Despite a lull over the course of spring semester, The Patriot does have a new issue ready for students as they avoid studying for finals! The issue can be found in .pdf form by clicking on the “Latest Issue” link above. Articles will be posted in commentable form later today, and the printed issues will be delivered around campus tomorrow (Thursday). Enjoy!

Check around campus for the latest issue of the Patriot, or download the .pdf on our archives page! Articles from the issue will be posted later today, so please drop by and let us know what you think.

If so, now is the best time! We will be having our first meeting of the semester tomorrow, Tuesday 9/7/2010 in STEPS Room 290 at 4:10pm. We have plenty of roles available within the club, whether your interest is writing, editing, graphic design, web design, or even just getting the feel for opinion on campus. If you are interested in any or all of those areas, please join us! If you cannot attend the meeting, just send us an e-mail at: editor@lehighpatriot.com, and we’ll be in touch!

Just the facts:

The Patriot editorial staff would like to welcome all new students to Lehigh, as well as welcome back all returning students! As a special service all Lehigh students, but especially Lehigh freshmen, we have compiled our first-ever “Freshmen Issue” of the Lehigh Patriot!

A Sneak Preview! What's inside? Find out later this week!

It’s filled with all the stuff you won’t hear during orientation: the best beverages floating around Lehigh, the real information on dining on campus and in the surrounding area, some advice for surviving your first year at Lehigh, and much more!

While we had hoped to have it ready for the Lehigh community at the club fair today, we were a little delayed through the publishing process. Nevertheless, we’ll be getting it to you later this week, so keep an eye out for it in the common rooms and dining halls! Additionally, all articles will be available here for comment, as well as a .pdf of the issue, so check back here once you’ve read it, and let us know what you think!

If you are interested in joining the Patriot, and didn’t find us at the club fair, just shoot an e-mail to: editor@lehighpatriot.com and we’ll keep you in the loop. We’ll also be posting info about our first meeting of the year here on the website, so feel free to show up!

Again, welcome to Lehigh, and enjoy your first day of class!

LehighPatriot.com will be undergoing website maintenance from Monday, July 26th until Tuesday, August 10th. During that time, this site may not be available, and will be undergoing considerable changes. In the mean time, all pages will be made available in a stable version of the site at http://www.lehighpatriot.com/backup/. However, no new content will be posted, and no comments will be saved on that site. The Patriot will be up and running for the 2010-2011 academic year, so check back in a few weeks for brand new content!

The question posed to our editorial staff was: Which aspect or provision of the healthcare bill will have the greatest impact on Americans?

Read their responses below.

Matthew Keim, Class of 2012

The real effect that healthcare will have on people of this generation and future generations is the way large and comprehensive legislation is passed through Congress. Instead of passing several smaller bills where the nuisances of the reforms could be debated and improved upon, an all-or-nothing strategy where a monolithic, textbook sized bill was put to a vote. If it had failed, the past years worth of healthcare reform would have failed on one day. Let us assume there is a part of the healthcare bill that both sides of the aisle agree upon. By tying all of the reforms into one bill, a failure would mean that nobody gets what they want; where as breaking the bill down would mean that while some parts might fail, some parts would pass. The shrewd political move of consolidating a bill to get it to pass is an old one, but not one that screams bipartisan. Remember: the only bipartisan part of this bill was the opposition.

While liberals and supporters of the healthcare bill may be pleased that they have had their day after a yearlong debate, the political tides in Congress and the White House will change, as they always have and will. Maybe in 10 or 20 years a Republican supermajority with a Republican president will attempt to push through a 2000+ page bill, chocked full of special favors and pork spending. Public support will decline with time and the Democrats will reject the bill based on ideological grounds. Grandstanding will carry on for a year as the political majority pulls in every favor they can while Congressional Whips will scramble for votes close to the voting day. Is this the way controversial and divisive legislation is to be passed from now on?

