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(02/24/94 10:00am)
by Mike Parker by Mike Parker"And once I even went to have a look where they hang out in a big way, out in the delivery bay behind the now-closed Donut Hut, the delivery bay grotto out back with a floor spongy with pigeon shit, chewing gum, cigarette ashes, and throat oysters -- dank and sunless. I went to visit this place once when all the druggies were away, having their druggy lives downtown doing their druggy things: yelling at parked cars and having conversations with amber lights. I visited this place and I was confused: confused and attracted.Who do these people think they are? How can they not care about the future or hot running water or clean sheets or cable TV? These people. And on the walls down at the delivery bay, do you know what they had written? Written in letters several hands high, letters built of IV needles attached to the cement with soiled bandages and wads of chewing gum? They had written the words WE LIKE IT."by Mike Parker"And once I even went to have a look where they hang out in a big way, out in the delivery bay behind the now-closed Donut Hut, the delivery bay grotto out back with a floor spongy with pigeon shit, chewing gum, cigarette ashes, and throat oysters -- dank and sunless. I went to visit this place once when all the druggies were away, having their druggy lives downtown doing their druggy things: yelling at parked cars and having conversations with amber lights. I visited this place and I was confused: confused and attracted.Who do these people think they are? How can they not care about the future or hot running water or clean sheets or cable TV? These people. And on the walls down at the delivery bay, do you know what they had written? Written in letters several hands high, letters built of IV needles attached to the cement with soiled bandages and wads of chewing gum? They had written the words WE LIKE IT."Douglas Coupland , Shampoo Planet by Mike Parker"And once I even went to have a look where they hang out in a big way, out in the delivery bay behind the now-closed Donut Hut, the delivery bay grotto out back with a floor spongy with pigeon shit, chewing gum, cigarette ashes, and throat oysters -- dank and sunless. I went to visit this place once when all the druggies were away, having their druggy lives downtown doing their druggy things: yelling at parked cars and having conversations with amber lights. I visited this place and I was confused: confused and attracted.Who do these people think they are? How can they not care about the future or hot running water or clean sheets or cable TV? These people. And on the walls down at the delivery bay, do you know what they had written? Written in letters several hands high, letters built of IV needles attached to the cement with soiled bandages and wads of chewing gum? They had written the words WE LIKE IT."Douglas Coupland , Shampoo PlanetDouglas Coupland (and according to on-the-cover hype, "nobody has a better finger on the pulse of the twenty-something generation,") wryly points out that, despite Uncle Sam's stance, a drug-defined existence may be as valid a choice as any other. Current drug policy assumes that America has a vested interest in opposing drug abuse. Coupland's futuristic vision suggests that many people might be happier if, as Timothy Leary once suggested, the government dispensed drugs rather than interdict them. There is an obvious fallacy in this proposal: even Shampoo Planet's druggies are not independent. Whether or not they forsake running water or cable TV, they are subcultural leaches, hopelessly dependent upon an infrastructure built and maintained by mainstream society for everything from the methadone and food they are given to the hypodermic needles they use. However, most drug users are not part of this subculture of hardcore abusers. The National Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA) annual household survey revealed that in 1992, during a given month, 11.4 million American's used an illicit drug. This indulgence does not mean that majority of these respondents are unproductive, unemployable dead weight. Still, no one can disagree that even moderate drug use decreases productivity. As violence associated with the black market for narcotics skyrockets, law enforcement costs shackle governmental budgets, and drugs continue to be prevalent in every strata of our society, our national drug-enforcement policies have come under debate from the highest levels. The arguments for ameliorating the problem are tedious. Each solution is joined by countering sets of logic and principle. But the fact is, the country is reluctantly re-acknowledging that drugs have become a messy part of daily life. Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused brazenly advised viewers to "see it with a bud" (read: smoke pot before you come!). Cypress Hill and the much talked about rap community have gone platinum taking "Hits from the Bong." Call it moral laxity, call it reaction to conservatism, the truth is: drugs are a tolerated element of the American pop culture. National leaders, the editorial board of the straight-laced Economist, and most notably, Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, have questioned current drug strategy. This strategy costs the federal government over $15 billion per year. State and local governments add their own funds, too. Yet the results of NIDA's survey reveal that drug use is far from eradicated. In a recent speech before the National Association on Drug Abuse Problems, Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke reiterated his proposal to radically change drug policy. He began by asking three questions: "Have we won the war on drugs? Are we winning the war on drugs? Will doing more of the same allow us to win in the future?" Schmoke's questions are rhetorical, designed to evoke a trilogy of "no's." However, the status quo cannot be as easily dismissed as he suggests. Current anti-drug strategies have been robustly funded since Ronald Reagan's first term. Roughly 70 percent of the budget goes to law enforcement and 30 percent to counseling and education. All of these programs demand abstinence and scorn even "responsible" use. The results have been telling: according to NIDA, in 1979, 24.3 million Americans reported having used illegal drugs in the past month. In 1988, 14.5 million responded affirmatively to the same question. To Schmoke's credit, NIDA's own statistics show that drug use has not declined in the past four years. In fact, the most recent survey results indicate that between 1992 and 1993, drug use by high school seniors increased by four percent. While most people still seem to know what "Hits from the Bong" implies, our zero-tolerance policies have prevented many communities from comfortably discussing programs like needle exchanges – which are designed to slow the spread of HIV. In addition, abstinence-oriented educational programs tend to overstate the horrors of drug use (and underage drinking). When inculcated students experiment, or see their friends experimenting with drugs, their first experiences are not necessarily negative and they lose faith in their education. "You can't portray something as being horrible if the initial experience is not," remarks Dr. Tate Thigpen, former President of Optimist International, a 160,000 member community service organization that runs centers on drug-use prevention and co-sponsored the "Just say no" campaign. However, Thigpen laments that because most volunteers lack extensive medical backgrounds, "what is being used in a lot of the clubs is sort of classic 'Just say no' and some of that, in my opinion, is not totally accurate." owever, Bill Current of The American Council for Drug Education (ACDE) has no reservations about zero-tolerance. He argues that "it is better to risk a little disillusionment if kids experiment than to risk encouraging them to experiment through mixed messages." While Current's argument is logically sound, the high rate of experimentation still present among youth (according to NIDA, a survey administered in 1993 revealed that 54.2 percent of high school seniors had tried an illicit drug in the past year) would seem to invalidate it. When education fails, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Neal is in charge of enforcing drug laws. And he says it's working. "I think you have to examine it on a case by case basis. Certainly in some communities where there have been a level of drug dealing, we have gone in and made arrests and removed those people from dealing drugs in that respective community," he explains. "And that's a win as far as those neighbors are concerned because we've impacted on the quality of life in that particular community." In 1993, Neal's force made 7,397 arrests for drug sales, and 2,491 for possession. His job is far from simple. With billions of dollars at stake, those associated with the drug trade are willing to defy laws and kill competitors to protect profits. Thigpen suggests that greater penalties and stricter enforcement will ultimately discourage traffickers. However, the issue may not be that simple. If we could overcome the laws of supply and demand, our current judicial system could not handle the growing number of drug-related cases that clog the courts and ultimately flood prisons. Despite the similarly astronomical costs associated with it, global interdiction curbs the flow of drugs even less than local efforts. The New York Times reported last week that America seizes less than five percent of all cocaine shipments. Given America's current financial straits, it is hard to imagine spending our way out of a drug crisis. Schmoke, consequently, proposes decriminalizing drugs. To him, strict enforcement ultimately encourages a bloodier breed of trafficking. This perspective is echoed internationally."The struggle against drug trafficking has failed. Obviously. For a simple reason: because they are trying to shoot down with bullets the law of supply and demand." explained Patricia Lara, President of Cambio 16 Colombia, one of Columbia's two major news weeklies, in a recent editorial. Columbia's Prosecutor General, Gustavo de Greiff elaborated in a recent New York Times interview: "A kilo of cocaine costs $50 in the trafficking countries and is sold in the consuming countries for $5,000 to $10,000, and so there always will be someone ready to run the risk of the illegitimate business." hile Neal enforces the laws as they're written, he's stuck in the grip of unamenable regulations. And that's why the answer to each of Schmoke's three questions is no. We have not won the war on drugs. We are no longer winning it. And continuing our current strategies will not allow us to win in the future. Schmoke's decriminalization proposal refocuses drug prevention on the medical community, rather than on law enforcement agencies. In an essay published in the American Oxonian, Schmoke explained that under this policy, "criminal penalties for drug use would be removed and health professionals would be allowed to use currently illegal drugs, or substitutes, as part of an overall treatment program for addicts?Drugs would not be dispensed to non-users, and it would be up to a health professional to determine whether a person requesting maintenance is an addict." Current takes immediate issue with Schmoke's proposal, calling medicalization a "smoke-screen for the pro-legalization movement. He says drug use will increase, and consequently, so will crime. "Even though the drugs themselves have been made legal, the criminal acts that are committed in many cases by drug users so that they have the money to buy drugs are going to continue to be committed," argues Current. "If you're going to legalize drugs to cut crime then you're going to have to also legalize theft and robbery and murder if you want to cut crime associated with drug use, because those things aren't going to down, they're going to go up." However, according to Trachtenberg, the criminal "drug-seeking" behavior Current describes is the one aspect of drug abuse that clinicians have consistently been able to treat. In addition, Schmoke's plan actually allows for a more effective strategy of reducing this behavior -- supplying addicts with drugs if they submit to a gradual treatment program. Currently, methadone is prescribed in this manner for heroin addicts. Providing addicts with a source of narcotics presents a moral dilemma. At first, it may appear the question is, "should our tax dollars be spent on drugs?" However, sheer pragmatism dictates that crime would be reduced by supplying an addict with cheaply produced drugs to keep them docile, preventing the drug-seeking behavior that Current described. The true injustice might be done to the addict, who might well die from the long term health problems associated with highly addictive narcotics. Such Machiavellian means seem outlandish upon examination. Addicts may also desire more drugs than clinicians are willing to prescribe. And this, Neal suggests is where Schmoke's model breaks down: "If there's some mechanism that's set up where an addict either has a voucher and he or she can go to the store and buy some quantity of narcotics, then I think that the black market is still going to be there because of the fact that once the addict has exhausted that then the addict will be out looking for additional ways in which to purchase drugs." However, it would seem that with well-funded and realistic treatment accompanying a maintenance program, the need for a black market would be minimized. Finally, most foes of decriminalization argue that a change in drug policy will lead to a dramatic increase in abuse. They point to the extraordinarily high levels of use of alcohol and nicotine by teens as evidence. Schmoke notes in his essay that we now mistakenly "promote alcohol as a social good?with the alcohol beverage industry spending billions of advertising dollars." Schmoke is no promoter of substance abuse. His plan calls for strict laws curtailing narcotics advertising, coupled with increased spending on health education. And a slight increase in casual drug use may be a small price to pay to free our society from a violent drug trade. A realistic assessment of drugs reveals that to the casual user, narcotics mat not be as harmful as they are often made out to be. "I think the larger questions concern people who use drugs, but yet work and are productive and do not abuse their spouses or their children -- is that a public health problem? Is that an issue that the government should be concerned about?" Trachtenberg muses. "It gets to a point that other than the fact that those people are fueling the underground economy for drugs by purchasing, in those cases it may very well be a victimless crime, assuming they're not driving while they're intoxicated or operating heavy machinery." Many participating in drug policy discussions are unwilling to be as morally detached as Trachtenberg. For them, the debate is not only fought in the name of pragmatism, but also under the auspices of ever-evolving ethics. Yet until these moral concerns cease to limit open discussion of potential alternatives, we will be stuck in this sorry state of affairs. Mike Parker is a smooth-talking College sophomore from Washington, D.C. and he has some real trouble with deadlines. He translated this story from his native Portuguese, so kindly forgive any leaps of logic.
