University of California students occupied their campus buildings after UC regents voted to increase student fees by 32%. The regents, who are appointed by California’s governor, are the equivalent of Wesleyan’s board of trustees in terms of financial management. At the November 18 regents meeting that approved the fee hikes, UC students, faculty and staff gathered at campuses throughout the state, demanding that the regents not increase student fees.
UC Berkeley is known for its activism, and although many students there feel that it has grown more conservative in past decades, over the last couple of months mobilization there has been strong. Over the summer, word began to circulate that the regents were considering severe restructuring of UC Berkeley’s budget. At news of a proposed 32% fee increase, students, faculty and staff began to organize. Existing groups, such as the faculty association SAVE the University and the student party CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights and a Valid Education), sprang into action. A new coalition of faculty, staff and students called UC Berkeley Solidarity formed in September to unite against the budget decisions.

Most protesters are concerned about the way both the university and the state are handling the budget. Ariel Boone, an elected student representative at Berkeley and a leader in November’s mobilizations, provided the Hermes with an example: UC Berkeley hired Bain & Company, a financial consulting firm, to study their budget and recommend adjustments. The university is paying Bain & Company three million dollars to conduct the study— despite having internal resources such as the world-renowned Haas Business School within the university—which students see as unnecessarily expensive and undemocratic.

Groups at several UC campuses organized to make sure that their voices were heard before the UC regents met on November 18th and 19th. At UC Berkeley, there were teach-ins about the budget cuts, student and faculty walkouts, picket lines, and many other days of action. Some event highlights included a speech by award-winning journalist and author Naomi Klein entitled “The Shock Doctrine: California Style” and a “funeral for public education” on Día de los Muertos, November 2nd.

On November 19th, while meeting at a UCLA campus surrounded by protesters, the regents approved the 32% fee increase. That day, protests escalated. Thousands of students participated in a walk out, and 40 students occupied Wheeler Hall, the largest lecture hall on campus. Their demands included rescinding the fee hikes and reinstating the custodial jobs that UC Berkeley cut during the week of November 19th; now, there are only 18 custodians to service UC Berkeley’s 28 buildings. The occupation lasted 11 hours, at which time protesters were escorted out by police, before a crowd of over 2,000 supporters.

Amidst chants of “we’re peaceful, how ‘bout you?” and “you’re sexy, you’re cute, take off that riot suit!” police broke up the protest. According to Boone, “what we saw at the occupation that was so interesting was that thousands of middle class white students saw what police brutality truly is.” In addition to the UC Berkeley campus police, police departments from the cities of Berkeley, Oakland, and nearby Alameda showed up with tasers and batons in tow. Boone reports, “with the exception of maybe Oakland, all of those police departments were responsible for hitting students with batons.” The city of Berkeley has launched an investigation into the police brutality, while the university has sent out campus-wide emails commending the police action.
Buildings at UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley were also occupied, and protests took place on many other UC campuses. Opinions are mixed on UC Berkeley’s campus of 35,000 students. One student who does not support the protests told the Hermes, “They’re just complaining- it’s nothing on what private school students pay. I feel lucky to get to school for 10,000 dollars per year.” Others feel that continuing to protest at Berkeley is not as important as putting pressure on the state legislators in California’s capital, Sacramento. Boone is determined, and sees some signs of progress. She explained that “people are getting used to receiving emails that read ‘dear comrades,’ people are realizing that democratizing the regents isn’t a horrible idea. You used to say it and people would say oh, that’s never going to happen. ” Resistance on UC campuses is continuing; as recently as December 2, Berkeley students picketed a university-sponsored event commemorating the famed Free Speech Movement, led by administrators who have implemented the budget cuts and layoffs and shut down peaceful student protests.

UC Berkeley Protest Demands:
1. Defend Public Education: Rescind the Fee Hikes
2. Immediate, Accesssible and Full Disclosure of System-wide Finances
and Transparency of U.C. Office of the President Operations.
3. Fair and Legal Contract Negotiations — Rescind All Lay-offs and Furloughs
4. Increase Enrollment of Under-Resourced Students of Color
5. No Cuts in Minority Recruitment and Retention Programs
6. Financial Aid and Scholarships for All Students, Regardless of
Immigration Status
7. System-wide Sanctuary University: No Cooperation with ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement)
8. Renew the Lease for Rochdale Co-op Under Current Lease Terms
9. No Retaliation for Workers who Stand in Solidarity with the Nov
18th-20th strike
10. Drop All Charges: End Administration Repression of Free Speech

On November 20th, 2009, the first U.S. conference on the campus movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli Occupation took place at Hampshire College.  This high-profile event brought together people from as far away as California, Guam, Mexico, and Canada to discuss moving forward in the BDS effort to nonviolently end the illegal occupation of Palestine and the gross human rights abuses which take place there on a regular basis.  The conference received media attention, and was attended by around 200 activists, signifying an increase in awareness and action against Israeli apartheid and the companies and corporations which continue to fuel the occupation.

