociating themselves with the po-litical mechanism that produced these

consequences.

This dynamic is strikingly simi-lar to that which dominated the national political scene in the time surrounding the 2008 presi-dential elections. After eight years of the Bush presidency, Democrats insisted on an urgent need for new leadership, while

Republicans looked to endorse “political outsiders” who could

not be blamed for the Bush-era policies the American public found

so unsatisfactory.

Interestingly enough, it has only taken President Obama two years to reach an analagous– if

less extreme– state of political exile in his own party, and this begs the question, “How will Democrats view his ad-ministration come the 2012 elections, and how eager will they be to put their full support behind his reelection?”

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To keep life in perspective, there’s a quip made by Don Draper of AMC’s Mad Men that I like to keep in mind: “Young people don't know anything...especially that they're young.”

The quote is an undeniable truth for me. We attend one of the pre-mier universities in the country. We are taught by some of the brightest minds in the country. We know so much more now than we did four years ago, when we arrived far above Cayuga’s waters. It’s hard for the ego not to take over.

But what is it that we actually know? After the prelims and papers and problem sets are turned in and graded, the real world looms. It’s not neatly organized in a bow-topped box. There are questions but no an-swers. What was the point of these four years, not to mention that cool two hundred grand?

A liberal arts education, regardless of field, teaches us to systematically analyze. We learn to think and ob-serve with nuance and subtlety; it’s a skill which makes everything from religious observation to consump-tion of popular culture more reward-ing than it would be otherwise. Not only can we revel in the unabashed hedonism in that favorite Ke$ha lyric (my guiltiest of pleasures), but how about those alliterative slant rhymes? All of life becomes richer. Taken to its caricatured extreme, we get President Obama’s position on your favorite issue of the day: “Nuanced”.

Yet we learn nothing which can’t be taught, and for many, this is the knowledge most likely to lead to a fulfilling life. The only way to run a success-ful small business is to first run a small business. Tricks of the trade so often are idio-syncratic that they can only be learned by trial and error. It’s not at all obvious how to apply even

something as “relevant” as what’s taught in an economics course: where was that production func-tion again...? The most successful businessmen have learned by doing. Higher education replaces what could have been four years of doing.

The left often talks about a college education as a necessity, a right. And

in today’s world, with over 70% of high school graduates attending an institution of higher learning, it cer-tainly increases the chances of pro-fessional success. But not for what is learned in college—for much of the country, it’s purely a signaling game. We forgo $200,000 and four years of earnings to let employers know that we’re smart enough to work for them. (This doesn’t apply to the pre- majors—pre-med, pre-law, etc.—where course content is directly ap-plicable to career.) That’s not very ef-ficient, when standardized test scores or high school grades could just as

well convey similar informa-tion at significantly lower

cost. Yet as long as everyone else has

a B.A. on their résumé, there’s no question that not hav-ing one is a significant

disadvantage in a large

number of professions.

Although the current tra-jectory doesn’t suggest it, the bubble will

eventually burst. We overinvested in technology in

the late nine-ties,

Reflections

It’s now crunch time in the race for Barack Obama’s old

Senate seat. According to the lat-est Rasmussen poll, Mark Kirk, a Cornell graduate from ‘81 and the Republican nominee, now clings to a three percent lead over his opponent,Democrat candidate Alexi Giannoulias. Depending on the final month of campaigning, this race can turn in favor of either candidate.

The race for this important Senate seat has brought numer-ous noteworthy endorsements, including Senator John McCain for Kirk and President Obama

for Giannoulias. This symmetry prompted me to ask: what lessons have we learned from the election and presidency of Barack Obama that may help us avoid repeat-ing the mistake we did in 2008? 1. Experience Matters

The last two years have shown how unaccustomed and inexperi-enced Obama is to the intricacies of the law making process, forc-ing him to constantly work out-side the system, instead of within

it. In the Illinois Senatorial race, we are faced with the same de-bate we faced in the 2008 elec-tion: how much does experience matter? Will we elect Kirk, a five term congressman who has proven himself,or Giannoulias, a first term treasurer with no substantial gov-ernment experience whatsoever? 2. Managing Money