Healthcare reform has passed, and the debate on its Constitutionality and implementation will continue for some time. However, the effectiveness of backroom deals and special favors has once again proven to be effective but on a scale never seen before in this country. The real impact on Americans is the way this legislation was passed and what it means for bills in the future.

Benjamin Mumma, Class of 2010

With close to 2000 pages of verbose declarations, the recent health care bill is simply too long for a brief yet in-depth analysis. Indeed, based on what I have seen, the bill’s greatest impact isn’t held within those pages, but rather can be seen in the bloody aftermath of the brawl surrounding it.

Partisanship is nothing new. Democrats blame George W. Bush for the escalation of it. That’s true to a degree, but would the country have honestly been any less partisan under President Gore as he crusaded against invisible gases? It’s unlikely. The split that has come between us has been a result of both parties, and their battle for the minds, or more appropriately the hearts, of the American public.

The healthcare battle brought to the forefront every ugly feeling that our political parties have been inspiring over the past twenty-plus years. We have seen and are still seeing accusations of malicious intent and utter stupidity being flung from both sides. Partisans, quite simply, are blind with rage.

Personally, I think it is an atrocity that this bill will become law. It increases government spending at a time when we simply cannot afford it. It requires U.S. citizens to purchase a product or service. It creates needless bureaucracy. It blatantly purchased required votes by sending hundreds of  millions of dollars from some states to other states.

But just as I can point out the bills many flaws, proponents of the bill can claim many benefits: restrictions on denial of service due to “pre-existing conditions,” and expanding coverage through subsidies to low-income individuals. These differences don’t make anyone crazy. It just makes us different people with different priorities.

But this isn’t the world we live in anymore. The days of civil discourse in politics have been dying for a while now. This bill, for several reasons, has become a tipping point. It has, by my estimation, taken us almost to a point of no return – where the politics of the left and the politics of the right are forever separated. That divide, as most of us can hopefully understand, is extremely dangerous to our society and extremely difficult to break down. Ultimately, this divide will have a greater impact on Americans fifty years from now than any of the provisions in this bill. 

Michael Caffrey, Class of 2012

The most profound and furthest-reaching impact of the 2010 Healthcare Reform legislation has nothing to do with the trillion-dollar cost.  Nor does it have anything to do with requiring care, or student loans, or anything regarding the text of the legislation itself.  The most important part of the legislation was the manner in which it was approved and a dangerous precedent for the future.

The 1998 decision of Clinton v. City of New York established “the U.S. Constitution did not authorize the President to enact federal law of which both houses of Congress had not previously approved the text.”  Turning to the healthcare legislation recently enacted, neither house of congress had actually passed the same legislation.  Instead, through compromise legislation, corruption, and reconciliation, a bill was presented to President Obama that did not meet the requirements of Clinton v. New York.  While this legislation may be controversial, the door it opens is far more overbearing.  The Constitution establishes a clear structure of how our government can work, and giving more power to the legislature, which has historically had lower approval ratings than the president. 

“statutes may only be enacted ‘in accord with a single, finely wrought and exhaustively considered, procedure” – Justice Stevens 

Alyssa Gerety, Class of 2013

Healthcare will propel about 30 million people to get healthcare in the coming years, creating the most change for the currently uninsured.

Aside from the shear numbers who will have to obtain healthcare, the bill’s effects will impact people differently according to their wealth, gender, and profession.

The wealthiest Americans will see increased taxes as the part of the bill impacting them the most. The lowest income Americans will benefit from the simply ability to obtain health care. Middle-class Americans may see regulations tighten resulting in better coverage such as the ban on excluding those with pre-existing conditions.

In terms of Americans looking for care, the bill will infuse around 30 million new customers into the health care market and there could be a strain in the ability of the system to handle these new customers. For patients this means less time with doctors. For doctors this means an increased demand for care and more patients especially in areas that are currently underinsured.

For women the bill outlaws the discrimination of coverage and premiums based on gender. Insurance companies now cannot charge women more for the same coverage they give to men for a lower price, a practice known as ?gender rating?.