On November 20th, 2009, the first U.S. conference on the campus movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli Occupation took place at Hampshire College.  This high-profile event brought together people from as far away as California, Guam, Mexico, and Canada to discuss moving forward in the BDS effort to nonviolently end the illegal occupation of Palestine and the gross human rights abuses which take place there on a regular basis.  The conference received media attention, and was attended by around 200 activists, signifying an increase in awareness and action against Israeli apartheid and the companies and corporations which continue to fuel the occupation.

Though it is just getting started in the US, there is already a strong international movement to force Israel to comply with international law and universal principles of human rights in regards to Palestinian citizens.  Palestinian civil society issued a call on July 9th, 2005 for the international community to boycott and divest from those companies which supply aid to Israel to uphold the occupation.  This call was endorsed by Palestinian trade unions, non-profit organizations, coalitions, and political parties, representing voices from Palestinian refugees, occupied Palestinians, and Palestinian citizens of Israel.   Companies which supply military aid to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), labor, materials, or products for the construction of settlements, the Wall, checkpoints, and Jewish-only roads have all been targeted for divestment and boycott campaigns.

Last May, Hampshire College successfully divested their security holdings from all companies associated with the Israeli Occupation, including giants Caterpillar, DynCorp, and Motorola.  This was a huge victory for campus groups advocating for Israeli divestment, and the historic conference brought together students from all across the country to share skills, tactics, and campaign plans for successful divestment efforts.

Members of the Wesleyan campus group ADAPT (Awareness, Dialogue, and Action for Palestine/Israel Today) launched a divestment campaign at the beginning of October, and have thus far uncovered at least five connections to the occupation in our small initial list of 58 visible security holdings.  Four of the companies, DynCorp, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin, are weapons contractors which supply bombs, tanks, airplanes, and military training to the IDF.  The fifth company, L-1 Identity Solutions, is complicit in supplying checkpoints with fingerprint and facial recognition technology.  However, the University’s 58 visible investments make up only 20% of our overall invested endowment. The rest lies in mutual funds which invest in hundreds of companies.  It is almost guaranteed that these include many other companies directly complicit in the apartheid state, and ADAPT will begin to research into the specifics of these holdings soon.  Keep an eye out for our progress!

Campus BDS is one of the most effective nonviolent tactics for college students to resist Israeli occupation from afar.  The precedent set by Hampshire is a heartening victory, and it will serve as an effective base off of which our fledgling campaigns can grow.  Hopefully, the BDS movement will pick up greater and greater momentum in the years to come, and as more institutions divest and boycott from complicit companies and corporations, Israel will be forced to change their policies regarding Palestine out of economic necessity.  As students, we should have control over how our endowment is spent, and we can empower ourselves to stand up justice by ensuring that our money does not go to fuel Israeli apartheid.

There are many similarities between the situation in Palestine today, and in South Africa during apartheid.  Ethnic cleansing, racial segregation, and deprivation of citizenship are human rights abuses, and we see these tried apartheid policies at work today in Palestine.  Wesleyan took 11 years to divest from South African apartheid; let’s learn from the mistakes of our past and take swift action for human rights, and end to racism, and peace.  Divest from Israel now!  If you would like to join with the Wesleyan divestment effort, please email me at pblasenheim@wesleyan.edu .