The country’s increasing debt and lack of growth speak to fail-ing, money-wasting, and job-killing programs introduced by President Obama and the Democrats in Con-gress. Giannoulias supports these programs, along with the taxation needed to pay for them. His risky and irresponsible decisions drove his family’s bank (Broadway Bank) to the ground (and this says noth-ing of his other business practic-es, such aslending millions of dol-lars to convicted mobsters). What will he do with our money? Kirk, on the other hand, offers fiscal re-sponsibility through spending less, taxing less, and borrowing less. 3. Size of Government

Learning From Obama in Illinois: Let's Not Elect Another Opportunistic Neophyte

Karim LakhaniStAff Writer

By John Farragut

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Cornell grad Mark Kirk leading race for Obama senate seat

For Those Who Think Young

and Pets.com came crashing down. We overinvested in housing through-out this decade, and nothing need be said about where we are now. We are still overinvesting in higher educa-tion (a significant portion—though not all—coming from government subsidies), and eventually this party too will end.

It may seem like a pessimistic, sterile view to think of college solely as an investment. Why treat col-lege with such cynicism when my four years at Cornell have been the most rewarding four years of my life? Unfortunately, reality is a cynical thing, and demands we each make our own living.

Plus, I’m too young to know that anything could be better than Cornell.

John Farragut is a senior in the Col-lege of Arts & Sciences. He may be reached at jdf222@cornell.edu.

We overinvested in tech-nology in the late nineties, and Pets.com came crash-ing down. We overinvest-ed in housing throughout this decade, and nothing need be said about where we are now. We are still overinvesting in higher education, and eventually this party too will end.

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Above: Obama and Giannoulias. Below: Kirk and McCain.

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It’s tough out there for a journal-ist!  Or at least the Daily Stun wants it to be.  Because when it comes to breaking stories, The Stun is quite the scoop-Nazi.

In a rather strange exhibition of puerility, Cornell’s trusted news source refused to provide a Review writer with notes from an interview after she had agreed to share audio re-cording with another journalist from the Stun.  While it is not The Review‘s MO to take jabs at competing papers, its mission is to illuminate hostility towards conservatives on campus, and expose those institutions which aim to silence the minority voice.  In this aspect, The Stun is a front-runner.

When Review writer Kathleen Mc-Caffrey’s recorder didn’t work before an interview last week with Czech president Václav Klaus, a Sun reporter kindly agreed to send her the audio from his own device after the inter-view.  He even suggested that he might print the full transcript in the paper. Surprised by such profession-alism shown between the two, an ad-ministrator overseeing the event said, “Wow, how nice of you two to work together.”

But the professionalism was short-lived, as the Stun’s managing editor instructed his reporter to withhold the information.  He even refused to provide President Klaus’s quotes that

were in response to McCaffrey’s di-rect questions, citing a long-term pol-icy that doesn’t allow sharing of un-published information.

“I’ve never heard of any such rule,” one long-time Stun staff member told The Review – perhaps he insist-ed anonymity for fear of receiving a ‘time-out.’

In typical fashion, The Stun, shield-ed under the guise of self-proclaimed neutrality, was in fact operating under a strict policy of discrimina-tion.  While the paper offered to as-sess the correctness of quotes if Mc-Caffrey tried guessing what was said, it insisted upon standing by the eter-nal policy of withholding informa-tion.  When asked to recall a recent implementation of this rule, howev-er, the editor stumbled, only able to recount a time where information was indeed passed on upon request.  Nevertheless, the Review‘s request for

help from another professional was denied.

“From how The Review writes about us, I don’t think we have that professional relationship.  I mean come on, you call us The Daily Stun,” the managing editor said to The Re-view over the phone.  “Frankly, a lot of people on our staff don’t like the way we’re treated in your newspaper [and online],” he continued, affirming suspicions that the request for infor-mation was denied for personal rea-sons.  “It’s like, why would you give your notes to the kid in class that’s a bully?”

Well it’s always good to know we’re reaching our audience.  Thankfully,

the article on President Klaus has been published in full this week, de-spite The Stun's efforts. As it turns out, the President’s aid willingly handed over the audio from the meeting over a week later.  Congratulations to Cor-nell’s flagship daily paper for having a more iron-clad privacy policy than the Czech Republic.  Stunning?

What has The Assclown taught you?

1. It never hurts to make polite conversation and exchange business cards.

2. For professionalism, look away from The Sun.

10 Odds and Ends

SunburnedBy Kathleen McCaffrey AND Oliver Renick

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“No use going on a hunger strike” over the matter.