(02/23/94 10:00am)
Gigi Simeone should resign asGigi Simeone should resign ashead of Residential Living andGigi Simeone should resign ashead of Residential Living andthe University should re-evalu-Gigi Simeone should resign ashead of Residential Living andthe University should re-evalu-ate its residential policies andGigi Simeone should resign ashead of Residential Living andthe University should re-evalu-ate its residential policies andproceduresGigi Simeone should resign ashead of Residential Living andthe University should re-evalu-ate its residential policies andprocedures_________________________________ And, in the wake of the most recent incident -- a former Residential Living employee suspected in two dormitory break-ins -- we feel these issues raise serious questions about the competence of the department that must be addressed in an immediate and decisive manner. A McGinn guard was arrested in 1989 for allegedly harassing several University students and injuring a University Police officer. The guard was apparently intoxicated during the incident, and was later found to have had an extensive criminal record. And as recently as last spring, the DP photographed four guards asleep on the job and observed several others doing the same. During 1992 College graduate Jeff Jacobson's tenure on the University Council's Safety and Security Committee, there were several reports of guards sleeping, pre-teens being hired for security positions and employees who were drinking and harassing students. Numerous complaints of lost and slow mail have flooded residences in spite of various reassurances and investigations. While findings of trashed, undelivered mail continue to incense students daily, the past year has shown that mail problems have not ceased, but continue to plague on-campus residents. In the dorm rooms themselves, students have consistently found rodents as part-time roommates. But this is better than instances of human intrusion, such as when a College freshman found a man rummaging through the drawers in her Quad room last year, or, most recently, when a former University residential desk receptionist (who had been arrested several times by University Police) was implicated in the DuBois and Stouffer burglaries. And many students simply find that Residential Living is no longer where they really want to live. This has gone far enough. It is time to stop sliding down this slippery slope any further, before the University wakes up to tragic headlines on the front page of this paper. It is time for the University to care about the welfare of its truly most important commodity -- the students themselves. Immediate steps must be taken to create a better screening process for all applicants to residence-related positions, security guards or otherwise. It is imperative that the guardians of our safety not be ex-convicts themselves. We support the findings of the Commission on Strengthening the Community in this regard -- control of all security operations should be shifted to University Police, including dormitory security. It is also necessary that Residential Living work its hardest to meet the needs of its customers head-on. Students, upon moving in, should be more well-informed about where they should direct their complaints, and these complaints ought to be treated with an "open book" policy. After all, what does the University have to hide? In the face of these tribulations, Residential Living Director Gigi Simeone has not been wholly complacent. But in spite of the recurrence of these issues, she has not taken a pro-active role. Rather, she has chosen to be reactive to complaints, doing damage control and putting her finger in the dike to ameliorate future catastrophes. In dealing with such huge problems, Simeone has chosen to pick up the pieces rather than build a better home for the University. And this, we deem unconscionable. We call for Simeone's resignation. A bold leader who is not afraid to make changes must replace Simeone and turn Residential Living into the organization it should be. Enough is truly enough.
(02/17/94 10:00am)
Medals · Today's highlights Medal events: men's super-G, men's 10-kilometer classical cross-country, 10-K women's freestyle pursuit cross-country, women's 3,000-meter speedskating. Also: Technical program in men's figure skating. Hockey: U.S. takes on Canada, Slovakia vs. Italy, France faces Sweden. · Luge On her speedy sled Blue Max, thundering down the washboard luge course, Gerda Weissensteiner's shyness melted away. The 24-year-old forest warden from the Italian Alps laid down four ferocious runs to clinch the Olympic women's luge gold yesterday at the leading edge of a European medal sweep. Cammy Myler of Lake Placid, N.Y., seen as a contender for the first U.S. Olympic luge medal after finishing fifth in the '92 Games, came in six places lower this time. Myler couldn't make up time lost when she bounced off the course's icy wall in Tuesday's second run, and put a foot down to stay upright. It happened at turn 13, which is called the Billy Goat Ride in an image drawn from the Norwegian folk tale Peer Gynt. The same curve threw Erin Warren and also knocked Duncan Kennedy out of the men's race. Myler, 25, held 11th place with two respectable windup slides Wednesday. Weissensteiner, one of eight children, lives in her parents' farmhouse in Italy's northeastern Alto Adige region. Clearly into speed, she trains ''like crazy'' and rides motocross motorcycles for fun. Her Olympic gold crowned a year-long string of luge triumphs that included titles in the world championship, World Cup and European championship. She said no one found a perfect line down the icy 16-turn Hunderfossen Olympic track. But Weissensteiner came closest, with a four-run total of 3 minutes, 15.517 seconds. Usually reserved in public, she jumped for joy on the medal podium. Germany's Susi Erdmann, the 1992 bronze medalist, took silver, .759 seconds behind Weissensteiner. Andrea Tagwerker of Austria won the bronze, 1.135 back. Erdmann moved temporarily into the lead with a fast fourth run, and Weissensteiner responded with a final-run pace of nearly 75 mph, her body jiggling like jelly in the shiny blue suit as she hurtled down the rutted course. Tagwerker says Weissensteiner's secret is pressing her head further back toward the ice than other top racers, which cuts wind resistance while lying belly-up, feet-first on her sled. Bethany Calcaterra-McMahon, 19, of Waterford, Conn., finished 12th, .271 seconds behind Myler. Defending gold medalist Doris Neuner of Austria was a distant 10th, more than two seconds off the lead. Her sister Angelika, silver medalist two years ago at Albertville, France, was fourth, 1.384 seconds behind the leader. · Freestyle skiing Defending Olympic champion Donna Weinbrecht of West Milford. N.J., was seventh in the women's moguls, won by Norway's Stine Lise Hattestad. Liz McIntyre of Winter Park, Colo., took the silver medal and Russia's Elizaveta Kojevnikova captured the bronze. McIntyre had the best qualifying score and went last today, but was slower than Hattestad in the event that combines two jumps and speed through moguls. Ann Battelle of Steamboat Springs, Colo., placed eighth. Jean-Luc Brassard of Canada won the gold medal in the men's moguls event. Sergei Shoupletsov of Russia was second and Edgar Grospiron of France, the 1992 gold medalist, was third. · Speedskating HAMAR, Norway -- Two races, two golds, two world records. For the second time in the Olympics, Johann Olav Koss and his adoring fans were too much. Koss was guided to yesterday's gold in the 1,500 meters by roaring Norwegians waving their country's red, white and blue-crossed flag, popping flashbulbs and chanting his name. ''Koss Is The Boss,'' proclaimed a sign hanging from a football field-long wooden rafter in the Viking Ship arena. Powered by a frenetic final lap that raised the noise level inside the tubular hall to rock-concert levels, Koss won in one minute, 51.29 seconds -- .31 faster than the old world mark set on the same ice last month by the Netherlands' Rintje Ritsma. Ritsma had to settle for silver Wednesday with a time of 1:55.99 -- the third-fastest 1,500 ever. Fellow Dutchman Falko Zandstra was third in 1:52.38. Koss' final lap was a surrealistic vision of speed, power, grace and adulation. Down the backstretch, he picked up speed, and a burst of flashing cameras created a strobe-like reflection off the ice to light his way. He rocketed into the third turn, then the fourth, until even the orange-bedecked Dutch fans, silent until now as they saw gold slipping away, were screaming. When he accelerated across the finish line and his time flashed on the scoreboard, the metallic roof shook and shimmied with the noise. Koss peeled back the hood on his redder-than-red racing skin, pumped his fists and held his face in his hands in near-disbelief. · Hockey Oh, great. The U.S. hockey team is winless after two games for the first time in 10 years, its hopes for a medal vanishing, and guess who's dead ahead. The Next One, Olympic version. Paul Kariya, a 19-year-old who is the latest hockey-playing Canadian teen-ager to bear the burden of being the next Wayne Gretzky, must be contained if the United States is to finally win one tonight. It's also accurate to say that, unless the United States (0-0-2) can keep Kariya in check and beat Canada (2-0-0), chances of making the medal round are virtually through. A loss would leave the Americans with just two points from three games, and top-seeded Sweden still to come. They could beat Italy but that would leave them with a just four points, in all likelihood too few to advance. Kariya, a Vancouver native who attends the University of Maine, scored 100 points in 39 games and was the top U.S. college player in leading the Black Bears to the 1993 NCAA title. Five of his Maine teammates are on the U.S. team. · Harding HAMAR, Norway -- Face to face in the Olympics at last, Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan greeted each other without rancor yesterday, chatting during a chance encounter, then smiling together for a U.S. figure skating team picture. Everyone around them sighed in relief. Whether by request or circumstance, though, Harding and Kerrigan posed in the photograph from opposite sides, separated by four teammates. They hadn't planned to see each other so soon. Kerrigan's coach, Evy Scotvold, hoped she wouldn't see Harding at all, except on the ice. But by midday, the two skaters had already met in the athletes' village, where they share a house with teammates. Kerrigan was walking up a path from the main building, while Harding was walking down with some friends. They stopped, looked at each other, and spoke a bit. There were no handshakes or hugs, but also no hostility in that awkward first meeting. · Freestyle moguls Stine Lise Hattestad of Norway won the gold in the women's freestyle-skiing moguls event. Liz McIntyre of Winter Park, Colo., won the silver medal and Elizaveta Kojevnikova of Russia, silver medalist in 1992, won the bronze. Jean-Luc Brassard of Canada won the gold in the men's freestyle moguls. Sergei Shoupletsov of Russia was second and Edgar Grospiron of France, the 1992 gold medalist, was third.