Barack Obama is a concept
The eye in the pyramid on the dollar bill, gazing, all-knowing and watching limestone melt as time whips fires of dust

Photo Manipulation by the Hermes

Barack Obama is a voice
Double-tracked, one that speaks words of wisdom in both your ears at once, in stereo

Barack Obama is the voice
in the back of your head that tells you to get up every morning, to turn off the water in your shower even though it’s cold outside and the curtained steam makes you feel warm, maybe even safe

Barack Obama is standing in line on July 21st, 2007, with a plastic wand and jet black wizard’s cap pulled snugly around his ears

Barack Obama is the photo of the sailor and the woman, an everlasting window into a subset of decaying time, one we thought we’d always know; the new America in retrospect

Barack Obama is what we saw twinkling at the edges of consciousness behind our eyelids when we squinted at the sun during an eclipse

Barack Obama landed a plane packed with three hundred million smiling faces on the Hudson, and gave the oath of office as the icy water pooled slowly around his ankles

The idea and the man can do nothing but slowly slide closer until the distinctions drift off: regression. Two slip into each other, twisting strings of DNA and rhetoric, verb arrangements and policy debates becoming one until hijacked angels crash into the river

Photo: Marta Pisarczyk

The drink bites my tongue. I drop my bottom lip and breathe fire. I usually don’t drink on Tuesdays, but the heart healthy reputation of once-daily red wine eases my mind. I drink a tall glass and think in the present.

Distance from past actions is usually necessary for meaningful perspective, but these days we’re caught in the Moment of Now. The ubiquitous presence of tele-communication charges us with a disorienting spectacle of instant input. To combat this, let’s move out of the muck and find clearer waters.

First off, to transcribe the present feels impossible, especially in a state of mind that is erupting with information. This feeling of eruption occurring out of the sheer magnitude of the world. Out of a feeling of place-lessness within the world. Out of the necessity to provoke ideals and the idealists who dream them. I wrestle with Einstein’s words to our generation: the world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation.

I’m playing with incite and insight. Insight inciting involvement. Engagement, Excitement, and Involvement with the often-overwhelming issues confronting our local communities and the wider world. Why the uppercase on Engagement, Excitement, and Involvement? They are our new professors. They deserve capitalization; that is, they deserve to be made the most of, and through them we will profit in an entirely different way than in the currently prescribed study of contemporary consumerism.

The synonyms for idealistic are romantic and optimist, which has me thinking it’s the best belief one could conjure: positive, adventurous, involving love. I hope the cultural restlessness of our generation will respond to something so authentic like the ‘Tarnac 9’ idealists, arrested in 2008 by French Anti-Terrorism Police and prosecuted under little more than their alleged authorship of a book, ‘The Coming Insurrection.’ Whoever did write the book call themselves the Invisible Committee, and they’re shouting out, ‘There’s no ideal form of action. What’s essential is that action assume a certain form, that it give rise to a form instead of having one imposed on it.’
Yes, solidarity must exist more deeply. Communicate, mobilize, make connections. Among many exclamations, the Invisible Committee explicates occupying empty houses and loving one another madly.

I suggest putting this on your syllabus. Those new professors had it on their recommended reading a long time back.

Photo: Marta Pisarczyk

I’m proud that Wesleyan has such a dynamic environmental movement. Hard work on the part of EON, the administration and a lot of passionate students has helped us make some small, but important efforts to become a more sustainable campus. I don’t need to relay this here, the Wesleyan website does plenty of boasting about our efforts to be environmentally friendly (check out www.wesleyan.edu/sustainability for more info on how fucking green we are).

That being said, individual (or in this case, campus) greening is largely ineffective if not paired with larger structural changes.  In nearly every arena of sustainability, individual consumption has a negligible impact. Less than 10% of water usage and less than 3% of waste output is by individual consumers. Even in terms of energy consumption, individuals account for less than a quarter of the total [1]. The real environmentally destructive culprit is not you, the lady down the street who doesn’t recycle or even Wesleyan collectively, but larger industrial systems which are consuming more energy and resources and releasing more waste and emissions than any of us could even dream of matching. Yes, Wesleyan embodies the lifestyle choices of over 2,700 individuals, but even this is minute when put in perspective. So, let’s make Wesleyan as green as can be, but our task doesn’t end there. Everything we count on in our daily lives necessitates the existence of larger, far more environmentally destructive institutions. And sadly, all of us “consuming green” is not enough to change this in and of itself, so don’t succumb to green guilt. Strive to live as low-impact as possible but do it because it’s the right thing to do. Living simply is good for the soul, but is not, by itself, a catalyst for substantial change.

