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(10/05/11 10:10pm)
I’m writing to you, fellow travelers, from the town of Stratford-upon-Avon. Our group has been on a tour de Shakespeare today: here in Stratford, we’ve visited his wife’s house, his daughter’s house, his birthplace and his grave. We’re rounding off the day by attending a production of Macbeth by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Currently I’m sitting on a stone wall outside the theater, right on the Avon River, feeling very British with my elderflower cordial and Cornish pasty (dinner) as I watch the Stratford swans bite each other. (Seriously, swans are mean little suckers.)
Sadistic waterfowl aside, today has been very enjoyable and gloriously interesting. I mean, maybe the Bard doesn’t tickle your fancy, but as an English major and Shakespeare nut I’ve been in nerd heaven. Getting to see where Shakespeare lived, walk where he walked, touch what he might have touched—it’s been a little bit overwhelming.
You’re laughing at my hero worship, aren’t you? Well, maybe it is a little funny, but I’m willing to bet that you do it too. It’s a universal thing, I think, to have someone (or multiple people) whom we venerate so much that any connection we can claim—even one as simple as visiting their hometown—becomes something that we treasure. We elevate sports icons, actors and politicians to that level of admiration. The nerdier among us choose writers, artists, musicians, scientists, inventors—you name it, really. We indulge our admiration of these people with autographs, souvenir T-shirts, jerseys and a commitment to memorizing everything they ever said, did or wrote.
So I’m perfectly normal, thank you very much, for being utterly enthralled when I walked through the apple orchard at Anne Hathaway’s cottage and when we passed the newly-begun excavations of Shakespeare’s adult home. I just couldn’t put myself in Shakespeare’s shoes; I couldn’t establish the connection.
That is, until we visited his gravesite in Holy Trinity Church. Looking at the stone slab marking the spot, all I could think was an inarticulate Whoa. Just a few feet away and a few feet down lay the dust and bones of the famed man. I stood across from the stone and read his last words from the grave:
Good friend for Jesus’s sake, forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Bless’d be the man that spares these stones,
And curs’d be he that moves my bones.
All day our various tour guides had been jokingly telling us that if we felt the sudden urge to burst out into poetry, we might have unwittingly stumbled across a pocket of Shakespeare’s residual brilliance. Last Friday I went to The Eagle and Child, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien’s favored pub, for a similar reason—the far-fetched hope that I could tap into some well of talent they had left behind, to claim it for my own. It’s a silly thing we do, expecting that we can somehow become more like the people we admire by mimicking their old actions, visiting their old haunts. In fact, by doing so we actually miss out on the real significance of these little pilgrimages.
The real wonder of visiting Shakespeare’s grave was realizing that we weren’t really different at all. Our circumstances differ, but the processes by which people live and die are universal and timeless. Francis Warner, one of our program directors, likes to say that Shakespeare started writing a play the way we typically start writing our essays: by himself, staring at a blank sheet of paper (or, for us, Word processor page), perfectly cognizant of a looming deadline and dearly wishing the vexing thing would just write itself. That’s what I thought about as I read and reread the epitaph Shakespeare composed for himself, and the human connection made the Bard seem so close that I might have just missed him rounding the corner.
Well, fellow travelers, the sun is setting and the play is about to start. I’m about to take my leave of the swans I’ve been feeding (I hope it’s okay for them to eat Twix bars...) so that I can enjoy the production. Our Oxford tutorials are about to start soon as our introduction course ends, so more on that later. Until next time, happy travels!
(09/21/11 11:55pm)
Greetings from Ireland, fellow travelers! This is your former Cluster copy-editor Brittani Howell, and for the next three months I’ll be your foreign correspondent from the UK as I study at Oxford University in England. For years I’ve listened to the stories of friends who have studied abroad, and I know how much those stories influenced me to do it for myself. It’s my hope that this column will provide helpful advice for when you decide to study abroad or go backpacking, or at least that it will provide you with some entertainment of a foreign flavor.
