By Bill Ottman and Matt Mantone
Well, it seems that UVM has us blindly dipping our hands into the blood of the Iraqi people. Did you know that? I suppose it’s not a University’s first concern to release its stock holdings, but I’m sure that UVM students would love to know if their money were helping to fund the war.
The University of Vermont has millions of dollars invested in Halliburton, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, DynCorp, and Northrop Grumman Corporation.
These companies are profiting greatly from the war whether it be through weapons manufacturing, hired security or private contracting. Does the list stop here? Hardly.
Right now the Divestment campaign is focused on war profiteering, but we’d like to mention to every student a few other UVM stock holdings: Monsanto, Wal-Mart, and McDonalds… Only the friendliest, greenest investments here at the nation’s leading school in environmental education. Want to see the rest of the list? Shoot us an email or stop by the financial office. They’re free to see. Well, most of them.
By Alex Townsend
Writing. Yes, writing was where it all began. I needed humor in a bad way, but my stash was empty. What a time, huh? With a deadline breathing down my neck like so many steamy, after-hours dentists, there was no helping it. I needed to go on a walk. Maybe a funny movie would do the trick. The Marx Brothers might just have the moxie I needed and the library might just have the Marx Brothers.
It was the kind of quest that needed a hat to show its importance, like the kind Indiana Jones would wear. No luck though, fedora stash also down and out. My Sherlock cap would have to do. I popped on my ipod and slunk the first steps out the door.
By Max C. Bookman
“Basically every continent including Antarctica had some involvement.”
—Earth Hour organizer Greg Bourne, joyfully touting the results of Earth Hour 2008. Because our hyperactive generation has absolutely no time for day-long annoyances like Earth Day, Earth Hour organizers have given us a green alternative that requires far less commitment. Over the weekend, people, businesses, and governments across the globe turned off their lights for 60 minutes to celebrate how environmentally conscious they are. Antarctica’s involvement? Another ice sheet the size of Rhode Island broke into the ocean last week. WT suggests: Earth Year?
By Mac Smith
1. Hillary Clinton- Hillary’s been called out by various television and radio news programs because she’s been telling a story about landing in Bosnia under sniper fire and having to run to her car with her body armor on. Almost everyone on that flight has said that her account is untrue. There are even videos of her standing outside of the plane hugging a little Bosnian girl. WTF Hillary. Your taking a page out of the Bush Playbook really can’t be the beginning of a healthy relationship.
2. UVMPD- In 48 hours, nine laptop computers and two bags with credit cards in them were stolen from Harris-Millis.
UVMPD actually had an opportunity to catch the thieves, but when it appeared that they hadn’t been engaging in underage drinking and/or illegal substance use, they were let go.
By Dave Glace
Where have all the philosophers gone—the thinkers who seek their pleasure in life not from hedonism or consumerism, but from the attainment of higher knowledge? In our generation especially, these types of people, the Socrates, the Descartes, the Nietzsches, the Freuds, are missing.
Why is that? Are we simply too lazy, apathetic towards learning, yet putting thoughtful deliberation into pop culture and trivial matters? Or is there now a mindset that considers those matters of higher truths as too high and unreachable, a “not for me” mentality?
“The Age of Information” is this current era of our civilization. Yet with all the knowledge available, much of it sits in waste, stagnant and without contribution to the world. Its potential is never achieved, only forgotten and replaced by frivolity of unimportant measures. Admittedly, it is a difficult struggle. Without any instant gratification thoughts can infect the mind and ask, “What is the point?”
And what is the point? Are we just the species Homo sapiens, or are we a higher order of beings, with the ability to be truly enlightened and freed from the bondage of Plato’s cave?
The following is a speech made by Renna Temple on the five-year anniversary of the war.
Hi everyone. My name is Renna Temple and I speak today as a concerned second-year student here at UVM. On March 19, I participated in a protest to shut down the General Dynamics (GD) armament and technology headquarters situated right here in Burlington. Who knew that the sixth largest war profiteer in the nation was merely miles from multiple downtown Burlington playgrounds? Who knew that my wonderful, social-justice bent University of Vermont has over half a million dollars invested in a corporation that designs and manufactures lethal weapons fueling illegal wars and genocides worldwide?