In order to halt the destruction of the earth we MUST confront the systems which led us into this situation in the first place. I’m talking about larger cultural attitudes which view the natural world and our fellow-human beings as resources to be exploited and profited from, and I’m talking about the c-word…. Capitalism.  The notion that Green Capitalism can solve the environmental crisis is just as deluded and distracting as the idea that we can solve the water crisis by taking shorter showers.  Not only does Green Capitalism not solve the most pressing environmental problems, it allows the enterprising capitalists among us to profit from these false solutions. Tadzio Mueller and Alexis Passadakis’ 20 Theses Against Green Capitalism says it better than I could: “Green Capitalism won’t challenge the power of those who actually produce most greenhouse gases: the energy companies, airlines and carmakers, industrial agriculture, but will simply shower them with more money to help maintain their profit rates by making small ecological changes that will be too little, too late.”[2] In order to solve the environmental crisis, we must think outside of the narrow framework in which our society currently operates.
One of the worst side-effects of efforts championing Green Capitalism as the ultimate solution is greenwashing. I’m sure you’ve seen creepy ads by Monsanto, BP, and other disgusting corporations bragging about the strides they’ve made to become more sustainable. As sad as I am to lump us in with such bad company, Wesleyan does some greenwashing of its own. Anyone else notice that the 1kW Photo Voltaic solar panel was installed on the admissions building? Remember how Bon Appetite’s shameless efforts to be recognized as the Most Vegetarian Friendly College did not actually correlate with improvements in the vegetarian/vegan food? (veg-washing?) Did you notice that one of the stated goals of the Green Fund is to “increase the visibility of environmentally responsible practices”? The truth is, our snazzy sustainability website and the cute Green Report review of sustainability at Wesleyan, does not a sustainable university make. Once again- the Green Fund and all of these administrative efforts are awesome. But let’s make sure we’re taking these steps because as a campus we care about the world around us, not because it will boost applicants or put us on some “most green campus” list. Let’s not just be cosmetically green, but actually green. That will speak for itself.
Don’t get me wrong- campus sustainability is critically important. As students with a relatively large amount of say in how our campus is run, we have the powerful opportunity to shape Wesleyan into a microcosm of the sustainable world we are working toward (at least to the degree that economics and the admins will allow). What I’m advocating for is that we continue these important efforts, while simultaneously thinking on a larger, more radical scale. As students we have unusually large amounts of disposable free time which we can either use for drunken exploits or for aiding larger social movements (or, even better, for both). We are also surrounded by some extremely smart, engaged people, many of whom will hold considerable power in the future. Let’s take advantage of all of this, not just to make small campus-centric changes, but larger impacts we can be proud of.
There are a few groups on campus already working toward larger causes- the Wesleyan 350 campaign and the EON Greenpeace Climate Campaign Committee come immediately to mind. However, I’d love to see some groups focusing on issues other than climate change, like ending mountaintop removal coal-mining, or saving our oceans from pollution or overfishing, or halting deforestation and the disappearance of important ecosystems and species . These are all of comparable importance for the future of this species . These are all of comparable importance for the future of this planet and the human beings who live on it.
This is not simply a ranting critique, but a call to action. I’ve talked to several others who agree that Wesleyan needs a radical environmental voice. If you’re curious, interested or even pissed off, send me an email at mmcguire@weslyan.edu. Think about this, talk to me and let’s get some shit started.

[1] http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/08
[2] http://climateactioncafe.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/20-theses-against-green-capitalism/

Photo: Katherine Bascom

Photo: Kaitlin DeWilde

someone else’s sister or friend?
I have nothing to say except
I am sure they were all fighters.
How else do we keep on
putting one foot in front of the other in front of the other?
Also I am sure they were sad sometimes
overcome with the joy
of feeling finally laced together.
How do I remember lives or names
I have never run my palm across,
never spoken before now?