(02/17/94 10:00am)
ife provides seldom few examples that the laws of karma are in place. Yet for all the unfair Player-endings, there are still examples of hope. Take Lyle Lovett. Self-professed odd-ball (and one ugly dude), Lovett made a career producing exactly the sort of art he wanted (and having exactly the type of hair he wanted, too). Public be damned, this Abraham Lincoln look-alike scored Julia Roberts, a prize oh-so-slick David Letterman and Keifer Sutherland found out of reach. He did what he wanted, and without a hint of compromise, made it in the end. Not with breast augmentation or an image makeover. As himself. Then there's Fishbone. One of the most stunning live bands and innovative set of musicians on the planet, they just can't seem to make it outside the ranks of college music. Well, they've come pretty close, but their timing has always been a little bit off. And, to their fans, the public could commit no greater crime than ignoring the band. It only implied music that was different from anything else around. Over time, more and more labels cropped up, distinguishing certain sounds for what they were rather than for what they weren't. Every now and then, though, would-be rock journalists (a sketchy discipline at best) come across something so original that it defies definition. Fishbone exemplifies this phenomenon. Though the usually multi-hyphenated names provide some framework to view the band's sound (how 'bout funk-ska-soul-punk-gospel-metal-reggae-pop-thrash rock) the truth is, they're just Fishbone. They're the originals. And that's all you need to know. P-Funk claimed genre fusion pre-eminence by posing the question "who says a rock band can't play funky?" Fishbone didn't even consider the question. They were the first ones to really pull off the deed by unconsciously piling influences (including P-Funk) and genres with such finesse that the undue attention of the mix seemed wrong -- it is, after all, just Fishbone's music. While genre-blenders (the current musical 'flavor of the month') cut and paste in their own Frankenstein-esque ways, the Fishbone soldiers just went out and played. Fishbone trumpet-player Walter Adam Kibby II explains: "[Our music] comes from our souls. We develop all our music ourselves so we don't really take a blueprint from any particular area. There's labels for different styles of music, and we take different styles and just do what we can do with those styles. But we don't take our influences really from too many other bands." It seems nearly every discussion of Fishbone involves some reference to the seemingly unending styles they work into their own cohesive thang. However, the styles just naturally blend. "If someone wants [a song] to be heavy, we just say go ahead and make it heavy," describes Kibby. "It's not like we say 'yeah that ska song here should have a heavy metal guitar thing. It either happens or it doesn't. The person has to feel it to pull it off" Fishbone came to blossom in the same L.A. scene that fostered such alternative icons as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction. In fact, the three bands share close ties from those local club days, often filling in for one another on albums or showing up in videos. But where both the Chili Peppers and Jane's tasted the prize of mass-appeal cross-over success (and the headlining spot of Lollapolooza). Fishbone was always just too eclectic to reach the mainstream (instead, their former freak-rock opening band Primus snagged the 'Plooza headline gig while Fishbone jammed through a cool afternoon set). Stardom's elusive blessing, while distressing to shallow popsters like media-friendly Evan Dando, could not have affected the Fishbone members any less. These boys have thought it all over, and are doing exactly what they want. And that means, more than anything else, playing live music. Fishbone, by nature, is a live band. Explains Kibby: "Touring's what we do. We just go out and do it crazy and try and give 'em what we got." And it's what they do best, touring nonstop (close to two and a half years between each album). Fishbone shows are relentless displays of energy and lunacy; punk rock intensity coupled with ska's jocularity and funk's swagger. More than with other bands, the audience is drawn into the frenzy; there's not just a stage-front pit -- the entire floor is moving. And Fishbone plays for the crowd. Kibby describes his motivation, "If the crowd is pumped up and the music is sounding good, we get pumped up. Otherwise, it could be a struggle. Other times, the groove is good and we just give it to 'em." The crowd (the Fishbone 'familyhood') keeps up with band's frantic pace. "The familyhood's cool, they just come out and do it," he adds. For all of their innovation and uncanny skill (those who have seen bassist Norwood Fisher's slapping thumb fly through live versions of "Bonin' in the Boneyard" will understand), Fishbone has earned the undying respect of musicians and critics alike. Hell, even Neil Young sports a Fishbone t-shirt for the liner notes of Harvest Moon. Despite their hype, praise, and adoration (and believe it, there's more than one band that borrows from these L.A. boys), Fishbone has never quite made it to the level of success that a band of their status in alternative circles (whatever that means) deserves. eavis and Butthead themselves can tell you that "MTV doesn't show these guys enough." And the reasons for fame's fleeting kiss are obvious: while Fishbone's tunes are indeed excellent, they need time to grow on the listener. Their lyrics, buried under the slickness of street lingo, convey messages that require thought to completely decipher. And with the limited airplay they do receive, it's hard to convince a wide audience. The reason for their limited airplay, among other things, stems from their freak status -- these guys are kind of weird. But, Fishbone is in fact more accessible than intentionally-deranged Primus. Since Fishbone plays styles comparable to MTV-friendly faces like the Chili Peppers and Primus, the issue of institutional racism seems to rear its ugly head. But Fishbone is no stranger to industry hostility, and generally avoids the business hassles of the job by simply playing. The ranks of Fishbone are larger than most bands, weighing in at a hefty six performers (original guitarist Kendall Jones recently split the band, bringing the total down from seven). Fishbone's brass section, comprised of its three interchanging vocalists, is perhaps its most distinctive element. Standing out from the group is hyperkinetic singer and saxophonist Angelo Moore, whose natty braids, trademark round glasses, cane, and frenetic energy make him perfect video material. Goateed funky bass-man John "Norwood" Fisher and drummer/younger brother Fish (Philip Fisher) started the group (well, they all practiced in their house). Trombonist and keyboardist Chris Dowd and brass-master Kibby also take turns on vocals, Dowd for the soul-searching gospel-flavored tunes, and Kibby for the raunchy ones. Guitarist John Bigham, with the band for four years, handles the six-strings. Fishbone, none too surprisingly, began as a bunch of junior high friends gathering to splash songs together: the band, to this day, maintains elements of the crude style of that age. As early as 1979, the kids of Fishbone would gather in the bedroom of the Fisher brothers' house, dubbed the Aquarium, and jam through punk rock covers. Today, covers are almost entirely foreign to Fishbone, with the exception of Curtis Mayfield's "Freddie's Dead" that introduces 1988's Truth and Soul. "When we were kids and we just started and we were doing covers, we decided 'why do covers when you could do your own tunes?'" explains Kibby. "So we just made it a statement that we would try to create as much doing our own as possible. Try not to do that many covers." This makes sense -- Fishbone has so defined their own style that it would be strange to see them do anyone else's material. Fishbone progressed, going under the various names including Hot Ice, Megatron, Counterattack, Diamonds and Thangs, and Melodia before (thankfully) settling on their current nom de funk. "On the day of Angelo's prom, May Day, 1983, maybe, we started our venture of clubs," relates Kibby. "Before that, we were doing talent shows and battle of the bands, stuff like that." Fishbone signed to Columbia Records, releasing an eponymous EP featuring the wave-making "Party at Ground Zero." Fishbone, beneath its pop-ska good-time groove, also carried the message that they were more than a party band. Instead, Fishbone focused its acerbic pen on the inanities of the government ("Ugly," the 'ode' to Ronald Reagan), nuclear war ("Party?Zero"), and a diatribe against revisionist holocaust historians ("V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F."). Columbia, however, was far from hip to Fishbone's talents -- it originally chose to market the group as "those crazy new-wave negroes from South Central Los Angeles," said Dowd in a previous interview. Fishbone balked at this ridiculous idea, and Columbia sat on the band, sending them back to the clubs to earn their dues. Fishbone's intensity has sold them more than anything else. Among other things, Fishbone shows were among the first to feature moshing, a toned-down version of the angry punk slam-dancing. "It comes from the punk rock days, when we were young punk rockers going to Dead Kennedys concerts, Fear, [or] whoever else in the world of punk rock was coming through," explains Kibby. "They had slam pits up in there, serious slam pits and we tried to bring that up into another level. [Bassist] Norwood once said 'it would be great if we could play some funk and have a slam pit.' So we strive to do that. We can't help it, we want people to buck-wild, have a good time, we want people to cut loose." Fishbone's insane live shows also popularized stage-diving (another device adapted from idols the Dead Kennedys). Now, between songs, nearly every thrash band frontman will take a spill into the audience. Yet, to this day, Fishbone's Angelo is still head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd-surfers, usually singing entire songs into his wireless while floating across a sea of sweaty hands. ar from a party band or freak novelty act, as Columbia tried to sell them, Fishbone crafted smart, savvy tunes. With the help of their next few releases, In Your Face and Truth and Soul, and several frightful early videos (often featuring Angelo break-dancing) Fishbone rose from an L.A. club band to college music heroes. And the reason, more than anything else, was their marriage of complex rhythms with familiar, yet profound, lyrics that eloquently expressed everything from down and dirty bonin' to post cold war politics. Fishbone treats each topic with a mix of hope, anger, and fun. Over the next six years, facing hostility from their label, Fishbone sought solace on the road, perfecting their live performances at the cost of issuing only two full-length releases (despite occasional EP output). In 1990, Fishbone returned to the studio in the midst of L.A.'s urban angst, gang warfare, and social decay. The result was Fishbone's best work to date, The Reality of My Surroundings, which especially showcases the band's diversity. Fishbone's musical melange captured the fears and frustrations of South Central, ghetto-trapped blacks with more conviction and rationality than furious gangsta rap. With the sullen "Sunless Saturday" ("I see the shards of shattered dreams in the streets/ I face the morning with my customary sigh") and the bitterly real "So Many Millions" ("I can not grow up to be the president/ where only drug dealers own Mercedes-Benz"), Fishbone demonstrated their sharpened political pen. With romps like the optimistic anthem "Everyday Sunshine" and the raunchy (and phonetically spelled) "Naz-tee May'en," Fishbone kept their "positive mental attitude" in sight. hough Reality seemed fit to drop like a bombshell on a ripe alternative market, its popular reception was less than astounding (both artists and critics did, indeed, rave about the album). MTV rotation of singles "Everyday Sunshine" and "Sunless Saturday" (featuring a Spike Lee-directed video) did increase their stock, and a Saturday Night Live gig (where they trashed the stage -- before Nirvana) seemed to have the band on the verge of crossing over. Fishbone teamed up with San Francisco's Primus, and shipped out on a several year tour. But the band's grooves were a little too inaccessible for the mainstream, who were being wooed by the catchy opening riffs of "Smells Like Teen Spirit." The year 1993 marked Fishbone's first release since Reality, the heftily titled Give a Monkey a Brain and He'll Swear He's the Center of the Universe. After the ascension of alt rock champions like the Chili Peppers, Fishbone seemed in a natural position to rocket to the Billboard upper echelon. However, the Fishbone style took a turn for the heavier, trading in the horn and funky bass sound for straight up metal guitar-driven tunes. Give a Monkey a Brain? sounded like a half-hearted attempt to grungify the L.A. septet, and coupled boring gospel dirges with few tracks that show Fishbone's usual flair. Fishbone had been heralded as The next big thing throughout their fifteen years, but when the moment was upon them, they issued their first disappointing release. Fishbone faced its greatest difficulty, however, during the mixing of the album. Guitarist Kendall Jones, always a devout man, became increasingly obsessed with sin and the apocalypse, after joining a religious cult. Jones anointed the band's instruments before shows and used interviews as religious platforms before finally leaving the band, deriding Fishbone as "demonic." Problems continued, however, when members of the band tried to subdue Jones and take him for counseling. "When Kendall lost his little mind and Norwood tried to take him to get psychiatric help, it turned into a big melee and we had to go to trial," explains Kibby. The Fishbone bassist intended to grab Kendall off of the street, toss him in a van, and drive off. Instead, Jones avoided the abduction, and had Fisher charged with kidnapping. The charges were eventually dropped, but the legal proceedings had tapped out Fisher's resources. So Fishbone friends Porno for Pyros and Primus (among others) teamed up for the Norwood Fisher Defense Fund benefit concert that raised money for the indigent bassist. Despite the internal struggles, the band still snagged a Lollapolooza spot, making them the first band to play the main stage of the tour twice (they completed Living Colour's spot on the first Lollapolooza during the later dates). "It was a light gig, you know what I'm saying," offered Kibby. Fishbone -- unlike the Chili Peppers who found themselves in a similar axe-less predicament a year earlier -- had two guitarists, so John Bigham handled all the guitar himself after Kendall's departure. Despite consistently hot performances throughout the tour, their middle of the day time-slot indicated the lost buzz: Fishbone had missed their best chance to make it huge. Truthfully, though, the glamour of pop stardom holds little allure for Fishbone. These are guys who love nothing more than what they're doing: playing night after night to sold-out clubs of the 'familyhood,' crafting songs to channel their anger or reflect their sense of humor, and travelling around the world to do it. "You never know, we could die today," relates Kibby. "We just keep doing what we do and not worry about tomorrow and just try to make it to tomorrow." Karma perfection incarnate. Josh Leitner is the fair-haired managing editor of 34th Street. Don't let his pretty-boy looks deceive you, 'cause he turns into a nasty, vicious bugbear at 4 am. Es la verdad.
