Can We Have Class Outside?

...and after we chat about Hegel let's toss the friz!

Eyes Wide Open

The fifth anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq has come and gone, but the killing continues. Today, an exhibit on Founders Green invites us all to remember those who have fallen.

Details from Emily Higgs '08:

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in cooperation with Haverford College's Center for Peace and Global Citizenship and the Quaker Community of Haverford College will honor fallen U.S. military personnel and Iraqi civilians with its traveling exhibition: Eyes Wide Open: The Cost of War to Pennsylvania, which will be on display at Haverford College on Tuesday, April 8th. Pennsylvania has the third highest number of causalities in the country.

Eyes Wide Open: The Cost of War to Pennsylvania focuses on the specific costs of war to the state. The exhibit includes 183 pairs of boots representing fallen servicemen and women from Pennsylvania, and a visual representation of the Iraqi civilian casualties.

This exhibit is part of AFSC's national Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of War network.AFSC, an international social justice organization, created Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of War to illustrate the lives lost in the war in Iraq. It first opened in Chicago's Federal Plaza with just over 500 pairs of boots in January 2004. The national exhibit was last displayed on Memorial Day weekend 2007 with over 3,400 pairs of boots. This was the last time that the entire death toll was represented in one location.

Since then the exhibition has been divided into state displays and traveled throughout the nation to smaller cities and towns. All the state exhibits combined now include more than 4,010 pairs of combat boots representing U.S. military casualties, along with a memorial to the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians who have been killed in the conflict.

Sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, Haverford College's Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, the Quaker Community of Haverford College.

The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.

The Clothesline

There's a clothesline strung from that big beech tree on Founders Green, tee shirts flapping in the wind.

Here's the word:

"The Women's Center presents The Clothesline Project as the first piece of this year's Rape and Sexual Assault Awareness Month. It is a visual testimony to the prevalence of sexual violence.

We hung it across Founders Green today, and it will remain up for one week. We strongly encourage you to take a few minutes during this week to stop and experience the powerful and emotional display.

The CLP began eighteen years ago in a small community in Massachusetts and has since spread across the country, and into other nations as well. In each display, a clothesline is hung with shirts that are designed and decorated by community members, representing a variety of voices and experiences. Haverford students made all of our t-shirts. Each shirt is decorated with words and/or images to represent a survivor's experience, by the survivor her/himself or by someone who cares about her/him.

According to the CLP's official website ( www.clotheslineproject.org) the purpose of the project is four-fold:

1. To bear witness to the survivors as well as the victims of the war against women

2. To help with the healing process for people who have lost a loved one or are survivors of this violence

3. To educate, document, and raise society's awareness of the extent of the problem of violence against women

4. To provide a nationwide network of support, encouragement and information for other communities starting their own Clothesline Projects.

While these stated goals and reasons for making shirts are clear, we want to clarify that our version of the CLP is not limited in some of the ways the above suggests. We want the Haverford community to feel free to speak to issues of sexual violence in all ways and forms. Sexual violence is of course not restricted to violence against women; it affects all people. The vast majority of this violence is against women, but the men who are survivors/victims are suffering under the same system. Also, it occurs in a variety of forms; the category of sexual violence does not preclude domestic or verbal abuse.

We hope that this will be the beginning of a long-lasting tradition, as each year we will reuse these shirts and hope that we will accumulate more t-shirts from the community. If you would like to create a shirt, please contact us! We can provide you with all basic materials (blank white t-shirt, markers, paints). In a society where one out of two women will be in a violent relationship (National Victim Center), rape and sexual assault are too often ignored.

We feel that the Haverford Community will profoundly benefit from seeing The Clothesline Project in action."

Jen, Sasha and Caitlin Meet Again

In the spring of 2002, a senior from St. Croix,
US Virgin Islands, named Sasha Brady and two
sophomores, Jen Ward from New York State and
Caitlin Kimura from Hawaii, found themselves
softball teammates at Haverford College.

Brady was winding up a notable diamond career
at Haverford by hitting .368, speedy Kimura
was stealing 11 bases in 11 attempts, and
hard-throwing hurler Ward was starting to show
the form that would make her one of the Fords'
best pitchers in 2003 and 2004.

If Jen, Caitlin and Sasha ever thought briefly
about fate taking a hand to bring them together
in 2002, we can guarantee you none of them
spent a second then predicting than an even
stranger turn of fate would lead to a softball
reunion in Orange, CA, on March 10, 2008--
with each of them having become a Division III
varsity coach!

But that's just what happened last week when
Haverford with Ward as head coach and Kimura
as assistant outscored Wheaton College, 6-3,
in the Sun West Tournament at Chapman College.

Brady left her sunny island last fall for the
snows of Chicago and a master's degree program
at Wheaton, where she is also assisting in
softball.