I’m actually writing this to you from a bus traveling cross-country from Galway to Dublin. We—that is, my friend and fellow Mercerian Sean Rayburn, and I—have just finished up a tour to the Cliffs of Moher, which you probably saw most recently in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The excursion has rounded off our week of backpacking Ireland, and we have crammed more into this week than we could have expected. Armed only with a Eurail Pass and a healthy curiosity, we’ve crossed the country twice and seen every kind of geographical feature Ireland has to offer, in addition to battlefields, cathedrals, museums, and Neolithic burial tombs that pre-date Stonehenge. Our strategy has, essentially, been to fly by the seat of our pants and go anywhere that looks remotely interesting. Sean and I have learned that we’re amateurs when it comes to this kind of travel, but a week on the road has been an excellent education in the basics of backpacking. Here are some of the tips we’ve picked up so far: Pack light. Yes, I know you’ve heard that tip before, but let’s face it, you probably won’t heed it when the time comes. The fact is, you only really need three or four sets of clothes, the essential toiletries, and a towel. Most hostels have an inexpensive laundry service for when you really can’t stand smelling yourself anymore, but the fact is that most of the people you’ll be interacting with are doing the same thing you are. All backpackers end up looking a little rough. You won’t be judged too harshly.
Be prepared. On the flip side, you’re going to want to have your bases covered. Bringing clothes that you can layer is advisable, especially if your chosen country has volatile weather (like Ireland). I suggest investing in good walking shoes, one thick sweater, and a rain jacket.
Food. You probably don’t need as much as you think, but don’t become undernourished for the sake of pinching a penny. Grocery stores have pre-made or deli sandwiches for a decently cheap price, along with breakfast pastries. If you plan on staying in one place for three or more days, you might do well to cook in the hostel, if it has a kitchen. In Dublin, at least, it’s been pretty easy to eat out for six Euros or less per meal. And it never hurts to bring a little food of your own, too. I brought a box of oatmeal with me, and it’s come in handy more than once. (A tip: If you want to bring peanut butter, put it in your check luggage during the flight. I didn’t, and they took my peanut butter, and I was sad.)
Don’t be afraid to walk. Public transportation can be expensive, but in some cities it’s actually unnecessary. Dublin, for instance, is so compact that you don’t need to use a bus once if you don’t want to. Don’t overexert yourself—Sean and I ill-advisedly traversed half the city on the first day, and we were dog-tired the next—but check out what sights you can reach by foot before you hop on a train.
Bring your student ID. Museums, tour companies, and historical sights like castles will give you excellent discounts for entry if you bring your student ID.
Be flexible. It’s not a tragedy if you miss your train, your flight, or your ferry. If your best-laid plans do go awry, just remember: you’re in that elusive Elsewhere to which we’re all itching to go. There’s always something to see or learn anywhere you go, if only you’re willing to seek it out. So make the best of your unexpected layovers.
(04/27/11 11:45pm)
The Mercer Players outdid themselves with their most recent performance, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. The musical's two-week run kept audiences packing out the theater and rolling in the aisles as the Players revealed everything you ever wanted to know about love and marriage but were afraid to ask.
I Love You is told through a series of vignettes depicting different couples at various points in their romantic relationships. Some directors cast a different set of actors for each scene, of which there are about twenty. Director Scot Mann's decision to keep an ensemble of ten cast members allowed his Players to show off their versatility as each actor had the challenge of juggling three or four completely different roles. Not only did the actors manage to balance their roles without undergoing identity crises, but they kept each of their characters distinct and memorable. Watching sophomore Suzanne Stroup and fifth-year senior Isaac Callahan appear as middle-aged parents disgruntled at their son's break-up, only to completely transform into two young parents scrambling to find time for their sex life, was delightful and hilarious.