The editors of The Water Tower would like to clarify that the reference made to Kesha Ram in
last week’s endorsement of James Taylor was in no way made to suggest that she ran for student body president because of her larger political aspirations.
It was made to illustrate how the position, when coupled with hard work, can be used as a springboard for post-college goals.
Ms. Ram has served the student government with maturity and dedication, and we wish her all the best.
Someone on Campus Catch Your Eye?
Couldn’t catch a name?
Submit your love anonymously to
www.thewatertowernews.com/iwantyousobad
Well, I was walking down the hallway, I was so worried but I don’t know why. He walked past me and all my trouble seemed to fade away for a moment… It turns out all he wanted to be was friends, and still does.
When: September 26, 2007
Where: School
I saw: A Man
I am: A Woman
By Lea McLellan
The first time someone told me I looked like I was fifteen years old was a couple of monthsago. “It’s your face. It’s…” he trailed off. “Round? I offered dejectedly. “No… not round. You have a baby face,” he stated matter of factly. My thoughts immediately jumped to Babe Ruth and I was grossed out. Still, I figured he was probably just being a jerk.
A week later I ran into a random soccer mom from my town who vaguely knew my family. “So you’re a sophomore this year?” she asked. She meant in high school, which would make me about fifteen. I told her that no, I was actually in college and she was embarrassed, assuring me that one day I would love to have people mistake me for a young teen. I’m sure this will be true… when I’m thirty-five.
The references to my newborn babe face didn’t stop there. Recently, I was talking to my international friend about going out on the weekend, parties, etc. He looked at me, trying to articulate what wasn’t quite right with our conversation. “Your face… it is so young.” I’ve come to accept that I look like an innocent high schooler, still awaiting my driver’s permit. I figure it beats looking like an old crack ho.
By Sam Theodopoulos
Why was I up? This is an intelligent question to pose at 3:30 in the morning, as I sat on my computer. Any normal person would either assume that I am horribly addicted to facebook or have the kind of conversations with young children that you would see on Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator.”
Thankfully it is neither; I do have a life outside of the cyber sphere and I am not a pedophile. However, I did have a Roman history midterm the next day.
One may ask if I was awake, why I wasn’t studying, instead of submitting mediocre monologues to The Water Tower? The answer lies with my sub-kindergarten-level study skills, as well as the drug of dichotomy, Adderall.
By Bridget Treco
“Compact discs blow. People were not meant to hear music with such clarity. People need to hear snaps and pops in that shit.”
—David Cross, Mr. Show
Back in 1996, I don’t think this great American comedian had even begun to anticipate how far our quest for “musical clarity” and technological advances would go. The digital music age is in full swing, with the iTunes store at the forefront, and illegal music piracy systems like LimeWire still humming in the background. Now, I’m all for legal downloading on the Internet and sure, iTunes is a brilliant idea. Steve Jobs is a technological god, blah blah blah, I’m down for it all. But I’m also still down for actually going out and getting off my ass and buying CDs.
By Sally Weibe
In keeping with the theme of TV shows,
Dexter is another must-see series also on Showtime. This network has great shows—there is no question about that. But what I love about its entertainment is how varied the genres are. You can travel to the suburbs in Weeds, or the countryside in The Tudors, and still manage to make it to a nightclub in Miami, the city where Dexter takes place.
The show follows Dexter Morgan, a handsome member of Miami Metropolitan Police Department’s crime lab, who specializes in analyzing blood spatter. The catch is that Dexter uses the information he picks up in the police force to aid his night job as a serial killer.
By Peter Salerno
Well the recession is here. We may not feel it on our campus or even in our private lives but it is most certainly here. First. let me define what a recession is for all the readers who do not know. It’s an elongated period of time when a nation’s economy begins to slow down or condense. There are a few telltale signs of a recession’s presence: people purchasing fewer goods, a decrease in factory production, growing unemployment, a slump in the personal income of citizens, and an unhealthy stock market.