The final question came from a stu-dent in the audience: Is freedom not a bad thing? Does it not allow people to make choices that they are simply not wise enough to make? How does one use freedom for the good? Klaus educated the student with a few short but incisive comments: “The question is wrong... freedom is yours. Don’t speak about ‘using freedom’...The Communists wanted to ‘use markets’. You can’t ‘use markets’, you can only let them function... I am happy that I am free to choose.” This response brought down the house.

Brendan Patrick Devine is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences.He can be contacted at bpd8@cornell.edu.

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Many of the organizers from the last campaign were there, but there were some new faces in the mix as well. One married couple heard about the campaign from its website and trav-elled all the way from Seneca Falls to participate. They brought their five small children along with them: two were old enough to hold home-made signs, two sat in a wagon pulled by their mother, and one participated as best he could inside his mother’s womb. The children’s presence boost-ed everyone’s morale. “I was so excit-ed when I saw them pull up,” said par-ticipant Maria Magaldi, a sophomore in CALS.

The campaign has been underway for a week and continues to grow. Several local churches are working to adopt a time slot, and individuals are scheduling informal vigils during the week. The participants eagerly await October 19, when 40 Days for Life co-founder Shawn Carney will come to Cornell to speak to them. Meanwhile, the organizers are working hard to spread the word about the campaign. But campaign coordinator Mary Anne Tissot is not overwhelmed. “The Lord is preparing many hearts and we need to be ready,” she says.

Sam Pell is a sophomore in the Col-lege of Arts &Sciences. He can be reached at sep87@cornell.edu.

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HALO’s general body meetings are held every Monday at 4:30 in Goldwin Smith Hall 162, and are open to all those interested in getting involved with the organization or in donating items for sale at A Painted Gala.

Greg Stein is a sophomore in the Col-lege of Engineering and can be reached at gjs58@cornell.edu.

Lucia Rafanelli is a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences. She may be reached at lmr93@cornell.edu.

critically and reflect rationally upon our views. Are we not individuals, fully capable of formulating our own beliefs and making our own choices? Or are we just cogs in the machine, expected to passively accept every al-terative view regardless of the merit it holds?

Christopher Slijk is a junior in the-School of Arts & Sciences He can be-reached at cps95@cornell.edu.

AbortionCharityGreeks

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Illinois race

Klaus

into the debate has been the idea that the Greek system should have self-po-liced itself better in order to preempt these actions by the administration. The Cavalier summed up this view in a way that recognizes the value of the Greek system but also the legitimacy of some of the administration’s is-sues, stating, “Fraternities and sorori-ties foster values like maturity and in-dependence in their members when they function more or less autono-mously. But such a privilege is best preserved if the University is given no compelling reason to intervene.”

Michael Alan is a freshman in the ILR school and can be reached at mja93@cornell.edu.

Instead of expanding private in-dustry, Giannoulias—similar to President Obama and Democrats in Congress—looks to grow the size of government. Whether it’s kill-ing private sector jobs through ir-responsible healthcare reform or further regulations, Giannoulias is looking to expand the power of the government, a tactic that only hurts the people it is intended to help.

This Senate race looks like it will end without a formal debate. In spite of Kirk’s seven debate and forum requests, Giannoulias will not take the stand to defend his po-sitions. Instead, Giannoulias sticks to dirty and untruthful TV adver-tisements. Unfortunately for him, Giannoulias’ remarkable charm and good looks cannot cover up the fact that Mark Kirk is the best can-didate in this race. Kirk offers expe-rience, strength, and well needed reform to Washington that Gian-noulias is simply not capable of of-fering. What will the people of Illi-nois decide? Will we learn from the last two years, or will we make the same mistake again.

Karim Lakhani is a freshman in the School of Hotel Administration. He can be reached at kml248@cornell.edu.

The Tony Manfred ‘10

October 2010

Michael J. StratfordManaging Editor

The Cornell Daily Sun

ASSCLOWN AWARD

October 6, 2010 11

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11Humor

I never thought intolerance was a serious issue. So what if dif-

ferent groups cannot get along with each other? One day this past sum-mer, I followed my father to work, and he completely inverted my no-tion and understanding of the problem of intolerance.