Speaking of hilarity, I know that my diaphragm literally hurt during the show because I was laughing so hard. The Players aced the comedic aspect of this performance. During a comedy the actor's biggest challenge is keeping a straight face when he knows the line he says is going to get a laugh. The cast of I Love You had this down to a science, and their delivery carried the comedy brilliantly. Another challenge in performing a comedy is getting the timing right, and the actors carried out this too with excellence. Their energy in the show was also remarkable. I saw the closing matinee of the show on April 17, and although I'm sure the Players were tired after two weeks of performing they didn't show it at all. They carried the show with energy and enthusiasm right up to the curtain call.
I found the vocals in the show to exceed my expectations. I knew that some of the cast members did not have much of a background in singing, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good the cast sounded as a whole. I have to give credit, though, to the ladies of the cast; their beautiful voices really carried the musical numbers.
The ensemble came together with beautiful chemistry, and Mann did a good job pairing the acting couples. Mercer alum Shamir Long and senior Lauren Lunsford captured hearts in the audience from their comedic first date at the movies in “Tear Jerk” to their adorable geriatric foxtrot in “Funerals Are For Dating.” The musical allowed the audience to witness the return of acting veterans Marcella Murray and Kevin Mobolade, both of whom appeared alongside Stroup and seniors Tory Johnson and Evan Ayoub in Six Characters in Search of an Author, and Monica Titus, formerly Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest. Although the Backdoor Theatre bids a sad farewell to graduating seniors Johnson and Ayoub, I Love You also debuted the talented freshman Sarah Beth Roach. After watching her performance as a truly endearing nerd in the song “A Stud and a Babe,” I hope that she becomes a frequent face on the Backdoor Theatre's stage and a new addition to the Players' already impressive ensemble.
The crew of the show did a great job with the set, which was functional and visually appealing. A tricky slip stage allowed the crew to pull a section of the stage out of the audience's sight so they could take off old set pieces and send out new ones for the next scene. This device allowed for quick, easy and entertaining scene changes, streamlining the action of the show rather than interrupting it with a cumbersome blackout.
Having said all of this, I have to admit that the most impressive aspect of the Players' performances in I Love You is the range of emotions they covered. The purely comedic scenes such as “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “Scared Straight” yielded beautifully to the sweetness of Monica Titus' solo “I Will Be Loved Tonight” and Callahan's “Shouldn't I Be Less in Love with You.” I have heard several people say that this musical was the best show they have seen the Mercer Players perform, and I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree. I loved it, it was almost perfect and I wouldn't change a thing.
(04/13/11 6:27pm)
3/5 Bear Claws
I know what you’re thinking: “A movie about lizard cowboys? Are you serious?” Yes, actually, I am. And believe me, I was a little dubious too, but I found Rango a fun and clever romp that explodes one Wild West cliché after another in a way that makes the movie unique and memorable.
In the film’s opening scene, you know that all hell is about to break loose when our scaly protagonist utters that “The hero cannot exist in a vacuum.” A conveniently timed accident then catapults the confused little lizard with an identity crisis and a hero complex into a journey to discover — or create — his identity. He finds himself in a little desert town called Dirt whose citizens are desperately in need of both water and a new sheriff. Our lizard claims a new identity — Rango, fiercest chameleon in the West — to be the hero he has always wanted to be and, after bumbling his way through conflict after conflict, eventually proves himself to be worthy of the sheriff badge he wears.
It isn’t a hard plot to unravel; in fact, I figured out the villain and his motive during Rango’s first encounter with him. As I mentioned before, the Wild West clichés abound, including tall tales, a stoic Native American tracker and a spitfire love interest whose main agenda is saving her daddy’s ranch. However, Rango gives comic twists to each cliché it employs to keep things fun and fresh. Rango himself is a delightfully flawed and bumbling hero, caught up in his own charade in a way that both endears him to you and sometimes makes you want to kick him. His tall tales and blustering cowboy boasts are sometimes absurd (making it all the funnier when the people of Dirt believe him), but he delivers them with a fast-talking ingenuity reminiscent of George Clooney’s character in O Brother, Where Art Thou? The slapstick humor and clever dialogue carry the movie along at a good pace, as does the soundtrack, produced by Hans Zimmer and delivered to the audience by a mariachi band of desert owls who also provide foreshadowing and narration a la Greek chorus.