How you categorize yourself – as a woman, a patient, a taxpayer, a middle-class citizen – will determine the aspect of the bill that will have the greatest impact on you.

In reference to the Lehigh bookstore manager’s alleged destruction of several Brown and White’s:

“… Free speech took a big step backward because someone didn’t like it when a student dared speak out against what he saw as a discriminatory policy. Just because something makes you or your company look bad doesn’t mean it should be silenced or negated. Take a look at some comments on the Brown and White’s Web site for evidence of that.”

Interestingly, and hypocritically, The Brown and White does not allow comments to contain links to any outside websites (or “Web sites” if you are the B&W edit board) in a clear attempt to restrict the dialogue on campus. The Patriot was unable to find any reputable news source with a similar policy. This, in addition to the Brown and White’s policy of screening comments before they are posted combines for a much more egregious violation of the spirit of the First Amendment than a book store manager allegedly ripping up a few Brown and White’s.

From the latest rehashed editorial bemoaning printing usage at Lehigh:

“But this is not a privilege we should abuse. We are all guilty of it because it’s not something we usually think about, but next time you go to print, think about how much paper you waste.

Sure, we are used to having a copy of our assignments in front of us when we read, but is it so bad to have to read from a screen? Between our computers and televisions, we spend most of the day in front of a screen anyway. What’s the difference?”

While the Brown and White calls on you to ‘think before you print,’ the Patriot editorial board would like to ask the Brown and White to ’think before you write.’ Since you can easily read all of the Brown and White’s articles online, there should not be any reason for an actual paper copy of the Brown and White according to this editorial. We would be very interested to know how much paper is used in printing several thousand copies of the Brown and White each week, and why their editorial board feels justified in killing so many trees.

Lehigh’s practical jokes still lack sophistication.

“Most of campus fondly remembers awakening on Flagpole day to find a Nazi flag firmly planted atop the flagpole.”

Fifty-two years ago, The Brown and White had a much more relaxed approach to swastikas appearing on campus. Such an event today would likely evoke about eight e-mails from President Gast and her administrative cohorts, a town hall meeting to “heal the community,” a police investigation, and various demands from various special interest groups around campus.

The question posed to our editorial staff was: In our ever-changing society, people have defined “equity” and “community” in many different ways. How do you define these terms and what are their implications of equity and community for our 21st century society?

Read their responses below.

Benjamin Mumma, Class of 2010

The definition of equity has been butchered, egregiously, in recent decades to suggest that somehow we can make everyone the same. The liberals butchering ‘equity’ see a wonderful world where everyone is the same. Everyone is equally intelligent, or unintelligent. It does not matter how intelligent because as long as everyone is equally able or inept, no one is jealous and everyone is happy. Everyone has the same amount of money, so there is no reason to be greedy or jealous. When any kind of contest is held, everyone ties – thus no one is marginalized, no one scarred, no one loses. Reports are that there are unicorns and fairies prancing around in this world, and when someone sees a rainbow, they always reach the end and find a pot of hallucinogenic drugs – sustaining ‘Equityland’ a while longer.

Liberals still have not been able to realize Equityland in the material world. To many of us, it is obvious why: all humans are naturally greedy, jealous, envious and selfish to some extent, so society still faces many conflicts of interests. Liberals willfully ignore this revelation so that their dreams of utopia stay intact.

Because human nature cannot be the cause of society’s woes, they need to find something to blame. To do so, they perceive inequities and social injustices all around them, and make it their life mission to right these wrongs. Welcome to “ADM 101: Administering at Lehigh.”

President Gast’s language in her Martin Luther King week address demonstrates Lehigh’s commitment to this philosophy. To quote, ”Those events [of a year ago] still haunt us, and compel us to redouble our efforts to change our own community. The Council for Equity and Community is leading our efforts but they cannot do it alone. Comprising dedicated staff, faculty, and students, the council is charged with preparing for, and sustaining, the next generation of diversity and equity initiatives at Lehigh.”