*

Yasmin                                              Noelia                                                  Taysia, her lover
Kátia
Alexa                                                 Cynthia                               Marcela
Aline                                         Valeria                                               Vicki
Caprice                                          Jessica                                          Vimlesh
Rovilson                                          Kanan              Minja                                    Albor
Guillén                                          Dayana                                Miriam
Cita                                                                                                               Camila
Katherine                                    Noor                                             Enrique
Will                           Andrea              Rusbel                               Aiton
Cristy                                                                                       Puttalakshmi’s
Camila                                         Cris                                         Maradiaga
Carol                                                              Vicky
Pequeña                          Miriam                                  Archie                                        Guimarães
Fernanda                                   Teixeira                              Lam
Kirsi                               Sabrina                                            Avila                      Violeta
Ebru                                   La Luli                                                     Adriana
Eda                                                                 Sasha                            Monserrat
Smail                                                  Gisela
Melek                                         Roberta                                                  Jimmy
Carneiro                                                                  Kenia                        Wanda
Carolina                               Jeva                              Bianca                       Ávalos
Tyli’a                                   Ramon                                    Juliana
Kamilla                            Kimberly                                 La George
Fernanda                                     Rômulo
Jenifir                          Diksy               Tamires
Kristina                    Tigresa                                    Ketlin                                                 Sánchez
Sayda                                                    Xiomaran
Cagla                                            Foxy                Bibi
Dara                          Papucha                                   Kelly                                           Tanya
Jorge                                                                          Catherine
Carla                                              Rafael               Anita                                  Paulina
Luana                                                  Kamilla                                            Meena
Hadise                                  Kristina                                            Samara
Destiny                                      Marinho                                                Christopher
Terri                Cesar                                                      Linsia                   Eric
More                  unnamed,                               unidentified,                        unknown.
More                                  uncounted,                                                                or discounted
for lack of blood

*

I am afraid
they are
no one else’s.

Especially those without pictures, or even names.
And those whose bodies look like mine, unrecognizable.
according to who?

Is that what community means,
points of overlap or loss?
The reason, every year, we come together
to mourn a list of names
(imperfect memorial but)
who else will?  Maybe a mother.                                    but what about all those kids,
found dead in their bedrooms,
on the street?
Too many questions. Too much bluntness and ink.
I wonder who else charts their dead.

*

Somebody is always dying,
why can’t we remember without knowing
nameandageanddateandweapon?

penis and/or gun or knife? brick?

She was always one of us,
strange how impossible that feels
without violence. I am sure
there is something else we share.
Perhaps we are both tired
of writing these poems
or trying to be political
instead of sad.
mark,  remind, mourn, recover
mark, remind, mourn, recover
remind

*

What happens when I am left alone here
with a wall of lives, too many
for my container heart
that is already
threatening
to spill?

The LRAD sound cannon in use in Pittsburgh during the G20 protests

You may have heard a lot about students in California occupying their own campuses in recent weeks. You may not have heard much about University of Pittsburgh’s campus being occupied at the end of September, however. Unlike the UC occupations, this was not students occupying their campus, but quite the opposite. About 4,000 police occupied the campus, and several cases of police brutality were reported. This was due to the G20 (which the Pittsburgh politicians painted as being an overwhelmingly positive thing for the city, and were honored to host). Six other Wesleyan students and I trekked to Pittsburgh to join the massive protests against the G20. I went to UPitt for two years before transferring here, so I was staying on campus and witnessed the police attacks on students.

Much could be said about the protests and the actions of the police throughout the two days of the summit, but this information can be easily found by browsing Internet news sources. Rather, I would like to focus on my own experience of what happened that Friday night on Pitt’s campus. It was a surreal experience to see what still felt like my campus taken over by men and women dressed like storm troopers. Thursday night there was a riot on campus and the police used extreme force on both protestors and students indiscriminately. This included rubber bullets, tear gas, clubs, mace, and the Long-Range Acoustic Device (LRAD). It was at these protests that the LRAD was used for the first time in the U.S.—it is typically used by the military in Iraq, and is basically a sound cannon that can damage your hearing.

They used this devide frequently over those two days. Friday night, Pitt students and many G20 protesters gathered at a park on campus to protest against police brutality in response to Thursday’s events.

As the crowd gathered, the police surrounded the lawn on all sides. They gave their dispersal order and opened a small corner for us to escape to the street. Once on the street, we were surrounded by two lines of police, a row of bushes, and another line of police to block us in. As this third line closed in on us, we (hundreds of students and protesters) were forced to jump over the bushes to escape. As we did this, a line of police moved into the lawn to cut us off, and my friends and I had to rush through this police line to avoid getting trapped. Those that could not do so (about 40 people) were ordered to disperse without being given room to move. The people asked where they should disperse to, and then were told to lie on the ground and were arrested. One cop was quoted as saying, “I was hoping I would get to beat you guys down, but you guys were pretty peaceful.”

The rest of the night, cops roamed the streets in packs attacking anyone they saw. I witnessed two students approach a line of police who were blocking the entrance to their dorm, asking (with their hands up) to be allowed to go back to their rooms. The police told them to get away, and as they backed up, with their hands still up, the police shot them with rubber bullets, causing them to fall to the ground. The anarchist medics swooped in to carry them behind a tree and take care of them. I talked to another student who asked a policeman how he could get back to his dorm on the other side of campus without running into trouble. The officer hit himin the stomach with the butt of his gun and told him to get away.