The animation is spectacular; CGI just keeps getting better. Rango’s animators went to a lot of trouble to create a dry and dusty backdrop that never runs the risk of being drab, thanks to its richness in detail. The characters each have texture and movement that synchs with their species and still manages to make them look like hardened Westerners covered in the dust of the desert. The landscape shots are gorgeous and so are the sunsets. I think the best example of the excellence of the movie’s animation, though, is the outlaw Rattlesnake Jake. His movement is smooth, fast, powerful and downright scary. The way the creators animated his rattle into a machine gun is surprisingly seamless and, I thought, somewhat brilliant. When you watch the movie, check out his eyes. If you wanted a villain who gives you goosebumps to look at, Rattlesnake Jake is your reptile.
Speaking of the movement, check out the behind the scenes features on YouTube to see how the animators actually made this movie. Rango was blocked and choreographed in the studio for the actors to physically play it out, and the animators based the characters’ expressions and body language off of the performance of the actors. It isn’t the typical method for producing a CGI movie, but it definitely works, and Johnny Depp’s zany movements bring Rango to life.
One complaint I have is with the ending. Don’t get me wrong: it’s exciting and fun and you’ll love to see poetic justice served. It also seals up Rango’s personal journey by satisfying his quest for identity, so the metaphysical plot comes to a nice conclusion. However, the solution to the physical conflict is problematic. I’ll try to keep it vague so as not to completely spoil the ending, but the resolution sees the citizens of Dirt faced with either continued drought or flooding. Or they could continue to harness the conveniently helpful walking cacti. That too.
I was skeptical when I saw that one of the producers was Nickelodeon Movies (after the terrible adaptations of Avatar: The Last Airbender and A Series of Unfortunate Events, who wouldn’t be?), but the company surprised me with a truly enjoyable film. Rango has its issues that you can’t overlook, and sometimes pushes you to suspend your belief farther than you may like (seriously, though, you’re watching a movie about lizard cowboys), but those flaws don’t negate the entertainment value or the enjoyment of the movie. If you pick it during your next group movie night, I’m pretty sure you’ll come away laughing and glad you chose it.
And if you still aren’t convinced, let me add that the soundtrack features a version of The Ride of the Valkyries—played on banjos. Do you honestly need any more incentive?
(03/16/11 9:44pm)
Mercer has only two automated external defibrillators on campus, raising concerns that students and faculty may not have sufficient access to potentially life-saving equipment in the event of a cardiac arrest.
Alan Baca, Mercer's assistance vice-preisdent for envrionmental health and safety, said the two AEDs on campus are both located in the University Center –– one in the gym and one in the athletics department, where sports are frequently played.
“We have them in what would quickly and easily be recognized as high-risk locations,” Baca said. “We feel as though we have been responsible about the locations.”
Some states require all buildings to have AEDs, but Georgia’s law only makes recommendations, Baca said. Georgia law also makes no stipulations concerning where AEDs should be located.
SGA has been investigating the possible lack of defibrillators this semester to determine whether Mercer needs more. After discovering that the campus may be lacking in defibrillators, SGA began looking into the matter further.
SGA senator-at-large Stephen Bradshaw, who chairs the Committee on Campus Safety and Improvements, said the jury is still out as far as a conclusion on whether or not more defibrillators are needed.
“At first glance, it looks like something that should be there and needs to happen, but as we look into it we’re going back and forth,” Bradshaw said.
Many factors are playing into the discussion by SGA, Bradshaw said. For one, having defibrilators out where untrained people can access them poses certain hazards and liability issues.
Every state has so-called "Good Samaritan" laws aimed at protecting what it calls “lay rescuers" –– untrained people who take the initiative to use an AED when someone goes into sudden cardiac arrest.
But such laws only provide “limited immunity,” according to the website of the American Heart Association. The AHA emphasizes the importance of letting trained operators handle AEDs to avoid “potentially hazardous situations.”