(02/14/94 10:00am)
AIDS kills 92 Americans every day. That means nearly 35,000 Americans die from AIDS every year. All told, almost 400,000 Americans have been diagnosed with the disease. And yet, according to a recent poll conducted by The Daily Pennsylvanian, only 48 percent of University students consistently use condoms during sexual intercourse. The DP's 60-question poll of 405 undergraduates focused on the sexual practices and social lives of University students. The sexual attitudes of University students, as revealed by the poll, indicate an acute lack of awareness of the causes of AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, and other related sexually transmitted diseases. AIDS is caused by a virus known as the human immunodeficiency virus, or H.I.V. Most commonly, H.I.V. is spread by sharing needles or having sexual intercourse with H.I.V.-infected persons. H.I.V., which may be carried in the blood, semen, or vaginal secretions of an infected person, can also less frequently be transmitted through infected blood transfusions or birth by an infected mother. H.I.V. cannot be transmitted by insects, vaccines, or casual contact. According to information released by the Center for Disease Control, "in studies of households where families have lived with and cared for hundreds of AIDS patients?, no instances of nonsexual, nonblood, or nonperinatal transmission were found, despite the sharing of kitchen and bathroom facilities, meals, eating and drinking utensils, and even razors and toothbrushes." But casual sexual practices can result in transmission of the disease. "The only form of birth control that can prevent AIDS completely is abstinence," said Kirsten Middleton, Teencare Education coordinator for The Planned Parenthood Federation of America. For many college students, though, abstinence may not be a practical option. To limit the risk of H.I.V. infection, CDC proposes several alternatives to abstinence. Inquiring into the sexual history of partners, limiting the number of sexual partners and using only water-based condom lubricants can lower the risk of contracting H.I.V. and AIDS. The CDC also said that avoidance of alcohol and illicit drugs which impair both the immune system and judgement will help stop the spread of the disease. Only some of the CDC's recommendations have been taken seriously by students, however. When it comes to limiting the number of sexual partners, college students and in particular those at the University, appear to be hearing the message. Of those polled by the DP, 25.6 percent said they were virgins and 23.5 percent claimed they had only had one sexual partner. The call for everyone to use a latex condom during all sexual activity, even during oral sex, has not been well received by students, though. Nearly 72 percent of those engaging in oral sex claim they never use a condom. And an additional 13.6 percent responded they rarely use a condom during oral sex. Despite the massive educational outreach programs, teenagers appear to represent the fastest growing demographic group in new AIDS cases. Over 12,700 individuals between 20 and 24 have either H.I.V. or AIDS. Still, old stereotypes targeting homosexuals and drug users as the sole carriers of the virus persist. "The facts are that the next wave of the epidemic is moving towards adolescents," Middleton said. "But I think that the stereotype still holds true." According to Planned Parenthood statistics, AIDS is the leading cause of death among men 25 to 44 years of age in 38 percent of large cities. But men are not the only victims of the virus. Women make up 11 percent of the total number of reported AIDS cases, and in the past year alone, the incidence of cases in women has increased by 9.8 percent, according to statistics from the CDC. As of last March, 3,600 children, born to infected mothers, were reported to have AIDS. In addition, CDC reports say that more women have developed AIDS as a result of heterosexual activity than intravenous drug use as a result of sharing needles. In past years, this has not been the case. Of the total number of reported AIDS cases in the U.S., 183,344 have been homosexual men and 24,358 have been heterosexual men and women. More than 80,700 were a result of intravenous drug use and nearly 6,000 were caused by tainted blood transfusions, according to CDC statistics. Despite these cited increases, students' fear of AIDS remains relatively low. According to the recent sexual attitudes survey, 71 percent of undergraduates polled said if the condom breaks during sexual intercourse, they would be more concerned about pregnancy than AIDS. Only 24 percent claimed they would fear AIDS more than pregnancy. Options do exist for those who are concerned with the transmission of AIDS and H.I.V. The Women's Anonymous Test Site, located at 4019 Irving Street, offers free counseling and testing for students, faculty and other University-related personnel. "We take appointments now, because we were having difficulty with walk-ins," said Nancie Stanfill, a pre and post test counselor at the site. At this appointment, known as the pre-test counseling session, patients are helped in deciding whether or not to be tested. "If [a test is needed], we draw blood," Stanfill said. "Then they come for a return appointment the following week for a diagnosis and the opportunity for questions." The site, which is open Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., has anonymously tested approximately 30 people a week for the virus. In order to protect this anonymity, patients are identified only by a number, a feature which makes it impossible to trace the test back to the individual. But does the dramatic number of concerned students that have sought the site's help indicate an increased awareness about AIDS? "I believe so," Stanfill said. "The trend I'm seeing is that students are becoming more aware? But a lot of people are still misinformed." Planned Parenthood, the oldest reproductive health care organization, with 164 affiliates and 922 clinics across the country, is dedicated to reducing that misinformation. They have classes for parents and teens,workshops at schools, programs designed specifically for men or women and contraceptive clinics. In addition, they train teachers and nurses in sexually transmitted disease awareness. Planned Parenthood has 10 clinics in Eastern Pennsylvania, one on 12th and Locust streets, according to Middleton. As a result of the recent focus on AIDS and H.I.V., the Clinton Administration has designated an 18-member panel of scientists, doctors and advocates for AIDS patients to help the search for new drugs which may be able to combat H.I.V., according to a recent New York Times report. Currently, several drugs are available which can treat or prevent H.I.V.-related problems, but AIDS remains an incurable, fatal disease. Another result of the new focus on AIDS research, Jonathan Demme's recent film, Philadelphia, sparked great student interest and concern. Demme's movie is one of the first major motion picture attempts to approach the controversial subjects of AIDS and homosexuals in a sensitive and compelling manner. "Philadelphia presents an issue that has been ignored and neglected," College sophomore Sanjay Udoshi said. "I hope that Hollywood continues producing movies that address such important issues." H.I.V. and AIDS, which have increasingly become the subject of news and entertainment, is also the focus of a month-long awareness campaign at the University and across the nation. Window displays at the bookstore and the distribution of red ribbons by the Chi Omega sorority highlight the events. AIDS, as the month of February illustrates, is no longer only a disease of homosexuals and it is no longer relegated to hard-core drug users. That knowledge has become the focus of the latest educational outreach programs. AIDS, the world is learning, can affect anyone, anywhere.
(12/08/93 10:00am)
Choosing a field of study as a graduate student means selecting a scholarly career that will occupy a considerable portion of one's life. All of the research is supposed to break new ground. But some students are studying topics that seem distant from the traditional offerings in their fields. They have made a connection or gained a perspective on the subject no one else has had before. And while at first the topics may seem off the wall, in reality students are conducting serious research seeking answers to serious questions. · Amy Trubek's studies in anthropology have not taken her to archaeological digs in South America, although she has traveled to France. What she has been uncovering in that country are clues toward solving one of the great mysteries – why does the world so revere French cuisine? Trubek says when she enrolled in a culinary school after graduating from college, she found herself asking serious intellectual questions about the history of cuisine, French in particular. Trubek said she wants to know how the world has come to regard French cooking as "fancy." Concentrating on the evolution of the culinary profession in France and its spread abroad, Trubek said her work is rewarding since so little has been done on the topic, especially by anthropologists. Trubek said when the cuisine of a certain culture has been studied, its analysis "tends to be mostly symbolic, in terms of food in ritual," she said. Finding resources on the topic was difficult, she said. Existing facilities are sparse at best. "There is no center for food study. I've had to ferret this out and go long distances in both time and thought," she said. Living in Belgium and studying at a French high school armed her with the language skills necessary to pour over the archived documents she found in France. It is a field in which few original sources, such as 18th- and 19th-century French cookbooks and culinary journals, can be found in English translation. Trubek added that her training as a professional chef has also provided her with the ability to "speak" the language of the chefs she has interviewed. On the whole, she said, her research has found among the French people an attitude toward food unequaled in America. "There is a cultural emphasis on food there?that gives people a creativity that hasn't happened in the United States," she said. "Their culture possesses a certain taste. They call it le gozt – most French think French cuisine is the best." Trubek discovered that one notable characteristic of the French which shapes their outlook on food was the value they placed on the land itself as an agricultural commodity. "The French have a very strong affinity toward the land, especially the food and wine of a region," she said. Trubek said her research has also uncovered a gender discrepancy in the culinary profession. In the 19th century, the pervading opinion was that women did not possess the physical abilities required of a chef. Even to this day, few women have worked in the profession, Trubek said, although they recently have become more involved. "There has always been an awareness that women cooked," Trubek said, "but there was a difference between working in a professional kitchen and doing it at home." Her interest in the historical and ethnographic research on the culinary profession of France is certainly unique. Trubek said, however, that she's not sure "where this is going to lead me." · Gas stations in New Jersey are nothing special. But to a regional science graduate student, they represent more than just place to stop and fill up. For her dissertation work, Diana Koros is taking a look at why certain groups block the commercial development of gas stations in New Jersey. "If you look at the building of the exact same station in two different places, some people will yell and scream, while others are happy to see it," she said. The back-and-forth arguments can become a great strain on small, local economies when residents stymie such commercial developments. "Locals will start nitpicking, and keep sending the building's plans back to the developer. If these delaying tactics don't work, they can always sue," Koros said. She says one of the complaints in New Jersey is that since the mediation process takes so long, in the long run it will be economically self-destructive to the community. The problem can defy simple demographic analysis, too, especially when groups outside the area become involved. Koros said the incorporation of local politics and economics is necessary to identify which groups will object to a particular development proposal. "All the different towns have different values and regulations; standard economics doesn't take much of that into account," she said. In the end, Koros said, she wants to be able to discover a smoother process that will enable builders to develop but does not "step on toes" or ignore citizens' concerns. Regional science research is usually more theoretical, Koros said, or when applied pertains to the national level. Koros said she hopes to take the results of her research back to New Jersey to help streamline the whole commercial development process, and eventually implement new policies covering development projects. "I plan to stay in the region. I'm trying to do something I can take back to my home state to contribute to the social good," she said. · Philadelphia and the University are rich in their number of historical firsts. In pursuing her work, one history graduate student has found out that the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania was one of the first hospitals to have in-house social workers. Their duties in the first half of the century included caring for some of the city's most unwelcome residents: unwed mothers. In her doctoral thesis, Dana Barron is examining the plight of unwed mothers in Philadelphia from the 1920s to 1960s. To describe their experiences she has received permission to use case records from Sheltering Arms, a service agency which provided social work consultation to unwed mothers. Barron has found numerous examples of unwed mothers enduring the judgments of a hostile society. "Until the '70s, if a woman was in a public school and became pregnant, she would be thrown out of school," she said. "Many women lost their jobs, some were even disowned – the family was ashamed." Barron has found that few studies actually concentrate on the women themselves. "When I began the project a year and a half ago there was nothing," she said. She also says only three books have been published recently on unwed motherhood, focusing mostly on policy-making and institutions, not the women's own experiences. Barron plans to make a book out of her 500-page dissertation. "It's hard because I'm trying to make it genuinely historical, while also keeping in mind the contemporary debates on teen pregnancy," she said. Barron's research on unwed mothers has focused on discovering coping measures that shy away from coercive methods, such as the Norplant birth control device or forced sterilization. "One of my big concerns is that a lot of contemporary policy is aimed at changing people's behavior," Barron said. "There is a history and we can learn from this history what women need to cope and get by." · How does the written word transform into a wartime horror? Warren Haffar is trying to stop wars before they happen by looking at the language that leads to such aggression. His dissertation falls under the rubric of Conflict Analysis and Peace Research, one of the University's interdisciplinary program. Applying theory and analysis to real-world situations, Haffar's research examines how language can result in conflict resolution, before it results in a war. "I've noticed that people seem to more readily accept violence over diplomacy," he said. "I want to find out why those other peaceful options get filtered out." Haffar will focus his research on the Gulf War, where he notes there was a very "quick jump" from the use of diplomatic to military solutions. His work is unusual because it attempts to link both qualitative and quantitative aspects of policy making. Merging communications and linguistics with regional science and economics, for example, is not an easy task, Haffar said. "These are areas of inquiry that traditionally are quite separate," he said. "Not much of this has been done in relation to conflict analysis." For Haffar, language is key to understanding how the development of policies will lead either to war or peace. To this end, he will use a computer program that analyzes the language of a certain policy and ranks its goals and strategies. By coupling this work with traditional quantitative analysis of economic indicators, Haffar said he hopes to discover what makes a certain policy lead to war instead of peace. The diverse nature of his work calls upon the resources of several different departments, making the University the ideal location for Haffar's research. "With the the interdisciplinary graduate groups, I can draw on the best from each department – you get the cream of the crop from across the social sciences," he said. Haffar especially sees conflict resolution as an attempt to broaden the field of alternatives to include peaceful, not military, solutions. "Political science always seemed to focus on who wins and loses – I want to find a way to get both sides to win," he said. But Haffar emphasized all this complex analysis across disciplines is useless unless he can successfully apply it to real policy-making situations. "I think this will actually do something besides producing another stack of papers that just sits and gathers dust."
