Brown and White Vol. 121 no. 23

              Vol. 121 No. 23
Friday, December 9, 2011
‘All the Lehigh News First’
THE BROWN AND WHITE
Lehigh University’s Student Newspaper Founded in 1894
SPORTS
Football team heads to North Dakota
Page 16
ONLINE
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Desert strikes
South Side
Page 7
LIFESTYLE
Professor addresses future of democracy
By STEPHANIE PEREZ
Edward “Ted” Morgan, pro­fessor of political science at Le­high, held a lecture on Thursday, Dec. 1, in Linderman Library in which he spoke about democra­cy’s future and our nation’s cur­rent state, the effects of Occupy Wall Street and how the social movements of the 1960s resonate in our generation’s political voice.
Morgan opened his lecture with a YouTube montage of the Occupy movements around the country, with John Lennon’s “Power to the People” playing in the background. Morgan said he believes the song alone is the rallying cry of democracy, and that democratic society nurtures people’s capabilities.
“Democracy begins with the active imagination about people, that they are equal in the one dimension that counts,” he said.
Morgan pointed out the video represents Occupy movements in states all over the U.S., which suggested a sense of the possibil­ity that things are actually chang­ing in our country.
“What I feel the Occupy movement is about is that de­mocracy is broken,” he said. “People have been cut out of the democratic process. The Oc­cupy movement; the state-level protests in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere; Arab spring; and the popular uprisings in Europe, Chile, and elsewhere – all are indications that the people of the world have had enough of this broken system that is leading us downward.”
He said the public is consis­tently asking the government for common goods that have yet to be provided: whether it is uni­versal health care, ending wars, addressing environmental issues. Public opinion also supports end­ing tax cuts on the top 1 percent of the population, yet the so-called democratic institutions in Washington remains unchanged, Morgan said.
Morgan said that by the end of the New Deal era the country saw the end of a philosophy that government can intervene in our lives to make them better. Around the 1980s, the New Deal was replaced by a neoliberal agenda, which is dominated by wealth and corporations; con­sumerism and entertainment; deregulation and “the primacy of the so-called free market,” ac­cording to Morgan. He said, in many ways, neoliberalism is the opposite of democracy.
“Democracy was transformed by the needs and requirements of capitalism, when we need it to be in the needs and requirements of democracy,” he said.
The first lesson of the Occupy movements, Morgan said, is the importance of images.
He referred to the video mon­tage to emphasize the transcen­dence of the images seen in the media and the way in which they can be viewed differently than the way the media portrays them. Morgan showed a picture from
Occupy movement comes to South Side
B&W photo by AMALIA HATALIS
Local residents and participants of Occupy Bethlehem movement have been protesting outside the Bethlehem Public Library since November.
By ERIC SCHMIDT
Just across the Lehigh River, there is a small, yet persistent and spirited, group camping out. And no, they aren’t the Boy Scouts. Rain or shine, the Oc­cupy Bethlehem movement is making its presence known, all in the name of social justice.
On a very cold and rainy day in late November, several of the occupiers explained their reasons for making the Japanese garden adjacent to the Bethle­hem Public Library their home away from home.
Bethany Towne is among them. The young woman from nearby Franklin Township has intermittently joined with the oc­cupiers in Bethlehem for the past several weeks.
“We’re here to help the com­munity,” she said, her breath clouding in the condensation and cigar smoke.
Most of the 10 or so occupi­ers were passing cigars and ciga­rettes among themselves. They also all were wearing some sort of headgear, which could be at­tributed either to the cold or to a particular look they are aiming for.
Towne said she and her fel­low occupiers all have a shared desire for greater social aware­ness of injustice affecting local communities and local people. They are in favor of a more di­rect democracy.
Much of the occupiers’ time is spent in discussion. Lectures on home-rule initiatives are pre­sented, and plans for instituting practical social change are laid out on poster boards pasted to the walls of the library.
They have a self-formed council that confers over the ac­tions and priorities of the Occu­py Bethlehem movement. While a lot of voting consists of more mundane matters like how to arrange for a portable toilet to be brought to the Occupy location, other discussions revolve around more serious issues like how long they plan on staying and what their exact objectives are.
Greek houses host benefit concert
By AMALIA SAFRAN
From guitarists to a cappella, and even a DJ mixed in, Lamberton Hall was filled with musical talent to benefit juvenile diabetes research on Nov. 30.
Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity hosted the Jam for J.D. Benefit Concert with help from The Music Box, LU Sound and Pepsi spon­soring intermission refreshments.
Six groups performed, including Echoes, Rodgers and Baek, James Jerram, Three if by Air, The Nine 57s and Ansel and Friends.
All of the proceeds went to the Alpha Gamma Del­ta Foundation, which benefits juvenile diabetes.
Kelsey Kaplan, ’14, Alpha Gam’s philanthropy chair, said, “100 percent of the donations were given to the foundation.”
Kaplan, along with CJ Sevilla, ’14, of PIKE, worked for many months to make this concert hap­pen. Bands were encouraged to sign up and showcase their talents. Kaplan said they were looking for a diverse set to attract different types of people to the concert.
Lamberton was filled with audience members who eagerly wanted to support the cause and listen to live music. At one point, one of the bands was warming up and played the keys to “Don’t Stop Believing.” Immediately, the whole audience sang in unison, truly enjoying the laid-back, intimate atmosphere. Audience members were constantly cheering for their friends and laughing along with co-hosts Steph Souza, ’14, and Zach Casler, ’12, who entertained the crowd by telling jokes between performances.
“My roommate has diabetes, so I wanted to sup­port the cause,” said Ellen Ryder, ’12.
Ryder said she was most excited for Rodgers and Baek because she heard them during the sound check and they played a song she was familiar with.
Rodgers and Baek is made up of Aaron Baek, ’14, and John Rodgers, a Lehigh graduate student. Rodg­ers is lead singer and guitarist, and Baek raps, beat­boxes and sings for the group, creating a dynamic per­formance. The group played “Wedding Dress” with Lucy Zhang, ’13, as a guest vocalist and two other medleys, which the crowd responded to well. Rodgers and Baek’s “Wedding Dress” is an English cover of a Korean song that incorporates the two’s talents in an R&B style.
n Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity organized a con­cert to support juvenile diabetes research.
See OCCUPY Page 3
See DEMOCRACY Page 4
See JAM Page 5