Baca said AEDs are often advertised as being easy enough for the average person to use, but he believes those who promote the product have tended to downplay the difficulty of handling the machines.
“I think there’s a disconnect between the marketing strategy of AEDs and the implementation of AEDs,” Baca said. Baca said it could be dangerous to enable a layperson to handle an AED instead of letting a trained operator do it.
Yet sometimes a trained operator won't be present when an AED becomes necessary, Baca said.
“The reality is that rarely will there ever be a doctor nearby to use the AED,” Baca said. “You’re going to have a layperson who’s going to grab that and use it.”
The cost of the defibrillators is also a matter of consideration. Each AED device costs between $1,500- $2,000, according to the AHA website. Brad- shaw currently only has enough in his budget to purchase one defibrillator. He said that SGA hopes to work with Student Health if it becomes necessary to buy more AEDs.
“It’s only been in the recent past that these things have become affordable,” Bradshaw said. “It used to be something that only hospitals and ambu- lances had. I think that’s why it hasn’t been looked at before, because it used to be that you couldn’t really get them for personal use.”
In addition to these two concerns, there is debate as to whether or not more campus AEDs would be necessary. Bradshaw said that, to his knowledge, no one at Mercer has ever had an on-campus emergency requiring an AED.
“There aren’t many statistics on it because this kind of thing isn’t a prevalent risk among people of our age,” Bradshaw said. “If something happens with us, it’s usually an anomaly.”
But anomalies do sometimes occur. The shocking death of high-school basketball player Wes Leonard in Michigan this March happened just seconds after Leonard scored the winning basket at one of his team’s games.
While it's not certain that the use of a defibrillator would have saved Leonard’s life, the incident could open new consideration of the merits of easily accessible AEDs, according to an article on Huliq.com.
An incident like Leonard’s death is statistically improbable and impossible to predict, however.
“That’s not to say you don’t need to take the initiative to cut the problem off before it happens,” Bradshaw said. “That’s what we’re trying to do, but we’re trying to do it in the best way.”
Bradshaw said SGA will continue to look into the matter and reach a solution that best serves the Mercer community.
(03/16/11 8:45am)
Because I am somewhat technologically challenged and also stingy when it comes to buying songs, I listen to a good majority of my music on YouTube, and some of that music is part of the Christian genre. I’m a fan of Switchfoot, Relient K, NEEDTOBREATHE and various other artists whose music falls into that category, so I’ve spent a good bit of time trawling their videos to find songs that I particularly like.
Music, though, is not the only thing I find when I glance over these Web pages. Four times out of five, whenever I look over the comments on a Christian YouTube video I find a nasty, vitriolic “debate” raging on the page.
I am not at all opposed to religious debate. I think we can only understand our religious beliefs and the beliefs of others by discussing them openly and, in the process, refining our perceptions and voicing our questions. I’m a Christian, and I enjoy a rousing debate and an open discussion. However, I feel sick when I look at the scathing and rabid attacks people make on others over the Internet.
In YouTube comments, I have seen Christians tell other people that they are going to hell. And I’ve seen nonbelievers and people of other religious faiths tell Christians that they are stupid, ignorant, intolerant—really, take your pick of the negative adjectives.
Both sides do it, and they do it in the most foul language that I certainly hope no one would employ in a face-to-face debate. Aside from the general swear words, I recently saw someone in one of these discussions call someone else a “stupid c**t”.
I find it shocking and disgusting that we as a culture—a global culture—have made this a practice. The Internet is, honestly, a great platform for public debate, but so-called “discussions” of the nature I’ve just described are gross abuses of that forum and of each other.
The anonymity that the Internet provides allows us to say anything to anyone without ever seeing the other person. I think that the lack of personal contact makes us think that it’s acceptable to abandon the rules of decency. Under that delusion we fire off hurtful comments without having to answer for them or even address counterarguments, creating a cesspool of ignorance and anger clogging up our browsers.