(10/11/93 9:00am)
Boy claims to be a victim Marketing Professor Scott Ward, who was charged last week with soliciting sex from an undercover police officer, faces six additional sex charges now that an alleged witness has come forward, prosecutors said. A 17-year-old white male told police Wednesday that he had sexual contact with Ward several times during 1990 and 1991 at Ward's Main Line mansion, the Montgomery District Attorney's office announced on Friday. The 50-year-old Ward, who has taught at Wharton since 1979, is expected to surrender to the new charges sometime this week. He will be charged with statutory rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, indecent exposure, corruption of minors and criminal solicitation to commit prostitution, the DA's office said. Reached last night at his home, Ward said, "I just want to say I am innocent and eventually it will be proven." He then hung up the phone. His attorney, Jean Green, could not be reached for comment. Ward was arrested October 1 after allegedly soliciting sex from an undercover state trooper posing as a 15-year-old boy. He was released on $50,000 bail. The Wharton professor had been the target of a six-week investigation into alleged deviant behavior. The teenager who came forward has provided prosecutors with a piece of evidence previously missing from their case – an alleged victim. The boy said Ward initially approached him when he was 12 or 13 years old and Ward asked him if he ever got paid for sexual favors, according to a probable-cause affidavit. After giving the teen his home telephone number, Ward also told the boy he would pay him a finder's fee if he could locate boys to have sex with him, the affidavit said. The boy later called Ward, who brought him to his mansion on a quiet, tree-lined street in Ardmore, an affluent Philadelphia suburb. Ward allegedly performed oral sex on the teenager and gave him $40 on three or four separate occasions before October 18, 1990, the affidavit said. Then in October 1990, the boy began attending the Sleighton School, a Delaware County school for delinquent youths. The boy said he spent every other weekend at Ward's home, where Ward performed oral sex on the then-14-year-old boy 50 to 100 times, the affidavit said. The boy has said Ward admitted having sexual contact with at least three other boys, one of whom was a young exchange student from the Philippines, according to the affidavit. "The victim was shown photographs by L. Scott Ward of a dark-skinned boy performing oral sex on Ward and Ward and the boy having anal sex with each other," the affidavit said. "The victim was also shown a computer video depicting Ward having anal and oral sex with a 14 year-old-boy on Ward's home computer." Last Sunday, Ward went to the boy's residence and told him "not to tell anyone about them having sex together when he was questioned by police and to say simply 'no comment'," the affidavit said. According to the affidavit, Ward told the boy he would get into trouble if he told police about his relationship with Ward. During the next two days, the affidavit continued, Ward called the boy to ask if anyone had questioned him. At one point, Ward complained that the boy's mother had called him and "threatened to contact the District Attorney's Office if he was doing anything to her son."
(10/04/93 9:00am)
10 years of encounters alleged An informant told Montgomery County detectives that he located young, white teenage boys to have sex for money with Marketing Professor Scott Ward on five different occasions over the past 10 years, the Montgomery County District Attorney's office said. Ward was the target of a six-week investigation into alleged prostitution activities that ended Friday night when he was arrested for allegedly soliciting sex from an undercover state trooper posing as a 15-year-old boy. Ward was arraigned and charged with numerous crimes including criminal attempt to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, criminal solicitation to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, criminal attempt to commit corruption of minors, prostitution and criminal attempt to commit prostitution. Ward was later released on $50,000 bail. Ward has denied the charges. Ward and his attorney, Jean Green, were unavailable for comment yesterday but the Wharton School has issued a written statement concerning the charges. "The Wharton School is aware of the charges brought against Scott Ward," the statement read. "The school and the University's legal counsel are currently gathering relevant information about the case. Based on University policy, he will be able to continue his academic responsibilities during the legal process." It is not clear whether the two courses he is teaching this semester will be canceled. A statement issued by the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office outlines the undercover operation and Ward's alleged deviant sexual behavior. The statement was released at a press conference yesterday at the Montgomery courthouse in nearby Norristown. According to the statement, the informant told police that Ward would regularly invite the boys back to his Ardmore home where he would allegedly coax the teens into having sex with him. Friday's undercover operation began when the informant telephoned Ward and told him he had located a boy that fit his profile. The boy was actually 23-year-old Pennsylvania State Trooper Sean McMahon, who was working undercover as part of the sting. As the police monitored the phone call, Ward asked the informant to arrange a meeting between the boy and himself. The informant then left a message at Ward's residence to meet the boy at the Ardmore train station at 7:09 p.m. The police thought the plan was working perfectly until they realized Ward had instead gone to 30th Street Station to meet the boy. "Eventually a message [to meet at Ardmore] gets relayed to Ward and Ward comes back," Bruce Castor Jr., the deputy district attorney of Montgomery County, said in an interview. "Meanwhile, I knew that we couldn't have our undercover agent standing on the train platform for two hours. That's unrealistic. So we shifted him over to Roy Rogers, two blocks away, and had him wait there." Finally, at 10:40 p.m., Ward arrived at the Roy Rogers on Lancaster Avenue and met McMahon, who was dressed like a typical 15-year-old boy in blue-jeans, white T-shirt, blue button down shirt, denim jacket and Eagles cap. Ward and McMahon proceeded to get into Ward's car and drive to Ward's home in Ardmore, according to the D.A.'s statement. Once in Ward's house, Ward questioned McMahon about his age and told McMahon he was bisexual and liked sex, the statement continued. Ward asked if McMahon liked sex too and told him he could make a lot of money. Ward also said he wanted to get to know McMahon and that he was not like other people that McMahon may have "hustled" downtown. Finally, Ward invited the undercover trooper to spend the night at his house. After soliciting McMahon for sex, Ward was arrested in his home by county detectives, the statement said. The informant also told police that Ward has kept computer records about the boys with whom he has allegedly had contact, the statement said. The police have searched Ward's residence and secured these files, but Castor said he has no specific information about the files. "We found incriminating evidence," he said. "But we haven't sorted through it all." The police have also learned that Ward frequents Southeast Asian countries and that Ward recently returned from a summer trip in Thailand. According to the statement, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent told Montgomery County Detective Katharine Hart that many pedophiles travel to Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, in order to obtain boy lovers. "We know that he goes to Thailand to engage in the act [of sex with boys]," Castor said. In 1987, Ward was a visiting professor at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, according to the Wharton School's 1988-89 Guide to Faculty. Castor said yesterday Ward could have had sex with more boys than the five which police learned about from the informant. Castor believes Ward could have had more than one person organizing meetings with young boys. Ward, who has been at the University since 1979, has held a Board of Advisors position on the Children's Advertising Review Unit of the National Council of Better Business Bureau in New York from 1984-1988. He also published a number of papers including "Advertising and Children: A Cross-Cultural Study" and "Four Marketing Mistakes." In 1988, he was awarded an Excellence in Teaching Award by the Wharton Graduate Division. According to the fall 1993 course and room roster, this semester Ward is teaching three sections of marketing 621 – a graduate marketing management class – and one section of marketing 890 – a graduate student seminar. Ward is entitled to continue teaching, but Wharton officials would not say whether his classes would be cancelled.
(09/21/93 9:00am)
David Johnson, a 17-year-old West Philadelphia high school student, needs a physical to be allowed to take gym class in school. For David and other teens in the Philadelphia area, that physical used to be hard to come by. But, since February, free health care has been easily available thanks to Nursing Professor Ellen Marie Whelan. Whelan, with several nursing students, started a free teen clinic in the West Philadelphia Community Center last winter. The clinic, created to provide area youths with "teen-friendly" service in a clean environment, has treated over 100 teens since opening. The clinic provides all sorts of medical care from routine check-ups to pregnancy tests and family planning. Whelan, a nurse practitioner, is the only one on staff who can give medical care. "We wanted a clinic that is confidential and, although nurse practitioners cannot yet prescribe medications in the state of Pennsylvania, we can hand out birth control and medication on site," Whelan said. Robert Atkins, a nursing student who has been a volunteer at the clinic since the beginning of last summer, said a lot of community outreach has been done to publicize the clinic. "We really got out into the streets and spread the word that we were there," Atkins said. "I learned a lot about the community and inner city in terms of what teens are thinking about parenting and health care." Nursing student Lindsay Smith, who also works at the clinic, said she is involved in the counseling aspects of the clinic and community outreach projects. "Working with teenagers is very rewarding," Smith said. "I definitely want to work with teens and family planning in the future." In order to finance the project, Whelan went through Spectrum Health Services, a neighboring health care provider, and set up a branch at the community center. Recently, Healthy Start has given the clinic a second grant. With this grant, new programs will be added to the center, including a well baby clinic and a health education program. Although the clinic is still in its first year, everyone involved felt that already they have helped many people. "We have seen over 100 patients between the ages of 13 to 18 since the start of the clinic," Atkins said. The hours of the clinic are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. – after school hours which make the clinic convenient for teens. "The teens are wonderful," Whelan said. "Adolescents are a niche in the health care system that's been pretty ignored. It's a high-risk time and we need a place for them to go for advice and care."
(02/11/93 10:00am)
"Mike" appeared to be living the American dream. He had a wife and kids, a big suburban house with a white picket fence and a swimming pool and a comfortable corporate job. He was in the best financial and physical shape of his life. He even ran marathons. But beneath all this Mike hid a terrible secret. He was addicted to sex. "I was a compulsive masturbator," he said. "I was very heavy into pornography and casual sex, having some kind of sex contact 3 or 4 times a day." The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital at 49th and Market streets treats people like Mike, who asked that his real name not be used, and helps them overcome their sexual problems. Mary Jo Porreca, coordinator of Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, said that addiction to compulsive sexual behavior is a serious and often underestimated problem afflicting many people today. Porreca said that people who are addicted to sex need their daily fix, much like heroin addicts. Anyone, she said, can be afflicted by this condition. "We treat all kinds of people from businessmen to college students," she said. For many addicts, alcoholism and sexual abuse played a large part in their lives. Mike, for example, came from an alcoholic family and spent his teen years on street corners "hustling men and women." He said he would often trade sex for drugs and alcohol and said he was "caught in a triangle of drugs, sex and violence." At 17 he joined the Marine Corps and went to Vietnam. His sexual addiction continued through it all, he said, and his alcoholism worsened. When he returned, he was finally able to kick his alcohol habit, but his sexual addiction escalated. Things degenerated until he finally realized his problem and began dealing with it. "I realized I had no idea about feelings and emotions," he said. "The only things I knew were lust and anger -- everything was sexual." "Jen" had to deal with an incestuous upbringing which marred her life in many ways. She is a former alcoholic who was sexually abused by her father and by her mother's lesbian friend, she said. Since the age of four, she said, she has engaged in compulsive sexual behavior, including heavy use of pornography, excessive masturbation and promiscuous sexual activity. Jen said that at the height of her addiction she would "cruise the bars looking for one-night stands." "I would dance in seedy bars," she said. "I would basically do anything to get my sexual fix." "Sex was about power and intrigue," she added. "I would hook people into the illusion of being desired by having sex with them." At the time she was also involved with Alcoholics Anonymous to deal with the drinking problem that paralleled her sex obsession. It was during an AA session that she first heard of sexual addiction from a man who was sharing his compulsive sexual behavior with the group. She said she believed that once she conquered her alcoholism she would be free of the problems and fears afflicting her. However, once her alcohol addiction ended, she said, her sexual addiction grew to the point where it dominated her life. She cited a quote from Looking for Mr. Goodbar that describes what her condition was like. " 'One drink was too many, 1,000 drinks weren't enough,' " she said. "It was like that with me for sex." At the height of her addiction she went on a business trip where she went on a "sexual binge" and had sex with a married co-worker. After the man left, she said, she began to feel suicidal. "I was going to order a bottle of scotch, go into the bath and either slit my wrists or drown myself," she said. In a last ditch effort she called the man whom years before she had first heard speak of his sexual addiction at the AA group meeting. He helped her admit what she actually was: a sex addict. "At that point I realized that it came down to choosing between death and recovery," she said. Both Mike and Jen said they are now fully recovered and help Mary Jo Porreca run her program.