The truth is, get ready for this, Lehigh is equitable. We all start with a GPA of 0.00. We all have access to the same labs, classes, equipment, news sources, dining halls, and non-academic organizations. Everyone has the same opportunities to be happy, to be successful, and to enjoy his or her time here. By promoting the idea that Lehigh is inequitable, President Gast and the administration are working against their second stated goal: building Lehigh into a better community.

What is ‘community’? A community is a group of people who share common experiences and hold a mutual respect for all other members of that community. Lehigh currently houses hundreds of small communities that exist within the University. Each major, living unit, group of friends and student organization serves as a community within Lehigh.

The divisions within the University community arise from three main problems:
1. Conflicts of interests between communities.
2. Lack of commonality between communities.
3. Administrative policies that target specific communities.

The administration mainly has control over the third problem, and to a lesser extent the first two. Generally, a entity should not have obvious favorites and scapegoats within its various sub-communities. However, some of Lehigh’s policies and rhetoric on many issues such as Greek life and diversity clearly do just that. Examples include painting all Greeks with one brush, as they did in cancelling Greek Week, the creation of the CEC, and subsequent attempts to give in to every ‘demand’ made by a group of concerned students. Indeed, requiring Lehigh applicants to answer an idiotic question like this is a direct result of that.

By favoring some communities and attacking others, Lehigh creates animosity between communities. It drives some communities away from other communities. This leads to a lack of commonality between those groups, hence making Lehigh less of a community as a whole.

Looking at the “21st century society” at Lehigh, the definitions of equity and community should be altered. The goal cannot be to eliminate vices from Lehigh, but find a way to minimize their impact. The sooner Lehigh makes this shift, the better a community Lehigh will be in the 21st century and beyond.

Trevor Drummond, Class of 2010
Equity (noun): The equal dispersion of consequence among parties, without subjection to judgment solely on an aesthetic or medical quality.
Community (noun): A place where people live and work together.

The implications of these terms are subject to the conditions by which they are approached. For example, it is unfair to say that one is violating the concept of equity for criticizing a gay pride parade, as the parade and behaviors taking place within it are actions, and actions are always subject to judgment, regardless of one’s opinion of homosexuality as a genetic (nature) or a lifestyle choice (nurture). It is equally unfair to state that equity is being violated when criticizing the behavior of an individual on the basis of a cultural tradition.

I personally experienced a first-hand understanding of these definitions during my formative years of schooling in the Strawberry Mansion section of North Philadelphia. Here, I had approached life as a platform of equals, figuring that my interactive behavior would be a basis for complaint, not my appearance. However, while walking to the subway in my school uniform (a blue blazer, tie and khakis), I was attacked by youths with a knife, which tried to steal my belongings. When I reported this to the authorities, I was told that my outfit “made me a target,” and that I was “asking to be mugged.”

Looking back on the situation, it is clear that the experience I had was a case of cultural mismatch – what was comfortable for me was not comfortable for others. However, when I came to Lehigh, I was frustrated to learn that passing judgment on an individual who dresses like they plan on robbing a 7-11 is a “bias-related incident.” This confused me – we profile in interviews for jobs, airports in Israel have avoided terrorist attacks by profiling their passengers, and this question is profiling Lehigh students – so what’s wrong with what I have to say?

Michael Caffrey, Class of 2012
Equity doesn’t mean simply being tolerant of others; rather, it means attempting to understand and see the world from another’s eyes. Community takes this concept of mutual equity to another level, as everyone shares the same experiences; the human experience.

The common culture all people experience is what brings us together. Despite coming from states and countries around the globe, people who attend Lehigh share a sense of common purpose; to learn and understand, to face challenges and beat them.

The difference between tolerance and understanding is vast; staying away from “offensive” words may be good enough, but actually crossing the boundary and embracing someone of a different ethnicity or race the same as one would embrace a friend is the true key to establishing equity.

Despite our personal differences, everyone should reach a mutual understanding of each other; respect should replace hatred on both our campus and the world. Hateful actions distract us from the real reason we are here; education.