The language and argumentative style I see on YouTube comments is something I have never, ever seen in an intelligent, rational, respectful debate. And honestly, I think that if someone can’t debate things in an intelligent, rational, respectful way, then they have no business debating anything at all.
Until this point in my piece I have more or less been ranting, but I do have a point: if we are going to insist on debating hot topics such as religion over public forums such as YouTube (and Facebook and any other Web site that allows people to leave comments) then we need to actually DEBATE, not just throw insults and post our opinions while slandering our opponents in lieu of listening to their arguments and meeting them where they are.
We need to treat Internet debates the way we would conduct discussions in our seminar-based classes: with respect for our classmates, with the willingness to listen and with intelligence. No one is going to be persuaded to our opinions (on either side of the debate) if all we’re doing is bandying insults and skewed facts at one another.
When we do that, we only succeed in making ourselves look intolerant and stupid (particularly when we can’t even do it using proper spelling and grammar—honestly, the misuse of language on the Internet makes my skin crawl, and I’m not the only one). If we can’t do that, we need to keep our opinions off the Web.
In my own opinion, religious debates are best conducted in person and not over some kind of electronic medium. If you are a member of a religious persuasion and you are actually trying to convert someone, it’s much better to do it in private, face-to-face, where you can get to know them as a person and not just as a potential Christian/Muslim/Hindu/worshiper-of-Cthulhu.
And if you aren’t trying to convert—if you are simply curious about learning about the nuances of someone else’s beliefs—then it is still better done personally, maybe over a cup of coffee. Religious beliefs, for many people, are so deeply entrenched in their personal identities that we cannot treat them as glib discussion topics.
That’s the quickest way to kick off one of those nasty debates I mentioned above. At the same time, those of us who strongly adhere to religious persuasions could try, for discussion purposes, to look at things objectively and to be patient when someone has a legitimate question, concern or point with something we believe.
However, I know that not everyone is going to confine religious (or any other) debates to face-to-face discussions. So instead I ask that when we engage in debate and discussion, we do it with respect even if our fellow interlocutors are not doing the same. If we’re all going to be using it, we might as well play nice on this digital playground.
Comments on this opinion can be sent to copy@mercercluster.com
(02/09/11 8:50pm)
A Mercer service learning organization recently announced plans to host a spring conference to tackle the issue of local poverty.
The Local Engagement Against Poverty conference will take place March 17 as a way to bring Macon's inequality to the forefront of student attention and kick off a university-wide initiative to log 10,000 hours of community service.
The LEAP conference is being hosted by the Mercer Service Scholars, a group of students specially selected by the university to focus on service learning.
Last year. Forbes Magazine listed Macon as the seventh most poverty-stricken metro area in the United States, with an estimated 29.8 percent of its population living under the poverty line. Additionally, 8.9 percent of that statistic lives on about $21.50 per day for all of their necessities.
In reaction to that statistic as well as their firsthand experience, the Service Scholars decided to host the conference and commit to 10,000 hours of service as part of the Clinton Global Initiative University. The event is hosted each year by President Bill Clinton as a forum for students to discuss strategies for solving problems in their communities and the world.
Since then, the Service Scholars have joined together with a committee of other students and faculty members to make the LEAP Conference happen.
Continuing in the same vein as the STOP Conference and the Caring for Creation Conference, which both took place in 2009, the LEAP Conference will focus on an often overlooked local problem.
The conference will feature speakers and events for students to attend, including a play based on Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed. Keynote speaker David Gushee of Mercer’s Christianity department will address the relationship between poverty and religion.
Junior Chelsea Flieger, who has helped organize the LEAP conference since its conception, said she thinks the local focus of the conference is what makes it unique.
"Everyone knows about extreme global poverty, but we often neglect our own neighbors. Poverty in Macon is a very real issue that needs to be dealt with, not brushed under the rug. LEAP has the ability to change the lives of students and Macon residents if we can work together," Flieger said.
Junior Phillip York said he hopes the conference will help abolish some of the myths and stigmas surrounding the issues of poverty and homelessness.