(02/03/93 10:00am)
Residential Living Director Gigi Simeone knew about reports of McGinn Security Services guards asleep on the job as early as October 1989, according to minutes from a Univesity Council Safety and Security Committee meeting. Jeff Jacobson, 1992 College graduate and then-committee member, said yesterday that he kept a log of McGinn employees found asleep on the job in 1989 and presented the log to the committee at a meeting which Simeone attended. Simeone acknowledged yesterday that she was present at the meeting, but said she thought McGinn had corrected the problem at the time. She added that in the past year and a half, Residential Living has only had three reports of sleeping on the job. "I can't tell you what she knew," Jacobson said. "All I can tell you is that these issues have been discussed with Residential Living at least since 1989." "The response at the time was one of concern," Jacobson added. "Response was genuine and Residential Living promised at that time that they would look into the incident. My understanding is that they did. They spoke with [Joseph] McGinn and the employees were dealt with." Jacobson, who went on to co-chair the Safety and Security Committee with current chairperson Adelaide Delluva, said that during his tenure on the committee there had been several reports of sleeping on the job, hiring pre-teens for security positions and employees who were drinking and harassing students on the job. He added that in addition to the October meeting where the allegations were talked about in depth, several McGinn security violations were discussed in Resident Advisor meetings and at other Safety and Security Committee meetings in 1989. Jacobson said he had several concerns following recent allegations by some McGinn guards of sleeping on the job, and poor supervision, insufficient background checks and inadequate training by McGinn. "How many reports do we have to get of the same things?" Jacobson said. "Why do we keep awarding this contract to this vendor? What have they done to show they are deserving of this contract?" Jacobson said McGinn is very quick to fire workers, but said very little else comes out of reports of problems. "We're talking about security here," he said. Simeone said yesterday that an investigation will be conducted, but that the plans for the investigation are not fully in place. Undergraduate Assembly Safety and Security Committee chairman Mark Frederick said yesterday that an investigation is necessary to combat the problems. Frederick said last night that he had not yet read the articles about McGinn and that the UA committee had not discussed McGinn this year. "We didn't ever think that it was something for us to look into," he said. "I'm more than willing to get our little crew involved in finding a solution to the problem." Jacobson, who said he woke up a guard at Modern Language College House two months ago, said the University has to examine the problem thoroughly. And Simeone, without comparing current complaints about McGinn guards to the complaints in 1989, said that she is taking the allegations very seriously. "We are taking additional steps to make sure the problem doesn't reoccur," she said yesterday. (CUT LINE) Please see SIMEONE, page 7 SIMEONE, from page 1
(12/03/92 10:00am)
The area in North Philadelphia stretching from Dauphin Street to Allegheny Avenue between Front Street and Germantown Avenue -- just a 15-minute drive from the University -- has achieved a tragic notoriety as a poverty-ridden drug supermarket. The area is replete with crumbling graffiti-splattered townhouses that have been taken over and turned into shooting galleries and crackhouses. Young men with guns stand on street corners openly hawking their assortment of drugs. It is a community that has nothing to look forward to -- a community ruled by poverty and drugs. "The city doesn't care," said long-time North Philadelphia resident Bernard Merriwether. As for the drug dealers, Merriwether said "they don't give a damn about human life, property or anything else." But there is another side to the area. Around the corner from a 15-year-old selling crack, grade school kids play touch football under the watchful eye of a grandparent. Next to a boarded up crackhouse, an immaculately clean red-brick townhouse stands with flower pots on the window and a heart design on the shutters. Amidst the urban nightmare is a community that is quietly trying to rebuild and stake a claim on some sort of future. Reverend Isaac Smith has been pastor of Mars Hill Baptist Church at Ninth Street and Lehigh Avenue for 21 years. "When you see a neighborhood beginning to be run down, becoming a slum, people start losing that self-confidence, that self-instinct they need to really try to pull themselves out," he said. He added that there are many area residents who are not putting up with the degradation and are fighting back, often times without aid from the city. "We need to show [people] that there is a better way," he said. "You don't have to steal for a living, you don't have to push drugs for a living." City Council member Larry McElhatton has represented the seventh district, a large part of which lies in the area, for the past ten months. He said that progress is being made, but that many results would only be seen in the long run. "We were able to renovate area playgrounds and reopen the swimming pools," he said. "These are 'band-aid' remedies whose effects are readily visible. Achieving lasting changes takes more time, because you need to get a lot of funding and that is often difficult." McElhatton added that the community has shown a readiness to work hard to rebuild. Many of the changes so far were made possible by aid from the private sector, in addition to state and federal funding. "This shows the community's willingness to help the public sector," he said. Reverend Smith emphasized the role parents and family values play in shaping the future of the area. "It's up to parents to teach children not to get into drugs," he said. "It's not just the neighborhood, it's the parents -- there have been some very good kids that developed out of this neighborhood." The kids Smith refers to are ones like Rashine Leake, 14, William Wilkerson, 15, Jose Garcia, 14, and his brothers Carlos, 10 and Richard, 11, who live on Franklin Street and face crime and drugs daily. "It's bad," said Leake, referring to life on his street. "Sometimes it can be fun, but many kids can't come outside, 'cause it's so bad out here." Several children related stories about violence and shootings, not only by the drug users, but also by the police. Wilkerson complained that an officer had pulled a gun on him and his friends. "We was coming home one night and these cops shone their lights at me and my friends," he said. "They said they was checking on a robbery and they kept us for an hour and wouldn't let me call my mother." Jose Garcia told of three drunk security guards who sped down Franklin Street, "smashing into all the parked cars." Residents came out to subdue them, he said, but when the police came, the officers showed up in riot gear and used tear gas on the crowd. And Leake remembered a boy who was shot and killed for his jacket on Eighth Street -- a block away from Leake's home. "These dudes wanted to take his jacket and he didn't want to give it to them 'cause it was a present from his brother," Leake said. "So they shot him." · It seemes that almost everyone has a story in North Philadelphia. Merriwether is a 54-year-old HIV-positive crack user. He used to have a family, he used to have a bakery shop, he used to have a barbecue place. Now it's all gone. "I wound up becoming one of them," he said. "I smoke crack, I smoke weed, I drink wine, I drink beer. It all depends on the company you're with, it's as simple as that." Merriwether said that once his life started falling apart, drugs just heightened the downward spiral. Now he doesn't care anymore. "It doesn't matter anymore," he said. "I'm 54 years old, I lost my family, I lost my business, I lost my home. What the hell do I got to lose?" · Reverend Smith's Reach-Out Program at Mars Hill Baptist Church feeds 400 people once a week, and counsels area addicts on how to cope with drugs. In addition, Smith works outside his church, trying to be a leader in the community and slow down drug dealing in the area by working with drug addicts rather than against them. "We as community leaders have been trying to bring about a better relationship with the addicts and pushers," he said. "I can walk down the street and most people will recognize me." Last year, Smith said, he helped shut down a crackhouse across the street from his church on Lehigh Avenue. A bankrupt undertaker's parlor had been turned into a safehouse by drug addicts, he said. "They'd sell drugs there, do drugs there, and hide there after going out and robbing people," Smith said. He added that he thinks police did not go in and search the place because there were lookouts and the police did not feel safe searching the house. "The community got together and boarded the place up," Smith said. "Now it's cut down on a lot of crime in the area." But Merriwether disagreed, saying that in this area, crime does not get "cut down," it just moves a few blocks away. "The cops do what they can, but it makes no difference," he said. "They just move to the next corner." He added that it does not matter how many people get locked up because "two hours later, they'll have another group of people out there dealing." Last April, The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a series of articles on the area -- which it called the "Badlands" -- indicating Indiana Street between 4th and 8th streets as the areas of greatest activity. Two weeks ago, Indiana Street was relatively quiet, with dealers approaching buyers, but no open dealing on the street. A few blocks down, however, the rectangle formed by Mascher, Front, Cambria and Somerset streets resembled an open-air market. Money and goods were openly exchanged while children played in the streets and gun-toting teens kept a look-out. · Bernard Merriwether and Isaac Smith are about the same age. Both experience life in their North Philadelphia neighborhood in different ways, but while Merriwether sees no hope, Smith believes there is a future. "North Philly has been left completely out of the picture for years and years," Smith said. "We need to rebuild it so families can feel safe. We need to work hard and make a difference for ourselves." If North Philadelphia continues its decline, in a few years it might all look like the "Badlands." Then again, a grass-roots family-based community effort by people like Smith might rebuild the area and bring about permanent change. Only time will tell what kind of future kids like 10-year-old Carlos Garcia will have. "Sometimes it's bad and I don't want to go out because I don't want to see shooting," he said. "But sometimes it's not so bad and I go with my dad and my brother to the store and everybody says 'hi' to us and smiles."
(12/01/92 10:00am)
Working in the Family Planning Clinic at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, medical student Jane Sharp gained insight into the values, motivations and beliefs behind the sexual activity of women and teens in West Philadelphia. A second-year student at the University's Medical School, Sharp plans to practice women's health care when she graduates. Her participation in the two-year-old Community Health Summer Internship Program afforded her a hands-on opportunity to assess the issues regarding female sexuality and reproduction in inner cities. Initiated in the summer of 1991 by medical students Cindy Weinbaum and Steve Chapman, the Community Health Summer Internship Program allows students between their first and second years of medical school to become more familiar with the medical needs and problems in their community. The University's Med School curriculum requires that students spend the majority of their time in the classroom. But there is only so much one can learn from a textbook. Chapman said he thinks that students aspiring to be physicians need more opportunities to practice primary care in the community. "Students come to medical school because they feel an obligation to help their community," Chapman said. "We can learn a lot more working with teenage mothers than with mice." "The program allows students to realize that problems are not insurmountable," said Lucy Tuton, a faculty coordinator. "This hands-on opportunity can make an impact on the problems in the community." The students learn more from their hands-on involvement in the community than they do working in the laboratory, Sharp said. Sharp said she learned that the teenage pregnancy epidemic in West Philadelphia is not entirely due to ignorance and lack of resources. "The male/female conceptualization of sexuality and parenthood are also significant factors," Sharp said. Student Co-coordinator Mikhail Sekeres said he believes that medical students play a unique role in their communities. Sekeres said that students know medicine but have not been in the medical community long enough to be tainted by the cynicism of medical professionals. "We still have the naive attitude that we can change the world," Sekeres said. "The public trusts medical students more than professionals to provide them with health care benefits." The internship program also allows students to expand on work done under existing University projects. Under the guidance of Director of Community Partnerships Ira Harkavy, founder of the West Philadelphia Improvement Corps, Med School student Seth Mandel continued the undergraduate work he started at Turner Middle School. Mandel's spent last summer educating adolescents about preventive health measures regarding hypertension and diabetes. "The students learned that they can't live like they're immortal," Mandel said. "In order to prevent getting sick, they would have to do something about it at an early age." In 1991, 18 students from the Med School participated in the program. Last summer was the first time the University had full collaboration with the Philadelphia College of Medicine, Hahnemann University and the Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University. The collaborative effort focuses on medical ethnography. In the study, the students investigate how West Philadelphia and Germantown residents view medicine so that they can appropriately address the community's health needs. Students and faculty said they hope to extend the program to Temple University and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine next summer. By volunteering in homeless shelters, soup kitchens, housing projects, health centers, summer camps and schools, the interns learned which resources -- medical, recreational, educational and social -- were available outside a hospital setting. "Learning about the community's resources early on in their medical careers is a vital part of medical students' educations in terms of individual knowledge and patient care," Sarah Sadaah, 1992 student co-coordinator, said. On November 30, the students will have an opportunity to exhibit what they learned and accomplished over the summer. Each student will present a three foot by six foot poster summarizing their efforts and results. The poster presentation will be held on the second floor hall of the John Morgan building and is open to the general public.