Two of my friends asked the same question as they left a restaurant after dinner, and were maced. One was shoved up against a wall as the cop told him, “I don’t give a fuck.” A group of girls in dresses and high heels exited a bar, and a cop, who watched them walk out of the bar, ran up to them and maced them.

Many more occurrences of police violence can be witnessed on youtube, including people standing on the second floor patio of my freshman dorm getting tear gas shot up at them as they taped the violence occurring in the streets.

The most frightening event for me occurred at the end of the night, as it seemed the out-of-town police were leaving. As I walked back to my friend’s apartment, a small crowd began chanting “let them go” at a few police officers arresting more Pitt students, who seemed to be returning from a party. The students were puking due to the excessive mace and probably some alcohol, as they sat handcuffed on the curb. Back-up came and shot tear gas into the crowd. My friend and I walked down a side street away from the tear gas, as a SWAT team came up the street. They grabbed a kid ahead of us, screaming, “You want some of this?!” as they turned him around and dragged him with them. We ducked into a parking lot and paused to get the kid’s name, so as to make sure he got legal support as the police walked up the street.

However, the police unexpectedly turned into the parking lot at us, screaming to “get out of here” and then to “run.” As we walked briskly away with our hands up, they fired rubber bullets at us until we ducked behind cars across the street.

UPitt students have since been working to get the school and the city to apologize for allowing this to happen, but both have refused to do so thus far. To use such extreme violence against people, whether protestors or students, is absolutely unacceptable in a free society. The occurrences of those days demonstrate that the state will sacrifice anything and anyone in order to protect the overarching system—the police were mobilized against the people to quell dissent. While the students of California fight for control of their own education, it is important to recognize that police were allowed to occupy Pitt’s campus for two nights, taking all control away from students, even the basic right to feel safe on campus. The rights of Pitt students were violated in order to strike fear in the heart of anyone who might express opposition to the G20 and the global economic system that they represent. The struggle for student’s rights is not unique to California, but is common to all of us.

Photo: Katherine Bascom

Everyone knows it but few talk about it openly. There are a quite a few gay men at this school. A lot, actually, compared to other schools. And we have a reputation for that. I know that Wesleyan’s mythical amount of gayness was at least part of the reason I came here. But there’s no community. Zip, none, nada. I’ve been talking to a lot of gay men lately and the opinion is unanimous.

The problem doesn’t extend to all queers on campus. Female-bodied queers –and stop generalizing them as lesbians because many of them don’t identify that way – have their shit together, at least more so than the gay men here. I’ve been to many queer events on campus that have had dozens of queer girls in attendance from every class year and from all social strata, but as for the boys, it’s usually just me and a handful of others. No, the queer girl community is not perfect, and I’ve heard lots of complaints about it. Nevertheless, there is some community there, whereas there is none for men. So what is the problem with gay men on this campus that stops them from coming together as a community?

It’s not like this everywhere. Gay men have a rich history of getting together as a community – to organize, to talk about what it’s like to live in a heteronormative society that casts you as not quite human, not quite citizens, not quite men. At Catholic colleges like Fordham University, gay men stick together, not as an exclusive clique but as a community of friends and people who generally like each other. But not so at the queer utopia that is Wesleyan.

And let’s talk about this myth of Wesleyan as a queer utopia for just a second. It’s not. Yes, there are lots of queers here and the atmosphere is generally accepting. But that doesn’t mean that homophobia doesn’t exist here. Try dancing with someone of the same sex at a frat and tell me you don’t get stared at, or even asked to leave. There are lots of gay men who don’t even come out until their senior year, perhaps later, and that’s a problem. The fact is that Wesleyan is still overwhelmingly straight, and a lot of social life centers around straight hook-ups and courtship that inevitably (but not necessarily maliciously) leaves out queers. We are still Others in this microcosm of society that is Wesleyan. So again, I ask: gay men clearly still need community, but why is there none?

I think a lot of it is about gay men not realizing what being gay means in this world. What’s wrong with a guy that just wants to be a “normal” guy who just happens to have sex with men? A lot, actually. We live in a highly heteronormative society. The mere fact that we are gay means that our relationships and our sexual encounters and our very existence itself will always be misfitting, strange, anomalous to the flow of society, QUEER, if you will. No, we’re not all the same. But as gay men we share a unique positionality in this society, no matter how much you want to just live a normal life.

