Skip to content

Posts by George Altshuler

Oct 25

‘Silenced Voices’

The College migrant worker advocacy group Juntos is partnering with the VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project to screen “Silenced Voices,” a documentary on migrant dairy workers from the Chiapas region of Mexico who have come to Addison County.

Migrant Farmworker José Obeth Santiz Cruz was killed in a farming accident in December 2009 in Vermont. The VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project sent a delegation to Mexico to return his remains and document his family and community coming to terms with his death and sharing stories about the causes, effects, and their experiences of migration. Their stories draw attention to the conditions and economic policies that force migrants from their homes in Mexico and suggest a need for a new dialogue about the root causes of migration.

The screening will take place Thursday, October 28th at 7pm in Twilight Auditorium. More information about the film and the organization behind the film can be found here.

Oct 21

Moriel Rothman ’11 on Zionism for the Huffington Post

Middlebury senior Moriel Rothman is the current President of the national student arm of the pro-peace, pro-Israel group J Street. In addition to his role in the national “J-Street U,” Mori was also one of the driving forces behind establishing a Middlebury chapter of J-Street U on campus.

Today, the Huffington Post published a piece by Mori arguing against the Israeli Cabinet’s recent vote to require new Israeli citizens to pledge allegiance to Isreal as a Jewish and democratic state. Mori’s piece also addresses the more general issue of Zionism at American colleges including Middlebury:

I, like many in the American Jewish community, am a Zionist: I am committed to an Israel that is and will continue to be the democratic homeland of the Jewish people.

My Zionism, however, is not independent of my Jewish commitments to justice and equality. I was taught that central to the Jewish tradition is the obligation to stand to with those who suffer persecution, those on the margins.

…I see the effect of [a split between a pro-Israel camp and a progressive camp] on my campus and at universities throughout the country. Within the pro-Israel tent students who draw attention to the troubling character of a bill like the loyalty oath are accused of giving ammunition to those that would de-legitimize the very idea of a Jewish democracy. Meanwhile progressive campus groups committed to the environment, queer rights, anti-racism and other causes are full of Jews who see their politics and Judaism as inextricably linked yet stay away from any discussion of Israel. This landscape should trouble those unequivocally supportive of Israel, those concerned by its policies, as well as those invested in a progressive Jewish political tradition.

Oct 19

2 Comments

If you like it then you better put a stamp on it

The Cross Street Bridge is scheduled to open in town October 30. To commemorate the opening, the Post Office is going to issue a stamp “pictorial postmark” with the town’s sparkling new bridge on it. Via the AP:

On [Oct. 30], Post Office staff will be at the bridge from 12 noon to 4 p.m., selling envelopes and postcards which, upon request, will be stamped with the pictorial representation of the bridge.

Postmaster Alan Caton says customers can also request the special postmark by mail for 30 days after the opening. To do so, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope containing the letter or envelope to Postmaster, 10 Main Street, Middlebury, Vt., 05753-9998.

I’m pumped.

Oct 15

Dean of Admissions Bob Clagett on the SAT

SAT guides abound

Dean of Admissions Bob Clagett’s post today on the New York Times‘ “The Choice” blog adds some useful perspective to our discussion last week of SAT scores and educational evaluation.  From the blog:

Too many prospective applicants obsess far too much about the role of their SAT or ACT scores in the admissions process. In fact, those scores are seldom a deal maker or breaker.

…Test scores fundamentally provide colleges with the roughest possible measure of your potential for academic success in college, and their predictive value usually declines over time. But they don’t tell us much about your intellectual “fire in the belly,” and that’s what our faculties want in their classrooms. That’s why your high school grades, and the rigor of the academic program in which they are achieved, are a much better long-term predictor of your potential for academic success.

As I’ve said before, I’m very happy to have chosen a college that has an admissions process guided by this approach.  Feel free to comment if you disagree or have more information to contribute to this discussion.

Oct 8

2 Comments

Pause for Sanity: A Nobel Manifesto

Liu Xiaobo

Chinese peace activist Liu Xiabo just won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.  As this New York Times article explains, Liu is serving an 11-year jail sentence for using nonviolent means to advocate for human rights and civil freedom in China.

Lu has been politically active for years, but his signature two years ago of Charter 08, a pragmatic manifesto in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, seems to be the immediate cause for his recent imprisonment.  The wikipedia article on Charter 08 is worth a skim on a Friday afternoon, and Chinese and English versions are of the manifesto are also available online.

I’d love to hear if anyone has a perspective on the manifesto and the Nobel Prize announcement either from the perspective of political theory or contemporary China.  Granted the Chinese government has a pretty incredible spin machine, but isn’t this beyond what can be spun?  Or does the Nobel Prize not mean much in China?  Will this mean the Chinese government will become even more repressive?

If you want to comment but have a stake in not pissing off the Chinese government, feel free to use a pseudonym.  It may seem a little over the top to have to say this, but let’s remember, Lui has 10 more years of Chinese prison ahead of him.

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 28 other followers