Crafting an environment in which the greater Lehigh community understands its members may take time. However, the effort is well worth it, as a diverse academic and social community creates additional opportunities to learn outside of the classroom, truly preparing Lehigh graduates to be leaders in the global world.

Even though we printed our environmentally-friendly copies of the Patriot already, you may not have received one. If that’s the case, The Lehigh Patriot now offers a convenient and environmentally conscious solution: print your own right on Lehigh’s free printers!

Sure you can just view it on your computer, but who reads stuff like that?

Printing a Patriot is quite easy: visit www.LehighPatriot.com/pdfs/DecemberFinal.pdf and hit print! Make sure you only print one-sided though, duplex messes up the page order.

This message is sponsored by The Lehigh Patriot, and the Lehigh Environmental Advisory Group (LEAG)*.

*: Not really, that part of the message is parody.

Here at the Lehigh Patriot, we have tremendous respect for our colleagues at the Brown and White.  They provide the Lehigh community with a biweekly feast of the news and analysis that keeps our campus dialogue informed and vibrant. Professors, administrators and prospective Lehigh families alike view the Brown and White as a window into the minds that make up our student body.  For better or worse, they speak for all of us.

It’s a small miracle, then, that the Brown and White was there to give us 800 words to describe the operating hours of a new off-campus deli.  From this thrilling investigative piece, we learned the following:

Samantha Petner, ’11, is a frequent patron of Dave’s Deli.

“I am kind of boring, I just like turkey on a Kaiser roll, but Dave’s really has the best sandwiches,” Petner said.

Kelly Sprague, ’11, goes to Dave’s Deli about once a week and is a big fan of the Chicken Ranchero.

Hannah Gobetz, ’11, does not consider herself a regular at Dave’s Deli, but she said she found the Chicken Caesar Wrap to be quite delicious.

This intrepid reporter didn’t stop there.  She managed to use “the internet” to uncover a startling fact:

Part of the deli’s secret, according to its Web site, is that it uses “the best” meats and cheeses.

While the news division of the Brown and White works to hold local establishments accountable to the highest standards of deli meats and cheeses, the lifestyle section reliably churns out impeccably sourced universal claims about the social lives of Lehigh students.  In a recent issue, they even tracked down an expert financial analyst to talk about the bar scene:

Brooke Wiener, ’10, said the current economic conditions haven’t impacted the bar scene.

“It’s not necessarily about the economy,” she said. “It’s just being smart about your money.”

In addition to economic issues, the Brown and White is always there to cover Lehigh’s attempts to be environmentally friendly. One such story gives us a great deal of detail about a “new eco-friendly printer” to be used in Rauch. If you are not excited yet, you should be:

Buskirk called Lehigh’s acquisition of the trial a rare opportunity. Few other universities have access to the ColorQube’s unique technology.

In case you were wondering, the ColorQube has other benefits:

In its brochure, Xerox says that the ColorQube can print up to 85 pages per minute…

For the printer aficionados in the crowd, the article continues to explain all of the gory details about printing technology that most of us never thought to ask:

“The ColorQube’s ink blocks only leave behind a small black spot of biodegradable wax that resembles a Necco wafer,” Buskirk said.

For all of its heady intellectualism, the heart and soul of the Brown and White is found on its editorial pages.  Here, the senior editors demonstrate that conventions of grammar, diction and syntax are merely obstacles to telling a unique and heartfelt story about how sad they are to be leaving Lehigh.  Some variation of the following statement (from the 10/20/09 publication) can probably be found in every Brown and White Edit Desk dating back to 1894:

The end of this magic experience is on the decline, and I for one am going to find all means of using Lehigh to get the best experience possible. I hope you all do the same.

Yes.  Everybody, please do…that.

—

(Editorial Correction:  The printed version of The Patriot incorrectly stated that the Brown and White Edit Desk referred to in this article was published on 11/13/09.  The correct publication date is 10/20/09.  The editorial staff regrets this mistake.)