“There are a lot of myths and assumptions that are often espoused, for example, about how the poor are lazy or how they choose to be poor, when the reality is in fact very different. The vast majority of people in poverty are working poor who are fighting to make ends meet, people who are constantly on the edge of crisis, and community partnerships often play a role in offering a hand up.”
Additionally, York is working with Dr. Craig McMahan to create a poverty simulation “for students to experience a (very) small taste of how difficult it is to get by on low-income levels.”
The weeklong conference will culminate in a service day in which the entire student body is encouraged to participate. The service day, March 26, is also the goal for the 10,000 hours of service to be logged.
York said those working on the conference hope to see a significant stride toward meeting the 10,000 hour goal by March 26, but that the initiative will continue for the rest of the semester.
“So far we have logged about 1,500 hours,” Flieger said.
The service projects will take place throughout the Macon community and parter with a number of local outreach organizations, including Habitat for Humanity, Rebuilding Macon and Facade Squad.
GET INVOLED:
For more information about LEAP, or to sign up for the conference, visit www.mercer.edu/leap. Students can also email leapmacon@gmail.com to volunteer for service projects.
(02/09/11 1:41am)
The Help Haiti Heal Meal will take place in the Fresh Food Company on Wed., Feb. 16, bringing a real taste of the island to Mercer’s students and offering them the chance to give to a country still sorely in need of help. Photo courtesy of Save the Children
Students can sample authentic Haitian dishes from 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. as the Fresh Food Company provides the promised “Meal” aspect of the event. The “Heal” component, however, will be provided by Mercer’s student body. Students can swipe their Bear Cards to donate a $5 gift from their meal plans to the Fuller Center for Housing in Haiti. The money will be used to help rebuild Haitian houses after the devastating earthquake in January of 2010 leveled homes and forced people to take up residence in tent communities.
Chris Fuller, director of BCM, estimates that students will have to average two swipes per minute to reach their goal of $3000, which is enough to build a house through the Fuller Center.
The event has been planned by students who recently returned from Haiti as part of the Baptist Collegiate Ministries mission trip to the island nation. Although they left the island miles behind, the BCM students wanted to continue serving the Haitian people. They planned the Help Haiti Heal Meal as a day to raise funds and awareness for the current situation in Haiti. They planned the event to coincide with the day of Haiti’s Mardi Gras this year.
A table will be set up where students may ask questions about Haiti and about the work of the Fuller Center.
Students will also be able to talk to Caleb Antoine, a Mercer senior and native Haitian, to ask him questions about the island.
Antoine, a 32-year-old Christianity major, was born in Haiti but left at the age of 16 and moved to Miami. However, he still has close ties to Haiti: several of his family members still live there. Those ties keep him concerned with helping his homeland and enthusiastic about opportunities to engage others. When Fuller approached him about answering students’ questions at the Heal Meal, Antoine was happy to oblige.
“Whatever I can do, I will always try to raise money to help Haiti,” Antoine said. “And I’m always grateful to people who take their time to help a poor country. And I’m excited.”
Executive Sous Chef Joseph Smith is also enthused about the event and is personally developing the menu. Because he is of Jamaican descent, Smith is familiar with island dishes and is planning courses including rice, spicy meats and “tasso” gravy. Smith decided to revamp the menu after Antoine approached him with suggestions for recipes.
“I’m just excited that it’s going to be done,” Smith said. “I’m just excited to give back—to give to—someone.”
“I’m all for that kind of positive movement, and the healing of people,” he added.
Both Antoine and Smith hope that the event succeeds in its goal to raise money and to remind people that even a year after the earthquake, Haiti could still use the help of those who are willing to give it.
“For the sensitive people, I think we’re going to see a renewing of compassion as they are reminded,” Smith said. “It’s been a year. I expect the event to bring it back to the forefront.”
Students are highly encouraged to attend, to ask questions and, if they are so inclined, to donate to the Haitian Fuller Center.