I’ve talked to some people who try to pin the problem on the fact that “the gays just want sex.” Not only is this a huge generalization, but it’s just silly. The problem isn’t that many gay men want sex. Sex is good. Sex with as many people as possible is good. But when it lacks any kind of personal connection, any community formation is hampered. It’s my personal belief that you can form some of the deepest connections with another person by sleeping with them. But too many gay men on this campus seek to avoid any personal connection with other gays at all costs.

And this is SHAMEFUL. In a world where gay men are still beaten, murdered, decapitated, excluded, and oppressed generally across the world and in our own communities; where HIV infections are still on the rise because the government just doesn’t give a damn about gay men (and they could stop it if they really tried); in this kind of world, all people who don’t conform to the procreative heterosexual order of society have to stick together. There has to be a community. Otherwise what are we? Just people who like to have sex with members of the same sex. And as I’ve already pointed out, being gay means a lot more than that.

So what am I calling for? Guys: keep fucking each other. That’s great. But stop pretending that sex ends at the body. Sexual connections are a great opportunity to form deeper interpersonal connections, and that’s what community is all about. And it doesn’t have to be sexual. You can be friends with another gay guy without fucking them, believe it or not. So instead of gossiping on the ACB about who’s a slut or who’s an ugly bitch, why don’t we try to like each other, socialize with each other, organize with each other? Maybe then we can have a real community and not be a disappointment to every queer freshman who comes to Wesleyan. Don’t pretend that you didn’t feel bitter when you came here and realized that there was no gay community, just a complex clusterfuck of catty, cliquey, and isolated homos.

We can be a community, but we have to talk to each other first. And then we have to tap into the expansive set of resources for the queer community that we already have here. Did you know that there is a queer intern who gets paid by Wesleyan to organize queer events? Did you know that there are queer community meetings, potlucks, and all-inclusive parties pretty regularly? Did you know that Open House is supposed to be for the entire queer community at Wesleyan, not just the female-bodied? There’s no machine at the front door that checks if you have a penis and throws you out if that’s the case. And stop saying that you don’t go to Open House because only queer girls go there. That’s bullshit. If you keep telling yourself that (and everyone else), then no guys will go and it becomes a vicious cycle.

I know this sounds abrasive but goddammit something needs to change. And that change starts with you. We need COMMUNITY in our lives.

by Alex Ketchum

Everyday we eat- simple right? Our body consumes proteins, fats, and lipids, converting each morsel into usable energy. Once the biology lesson is over we can stop caring, correct? Wrong!

Recently the Argus published an article about Usdan’s lettuces. Students complained about a few bugs in the food and conventionally grown agriculture was offered as if it were a reasonable solution to debug our food.

The time has come to change our perceptions about food and cleanliness…

Think about it for a minute. When food is sprayed with pesticides it kills bugs. Yes, we are bigger than bugs, but that same POISON is not good for us. It may not outright kill us, but it definitely isn’t a friend to our bodies.

I know that I would RATHER EAT LETTUCE WITH SLUGS THAN POISON.

Photo: Alex Ketchum

Here is what conventional industrial agriculture provides you with: food without bugs, without nutrients, and without flavor.

When large-scale monoculture is continuously performed on the same plot of land, the soil is not replenished naturally. To keep plants growing on that land, large amounts of nitrogen are sprayed upon the soil, so that the plants will grow, but they will lack many of the other vitamins and minerals that a plant grown in healthy soil would have. The excess nitrogen also runs into water supplies and causes large algae blooms which harm aquatic life.

Choices made in industrial agriculture are made in order to enhance the produce’s ease in shipping and shelf life. Food isn’t grown to enhance flavors or nutrients.

Photo: Katherine Bascom

Organic agricultural products have not been sprayed with poison and are more likely to have a higher yield of nutrients. While your food may not look “perfect,” you may have a lopsided apple that doesn’t shine, you will know that this food is better for your body and better for the planet.

Your economic support of organic agriculture does not fund a practice that hurts your body and the planet.

Obviously this is a very complex issue, but I wanted to draw attention mostly to how we perceive the aesthetics of food. A bug in a bowl at Usdan seems like nothing in comparison to nutrient deprived, poison covered lettuce that is bugfree.

Photo: Alex Ketchum

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