My father’s job involves fighting intolerance. He and his colleagues are trying to develop a method to elimi-nate intolerance once and for all. Intolerance inflicts seri-ous discomfort and pain in people. Each year, millions of Americans become victims of it. Many even lose their lives because of the horrible consequences of intolerance. In addition to conducting research to find a solution to eliminate intolerance, my fa-ther often goes to local high schools and gives lectures to students as a way to raise their awareness. He sometimes even attempts extreme measures, such as using drugs to suppress intolerance from certain groups. Sometimes he is successful, and it makes his efforts worthwhile. But other times the problem persists, and it puts him in despair.

My father is a scientific researcher. Intolerance is a condition that oc-curs after a donated organ is anasto-mosed to the recipient patient, and it imposes a great obstacle to successful organ transplantation. The recipi-ent’s bodily tissues reject the grafted organ, actively attacking it and even-tually leading to its necrosis. The

recipient dies, usually painfully, as a result of the loss of the vital organ. If we could find a way to make the tissues tolerate each other, organ transplantation could become more viable and save millions of lives.

People have slowly to realize the fatal consequences of intolerance and have recently formed many orga-

nizations to fight intolerance in their communities. My father and his colleagues were thrilled when they heard about the news. With more people involved, they might be able to find a way to finally eliminate intolerance! He immediately got in touch with one of the organizations called “Killers of Intolerant Infidels,” and attended one of their seminars. Unfortunately, he was greatly disap-pointed. The room was filled with people who have no interest in his research on intolerance. The topic being discussed had nothing to do with medicine, science, or even logic. The members of the group were a pack of racial supremacists, religious

fundamentalists, cultural relativists, and smelly hippies. Apparently, their goal was actually to force their own marginal, deviant ideologies onto others, especially schoolchildren. Their techniques? Calling people names, labeling them as bigots, and harassing them in other ways until they become “tolerant.”

My father attended other similar meetings, and they were almost the exact same as the first one (one of them did not even admit him be-cause apparently he was not of the right race to promote tolerance). Not only do these groups fail to contrib-ute anything to solve the problem of intolerance, but they receive funding from the federal government to pro-mote their supremacist beliefs. My father was furious. He could not un-derstand why a group of ideologues would choose such a misleading name for their cause. Also, he could not believe that the government con-fused science with supremacist ad-vocacy. With the existence of groups

like “Killers of Intolerant Infidels”, his research receives much less funding because the ideologues take it all and spend it mostly on peyote and hoo-kah pipes. Furthermore, these orga-nizations have caused people to asso-ciate the scientists working on organ transplantation with smelly hippies,

which has resulted in a drop in public support for such research.

While these ideologues propagate their grand quest for cultural tolerance, real people are dying because we cannot prevent physiologi-cal intolerance. Our govern-ment and countless non-profits funnel money into marginal causes that only end up bringing together a bunch of aging hippies to smoke hallucinogenic plants and preach the Gospel ac-

cording to Marley. In the meantime, diseases such as organ failure, cardiac defects, and serious trauma continue to claim the lives of countless people of all races, religions, and ethnicities. But don’t worry—at least recipient patients who succumb to intolerance will know that a politically correct number of doctors failed to prevent their organs from necrotizing.

Tianye Liu is a sophomore in the College of Farts & Sciences. He may be reached at tl387@cornell.edu.

Anthony Longo is a sophomore in the College of Farts & Sciences. He may be reached at ajl272@cornell.edu.

Intolerance: A Global Epidemicseriously coNcerNeD opiNioN piece

By Tianye Liu AND Anthony Longo

Intolerance is Bad!

The Cornell Review is pleased to present

The Morton-Grigg Tolerant Response Generator

For Cornellians, speaking tolerantly is often a game of guess-and-check. If one is worried that he or she may offend his or her fellow person, this utility may be referenced to forge original statements of utmost tolerance.

“Excuse me, fellow I don't mean to

but my contradicts your beliefs. I will reconsider your

downtroddenworking-classoppressedunfortunatehardworkingunappreciatedmisrepresented

moral judgementopinionreligion's teachingparent's teachingprior notionpersonal viewpointinformed knowledge

laborer.homosexual.minority.nature-lover.immigrant.forward-thinker.person of faith.

offend,prejudice,criticize,discriminate,stereotype,preconceive,be biased,

alternative non-standarduncommonunacceptedpersonalopen-mindedoverlooked

lifestyle.ethnicity.culture.faith.preference.point of view.orientation.

Inspired by WONDERMARK

DoNe!

CR

12 September 22, 2010

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