(01/31/11 10:43pm)
Mercer honored the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by inviting Sister Helen Préjean to speak at its first Freedom Lecture on Monday, Jan. 17. The event, held in Willingham's auditorium from 7:00-9:00 p.m., was accomplished through the combined efforts of Mercer staff, students and members of the Macon community.
The inaugural Freedom Lecture opened with footage of King's “I Have a Dream” speech, which played on the screen in Willingham as attendees took their seats. After President Underwood welcomed guests and delivered the invocation, the “Macon Eight”—eight of Macon's religious leaders from different backgrounds and denominations—took the stage to read selections from King's writings, offering themselves as a united front in rebuttal to the eight Birmingham ministers to whom King addressed his “Letter From Birmingham Jail.”
The Macon Eight were followed by a performance of the hymn “Oh, Oh, Freedom” by the choir of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church and a reading of Isaiah 61:1. Sister Préjean was then introduced by Regeneration writers Gloria Jordan, whose father was executed on death row, and Andrew Legare, a former death row inmate. After the introductions Préjean herself approached the podium.
Préjean, a nun of the Roman Catholic Church, has been a leading voice for the abolition of the death penalty ever since she began communicating with a death row inmate. Through their interaction she came to know him so well that she became his spiritual adviser. When the time came, Préjean accompanied him to his execution and was “the face of Christ” for him until the moment he was killed. Préjean's book, Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States, documents her experience during that process.
Since that experience, Préjean has accompanied five men to their executions, counseled the families of murderers and victims and spoken out in many different forums against the death penalty. In the Freedom Lecture, Préjean spoke with fire and passion against the legality of the death penalty in Georgia.
A book signing was intended to follow the Freedom Lecture, but due to the South's recent streak of bad weather the books failed to make it to Mercer. However, those who wished to purchase signed copies of Préjean's Dead Man Walking and Death of Innocents could fill out order slips for later delivery.
The event has been in the works for two years, since the idea was first broached in Margaret Eskew's writing class and workshop for nontraditional students. The class, which wrote and compiled the first issue of an annual journal titled “Regeneration,” wanted to have a writing workshop in which an influential published author came to speak and give writing advice. Having worked with Préjean before in New Orleans at a conference regarding the death penalty, Eskew knew that Préjean would be willing to come speak for whatever limited funds Eskew could raise. Additionally, Préjean's ideals and passion had been so influential to the class that they had dedicated their first issue of “Regeneration” to her.
“All of this related to what she had been doing,” Eskew said, speaking of the ethos behind the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event.
Raising money for the event—the Freedom Lecture and the writing workshop which preceded it—was a “faith endeavor,” Eskew said. Uncertain of what they would be able to offer Préjean, she approached the Office of the Provost and received a sum to help with the lecture, though not enough to cover the event. Eskew was prepared to dip into her retirement fund to make up the deficit, but then churches in Macon—St. Joseph's Catholic Church and Centenary United Methodist Church—began to pledge funds to match what was provided by the provost. Additionally, a number of anonymous sponsors made contributions to cover the cost of the writing workshop.
“It was a true community effort,” said Diane Lang, one of the program directors for the event. “It really was Dr. Eskew having a vision and people coming together and making it happen.”
During the writing workshop that preceded the Freedom Lecture, Préjean spoke about the process of completing her book Dead Man Walking, relating advice her editor had given her. The workshop, called the “Writing as Praying” workshop, included a dinner for the attendees, table discussions regarding subjects of perception in relation to writing and readings from the Regeneration writers. A period of socializing followed the event, allowing the attendees to talk to Préjean and to one another.
“I think it went very well,” Lang said. “It was well-received.”
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event will be an annual event for Mercer. According to the press release for the inaugural lecture, the event will endeavor “to bring leading thinkers to the University whose vision reflects the values of faith, education, freedom, community and morality expressed in the institution's mission and in the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr.”—those who, as Préjean would say, “have the fire.”
She concluded her speech by saying, “Please God that tonight—a rainy night in Georgia—a fire has been lit.”
With the first Freedom Lecture successfully concluded and a new Mercer tradition begun, perhaps it has.