No one can deny that Hillary Clinton is a woman of innumerable talents, but her performance at the first Democratic presidential debate was impressive even by her standards. Clinton was comfortable, poised and assertive. She spoke like a leader, had a commanding presence and used a tone that inspired the same hope that her former rival Barack Obama had so successfully elicited.
It’s that time of the semester again. Essays, exams and thesis deadlines are coming up fast before the finals push, with internships and job pressures occupying the rest of any remaining free space in most students’ minds. You start wondering whether your hall mates and close friends, who you used to see every day, frankly still attend this school. These last four to five weeks of the semester are composed of repetitions of “We should catch up soon” and “Let’s grab Val together sometime,” but so often those phrases are empty sentiments.
Recent years have seen several student-led attempts to encourage discussions on the place, contemporary relevance and inclusivity of our current unofficial mascot, Lord Jeffery Amherst. These conversations should continue. The college’s community has demonstrated a desire for a serious reconsideration of our mascot and we should not let past failures stifle student speech. Nonetheless, the question should not be approached as a given either in favor of or opposed to the Lord Jeff.
I have experienced situations that dramatically altered my perception of more than one thing. I have experienced the marvelous “aha!” moments, the “I screwed up, big time” moments and the “I wish this never ended” moments. I have even looked death in the eye. But at the end of any of my days, what matters the most is that I impacted someone in a positive or small way, whether it was through making that person smile, laugh or reconsider their established ideas about the world they believe in.
For many at Amherst College, without an institution like a sports team, prominent club, fraternity or group with great social capital, it is not uncommon to feel naked and constantly exposed to the elements. More often than not for people of color on this campus, this exposure feels especially acute. Subtle erasures of our bodies, slight yet sharp jabs from the ignorant, interrogations of whether or not we are deserving, a continuous feeling of homelessness — “Are you sure this space is really mine?” we ask. “They tell me that it is, but I feel so uncomfortable.”
A great woman once told me, “Love is co-existence and not co-dependence.” I firmly believe that one of the fundamentals of any healthy relationship is allowing your partner to exist independently of the relationship; otherwise, it would never amount to love, but would rather be a battle for power. Fortunately, many Amherst students share my opinion. Nevertheless, I often hear my peers make the following statement: “Well, relationships are like fifth courses.” Whenever I hear this, I cringe: Why would anyone think of a relationship as a burden? Allow me to explain myself.
Last week, a 26-year-old student at Umpqua Community College shot an assistant professor and eight students with automatic weapons and, after being wounded by police, fatally shot himself. In his statement to the press, President Obama acknowledged that this is becoming all too common in America. “Somehow this has become routine,” he said. After the attacks at Columbine and Sandy Hook, two of the most famous of school shootings in this country, this was the latest shooting to shock the nation into a state of sadness, unease and frustration.