Ward took over the Fords as head coach in fall,
2004, only a few months after her graduation.
She's already led the team to a Centennial
Conference championship and an NCAA tournament
berth.

Kimura spent a year back in her native state,
and then returned to Haverford as an assistant
coach. She too is working on a master's degree
at Neumann College) and thinking about a career
in college sports.

The spring break tournament was also a homecoming
for Southern California Fords Lindsey Sullivan '08,
all-time HC career leader in hits, and Dana Irshay
'09, another top Ford batswoman.

We'll leave it to the philosophers to ponder the
meaning of time, space and coincidence and the
mathematicians to calculate the odds of three
teammates from 2002 ending up as coaches of colleges
which played each other in 2008. For our part, we're
just happy to see three such fine Fords still on
the diamond, passing on what they know to today's
students.

--Greg Kannerstein '63

Fords of The Times

Here's a game for Haverfordians to add some extra spice to their daily perusal of The New York Times.

While you catch up on world news, the campaign, various scandals, and the vain hopes of the New York Mets to beat the Phillies this year, try to count the number of Haverford alums mentioned every day in the NYT's pages.

We'll give you a hint:

For now--and for a good long time to come, we hope--you can start your count with an automatic minimum of one. Times Senior Vice President and Deputy General Manager Dennis Stern '69 occupies a prominent daily space on the right side of The Times' masthead.
Most Sundays, you'll also find Mark Hulbert '78 in the Business Section with his column on
financial advice newsletters.

But rarely a day goes by without at least a couple of other Fords appearing in the august pages of The Times. We just wish that when they have a chance, the alums would mention where they went to college!

We haven't opened our Times this morning, but we already know that the paper will be running a book review of "Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker '80.

And, yes, there was even a Ford playing a tangential role yesterday in the extensive coverage of the New York State scandal--demonstrating just another reason we can be so proud of John Whitehead '44. Turns out John was once on the receiving end of an over-the-top rebuke from
the politico everyone else now realizes made being over-the-top a lifestyle.

A week ago Sunday, two alums looked out of photos at Times readers--Tim Hanrahan '95, who had just gotten married (which leads to the vital question of whether Fords are proportionately over-represented in the wedding pages) and Jon Berenbom, early '90s grad, who was the iconic
representative of folks commuting *out* of the city in roomy, relaxed surroundings on the train.

So keep your score, and we'll keep ours, and at another time we'll see how the scoreboard looks.

PS--while he didn't make the New York Times Tuesday, senior Ben Zussman had a big day in the Philadelphia newspapers, being quoted in the Phila. Metro about how students at Haverford are reacting to calls for a smoking ban and then being photographed for The Inquirer, gazing out at Philadelphia's new Cira Center, to accompany a story about how locals react to the controversial new lights there.

And speaking of making us proud, you'll find Tony Petitti '83 in USA TODAY today (no, that's not a typo). Tony, Executive Producer of CBS Sports, reacting to ESPN's hiring of boorish Bobby Knight as a commentator, makes it clear CBS has no room for and no interest in adding the loudmouth ex-coach to its roster.

--Greg Kannerstein '63

In Memoriam: Joe Schwartz '83

A life of courage and triumph over adversity came to an end all too soon this Sunday when Joe Schwartz '83 passed away.

Joe had been a star cross-country and track athlete and a history major at Haverford and later graduated from law school. At the age of 33 Joe began to suffer from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Though almost completely paralyzed for many years, Joe not only kept up a lively and cheerful stream of messages to Haverfordians and other friends, but attended Haverford meets and championships and other events in his wheelchair.

Plans have been underway for a long time for the First Annual Joe Schwartz 3K Run/Walk, now to be held in memory of Joe on April 20, 2008. See the Athletic web page for details.

Joe is survived by a son, a high school student and runner.

The College would like to hear more stories about Joe and the impact he had on the many people
whose lives he touched. Please send any information or reminiscences you would like to see made available about this remarkable Haverfordian to gkanners@haverford.edu

--Greg Kannerstein '63

Rick aka Rich Pressler '81 Returns!

Friday night the Ford welcomes musician alum Rick Pressler as part of our Alumni Year in the Arts series.

Rick (who was 'Rich' back in the days of the Carter Administration!) was my customsman and informal guitar teacher. More recently, he indulged my request for an intvu.

Greg offers this: "He was one of Haverford's best-ever pitchers, beat Swarthmore four years in a row (only pitcher ever to do that) and pitched a no-hitter, Haverford's first-ever, vs. Johns Hopkins. The whole baseball team went to his senior music major project recital (guitar concert) straight from the field in their muddy practice unifoms."

Hope to see you Friday!

-CM