George Soros argues, “The current crisis is not only the bust that follows the housing boom, it’s basically the end of a 60-year period of continuing credit expansion based on the dollar as reserve currency.”
By David Volain
Over the past ten years, the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tri-state area has seen its fair share of gubernatorial scandals.
By now, I’m sure everyone has heard of the drama surrounding New York’s recently departed governor,
Eliot Spitzer. Just in case you’ve been living in a cave, here’s a quick rundown. Previous to his governorship, Spitzer was the state’s Attorney General, known for his high moral standard, and lack of sympathy towards those who did not meet it. Spitzer cracked down on white collar crime, and created many enemies on Wall Street. In 2006, he ran a successful campaign for governor.
Unfortunately for Spitzer, his personal proclivity for prostitutes was revealed via audio tapes and he was forced to resign from office. The woman, a young aspiring musician by the name of Ashley Alexandra Dupré worked under the pseudonym Kristen.
By Hillary Jane Archer
Did you know that there is a UVM student run farm eager to nourish the campus with its delicious delights of local produce, flowers, herbs, and all welcoming agricultural workshop opportunities? It’s called Common Ground Farm, and is probably one of the unintentionally best-kept secrets of UVM that remains a secret no more.
If you are tired of falling victim to the evils of Sodexho, poor nutrition from campus meals, and tomatoes with no flavor then perhaps this is even better news for you: the food grown at the student run farm is for students! Although they may not be able to fight off the evils of the modern world, they can definitely alleviate some of the pain with some hearty harvest.
A day in the life of Samuel Bishop
Created by Anya Brodrick, Illustration by Alexander Whitehead
This section deconstructs the styles of today. The tripartite nature of the section demonstrates the intersection of image-word-mathematics.
8:30 am: Wakes up slightly hungover. Just because he’s interested in promoting livable wages and trying to live as green as possible doesn’t mean he won’t say no to a growler…or two.
9:35 am: Bikes to class, even though the roads are still a little bit icy and that only 20 or so people can actually ride up the hill without going into cardiac arrest. He is one of those 20 people.
By Peter Casasa-Blouin
Kenji Yoshino spoke for a receptive audience in the Livak Ballroom in the Davis Center on March 27th. He discussed his new book “
Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights,” but more importantly he engaged in a conversation about the concepts addressed in his book. Covering, he explains, is an act of downplaying known-stigmatized characteristics. I have not read his book, but study extensively many of the issues he is elaborating on and exposing us to.
He prefaced discussing the book by highlighting the transitions he went through as a “gay and, to a lesser extent, Asian-American” that inspire the discovery of covering.
Thanks to The Water Tower’s spirited endorsement, Senator James Taylor has won the
Student Government Association presidential election. The campus was so energized, a record-breaking 300 students came out on the first day of voting alone! That’s, like, 3% of the UVM student body!
Although we know that the SGA seems to do little more than pass interestingly-worded resolutions, we look forward to using our endorsement to extort all sorts of dirty favors from Mr. Taylor and Mr. Miller next year.
You’re welcome, guys.
By Alex Pinto
Hearing the opening Clash sample in M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes,” most hip college kids know what’s up. The first lyric of that song, “I fly like paper/ Get high like planes” has been plastered on away messages and status updates with increasing frequency for months. The niqueness of the song ropes in many upon first listening, myself included, and it’s exactly that mystique that has driven fans to her. Butjust a light knowledge of her tunes does not do the music justice.
Since 2005,
Maya Arulpragasam has rocked her growing milieu of fans with two albums and a mixtape with Diplo, all front to back dance workouts with interesting genre-mashing beats. However, despite the booty shaking, the music is not entirely accessible. There’s no safety line to a genre to which expectations can be matched — there’s hip-hop, there’s electronica, there’s grime, but not quite anything like M.I.A.’s. Perhaps even more importantly it is certainly not smoothed out for mass listening. That isn’t to say the albums aren’t polished-the production is top notch-but the structures of the songs and melodic choices are more exotic than would be found on top 40 radio.
RSS Feed