(11/23/92 10:00am)
Nance Dicciani, seeking to motivate hundreds of female engineers, repeated dozens of sayings and cliches -- including a fortune from a fortune cookie -- in the keynote address at last weekend's Society of Women Engineers Region E Conference. Dicciani, a business unit director at Rohm and Haas Company, spoke at the conference's banquet at the Penn Tower Hotel on Saturday night. The conference was organized by the SWE chapters at the University and Drexel University, and was attended by representatives from 25 northeastern colleges and engineering professionals from 20 companies. Throughout her 30-minute speech, Dicciani impressed upon the 300 engineering students and professionals the importance of dedicated and self-motivated engineers for the future of this country and the world. She said that the next 10 years will see more change and innovation than the previous 100 years. "More than any other profession, engineers will bear the responsibility of those challenges that humans [will face in the future]," Dicciani said. "All I'm asking is that you give your best." "Life is not a spectator sport," she added. "This is not a dress rehearsal. This is it, here and now." She said that "we've gotten caught up in a paper chase and the rules of the game are being dictated by Wall Street." But, she added, the "true heros" of this country are not the financial analysts, but the scientists and engineers who "choose to create the future." Dicciani told the audience that while everyone is born with a natural curiousity to "explore and experience," by their mid-teens, only about five percent of children choose to remain curious. "As engineers you are expected to maintain that eagerness and enthusiasm that you brought with you [to college]," Dicciani said, adding that one of the pitfalls of self-motivation is attitude. "We don't see things the way they are. We see them the way we are," Dicciani quoted from a slip of paper she had found in a cookie. Dicciani said an individual's attitude towards something can be the difference between not trying and "striving for excellence." "We can all have an impact every single day," Dicciani said. "The only limits we have are those of vision." "Let's not be self-limiting," she added. "Let's go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." Dicciani summarized her speech in three now-famous words, proving that the audience got the message. "Just do it!" she said, as the audience roared in unison. Conference Director and Engineering senior Ann O'Hara said she was happy with the entire conference. "It went really well," O'Hara said. "We had a lot of attendees that were really pleased with the outcome." "Nance Dicciani was an excellent speaker," O'Hara added. "A lot of people were really motivated by her." Engineering senior Gretchen Albright said Dicciani's speech was "very uplifiting." She said that, often times, a woman will give an inspirational speech and talk about all of the setbacks that she had to overcome. "[But] Nance was always looking forward," Albright said. Engineering senior Dana Carey agreed. "She had a lot of very positive and inspiring things to say," Carey said. "She has accomplished a lot." Carey added that the speech was more meaningful coming from Dicciani because she shows that goals can be reached with hardwork and determination. Dicciani received a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University in 1977 and earned an MBA from the Wharton School in 1986.
(11/03/92 10:00am)
From Mike Farber's "I Want My MTV," Fall '92 Our Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is one of the so-called "swing states" in the Presidential race between President George Bush and Governor Bill Clinton (see footnote). Pennsylvania is worth 23 electoral votes to the candidate who carries it. Considering the importance of symbolism in today's political campaigns, I thought I would provide 23 reasons -- or one for each of Pennsylvania's votes in the electoral college -- to vote for Bill Clinton: 1) Clinton's national trust fund for higher education. This program would allow students to repay loans through community service. Students still in school would be eligible. 2) Clinton's plan to create jobs and stimulate growth. His proposals would invest $220 billion over four years in public works, education and job training. 3) Clinton's ability to construct a grammatically correct sentance. 4) The Supreme Court. 5) Al Gore. 6) Dan Quayle. 7) Clinton's record on appointments while governor of Arkansas. He appointed more minorities than the rest of Arkansas's governors combined. 8) Clinton plans to actually do the work he was elected to do. Clinton doesn't pledge to solve America's domestic problems by appointing Jim Baker to take care of them. 9) "Read my lips -- No new taxes." 10) The hour's worth of unscreened questions from teens that Clinton answered on MTV. Bush consented to a 15-minute interview on the back of a train only when desperation led him to do so. 11) Clinton's ability to look good in Wayfarers, and wear ties with balloons on them. 12) Clinton's Hollywood supporters. They are not hypocrites like Arnold Schwartzeneger or Bruce Willis, who stump for Bush and protest against violence in movies -- while single-handedly producing Hollywood's most violent pictures. 13) The Iran-Contra Affair. 14) Iraqgate. 15) Clinton knowledge of what it's like to be a member of the middle-class. 16) Clinton's health care reform package. This plan would set up managed competiton, and enact national spending limits while providing health insurance for all Americans. 17) Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson and Phyllis Shafley. 18) Clinton's support of a woman's right to choose. 19) Hillary Clinton. 20) Chelsea. She would help spotlight teen issues simply by growing up in the White House. 21) Trickle-down economics. 22) The $15 I spent on a Fisher-Price Bubble Sax to complete my Halloween outfit. I want to be able to use it for the next four years. 23) It's time for a change. Mike Farber is a third-year Law student from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. "I Want My MTV" appears alternate Tuesdays. ________________ Footnote: 1. As a law student, I feel compelled to drop a footnote whenever possible. In this case, I dropped it to tell you why I didn't mention this election's historical footnote, Ross Perot. Truth be told, I'm afraid he will drop out at the last second. Perhaps there's a doctored photo of Perot's favorite horse in a compromising position out there. Or maybe a "dirty tricks" plot to disrupt his next board meeting. I'm not taking the chance -- neither should you.
(10/21/92 9:00am)
After a brief pursuit Sunday afternoon, University Police caught a thief running from the Gap with his arms full of merchandise, University Police Sergeant Salotti said yesterday. The thief, a 16-year-old male, entered the store around 3 p.m. and grabbed three sweatshirts and five pairs of jeans. He then fled the scene, police said. University Police officers responded to the call put out over police radio. Salotti said a passerby then told the officers which way the thief had gone. Four officers chased the juvenile down Merivian and Sansom streets near the Italian Bistro, Salotti said. While pursuing him, one officer jumped a chainlink fence and broke a bone in his leg as he landed. Police apprehended the suspect shortly after the officer hurt his leg. The injured police officer is now home and will not be working for about six weeks, Salotti said. Salotti added that he does not believe that this incident has any correlation with other recent Gap thefts. "The [other] gang that has been hitting retail stores usually has a running car waiting outside," Salotti said. "They also have two or four members involved." Police said the Gap has pressed charges against the juvenile. In an unrelated incident, a resident of Hill House reported a theft Monday at 6:11 p.m., University Police said yesterday. Police said that the student complained that his 19-inch television had been stolen sometime between noon and early evening. Police do not currently know whether or not the thief is affiliated with the University. In another unrelated incident, Morgan Building at 200 South 34th Street, was burglarized overnight Sunday, University Police said. The police report stated that a window was broken and a mountain bike was taken from the building. The police do not currently know the identity of the burglar.
(10/07/92 9:00am)
From Jonathan Steinmetz's "Taking the Long Way Home," Fall '92 No, this isn't a restaurant review. I didn't take a date to Le Bec Fin. I had dinner at Burger King with John. John has lived in Philadelphia for the past 17 years. He has been homeless for the last five. Each day, he awakes at around 7:00 a.m. to the noise of garbage trucks, and he begins to worry about where he will sleep that night. He also has to worry about where to take a shower where to get food how to keep warm. And you thought that Accounting midterm was such a big concern. · "'It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep, Is there somewhere you can tell me?' He walks on, doesn't look back, He pretends he can't hear her. He starts to whistle as he crosses the street. Seems embarrassed to be there. Oh, think twice? It's just another day for you and me in paradise." Phil Collins "Another Day in Paradise" · John is not lazy. "I can't read or write too good," he explained. "Nobody wants to hire someone without a high school degree." I asked him if he would want to work in the Burger King we were dining in. "I could mop the floors," he said. He has applied for jobs with the city sanitation department in the past. He currently washes cars near 40th and Chestnut to make a little money. Tuesday, he washed three cars. After splitting the money with his two buddies who wash with him, he had a take "home" pay of about $7. That's not going to pay the rent in too many places. John is one of about 40 homeless people living on the areas around campus. The day I ate dinner with him, he was wearing a tattered Eagles cap, a relatively clean shirt and some old jeans. Now 41 years old, he owns three shirts, two of which he found. In addition, he has one pair of jeans, which he also found, and a light jacket. "I don't know what I'm going to do when winter comes," he said, referring to not having a heavier jacket. John was born in Georgia. He went to school there and hated it because, "The teacher would always call on me to read. I couldn't read too good, and I would stutter, and the other kids laughed at me." John's self-confidence hasn't improved much in the ensuing 35 years. "I don't feel like a man. I might look big and tough, but deep down," he pointed to his heart, "I hurt. I don't have a job, I don't feel productive." John never made it past the ninth grade. He got married at 17. The marriage lasted about seven weeks. He was in the job corps, learning to use a bulldozer. He left because, "I accidentally bulldozed a building, and my supervisor got mad at me, and I cursed him out." He then moved to Miami. He came here 17 years ago and worked for a warehouse. The company went out of business five years ago. John lost his job, his apartment, his Chrysler New Yorker and his pride. John told me he tries to sleep each night in an area around the campus police station. There's a little heating vent that provides some warmth, if you can get close to it. He has to get there early at night, because often there are nine or ten other homeless people jockeying for space around the warm air. Every once in a while he goes to a friend's house to shower. Mostly, he just washes his face and hands in a water fountain. He carries a small pair of scissors with him to trim his moustache and beard. John doesn't think the government is doing much to help the homeless. He is angry at the government for allowing so many immigrants to come in and take the jobs of American workers. "They're not taking care of people who were born and raised here," he said. He told me that he's registered to vote. When I asked him who he was going to vote for in the presidential election, he asked me who was running. I asked John what he would do for the homeless if he were President. He said he would give them all shelter, but they would have to go to work and pay a certain percentage for rent. It would only be temporary housing. John's dream job is to be an auto mechanic. "I like to fix things, but now you've got to go to school to learn how to do all these things." I could rattle off statistics and tell you that there are, according to a study by the Urban Institute, about 600,000 people on the streets of America on any given night. I could tell you that less than half of the homeless are single men, while the majority are women, children, teens and married men, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors. About 25 percent of the homeless population is mentally ill, and about 34 percent are substance abusers. One study showed that the major causes of homelessness are a lack of affordable housing, followed by unemployment, mental illness, substance abuse, teen pregnancy and domestic violence. But the numbers alone don't really tear at your heart. Talking to someone who owns one pair of pants does. Next time you see a homeless person, remember John. Providing food and shelter for a few weeks is a start, but we must address the problems that cause homelessness, not focus solely on "band aid" solutions. I don't have all the answers, but we must demand that the government start asking the questions. I think George Bush, Ross Perot, Bill Clinton and anybody else could learn a lot by having dinner with John. I know I did. Jonathan Steinmetz is a Wharton sophomore from West Palm Beach, Florida. "Taking the Long Way Home" appears alternate Fridays.
(04/17/92 9:00am)
Philadelphia Department of Public Health Commissioner Robert Ross spoke last night on the turning point of the health care crisis in the coming years. A 1976 University graduate, Ross is mainly involved with projects on teen health, cancer prevention, injury prevention and lead poisoning. Ross acknowledged the financial difficulty that Philadelphia as a city faces in regards to health care issues, but he said that this crisis can be viewed as a turning point for change. "Crisis is an opportunity or a turning point," he said. "I don't care what we've been doing for the past five or 15 years. That doesn't matter anymore. We've got to do things differently now." Currently, 80 percent of the Health Department's funds comes from state and federal grants, while the remaining 20 percent comes from the city itself, Ross said. "I want taxpayers to know that from every buck they spend, we're getting four or five from federal and state funding," he said. "We are really at the mercy of what is happening to the state and federal deficit." Ross pointed to the rising use of cocaine as a major cause of the problem. He said that in the '90s, the rise in diseases such as syphilis, AIDS, hepatitis type B and tuberculosis can be explained partly through a rapid increment in the use of cocaine. He said that the number of admissions for cocaine treatment rose from 87 in 1979 to 10,450 cases in 1989. "Our number one health problem is drug use," he said. "Crack cocaine has became readily available and viable." In addition, Ross said that he thinks crack cocaine alters economic cultures, especially among young children. As an example, he mentioned children who recycle crack bottles to dealers for money. Ross also said he thinks the increase of infant mortality in the past few years is related to a wider range of drug use, especially by the black population. "Crack cocaine is something that makes a mother forget to be a mother," he said. "It impacts on nutrition as well as make them forget about things such as an appointment." Seeking to alter the situation, Ross, on behalf of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health suggested ways to improve health care for the city. He said that the health department needs to expand programs that have been proven effective, and to improve long-range planning as well as grants coordination and management. The department also need to focus on community based health promotion programs such as parental care, he said. Ross further advocated that prevention is the most important way to improve health care. "I think this society and this generation is perhaps the most violent and addictive," he said. "We should not give up those who are lost, but if we are going to learn at all, we've got to learn early." Audience members said Ross' talk was informative and wish to see his ideas carried out. "It was a very good presentation, very interesting and lots of ideas are very sound," Wharton senior Tadashi Egami said. "Hopefully, they can be implemented." The talk was sponsored by the Health Care Management Department and the Center for Health Policy in the Wharton School, as well as Physicians for a National Health Program.
(04/17/92 9:00am)
They descend every spring. Amorphous packs of teens and their parents wandering around campus led by smiling Kite and Key tour guides. It's not hard for a careless, unsuspecting student to get stuck inside one of these masses. They could spend the next few minutes trapped between a New Kids on the Block fan and her inquisitive, over-protective father. After months of decreased inactivity on the tour front, Kite and Key expects to receive between 3000 and 4000 visitors this month. For the most part, this horde of prospects descends upon the University hoping that a first-hand view will help them decide whether or not to enroll next fall. Throughout the year, tours take guests around to see the major sights on campus. During Locust Weeks, however, Kite and Key adds another dimension for admitted prospects: tours of actual freshman residences including the Quadrangle, High Rise East, Hill House, and King's Court. Kite and Key president Stephanie Newman said that she believes both the tour and the guide serve important functions in the decision-making processes of many students. "The tour makes such a big difference," the College junior said. "[The prospective] attributes to that one person [the tour guide] all the aspects of the University . . . The crucial part of the tour for the prospects is that this is their chance to meet a real student." "One of the most challenging parts of the tour for the tour guide is making sure that you present yourself well," she added. Kite and Key tour guide coordinator and College junior Debbie James said that she enjoys helping both the University and the prospective students. "We really are a competing university, even in the Ivy League," she said. "For every student we have come, it's somebody we can help choose . . . It's good that we can help pre-freshmen make their decision." James and other tour leaders have actually received letters from prospectives they have guided seeking further inside information on the University. "It's nice to know we actually influence people and they remember us," she said. The director of Kite and Key's On and Off Campus Recruiting program, Wharton sophomore Peter Wang, expressed similar feelings. "A lot depends on the specific tour guides," Wang said. "We try to make sure that the guides are personable. I definitely think that the tour guide system is worthwhile." Many prospective students also seem to consider their college visits as time well spent. "I'm pretty sure that I wanted to come here," said Vijay Venkatesh from Rochester, New York. "This tour just added to that feeling." "It's not so much the tour [that's important], it's the feeling I get from the person who's giving it," said Aaron Altschuler, another prospective student. But not all prospectives regard campus visits as important factors. "The tour itself is really not that important," said Engineering prospective and Philadelphia native John Bloom. · The University does not stand alone in its use of tours as a recruiting tool. Other Ivy League schools also recognize the importance of student-led tours. "It depends on how someone sees the tour guides," said Ann Lightcap, an admissions officer at Brown University. "Positive anecdotes really help put the school in a good light to the prospects. A lot of times tour guides are actually the ones who first interest people in applying." "Your student guide is the representative of the entire student body," said Andrea Huebner, a member of Princeton's Orange Key Guide Service. "I think that if the tour guide is some brainy engineering major then the pre-freshmen will think that everyone here is a nerd. Or if the guide's a weird Psych major, that everyone here is a snob. I try to talk more with the prospects than at them." At Yale, the touring procedures are more regimented. "The tours are all given by tour guides chosen through a very selective process," said Shirley Johnson, the director of Yale's Visitor Information Office. "The guides are trained thoroughly to give an overview of the student life, architecture, and history of the university, complete with anecdotes." Though members of the University's Kite and Key Society work strictly on a volunteer basis, Cornell's tour guides receive both pay and a prestigious name. "Students work paid as 'Information Specialists,' " Cornell Information Specialist Scott Zeller said. However, an Information Specialist seems to have the same role as a tour guide in the assistance process. "I think the tours at Cornell are effective because they are first-hand tours given by students," Zeller said. And as corny as it may seem, student guides say there exists a special bond between the guide and his or her tourists. Fortunately or unfortunately, many unplanned portions of a tour often help to cement the bond. Tour guide and College junior Doug Hodis nearly caused a fatality on one of his jaunts around campus. "One of the parents," he said, "decided to walk in front of me and almost got hit by a car as I was turned around talking to the rest of the group. After that I stopped using my captivating speaking style when I led tours across streets." Sometimes, the tour guides reveal more about student life at the University then they intended to, especially to parents. Wang, who also leads tours for Kite and Key, inadvertently created one of those special moments last year on a residence tour of the Quad. After picking a room at random, Wang knocked, explained his purpose, and was told to come in by the male student who lived there. "I walked in with three or four prospects," he said. "The room was totally dark and the guy was lying under the covers with his girlfriend. It's a good thing the parents were still out in the hall." And College freshman Todd Lieberman realized that memories of Spring Fling can occur even after it ends. "I took a group of ten or twelve prospects on a tour of the Quad after Fling," he said. "The guys let us in and the room looked like a recycling bin at Anheuser-Busch. Thank God there were no parents on the tour." Guides also recognized the distraction of good-natured hecklers during tours. "A lot of times students will say 'Oh, there's a tour, let's heckle them,' " Wang said. "They yell out bad things about the school [trying to scare off the prospectives]. I just smile and try to play it off." Princeton's Huebner described some of her hecklers' favorite schemes. "Kids will yell out the window 'Don't come here, it's too stressful!'" she said. "Some have even screamed 'I'm gonna jump!' I've had bean bags thrown at me from out windows. One almost hit a parent. One time, a frat put a dummy on a noose. That kind of shocked some of the parents."
(04/03/92 10:00am)
From Brandon Fogel and Jason Seiden's "Skippy Gone Batty," Spring '92 Bat: First of all, we should stop talking about pro-life and pro-choice. These are loaded terms, like pro-abortion and anti-abortion, which are all inaccurate to some extent. Instead, we should refer to the opposing viewpoints as pro-abortion rights (PAR), and anti-abortion rights (AAR), meaning those who support unlimited abortion rights, and those who oppose abortion under any circumstances. Skippy: There's still a problem with grouping those who don't fit into either PAR or AAR, like those who advocate restricted abortion rights. But for simplicity's sake -- and so we can move on to more substantive issues than semantics -- fair enough. I'll call myself PAR. Bat: And I, myself, am AAR. Skippy: To start, let's discuss possible alternatives to abortion. Bat: A child's parents have an obligation to care for and support their child. They should try their hardest and do everything in their power to make sure their child survives. If two people who conceive a child do not feel this obligation or don't feel that they can adequately provide for their child, then they can put the child up for adoption. Skippy: The fault with this scenario is that not every child's parents are filled with love and understanding. The father is oftentimes absent or unknown and the mother may not have the capacity to care for the child, despite good intentions. Adoption may be an answer -- but there are a lot of "if's" that surround this option: "if" the baby is in demand (read: white and healthy); "if" the mother can afford to take a maternity leave from work or school without destroying her life (remember Hester Prynne's scarlet letter?); "if" the mother can find a home for the baby; "if" the mother can physically carry the unborn child and then deliver it . . . Bat: If people do not want or are unable to provide for children, then they should not have sex. Sex is a reproductive act. If people who do not want a child insist on having sex anyway, then they should take precautions to prevent conception. By properly using birth control, they can reduce many of the risks; however, no form of birth control, except abstinence, is perfect. Sex, unprotected or not, always carries a risk of conception. That is the root of the probem. Abortion is being used as birth control. Only one percent of the pregnancies aborted in 1989 resulted from rape or incest; seven percent were aborted because of health risks to the mother. The majority of abortions are performed because the parents did not use birth control or the birth control did not work properly. People must take responsibility and prevent unwanted pregnancies. Skippy: That is not necessarily true. Some factors may be beyond the control of the two consenting partners. For instance, not all women have access to adequate birth control. Many women cannot use IUDs or take the pill for various medical reasons. Many spermicides lose potency after time, and also require the planning of one's sex life, which may be quite difficult or inaccurate. Condoms break. And all of the above cost money. Most importantly, though, is that in this nation of inequalities, many men and women lack an education about sex. An inner city teen may not use a condom because she doesn't know that it works. And 90 percent safer sex won't mean a thing to someone who doesn't know percentages. Why convict these people -- guilty only of being mistreated by society -- to an endless lifecycle in poverty? Why force them to bring a child into a world which will, at best, ignore them? For many, an abortion at a nearby clinic may be the only form of birth control they've ever learned. Bat: No one would convict inner city youths to an endless cycle of poverty by disallowing abortion. Unwanted pregnancies are not the cause of the financial or social problems of either society or the individual. People who think unwanted pregnancies are the cause of societal problems are following the same reasoning Hitler used to show that Jews caused those kinds of problems in Germany more than 50 years ago. If unwanted pregnancies create financial and social burdens, then it was the failure to use birth control properly -- or to use it at all -- that caused those problems. The Holocaust was not the answer in Germany, and abortion is not the answer here. If people are ignorant about sex and birth control, then we have an obligation to educate them. If we don't they'll learn the hard way. Sex education should be taught and retaught in schools, and parents should make their children aware about sex and birth control. If birth control is too expensive, then its price should be lowered through government subsidies. It should be made readily available -- distributed by schools if necessary. The ideal solution is not to make abortion illegal, but unnecessary. Skippy: We're far from the ideal situation. Especially since one of the major problems we face is not being able to keep kids in school! They should not have to suffer for society's faults; face it -- at seven, none of us ever would have chosen the classroom over something fun if there were no restraints on our behavior. To hold the underpriveleged to the same standards to which we hold the rest of society is foolish and unrealistic. Of course, there is something which can be done about this. 1992 is an election year, and if you go to college here, then you'll probably be able to vote in the next election. That's one major thing you can do. Bat: Make your voice heard -- vote, and speak out. It is up to us, not the politicians we elect, to make this democracy work. We elect politicians for many reasons, and they do not always act in our best interests. I say we bring the issue of abortion back down to the ground level, and out of the hands of the few above us. America must decide for itself the kind of society it wants. Above all the "pro-this's" and "anti-that's," is democracy -- people deciding for themselves how they want to live. Put the abortion issue to a referendum, a popular vote, and let America itself -- not any individual group within it -- determine the course of its future. Jason "Skippy" Seiden is a freshman Entrepreneurial Management major from Highland Park, Illinois. Brandon "Wombat" Fogel is a freshman Physics major from Potomac, Maryland. "Skippy Gone Batty" appears alternate Fridays.
